Instant Gratification (Wilder #2)(48)

By himself.

“Don’t worry,” he told her, scooping more cholesterol into his bowl. “TJ mapped out the trek for me. They said I couldn’t get lost if I stayed on the trail. I’m looking forward to being by myself.”

They hadn’t talked about the fact that she’d chosen Stone over him. Nor that she’d taken two hours to come back the night before. “You won’t be by yourself,” she said. “There’ll be spiders and bears and coyotes, oh my.”

Spencer grinned. “Then come with me. Protect me.”

“Ha. Maybe if it was spa day.” She was still pining for Starbucks and Thai take-out, still missing the crowded, noisy, bustling streets, where the scents came from sidewalk vendors and exhaust, where wide open spaces were to be mistrusted.

Missing all of it.

Wasn’t she?

She wasn’t sure. The truth was, the air here was amazing, clean and fresh, and she’d saved a fortune by not buying from a menu every time she ate. Plus, she’d gotten damn good at making her own coffee.

Interesting.

She drove Spencer up to Wilder Adventures, the starting point for his trek, holding her breath on the narrow road between town and the lodge. “Damn roads out here are barbaric.”

“It’s the rains,” he said. “You’re doing much better these days.”

Better was relative, but they made it without incident. It’d rained heavily all night long, but though it’d momentarily tapered off to a light drizzle, the skies were still dark and threatening. “Are you sure about this?”

Not appearing at all bothered by the prospect that he’d likely be wet all day long, he nodded, “It’s going to be good.”

At Wilder Lodge, he got out of the truck and went to the back for his gear. Emma got out, too, looked up at the dark sky again, and shook her head. “Not too late to change your mind.”

“Not too late to come.”

“Like I said, let me know when it’s spa day, with good food service and no bears.” She pulled him in for a hug, closing her eyes when he tightened his grip. “Spence—” She didn’t want to lose him. “About you and me. I—”

“Em.” He smiled, tugging at a strand of her hair. “I’m okay. Really.”

“Are we okay?”

“Very okay.”

“Really?”

“Yes, why?”

“It’s just that you got over me pretty darn quick.”

He laughed, and patted his chest. “Fickle heart, remember?”

God, she loved him. She cupped his face. “Be safe.”

“And you take it easy on yourself. As in try to get into the slower pace or something.”

“Yeah. Right.”

“Don’t worry. Soon enough you’ll be back in your big, crazy city, and this will all be just a bad dream.”

A bad dream. And a good one…She watched him go, heading off into the wild forest willingly. Happily.

Darling, what’s YOUR day long trek?

At her mom’s words in her head, she sighed. The question was valid. What was there in her life that made her as at peace as Spencer had looked just now?

That the answer was a big, fat nothing didn’t help.

God, she was tired of herself. “And you too, mom.” She got back into the truck, taking a quick glance at the lodge as she drove off, wondering what Stone was doing.

Was he still in bed? The bed she’d been in last night, panting his name, leaving nail imprints in his ass—

Above her, the sky opened up with a bright burst of lightning, accompanied by a sonic boom that had her nearly leaping out of her skin. Startled, she jerked to a stop right in the middle of the road. The rain started up again, pummeling the truck in tune to her pounding heart.

She looked out the windshield.

There was nothing on this stretch of road, just trees, trees, and more trees. Oh, and two ditches running alongside.

Her gut clenched but she put the truck back into gear. This weather wouldn’t have stopped Stone, and it wouldn’t stop her either. She hit the gas, but in the past few minutes, the road seemed to have turned into an instant muddy swamp.

Not good.

Tightening both hands on the wheel, she concentrated on staying on the road and not sliding off into either ditch. She was doing good too, but then something hopped out of the driving rain and bounced across the road right in front of her truck. A deer. She hit the brake as the thing vanished into the trees, and the truck’s wheels lost their tenuous grip in the muddy road, slipping, hitting a rut and jerking her off the road—

Right where she didn’t want to be—into one of the ditches.





Chapter 16




Stone drove like a bat out of hell, hoping it wasn’t bad.

“Jesus, man.” TJ tightened his seatbelt. “Slow down. She didn’t say there was a three alarm fire. She said she’d driven into a ditch.”

Stone tried to peer ahead through the fog and rain but visibility was nonexistent. He and TJ had been talking to Cam on iChat, having a grand old time, laughing at Cam’s recollection of him taking Katie zip-lining across the rain forest, and how she’d screamed her way through it.

Then they’d heard Harley on the radio say she was responding to a truck in the ditch between Wishful and the lodge, and Stone had hung up on Cam.