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He nodded slowly. He hadn’t invited anyone to see him falling apart—or beating the shit out of trees, out of river shores, chucking boulders into the woods, anything to settle the animal. Had she seen him curled up in pain? Trying to figure out if the hurt he felt was breaking a bond or just a breakup? “Why did you watch that?”
“Because only one of you was hurting.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You watched Cadence too?”
“Just for a couple of days. I thought she would need a friend. She did not.”
He swallowed hard and crossed his arms over his chest, like that would make the ache there feel better. “I noticed that part too. Why did you stay with me? You didn’t know me.”
She shrugged. “I didn’t have to know you, Lucas. You were alone and I didn’t want you to be alone. There’s nothing more to it. I would’ve done that for anyone who was going through something heavy.”
“Have you talked about it since then?” he asked curiously.
She nodded once.
“With who?” Please, don’t say Gunner.
“With you. Today. Right now.”
Truth. He could hear it in her voice. Fuuuuck, his respect for this woman grew. She hadn’t stayed with him for credit. Probably, she would’ve been fine if he never found out. “You said it was your idea to bring me here.” Did it mean she had thought fondly of him over the years? “Why?”
The smile she offered him didn’t reach her eyes. “For Gunner.”
Aaaah. Everything always circled back to Gunner. The disappointment must’ve shown on his face, because her soft smile slipped, so he turned his face away from her and changed the subject. “Hey, I’m going to change and grab some chairs. I’ll be down there in a minute.”
The rest of her smile disappeared, but that was good.
They didn’t need to be getting attached, and his animal definitely didn’t need to be this interested in anyone who belonged to these mountains.
Chapter Four
Lucas had dismissed her.
Jenna felt slapped for a moment, and her skin crawled. It always did that when she wanted to bail on a social situation.
She wasn’t as good at this as the others. A gathering with more than two people had always made her palms sweat, but with Lucas? He was just one person and he had her heart rate skipping around like crazy.
She offered him one last glance over her shoulder as she crested a small hill and headed toward the riverside. She would never forget the look of him after today. He wasn’t the same young man who had left the mountains ten years ago. Lucas was a grown, dominant, muscular-as-hell silverback.
He was raw sex appeal, and too interesting for his own good to talk to. Right now, he was standing with his shirt off, six-pack chiseled, frowning down at his phone like he was reading a text message. His thick beard was perfectly trimmed, and his eyes were dark and mysterious, and he had a way of asking these direct questions that made her want to tell him everything. That was dangerous.
His arms were cut with thick muscle and his biceps flexed as he typed something into his phone.
Jenna didn’t want to stop staring at the way his abs flexed with his breath, but mother nature had other plans. A tree root was sticking just far enough out of the ground for her to catch her toes on it and pitch forward. She had a split-second to make the decision—change into her bird, or fall face-first into the dirt. Being the intelligent and agile shifter she was, she chose face-plant.
“Are you okay?” Lucas asked from behind her.
Jenna’s toe hurt something fierce, but she popped up. “I’m great! Never better. Just…inspecting the ants.” She let off a nervous laugh as her cheeks heated to the temperature of lava. “They’re good!”
Jenna turned away, mortified, and made her way down the trail toward the water where everyone was setting up coolers and canopies.
Nox was staring at her with a stupid grin on his face. “Can I ask you a question?”
“No,” she whispered. Her cheeks and ears had to be the color of cherries right now.
Jenna busied herself with digging through the cooler that Kru had brought down and opened one of the beers with shaking hands. Wrong one. Shit! She didn’t like this kind.
“Uuuuh,” she said lamely as she turned this way and that, looking for a place to unload the unwanted beer. “Here!” she said at a ridiculous volume as Lucas came down the gravel path toward them. She shoved the beer at him, sloshing it a little. “I grabbed the wrong one. I’m sorry.”
