Without You Here (6 page)

In this, he was surprised. "Really?"

She shoved him playfully and held the towel around her. "Yes, really. Don't you think I can cook?"

"I've got no reason not to think you can cook. I'm just surprised, is all."

Wyatt dried off and got his jeans on. Ettie commandeered his t-shirt since she didn't want to squirm back into her wet bikini. He thought she looked damn good in that t-shirt. They hiked back to the vehicles, but slowed when they saw a group of three guys, one with a rifle, huddled next to Ettie's car.

Wyatt shook his head in disbelief and then turned to Ettie. "You're a trouble magnet, aren't you?"

Her grimace suggested his statement was spot on. He gave her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder and then kept his hand on her and led her to the truck. The three men turned. One of them spat. One of them had a rifle slung across his back. They all looked scruffy and in bad need of a dental appointment. Wyatt gave them a nod. They all nodded back and shifted to face him.

"Nice night for a swim," said the one in the middle. He was the biggest, but they were all smaller than Wyatt. Shorter and skinnier. Not that that mattered when it was three-to-one.

"Yep." He opened his truck door. "In you go," he said to Ettie. They would come back for her car later.

"I guess that ain't your daughter," said the biggest one.

"Nope." He helped Ettie in and she scooted over to the passenger side. She was trembling and not from the cold. "Hey, grab my keys out from under the seat, will ya, honey?"

The men had closed in, but he wasn't backing up beyond the truck door. They were trying to peek in at her. The two smaller ones had already exchanged leering grins. "We been out hunting," the big one said. He leaned forward to peek in the door. Wyatt took a step forward to block his view.

"Have any luck?" Wyatt asked. He glanced over at Ettie who was digging around under the passenger seat. He willed her to hurry up. The keys were in his pocket. She was bound to figure out he was after the gun.

"Not really," the man said, spitting a stream of tobacco off to the side. "That's a pretty girl you got."

Wyatt didn't answer. He was eyeing one of the other guys who was looking at Ettie through the window and touching himself. A short, scraggly looking guy with a whole lot of meanness in his face. He caught Wyatt's glare and leered. "Reckon you could make her come back out here?"

Wyatt held his gaze and kept all emotion out of his expression.

"Come on," said the big guy with the rifle. "We just wanna have a good time. Kinda looks like she's up for it. Come on out here, girlie!" he shouted.

Wyatt glanced at Ettie. She had her hand on something. She looked up at him and he gave her an imperceptible nod. Slowly she pulled out the .38 revolver he kept there. She slid it across the seat. "Why don't you boys go on back where you came from," Wyatt replied.

"Aw, come on. Be a good neighbor and share," the man said, giving him a smile full of tobacco-yellowed teeth.

"Not tonight." Wyatt would have just climbed in and hoped for the best, but the other two guys started circling around the back of the truck to Ettie's side and the big guy started towards him. Wyatt grabbed his pistol, cocked it, and aimed it straight between the big guy's eyes. The big guy was also the one carrying the rifle. "Hold it right there, fellas," Wyatt said. The two men finally looked up and got a grasp on the situation.

The big guy's eyes had gone wide. "What the fuck's the matter with you?"

"Not a thing. Why don't you lean that rifle against the side of my truck, here, and then back yourselves on over to the other side of the road."

The big guy's expression went from shocked to angry. But he complied anyway. Wyatt had his finger tight on the trigger, hoping the guy wouldn't make any moves. He didn't. He put his rifle against the truck and started to back away. He nodded to his buddies who did the same. "We were just trying to make friends, man," he said.

"Sure. Well good luck to ya," Wyatt said. He tossed the rifle in the front seat and then climbed in the cab, keeping his pistol trained on the men from out his window.

"Hey, what about my gun!" shouted the big guy.

"You can pick it up at the Sheriff's station." Wyatt started the truck, put it in gear, and drove. He uncocked his pistol when the men were out of site and handed it to Ettie. "Stash that back under there, will you?"

She hesitated before taking it and hurriedly hiding it under the seat. "Is it legal? Your gun?"

"Yeah. Hey, can you reach behind the seat there and grab that sweatshirt?"

She did so and as soon as they got to the stop sign at the intersection of the county road and the main highway, he shoved into it. Then he reached back and took one of the sleeping bags. He wrapped it around Ettie who was trembling and pale. "You okay?"

She nodded, eyes wide. She gave him a wan smile. "That was kind of...crazy."

He rubbed her arms up and down for a moment to warm her. "I have never in my life encountered a trio of perverted hillbillies in the woods," he said. "And I've never been chased away from the lake by my father-in-law. So I have to say, this is completely on you."

She laughed weakly. "I'd defend myself, but this doesn't happen to be my first time running into hillbilly perverts. So..."

Wyatt hated to think of her as one of those people who run into bad luck all the time. He didn't ask. He didn't want to know. Didn't want to care about her more than he already did. "You're shaking bad, honey. You gonna be okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah. That was just really scary."

He reached for her. She came into his arms and he kissed her full on the mouth. "No more adventures tonight, Ettie," he whispered into her hair.

She clung to him and her shaking settled down. "I loved our adventure. Jumping off cliffs is fun."

"Yes it is."

She was quiet for a moment. "Maybe," she said in a soft voice, "Maybe we could go back to your place."

Wyatt tried to control his reaction, but he knew she felt the tension in his body. He held her all the tighter so he wouldn't have to look at her. He held her tight and squeezed his eyes shut because he didn't want to hurt her. Not ever. And he hated himself for caring this much. He took a breath and held it until he knew he was steady. "I can't," he said.

She didn't pull away. "We don't have to sleep in your bed. I understand that could be...uncomfortable. We could sleep on the living room floor. Or—“

"I can't. It's her home. Hers."

She did pull away, then. All the way to her side of the truck. "I guess you can't be taking some bimbo you met at a bar into your family home, huh?"

He turned and put his hands on the wheel. He couldn't speak. There wasn't any air in his lungs. She wasn't some bimbo. He supposed to anyone looking on, it would appear that way. What the hell were the two of them doing if not just having a superficial fling? But he liked her. He cared about her.

"God, Wyatt, I'm sorry," she said. "Can you just forget I said that? I'm...I don't know...I'm romanticizing this thing with you, I guess. I don't know. But I know what this is. I know it's nothing. I mean...not nothing...but...God. What I mean is, I don't want to go home tonight, Wyatt. So take me somewhere, okay? Take me somewhere safe and cozy and let's just...," she shrugged.

He finally looked over at her. Her eyes were wide. Her mouth set in a somber, resigned expression. Her bottom lip stuck out just a hint, like she was ready to cry if need be. Though Wyatt wasn't sure whether Ettie was much of a crier. Her hair hung in limp strands around her face and she clutched the sleeping bag around her like a cold, starving waif.

He wanted her.

He tore his eyes away and put the truck in gear. He looked over his shoulder and pulled back onto the highway. "Let's go see if my friend Cal's cabin is vacant. That's about as safe and cozy as you can get."

She let out a little squeal of delight and bounced in her seat before re-fastening her seat belt.

CHAPTER FOUR

I was so glad I hadn't ruined everything. I was hurt, for sure. But I didn't really have any right to be. We'd known each other less than forty-eight hours. Of course he didn't want to take me home. Still. It hurt. But I didn't want our night to end.

We went first to the Sheriff's station. I’d pulled my bikini bottom back on, but all I had on besides that was Wyatt’s t-shirt, so I opted to wait in the truck. With the doors locked. With that pistol clutched in my hands as though I had a clue how to shoot it. It made me feel better. Plus, how likely was I to have to use a gun parked outside the Sheriff's office?

He was in there for fifteen minutes. I couldn't stop thinking about how creepy those guys were. And how they reminded me of the man who had claimed to be my uncle. I'd run away from home for the sixth time when I was fifteen. I was woefully ignorant. I sometimes think I still am. And while I was sitting on a bench outside a gas station eating a honey bun, some guy came up to me. He acted like he knew me. He looked a lot like that guy with the rifle whom Wyatt had faced down—amazing Wyatt who didn't bat an eye at anything. I wished there had been a Wyatt that day at the gas station.

My heart warmed when I saw him stroll out of the Sheriff's station. The warmth spread to the pit of my belly and tears sprung to my eyes. I wanted more than this weekend and there was no sense denying it. Leaving for home tomorrow was going to hurt. Bad.

He climbed in the truck and shot me a quick wink. "Alright. That's settled. Off to Cal's."

"Does he live far away?"

"Nope."

I scooted over to the middle of the bench and slid my hand along his thigh. It was fun to watch him grin.

"I keep thinking I'm going to wake up from this amazing dream that is you, Ettie," he said.

I got to my knees and stuck my tongue in his ear. I only meant to throw him off his game a little, but he ended up gunning it and turning off onto the first, backwoods road we came upon. He threw the truck into park and then threw me onto my back. It took about five minutes but that didn't mean it wasn't amazing. While I was still lying there panting, he was back up and reversing back towards the highway. "Teach you to tease me, little girl," he said, all macho, like he could ever fool me into thinking he was a jerk. I could see the satisfied smirk on his face. He was getting lucky big time this weekend and it was clearly a much needed ego boost.

We drove for another ten minutes until we got to this little farm house off the highway. There was a fenced-in field and a couple of out buildings in back. "Should I wait out here?" I asked.

He shut off the engine. "Nah. Come on in."

I looked down at my bare legs and back up at him. “You’re fully clothed. I look like a street urchin.”

“There’s no dress code at Cal’s,” he said, as though that helped me at all. He climbed out of the truck and came around to open my door. I stepped out and tugged the t-shirt further down on my thighs and I think the bastard was holding back laughter.

I held his hand as he led me to the front door. Cal answered. He was a tall man Wyatt's age. Handsome with blond hair and blue eyes. He grinned real big when he saw us. "What the hell, Wyatt?" he asked, still grinning and looking me up and down.

Wyatt introduced us and we shook hands. Then Cal led us inside. He was obviously a bachelor, but he was a tidy one. I was surprised at how neat the living room was. There was an empty beer can on the coffee table and an open magazine on the couch, but that was about the extent of the clutter. I made sure there was plenty of t-shirt covering my ass as I sat down. Wyatt grabbed an afghan off the back of an armchair and draped it over my lap. He sat next to me with his arm around my shoulders.

Cal smiled at me. "Jesus, Wyatt. I know we all been telling you to put yourself back out there, but this is above and beyond."

"Aww, thank you,” I said, “But it's nothing. Just a fling. I'm going home tomorrow and never see him again."

Wyatt nodded. "She's just using me to get back at her boyfriend."

"Sounds like fun. Can you give me the name of the place where you two met?"

"Just up at Crowley's," Wyatt said.

"No shit? I go up there all the time and never seen anything as pretty as this one."

Wyatt smiled at me and squeezed me close. "Just good luck, I guess. We were wondering if your cabin's available for the night."

Cal's eyebrows shot up. "Sure. You two gonna go play house?"

"That's the plan. We had a pretty upsetting run-in with a few rednecks that took the wind out of our sails." He described the encounter to Cal who frowned and shook his head. "So anyway, I thought I'd take Ettie, here, some place cozy to relax the rest of the night."

Cal shrugged. "No problem." He stood and grabbed a key off a row of pegs on the wall next to the door and tossed it to Wyatt. They chatted on for a few minutes and then we were off to this new destination.

He rested his hand on my thigh as he drove us out into the hills, down a curvy highway. There were signs for a lake up ahead, which I guessed was where we were going. I braced myself for the possibility that this was some run-down fishing cabin. But my hopes soared when we turned down a lane lined with very nice, two-story cabins. Some had lights on. We turned into the driveway of one that didn't. The driveway was steep, but leveled off at the top onto a covered carport.

Wyatt came around and opened my door for me. I let him. That's the one thing my boyfriend had always been good about. Opening doors for me. I thought it was weird at first, but I got to liking it. I'd never dated a guy who did that.

We went in. The cabin was bigger than any bachelor would ever have need of. We didn't even use the upstairs that night. The main bedroom was on the first floor and the bathroom had a huge, corner whirlpool tub. Which was right where I headed when I saw it. I immediately started running a nice, hot bath. I was chilled to the bones from the night air and the swim in the river and the frightening Deliverance episode.

Wyatt came in. "I'm going to run out and get us some food," he said. "You be naked in that tub when I get back, okay?"