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Chapter Eleven
Hunter
An hour later,Cora stood in the living room of Ash and Hunter’s cabin in the woods. The ride back had been mostly quiet, as Hunter sat in the back seat, fuming and wondering what the hell would make someone think they could send a note like that.
He found it really unnerving, and he tried to put his finger on what, exactly, was wrong with it. Was it the very nice handwriting and the expensive paper? Those made it seem like the writer was totally in control of all his faculties — and a nutcase would be easier to deal with, frankly.
Was it the weird, almost antiquated way the letter had been written? Darling? Who even said that word anymore?
Cora paced back and forth in front of the enormous fireplace, barefoot since her shoes were muddy from the woods.
“All right,” said Ash’s voice from the door to the kitchen. “My famous hot chocolate is ready.”
He carried three mugs very delicately in his enormous, paw-like hands. Hunter saw Cora’s lips twitch into a smile at the sight.
“Why’s it famous?” she asked.
“Secret ingredient.”
“What is it?”
Hunter took a mug from Ash and took a long sip. Ash did make amazing hot chocolate.
“It’s a secret,” Ash said, very seriously.
Cora also took a sip.
“Is it whiskey?”
Hunter laughed.
“I told you,” he said. “The secret ingredient’s not a secret if even humans can smell it from a mile off.”
Ash shrugged, looking slightly miffed.
“Just tell us about this asshole,” he muttered.
Cora paced back and forth one more time, one hand on her mug and the other tugging on her hair.
“I don’t even know where to start,” she said.
“How about the beginning?” Hunter suggested. He took another sip, the whiskey in the hot cocoa tingling just a little down his throat and into his belly.
“About six months ago, I went on a date with a guy I met on a dating website,” she began. “I was nervous about the whole online dating thing, but it’s really normal now. All my friends do it.”
She took a sip of the hot chocolate.
“For the first date, we just met at a burger joint,” she said. “It wasn’t like a date date, but we had some burgers and some beers and we talked, or, he talked and I listened, really. But it wasn’t all that bad, so when he asked me out again, I said sure, because, I mean, it’s been a while.”
She turned slightly pink, and Hunter frowned to himself. Just watching her walk back and forth across his living room was giving him half of a hard-on — what did she mean, she hadn’t been on many dates?
He looked over at Ash. It was pretty clear that he was thinking the same thing.
“So, we went on another date, and it was the same thing. Not terrible, but he mostly talked about his job, his rich parents, golfing, boats, that stuff.” She shrugged. “He was just really uninteresting, so when he asked me on a third date, I said no thanks.”
“And he exploded?” asked Ash.
“Nothing happened,” Cora said. “He asked me over text, so after I said, basically, ‘You’re nice but no thanks,’ I didn’t hear from him at all.”
