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I attempted again, getting some plant life in there. I knew what those were thanks to Bru. As it turned out, he held a cornucopia of plant knowledge on top of what he knew about animals. He’d showed me all kinds of things this morning during our venture out.
I smiled to myself, not really knowing why. I liked Bru. Hell, I really liked him, and the pair of us being thrust back into each other’s lives only reaffirmed that. He was a great friend and had all the qualities in one I’d been hard-pressed to find since. I had friends, of course. I had Heath, my ex-roommate, and a few others in our photojournalism program, but I’d be lying if I said I ever let them get too terribly close to me. We were all friends at the surface level, but I always kept a wall up.
Not always.
There had been a time after Bru where I’d let my walls down, but that’d kicked my ass and then some.
Cursing myself for taking another crappy photo, I hunkered down for another shot, but nearly dropped my camera in the creek at the sound of twigs snapping behind me. I whipped around, my back up, but I went ramrod straight at the sight of someone else.
At the sight of him.
Ares stood still several feet behind me, his hand pocketed in a pair of dark joggers. He fingered through his thick curls and was mid-turn like he was on the cusp of spinning around.
Had he been following me?
This I didn’t know, but he was behind me now, striding toward me. I was spinning, grabbing my camera bag and putting it on my shoulder. I escaped the creek, then hopped down to some brush on the other side of it.
But he was faster.
Of course, he was, those godforsaken long legs of his. He used them and barely allowed me to get a second or two ahead of him.
“Red, wait. Fuck. Wait—”
“Don’t call me that.” His hand briefly landed on my shoulder, but I ripped it away. Even still, that didn’t stop the hot sear that scorched through my button-up after he touched me.
Or the race in my heart because he did.
I’d managed for days not to talk to this fucker. Yet here he was tormenting me. I bared teeth. “Are you following me?”
“What?”
“I said, are you fucking following me?” He’d take me for an idiot if he claimed anything else. Before I saw him, he hadn’t exactly looked like he’d been trying to come to me.
Ares had his hands laced above his head, his hoodie exposing his abs, and I wanted to burn my eyes out of my head. I couldn’t stop looking at him. I couldn’t stop being aware of him like some psycho, Stockholm syndrome freak. He wet his lips. “I was just checking on you.”
I had to have looked like I was slapped. “Checking on me?”
“Yeah. You lied, right? About being sick?”
My mouth parted, and he huffed.
His expression fell. “I mean, come on. It was obvious.”
He was joking, right? A joke.
I barked a laugh, and it was loud enough to send birds flying out of the trees. “You’re a joke.”
And I wasn’t hearing this.
I shot around, but Ares sprung and got a hold of me. Jerking, I worked him off, then immediately raised my fists.
His dark eyebrows basically hit his hairline, and it was him to bark a laugh. “What are you going to do with those, Red? Hit me?”
He’d deserve it, more than deserved it. I balled my fists. “If I need to.”
The threat struck an easy grin across his lips and sent my tummy into a tailspin.
I wished it had been because I was sick.
