AllFreeNovel
Share Us
A growl from the woods has Dakota gasping. My senses snap into high alert, and I clinch my bicep to keep her closer. Check the gun on my hip. Keena’s growl slowly dies off into soft snuffling, telling me there’s no threat.
“The woods scream,” she whispers.
I chuckle. “Listen to the woods. They’re not your enemy,” I say, planting a hand firmly on the small of her back and moving her in the direction of the sound. I point to my right. “They paint a map of where you are. Meadow Mountain and Eden is to the west. The hiking trail near the cabin leads back to the ranch.” I pivot her again, this time to the left. Dakota’s eyes scan the darkness. “The highway is to the East. You hear the traffic now? Far off?”
She nods. “Yes.”
“Trust the land,” I say fiercely. “The ranch takes care of us, and I’ll take care of you.”
She bounces her hip against mine. “And I’ll take care of you.”
Something cracks in my chest. Sharp and undeserving. “You don’t have to make sure I’m okay, Koty.”
“Why not?” She turns and cups my face in her hands. “You do it for me. Let me in, Davis.”
“You’re already in,” I admit.
“Oh,” she whispers, her eyes momentarily going dreamy. “That makes me happy.”
“Good,” I tell her. “I like you happy.”
Keena bounds back to my side, and we resume walking. A charged silence stretches between us, until I say, “You know, the only time I let someone help me was when I first met you.” Thecover of darkness is doing something idiotic to my brain, my mouth.
A chuckle shakes out of me. “I loved those cupcakes too damn much.”
“Today scared you.”
I nod. “It did.” The truth has bile rising in my throat.
She’s quiet for a long second. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but… I should go. He’ll destroy what you care about. He’s promised me that.”
“You’re not running.”
A sound of frustration. “You can’t protect a stranger over your family, Davis. I won’t let you.”
“You’re not a stranger.”
“Then what am I?” she asks.
“You’re a…friend.”
Her hitch of breath is like a knife to the heart.
Fuck, but I’m an asshole.
Heartless is easier. It lets me hide what she means to me.
“I’m not your hero,” I tell her and she casts me a sideways glance in the dark. “You’ve always been able to save yourself.” I pull her closer. “But I am your anchor. Because I will always be there when you need something to ground you.”
“I like that.” She squeezes my arm. “An anchor.”
As we walk, her arm in mine, my body hums. A reminder of how we’d talk to each other, how we’d touch each other. Effortlessly. Everything with Dakota is effortless.
Snow crunches beneath our feet as we make our way around the lodge. Dakota’s gaze lingers on the woods, the rambunctious approach of Keena, before she looks up at the full moon in the sky.
“My mom always told me dreams are like the moon. Because they are high and bright and brilliant. And sometimes, no matter how hard you try to touch a dream, to bring it down to you,you can’t. Sometimes they’re stuck. And that’s why we needed to rope them. So we could get those dreams come hell or high water.”
Dakota bites her lip. Glances at me. “I used to think she was so wise…but now, I think it was probably my mom that was screaming.”
