AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Kong.”
Well, that shocked her. “Kong, your ex-boss?”
Gunner was wearing a white T-shirt smudged with dirt, jeans, and work boots. He looked so handsome leaning toward her in the seat of that tractor. “Maybe now he’s my current boss.”
“Stop,” she said, stunned. “You’re joking.”
“I found out this morning.”
“Gunner!” She whooped, climbing up into the seat with him. She threw her arms around him and couldn’t stop the happy laughter that bubbled up out of her chest. “You got your job back.”
“I got a different jobsite. New crew, new mountain, new machinery. He said I have one chance to prove myself as foreman again.”
She pursed her lips against an emotional smile. “When do you start?”
“Monday. I wanted to surprise you over dinner tonight, after we were done demoing the cabin. I’m apparently terrible at surprises. Well…” He lifted his chin and said mysteriously, “Some surprises.”
Hallie frowned. “I don’t know how anything could get better than the news you just told me. I’m so freaking proud of you.”
“It’s going to be a long journey gaining back Kong’s trust in me.”
“You’re going to do it. I know you will. And I’m going to be your biggest cheerleader.”
Gunner pulled her closer and nipped at her neck. “Bear.”
“Bear what?”
“I choose a bear if you’re Turning, but you aren’t getting Lucia’s crazy bear.”
“I’ll get your crazy bear instead?”
He chuckled and said, “Maybe. Someday.” And then he twitched his head toward the one-lane dirt road that led up to this clearing. “If you were a shifter you could’ve heard them coming.”
“Who?”
He grinned and helped her off the tractor, then pulled her by the hand to face the road, where a truck crawled up the hill to the clearing. It was Kru’s truck.
With a baffled feeling fluttering in her chest, she waved to Kru and Cadence in the front seat, and when Lucia, Jenna, and Landon climbed out of the bed of the truck, she laughed and waved bigger.
The Warlanders were here, other than Lucas.
“What are you doing here?” she said through pleased laughter as she ran to greet them.
“We brought food,” Jenna said. “Figured we should make memories for the first night you two stay up here.”
“Oh, we aren’t staying up here. We’re just demolishing the cabin. We don’t even have a tent or anything. Just starting work on this place.”
The girls exchanged glances she didn’t understand. “What?”
From the back of the truck, Landon tossed a beer to Gunner, and then to Kru.
“Where’s Lucas?” Hallie asked. He was always with them when they all hung out.
“He doesn’t want to be in Gunner’s territory. They still hate each other,” Lucia said. And then she cracked a smile. “If you were a shifter, you would hear the lie in that.”
A low rumble sounded through the trees, and Hallie froze, listening.
“What is that?” she asked as a flock of birds took flight from the trees in their woods.
