He looked over his shoulder. “Sure. Show me what you got.”
He held the dull end of the axe blade and passed me the handle. My torso fell forward at the unexpected weight of the tool. Were axes on Earth this heavy? I flexed my back and abs to correct my posture and held my head high.
It took me a moment to find a comparable pine—going with anything larger than what he’d just taken down would bestupid, and anything smaller made me feel weak. I could take down a damn tree. This was my house and I wanted to help build it!
I lugged the axe over my shoulder, taking in a deep breath and exhaling as I swung.Thud.The blade barely sunk into the wood. My shoulder stung as the momentum was absorbed into the joint, instead of the tree. Frustrated, I yanked the tool free and tried again.Nope. I didn’t need to be as strong as this five hundred pound four-armed block of man, but couldn’t I at least make a dent?!
“Try cutting at a downward angle,” Theo’s voice came from much closer behind me than I expected.
His hands swallowed mine whole, his palms rough. It felt like more than callouses; they were practically ribbed. Were those scars, too? The texture wasn’t quite scar-like. It was like fingerprints on steroids.
He directed my hold into a new position and guided the tool slowly down to the tree and back—showing me the path I should be swinging.
Honestly, it was kind of giving teenage boyfriend at a mini golf course. I fought a laugh as I realized this was the closest thing to a stereotypical date I’d ever had… in alien woods with the sounds of hungry phantom animals in the background. Eerie. Beautifully strange.
I guess I belonged here more than “Pirate Cove Golf and Arcade”. And if someone was going to wrap their arms around me and show me proper form, why not a man with four arms, horns, and countless scars decorating his tattooed skin?
Crack.
The axe split into the tree, ripping out a sizable wedge when I twisted it.
“We’ll make a forester out of you yet, darling,” Theo said, lips far too close to my ear. Something in my lower belly tightened.
“Here, you’re faster,” I said, holding the axe back out to him and trying to ignore the horny butterflies that flooded my stomach. Suddenly, I wasn’t so interested in mastering a new skill.
I leaned on the trunk to the left, watching his shoulder muscles bulge with every swing under the layer of softness that coated them. This wasn’t a man who went to the gym. This was functional strength and lots of calories combining to make a goddamn force of nature.
Where the fuck did this dude come from? And why was I suddenly considering if tattooed lumberjack was my type?Sweettattooed lumberjack. Who shared his dinner with my cat and offered to help me improve my life and the life of my friend. A lumberjack who got up at the crack of dawn to chop me firewood.
I really needed to look away, because if I didn’t stop staring at him now, I never would.
Vivian
I stood in the clearing that—in a matter of a few days—had becomelessclear. Six garden beds, about three feet long each, were filled with dirt. There was a pile of logs by the tree line that Theo had yet to make use of. The wood that Theohadbegun working on was squeezed into the alcove to keep dry and allow him to carve beside the fire after dark. He might’ve slept like a rock that first night, but I wasn’t sure I’d seen him sleep for more than an hour at a time since. He was constantly working on the homestead.
“When we get back I’ll start the cabin,” Theo declared from behind me. I jumped, thinking he was still carving away at what would be a door across the field.
“You know you’re allowed to rest, right?” I grimaced sheepishly. Filling the garden beds with dirthardlyfelt like pulling my weight compared to his work.
“I’m very well rested,” he lied.
“We’ll see about that after a day of walking.” Surely, he’d burn out trekking the mountain, even if we were on the downward slope. Hehadto have limits.
Theo stepped past me, his bag—once filled with tools—now carried our backup clothing, wood for Ida’s fireplace, and three times the amount of water and berries I could ever hope to tote myself.
“You doubt my stamina?” he prodded.
“I would never,” I teased, playfully crinkling my nose at him.
A genuine smile cracked the generically pleasant expression constantly plastered on his face. The default a constant mix of “say hi to me, I won’t bite” and “if you make me bite, I’ll do it hard”.
“Do you want to say goodbye to your beast?” he asked.
My “beast” was rubbing against our ankles and purring. He’d decided Theo was his new best friend, probably because the man had started carrying small pieces of dried meat in his pocket to gift periodically. He was going to make my cat chunky if he kept sneaking him jerky when he thought I wasn’t paying attention. Greedy little Nurghle pawed at his shin, eyes locked on those very pockets.
“Come here buddy.” I scooped the fluff ball up and planted a kiss on his forehead. “Guard the field and don’t eat all your food at once.” We had set out a pile of scraps and berries that were more than enough to keep him full in our absence.
Setting off into the woods was familiar, but it felt lighter than in the past—and not just because I wasn’t carrying the literal bag. I had company. And that company was helping me go to town for the first time.I’m actually going to be able to help Ida re-stash her cabin. This was a total game changer, and I didn’t have to do it alone.
