Page 5 of Big Bad Wolf

She couldn’t help watching Rafe as he made his way around the room, crouching and bending across tables, his wingspan reaching across the whole thing. He was wearing a worn flannel shirt and jeans that had certainly seen better days, but they clung to him like they loved him. Like he and those jeans had been through some shit together and now they were best friends.

He ran a hand through his hair, pushing it from his face, and she watched the muscles flex in his exposed forearm. What was it about forearms? Why did she want to run her teeth across his?

She shook her head.

She went back to her closing tasks.

She tried very hard not to look at the sexy woodworker/possible-serial-killer man anymore, but she found her gaze wandering back to him over and over.

There was something about him. Something magnetic. Captivating. The way he moved. The way he spoke. The way he looked at her.

Rafe walking into this bar was the most interesting thing that had happened to her in years. And she was now fairly certain he wasn’t going to hack her to bits and bury her in the woods. About eighty-five percent certain.

“That should do it,” he said, straightening from the last table, his gaze finding hers again. His lips quirked up when he found her already looking at him. She didn’t bother to pretend she wasn’t. His smile grew.

“I’ll come in earlier next time,” he said.

“You do that.”

“But not on a Thursday.”

Ruby bit down on a smile of her own. “Okay.”

“See you around, Ruby.”

She lifted her hand in a wave as Rafe strode out into the darkness.

Chapter Three

Ruby had a bad habit.

She’d been reprimanded for it by Macy so many times she’d had to lie and tell her she didn’t do it anymore.

She’d never told Lena in the first place.

And if anyone else from town found out, they’d just use it as further evidence of her otherness.

But she couldn’t seem to stop.

Although, tonight, after her encounter with Rafe, she was having second thoughts as she stood at the trail head. Ruby had a bad habit of walking home through the dark woods, but tonight, maybe she should stick to the semi-lit streets of Maple Hollow.

Something rustled in the leaves and Ruby’s heart responded like she’d seen a ghost.

Or a monster.

“It’s probably a squirrel,” she muttered to herself, clutching her bag of leftovers tighter in her fist and pointing her cell flashlight on the trail ahead of her.

She could backtrack. She could walk back down the side street that led to this trail. She could walk past the market with Clark behind the register and wave as she went by. She could hurry past the post office and the police station and the laundromat all closed for the night. She could walk through the tiny village, past the sleepy houses and the trimmed lawns until she finally got to her aunt’s cottage on the edge of the woods. Well, it used to be her aunt’s cottage. Now it belonged to her and Lena, split fifty-fifty in her aunt’s will when she died last winter.

Ruby sighed, glancing up at the treetops and the stars shining above them.

Fuck it.

She started off down the trail through The Pines, as all the locals called the woods around here. This way was so much faster. She’d be home in no time, heating up these leftovers for Lena. Assuming she was still awake, which she often was these days.

Ruby had to get home to her sister.

She had to make sure she was okay, coherent, conscious.