Page 52 of Scout’s Honor

Their waitress came.

“I’ll call you back, man.” Dallas hung up the phone.

They ordered one dessert to share and the waitress left.

Dallas poised his pen over the paper. “What did you see when I touched the carving?” he asked.

“I saw a woman wearing leather clothing from two hundred years ago. She had the cuff.”

“That actually happened,” he said, urgency in his voice. “Maze and I were in the forest meeting with Thorn a while back and that’s how I got the cuff in the first place. At the time, I couldn’t understand her, but in Mama Soline’s shop, she said, “You are the Scout.”

“I heard that,” Bonhi said, her fingers on his arm, her face close to his.

“Her name’s Warrior Woman. She’s a myth or something. I don’t know much about her, but she’s a ghost or a switch or a switch ghost. I don’t know.”

“She looked real.”

“She did to me, too, until I saw her poof away in dark pink light.”

“She glowed?”

“You didn’t see it?”

Bonhi shook her head.

“Yeah, she glowed.”

Dallas leaned forward and caught her lips in a sweet kiss. She smiled at him as he pulled away, saying, “Mmmmm,” then, “Did you see anything else?”

“No.”

Dallas rubbed his scruff, his eyes far off. “Jameson has a title in ‘The Cause.’ It’s ‘The Keeper.’”

“Is there a Scout?”

Dallas shook his head. "I don’t know. I’m new. I’ve only been in Nantahala for a couple weeks and Jameson and I…” He kissed her again, then said, “We’ve been butting heads since I got here. Let’s say there is a ‘scout’ role in ‘The Cause’ and I was picked for it by…” He looked up at the sky. “By Fate, or destiny, or whatever picks these things… Why me?”

Bonhi shrugged. “Why not you? You’re amazing.”

Dallas grinned and looked down, making Bonhi smile and say, “You keep surprising me with how smart and resourceful you are, not to mention strong and sexy.”

He met her eyes. “You think I’m sexy?”

She laughed, smiling broadly. “You don’t know you’re sexy?”

He shrugged. “No. I mean… women used to notice me, before…”

Bonhi touched his cheek. “They still notice you. It’s you who isn’t noticing them.”

He met her eyes. “I only see you.”

It was her turn to look at the table. She flushed and looked back, saying, “Good.”

He took her hand to his lips and kissed the knuckles.

Bonhi saw something on the paper he’d written that caught her eye.

‘A cabin surrounded by trees.’