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Half a breath later, he appeared at my side a
nd silently took my hand. “Man, you are way too fun to rile, City Girl.”
I kept hold of his hand, but didn’t answer.
He shrugged, and we walked along, growing quiet. After a ways, my irritation retreated, and the sounds of the forest eased my temperament. When we approached a tree in our path, I started to move around it to the right, but Knox’s fingers tightened around mine, taking me left. He kept moving left, letting me know we had a specific destination in mind.
“Where’re we going?”
He glanced at me, his eyes lighting with pleasure. “You swear you’ve never been out this way before?”
I shook my head slowly, wondering what he was planning.
His lips tipped into a grin. “Then it’s a surprise.”
“You weren’t lying when you said you practically live out here, were you?”
“Nope. This is where I come when I need to get away. I know these trees like the back of my hand.”
I nodded. This was his haven. Only a few weeks ago, it’d become mine too. “Strange,” I murmured thoughtfully. “We were both so ready to defend our relatives that day we met, and they’re the ones we always come out here to escape.”
He glanced at me. “Family loyalty makes no sense at all, does it?”
I shrugged. Maybe it didn’t, but I didn’t feel like such the loyal Bainbridge being out here alone with this Parker boy. I felt reckless, and euphoric, and so free that a little bubble of joy in my chest began to grow and expand to unimaginable proportions.
“There,” Knox murmured in my ear as he pointed past me, letting me know we’d arrived at wherever he’d wanted to take me.
I looked over and squinted when I saw...was that water between the trees?
“Oh my goodness.” I stared in wonder as we drew closer to a ramp that led out onto a small wooden dock. “I had no idea there was a lake out here.”
“Strip pit,” Knox corrected. “It’s the only one. I guess they discovered a trace amount of coal years ago and did some mining, but never found enough to keep the project going. After they abandoned it, it filled with water.”
I gazed into the still, dark pool as we stepped onto the ramp. “Do you come out here to go fishing?”
“Nope. Can’t. Too much of the mining minerals saturated the water, it’s full of alkali.”
I glanced at him curiously. “Alkali?”
He nodded. “You know, the stuff that goes into batteries. Nothing can live in this pit because of the alkali...which makes it perfect for swimming.”
I shivered. “Wouldn’t swimming in battery acid be dangerous?”
Knox grinned as if my cluelessness was cute. Then he shrugged. “Never made me sick before. It stains my clothes an awful muddy brown, but that’s about it.”
My breath caught at the thought of him wet and splashing around in this very pit. “So...you’ve swum here before?”
He seemed to move closer without even really moving. “Every summer for as long as I can remember.” Even his voice was quieter. Deeper. I couldn’t breathe so well.
Turning my attention to the water, I cleared my throat. “Did you build this dock?”
“No. That must’ve been your father, or one of your brothers.”
“Garrett, probably,” I mused more to myself. “He’s handy like that.”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he toed off his shoes and sat on the edge. As soon as he swung his legs over the side and let his feet dangle into the water below, he eased out a big sigh.
Then he grinned up at me. “If you hand me your shoe, I can rinse it off in the water for you.”
