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“Just washing up, the water is clean if you need a drink,” he said.
She smiled and came over to the pond.
“But quietly,” he whispered.
“Why? You huntin’ w’rabbits?” she teased in a soft whisper doing her best Elmer Fudd impression.
“Deer,” he said standing behind her, he wrapped his arm around her belly and pointed across the water while bringing his body flush to hers. “See, let’s not disturb our neighbors.”
“If only they had a phone,” she teased and turned her head enough they were now close enough to kiss in the light of day. “You think they have an Insta account?”
“Who doesn’t?” he replied wanting to kiss her full lips and taste her once again. Electric waves coursed through his body tinging his sore muscles like he’d used the stimulating pads. Constricting and tightening them.
Her gaze swung down and she slipped from his hold.
He watched as she quietly dipped her hands in the water, her shoulders doing a little shimmy shake from the cold he forgot to warn her about, before she gathered water in her hand and took a drink.
Although he wanted to sit at the water’s edge next to Topaz and watch as the sky lit up with a mix of orange, yellow, pink and blue, he knew they had to get moving. Onyx did allow himself a moment to take her in as the morning light crept across the placid pond. The only disruption coming from Topaz and the deer who were moving on.
“I never liked deer growing up,” Topaz said as she stood and held her hands interlocked high above her head to stretch. “Deer meat that is, we always had a ton and I hated it. But right now, I wish I had a knife.”
“Not the sweet princess comment I expected,” he said with a light laugh.
“I’m starving,” she said. “And I grew up country, we saved a lot of money eating daddy’s—” she stopped her words and closed her eyes. A tear formed at the corner of one and she quickly wiped it away. “You know there was this stupid computer game about rednecks.Redneck RampageI think it was called.”
“Kinda backwards isn’t that? Computers, rednecks?”
They walked toward the truck, the back of their fingers brushing against the others, but they didn’t move to hold hands. It was only a few steps.
“Computer for the city boys who wanted to be rednecks.” She waved her hands to clear her mind. “Anyway, there’s was a phrase one of those ignorant bastards said when you really needed to get them more energy points and I’ll never forget it.”
“What’s that?” he asked.
She leaned in and messed with the wires to get the truck to turn over. The roar of the diesel engine caused birds to take flight and any small woodland creatures to scurry into the bushes. Topaz stood outside the door and stared at him, using the most backwoods voice she could and said, “I could eat the ass end of a menstrual skunk.”
Onyx let out a howl of laughter, then settled as a bit of Cro-Magnon man crept up his spine and spiked his brain.Must find food for his woman. His—nothiswoman. He was starving himself, but that didn’t matter. Topaz starving was a very big issue for him. One making him look at sticks and rocks as if he were going to fashion a weapon. The best weapon they had was the truck, to get away and find help. “Let’s get back on the road,” he said and they both got in, this time clicking their seatbelts.
He turned around in the glade and made his way down the narrow path back onto the dirt road. When he came to a crest at the top of a slight hill, he stopped and put the truck in park. Throwing on the hazards out of habit, not necessity he opened the door and got out. “I need to see if I can see anything in the distance.” Dropping the truck’s tailgate, he stepped up into the bed of the pickup and then climbed on the roof.
“You know I could have done that,” she called from inside the cab of the truck.
“Afraid I’ll fall through?” he teased, a bit uneasy himself with the give the roof had.
“Maybe.” She laughed a bit. “See anything?”
“Mother fucker,” he snapped. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What?” she asked. “You see Turnabout or something?”
“No, but this fricking road is parallel to a damn paved one.” He grumbled and turned, taking in the whole area. Although there was plenty of land, he did see several houses in the far distance. Being a clear day, it may be twenty to thirty miles away. They could make it to them if they drove at a reasonable speed and conserved the gas. As long as the gas light indicator wasn’t broke, they’d be golden. It could be the edges of a town, one with a store, gas station maybe. Then again, the handful of houses could be the town, as thiswasMontana.
Careful stepping down from the truck he didn’t want to jar his ribs or his leg where the prosthetic was rubbing wrong on his stump. After almost falling out of the truck, he made his way back inside and fastened his seatbelt. “There’s a few houses up ahead.” At the next cross dirt road he turned right, then left and finally they were on a paved road. One that was smooth and no longer tested his limits when it came to how many bumps does it take before he had to stop.
