AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Eli reaches over and rolls one of his sausages onto my plate. I look up at him, my mouth stuffed full. “Looks like you need it more than me,” he says, eyes twinkling.
I blush, forcing myself to slow down. “So,” I swallow my mouthful. “You’re a skiing instructor. Riven is a doctor. What about Cole? Is he a gym teacher? Drill sergeant? Fascist dictator?”
He huffs a laugh. “Not quite. He works in wildlife control.”
I frown. “Is he… like… a hunter?”
“Kind of the opposite. I guess you’d call him a ranger? He tries his best to keep the animals alive.” He stretches out his shoulders, making a soft noise that sends heat panging through my stomach. “People call him if a moose is standing in their driveway and won’t leave, or a mama bear gets too close to their house, or whatever.”
My eyes widen. “A bear?”
“Yeah, you get all sorts up here. Bears. Wolves. Lynxes. Mooses. It’s mostly mooses, though. They’re ballsy.”
I can’t help smiling atmooses.Both Eli and Riven speak such good English, it’s easy to forget that it’s not their first language. It’s kind of sweet.
“He has a lot of problems with tourists,” he continues. “A lot of them end up hitting animals with their cars. Or they try to go hunting and don’t kill the animals properly. Just leave them injured, running around the woods.”
“Which is why he was so pissed off at me,” I realise. “I could’ve killed the moose.”
He shrugs. “Ah, he’s just being a moody dick. Mooses walk on the road all the time. At least you didn’t hit it.” He whistles. “That’s a goddamn nightmare. You’ll be eating moose pie for weeks.” He turns to me. “So, what about you? What do you do?”
“I’m a teacher,” I say, then mentally slap myself. I shouldn’t have told him that. If he figures out where I used to work, he’ll be able to look me up. And then he’ll find the news articles about me, and I’ll be in a shitload of trouble. My heart starts to pound faster. I force myself to stay calm.
“Oh?” He says casually. “What do you teach?”
“You know. School.”
He smiles. “I meant, what class do you teach?”
“Oh, is that what you meant?”
He looks at me narrowly. I take a huge bite of mash to occupy my mouth.
“So you work in a high school?” He asks after a moment. “Or elementary?”
I shrug. “I move around some.”
“How old are the kids?”
I chase a lingonberry around my plate. “All different ages,” I say breezily.
“I’m not getting anything else out of you, am I?”
“Well spotted.”
He sighs. “Fair enough. How’s your neck feeling? Are the painkillers working?”
I nod, rolling it around. “It’s not as sore. It’s still really tight, though.”
“You know,” he sets his cutlery down. “I am a trained masseur.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Seriously?”
“Yep. Got my license as an anniversary present for one of our exes.”
“Wow.” That’s one hell of an anniversary present. “Okay then. I guess.” I lay down my empty plate. “Have at it.”
He grins and settles himself behind me, pulling my hair gently over one shoulder. “You’ve got so much hair, Jesus.”
