Fearless The King Series Book One - By Tawdra Kandle Page 0,40

brave enough to reach out to him. I touched his arm gently. “I’m not going anywhere, really.”

Michael smiled appreciatively. “Good. Okay, so you remember what I told you, about when I first saw you on Monday? That I knew, right away?”

I grinned. “I don’t think I’m likely to forget that.”

“I hope you don’t. Well, it turns out it’s actually not such an aberration. It might be… genetic.”

“Genetic?”

He took a deep breath. “Yeah. A family… thing. My mother grew up in south Florida, on the beaches down there. Her parents owned a hotel in Deerfield Beach. When she was fourteen, she went to visit her grandparents, who lived in a small town on the Panhandle. And while she was there, she met a sixteen-year old boy who had spent his whole life in that tiny town. He saw her, and he knew that she was the girl for him. According to my mother, she wasn’t much to look at in those days—all gangly legs, frizzy hair and braces on her teeth—but my father thought she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever laid eyes on. She thought he was crazy. And don’t get me wrong, nothing happened between the two of them then. The summer ended, and my mom went back to Deerfield Beach. But my dad knew that she was his future.

“So he got a job, and he worked hard for the rest of his time in high school. And he wrote to my mom. Every day. At first, I think she was flattered, then maybe a little worried he was a wacko, but he kept his letters pretty light—nothing too stalkerish. And whenever he could manage it, he’d drive down to Deerfield to see her.”

“What did her parents think?” I was imagining the reaction of my own mom and dad under similar circumstances.

“Well, of course, they were worried, but then they got to know him and realized he was steady, serious and sane. My mom’s grandparents knew the family, of course, so that was a help. And after a while, it was just… normal.

“When my dad graduated from high school, he got a scholarship to a small school that specialized in agriculture. It was close to the college where my mom intended to go. He kept working hard, saving money, seeing Mom when he could. When she graduated and started college, they got engaged and when he graduated they got married. After my mom finished college, they moved up here because it was half way between both of their family homes. My dad worked for a local nursery for a while, then they opened Sawood. It’s a play on their names—my mom’s maiden name was Wood.

“So that’s my parents’ story. And I wanted you to know it, because maybe it makes me seem a little less crazy.”

“I keep telling you, I don’t think you’re crazy,” I insisted. “Delusional or misinformed, maybe, but not crazy.”

“Oh, that makes me feel so much better,” he answered dryly.

We had turned off the county highway onto a smaller two-lane road that curved through empty fields and patches of forest. I saw a yellow diamond-shaped sign with a small black figure in the middle of it. Squinting, I tried to figure out what was on the sign.

Michael noticed my attention had been drawn out the window. “What are you looking for?”

“There was a sign—it looked like those deer crossing warnings? But I don’t think it was a deer on this one.”

“No, you’re right. It wasn’t. It was a bear.”

“A bear?” I squeaked in alarm. “Are you serious?”

“Yeah. We have bears out here. They don’t bother with us, but we see them from a distance sometimes.”

“Oh.” I couldn’t manage more than that. “So, add something else to the list of creatures lying in wait for me in Florida. Alligators, deadly snakes, and bears.”

“You forgot Nell,” Michael commented. I stuck out my tongue at him, and he grinned.

We were slowing down, and I saw a wooden sign reading, “SAWOOD NURSERY”. Beneath the large print were the words, “Landscaping, Retail and Wholesale” written in smaller flowing scrip. We turned at the sign onto a dirt road. Columns of trees surrounded us before they opened into two endless fields, dotted with rows of bushes and smaller trees. I could see several greenhouses in the distance.

“Wow,” I breathed, “this is huge.”

Michael looked around as if seeing it for the first time. “The original nursery was smaller, but when some land next to us went up for sale, my parents bought