Wings of the Walker - CoraLee June Page 0,112

soft, I wouldn’t have noticed him if it weren’t for the intense electricity that bounced between us.

“Our parents all knew where we were. We weren’t nearly as good at sneaking around as we are now,” Jacob said with a chuckle.

“How’d you find it?” I asked. I wondered if the grove was as beautiful during the day as it was at night.

“Wanna tell that story, Hux?” Kemper asked. He looped his pinkie through mine and squeezed. I loved the little touches he gave me and squeezed him back.

“Patrick and I didn’t always get along, especially when we were really young. We were always fighting over something stupid, and our mother was always tanning our asses, with our Father’s belt, over it. One night, we got into a big fight. I don’t even know what it was about, but I remember Patrick crying and running away,” Huxley explained, scooting closer to me.

“Normally, when he runs off, he’d show back up in a couple of hours, and we’d be back to annoying the hell out of each other.” Huxley’s coarse fingers began lightly tracing designs upon my leg, causing me to shiver despite the warm weather. “But this time, he didn’t show back up.” Jacob then gripped my hand and the feeling of touching all three of them, sent my heart into overdrive.

“I didn’t want our parents to know we were fighting, so I got the others, and we went looking for him,” Huxley said with a sigh.

“Cyler was learning how to track, so after hours of worrying and following his lead, we ended up finding him here,” Kemper added. I tried to imagine what each of them looked like as young boys and smiled. It made sense that Cyler would take charge. Even then, he was their leader.

“We weren’t expecting to find Patrick in the middle of a standoff with a big motherfucking bear!” Jacob said loudly, causing me to jump. Were there bears out here? Oh no, no, no! I started to sit up, determined to get out of that dark and terrifying grove as quickly as possible .

“Oh, calm down. There hasn’t been a bear spotted in these woods for years, not since that night. They mostly stick to the deadlands,” Huxley assured me in what I think he intended to be a calm tone.

“Cyler, being the idiot that he is, started to run at the bear while screaming and clapping his hands,” Huxley said. The image made me snort loudly, causing the guys to chuckle, too.

“And because we all blindly followed everything Cyler did, we all started charging the bear while screaming, too,” Kemper added.

“The bear ran off, probably confused as hell as to what just happened, but we felt like gods,” Jacob said with a smile.

“We’re better together, that’s for sure,” Kemper said, with a seriousness to his tone that reverberated around us. I wanted to dissect his statement and apply it to my current situation with them all but disallowed my mind to tread those waters.

“Aside from us, you’re the only one that we’ve ever brought here,” Huxley whispered, as though he was scared at the implications of my presence here. His fingers stopped lazily tracing along my ankle, and I missed the comfort he provided, even though it still confused me. His whiplash of affections reminded me of a time that I allowed myself to be used, and I was determined to figure out what side of the line between hate and like I was on with him.

“Well, I won’t tell anyone. It can be our little secret,” I began. “But I guess this means, you’re gonna have to admit that you don’t hate me anymore, Hux,” I said in what I hoped came across as a joke.

Jacob and Kemper stilled beside me, and I wondered if what I said was wrong. If I overstepped a boundary or triggered an insecurity within Huxley somehow.

“We both know I haven’t hated you for a while now, Ash.” That was all Huxley said. I felt Jacob and Kemper relax suddenly. It seemed that they, too, felt invested in Huxley’s feelings towards me. His opinion mattered, and they wanted this to work. Whatever this was.

Chapter Nineteen

The next two days I kept busy working at the General Store and cleaning Black Manor. Any idle moment was spent consumed with worry for Cyler and Patrick or obsessing over my more-than-friendly relationship with the guys.

On the third day, I woke up in Huxley’s bed. He had guard shift last night, and it was