Fake Boyfriend - Miley Maine Page 0,17
didn’t recede as we drove.
“How are you feeling?” Jackson asked.
There was no way I wanted to complain to him. He was a soldier, and he’d mentioned that he’d been deployed. He’d probably experienced real trauma, and been in real danger, many times.
“Good,” I said.
“You don’t have to pretend.”
“People get mugged all the time. And he didn’t even have a real gun.”
“You’ve never been mugged. And you didn’t know he didn’t have a gun. It’s better to assume it’s real, and that it’s loaded.”
I chewed on my fingernail before realizing what I was doing.
He kept talking. “I’ve had a gun aimed at me. It’s scary. And it’s always scary to have a stranger get that close to you, and threaten you. It’s okay to be freaked out.”
“It was pretty alarming.” I massaged my jaw. It was tight from where I’d been gritting my teeth. “I don’t think I thanked you.”
“No need.”
“How did you know what was happening?”
“Do you want the truth?” Jackson shot a glance my way. “Or the answer you’ll like better?”
“I want the truth.”
“Okay,” he said. “I followed you.”
“You followed me? I thought you were renting a car too, and you just happened to be there.”
“I was renting a car. but my Jeep was not close to yours.”
I twisted sideways in my seat until my seatbelt nearly choked me. “What in the world made you follow me?”
Jackson tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. “I was worried about you.”
“Why?” I asked.
“You won’t like my answer.”
“Please just tell me,” I said. “I really want to know.”
“You’re young,” he said, gesturing with his hand. “You’re traveling alone, and you seem clueless about how to do it. None of that is your fault, but it makes you a target for the scum that tried to rob you.”
Part of me wanted to get mad. Or at least indignant. But I had been clueless when I entered the Atlanta airport, and I still was. I flopped over sideways, letting my head rest against the Jeep window. “I want to argue, but you’re right.”
“Don’t get discouraged. Like I said, this kind of thing can happen to anyone. But there are things you can do. It’s called situational awareness.”
“I’m going to need a crash course on that.”
“You came to the right person,” he said. “I’ve been told I’m paranoid more than once.”
“Better than being caught off guard.”
Jackson slowed the Jeep to a stop as we entered the park. The sky was not as bright now as the sun got close to setting, so I couldn’t see the landscape around us as I’d have liked, but what I saw was breathtaking. The trees were a vivid green, the lake water was clear, and gray mountains rose in the background.
“For tonight, we aren’t going too far off the beaten path, but I do have a private site reserved.”
Once he’d driven us to our spot and parked, I climbed out of the Jeep. My legs were still shaky, but at least I wasn’t about to puke now. I inhaled. The air even smelled clean, which was very welcome after a full day stuck on an airplane.
I was at an Alaskan campground, about to camp in a tent, which was something I’d always wanted to do. And I was with a gorgeous man. I was not going to let the incident at the car rental place screw this up for me. As Jackson popped the back of the Jeep open, I was grateful to have a task to focus on. “What happens first?”
“We set up the tent. We don’t really need one, but for a first-time camper, I think it’s best.” Jackson pulled one of his backpacks out of the Jeep and laid it on the ground. “You want to give it a try?”
I crouched down and touched the bundle with one finger. “That’s it?”
“Yep. You can touch it. It won’t bite. The tarp goes first.”
Ignoring my still unsteady hands, I rolled my eyes. I was used to unpacking delicate equipment, so surely I could figure this out. I unrolled the tarp until it was flat. I unzipped the nylon and started laying the parts out on the ground while Jackson watched. “Now the poles,” he said.
They weren’t hard. They snapped together in a frame that made sense.
“Okay, you just did that faster than some of my teammates. What gives?” he asked.
“Genius intellect?”
He smiled.
“Seriously, I have pretty good spatial awareness.” I threaded the fabric over the tent poles until we had a dome-like shape. “I’m guessing the stakes go next.”
“Yep.”
“Are