If We Dare - J.H. Croix Page 0,41

her glass.

I shook my head. “No, thanks. I’m driving, so I’ll stick with water,” I replied.

Fortunately for me, the conversation didn’t loop back to me. It wasn’t much later that I was driving home through the early summer darkness. The mountain air was glorious this time of year. There was just a hint of the humidity to come, and the nights were still cool. With the windows rolled down as I drove home, the air caressed my skin. It was laden with the scents of rich greenery and flowers in bloom. With the half-moon low in the sky and illuminating a mountain ridge in the distance, the night felt a bit magical.

I paused to pull off the road at a small lookout. Climbing out of my car, I walked across the small parking area to sit on a bench. During the daytime, this spot offered a lovely view of Stolen Hearts Valley. The quiet seeped into me, and I savored the low sounds of crickets chirping in the darkness and the trees rustling in the breeze.

Leaning my head back, I looked up into the velvety dark sky with stars scattered across and glittering in the night. I took a deep breath, the tension bundled inside ever since I’d seen Walker earlier tonight finally starting to ease slightly.

I couldn’t quite believe how far I’d let things go with him that weekend. I’d almost convinced myself in the intervening two weeks that it was just a fluke, that when I saw him again it would feel normal. Maybe there would be a little buzz of chemistry, but nothing more. I was so wrong, so spectacularly wrong. At least I knew my judgment wasn’t the greatest when it came to men.

Every time I thought about how hard it was for me to trust, I thought about Shay and what she’d been through, and I felt ridiculous. She’d suffered public humiliation and a brutal physical assault. Yet, she’d walked through that fire and was now deeply in love with Jackson. Whenever I tried to tell myself I could find that same courage to trust again, I bumped into so many doubts.

I closed my eyes and took a slow breath. A friend for years had slipped a date rape drug in my drink. I would always wonder what he’d intended to do. Thanks to a waitress looking in the direction of our table when I went to the restroom, nothing happened. I would never know what he intended to do.

Trust was so fucking hard to come by in my mind. It had been so easy to tell myself I would never date, that I would never be interested in anyone. I hadn’t considered it worth the trouble.

Enter Walker and me agreeing to that stupid wedding and thinking it was no big deal. Now, not a single night passed when I didn’t dream about him. I hated admitting I brought myself to climax more than once with thoughts of his gaze locked on mine when he took me to the brink and beyond.

I was snapped out of my restless train of thought at the sound of a car approaching on the road, followed by a loud thump and a squeak. I jumped up and hurried back toward the edge of the winding highway. I watched the taillights disappearing in the darkness.

I knew I’d likely heard an animal get hit. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I felt sick. I fumbled for my phone in my pocket. I tapped the button for the flashlight and searched around carefully. Scanning the road, I saw a small shape in the darkness. It appeared to be a young opossum. It was still alive, moving slowly as it dragged itself to the side of the road.

Fortunately, it was coming in my direction and stopped once it had reached the small parking area where my car was. I wasn’t stupid, so I approached it carefully.

“Hey, sweetie,” I said softly as I stopped a few feet away.

The little opossum with its worried face turned in my direction. I could see its rapid breath, rising and falling, its entire small body moving with it. Stepping closer, I moved the flashlight over it carefully, ascertaining that one of its legs was badly injured.

I sprang into action. “Hang on, I’m going to get you in a little sling and we’re gonna take you to Jackson’s office,” I said conversationally as if the opossum was going to answer.

After digging through the back of my car,