Page 12 of Trolling For Love

“Yeah, sorry. I won’t be long,” I said and set my things down before slipping my towel off and stepping under the stream of water. The hot water felt great on my body as I contained a groan and turned under the water stream to wet my hair and let the shower pound on my shoulders. I’d never been more thankfulfor the fact that we had hot water out here in the middle of nowhere. As I scrubbed my scalp Gunnar turned around and I forced myself not to look. His ass was amazing, and I wanted to catch a peek at his dick, but I also wanted to give him the same respect I gave every other person on my crew.

Closing my eyes, I soaped up my body and enjoyed the feel of the water before it became obvious, I was taking way too much time. We had hot water in abundance but still tried to use only what we needed, which is why most of us only showered every other day. As I rinsed off and opened my eyes, I realized Gunnar was already finished and had left. Turning off my spicket, I wrapped my towel around my waist, grabbed my bag, and hurried back to my cabin.

“What’s for dinner?” I asked Dwayne as I once again stood in line. He grinned and handed me a huge serving of lasagna with salad and garlic bread. “Thanks, Dwayne.” He nodded without replying and loaded the next plate. I turned and walked to where Gunnar and Ben sat. “Mind if I sit here?”

Ben waved his hand out with a grin. “Be my guest, boss,” he said making me roll my eyes and Gunnar smirk. “Can you believe this guy? A ton of logs land on him and he walks away without a scratch.” He patted Gunnar on the arm, and he froze in place with a forkful of food just in front of him and gave Ben a hard stare. “Sorry, dude, I got carried away.”

I ignored his antics and said what I’d been thinking all day. “If it had been anyone else on the crew we wouldn’t have been as lucky,” I said and leaned in a little closer to them. “Did either of you see anyone around the logs before it happened?” Ben shook his head while Gunnar met my eyes.

“Why do you ask this?”

“I think maybe it wasn’t an accident,” I whispered.

Chapter 11

GUNNAR

After that first night, Flynn and I chatted nightly just before we both went to bed. Most of our conversations were about nothing at all, but I liked that we could find out more about each other. I definitely wanted to know more about Flynn.

Flynn:Would you want to go to town with me on Friday?

Gunnar:Would we be returning to camp?

After staying at the facility for so long I didn’t want to be too close to it for very long. It wasn’t that it was horrible staying there, it was more that I liked being here in the forest away from all the other humans and near the trees.

Flynn:Sure. How about we go to town, do some laundry then we could eat.

I thought about it for a moment, but I couldn’t think of a reason to say no and I wanted to see more of the town they called Elder Ridge.

Gunnar:I would like this.

Flynn:We’re off early on Friday so everyone has a chance to get to town before dark and also give Dwayne a break from cooking for the rest of the day. We get paid on Friday too.

Gunnar:What do we do to be paid?

The more I learned about the human world the more I needed to learn. Trolls did not work for money. We hunted or built anything we needed with things we found in nature. There was no need for money.

Flynn:You don’t need to do anything. Frank will pass out checks, then you can cash it when we go to town.

Gunnar:I will need help.

Flynn:I don’t mind helping. We could go for a hike on Saturday if you want. Explore more of the forest.

That got my attention. Every day that we worked I held myself back from wandering deeper among the trees to hear what they had to say and just to enjoy the simple beauty of this world.

Gunnar:I would enjoy that very much.

Flynn:I should get to sleep, but I promise we’ll go to town and do what we need to do then we’ll come back here and relax.

Gunnar:And hike.

Flynn:And go for a very long hike.

Friday was finally here, and I was surprised to find I was looking forward to going to town. My time there had been limited to the facility or the few times I’d ventured out with a staff member.Flynn had said he had a truck he could use to drive us there and it would only be the two of us.

“Are you ready?” he asked as he walked toward me carrying a backpack.

“Do I need to bring anything?” I asked.

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