Page 118 of 2204 Hunter Lane
I love you. I love you, I love you.She said to me. She said it and I heard it clearly, unmistakeably so.
Gripping her as close to me as humanly possible, I spoke the words I’d fought off for so long. “I love you, Bambi.”
With whatever love I had left.
Chapter Forty-Four
Adam
I waiting outside Atlas Aurora with a backpack of two waters and a pair of socks, glancing at my watch that read: 9:02am.
My job taught me how to be more punctual, though that was never really an issue for me. Dad slapped me senseless if I was ever late to any of his business training courses, so naturally I credited my on-timeliness to him.
Hunter pulled up in a monster black truck about ten minutes later, unlocking the passenger door while I stepped inside.
“Sorry ‘bout that, man. I was doin’…”
“My sister, I presume.”
I bit my tongue, realizing what just slipped my lips.That certainly didn’t come out right. Not. At. All.
He cranked the engine and powered down the road, chuckling in response. “That escalated.”
“That was not how I wanted to –” The thought of my sister doing anything with anyone brought a hurl to my mouth that I nearly regurgitated. “That was poorly phrased.”
“Ya think?” He teased, rolling down the window. “Nah, it’s fine. I just wanted to get her some breakfast before I left. Speakin’ of which, you wan’ walk off the grub or celebrate later?”
Huh?I was clearly not versed in Hunter lingo because I really had no idea what he was saying.“Walk off or celebrate what exactly?”
He gave me a look down and turned off onto a winding road. “Breakfast. Want it now or after the hike?”
“Oh, right. Later would work best.”
We drove silently for a few more minutes before I ignited the conversation once more. “Sorry, in New York we have a very different way of speaking. Especially in my job, I’m surrounded by very…calculated,people, I should say.”
“Well, Adam, I ain’t no calculator I’ll tell ya that.”
I respected that, surveying the basic white t-shirt he wore and sport shorts, his hair roughed up underneath a black baseball cap.
When I first saw Hunter, he wasn’t anything like I expected. My sister always went for the pretty boys, the Lacoste guys that weren’t innately awful, but definitely not marriage material. It wasn’t as if she was searching for a soulmate when we were growing up, but for the love of all things good was she ever naïve in her type.
I blame my parents for that, always setting her up with the sons of their country club business mates. Out of all the people I’d circulated around, those were by far the worst.
Hunter was the type of guy that those men would make fun of behind his back, but never to his face. No, they’d quake in fear because even I could admit… Hunter was a tank.
He was a little taller than me and carried himself with zero regret. Though from what Marley told me, he didn’t have the easiest time.
I knew about his mom’s passing, but I would never bring that up. We barely knew each other and I believed Hunter only asked me to come hiking as a common courtesy since he was dating my sister. But all the same, I appreciated the attempt.
We pulled into a gravel lot just below a forest entrance, parking between two sedans. He killed the engine and unlocked the doors, stepping out of the truck as we started towards the open fence.
“How long’s the hike?” I asked, keeping up with Hunter’s pace as we set course uphill.
“How ever long you want it to be.”
One thing I noted about him, even throughout the dinner was his lack of substantive communication. Not that he was horrible at conversation, no, he was actually quite good at questioning. But when it came to him, he was very cut and dry. To the point, centered and no bullshit.
Honestly, I liked that. I’d met a few of Marley’s past flings and they all tried way too hard to win some sort of approval. For my parents, it took two things – money and status. For me, I just wanted to see that look in Marley’s eyes that told me she was happy.
