Page 44 of 2204 Hunter Lane
His eyes were panicked trying to run away from all of them, but his feet were strapped into his snowboard, cementing him down.
“Why a big man on a little hill?” One girl asked her mom.
“I board better than you!” Another boy added.
I could tell Hunter wanted to bite their heads off but he maintained his cool for the majority of the day, eventually ending up teaching a few kids some tricks.Only the cocky ones, though. Maybe he saw himself in them, God only knows. It was hilarious.
After a few hours of lessons, I finally learned how to stand on the snowboard without literally dying, and even managed to ride down the beginner slope with ease.
“Not bad Bambi,” he’d said. “Can the teacher take a quick drink break?”
We walked to a different bar near the kiddy hill called Baskin Slopes and grabbed a two-seater table near the back.
The waitress, a smiley redhead, placed water on the table while ogling Hunter as she took his order – a double whisky on the rocks, and before she could take mine, he ordered two.
“Why’d you do that?” I asked, removing my coat and placing it behind my chair.
“Do what?”
“You ordered two drinks. You know you have to drive us back, right?”
His jaw hardened as he looked away, but his features weren’t tense. “Nobody tells me not to.”
“Well that’s a stupid excuse,” I muttered. “You should know better.”
He scoffed. “Thanks mommy.”
A rigid silence stretched between the two of us before he cleared his throat.
“Are ya hungry?” he asked.
My throat sprung out a laugh. I don’t know what came over me but Hunter asking me if I was hungry had to be the most normal, mundane thing in the world and I couldn’t believe it.
I was so used to him barking at me all the time, I couldn’t believe he could actually converse normally, let alone ask questions without spitting in disgust.
“What’s so funny?”
I shook my head, playing with the straw in my water. “I’ve never heard you so calm.”
He leaned back in his chair, raising his eyebrows. “Yeah well, the kids tired me out.”
“Maybe you should volunteer at a daycare. It'll level your attitude.”
His blue eyes held me tightly, speaking a thousand words yet none at all.
“What happened this mornin’?” he asked, his tone softer than normal.
My cheeks immediately heated as I thought back to my mother’s phone call earlier on in the day.
I remember waking up to a few texts from Adam but before I could read them, Harlow Matthews’ name flashed across my screen.
When I answered, my mom was angrier than I’d ever heard her.
“Our P.I found out where you’re staying. Care to tell me why you’re in Aurora and not Lincoln?”
I almost vomited at the thought of my family hiring a private investigator to track down my whereabouts after a year of no communication.
They’d known I fled to Lincoln, that’s why they despised me. But to care enough to hire someone and hunt me down? That was not out of love, that was out of control.
