Page 8 of Huckleberry Hill
“She knows.” I bit my lip.
Declan took the hint. “I’ll be outside.”
I took my coffee and ducked into the bedroom, shutting the door.
“What do you mean a bear tried to eat you?” Salem demanded the moment I answered my phone.
“Good morning,” I replied. “I slept like shit. I’m in no mood.”
“No mood? What about me? I woke up to your text this morning and nearly had a heart attack.”
“I was being dramatic,” I stated.
“Are you at the house?” Salem asked. “What did Dad say when he saw you?”
“He hasn’t seen me yet,” I said, setting my cell phone down on Declan’s unmade bed. I pressed the speaker button.
“I swear to God, you’re the worst storyteller in all the world. Start with the bear.”
“Where are Poet and Wyn? I only want to tell this story once,” I said.
“Wyn left for Sagaponack this morning with the Carrington family. And Poet’s already at the office,” she said. “There’s no way we can all have a four-way call.”
“Kinky,” I joked.
“Hadley,” Salem warned.
“Fine. Fine,” I said with a sigh as I slid into my jeans. “I got here at like, two in the morning. I was going to stay in the cabin. Didn’t want to wake up Muddy and Dad, you know? A grizzly charged me as I was trying to unlock the door, and that’s when Declan pulled me inside.”
“Declan? Who the hell is Declan?”
“The new wrangler,” I explained. “I crashed in the cabin with him.”
“Oh, really?”
“Not like that,” I said with an eye roll she couldn’t see. “He gave me the bed and he took the couch.”
She paused for a moment. “Did you know Dad hired a new wrangler?”
“No. He hadn’t told me. Neither did Muddy.”
“Huh. Well, it wouldn’t be like they’d tell me,” Salem murmured.
“That’s because you never call home.”
“I call home,” she protested.
“Once every few months?” Now was not the time to get into it with my sister. “Anyway, Declan’s waiting to walk me to the main house. I need to go.”
“Hold on. What’s he look like?”
“Why does that matter?”
“Humor me.”
I exhaled a puff of air. “Six three, thereabouts.”
“Go on.”
