Page 44 of Beyond the Blue Horizon

“Right this way,” I told her as I came up to her side, my arm going out to guide her down the path.

She held back, a clear indication that she wanted me to go first.

Like she needed the space.

The distance.

Didn’t seem to make much difference, anyway.

Not when her energy lashed and struck against my back as I headed up the walkway ahead of her, our footsteps heavy on the stone path, the thunder of her pulse just as loud.

We wound through the trees and hit the main walkway that followed along the front side of the motel.

A few people were out and about, a handful of kids having a snowball fight along the perimeter of the parking lot, ducking into the trees, their screeches and laughter riding on the air.

I kept moving, all the way past the far west end of the motel before we hit the path that led to my cabin.

Overhead, birds flitted from the trees, their chirps and calls echoing on the stillness that radiated between us.

Her nerves only amped the deeper we got on the concealed path.

“You know this is how every horror story starts, right? Some stupid girl who mindlessly follows some handsome stranger into the woods and is never seen again?”

I swiveled around to face her, shoving my hands into my pockets as I walked backward. Didn’t try to stop the smirk that took to my mouth. “Handsome?”

She rolled those pretty eyes, her words a sultry grunt. “Of course that’s what you jump on.”

“I mean, how could I ignore a compliment from you when what I normally get is hostility?”

“I’m not hostile.” She basically stamped her foot when she said it.

I tried to contain the chuckle that rolled in my chest. “Nah, not hostile at all, gorgeous.”

She scowled, and I fully laughed as I swiveled back around as the path took a bend before it opened to my cabin in the distance.

It sat on the edge of the lake, tucked in a swath of pines and aspens. Its two-story roof pitched and its walls dark-planked wood.

A porch ran along the entire front side, and a three-car garage was to the left, the only portion of the structure that was one-story.

The back side was pretty much windows that had a stunning view of the lake, and there was a porch on that side that sat on stilts over the water, though you couldn’t see any of that from here.

The house was the single amount of peace that I had.

A sanctuary that I didn’t deserve, which I figured was why I rarely slept within its walls, and when I did, the nightmares were there to meet me.

A gush of surprise whisked out of Piper. “This is where you live?”

“This is it. Home sweet home,” I mumbled, thumbing into my phone so I could push the button on the app to open thegarage door. It slowly began to lift as we followed the stone path along the front of the house to the garage.

My black truck that I’d been driving yesterday was parked in the second bay, the third with a sedan that I rarely drove.

The first was reserved for my three bikes.

My most cherished possessions.

Piper stumbled a step when she saw them, and a roll of incredulity left her as if she had just been given proof of something she’d believed all along.

Like every horrible idea she had of me had just taken shape and become her truth.