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Walking through the forest with a gun in my pocket knowing Tom was behind me on high alert had me questioning my sanity. Harry wasn't the crazy one, I was. How did I let myself get talked into this? Tom, Chance, and Jim all seemed like nice guys, but this had to be some sort of prank. They all knew each other well, it was easy to think the local boys might have put this together to embarrass me. I knew at least one of them held a grudge against city girls. Maybe that was what started it.
I tried to keep my mind on the trail and listen for any noises that were out of place. It took only a few minutes of that to realize that every sound in the forest seemed out of place to me. I'll admit, I had fun learning some things outside my comfort zone like driving the ATV and shooting a gun, but I belong in the chintz explosion of the Magnolia Tea Room where I used to work back home in Georgia.
I was more scared than I'd ever been in my life. Would it be better to just head back? We couldn't stay out here over night if there was real danger. Maybe I'd been naive. Chance and Tom and even Jim had told me there were dangerous creatures out here. I guess I hadn't taken it seriously until now. Tears were welling up behind my eyes blurring my vision. I fished a tissue out of my pocket and swiped at my eyes, but it didn't do much good. I tripped over a tree root, and Tom was quickly there to steady me.
He walked around to stand in front of me. Quietly, he said, "Everly, are you OK?"
"Not even a little," I said as the dam broke and tears streamed down my face. I dabbed at my eyes with the balled-up tissue in my hand.
Tom, put his gun in his pocket and reached out to pull me into a hug. I needed it, but this was crazy. "What are you doing?" I asked, stepping out his reach.
"You look like you need a hug."
"I do, but it's not safe. You need to focus out there, not on me," I said, making a sweeping motion with my arm.
I didn't know how to react to the grin that he was obviously trying unsuccessfully to contain. Tom took his handgun from his pocket and, holding it in one hand, he wrapped his arms around me. "It's OK, Everly. I haven't see any signs of anything dangerous. You’re just spooked."
Here I was, Everly Mason, standing in the forest on a mountain, wrapped up in hug by a man holding a gun. When did my life become a movie?
As I reined in my emotions, my thoughts returned to the idea that this was all a ploy by the guyumvirate to put me in my place. I wiggled free of Tom's arms, found another tissue to blow my nose, and stood back to face him with my hands fisted on my hips. "Tell me the truth. Is this some prank you cooked up with Chance and Jim?"
I'm glad I was looking at his face, because no matter what words he spoke, his face told me he would never have anything to do with something like that.
"Of course not. Everly, none of us would ever do anything to hurt you. It does seem that you bring out Chance's prickly side, but he would protect you with his life. We all would."
I could see that my accusation actually hurt him. I felt bad about that, but this was insane. "Let's just go back," I said. "I can't do this."
"Everly, if I thought for a minute we weren't safe, I'd be heading back right beside you, but we're fine. We're well armed, and I'm a good outdoorsman."
"Chance said he was a better hunter." Fudge, why did I blurt that out.
"He's right. But I promise you, I'm good enough to keep you safe out here. When you're ready, let's get going so we can get to the campsite before nightfall."
"We can't sleep out here."
"Course we can. You've spent a few nights in the woods now. We'll be fine. I promise you."
I could see that he was still scanning the woods around us, even as he assured me there was no real threat. I wasn't sure if that made me feel better or worse.
He put his gun in his pocket, but kept the rifle slung over his shoulder as he reached for my hand and pulled me back onto the trail. He stayed close as we kept walking.
After walking a few more hours, Tom stopped. "This is our trail," he said, pointing to a path I could only barely see.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. It's not far to our campsite."
I was glad to hear that, the forest here was thicker, and it was getting dark pretty quickly. I still wasn't convinced that spending the night out here was a good idea, but I was trying to defer to the experts—in this case, Tom. We found a small clearing and set up camp without much talking. "I'll be right back," I said, heading off to find a bush for bathroom cover.
"Do you want me to come along?"
I glared at him. "Hardly. I'm not going far."
"I've heard women talk in the ladies’ room, why don't you keep talking to me, that way I'll know you're OK."
"Good plan. Thanks." It was weird but talking to Tom did make me a little less nervous as I did what I needed to do and made my way back to camp.
While we ate MREs around the campfire, I realized that I never told Chance that I'd had the same feeling of someone watching us. "Tom, I don't know if this matters, but I felt like someone was watching Chance and me when we were out here before."
"What did Chance say about it?"
"I never got around to telling him. I was trying to decide if I was being paranoid or not, when I ran into Chance and things got out of control from there."
"It's probably nothing, but we'll be extra cautious. Are you feeling OK?"
"A little embarrassed maybe, but OK. Is there any way we can not tell Chance about my little melt down earlier?"
"Hum... we can probably work something out," he said. "I suppose you'd like to omit that from my report to Jim as well."
"I'd appreciate that."
"What's it worth do you?"
"You're blackmailing me?"
"I think we can come to terms that make it a win-win for both of us," Tom said.
"And I thought you were the nice one of the group."
"What group is that?"
"Uhm. Well. I call you three my Idaho guyumvirate—you, Chance, and Jim."
"I like that. Sounds like we have some power. For the record, I am the nice one. Am I correct in assuming all three of us might have a shot with you?"
"I'm just getting acquainted with all of you."
"Here's the deal, I won't mention your meltdown, if you promise me another date when we get back and... This is key. If you make up your mind to date Jim or Chance exclusively, you give me one last date before you commit."
"Complicated. Are you sure you're not the lawyer of the trio?"
"I'm real sure of that. So, do we have a deal?"
"We do," I said, sticking out my hand to shake on it. He pulled me into his lap and kissed me instead.