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Dammit She drew as deep a breath as she could and rode She rode betweensed up by a green co throw Above her, the sky was a rare brilliant blue, streaked with a fehite, puffy clouds About fifteen miles out of Lucky Harbor, on a narroo-lane road that she wasn’t exactly sure of the nae, and then another for sos fro about every square inch of the entire county Years ago, beavers had created aforest and inadvertently flooded it Early settlers had then discovered it and coued, Chloe turned off the highway, riding through a canyon lush with giant moss-draped trees A , in front of the trailhead to the s She pulled out her phone to text her sisters that she was alive, but she couldn’t send it because she had no cell service

This didn’t stop her It was a fairly easy cli Not anxious to have an asthma attack out here all alone, she didn’t push herself The trail et,as she walked, which helped The trail branched off several ti to the right so that she wouldn’t get lost going back, Chloe took it all in The as lined ildflowers and offered up spectacular views of the peaks towering over her Awe-inspiring, and very effective at clearing her head

Twenty minutes in, the forest suddenly opened up, and she stood in the small meadow Lucille had told her about, filled with pockets of the pro effects right about now, she thought, slipping out of her shoes and socks And hey, this was research If the ood stuff, well, then she owed it to her clients to check it out before incorporating it into a product Stepping to the edge, she dipped a toe into thea careful look around, she realized just how alone she was "Crazy," she said out loud "This is crazy" But she had to ad, well past her butt so she stripped out of her jeans and told herself she was still decent if anyone happened upon her Then she stepped into the mud up to her shins, and it oozed between her toes, toasty and oddly cohed in pleasure The tes was so incredibly soothing that she went out even hs now

All around her, the woods pulsed with life Birds, insects, leaves dancing on the light breeze, and she felt…alive If only she could bottle this feeling, with the sun on her face, the forbidden sense of being outside in her shirt and panties, with theher skin in a way she hadn’t expected, she’d be a millionaire

She bet her sisters would take notice then…

She wished she was better prepared, because she would’ve liked to strip down even ood soak But she didn’t have a towel or water to wash off with afterward, so she turned back to shore and…

Her foot slipped

Chloe did a perfect i for purchase on linoleuood A second later, she was on her butt She gasped but didn’t bother to scramble up It was too late now; she was in up to her belly button Never one to waste an opportunity, she took another look around, then carefully pulled off her half-muddy shirt and tossed it to the shore to join her jeans Relaxing, she soaked in her bra and panties beneath the wide-open sky

As the ic, she finally admitted to herself that what she’d felt earlier was er She’d honestly tried to fit in, to pick up the slack around the B&B And just because herinto business with her sisters had forced her life into a one-eighty, it didn’t nore her other responsibilities Dammit, she’d been serious about the skincare line she’d been working on, and her client list hadn’t been developed overnight Didn’t that alone prove she’d grown up some?

But with some distance--and warm mud--she could admit to herself that she understood her sisters’ concern Renovating the sunrooht, Chloe’s track record was spotty But there had to be a compromise She could promise to commit to a certain number of days a here she’d stay in town, for instance And they could proh, she rose and walked out of the , she stripped out of her bra and panties, rubbed the excess mud off the best she could, and put her clothes on

Coingerly back down the trail, telling herself she wastheHell, she’d probably look like a ot to her Vespa, she’d talked herself into believing it Hard to do when she felt like she’d been wrapped in concrete, but she ed

That’s when she discovered problem number two Her Vespa wouldn’t start Okay, this was more than a minor setback With no cell service, she had little choice She walked down the road to the highway Unfortunately, by the ti walks had tightened her chest uncomfortably Her inhaler helped with that, but she still didn’t have cell service She was going to have to flag so

So rown-up

In less than five minutes, a shiny black truck pulled off to the side of the road Todd’s baby

"Hey, cutie," Todd said with his good-old-boy ser door He wore a Mariner’s cap on backward, a ratty T-shirt, equally ratty jeans, and steel-toed boots, none of which took away froh build A roofer by trade when he chose to work, he was clearly on his way to or from a job "Problem?" he asked

He didn’t blink at theat her limbs Nope, that honor went to her braless breasts, now outlined with extra-special clarity thanks to thelike an adhesive "My Vespa’s battery is dead," Chloe said "And I don’t have cell service"

"No one does right here" He didn’t say a word about the fact that her Vespa was nowhere in sight "You knohat this rinned, and she sighed One hundred thousand sperm and he’d been the fastest

"Come on," he said "That was funny"

"Why are you out here?"

He shrugged "On my way home fro, and he stared out his windshield "Sometimes I like to be alone, to hear et high But he didn’t look buzzed

"You getting in?" he asked "Us outcasts need to stick together"

"Outcasts?" She shook her head "You’re not an outcast"

"Misfits, then" So came and went in his eyes when he said this, but she couldn’t read hi Because she did know Exactly

He had a duffle bag on the passenger seat, which he took and stuffed behind theer seat

He was Jamie’s brother And Jamie was Tucker’s friend, and Tucker was Lance’s brother--but six degrees fro so daetting even colder Saould hate this, but she couldn’t help the extenuating circuotta be"

Guilt didn’t begin to cover how she felt about getting into his truck, but she did it anyway She glanced over her shoulder and saw his open duffle bag

She thought she caught sight of ziplock baggies stuffed with--

Todd reached back and shoved the duffle bag farther down so she couldn’t see into it "You’re going to oweback onto the highway, flashing her a grin "Big"

She straightened and looked at hih look, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to ask him while they were out in the otten a good enough look to accuse hias"

"Not the kind of payrinned again Ignoring hi out theClouds sifted through the trees like wood sroas extravagantly thick with spruce and he her lungs liked but made her even ht "Pull over"

"Yeah, baby," Todd said, and braked

"Not for that! Lucille has a flat"