Chapter 8

After all the taunting about her being a hiker, Jo found the trails behind the house calling to her. It was such a nice day, and she hated to be cooped up inside while the sun was still out. The trails were on her property anyway, so as long as she didn't go too far, she wouldn't be trespassing anywhere...and with the way Ryker was such a rule-follower, there was no way she'd run into him on her property.

Of course, where the property line was, she wasn't exactly sure, but she did know it included a good chunk of the woods.

Yep, it was decided. She left the bags of school supplies and books in the entryway, traded out her shoes for studier boots, grabbed a water bottle, and then set off for her afternoon jaunt.

It was late summer, and it was still hot out and almost muggy under the pines and scattered evergreens of the Appalachian mountains. It was like walking through a greenhouse, and Jo was glad that she had filled her water bottle with cool water and a couple ice cubes. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, casting shadows and dappling the forest floor.

Out here it felt like she could breathe, relax, be herself for a few minutes. True, she had grown up in a city, but she preferred the countryside, especially now. There were too many people all crammed together back home, tight and jammed together, vacuum-sealed by a smattering of skyscrapers and social clout. The woods, one the other hand, were quiet and lonely.

The path she had taken was overgrown and in need of some care. She was going to have to check the shed to see if there were any hedge trimmers she could use and maybe a weedeater. Occasionally she would have to dodge a spider web. Hopefully the more she used the trails, the less spiders would be likely to make their home there.

Picking up a stick, she swirled it around through a particularly large web that stretched from one pine to a beech tree on the other side of the path. The spider was nowhere to be seen, so she cautiously made her way past the remnants, wondering if the disturbed weaver was about to jump on her from above.

Nothing happened, so she took a deep breath and moved on, studying the woods curiously--you could still see the remnants of the fire that had happened a few generations ago in some of the fallen, blackened wood peeping out from the underbrush. Her grandmother had always liked to tell the story of how it had just missed their house, somehow sweeping right by it before getting controlled soon after. Her parents had used the story of the fire to try to teach some kind of life lesson to her as a kid about new life springing up from bad things. Jo smiled a little, pressing her hand against a tree briefly. It was nice to know fire wasn't always the destroyer.

Jo was a good 15-20 minutes into her walk now, but she knew there was a creek somewhere up ahead that she wanted to use as her turn around point. Again, she wasn't entirely sure if it was on the property, but she'd been with her grandparents a few times as a kid so she figured whoever owned it, if not the Scotts, were at least friends to the Scotts.

Maybe it was just the spider web still creeping her out, but she kept feeling like something else was there. If it was actually scientifically possible, she'd say the hairs on the back of her neck were standing up. Or was that possible? It'd never made much sense to Jo, but that was all she had to describe the feeling right now. But every time she looked, all she saw was a small squirrel leaping from tree to tree, or a bird flitting to another branch. Jo groaned out loud. "Stupid park ranger wannabe," she muttered, thwacking the stick she was still holding against a sapling tree.

Sorry, baby tree.

Really though, Ryker and Charlie and their warnings about the wildlife and hiking and staying on trails...it was like they were actively trying to scare her. But Charlie had said that the more dangerous wildlife was mostly toward Mt. Mitchell. So she had nothing to worry about. She straightened her shoulders, determined to enjoy her walk.

Unfortunately, she very determinedly missed the tree root that decided it wanted her shoe more than she did. Jo managed to catch herself on one of the trees growing close to the path before she completely face planted, but her ankle still twinged for a moment as her foot landed at a funny angle.

Jo hissed in pain and frustration, then gingerly used the tree to pull herself back up to a standing position, as she eyed the hill she'd just casually strolled down. Please let her ankle be okay. Because if it wasn't, that was going to be a very long walk back to the house.

"And you wonder why I don't like hikers," a warm baritone voice came from farther down the trail, although teasing--no, taunting, might have been a better descriptor than warm. Jo closed her eyes for a moment. Crap.

"Look, if I'm on your property, I didn't mean to be," she said, adjusting her weight so that it was off her injured right ankle. It felt a little better like that, and she attempted to mask any pain in her expression with calm yet mild annoyance. "I'm still figuring out the property line."

Ryker appeared, coming along the trail from the other direction, his long stride eating up the leaf-strewn path. He carried nothing with him, so Jo guessed he wasn't out for one of those hated hikes himself. "So you're lost. That's exactly my problem with hikers."

"No, I'm exploring," Jo retorted, "I'm guessing you don't have a sense of adventure."

"I have a sense of respect for people's territory." He stopped suddenly on the path a good distance away from her and crossed his arms over his chest, frowning. Those stormy hazel eyes of his narrowed at her, and he tensed up. "What's wrong with you?"

Jo straightened up and glared back at him. "Look, I get you have a problem with people being in the woods and everything, for who knows what reason since it's the mountains, but you don't have to be this rude about it."

"No, that's not--" He charged toward her, and Jo held up one hand, thinking she might need to fend him off. Honestly, he was making such a big damn deal about potential trespassing, it was ridiculous.

"Hey, hey, that's close enough." Her back hit the tree again as he loomed over her, his gaze searching over her, piercing and oddly concerned.

"You're hurt," he said, aggravation and worry competing in his voice.

"What?" He hadn't seen that, had he? She hadn't seen him, in any case, and he had been off down the path, right? Maybe she hadn't hidden her feelings as well as she had hoped. "It's nothing."

Ryker scowled. "No, it's not," he growled, and her eyebrows lifted as a thrill of fear ran through her. He was getting worked up, and she had no idea why. Alone in the middle of the woods except for an emotionally unstable guy who flip-flopped between being irritated with her, being angry around her, and sometimes being nice.

Jo drew her shoulders back. "Look, you, I'll be the judge of that. Now if you'll just go on--" She motioned toward the trail in the direction he had been heading. "I'll go on my way too, and we can mark this down as one of those unfortunate hiking incidents."

"I..." Ryker leaned back as if suddenly realizing he was too close. Shoving a hand through his brown hair, he looked away then back at her. "Can you just tell me what happened?"

"I'm not sure how it's any of your business."

Ryker's eyes flashed, and for a split second, Jo could've sworn they were golden. But that was probably just because they were hazel; hazel eyes could look yellowish sometimes, in the right light. "I guess it's not. But. I want to help, and I can't help if you won't cooperate."

"Maybe I'd be more cooperative if you stopped acting like you might hit me if I don't tell you," Jo snapped back.

Ryker jerked his head back. "I would never hit you."

"How am I supposed to know that?" Jo said, "We just met yesterday."

There went the flashing eyes again. His eyes really sparked when he was angry, which distracted Jo for a moment. No, she needed to focus. She was angry too. But then Ryker surprised her by taking a deep breath, obviously trying to calm himself down.

"You're right," he said, looking at her. "You don't know me or really anyone else in this town that well, because if you knew anyone, I'd tell you to ask them if you could trust me." He crossed his arms. Was he purposely trying to distract her? It was unfair how that movement only seemed to highlight his biceps and the way they stretched against his burgundy t-shirt. "So I guess you'll have to take my word for it."

Jo snorted. She was raised in a city, not a small town like him. You didn't just give away trust where she came from, even if the person asking for your trust had deceptively beautiful hazel eyes.

Seeing the impasse they were at, Ryker leaned against his own tree, stuffing his hands in his jean pockets as a smirk played around his lips.

"What?" Jo asked suspiciously, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Ryker shrugged and glanced up at the tree tops, as if admiring the way the dappled sunlight filtered through. "I decided I'm going to take a quick break right here. You're right, you go on ahead with your hike."

And now her stomach was twisting. He knew exactly what her injury was, he had to. She didn't know how she'd given it away, but there was no way she could walk away from here without limping, not with the way her ankle was throbbing. Jo debated her options. Pretend she needed a break too and see if she could wait him out? Try to take the pain and walk away long enough for him to give up and continue on down the trail? This was so frustrating! Why in the world was he so determined to help anyway?

His smirk was only growing, much to her irritation. She decided better to lose her dignity now rather than draw out the inevitable. "Fine, you caught me," she said, glaring at him. "I tripped and my ankle is a bit sore. Happy?" She made a shooing motion with her hand. "Now you can be on your way."

Ryker gave her a disappointed look. "Of course I'm not happy you're injured," he said, shaking his head. Jo felt a flash of guilt at assuming the worst of him but quickly stifled it. He was the one who'd made it clear how he felt about hikers. If he said one thing about karma...Ryker pushed away from the tree and came toward her again, this time at least at a less intimidating pace. Jo's heartbeat still sped up anyway. "We need to get you to the clinic to get that checked out."

Jo frowned. She hadn't pegged him for the melodramatic type when they first met. "I think ice will do just fine, I have some at the house."

Ryker leaned to the left, raising an eyebrow as he peered behind her, then looked back at her with amusement. Jo turned enough to see what he was looking at, and found herself staring straight at the steep incline behind her. Oh crap, that's right--she'd mostly been walking downhill on the way here.

Which meant getting back to the house would mostly be uphill. With a twisted ankle.

Awesome.