“The concierge said you do grocery runs,” Mr. Randal said with a slight frown at the checker board. His wife was smoking him.
“I do, and I would be happy to pick the groceries up and deliver them in the morning if you would like. The service will be charged to the card you reserved the cabin with.”
“Perfect,” Mrs. Randal said with a beaming smile. “That way we can hole up here and not have to go all the way to Bryson City tonight. There is a grocery list and your tip on the dining table.”
With a slight bow of her head, Lexi murmured, “Thanks so much. I’ll leave my number on the counter. Feel free to call at any time if you need to make a change to your grocery list, or your menu.”
She said her farewells, collected the list and her tip, then made her way outside where her Jeep was parked near the Randal’s rental car.
Lexi was dressed in her professional best, wearing her official chef outfit assigned to her by the owner of Smoky Mountain Paradise Cabins. Her Jeep, however, was a study in opposites. It sat on giant mud tires with black rims and had a rooster tail of dirt down both sides. She’d actually had to wipe grit off her lights last night just so they would illuminate better, but getting around to all these backroad cabins was muddy business in the spring.
Movement caught her eye in the woods, but when she jerked her attention to the trees, there was nothing there. Just gently swaying branches. As she stood there frozen, the hairs prickled on the back of her neck. She rubbed the gooseflesh there and hurriedly shoved all of her things into the back of her ride.
But when she turned around, the movement was back. She gasped. A massive white owl sat on a thick branch of a towering oak tree. The owl seemed abnormally large, and when it stretched out one of its wings, the long, perfect feathers were speckled with a chocolate brown. The sound of its long, curved talons against the bark sent shivers up her spine. The owl was beautiful, but didn’t seem natural out here in these woods.
In a rush, Lexi bolted around to the driver’s side and yanked open the door. When she was inside, she locked the doors, as if the bird could lift door handles or something. She knew her fear was irrational, but that didn’t change the adrenaline dump happening inside of her body right now.
Her hands shook as she jammed the key at the ignition, missed, and tried again with success. Blowing out a breath, she pulled around to the dirt road that led out of here and blasted past the tree with the mutant owl. When she looked up into the branches, its head was turning slowly, its eyes tracking her escape. So creepy.
Maybe she should call animal control. That thing was big enough to eat her dog, Sprinkles, in one gulp. The Randals hadn’t brought pets, but some of the other clients at the cabins had.
Okay, but there were black bears in the area, and a slew of other predators, and that was the risk clients took bringing their animals out into the woods. They even signed waivers that the cabin rental company wasn’t liable for any pet accidents. Would being eaten by an abnormally giant owl count as an accident?
After she put a few miles of distance between her and the bird, Lexi relaxed enough to turn up the radio to one of the only stations that came through out here. An upbeat country song came on, and she hummed along off-key. It helped to settle her.
The forest blurred by as she hit the main road that would take her home. Feeling a hundred times better, she sang louder, making up words where she didn’t remember them.
Up ahead, off to the side of the road, a man stood with his leg propped up on a log. He was shirtless, clad in only low slung jean shorts that were a dozen inches too short. As she slowed down, the man poured a plastic gallon jug of water over his bright red hair and rubbed the water all over his rippling abs in slow motion.
Her Wrangler rocked to a stop. Slowly, she rolled down the window. “Ryder?”
“Take a picture.”
“What?”
“Take a picture for your spank bank.”
He picked up another gallon of water and dumped it seductively over his chest.
“How many jugs of water do you have?”
“Just take the picture!”
“Okay.” She pulled her phone from the cup holder and lifted it slowly. Click. Well, if she ignored the fact that she could almost see the head of his pecker hanging from the short shorts, he did look good with all those muscles.
Ryder shook out his hair like a dog, then sauntered over to her jeep like he was on a fashion runway and threw open her passenger side door.
“No, wait!” she said, holding up her hands.
Ryder sat down with a squish and grinned at her, his eyebrow cocked. “How was that for you?”
“Where is your car?” she asked, looking around. The road was empty.
“I flew here.”
“You…flew?” Realization hit her in an instant, and she freaked out, kicked open her door, and bolted outside. “You’re that giant owl?”
Ryder held his hands out as though he was confused by her abrupt exit. He got out and leaned on the hood of her ride. With a naughty grin, he pointed to his dick and said, “Yeah. Giant owl. I thought about doing a naked scene for you, but then I thought maybe nah, my giant dong can be intimidating at first glance, and I think we should be friends before we get to the benefit part. I mean, I don’t really think that because I’m a dude and would be fine if you wanted to do benefits now, but I read a book about how you have to seduce women slowly, so…” He frowned. “What are you wearing? No matter.” He gestured to his lap. “You still gave me a boner.”