“You guys are hilarious,” her friend muttered.
“I’m Tori,” the brunette said. “And this is Hailey. We’ve gotten separated from our group and, at the rate we’re going, I’m not sure we’ll ever catch up.”
Progress, finally. “Which outfit are you with?”
“Dagneau Adventure Tours.”
Keeping a straight face was one of the hardest things he’d ever done. Those boys had moments of competence, but they’d inherited the business from their father and were in it solely to thumb their noses at nine-to-five jobs. He thought they were idiots, personally. “Did you research Dagneau Adventure Tours before you signed up?”
“They had a great website,” Hailey said.
Tori nodded. “And they offered the specific package we were looking for.”
“What package was that?”
He watched Hailey try to jam her friend’s ribs with her elbow, but Tori easily evaded it. “We wanted an adventure geared toward celebrating being single. Like, no couples stuff.”
So the pretty blonde was single. Not that it mattered, but it was a tidbit of information his brain seemed to want to file away, just in case.
“In the future, you should get referrals and ask for references,” he said. “You shouldn’t take the company’s word for it when it comes to your safety. Especially when it comes to the outdoors. Nature’s pretty, but can be a real bitch at times.”
“Thank you, Jeremiah Johnson,” Hailey muttered, and when she blushed under his hard look, he assumed she hadn’t meant for him to hear it.
“Tell me what the itinerary was, starting with where you parked,” he said to Tori, choosing to ignore the implication he was some kind of hermit backwoodsman.
Once she’d laid out the plan for the day, Matt was faced with another decision. It was really six of one, half dozen of another as to whether it made more sense to help them find their group or take them out of the woods. But Hailey looked as if she’d had enough adventure for the day and, even though she didn’t seem to like him very much, it went against his nature to see a woman miserable and not try to make it better.
“I think it’s closer to head back to your car than to try to meet up with your group. Especially since your car won’t be moving away from us while we’re trying to catch it.”
Tori waved her hand. “Lead on, then.”
Hailey hesitated. “It seems wrong to just leave. What if they come back to look for us?”
“They deserve it,” Tori said. “For leaving us.”
“Maybe the idiots in charge do, but not the rest of the women.”
Matt sighed. Leave it to the Dagneau boys to come up with a way to get a bunch of single women into the woods. He made a mental note to have a closer look at their business and maybe rustle through their paperwork as he pulled his satellite phone out of the holster on his hip.
“Your phone works out here?”
“It’s a satellite phone.” It was a personal phone, in addition to the work cell phone he’d been issued. “My family spends a lot of time up here and I don’t like being cut off from the world.”
He started walking as he called into dispatch and asked them to relay to the Dagneau brothers that two of their guests had been lost and found. When he was done, he put the phone away and then looked over his shoulder to see how the women were faring.
They were still where he’d left them, and he was already too far away to make out their expressions. He held up his hands in a what are you waiting for motion and then had to wait while they caught up.
“We weren’t sure if you wanted privacy for your phone call,” Hailey explained. “Sorry.”
He hadn’t missed her wincing as she approached, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. He certainly wasn’t carrying her back to her car and he couldn’t get his truck close enough to where they were to make a difference. By ATV he could, but it would take longer to go get it, get back and make individual trips with the women than it was worth. She’d have to suck it up.
“Let’s go, ladies.” He set off down the path, keeping a slightly slower than moderate pace and pointing out rocks and roots in the path.
HAILEY WAS NEVER going on an adventure again. Okay, maybe not never, but it would be a while and next time it wouldn’t involve hiking boots or bug repellant.
Only by sheer force of will did she bite back the complaints about her feet hurting. And the bug bites. And the fact she was starving. For reasons she couldn’t even begin to explain, she didn’t want their flannel-clad hero to think any less of her than he already did.
But she didn’t do a very good job of killing the sigh of relief when Matt stopped and gestured toward a fallen log. “Sit a few minutes. Have a drink. You do have water, right?”
Nodding, Tori pulled a bottle from the small backpack she was wearing and offered it to Hailey. They sat side-by-side on the log and shared the water bottle back and forth, and she arched an eyebrow when Matt pulled a flask out of his back pocket. If the guy was drinking, maybe they shouldn’t be following him around the woods.
“Just water,” he said, amusement evident in the set of his mouth. “I promise.”
Hailey groaned as tiny bugs seemed to realize she’d stopped moving and invited hundreds of their closest friends to the party. She tried waving them away, but she knew it was futile. “The blackflies aren’t supposed to be bad yet.”
“You can blame the winter we had.”
Hailey wasn’t sure what winter had to do with getting the blackflies riled up earlier than usual, and she suspected if she asked, she’d get a long and boring science lesson. Instead, she pushed herself up and then hauled Tori to her feet. “Let’s keep moving.”
At least the view wasn’t bad while they were walking, Hailey had to admit to herself. Matt Barnett might be way too scruffy from the neck up, but his lower eighty percent was a treat. Tall and nicely built without being bulky, he had the kind of broad shoulders she found attractive in a man.
The flannel shirt he was wearing over what looked like a T-shirt didn’t allow her to see his torso, but she’d bet it was as nicely firm as his legs. And his ass. Sometimes the shirt would lift and she could make out the bulges in his back pockets. One she now knew was his water flask and she assumed the other was his wallet. He was wearing things on his belt, too. She could make out shapes under the shirt, but not enough to tell what they were. One was presumably a holster for his satellite phone. What he had on the other hip, she couldn’t guess. Probably some kind of super Boy Scout rescue kit.
“I recognize that pile of rocks,” Tori said after a while. “We’re almost back to the parking lot.”
As much as watching Matt walk didn’t suck, Hailey was glad to hear it. “I’m going to soak in a hot bubble bath for an hour. I can’t believe we’re missing movie night for this.”
Tori shook her head. “We talked about this. We’re sick of watching movies about women who are only happy in the end if they’ve found a man who loves them. We’re out in the woods, embracing being strong, fun, single women. Or we were supposed to be, anyway.”
If only there was buffalo chicken dip in the woods. “How did we come to the conclusion going on an adventure tour in the wilderness was the best way to embrace being single women?”
“It made sense after the second glass of wine.”
“Wouldn’t watching whatever movie we wanted illustrate a happy single woman more than walking in the woods?”
“Maybe it was the third glass.” Tori leaned closer, dropping her voice to just above a whisper. “He’s kind of hot, and he looks at you a lot. You should ask him out.”
“He looks at us both a lot since, you know, we’re the only two other people here and it would be weird to look at trees while he’s talking to us. Besides, the whole Grizzly Adams thing he has going on does nothing for me.”
“Who’s Grizzly Adams?”
Hailey shook her head. “Further evidence you’re too young to be my friend.”
“Hey, you picked me. And speaking of, who’s Jeremiah Johnson?”
“For crap’s sake, Tori. Really? They’re from TV and movies. Famous scruffy mountain men hermit types.”
“I don’t think Matt’s a hermit. He has a satellite phone.”
That might impress Tori, but Hailey wasn’t looking for a guy who spent enough time in the middle of nowhere to need a satellite phone. She wanted a man who wore suits and didn’t roll his eyes at the thought of museums or operas. He’d have the kind of job that brought not only big paychecks, but benefits and Christmas parties Hailey could dress up for.
That guy wasn’t in Whitford, or if he was, he was hiding from Hailey. She’d joked a few times about moving to the city to find her Prince Charming, but she couldn’t bring herself to actually do it. She loved her job and her house. And the people of Whitford. She loved her life.
She just wanted somebody to share it with and, no matter how good Matt looked from the back, he had no chance of being that guy.
Hailey almost cried when they broke out of the tree line and she saw Tori’s car in the parking lot. Padded seats, climate control and no blackflies.