Light the Fire (Jackson's Hollow #1)

Chapter 12

He frowned but sat down, instantly dwarfing the chair. He was taller than Brett, she had noticed, by a few inches and Brett was probably six foot one or six foot two. She started working on the paperwork.

Beside her, he sniffed and settled into the chair, and she could feel him looking at her. The tips of her ears grew hot at his steady attention.

"Ryker..."

"It still hurts, doesn't it."

She blinked, a little surprised. "Yeah, but I just need something generic, like ibuprofen. I have that at the house." Her pen scurried across the paper as she completed the paperwork. "I do appreciate it, you know."

"No. What do I know?"

Did he have to be so deliberately obtuse? She tapped her pen on the paper. "Your concern. I appreciate it." Softening a smidge, she reached over and gave his hand a quick pat. "It's weird, but sort of sweet. In a weird way."

Ryker snorted. "I am not weird."

"I was trying to compliment you there," Jo said, shaking her head and laughing a little. The thing that was really weird was that partly because he was so serious, it made everything else seem funnier. Especially his reactions. She had a feeling it was going to be hard to resist taunting him in the future.

The future...she wondered if she would hang out with him much in the future. They did go to the same college, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.

Of course, carrying her halfway up a mountain could mean something.

Or not.

Jo didn't know, she wouldn't worry about it right now. Ignoring whatever Ryker mumbled in reply to her teasing, she focused on finishing up the paperwork instead. Ryker was apparently still watching her, because as soon as she moved to stick the pen through the clip at the top of the clipboard, Ryker was holding out his hand expectantly.

"I'll take it to the desk, it's not easy to manage carrying stuff with crutches," he said. Well, that was a logical argument, so Jo decided to nod and let him take it. But in the meantime, she started heading toward the door. Wonderful, her first official day of college was going to be on crutches. It was going to be fun navigating getting to her classes with this, but luckily only two of her classes were back-to-back on Wednesdays.

She supposed this also meant a delay in her plans to submit a job application to the coffee shop, but she didn't intend to stay on these crutches long. Only as much as was absolutely necessary, because crutches were just plain miserable. 20th century torture devices, in her opinion.

Before she could even awkwardly push at the door with one of her crutches, Ryker was already back from the desk and holding it open for her. This guy was apparently a wannabe Flash.

"Thanks," Jo said, heading outside. Spotting her SUV, she debated whether arguing with him about her ability to drive would be worth it. She had a feeling he would refuse to let her go on her own, and he still had her keys.

"I'll drive," Ryker said, looking at her as if daring her to say otherwise.

"That's what I figured," Jo said, deciding to go for feeling amused instead of angry. "But you will let me get into the car myself," she warned. She was prepared to fight on this one.

He hesitated, as if also debating whether he wanted to argue, and then nodded. Hey, compromise. This was progress.

When they got in, she looked at him curiously. "Where is your car parked at, anyway?" She didn't know where he'd started hiking from, only that he'd ended up near her land. Or on her land? She really needed to take a look at those boundary maps so she'd at least have a good defense if she ever ran into him on the trails again.

"Umm...my house?" Ryker said, as if that should have been obvious. Well, excuse her for being the new person in town.He could've lived on the other side of the mountain for all she knew.

"So you live near me?" she asked.

"Through the woods..."

Jo groaned. "Well that's helpful. It's not like everyone lives through the woods here."

Ryker chuckled. "Well, since half the town lives on the other side of Main Street., you could say half of them don't live through the woods."

"Oh geez, thanks for narrowing that down for me."

"Why's it matter where I live, anyway?" Ryker asked. He spared her a quick glance before turning his eyes back to the road, but she caught the smirk on his face. "Hoping to visit me?"

"Did you want me to visit?" she retorted with a laugh, shifting to look out the window. Of course he wouldn't want her to come over. "No, I was just thinking, maybe you should drive to your house and then I can drive home from there. Seems silly for you to take me home and then spend a couple hours or whatever walking home."

"It won't take that long."

Okay, so where exactly did he live? She was going to have to study her property maps and maybe take a look at Google Maps to see how far the town went. Would that make her the stalker? No, she was...wanted to know...oh man, now she was the weird one.

Ryker drove her home, turning on the radio as she focused on the scenery passing by. Old school rock music seemed to be his channel of choice, and she recognized Led Zeppelin and AC/DC, though some of the others were beyond her.

Once they got to her house, she awkwardly maneuvered her crutches and got out of the car. They stood in front of the car, and Jo didn't know if she should invite him in or--

"Look, I...you're supposed to stay off that foot, right?" Ryker asked.

"I thought your brother was the doctor, not you," she attempted to tease again. This time she got the quickest flash of a smile.

"Yeah, but I know a thing or two," he said, "So your house isn't too far out of the way. I could pick you up for school, if that works for you."

"Do our schedules match like that?" she asked, "And you really don't have to. I'm supposed to rest it, not stay off of it forever." Actually she was only planning to use the crutches for a few days before returning them to the clinic. He could yell at her, but she wasn't planning to hobble around for too long.

"I have morning classes," he said with a shrug. "Do you?"

"A couple," she said. She bit her lip, considering it. It wasn't the worst idea. "I don't like imposing."

"I'm asking you to let me do this." Ryker said. He stuck his hands in his pockets. "We can split the gas cost, if you're worried about it."

"Actually, that would make me feel better," she said. Then it would feel less like charity and more like a temporary car pool. And it would be temporary. This wasn't going to be some kind of permanent arrangement. "Yeah, okay. What time are you going to get here?"

"Is seven thirty okay?"

Hmm, yeah, she could manage that. She nodded. "Okay." She started to take a step toward the house and then hesitated. "Do you want my number? Just in case you're running late?"

Ryker stared. "Yeah. Yes."

"Only if you're late. Or something happens." Jo wanted to clarify, feeling like this was the kind of thing that happened to him all the time. She rattled off her number and then lifted a crutch to point at him. "I'm not hitting on you."

A short laugh burst out of him. "I didn't think you were."

"Good..."

"I'll see you in the morning, Jo." He smirked and headed toward the forest, looking far too amused for her liking.