Ellie's boyfriend kissed her goodnight and disappeared without a trace, never to be seen again... until now.
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A week before their high school graduation, Austin and Ellie parted ways with a goodnight kiss, thinking they'd be seeing each...
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Ellie had sighed softly when I got out of bed, but she hadn't woken up. It was too early for a normal person to get up, and for a hot second, I'd considered saying forget it, and crawled back under the covers next to her. She was warm, soft and mine, and nothing was better than sleeping with her in my arms. But I couldn't. I had plans to meet up with Ellie's brother-in-law and a few of his friends to go hunting.
Hog hunting.
It really wasn't my thing, but I'd agree to go because I appreciated the invite.
Brian was a good guy. Me and him had played a few rounds of golf since I moved back to Georgia. I wasn't very good at it since it had been several years since I played. So I spent a lot of time searching for the ball instead of actually hitting it, but we got along well and had a good time. We laughed through most of it and ended the day with a couple of beers at the clubhouse.
As much as I liked Brian, I wasn't so sure about his partner, Spero. And I wondered whether the rest of their friends would be like him.
But it was whatever. I wasn't going there to hang out with Spero. And even if the rest of their friends were obnoxious and rude, it was only one night. I could handle that. I'd definitely been through worse.
The drive from Willow to the rented cabin was about two hours, but there wasn't much traffic in the early morning, so it was an easy ride. I arrived at the remote location as the sun was rising above the mountain tops.
The area reminded me of our Maine cabin. It had the same peaceful atmosphere. Only a few houses, dirt and gravel driveways, and trees as far as you could see. It made me miss the only place we'd ever owned.
The two parking spaces in front of the cabin were occupied, but Brian had told me there was additional parking down the street, near the entrance to an old campsite.
That location was easy to find, since there wasn't much else around. And just like Brian had said, there was plenty of parking. I pulled into the lot; the gravel crunching beneath the tires. There were no designated parking spaces, but there were only two cars parked in the entire lot, and I recognized one of them as Brian's. I drove up and parked next to his.
There were no people around. Only the birds were chirping as I stepped out of the car and stretched. Other than that, it was quiet and calm. I took a deep breath of clean mountain air and longed for my own cabin. Me and my brother had only been back there once since we left it to move to Kansas. Ironically, it was only to pick up the stuff we had to leave behind when we moved to Kansas, just to bring it down to Georgia.
There was a dense layer of morning fog between the mountain tops and, despite the cooler morning air, I could tell it was going to be a hot day.
I changed into my sneakers and sent a quick text to Brian, telling him I'd arrived and was ready to go. He responded immediately, saying they'd be right down.
