Sheep's Clothing by Gary Lewis (free ebook reader for pc txt) 📕

dash gave her a startle as she looked back to the trail from which they fled. "Get inside!" Terry's distracting voice pressed her focus while she stared deep into the surrounding forest. All was perfectly still along the edges where sunlight brightly burned against the vivid, leafy splotches of green, brown and gray. The dark gaps between trees offered doorways into a world unseen beyond the first several feet.

"Hurry!" Terry's voice blasted from inside the car.

"Shut up for a minute," she shouted into the half open door, still clasped in her hand. "You're the one who wants to spend the night out here." She slowly eased into the driver seat, fixated on every branch for a hint of movement. "Probably just scared a deer or something anyway," she said as she started her engine.

"Right," Terry said, still huffing as he shook his head up and down. "A deer."

#David#

The midday sun met the top of the sky as David drove toward fate, passing one road after another, leaving them all in the past with the breeze that flowed through his face. He pulled into Janice's driveway slowly with a gracefulness that would impress any driving instructor. "Well, Jan. You said wait in the driveway so I don't wake your mom," he said as he gazed through the windshield, across the fields behind her house. A light wind blew when her front door opened and Janice stepped out in a shimmering red dress. Her elegant clothes shifted along her hips and breasts as she strolled down the steps.

David's heart beat harder as she opened the passenger door to sit down.

"What?" she asked David with a smile.

Realizing that he must have been staring a little harder than he thought, he quickly reached for a response, but his trove of witty remarks seemed empty. David opened his mouth and went with the first thing that came out. "You won't have to pinch me," he said.

"Oh," Janice said with a big smile. "Why is that?"

"Because I know there's no way I could dream up anything like this."

"Aww..." Janice's smile began to glow brighter by the second as she leaned closer to David. "I might not pinch you, but..." She let out a quiet giggle.

"The Sunset then?" David said as he propped his arm over her shoulder.

"Sounds great. But you should really apologize to Sam for yesterday." Though still smiling, Janice's tone turned to a playful scold.

David laughed. "You're right. Small price to pay for a dinner date with the most beautiful girl in Pine Bluff."

Just as he stepped onto the brake to shift into reverse, his pocket vibrated. Obviously not Jan. He began to back out of her driveway, attempting to give no further thought to it. Then the loud sound of a chime rang from hers and she slid her finger up the screen while David pulled out onto the road.

"It's Sarah," Janice said. "She says her and Terry ran into it by the Big Rock Trail."

David shook his head and sighed. Of course something would have to try to ruin the most perfect day of my life. He turned his face to her. "It?" As if I even have to ask. Janice just looked back at him for a few seconds as he drove closer to the end of the road. "Jan, I just want all this to be over." His fingers gripped the steering wheel tightly as they sat at the end of her road. "I'm ready to put the monster hunting crap behind us."

"I know, David. Me too," Janice said. "But she'll know I left it on read. Maybe we could just see if they're okay first?"

David let out a long and drawn out "I guess," as he pulled out his phone to reply. "On my way." He took a right to drive in the opposite direction of the diner. "We'll take the back way, past the chicken houses. It's shorter."

Janice took control of the radio as David cruised up the highway, taking a left to pass through the neighborhood where he and Tony had grown up. Her music selection was perfect and as the setting seemed to flow with the romantically slow song, he wondered if anything could possibly go wrong with her at his side.

They got closer to the chicken houses and run down, rusted trailers came into view. He had forgotten that Vance's trailer park was close to the chicken houses, not far from the back way to the trails. David hoped that it wouldn't ruin the mood as he caressed Janice's shoulder with his right hand, handling the wheel with his left.

Finally, they passed the chicken houses and David turned onto the old gravel logging road. It snaked and curved through forested hills, eventually bringing them out near the gas station where he saw Sarah's car parked less than a mile from the trail. He slowed to honk twice, waiting for her car to begin moving before he sped on toward the trailhead.

Having put some distance between them and Sarah, he slowed down before coming to a slow roll into the empty parking at the Big Rock trailhead. David and Janice stepped out onto the circular gravel clearing in the woods and he watched her gracefully walk over to him with the forest behind her.

"This would make a wonderful portrait," David said with a light laugh, outlining a square with his fingers. "If only the best photographer in Pine Bluff could take it, because it's her."

Janice quietly smiled, but the blush that filled her cheeks as she looked up into his eyes told him all that he needed to know. He could feel her inching into his space. Their faces became closer as their fingertips started tiptoeing together and David became lost within her shining green eyes. Once again, time stopped and he no longer existed. There was only them. A heavy warmth spread through his arms. If she feels the same… Her eyes gazed back as bright as her smile. …Nothing can come between what we have.

The sound of crushing gravel became louder by the