Wild Within (Wild at Heart #1) Read Online Free PDF Page B

apology. “I tried to get out of your way, but you stepped right into me.”
    Lone Star wiped his hand in front of his face, as if trying to clean away cobwebs. “Completely my fault, little missy. My mind was busy as a one-armed paper hanger. Just didn’t see you.”
    He turned to face a group of four girls, all wearing maroon ‘ Julian High School Volleyball’ shirts.
    Lone Star pointed. “Where’s Julian?”
    One girl turned to show him her backpack, embroidered with multiple renditions of pie crusts and fillings. “You’ve never heard of Julian apple pie? You can’t be from California.”
    “Do I sound like I’m from California, darlin’?” Lone Star chuckled. “What’s the famous Julian apple pie volleyball team doing out here in the Mojave? Playing catch with armadillos?”
    The girls nudged each other. The one who’d spoken first stepped forward a little. “I’m Amber. This is Emily, Brianna, and Taylor. Emily’s captain of the varsity team. It was her idea to come out here.”
    Emily shook her head quickly. “ Was captain.”
    “So it’s a graduation trip for you gals?”
    “Sort of.” Emily glanced at her teammates. “My girl scout troop did a day-hike on the PCT a few years ago. It was awesome. I always wanted to come back, but my parents never thought it was a good idea.”
    “She talked it up a lot .” Amber widened her eyes and spread her hands far apart.
    Lone Star nodded. “Does it live up to expectations?”
    All four girls chimed in at once. Lone Star made out “awesome,” “sweet,” “seriously scary,” and “best three days of my life.”
    Amber looked up at him. “Why are you out here?”
    “I’m a thru.”
    Open mouths greeted his announcement. Lone Star suppressed a chuckle with a well-timed cough.
    “A thru.” The complete silence of her friends accentuated Amber’s whisper. “Awesome. We were saying this whole time we wanted to meet one.”
    “Now don’t go making my head swell. I haven’t reached Canada yet.”
    “But you’re going to try.” The amazement in Brianna’s voice brought a light blush to Lone Star’s cheeks.
    “Talk to me in a few months, bonita chica .”
    In unison, the girls flung off their backpacks and scrabbled inside. One by one they held up their cell phones.
    “You want my…” Lone Star paused.
    “Facebook page.”
    “Instagram username.”
    “Twitter handle.”
    “Pinterest account.”
    As the words tumbled out of their mouths, Lone Star wrinkled his mouth and squinted with one eye. “I hate disappointing you all. Work email’s the best I can do. And I won’t be checking that for months.”
    The girls’ faces fell.
    “That’s okay.” Amber punched her phone a few times and handed it to him. “Put your contact information in here.”
    Lone Star took the phone with both hands and typed slowly, hitting the delete key almost as often as he hit the letters.
    Amber glanced at what he’d written before her fingers flew over the display. “Mr. Hogan, from El Paso. I’ll put a note in my calendar to email you in August, okay?”
    “That’ll inspire me.”
    Amber glanced again at her phone. “Our parents are going to meet us at Lake Morena in a few hours. We’ve got to get going, Mr. Hogan. It was awesome meeting you.” She held out her hand and shook Lone Star’s with enthusiasm.
    “Wait. Group photo.”
    After Brianna squeezed them all together for a selfie, the girls jogged down the trail, turning back periodically to wave at Lone Star.
    When they had shrunk to images the size of his hand, he turned back to the trail and marched forward with firm steps. “Well, now, wasn’t that all sweetness and light? Nothing like a little youthful enthusiasm to put the spring back in my step.”
    That evening, an unfamiliar sound brought him out of his tent a final time into the chilly semi-darkness of a full moon. He shone his headlamp around the perimeter of his campsite, looking and listening.
    Someone’s running.
    An