On The Scene: Eligible Bachelors by Barb Shuler

Author:Barb Shuler [Shuler, Barb]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

Veronica

Three Hours Earlier

“Girls, come on, keep up. We’re almost back to the campsite.”

Smiling, I turned to see them each wrapped in a towel, their packs flopping against their backs as they ran to catch up. We’d been down at the river for the last few hours. I’d gotten lucky and found an area that dipped inland just enough to give them a small beach area they could play in while I fished a few dozen feet from where they were.

It made us all feel better that they’d gotten to do something they’d asked to do on the trip.

The gaggle of fish in hand would provide us with a good, hearty dinner tonight. Then later, we would go for a little hike to a small crop of brush where I was sure we could watch the birds. The girls loved doing that at dusk. If we were lucky, and we would be, we’d get to see a few bats as well. And possibly some of the small woodland animals that are nocturnal.

I didn’t mind spending the quiet time with them at dusk. It’s different being out here, away from the distractions of everyday life—work, especially. Being off the clock, able to explore and give my time to the girls was priceless.

And, like with this afternoon, who doesn’t love fishing? Even if I don’t catch a single fish, it’s been a good time. Being one with nature—it’s good for the soul.

We had a few days left on this trip to do more exploring and learning—all while having fun. I’d pack us up tomorrow morning, and we would head down to Spicewood Springs. We would hike and explore the area, swim, and do some more fishing down at the river. They had campsites, fish-cleaning stations, and restrooms down by the river so that would be nice for our last few days.

On the way to the camp, we came to a small clearing in the brush along the river. My gaze landed on a few broken twigs, drag marks from either a canoe or kayak, and booted footprints.

I tried to push the intrusive thoughts away, but my gut, it was warning that something wasn’t right. Who goes canoeing or kayaking in boots? The treads looked to be deep, so whoever it was—they were big.

These tracks reminded me of the ones I’d seen a couple days ago. I hadn’t paid them much attention since they were just off a hiking trail, but now…my instincts had me looking around, my eyes scanning our surroundings.

You had to have a permit to enter the park from the water, no matter the time or who you were. They could have been given permission after I’d left, but John would have sent a message through. Though to be fair, the signal sucked dishwater in a lot of these areas. But if he had, it would have come through this morning up on the hilltop.

Of course, following proper channels and getting permits didn’t always happen, so we watched out for this kind of thing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.