“Nothing is safe anymore,” Abby whispered.
Jenna’s lower lip trembled, her arm tightened around Abby’s shoulder. “It will be safer than the woods.”
“You really believe that a lighthouse, used to call in ships, set out on a Jetty that can be seen across the bay, is safer than the woods?” I asked incredulously.
“I don’t hear you coming up with any ideas!” she practically wailed.
“Our old tree house.”
We all turned to Aiden. “What?” Bret asked.
“Our old tree house,” Aiden responded excitedly, his brown eyes bright. “Our old house is on Cranberry Isle, the area has been built up over the past few years, but it’s still relatively private. Even more private is the tree house that Bethy and I built with our father when we were younger…”
“You want us to hide in a tree house!?” Jenna nearly screeched.
I sighed loudly as I rolled my eyes. She was going to be my undoing, my snapping point, the end of my small tether on sanity. I was certain of it. I just wasn’t sure if it was because she was driving me crazy, or because Cade was trying to console her so much. A day ago the stupid ass had been kissing me, and being so kind and understanding that he had made me cry for the first time in years. Now, just a day later, he was all over Jenna.
I had a boyfriend, I reminded myself fiercely. Bretwas my boyfriend. To Cade, I had just been something to play with something to string along, and now it seemed he had set his sights on the far more beautiful, and pristine, Jenna Howe. I wasn’t jealous of her, not at all. I couldn’t be jealous of her small interaction with Cade when her interest in Bret, and theirhistory, had never bothered me. That made absolutely no sense.
I was angry at myself for believing there was some strange connection between Cade and myself. I was angry at myself for having so many doubts about Bret, a man that loved me and would neverdo to me what I had done to him. I had been vulnerable when I’d kissed Cade, I’d let him, but I knew better now. Now that I knew what he was really like, I would never allow such a thing to happen again.
I wanted to believe everything that I was telling myself, but the awful truth was that I wasjealous, and Cade had not taken anything from me that I had not willingly given to him. I could try and convince myself that what I felt for Cade was wrong and that he was a user, but I was not one to lie to myself. I never had been; I never would be. And I didn’t believe that Cade had just been toying with me. I didn’t know him well, but I knew that wasn’t the kind of man he was. He was too straightforward for that.
“It’s a little bit more than a tree house,” Aiden said softly.
“I’m not dying in a tree house,” Jenna retorted.
“We spent a lot of time on it; it’s more than a tree house,” Aiden insisted. “It’s actually pretty well equipped for a tree house.”
“We haven’t been there in years Aiden, you can’t possibly know what condition it’s still in,” I reminded him.
He shifted uncomfortably. “I’ve been there recently.”
I started slightly, my mouth parted in surprise. Aiden and I didn’t tell each other everything, but we shared more, and were closer than most siblings. We looked out for, loved, and protected Abby, but the two of us were closer in age, bonded by more shared experiences, and truly liked each other now that we were older. Going to the tree house didn’t sound like something Aiden would do, he was not a nostalgic person, and it definitely seemed like something he would have told me about.
I didn’t know if I was more stunned, or more hurt, that he hadn’t. I didn’t ask when, or why, he didn’t seem to want to elaborate.
“It will be a good place to hide out for tomorrow. We can come up with a better plan then.”
“Cranberry isle is a good three miles away,” Jenna mumbled.
“Then we had better get moving,” Bret said softly. He slipped his hand into mine, squeezing it gently.
CHAPTER 10
It was a tree house, and I still refused to go inside it. I sat against the tree, my knees drawn up to my chest, surrounded only by the forest. There was a small stream about thirty feet away, I couldn’t see it, but I knew its location from childhood memories. The sound of running water was like gentle music in the oddly still woods. Birds were not singing; there were no squirrels running amongst the trees. I did not hear any forest creatures moving about. I was terrified that the alien’s magic ability to freeze things had somehow extended to them. How could we stop them if they were able to pull off such a colossal attack?
I could only hope that it was our presence that had scared the animals away, or that they still had not awakened in the early morning hours. I rested my forehead on my knees, trying not to think about it, trying hard to just block everything out but it was almost impossible. Aiden had been right; the tree house was in good shape, excellent even. I didn’t think it was the new home owners that had kept it in such good condition, Aiden and I had not disclosed its location when we moved from Cranberry isle. This was ourtree house; neither of us could stand the thought of anyone else playing amongst its walls.
Abby had been too young for the tree house at the time, she had come out here with us once, but I highly doubted she had remembered how to get here on her own. Abby was many things, but adventurous and handy were not amongst her vast list of attributes. That left only Aiden to keep up the maintenance, and he had done a wonderful job of it. I just couldn’t believe that he had kept it from me all of these years, but then there was plenty that I had kept from him also.
I lifted my head, gazing up at the wooden structure thirty feet above my head. It was nestled in the crook of four massive branches in a large maple. There were three ways to escape the structure, and two ways to enter it. A long metal ladder stretched from the ground up to a hole against the trunk of the tree. The hole was usually left open, but it could be closed and the ladder thrown away if such a thing was required, or wanted. We had thrown it aside often as children, when we had been escaping the imaginary creatures chasing us. It was not lost on me the complete circle that our lives had completed from then, until now.
Another ladder hung from the other side of the tree, the one closest to the stream. It was a rope ladder that dangled down to the ground. It could be pulled swiftly up, and had been many times when we were younger and under the attack of trolls and other nefarious creatures. The third and final exit was a metal pole that had rusted slightly over the years, but still appeared stable. It had always been my favorite way to exit the fort when in a rush to escape from the fiends that had breached our security.
The exits had been for fun when we were kids, now I was glad that we had decided to build so many emergency escapes. I stared at the bottom of the fort; I sensed no movement up there. They must all be asleep. Even Bret had climbed into the leafy bowers, curious about the elaborate fort. I had told him to stay up there for awhile, I needed to be alone. I was enjoying the quiet. I was surprised that he had actually listened to me. He was terrified for me, I could see that, but thankfully he seemed to understand my need for solitude.