Fall into Fire (Shamans of the Divide, Book 2)

Chapter Nine

At 6:27, I'd managed to climb all the way into Cody's jacked-up Jeep, complete with muddy monster tires and no roof. The truck fit Cody in so many ways, I had to laugh when I saw him pull up in front of the guest house.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Ernie called from my room. I'd left the shopping channel on for him. The Makeup Express was rolling on with concealers and eyebrow pencils for the next three hours and Ernie didn't want to miss a thing. I felt like one of those pet owners who left the Animal TV channel on for their bored house cats.

"You're dead," I said. "That leaves me endless options of things you can't and won't do!"

He mumbled something but I shut the door and walked out to meet Cody.

He wore jeans, like always, but they were clean and not caked in mud or grease. He had his same Ropers on, but his short sleeved shirt was collared and his hair was brushed out of his blue eyes. Not a baseball cap in sight, either. As for me, I'd settled on a simple turquoise sun dress and strappy sandals. Camille had promised me I wouldn't stand out too much, but I'd still look nicer than most of the other local girls. Not that either one of us had any clue what the local girls looked like—we just had our preconceived notions of rural ranch girls.

I'd left my hair down, and pinned it out of my eyes over my right ear. The gods of humidity had been merciful on me and even gave my blond hair a little shine and gentle waves.

Cody reached out and touched a strand of hair on my shoulder without making contact with my skin. I shivered anyway.

"I like this," he said, almost to himself.

"Thanks. You like nice."

Cody flashed me a grin and walked to the side of his Jeep.

"It doesn't have doors," I said, realizing the ride to town was going to be interesting in a sun dress with loose hair. "Should I change?"

"I like the dress," he said, taking my hand to help me up and into the passenger side. "Besides, if I drive fast enough, I might be able to catch a peek of skin."

"Charming."

The drive into Lassiter, the small town ten miles from the Whalen's ranch, was beautiful. The mountains were off in the distance, orange and red and gorgeous in the setting summer sun. Cody drove pretty fast, but I kept one hand on my dress and the other on my hair, so I managed to make it to carnival parking lot mostly intact. I'm pretty sure Camille would have been proud.

On what could only be the back lawn of the Lassiter Volunteer Fire Department property sat a giant picnic. Tables sat in rows and rows and were filled with people eating hot dogs and giant ears of corn. Toward the back I saw decent sized Ferris wheel and a few other rides like the Himalaya I used to ride with my friends in Denver. There was even a small aisle of midway games that I never could win. I immediately spotted a giant sloth at the baseball toss.

"I need that sloth before we leave tonight, Cody," I said as we walked closer.

"Did you want to get a hamburger before we start?"

I shook my head, still eying the sloth.

"Sloth, Cody," I said, still pointing.

"Okay, okay," he said, laughing. "I didn't know you had a thing for lazy animals."

It had to be at least three and half feet tall with purple fur and a big sleepy grin molded onto its heavily lidded face.

"Neither did I."