Harvest Moon (17 page)

Just thinking about him made her heart clench in her
chest. She worried about him. She wanted him to be okay, but she couldn’t wait
around in Goosemont forever. The time for her to leave was drawing near, and
she was really starting to realize that.

“Everything okay?” Gavin asked, noticing the grimace
that shadowed her face.

“Yeah,” she said as she forced a smile. “Just…
Sometimes I think about Courtney, and think I should stay until I know for sure
what happened to her.”
And Jase
, she mentally added.

“You can’t let that hold you back,” he said. “If it’s
the right time for you to move on, people would understand. Although, I don’t
know how happy I’d be about it.”

“Sorry?” Dawn said as she drew her hands back off the
bar.

He smiled at her, his innocent puppy dog eyes meeting
hers. “Nothing. I just… I like talking to you, and I hope that’s okay.”

A weird touch of anxiety caressed Dawn’s stomach, but
she couldn’t explain why. Gavin had been nothing but nice to her, sweet and
maybe even a bit naïve. Yet the idea of him missing her didn’t make her heart
flutter. Instead, it left her uneasy and uncertain.

“Well,” she said, trying to be polite. “I haven’t
decided yet. And I don’t know if I could just leave Jim. Poor guy, it would
break his heart, with Courtney and all.”

“I can understand that,” Gavin said. “But while I know
I can’t change your mind, I love it here. Sure, I’ve been a little bored, but
the open air, the small town atmosphere, it’s pretty much exactly what I was
looking for.”

“Yeah,” Dawn said. “Me too.”

There would be other small towns, though she knew that.
Goosemont was nice, but it wasn’t entirely unique. She just needed to make up
her mind and decide what was best. The only thing holding her back now was
finding out what had happened to Jase, and even that couldn’t hold her for
long.

“Well, it’s getting late,” Gavin said as he polished
off the last of his burger. “I think I’m going to call it a night. Thanks for
letting me stay.”

“It’s no problem,” Dawn said as she ran his bill. She
left off the last beer, though part of her thought better of it.

“I owe you one,” he said as he pulled out his wallet
and handed her a couple twenties. “Keep the change, by the way.”

“I can’t,” Dawn said as she tried to get his change.
“It’s too much.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said, smiling as he took her
hand in his and folded the money into her palm. His touch was hot, hotter than
she expected, and she was filled with a sudden urge to pull away from him.
Somehow, something inside her said that reacting would be a bad choice, and she
suffered through his scalding touch until he let her go.

“Well, thanks,” she said, forcing a smile.

“Want me to walk you home?” he offered. “Just in
case.”

“It’s fine,” Dawn said. “I still have some cleaning to
do here. Can’t leave dirty dishes, and all.”

“I don’t mind waiting,” Gavin said, his insistence
startling her.

“Nah, don’t worry about it,” she said, putting on a
casual, nonchalant mask that she prayed he couldn’t see through. “I don’t have
a computer at home, and I was planning on using the office one for a bit after
I closed up. Figured I’d Skype my mom. She’s on the west coast, and it won’t be
too late for her.”

It was all a lie, but Dawn couldn’t stop herself. She
knew that Gavin was a sweet guy who seemed genuinely concerned about her
getting home safe, yet she couldn’t help but make excuses. Something inside her
told her to stay put in the bar and stay there alone.

“That’s sweet of you,” Gavin said as he pushed himself
up from his seat and grabbed his jacket. “Well, if you change your mind, call
my cell,” he added as he scribbled his number on a napkin. “I’ll come right
back and give you an escort. No funny business, I promise.”

“Thanks,” Dawn said with her forced smile. “Here, I’ll
let you out.”

Time seemed to crawl as Gavin strolled to the door and
Dawn followed. Her mind was screaming at her to get him out of the bar, to lock
the door and stay put where it was safe, but she forced herself to move slowly,
casually, and smile as she let him out.

“I’ll call if I change my mind,” she said as her
fingers found the bolt and slide it open. “And thanks for chatting with me.”

“Well, thanks for staying late,” he said as he brushed
a lock of blonde hair away from her face. The heat of his hand radiated off
him, and she did her best to hide her desire to flinch and back away from him.

“Get home safe,” she told him, her friendliness never
faltering.

“You too,” he said, stalling at the door. “Are you
sure I can’t walk you home?”

“I’m fine,” she said. “Mom and I need some girl talk.”

“Okay. Have a good one,” he said as he finally stepped
outside.

“You too,” she called after him. Even once he was
gone, she needed to resist the temptation to slam the door in his face.
Politely, she waved goodbye and watched him walk the first ten or so feet away
from the front door before she finally closed the door and double-bolted it.

What the hell?
her mind asked as she finally
let the anxiety flow over her. Dawn’s body trembled, and she let out a nervous
laugh once she was finally alone.

She couldn’t tell if it was her paranoia, or if it was
something else, but she was glad she’d listened to her instincts. Despite how
nice Gavin was, there was still a seed of doubt in her mind.

Even after he was gone, Dawn didn’t just clean up and
leave. It was getting late, but she stayed behind and did some extra cleaning.
Something told her that staying put was in her best interest, and when she
finally did leave, it wasn’t out the front door.

As the clock struck one in the morning, Dawn slipped
out the back door in the kitchen. The door locked on its own behind her, and
she made her way through the alley. It wasn’t a long walk home, but her fingers
trailed over the boning knife she’d slipped into her pocket. She had the
feeling that a little extra defense wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

Jim’s had been deserted the last couple of days. The
hunters had left town, and even the FBI agents hadn’t been seen since just
after Jase disappeared into the forest on his hunt for the beast. Word was
there wasn’t enough evidence that it was anything but a wild animal and they
were called back to their field office for a higher priority case.

Really, there had been no evidence of anything since
the night the one hunter was bitten. His shooting had been declared an accident
by the local cops, and they were trying to get anyone who might know something
to come back to Goosemont, but since the victim had been from out of town and
had no family, most people stopped caring after a day or two.

Still, most of the town was still opposed to going out
at night. Jim’s was slow at the best of times, but now it was downright empty,
and Dawn had been told to stay home the last two days.

Most of her time was spent looking at an AAA road map
she’d taken out of a long haul truck about a year ago. Without a computer to
use online maps, she knew it was a little outdated, but she couldn’t risk
someone knowing where she was going next.

Dawn wasn’t quite sure where she was headed herself,
but she knew she was leaving soon. She’d already started to pack up her necessities,
but she knew she was going to have to leave a lot behind. A life on the road
wasn’t meant for multiple suitcases and furniture. At most, she needed some
clothes, her toothbrush, and some cash.

Two more days
, she told herself as she looked
over the map
. I’ll give him two more days.

While the cloudy skies had cleared some and the threat
of snow didn’t seem so imminent, Dawn knew she needed some fresh air, and she
knew she was running out of time to get it. She filled an old travel mug that
had come from a thrift store a few towns over with coffee and then went to add
a dash of the last bit of whiskey to the mug.

No
, she decided, stopping herself. She didn’t
know why she’d been drinking so much lately, but she knew it was a bad habit to
get into. It had become something of an automatic reaction to grab the bottle,
and it had to stop. She needed her wits about her if she was preparing to get
back on the road, and alcohol wasn’t the way to achieve that.

With her map tucked safely away, Dawn threw on Jase’s
faded green jacket and grabbed her travel mug. The jacket wasn’t quite warm
enough for the bitter mountain cold, but it made her feel safe. It was too big
and had empty junk food wrappers in some of the pockets, but it didn’t matter.
It smelled like Jase, and that was enough for her.

For once, the wind had died down and the sun was
shining. She still shivered from the cold, but as the sun warmed her skin and
the coffee warmed her insides, she began not to notice the near-freezing
temperatures.

Instead, the briskness of the day helped her senses
come alive. Dawn quickly noticed that she wasn’t the only one who was taking
advantage of one of the last nice days Goosemont would probably have that year.
It was still early, but the streets were filled with people she hadn’t seen in
weeks, and they happily greeted her as they passed.

As she strolled down to the local park, Dawn suddenly
became innately aware of how the knowledge Jase had given her set her apart
from everyone else. Here these people were, smiling at her, waving, asking how
her day was, and not one of them worried that a werewolf might still be
stalking them from the shadows.

Part of her wished for that blissful ignorance again,
but she would never be the girl who could smile and think that everything was
all right with the world. Even before Jase had opened her eyes to the real
horrors of what lurked in the dark, she’d known enough of evil to make most
people unable to sleep at night. It was only one more thing to add to the pile
of shit that made her reach for that whiskey bottle.

With the kids in school, the park was empty. It wasn’t
much to look at, not for a girl who had spent her teens in a bedroom that
overlooked Central Park, but it was enough. There were a couple of swings, an
old merry-go-round that was rusted so much it didn’t move, and that was really
all the maybe hundred kids who lived in town needed.

With nowhere else to go, Dawn took a seat on the
swings and let the wind sway her back and forth as she drank her coffee. She
knew she’d miss Goosemont, and she wouldn’t be leaving without at least a few
goodbyes. Jim and Gabe, she’d say goodbye to them. Courtney’s family, too.
They deserved that much.

And Jase?
her mind asked her as she took a sip
of hot coffee.

She couldn’t just leave without giving him some hint,
some knowledge of where she was going. Part of her thought that she should tell
Jim where she was headed so he could tell Jase for her, but she thought better
of it. If the wrong kind of person did catch up with her, she was putting Jim
in danger by giving him that information.

A note would be a better idea, but she had no idea
where to leave it so that Jase would find it. She didn’t even know if he would
come looking for it.

It was the first time in two years, maybe even more than
that, if she really thought about it, that she was stalling her departure for
another person. Since she’d turned eighteen, Dawn had only taken herself into
consideration for when it came to moving on. Goosemont was the sixth place
she’d stayed, and the one she’d stayed at the longest, and now she was dragging
her feet.

Another week
, she thought as she sipped the
coffee from her mug. Its slightly metallic aftertaste was bitter on her tongue
.
One more week. That isn’t too long.

As she sat on the swing and tried to settle her mind,
a shadow crept over her and blocked the warm rays of the sun. She shivered from
the sudden cold, but it wasn’t just the temperature that made her skin rise
into tiny bumps. Fear was welling up from within her, a sudden terror that made
her want to spin and face her attacker all while she dreaded the very idea of
seeing who was there.

Still, she forced herself to turn. Slowly, cautiously,
she looked over her shoulder and found Gavin Mosley standing behind her.

Dawn expected to find herself relieved to see it was
him instead of some monster or murderer, but in the cold shadow he cast, she
couldn’t find it in her. Apprehension clawed at her skin, and she had to force
herself to stay calm and casual as she said, “Hey, Gavin.”

“Hey, yourself,” he replied, smiling at her as he
pushed his brown hair out of his big puppy dog eyes. “Didn’t expect to see you
here.”

Somehow, deep in her gut, Dawn knew that was a
half-truth at best, but she let it slide. “Yeah, just enjoying the nice
weather.”

“Mind if I join you?” he asked as he took a seat on
the swing next to her.

“Go ahead,” she said, finding it a little easier to
smile once the sun was back on her again.

“Everything okay?” he asked her, studying her face.

“Yeah,” she said, but her smile weakened at the
question. “Just thinking.”

“About Courtney?” he asked. It seemed to be all people
thought she was allowed to think about these days, and she felt guilty whenever
someone mentioned her best friend’s name. It wasn’t in Dawn to correct anyone,
she knew how that would look on her, but she couldn’t help but resent Gavin for
it.

“Off and on,” was the best Dawn could do at telling
him he was wrong. “I know it’s awful, but it’s been what, two weeks? I’m
starting to think she’s not coming back.” That was another half-truth. Dawn had
known for at least a week that her best friend was dead, or possibly worse, but
she couldn’t let anyone else know that.

“You have to hold on to hope,” Gavin told her, like he
was some kind of an expert on dead best friends.

She shrugged. “I don’t know about that. I mean, do you
think she might still be alive? Do you feel safe in this town?”

Cracks appeared in Gavin’s playful, hopeful smile as
she asked her questions. A shadow passed over his face for only a moment, but
then it was gone again. “Honestly,” he said, “I don’t know, but I sure as hell
hope so. As for safety, well, I think Goosemont doesn’t have to worry about
that any longer.”

“And why’s that?” Dawn asked as she studied him.

“I just think we would have seen something by now.” He
smiled at her with that all too sure of himself smile. “Everyone is saying that
the hunters have left town and didn’t find a trace of a bear anywhere near
here. Maybe whatever it was moved on, or died, or something.”

“But what if they’re wrong?” Dawn pressed him. “What
if it’s smarter than they think, and it’s just hiding and waiting before it
attacks again?”

“I don’t think bears are that smart,” Gavin laughed.
“They eat garbage. They can’t be all that clever.”

“What if it isn’t a bear?” she asked him. “What if
it’s something else, something
weird
?”

“Like what?” Gavin asked, his eyes narrowing as he
looked at her. “A cougar?”

“No,” she said, but a voice in her mind was telling
her to drop it then. It wasn’t her own conscious, but a different voice.

Don’t tell him
, Jase’s voice echoed in her
ears.
Do you really think you can trust him?

Dawn didn’t know what that last part meant, but it
shut her up. Even if the voice was just her own subconscious reminding her that
trusting people wasn’t always in her best interest, it was enough to keep her
lips sealed.

“Then what do you mean by weird?” Gavin asked, his
brow furrowing as he stared at her.

“I just mean…” She searched for a suitable answer as
she spoke. “What if it’s got rabies, or something? Or a disease we don’t know
about? Or like, an escaped zoo animal?”

“Oh,” Gavin said as he leaned back in his swing and
relaxed some. “A zoo animal, eh? Now that sounds like a pickle. When I was in
Miami, I heard a tiger escaped from one of them Disney parks, but it was
probably just an urban legend. Still, wouldn’t surprise me.”

“Me either,” Dawn said with a forced smile. “So maybe
those hunters were looking for a bear, and they should have been hunting a
tiger, or a leopard, or a hyena, or something.”

“Could you imagine?” Gavin laughed as he began to pump
his muscular legs to gain motion on his swing. “A leopard running around
Goosemont? I can picture it walking right by Guy’s Drugs, and the old coot
telling one of those blue-haired ladies that her cat got out.”

“It would be something,” Dawn said as she let herself
laugh with him. “Although it might be nice to help reduce the raccoon
population.”

“Nah, I like those fluffy guys,” Gavin said. “They’re
all fat and goofy lookin’.”

“Yeah, but they get into the trash at the bar,” Dawn
said. “And then I get to clean up after them.”

“Poor thing,” Gavin said as he planted his feet to
stop his swing. Before Dawn knew what he was doing, he’d grabbed the chain that
held her swing and was pulling her closer to him.

“Gavin?” she asked as he slipped his arm through the
chain and pulled their swings together.

“What?” he asked as he walked his legs forward,
pulling her with him.

“Nothing,” she said, smiling. “You just startled me
there.”

“Sorry,” he said as he let her chain slip some, but
then caught her before she moved more than an inch. “Just playing around.”

Dawn was about kick her legs to swing, but Gavin
slipped his muscular arm around her shoulders and pulled him closer to his
chest. The thick chains of the swing pressed into her side, and she squirmed
against them, but Gavin didn’t seem to notice.

“Gavin,” she said as she tried to pull back, but he
wasn’t listening. “Gavin!” she said with more force as she raised her hands and
pushed against his chest. Even as she pushed harder, it was no use. He was
strong as an ox, and even with all her strength, it seemed he barely noticed
her resistance.

“Stop!” she shouted at him before he finally released
her from his bear hug.

“What?” he asked as her swing flopped away from his.
Before the swing could move back toward him, Dawn dug her feet into the ground
and forced it to stop. “Dawn, what’s wrong?” he asked as she stood up from the
swing.

“Nothing,” she lied as she took a few steps away from
the swing set.

“Come on,” he said. “I was just playing around.”

“I know,” she said. “It’s just... I can’t, okay?”

“Wait,” Gavin said as he stood up from his swing. “Is
there another guy?”

“Huh?” Dawn said, startled by the accusation. “No,
there’s not,” she lied. “It’s just… with everything going on, I can’t do this.
It’s not you, it’s me.”

“Uh huh,” Gavin said as he shook his head.

“I know it sounds cliché,” Dawn tried. “But it’s the
truth. I can’t get involved with anyone right now, but I appreciate you being
there. I just don’t want to lead you on.”

For a second, she thought Gavin might get mad, or
maybe go the opposite and cry, but instead, he only smiled at her with that
same look she’d grown accustomed to.

“It’s totally cool,” he said as he put his hands up in
faux defense. “I didn’t mean to push you or anything, and I apologize if I
did.”

“You didn’t,” Dawn assured him. “But I appreciate you
understanding.”

“I’m just happy you were honest,” he said. “Doesn’t
mean I might not try again, but only when you say it’s okay. How’s that sound?”

“Sounds fair,” she said with a weak smile. Gavin was
so sweet, and she had to wonder why she couldn’t just go with him. Yet there
was a block there, and it wasn’t just the idea of Jase returning. Something
inside her just couldn’t make the connection with Gavin.

“Thanks,” he said. “Can I at least get a hug, as
friends?”

“Okay,” she relented, and let him fold her into his
muscular arms. He was warm against her body. Even through Jase’s jacket, she
could feel the heat that came off of Gavin. He had a warm, woodsy smell about
him that was almost comforting, but at the same time, it made her stomach
clench. Even though she knew she should feel safe in the arms of such a big,
strong man, that reassurance never came.