“I’m sorry,” he pledges, yet I know he’s not because he shakes with laughter now. “Your idea is fantastic. Let’s build the prince trap. So, what the hell is this?”
I follow his finger to my excellent drawing of a brown, upside-down crate. “This is what we’re going to do today.” Picking up a twig from beside my knee, I finger it, glancing hopefully at Jack. “We’re going to build a box so big, it’ll easily slide over the pillow stack and the slumbering prince. A mighty branch will hold up one side so it looks like a nice little roof over the camp. This rope triggers the release.”
“Where will the two of us be in the meantime?”
“Right over here.” I tap the twig’s end on the bushes sketched on the plan, where two pairs of eyes peer out. I’d drawn a pair of pointed ears for Jack, too.
“And when the poor man hits the sack, we’re going to tug on this rope, which will pull the stick away, making the whole thing snap shut.”
“Exactly!” Radiant with delight, I toss away my twig. “It’s foolproof.”
“That remains to be seen.” A chuckle still on his lips, Jack stands and holds out a hand to me. “Come on, joiner’s apprentice. Let’s build you a prince trap.”
I climb to my feet with his help. We lay out the laths according to my plan and start screwing them together. The work actually takes longer than expected. The morning dwindles fast, the sun downright zooming across the sky.
When the last nail disappears into the wood, I drop back on my bottom and, with my cloak, wipe the sweat from my brow. “Phew. Finally.”
Jack sits down under a tree and watches me with a smirk. “Not your kind of work, hm?”
I shake my head. As hunger makes itself known with a rumble in my stomach, I jump up and go on a raid through the basket. Hidden under all the ironware were a couple of sandwiches and a bottle of mineral water. “Hungry?” I ask Jack, holding out a snack to him.
We eat together, and when I’m done with mine, I unscrew the lid of the bottle. Apparently, leaving the basket in the sun was a bad idea because the whole thing gushes over—the gas of the mineral water having reacted to the heat. In a panicked reflex, I hold the bottle away from me so the water splashes somewhere else. On Jack, to be exact.
Even though he quickly presses his palm to the mouth of the bottle, half of the contents are already soaking his t-shirt. Drawing up my shoulders in a shrug, I give him a sheepish smile. “Oops…”
“Oops?” His eyebrows arch, daring me to come up with a better excuse for dousing him when I could have watered an entire clearing.
I have none, other than it was fun. “Yeah…oops.”
Jack takes the bottle out of my hand and tosses it aside, rising like the magic beanstalk above me as his dumbfounded expression turns into a wicked sneer. “I’ll give you oops!”
This time, there’s no chance for me to dash away because he pulls me up so fast, the momentum makes me fall over his shoulder as he quickly bends. “Jack!” A hysterical shriek leaves me. The only things I see are his heels and calves as he strides over to the mill. And then the forest disappears as we’re ascending some stairs in the dark. “Jack, what are you doing?”
The farther up we go, the brighter it gets inside the small, old building. The roof hatch must be open. “Let’s see if this robin can fly,” he answers with a smirk in his voice.
“What? You wouldn’t—”
“Oh, you bet, I so would.”
One second later, I’m airborne and screaming my lungs out. Rowing my arms and legs doesn’t help. I plummet backward off the top of the mill, Jack’s grin the only thing I can focus on from where he stands in the open port.
With a poof, I land on a soft surface that flattens under my weight. Grain dust rises all around me.
“Didn’t you say you love jumping into haystacks?” his amused voice drifts down to me through the thick, yellow pall.
“Not like that, you maniac!” I shout, still freaked out from the drop but now also laughing.
Arms spread-eagle, Jack dives off the port. “Move!”
I have just enough time to roll to the side before he flattens me. His landing whirls up another cloud of grain dust. Waving it aside with both of my arms, I search for his face through the mist. A grin sits lazily on his lips as we lock gazes, and I start laughing again. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re off the wall?”
Jack waggles his eyebrows. “Again?”
The man is simply unbelievable! I stare at him for a couple of seconds longer. Then my gaze slides to the roof hatch, and I roll off the haystack. Dashing to the mill’s front door, I holler over my shoulder, “Last one up is an ogre fart.”
Halfway up the stairs, I can feel him breathing down my neck.
*
The sun touches the treetops in a late-afternoon caress as Jack and I carry each and every pillow I own from my house to the place in the woods where we spent most of the day. The giant crate leaning against an oak tree for now just waits to be used. Jack suggested building a nest of hay for the prince since there was obviously enough of it behind the mill, but that wasn’t what I had in mind. Instead, I made him come home with me to play drudge once more.
We arrange the pillows in a nice bed on the ground and line them with a couple of cuddly, red blankets. It’s the perfect invitation for a prince, tired from a long journey.
“Now what?” Jack demands as we both stand in front of the makeshift bed, hands propped on our hips, admiring our work. “Want to put up a sign: Prince bed this way?”
“No.” I contradict with the same humor in my voice and stick out my tongue at him. Now comes the bait. I run and pluck some strawberries from a nearby bush. Carrying them back in my cupped hands, I place them in the center of the bed.
Jack cocks his head. “You think you can lure him in with berries?”
“Yeah…I actually thought of trying apples, but then I heard they only work with wolves.” I wink, unable to resist teasing him about our stroll through the forest yesterday when he wasn’t quite himself. The growl he emits is obviously fake. He doesn’t scare me. Not when his eyes sparkle with amusement, and certainly not when a fall from the mill roof is the worst that could happen to me again. A giggle rocks me. “Or do you like strawberries, too, puppy dog?” I grab one from the pile, haul my hand back, and then toss the berry past his left ear and into the bushes. “Go fetch!”
Jack stands rigid, the mischief in his eyes growing as he dips his chin and snarls. Next thing I know, I’m lifted off my feet as he leaps at me, and we both land in the soft nest of pillows behind me. Squealing, I try to roll away from under him, but he keeps me in a tight embrace and lowers his mouth to my ear. “Got you.”
A warm shiver whizzes through me at his gentle breath against my skin. My laugh ceases, my body going still. With one arm still around me, Jack skims the fingertips of his other hand across my cheek. “No escaping…”
Only my gaze slides to his face, and I bite my bottom lip, suddenly feeling nervous. The birds and rodents must feel it, too, because the forest goes silent around us.
Rays of a golden sunset beam through the trees, lighting Jack’s dark eyes as he smiles. This is weird…him so close. I have never been held by a man. Not for so long…not so tenderly. It’s pleasant on a strange level. And it makes my heart pound dramatically fast.
My hands flattened against his chest, I return the smile because it feels natural to do so. Thoughts run wild in my mind. The first comes out in a shy whisper. “You sure are the craziest Wolf of your kind, Jack.”