Golden (Book 1 of the Golden Series)

Chapter 54

Trent grins at me, unbuckling his seatbelt as he jumps out of the car and runs to the gate in front of us, his hands fiddling with something at the lock. 

I roll down my window and stick my head out of, trying to see what he's doing in the dying light but before I can ask the gate squeaks and Trent lifts it, walking it forward with ease as he opens a path for us. 

He jogs back to the car and jumps in, pressing down on the gas again to move us.

"You know I was joking, right?" 

Ignoring my question, he leaves the car again to secure the gate behind us and I can't help but look around the forest in front of me in worry - was someone going to burst out with a shotgun? Were we going to get in trouble? 

When Trent settles back into the car he takes one look at me and starts chuckling, shaking his head as he drives us through the trees.

"We're not breaking in anywhere, and the road isn't unsafe - I just put those signs there to stop other people from getting in, I sometimes come here to hunt and I'd rather not be disturbed. You don't have to worry, I promise."

Oh right, hunting. Normal.

"Oh, I wasn't - "

"Elle. Even without the necklace, I can sense it." 

My excuses and questions all die in my throat as I look out the window, not wanting him to see the light blush that's taken over my cheeks. 

He was beginning to know me better than I know myself at this rate.

My embarrassed thoughts stop filling my head as a lake house comes into view, the trees twisting around it almost in camouflage as though it had been here for hundreds of years. We drive past it and around the side before parking up, leaves brushing against the car. 

I try to hold my worry down as we get out of the car, my eyes not leaving the cabin which now seems so daunting standing on it's own.

Did he expect... were we going to be in there? Alone?

My heartbeat picks up as I take a step towards it before Trent's voice calls from the opposite direction. 

"Are you coming?"

He's standing at a small gap in the bushes, one which I didn't see before and when I motion to the cabin he laughs and shakes his head, nodding for me to follow him.

Oh, thank god.

I quickly jog after him and he holds the branches out the way for me as I pass through the hedge and when I break out from the other side it's like the breath has been sucked from my lungs. 

The lake in front of us is beautiful, sparkling in the setting sun. The hills on either side seeming to reach up into the sky forever and the water to stretch out as far as the eye can see. There was nothing around us but silence, and a boat floating gently by a small dock. 

"Do you like it?" 

I jump slightly, almost forgetting that Trent is behind me, too caught up in the beauty of the place and the warm feeling that it creates in me. 

"It's so beautiful, it's like a dream."

The grin on his face is immediate as if he was nervous of my answer, the relief shining on his cheeks, glowing. It's only now that I see the basket in his hand and something rolled up under his armpit.

"Okay, perfect," he mumbles, walking over to a flat patch of grass beside the water where he rolls out a blanket and sets down the basket on top, brushing it and patting it down as I slowly walk over.