Harvest Moon (18 page)

“I’ll see you at Jim’s tomorrow,” he said, smiling at
her as he pulled away. “If you’re working, of course.”

“I almost always am,” she said as she took a
subconscious step back from him.

“Cool,” he said. “If you need anything, though, just
let me know.”

“Okay,” she said, but somewhere inside she knew she
wouldn’t call him for help if it came to it. Not yet, at least.

From a bench in the park, Dawn sipped her coffee as
she watched Gavin walk away. A couple housewives had arrived, their little ones
in tow, and they smiled and waved at her as she sat and let her mind wander.
The wind had begun to pick up, and she pulled Jase’s jacket around herself to
keep in the little heat it provided.

While the toddlers played in the gravel and the moms
chatted about what had happened on
The Bachelor,
Dawn brought the sleeve
of Jase’s jacket up to her nose to breathe in his comforting scent, but it
wasn’t there. His familiar, reassuring musk had been washed away by Gavin’s
earthy scent. No matter how hard she tried to find a hint of Jase, it wasn’t there.

“Damn it,” Dawn said as she felt a tear tickling the
edge of her eye. And then, so low that the wind blew away her words before even
she could hear them, she whispered, “Come home, Jase. Come back to me.”

In her mind, she’d given Jase another week to show his
face, but after only three days, Dawn found herself unable to sit still. There
had been no hint, no clue, and no sign that Jase was even alive. He’d told her
not to wait for him, and now she knew she had to follow his advice.

Even after a week and a half, she wasn’t getting over
him. She was only worried out of her mind. It wasn’t the same as when Courtney
disappeared. She knew in her heart that Courtney was gone for good. But Jase?
He might still be out in the woods, hunting something, stalking something, and
here she was, leaving.

Tomorrow morning
, she thought to herself as she
grabbed the bottle of Johnnie Walker out of the cupboard under the sink.
I’ll
give him the night.

Dawn poured a touch of the whiskey into a glass and tossed
it back. The alcohol burned her tongue but didn’t satisfy her thirst, and her
second pour filled the short glass to the rim.

From its hiding place under the couch, Dawn brought out
her map and tried to settle on where she was headed. South, she knew that much,
at least, but beyond that, she was lost.

Even with the old map, she never had really settled on
a place until she arrived in it. She had planned to head all the way to Florida
at one point, but ended up in the Appalachian Mountains instead.

With an exasperated sigh, Dawn pushed the map off her
lap and reached for her glass. Two big gulps of her drink later, she was
already starting to feel the buzz she’d been looking for, and she got to
packing up the few things she knew she’d need.

A few days earlier, she’d finally applied the dye that
had been sitting on her counter, yet the box still sat there as she made her
way into the bathroom. The blonde she’d selected had come out a little paler
than she’d expected, but she couldn’t deny she liked the subtle platinum. It
was a slight change, but a good one, and perfectly timed for her departure.

From the cabinet above her sink, Dawn grabbed a few
essentials: her toothbrush, some deodorant, and a couple mini bottles of
shampoo she’d squirreled away to use on the road. The moisturizer Courtney had
given her would have to stay behind. The glass jar it was in was too fragile to
toss around in her bag. Her razor she could replace. She was only taking the
things she would need daily.

Back in the living room, Dawn pulled the suitcase
she’d taken during a particularly desperate time in her life. It wasn’t one of
her finer moments, but someone with more money than her had left it sitting on
the curb while they argued with a cab driver over the fare. She’d needed the
bag. Her old one had been falling apart from months of hard travel.

It wasn’t like she kept the things inside it. Okay,
maybe a little cash to see her to the next town and a sweater she still wore on
occasion, but the rest ended up in a plastic garbage bag with an apology note.
According to their ID, a woman named Carol, or maybe it was Cheryl, would
hopefully have her stuff returned by the kind-hearted person who found it.

Dawn kept the suitcase partially packed just in case
she needed to bolt at a moment’s notice. A few pairs of clean underwear, a bra,
some socks, a pair of shoes, a sweater, a pair of jeans, and a t-shirt were all
there and accounted for, and she added the few items she’d pulled from the
bathroom to the pile.

The suitcase was perfectly suited for Dawn’s needs,
small with wheels and plenty of pockets. It fit more than it looked like it
would, but still, she had created a life in Goosemont, and she had, for the
first time since she’d left New York, accumulated a fair bit of stuff.

That stuff was proving harder to part with than she’d
realized. Between the clothing she’d bought during the occasional shopping trip
with Courtney, to the mug that Jim had given her as a gift, it was all too much
to leave behind, but she knew she couldn’t take it.

Would staying be so bad?
her mind asked as she
debated over two similar pairs of pajama bottoms. The whiskey was making Dawn
sentimental, and every choice was becoming harder and harder to make.

“I have to go,” she said as she tossed aside the
lighter pink pair of pants and put the darker ones in the pile of things for
her to take with her. The pile was already too big and would need some trimming
before she could actually zip up her suitcase, but at least she’d made one
choice.

By the end of her battle, she had cut out most of the
clothes she’d originally intended to keep. All she had left was the one
emergency pair of jeans, her leggings, a couple extra sweaters, and her
underwear. That, and the framed picture that Courtney had given to her, Jim,
and Gabe that showed the four of them smiling behind the bar at Jim’s.

“Shit,” Dawn said as she worked to shove the photo
into a pocket. The corners of the frame were just slightly too big, and
eventually she gave in and broke off the back of it. The frame was only some
cheap piece of crap from Walmart or Target, and she didn’t need to keep that.
The only thing she really needed was the photo.

Already, her eyes were getting misty. The alcohol that
had been meant to calm her nerves was only making her emotional, and it was all
she could do to keep her cool as she folded the picture and put it in the bag’s
pocket. Even thinking about writing a goodbye letter for Jim and Gabe was
making her heart hurt, but it was nothing compared to when she caught sight of
the green jacket hanging over her couch.

Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks as she
spotted Jase’s jacket. If not for the booze, she knew she’d be holding it
together a lot better, but it was too late to undo that poor choice. She missed
him, she regretted letting him go, and there was nothing she could do about it.
No one had ever made her feel like he did, and now that was gone.

Still, she couldn’t leave the jacket behind. Though
the weather was too cold for it, she put his coat by the door for her to grab
when she left in the morning. She’d have to leave before the sun came up, and
it would be even colder then, but an extra sweater would combat that.

Right as Dawn hung Jase’s jacket by the door, someone
rapped loudly on the old wood. Dawn couldn’t even find it in herself to be
startled, only elated as she opened the door, hoping to see that Jase had
returned to her.

It wasn’t Jase’s green eyes that met her own as she
opened the door, but Gavin Mosley’s deep brown ones. For the first time since
he’d come to the bar to explain his side of the events after Courtney’s
disappearance, the sweet man appeared truly troubled, and his normally
permanent smile was nowhere to be seen.

“Gavin,” she said with a disappointed sigh that she
just couldn’t hide. “What’s wrong?”

“Can I come in?” he said as he stared at his feet.

“Um,” Dawn stuttered. Jase’s voice echoed in her mind,
telling her no, demanding her not to let him in. To tell him she was too busy,
tired, sick even and that she would see him tomorrow. All that came out of her
mouth was, “Sure.”

“Thanks.” Gavin came in and kicked off his muddy boots
by her front door.

“Feel free to sit on the couch,” Dawn said as she
moved into the kitchen. She was about to grab the whiskey bottle, there was
maybe enough left for two or three drinks, but she decided against it. Her head
was already swimming, and any more alcohol would put her over the edge. If she
planned on an early morning, a hangover was the last thing she needed to be
dealing with.

And part of her was saving that little dribble that
remained for celebrating when Jase returned, if he came back at all.

“How about a coffee?” Dawn decided on as she clicked
on her coffee maker.

“I’m good,” Gavin said. “I’m already a little too
jittery for more caffeine.”

“No problem,” Dawn said as she put some grounds in a
filter. Even if he didn’t want any, a cup or two for herself might be a good
idea. She needed to sober up, and quick.

“Where are you going?” Gavin asked as he looked around
her little home.

“Sorry?” Dawn asked as the hot water began to drip.

“You,” Gavin said. “You’re going somewhere, aren’t
you?”

“Not really,” Dawn lied.

“Bullshit,” Gavin said. “Unless you’ve lived out of a
suitcase ever since moving to this town, you’re going somewhere.”

“Just for a few days,” Dawn lied again. “I just need
to clear my head and think about things. The bar hasn’t had more than a couple
people come through the last little bit, people are still afraid to be out at
night, and I think I should just take a few days and figure my own shit out.”

“It might be a good idea,” Gavin said as he looked at
his hands. “I’ve been thinking the same thing, but I know some people still
think I’m a suspect, and me taking off won’t help that. It’s just...”

“What?” Dawn asked as she poured herself a mug of
coffee and then joined him on the couch. There was something about the sad,
innocent puppy dog eyes he shot her that she couldn’t refuse, and a part of her
wanted to be there for him, even if the memory of Jase in her mind was telling
her not to.

“I don’t think it’s safe here,” he said. “I mean, what
if you’re right? What if whatever it was is smart enough to know to hide until
the hunters all left?”

“You think it’s possible?” Dawn asked, her head
spinning just enough to throw her off balance. Her hand found the cushion of
the couch to steady herself.

“Maybe,” Gavin said. “The last couple nights, I’ve
been hearing things. My house isn’t quite in town, ya know? But at night, I’ve
heard something outside. At first I thought it was a raccoon, maybe a possum,
or something. Then it started making more noise, howling and scratching. Then,
last night, I swear I felt like I was being watched when I went to get some
firewood. I tell ya, I’ve never ran so hard in my whole life as I did last
night.”

“But did you see anything?” Dawn asked, feeling her
words slur in her mouth just a bit.

“No,” Gavin shook his head. “But I felt it, ya know?
It’s hard to explain, it’s almost like...”

“Instinct,” Dawn finished for him. She knew that
feeling, that one that sits like a stone in your stomach, all too well.

“Yeah, well, instinct or not, I felt pretty foolish
when I got back inside,” Gavin said. “I’d dropped most of the wood, and I laughed
at myself for being a chicken, but I sure as hell didn’t go back outside to
pick it back up.”

“Nor would I,” Dawn said with a gentle laugh.

“Well, I thought that was the end of it,” Gavin said.
“But I was wrong.”

“What do you mean?” Dawn asked.

“Like I said, I tried to force myself to think I was
just being a coward,” Gavin said. “But it took me all day today to go outside
and get that firewood. Even in the daylight, I was shaking like a leaf.”

It was hard for Dawn to imagine a man like Gavin, all
six-foot-three of him, being scared of anything, but she kept her laugh to
herself and let him continue.

“It was when I was walking back to the house that I
saw it. Right beside the doorframe, in the side of my house, were deep claw
marks.”

“Five of them?” Dawn asked.

“Hell yeah,” Gavin nodded. “Wait, how do you know
that?”

“The same thing happened to me,” Dawn said. “It had
sounded like a raccoon, but when I went out there, I found the marks gouged
deep into the back of my house.” She didn’t include the part where she was damn
sure the marks had come from a werewolf, but it was enough to make Gavin
shudder.

“What the hell is it?” Gavin asked. “God, I thought
this town was going to be a way for me to lead a simpler life, to relax and
just be Gavin, and I was barely here two weeks before it all fell apart.”

“What do you mean?” Dawn asked.

“Oh, like you don’t know,” Gavin said with a weak
laugh. “Wild animals, dead hikers, and that’s not the worst of it. I can’t buy
my groceries without at least one person narrowing their eyes at me. The FBI
cleared me, but people still blame me for Courtney going missing.”

“I’m sorry,” Dawn said. She knew all too well how
powerful that blame was.

“I’d accuse me, too,” Gavin said. “I don’t know, I guess
I should be glad the media never heard about it. At least now I have a chance
to live it down.”

“People will move on,” Dawn said. “Small town gossip
has a way of lingering, but they’ll move on.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “You know the worst thing, though?”

“What?” Dawn asked.

“The loneliness,” Gavin said. “I was looking for
peaceful, serene, and I got non-stop loneliness. I’m almost always alone. I get
judged when I go into town, or the people who don’t think I’m a killer don’t
think they’re allowed to talk to me since they’ve seen me on TV. I’ve chopped
so much firewood up at my place I could never cut down another tree again and
still have enough to last me until the end of time. I just… I don’t want to be
alone anymore.”

Maybe it was the whiskey, maybe it was sympathy, or
maybe it was because Dawn could relate to what he was saying about being alone,
but she found herself leaning in and wrapping her arms around him.

Gavin’s chest was broader than she realized, and his
body was hot under her arms, but gently she gave him a squeeze. It was awkward
at best, and the moment she leaned her cheek against his shoulder, she realized
that it was mostly the whiskey she’d drank that was driving her. But she felt
bad for Gavin. She really did.

It was when his hands, his huge, strong hands, found
her forearm that she found herself uncertain of what she was doing. Jase’s
voice was screaming at her to leave, to make mention of forgetting something at
Jim’s and then just never coming back. Every instinct in her body was urging
her to take off, yet Dawn couldn’t seem to make herself stand.

It wasn’t just the whiskey that kept her seated. It
was her own loneliness, her own sorrow that made her stay put. Gavin was a poor
substitute for Jase, but his warmth was enough, in that moment, to let her know
that she wasn’t alone.