Hominid (6 page)

CHAPTER 13

T
ess spent the rest of the week going through her normal routine. But after finding the prints and the tree structure, her nights were a little rough. Bigfoot was supposed to be nocturnal, so every nighttime noise had Tess practically leaping out of bed.

But her friend made no further appearances at her cabin, and she’d found no evidence of him at the camp—although the food was gone each morning when she went to check.

She had the uneasy feeling that maybe her friend was mad that she’d left for a few days. But she chased that thought away as quickly as it appeared.
Stop giving them more credit than they deserve.

The lack of progress had her on edge as the week closed. Which is why when Sasha called to ask her to go out on Friday, she was completely uninterested. However, Sasha refused to take no for an answer, which was how Tess ended up sitting in a booth at Poor Richard’s on Friday evening, a pitcher of beer on the table between them.

“So how’s the research going?” Sasha asked after she’d told Tess about her latest commission. Sasha was an artist and was slowly making a name for herself.

Tess shrugged. “Not good. I haven’t seen a sign all week.”

“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Sasha said. “There was a group of bigfoot hunters in town while you were away. None of them had been in the woods before. One sprained an ankle. Two went to get help and got lost. It was crazy. Dev had to go find them.”

Tess’s heart gave a little leap at the mention of Dev Wilson—just as it had ever since she was a teenager.

“Well, people are fascinated with bigfoot,” she said. “Do you know there’s even some erotica books dedicated to bigfoot?”

Sasha’s eyes went wide. “Well, that’s disturbing.”

Tess shrugged. “Maybe not.”

“What?” Sasha’s eyes grew large.

Tess looked at her for a moment before she realized how her words had been interpreted. She put up her hands, feeling a blush on her cheeks. “I mean—no. I’m not interested.”

Sasha just raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, shut up,” Tess grumbled. “I mean, from a scientific point of view.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I don’t know why I try to have these conversations with you.”

“Hey,
you’re
the one who brought up having the hots for bigfoot.”

Tess gritted her teeth. “I didn’t say I had the hots for bigfoot. I said—oh, forget it.”

Sasha laughed. “Okay, okay. I’ll be good. Tell me why bigfoot erotica is not crazy.”

Tess watched her, but she knew Sasha was done teasing. And from the way Sasha was leaning forward, Tess also knew she was sincerely interested.

“Okay, well, did you know that most
Homo sapiens
actually have the genes of different types of hominids in their genetic code?”

Sasha’s eyebrows rose. “What? How?”

“Well, apparently in the remote past, we’re talking around six hundred thousand years ago,
Homo sapiens
interbred with Neanderthals. As a result, most
Homo sapiens’
genetic code has three to four percent Neanderthal genes in it.”

“So we’re part Neanderthal?”

“A little bit.”

One of the men from the pool tables in the back let out a whoop and slapped his friend. Tess turned back to Sasha. “Of course, some people have a higher percentage.”

Sasha laughed. “That’s crazy. We’re all a little caveman.”

“And it’s not just Neanderthals,” Tess said. “Traces of other ancient hominids have been found in our genetic code.”

“Like who?”

“Like
Homo denisova
—an ancient hominid we know very little about except for the fact that they lived at the same time as
Homo sapiens
and Neanderthals and were extremely large.”

“Like, bigfoot large?”

“Yup.”

“So our ancestors were a little frisky?”

“So it appears. One little cave in Denisova, Siberia, first offered proof of our mixed genetic heritage. Artifacts from the cave demonstrated that not only did different hominids live at the same time, but that they interbred. Genetic testing revealed that all three groups—
Homo sapiens
,
Homo denisova
, and Neanderthals—had interbred with one another, along with a fourth type of hominid which no one had previously known existed and which we still haven’t found.”

Sasha raised her beer. “Well here’s to our frisky ancestors.”

Tess joined the toast with a laugh.

The group of guys in the back let out a yell, and one of them shoved another one. It looked like a fight was about to break out.

A tall, muscular, copper-skinned man sitting at the bar turned his head at the disruption, then rose and headed back to intervene.

Dev
. Tess’s heart beat a little faster. She’d had no idea he was here.

Dev made his way to the two men, who by now were yelling at each other and shoving back and forth. Both men were about Dev’s size, but whereas their bulk was due to fat, Dev’s was due to muscle. Dev grabbed one guy by the shirt and pulled him away. Through Dev’s t-shirt, his arms strained, and Tess couldn’t help but notice just how well defined those arms were.

Tess couldn’t hear what Dev was saying, but from the looks on the men’s faces, it was getting through.

“Speaking of getting it on,” Sasha said dryly.

Tess felt her cheeks bloom red again. She took a drink and glanced up at Sasha’s knowing expression. “What?”

“You know what.” Sasha nudged her chin to where Dev was escorting both men to the door. “Dev.”

“There’s nothing there, Sash.”

“Well, tell your face that, because it’s as red as my shirt.”

“It’s not like that.”

“Come
on
. You two have been playing around each other for years. He was involved. You were involved. And right now, you’re both not involved.”

Tess shook her head. “I’ve known him since we were kids. He’s Pax’s best friend. It’s complicated.”

“No it’s not. And you forget,
I’ve
known you since you were a kid as well. You’re overanalyzing it. And he’s not a kid now, as I’m pretty sure you’ve noticed. Oh, and by the way, he’s heading over here.”

“What?” Tess whirled around before she could stop herself. Dev was still at the door. She turned back to Sasha and glared. “You suck.”

Sasha grinned back at her. “And you lie. You like him, and he more than likes you. So what’s stopping you?”

Tess shrugged. “Nothing. It’s—it’s just complicated.”

Sasha hesitated. “You know I loved David.”

Tess nodded.

“But it’s been three years,” Sasha said. “It’s time to get back in the game.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“No, it’s probably not. But you’ve taken to this whole ‘being single’ thing like it’s a permanent lifestyle. When David died, you locked yourself away with your dissertation, which I totally get. But then you moved back here and locked yourself away in the woods. Now I think you being on your own is less of a choice and more of a habit. And it’s a habit you need to break.”

Tess wanted to be mad at Sasha. She wanted to tell her to stay out of her love life, but Sasha was just echoing some of the same thoughts that had been rattling around in her own brain lately. “Maybe.”

“I love you, Tess, but you need to live a little more. Unless you really are tracking bigfoot down for a little romance?”

“Um, yuck?”

Sasha laughed. “Glad to hear it.” Her eyes shifted beyond Tess. “Hey, Dev.”

Tess smiled. “You’re not getting—”

“Hello, ladies.”

Tess closed her eyes.
Damn
. She opened them to find Dev looking right at her. Standing at six foot one, he had broad shoulders, washboard abs, and hazel eyes that stood out in an almost classic Native American face with high cheekbones and a strong forehead.

After his parents—who both had ties to the Hoopa and Klamath tribes in the area—divorced, Dev’s mom had moved back with her family in Beauford, and Dev had shown up in the same seventh grade class as Pax. The two soon became fast friends, and Dev had been in and out of their house throughout high school. An attraction had bloomed between Tess and Dev, and it had remained ever since, but neither of them had ever acted on it. At first, it had been because of Pax. But then, the timing had always been off.

Sasha nudged her chin toward where the fight had broken out. “So, what was that all about?”

“One idiot accused the other of knocking the table when he took his shot. They’re cooling their heels in the parking lot.” He turned his full attention on Tess. “How’d the conference go?”

“Pretty good,” she said, her mind going blank.

“Pretty good?” Sasha echoed. “She got a grant for the next two years with enough money to put cameras all over that forest.”

Abby had been in negotiations with Hayes’s people for the last week, and she said she was really close to getting it all settled. Tess was cautiously optimistic that everything would work out.

Dev grinned, showing off perfect teeth, and Tess sighed.
Why does he have to have perfect teeth too? Couldn’t he have one physical flaw? A lazy eye? A crooked nose? A hairy mole on his face? Make this whole thing a little easier to ignore?

“That’s great. So I guess that means we’ll be keeping you in town for another two years, huh?” Dev said.

“Looks like,” Tess agreed, her gaze meeting his and her pulse leaping.

Sasha slid out of her side of the booth. “Well, I need to get going. I’m meeting a new potential client first thing in the morning.”

“Oh, okay.” Disappointed, Tess started to get up too.

Sasha waved her back down. “No, no. You stay. Dev, you’ll see she gets home all right, won’t you?”

“Be happy to,” Dev said.

Sasha squeezed his bicep. “Thank you.” She leaned over and kissed Tess on the cheek, whispering, “And
you
can thank me later.” She stepped back. “Have fun, you two.” With a wave she headed through the crowd toward the exit.

Dev slid into the booth across from Tess. He nodded at her beer. “Another?”

Live a little
, a tiny Sasha yelled at Tess from inside her mind.

Tess smiled. “Sounds good.”

CHAPTER 14

T
hree hours later, Tess sat in the passenger seat of Dev’s Jeep. They had talked non-stop since Sasha had left. It had always been like that between them. The conversation just flowed, effortlessly.

“So then he offered me the grant. And now Abby is trying to work out some of the details. She says she’s close, so hopefully in the next few days it’ll go through.”

Dev pulled up in front of Tess’s cabin and turned off the car. “That’s amazing. Carter Hayes—you’ve actually met him.”

“Well—digital him.”

“That’s more than most. It’s really impressive. I always knew that brain of yours would take you places.”

She felt a warm glow at his words. “Well, I should go.” She started to open the door. Dev quickly opened his and came around, offering her his hand.

“It’s okay,” Tess said. “I can walk it myself.”

“My mother didn’t raise me that way.” Dev took her hand and they walked hand in hand to the cabin.

As they walked up the steps, he said, “Pax told me you had a visitor out here while you were out of town.”

That was one thing Tess had always liked about Dev—he’d never doubted bigfoot existed. Both sides of his ancestry believed, and his parents had taught him and his siblings about their brother in the woods. It’s probably what had helped Pax and him bond so close together initially.

“Yeah,” Tess said. “Nothing was disturbed. I just found some prints.”

“You okay being out here alone?” Dev asked.

“Well, I’m not alone. I’ve got Shelby.”

Dev laughed. “She’s what, a hundred in dog years?”

“Only seventy. But still going strong. Well, besides a little arthritis in her back legs.”

“Seriously, if you get any more visitors, give me a call, day or night.” Dev was a deputy with the county sheriff.

Tess looked up at him, feeling like she was sixteen. “Yes, officer.”

He smiled, and Tess’s heart gave another little tug. “Good. And I’ll make sure someone drives by here a little more often, all right?”

“I’ll be fine, Dev. He doesn’t want to hurt me.”

“He?”

“I think it’s the same guy I’ve seen evidence of in the woods. He’s probably just hungry.”

Dev pulled her to a stop, squeezing her hand. “Just be careful. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Tess couldn’t seem to breathe. She leaned forward, and Dev did the same.

And then his radio squawked to life. “Dev, we’ve got a fight over at Poor Richard’s. Are you in the area?”

Dev sighed and pulled back. He stepped away from Tess and pulled his radio off his belt. “Yeah, I’m around. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

He turned back to Tess. “Well, duty calls. You good?”

Disappointed, unfulfilled.
Out loud she said. “Yeah, I’m good.”

He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek in a very brotherly fashion. She tried to keep the sigh from escaping her lips.

“Good night,” he said.

“Night.”

Dev headed down the stairs and Tess turned to unlock the door.

“Tess?”

She turned as Dev walked back up the steps. He took her face in his hands and kissed her. Tess felt like she was melting. Her heart raced, her arms wound their way around his waist, and she wanted the kiss to go on forever.

Dev pulled back and leaned his forehead into hers. “I’ve wanted to do that for years.”

She smiled. “I’m glad you finally did.”

“Have dinner with me next weekend?”

“Okay.”

He kissed her again, this time briefly. “I have to go.” He gave her one last look and hurried down the steps.

Tess watched him go, her heart hammering. As he pulled out of the drive, he blinked his lights at her. She waved and let herself in.

Shelby tottered over to her. Tess slumped down to sit next to her on the floor. She traced her hand over her lips, feeling Dev’s lips there. Her stomach did backflips.
Oh, boy.