Another night on the couch, another morning of pancakes. I didn’t know why I kept making them, but she seemed to like it, and I didn’t mind.

Maybe we needed a little normalcy. We’d been jumping between fearing for our lives, making deals with dangerous people, and fucking each other like there was nothing left in the world. Pancakes and coffee in the morning felt safe, normal, and it evened us out.

We talked idly at breakfast, neither of us mentioning what we had done on the table just the day before. But it was always there, in the back of my mind, waiting there. I couldn’t get the way she looked at me as she came out of my damn head, or the way I felt as I filled that pussy up.

That desire had always been there from the very first second I saw her, but there was something more growing between us, something else. The more she got to see me and the more I got to see her, the more I wanted to save her. It was becoming less about helping a stranger in need and more about saving someone I actually gave a shit about.

Maybe that had always been there. Maybe it was lurking in the shadows, sitting on the edges, hiding just out of sight. That desire was slowly transforming to a need, but maybe it always had been.

After breakfast, we dressed and got in the car. I glanced at her as we drove and rolled the window down. She smiled at me, her blond hair blowing in the wind, and she laughed as she pulled it back.

We were going to see Markus again. Things were getting sticky in Knoxville, and now that I was deep in with both sides, I was worried about him. Markus was a good man, a smart man, despite appearances. He knew how to take care of himself, but I still couldn’t just leave him alone.

I pulled up front of his place and we got out. “Think he’ll force me to drink again?” Hartley said softly as we walked toward his house.

“Probably,” I said. “I think you can take it, though.”

She looked at me seriously. “Travis, I don’t think I can.”

I laughed just as Markus came to the door. He was his usual bearish self.

“What are you two laughing about?” he asked.

“Just talking about your moonshine,” I answered.

“Ain’t no laughing matter,” he said, smiling. “Moonshine is a serious thing.”

“I’m sure it is. You got some time to talk?”

“Sure. Come on in.” I stepped inside and he smiled at Hartley. “Good to see you again.”

“Same to you,” she answered.

“Come on. I’ll set you two up.”

We followed him to the table again, though this time it was a bit less of a mess. Maybe he had been expecting us to visit again, because it seemed as though he had straightened up a bit. Then again, his version of cleaned up was still a disaster for any other normal human.

We sat down and he grabbed three glasses. He got a bottle of whisky from the cupboard, a bottle with an actual label, and I gave Hartley a grin. She looked relieved as hell. Markus poured three glasses and we toasted.

“So,” he said, “what brings you back to the hills?”

“What have you heard lately?” I asked him, pouring three more drinks.

“Heard some things,” he admitted. “Some rumors floating around. Apparently the Caldwells had a visitor, or maybe got attacked.”

“I heard that too,” I said.

Markus sighed. “Boy, what the fuck are you playing at here?”

I laughed. “Straight to the point then?”

“Just tell me what you want.”

“There’s a storm coming,” I said. “Something bad is going to happen between the Caldwells and the Dixie Mafia.”

“And you two are in the middle of it all,” he said, sipping his drink.

I nodded, sipping mine. Nothing like a good whisky to take the edge off, and there were plenty of damn edges to get taken off right now.

“We are,” Hartley said, “but not because we want to be. We’re just trying to win.”

“I hear it,” Markus said. “Still, not good people to get down with.”

“Hartley is in trouble, Markus. Whatever we’re doing is meant to keep her alive.”

“All right then. So you want the girl alive. Why are you here?”

“I want you to stay alive, too,” I said. “Listen, I don’t know exactly how this is all going to play out, but they might want to hurt me at some point. Which means you’re in danger.”

Markus sighed. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“This is different.”

“Is it? Three years ago when they tried to squash my moonshine business, was that different? Had a gun to my skull, you know. I’m still here.”

“This is bigger than bootlegging.”

“Maybe it is, but I’m a survivor.” Markus sighed. “Your momma and your daddy were survivors too.”

“They’re dead,” I said. “They didn’t do a great job at surviving.”

“They survived this damn place for a long time. So they had vices; we all fucking do. But your parents, they gutted it out for as long as they could.”

“This is bigger than all that,” I said.

“No it ain’t, and you know it. You were born and raised here. You’re a native son. You know we don’t run away.”

“Except for all the other cousins,” I said. “They ran away.”

“Cowards,” Markus said, waving a hand. “Your parents died, but they didn’t run.”

“They should have. Ray should have gotten out, too. I was the only one with enough brains to see it.”

“Yeah, maybe. But look at you now, stuck in the middle of a Knoxville gang war, all these years later. Run as far as you want, boy, but you can’t ever escape from who you are.”

I knocked back my drink, anger rising up inside me. Markus didn’t know me, not anymore. Maybe he knew the kid I was a long time ago, that dumb asshole redneck idiot, but I wasn’t that person anymore, not by a long shot.

I stood up. “We just came to warn you, Markus. Get out of town and stay out for a while, until this all blows over.”

“I’ll be fine,” he said, looking away.

“Come on, Hartley.”

She stood. “It was nice seeing you again,” she said to Markus.

“Always a pleasure.”

I turned and left, Hartley close behind.

Damn Markus was as stubborn as they came. That man was going to get killed, or he was going to get everyone else killed. If they came at him, I couldn’t be sure I wouldn’t make a dumb move just to try to save his life.

Angry and not ready to leave, I cut across the yard and headed toward the woods. Hartley caught up with me and walked by my side but didn’t say a word.

I liked that about her. She knew when she should push and when she should walk along and let things play out. She was damn smart like that, able to read a room or a person. It was an impressive quality.

We passed into the woods and I began to follow a familiar path, barely more than a single track in the dirt. It was much more overgrown than I remembered, probably since Markus had stopped walking it a long time ago. But the path was still there, and my memory held firm.

Soon enough, I could hear it just ahead. We crossed through some bushes and there ahead of us was a small stream running over the rocks.

“This is where I learned to fish,” I said.

“Doesn’t seem like many fish live here,” Hartley observed.

I laughed. “Back then it seemed huge.”

“How old were you?”

“Seven maybe? Probably younger. It’s hard to say.”

“Markus taught you?”

“He sure did. My father didn’t teach me shit about the world.”

“That can’t be true.”

“Believe me, it is.”

Hartley stood next to me, close and almost touching. “We have something like this back on my farm.”

“Yeah?”

“Sure. A little stream. A bit deeper and bigger, but a lot like this. My dad taught me and my brothers how to fish in that stream, too.” She smiled to herself. “We used to compete to see who could catch the biggest fish. Dad always won.”

I couldn’t help but smile while picturing little Hartley trying to beat her brothers in a fishing competition.

“Markus used to tell me stories,” I recalled. “Mostly bullshit, I’m sure, but it was good to getting treated normal for a little while.”

“I understand that. I liked being treated like one of the boys back then. My momma always tried to get me in the kitchen, but I wasn’t interested.”

“Not a surprise there,” I said, smirking at her.

“Hey now. I haven’t cooked for you. I think you’d be pleasantly surprised.”

“I just think I’d be surprised period.” I looked back out over the stream. “Good memories are here, though. I used to want to be just like my old man, except for when I was here.”

“What did you want when you were here?”

“Never to leave.”

We lapsed into a short silence then. I bent over and found a smooth stone and skipped it over the water. Hartley did the same, and we skipped stones for a bit together.

“I used to climb trees,” Hartley said finally. “My parents hated it. I used to climb to the tops of the trees on the farm, and my brothers would try to follow, but they were always too scared.”

“I like that,” I said. “I can see you doing that.”

“They used to whine. ‘Hartley, come back down, you’re too high.’ As if I were breaking some kind of rule by being a better climber than they were.”

I laughed and skipped a stone deep across the stream. “For a boy, getting beat by a girl is like some kind of big deal.”

“It’s stupid. I don’t know where that comes from.”

I shrugged. “Who fucking knows. Culture, I guess.”

“I never let it bother me much, though. I just kept climbing, higher and higher, until I couldn’t hear their whining anymore.”

I skipped one last stone and then sighed, watching the ripples spread out across the water. Soon the ripples disappeared into the water, swallowed by the relentless and unstoppable march of water.

“My brother used to kick my ass,” I said. “He used to beat my ass for any old reason. I hated him, hated his fucking guts.” I stretched and looked at her. “Once, in middle school, there was this big fella, Justin Thoreaux. His family was a bunch of rednecks, like all of us, but they were worse.

“Anyway, he picked on me one day after school, stole my backpack from me and was just dumping it on the ground while he laughed at me. I got so mad I punched that kid square in the jaw, but he was twice my size and two years older, so it didn’t do much. Only pissed him off.

“He started whooping my ass. I mean, shit, I might have died if Ray hadn’t stepped in. But Ray did step in, and he threw that kid to the ground. He punched and kicked that boy Justin until he was crying and bloody, and when he was done he stood over him, just breathing real hard. He said to him, ‘Nobody beats on my brother but me.’ Then he just walked away.”

Hartley shook her head. “Did you guys become close after that?”

“Nah,” I said, “but I hated him less and less. We didn’t fight as much. He didn’t try beating on me as much, and I didn’t try to one-up him in everything like little brothers do sometimes.”

“I understand that,” she said, nodding.

“Anyway, it’s all history now. Ray is just a memory. I guess we have more important things to worry about.”

Hartley bit her lip and stepped toward me. “What are you going to do after all this is over?”

I shrugged. “Who knows? I’m not thinking that far ahead.”

“I want you to visit my farm. Travis, it’s beautiful. Long rows of peach trees, hedgerows, the chickens and the goats. I can show you the stream and we can skip stones just like these.”

I smiled. “Okay. I can do that. So long as you can make me a peach pie.”

She laughed. “I can do that, believe it or not.”

“Of course you can. You’re a good southern girl.” I turned away from the stream. “Come on. Let’s head back.”

She nodded and we started walking. We didn’t walk fast, and we walked close side by side. We weren’t holding hands, but our fingers brushed each other. I listened to the woods and to the stream receding into the distance as we moved away from it.

We were getting closer and closer to something else, and neither of us wanted to name it. Maybe it was like a magic spell, where if you spoke the name, the thing disappeared.

I didn’t much need to speak about it, though. I was content walking through the woods with Hartley, the best tree climber on her farm. Beautiful fucking Hartley, her long blond hair swaying slightly in the breeze.