Free Web NovelChapter 40: Chapter 40 Greg Shows Up
_Author’s POV_
Rowena came through the front door at a near-run, which was the fastest she had moved in days that weren’t motivated by an emergency, and nearly walked directly into Greg.
He was standing in the middle of the front path with his hands in his pockets and the particular expression of a man who had arrived somewhere he had not been explicitly invited and had decided that confidence was the best available strategy.
“Greg,” Rowena acknowledged.
“Rowena.” He grinned. “You look great. Divorce agrees with you.”
Kasper, standing ten feet away near the second truck, made a sound that was either a laugh or a cough and was probably both.
Greg Fenn had been Kasper’s closest friend since they were fourteen years old, which meant Rowena had known him for roughly the same amount of time, which meant she had developed a comprehensive understanding of exactly what he was, cheerful, irreverent, incapable of reading a room as anything other than an opportunity, and possessed of the specific gift of making tense situations feel lighter without diminishing them.
He was also, technically, not invited.
“Kasper,” Rowena said.
“He heard about the outing,” Kasper said.
“I begged,” Greg confirmed, without shame. “On my knees. Literally. Kasper has a photograph.” He looked at her hopefully. “I haven’t been out of the city in three weeks and my apartment smells like takeaway containers and I will be extremely useful. I carry things. I build fires. I tell excellent jokes.”
Rowena looked at him.
“The children will love me,” he added.
From inside the first truck, one of Miriam’s daughters appeared at the window and waved at Greg, who had apparently already introduced himself, which confirmed that he had been here long enough to make friends and had used the time effectively.
“Get in the truck, Greg,” Rowena said.
He moved immediately, with the speed of someone who knew that permission had an expiration window.
Pierre was already in the second vehicle, which Rowena learned when she opened the door and found him sitting with the covered basket on his lap.
“Good morning,” he said.
“Good morning,” she said, and got in.
The convoy moved out five minutes later, three trucks, the children audible from the first vehicle before the gates had fully closed behind them, spring light hitting the road in long clean panels.
The location was two hours north, on private Ashthorne land that Rowena had not visited since she was seventeen.
It was a forested valley with a stream running through the lower section and a wide clearing at the center that was perfect for exactly this, a camp, a fire, room to move in every direction. The trees were fully leafed in the early spring green that lasted only a few weeks before deepening into summer, the kind of color that made everything look new regardless of how old it was.
The children were out of the first truck before it fully stopped.
Miriam called after them twice and then gave up, which was the correct response. Vicky watched them go.
Kasper assigned tasks. Greg received the fire-building assignment, which he accepted and then immediately began building in a way that was structurally questionable but entertaining to watch.
Pierre set up the portable stove.
Or attempted to.
He was assembling the connection between the gas canister and the burner when he made a mistake that should not have been possible for a man who had camped in every terrain type the region offered — he connected the wrong fitting, realized it, disconnected it, and then did it again in a slightly different wrong way.
Kasper noticed. Greg noticed. They said nothing for thirty seconds, which was their version of remarkable restraint.
“Pierre,” Greg said eventually, from his position beside the fire. “That’s the same fitting.”
“I know,” Pierre said.
“You’ve done it twice.”
“I’m aware.”
“Just....” Greg gestured helpfully. “The other one. The one on the left.”
“Greg,” Kasper said.
“I’m helping.....”
“You’re not helping.”
“He’s put it in wrong three times.....”
“He knows he’s put it in wrong three times.”
Pierre picked up the fitting, looked at it, and then looked at the spot on the trail where the path from the vehicle parking came out into the clearing. He had been looking at that spot with some frequency since they arrived.
Kasper watched him look at it. Then he looked at Greg. Greg looked back at Kasper with eyebrows raised.
Neither of them said anything.
The correct fitting went in on the fourth attempt, which happened approximately ninety seconds after Rowena came through the tree line from the direction of the parking area. freewebnovёl.ƈom
“There she is,” Greg said, brightly and completely unnecessarily.
Rowena came into the clearing and the shift in the atmosphere was immediate and genuine, not dramatic, just the specific warmth of a group that had been slightly incomplete and was now not. The children redirected immediately and came at her from three angles. Miriam’s face opened into the unguarded smile she reserved for people she was genuinely happy to see. Vicky straightened from where she’d been unpacking and said something welcoming that got lost in the children’s noise.
Pierre had the stove working by this point and was not looking at the path anymore.
Rowena extracted herself from the children with the ease of someone who grew up around them and came to where Pierre was standing.
“You got it working,” she said.
“Eventually,” he said.
She looked at the stove. Then at him. Something in her expression was warmer than usual — not pointed, just open, the way she was when she wasn’t managing anything.
“Good,” she said. “I’m hungry.”
Greg, from across the clearing, caught Kasper’s eye and pointed at Pierre with the triumphant expression of someone whose theory had just been confirmed.
Kasper told him, quietly and firmly, to go back to the fire.
He went, still grinning.
They ate late breakfast around the stove and the fire — Pierre’s basket turned out to contain things that required actual preparation, which meant he had either spent the previous evening cooking or knew someone who had, and either way it was excellent. The children ate with the efficiency of small people who had been running since they arrived and needed refueling. Greg told a joke that made Vicky laugh so unexpectedly that she choked on her tea, which made everyone laugh harder.
Miriam looked at Rowena across the fire, and Rowena looked back, and something passed between them that was simply gratitude, the acknowledgment that this, right here, was what had been missing.
After breakfast, Kasper stood and proposed the hunt with the energy of a man who had been waiting for exactly this moment.
“Teams,” he said. “Points for clean catch, bonus points for variety. Prize to be determined.” He looked around the group. “Greg and I. Pierre and Rowena.”
Greg pointed at Pierre. “That’s favoritism.”
“That’s balance,” Kasper said. “Pierre is an Alpha. He’ll hold Rowena back out of politeness.”
Pierre said nothing, which was its own kind of response.
Rowena picked up her gear.
“Don’t embarrass yourselves,” she said to Kasper.
“You’re going down,” Greg told her, cheerfully and with complete confidence.
She smiled and walked toward the tree line.
Pierre followed.
