Unmasked (New Adult Romance) (The Unmasked Series) by Anya Karin Page B

of anything, especially on such
short notice."
    "Yeah," he said as he rubbed his temples. "I did
have a thought, though."
    "Wait a minute," Alyssa said. "I just had a
brilliant idea. And it should probably work. You remember when I gathered the
mushrooms? Its morel season right now, and also oyster, I think. If I go and
sneak into the Webb place, just like old times, there's no reason I couldn't
manage to gather six hundred bucks worth of fungus in a couple of weeks. With a
whole month, or most of one, there's no doubt in my mind I can make that much."
    In the back of her mind, Alyssa wanted to say 'and
it would also get me one step closer to Preston' but she chose to bite her
tongue.
    "Are you sure? I don't want you to do anything
that makes you uncomfortable. Really, Lyssie, I mean it. I don't want you
fixing my mistakes."
    "How many jams, exactly, did you get me out of
when I was a dumb kid? And then a dumb teenager, and then a dumb college
student? And where do I live right this minute? I'm not bailing you out of
anything. I'm helping you. Just like I want. If there's something I can do, I
want to do it. Okay?"
    "What did I do to deserve a girl like you? I'm
sure I wasn't this good of a parent." Ryan clenched his eyes shut tight, then
opened them and rubbed. "Thank you. I mean it."
    "Say, remember how I thought Preston Webb Sr. was
a hobo who taught me about mushrooms when I was a kid?"
    Her dad took a drink of his coffee and licked a
trace of it off his top lip. "Yeah, of course, that was one of the funniest
things ever. Why?"
    "Preston thought the same thing. When I told him
about it, he almost fell over laughing so hard."
    "I can see why," her dad chuckled. "But Webb used
to show up in town every so often in the same strange get-up. The safari
clothes and all that. I figured you were just pretending he was some crazy
hobo, just like you and Libby spent all that time coming up with stories about
Preston being a Dracula."
    "Vampire."
    "What?"
    "A vampire, daddy," she laughed. "Dracula is
proper name, he is a vampire. That's what we thought Preston was."
    "Oh, yes, well excuse me. I've been up for a
while. Speaking of that, I think I'm gonna go knock off. See if I can get some sleep.
I know I keep saying this, Lyssie, but I really appreciate what you're doing.
There's no way I could do this without you."
    "Don't mention it. Really. I want to help. That's
why I'm here. I'll make my first run tomorrow morning, first thing. Well, second,
I guess after I drop off the kids. I'm actually kind of looking forward to it.
I miss those little guys."
    "Guys? We talking about the same thing?"
    "Yeah. You know. The guys. The fun...guys?" Alyssa
laughed in the same way a comedian who meant to bomb laughs.
    "Very good Lyssie," her dad grinned. "Very good.
Keep your day job, alright?"

Chapter Twelve
    ––––––––
    Crunch.
    Crunch-crunch.
    Alyssa looked back. Nothing. Not a soul.
    "What was that? Is someone back there?"
    She took another step, bent down and plucked one
of the tiny, sweet, yellow mushrooms she loved and put it in her satchel. The
whole process came back to her as soon as she stepped into the woods, like she
hadn't been four years away from the mushrooms.
    "Let's see," she said, peeking inside the leather
bag. "Fourteen, fifteen – oh that's a big one, that'll be worth something –
sixteen. Good day so far, Lys. Find a few more of these and you can take an
early trip to the market."
    Kicking a rotten stump, she stooped to inspect the
hole punched in the side. Sometimes the hard, warty fungus managed to live in
softened wood. No such luck. When she kicked a log a bit to the left, her toes
thumped against hard wood, she yelped and grabbed her foot.
    Crunch .
    That time, it was off behind her. Out here, so
deep in the woods, it was often hard to see much farther than a few feet.
Whatever was behind her – and it could be anything – probably wasn't dangerous.
As far as she knew, there weren't any horribly