Read Online Hiking for Danger by Capri Montgomery - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Capri Montgomery
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She smiled back. She had never thought of herself as exotic, she had more or less looked at herself as being plain. She was the odd ball in the family.
Her parents loved adventure, her sister loved it so much she became an Anthropologist and spent years at a time living among native cultures. Her brother was always off on some big nature photography quest in the jungles of South America. She was the only one perfectly happy curling up with a good book or an old black and white movie and just being at home. Now she knew why. Adventure and Sahara were not meant to be friends. Whenever she did something new or thought she would try something a bit on the wild side, she ended up hurting herself or embarrassing herself and usually the two went hand in hand. Case and point—sprained ankle on her first hike—or more like what she hoped was just a severe sprain. No, correction, thinking her first hike was a four hour hike when she had actually booked some wilderness man special and to follow that up would be major damage to her ankle. She wasn’t sure she would be able to live it down with Kallie and Jeff, but she would try. Maybe she could think of some exotic tale for how she managed to have her ankle injured, but then she remembered, she studied bugs, not the fine art of creating fiction and if she even tried to lie they would see right through that.
Well, then she would just tell them the truth and play up the angle of holding on to the very sexy guide. And when they mocked her at the next family party—which she knew they would because they always did—then she would just smile and say, “but I got to latch on to a total sex god in the process.” That should work just fine to save her from looking completely humiliated over her failed stab at adventure.
“So what do your friends call you?”
“Well my middle name is Danica, so sometimes they call me SD. I hate that and usually refuse to answer.”
“What about your family?”
She wondered if he were looking for a shorter version of her name, not that it was that long in the first place, but she long ago learned that people seemed to like to shorten things. Kallie was Kay and Jeffery had become Jeff her mom was Cass instead of Cassandra to all her friends and her dad had become Griff instead of Griffin. Shortening Sahara just didn’t seem to work. People either called her Hara or SD and she hated both so she refused to answer. Most of her friends respected that and only called her either of the two when they wanted to tease.
“My family calls me Sahara,” she said. “It’s usually followed by something exasperating though. Like, Sahara, the girl who couldn’t climb a mountain if God lowered it into a plane. Or Sahara, the girl the stork left at the wrong door.” She finally looked up at him and noticed he looked more bothered by it than she was. Of course, she did have a lifetime to get used to her family. “Oh yes,” she said. “I’m the butt of all jokes at family shindigs. You see everybody in my family is adventurous being that they’re all basically explorers, risk takers, and all that good stuff. I’m not talking just my immediate family either.” No, even her aunts on both her mom and dad side of the family, her uncles, grandparents—both sides again, were all adventurous. Apparently even their great aunts, great uncles, great grandparents and beyond were all adventurers too. From the stories passed down in her family she knew that their family was laced with adventurers and she was definitely the square peg trying to fit into a board of nothing but circles.
“Me,” she said. “I study bugs. Such a boring profession for a Daniels,” she mocked in her dad’s tone of voice. She had hoped they would be proud of her for her work. Okay, so she studied bugs and that probably wasn’t as interesting as living among native jungle dwellers, but it was a good profession. She made quite a bit of money and she had just been offered a research
Her parents loved adventure, her sister loved it so much she became an Anthropologist and spent years at a time living among native cultures. Her brother was always off on some big nature photography quest in the jungles of South America. She was the only one perfectly happy curling up with a good book or an old black and white movie and just being at home. Now she knew why. Adventure and Sahara were not meant to be friends. Whenever she did something new or thought she would try something a bit on the wild side, she ended up hurting herself or embarrassing herself and usually the two went hand in hand. Case and point—sprained ankle on her first hike—or more like what she hoped was just a severe sprain. No, correction, thinking her first hike was a four hour hike when she had actually booked some wilderness man special and to follow that up would be major damage to her ankle. She wasn’t sure she would be able to live it down with Kallie and Jeff, but she would try. Maybe she could think of some exotic tale for how she managed to have her ankle injured, but then she remembered, she studied bugs, not the fine art of creating fiction and if she even tried to lie they would see right through that.
Well, then she would just tell them the truth and play up the angle of holding on to the very sexy guide. And when they mocked her at the next family party—which she knew they would because they always did—then she would just smile and say, “but I got to latch on to a total sex god in the process.” That should work just fine to save her from looking completely humiliated over her failed stab at adventure.
“So what do your friends call you?”
“Well my middle name is Danica, so sometimes they call me SD. I hate that and usually refuse to answer.”
“What about your family?”
She wondered if he were looking for a shorter version of her name, not that it was that long in the first place, but she long ago learned that people seemed to like to shorten things. Kallie was Kay and Jeffery had become Jeff her mom was Cass instead of Cassandra to all her friends and her dad had become Griff instead of Griffin. Shortening Sahara just didn’t seem to work. People either called her Hara or SD and she hated both so she refused to answer. Most of her friends respected that and only called her either of the two when they wanted to tease.
“My family calls me Sahara,” she said. “It’s usually followed by something exasperating though. Like, Sahara, the girl who couldn’t climb a mountain if God lowered it into a plane. Or Sahara, the girl the stork left at the wrong door.” She finally looked up at him and noticed he looked more bothered by it than she was. Of course, she did have a lifetime to get used to her family. “Oh yes,” she said. “I’m the butt of all jokes at family shindigs. You see everybody in my family is adventurous being that they’re all basically explorers, risk takers, and all that good stuff. I’m not talking just my immediate family either.” No, even her aunts on both her mom and dad side of the family, her uncles, grandparents—both sides again, were all adventurous. Apparently even their great aunts, great uncles, great grandparents and beyond were all adventurers too. From the stories passed down in her family she knew that their family was laced with adventurers and she was definitely the square peg trying to fit into a board of nothing but circles.
“Me,” she said. “I study bugs. Such a boring profession for a Daniels,” she mocked in her dad’s tone of voice. She had hoped they would be proud of her for her work. Okay, so she studied bugs and that probably wasn’t as interesting as living among native jungle dwellers, but it was a good profession. She made quite a bit of money and she had just been offered a research
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