“I think I’ll wait a few more minutes for Matt, but thanks.”
The two women said goodbye and left.
Dana didn’t have to wait much longer. She watched him say goodbye to a couple of reporters at the main entrance of town hall and head for his car, noticing his pace slow down as he recognized her, leaning against it.
“Listen,” he said as he drew nearer. “I want to thank you for speaking tonight. I know how difficult it must have been, especially with your father there.”
“You saw him.”
“I did. I assume he was there for the aftermeeting with the council?”
She nodded. “I know you’re giving your mom and sister a ride home, so I’ll make this quick.” She smiled, hoping that would be possible. “It was very brave of you to talk about yourself tonight, to explain why you were there on the Green Line that day. I wish you’d told me that before. I might have been...I don’t know...taken aback? But it wouldn’t have changed my feelings or my esteem for you.”
He was about to say something, but she stopped him. “I’m not just saying that after the fact, Matt. I know what kind of person you are now and that’s all that matters to me. And I have a feeling that the Mateo of twenty years ago wasn’t all that different. Maybe hurting and more confused. But deep inside, he was the same you as now. He must have been, with a mother like Esperanza.”
That brought a wistful smile from him.
“I guess we’re kind of even now, aren’t we? About the secrets we’ve kept from one another,” she added.
“I guess, Dana.” Then he nodded. “Yeah, we are.” His smile widened.
“Our worlds are different, Matt, but I believe I can be there for Dad and the firm and still do some good for others. It’s important for me to strengthen my relationship with my father—he’s the only family I have at the moment.” She hesitated a moment, almost afraid to go on. “But do you think we can make this work? You and me?”
Matt drew her into his arms. “We will make it work, Dana. As long as we stay true to ourselves. Just Matt and Dana. That’s all.” He bent his head to her upturned face and kissed her. When his mouth eventually moved from hers, she said, “I think I see your mom and Rosie coming back from the coffee shop.”
He sighed and pulled away. “Tomorrow?”
Dana thought about the next few days. A talk with her father and the meeting with Ross Henning were at the top of her list. But she also owed her father time at the office, to make amends. “If not tomorrow, then soon. Very soon.” She reached up to stroke the side of his face.
“Soon,” he murmured. She smiled, gave a slight wave and walked toward her car at the other end of the parking lot.
* * *
DANA TACKLED THE discussion with her father first thing the next morning.
“How long have you been mulling this over? Since you started helping out at the camp?” he asked, after she outlined her proposal to work two days a week at the community legal clinic Ross Henning had referred her to.
Not “that camp” anymore, was her first thought. “Not exactly. I think I’ve been wanting a change for a long time—I just didn’t know what shape it would take. I know Ross Henning from law school and had heard he was doing some pro bono work. When I met the parents of the boys accused of arson—you know, the incident raised at the meeting—I arranged for Ross to speak with them. They were frightened and had no access or means to get legal help. Afterward I started thinking maybe that was the kind of work I’d like to get into.”
He frowned. “Are you considering leaving the firm?”
“No! But I want something more challenging, Dad. I need to feel I’m helping people, not egotistical business people and faceless corporations.”
Brent’s eyes widened. “I won’t point out your overreaching generalization there, Dana, except to say those people contributed much to your education and your lifestyle.”
Dana sighed, “You’re right, Dad, and I take back all the overreaching adjectives.”
He grinned. “Fair enough. Okay. Let’s make a deal.”
She straightened in her chair. “Terms?”
“That’s my girl,” he said, smiling. “We’ll work something out. I’m amenable to your proposal but it will affect your getting the junior partnership.” His face was serious now.
She thought for a long moment before saying, “I’m okay with that.”
He nodded. “All right then.” He paused, then added, “About your story, the other night.”
Dana took a deep breath and waited.
“There’s no point in telling you how shocked and horrified I was to learn what might have happened that day. Or how I wanted to charge up to the front of the room and grab Matt and hug him for what he did. For saving my life, too, because I... You know...” His voice cracked. “My life would have been over then if—”
Dana reached across his desk and placed her hand on his. “Dad, I’m sorry you had to find out the way you did. It wasn’t fair to you and it was selfish of me.”
“I get why you never told me. I was already way too overbearing, wasn’t I?”
She could only nod.
“And that’s what I need to explain, honey. We’ve only talked about your mother once, when you found out what really happened. I figured you knew the truth then and that you would move on, the way I had. Because I had, Dana. Your mother—God rest her soul—had depression for years. I blamed myself for not seeing the signs or recognizing how much she was suffering. But I also blamed her in a way, for not coming to me. For not opening up.”
“Maybe she couldn’t.”
His sigh was heartfelt. “I guess not.” After a long moment, Brent commented, “I like your man. He’s not someone I’d have picked for you even a few months ago, but now I’m all for him.”
Dana flushed. “I don’t think he’s really my man, Dad, the way you’re implying.”
“Oh, he is, Dana, believe me. You just have to tell him so.”
Later that day, after Dana met briefly with Ross to discuss her request for pro bono service to the legal clinic’s board, she considered phoning Matt again, but an important call changed her mind.
“Dad?”
“Listen, Dana, thought I’d give you a heads-up about Nirvana.”
Dry mouthed, she managed to squeak out a “Yes?”
“Just got word from Mike Lim.”
This was it. “Okay,” was all she could say over the lump in her throat.
“He’s just advised me that Nirvana has withdrawn their offer. They’ve decided to look elsewhere for a property.”
The pounding in her ears almost drowned out what Brent was saying and she had to ask him to repeat himself. “And you should know,” he added, “I had nothing to do with this. Mike was impressed by the presentation and the testimonials. He says there are plenty of other choices for Nirvana, including the ones I forwarded from you, but the Maple Lake site should stay with Camp Hope. He more or less told the council the same thing. I think there’s a good chance they might renew the lease, rather than sell.”
Dana had to sit down to let that news sink in. Despite what her father had said about his lack of involvement, she wondered if he’d had an ulterior motive for taking the CEO to the presentation. She could only say, “Thanks, for today and everything else.”
When he disconnected, there was one person Dana knew she had to call. But meeting him in person was the better choice.
* * *
MATT’S DOOR BUZZER almost never rang because he seldom had visitors. He’d just had a long hot shower to ease out the kinks from the tense postpresentation discussion with staff that afternoon, was toweled and half-dressed when he picked up the intercom phone and heard Dana’s voice.
He buzzed her in and quickly rummaged in his closet for a fresh shirt, which he was buttoning when he opened the door for her. The
flush in her cheeks and glow in her eyes wasn’t for his half-dressed appearance, Matt realized, as she blurted out, “They’ve backed out. Nirvana, I mean!”
He was only half listening, focused on her lovely, breathless presence and thanking whatever news or good fortune had brought her to him. He pulled her close, folding her up in his arms, relief washing through him. No more phone calls or text messages, he was thinking. This is what I’ve been wanting. Her, right here with me.
When she tilted her head up to his she said, “I know we haven’t heard from the council yet, but this is a good first step, right?”
“Shh,” he whispered. “Not yet. Let’s just take this moment and stick with it for...I don’t know...maybe a day or so?”
She laughed, then snuggled closer into him. He liked the feel of her against him, the contours and hollows but most of all, the warmth. He knew there was more to talk about—hopes and dreams as well as apologies, but for now, he was content to just hold her tight and try not to think about a life without Dana.
* * *
DANA STUCK HER parking ticket into the slot and waited for the gate arm to lift. The rest of the week was a blur of sensations. Matt’s embrace—safe and strong as it had been twenty years ago—and his lips on hers. She’d wanted Tuesday night to last forever and in one way, it had. The promises they made each other long after they’d talked through the painful hours of the past few days would last. That much she knew. As to the rest, the mundane details of when and how and where would sort themselves out.
Right now, Esperanza was in surgery and Matt and Rosie were expecting Dana. She found them in the surgical-floor waiting room, their arms around one another, and slipped onto the chair on the other side of Matt’s. When he turned to her, she whispered, “My Dad just heard from the Nirvana CEO that the council has decided to renew the lease for five years, with an option to buy. I’m guessing Nirvana put in a word of support for the camp’s continuation. The council has probably sent you an email.”
He was struggling to speak, and she quickly added, grinning, “Dad says he’ll broker the deal, pro bono.”
He clasped her hand in his and sagged against the back of his chair. Rosie patted Dana’s arm and leaned her head on Matt’s shoulder. The room was silent, and Dana let her thoughts fall into the void, content to be next to Matt, waiting.
An hour later, the surgeon walked slowly down the long corridor to stand in front of them. “She’s going to be fine. Everything went well and we feel we got it all.”
Matt stumbled to his feet to shake hands with the doctor while Rosie began to cry. Dana wrapped her arms around them both and squeezed tight. An important life saved, she was thinking, and a new future for all of us.
* * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from Reunited with the Cowboy by Claire McEwen.
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Reunited with the Cowboy
by Claire McEwen
CHAPTER ONE
MAYA BURTON HAD always loved being alone in the wilderness. But after three hours of climbing through steep, dense, shadowy forest, it occurred to her that this nighttime hike through mountain lion territory might dim that love, just a bit.
It had felt like a good idea, back in Shelter Creek. The odds of meeting a mountain lion on the trail were low, and facing a lion seemed a lot less scary than facing the memories waiting in her hometown.
But Maya had forgotten that forests in this part of California were full of oak and bay trees that sent their branches arching right over the trail. And mountain lions loved to hang out on branches. Shining her flashlight to make sure she was safe still didn’t ease the prickly feeling on the back of her neck as she passed underneath.
When she finally reached the edge of the forest, stepping out onto the wide-open ridgetop was sheer relief. She loved studying mountain lions, but she was glad to be in a place where they couldn’t drop on her from above. Maya took in the full moon beaming in the sky, tinting the grassy meadows and scrubby slopes with silver. So much moonlight, she could put her flashlight away.
They were out here too though. Mountain lions, pumas, cougars, catamounts, ghost cats, panthers...maybe the big cats had so many names because they were so mysterious. Able to exist alongside people without anyone realizing they were even there.
Except lately the mountain lions in this area had been attacking livestock on local ranches. And people definitely noticed that.
That was why Maya was here, in the coastal hills surrounding her hometown of Shelter Creek, on a two-month assignment for the Department of Wildlife. She was going to try to find pumas. Photograph them. Count and classify them. Assess the population’s overall health and figure out why they were eating so many sheep.
But she’d rather not meet any big cats out here in the dark. “Okay, pumas,” she said to the shadowed spaces just past the moonlight. “If you’re out there, beat it. I’m coming into your territory and you are not allowed to bother me.”
She was being silly. Most big predators would prefer not to run into any humans. Usually people were a meal they didn’t have much appetite for, though once in a while...
Ugh. Don’t think about that.
What was wrong with her tonight? Maya spent weeks at a time living in remote wilderness, studying predators. She rarely worried about being attacked. But tonight she was nervous. Maybe because she was used to the Rocky Mountains, and the way mountain lions behaved when they lived in truly wild places.
Here in Northern California, the mountain lions’ habitat was broken up by ranches, towns, cities, roads, wineries and farms. Pumas with limited territory were less predictable and less afraid of people, and this knowledge made every rustle of grass blown by the breeze off the Pacific travel straight up Maya’s spine.
Or maybe she was jittery because this afternoon she’d come home for the first time in thirteen years. And promptly had a huge panic attack. That was enough to make a gal nervous. To make her decide that it would be better to jump straight into work than to sit in her grandmother’s house, bombarded by memories of the accident that had changed her life forever.
The night she’d lost control of her car and her boyfriend’s sister had been killed.
It had all come flooding back today, as Maya drove past the vintage clapboard buildings and flower-filled yards of Shelter Creek’s Main Street. Each memory was etched with vivid clarity, a high-definition slide in a tragic slideshow. The click of Julie’s seat belt as she freed herself in the back seat. Her drunken refusal when Maya told her to put it back on. Her final words, “No one wants to hear Nirvana,” as she flopped into the front seat to change the music. Her shriek of startled laughter as she lost her balance and fell onto Maya. Her we
ight, her flailing limbs knocking Maya’s hands off the steering wheel, blocking her view of the road ahead.
Memories of panic. Of slamming on the brakes, hitting them too hard, sending them into a skid. And one final image, the single strobe-like flash of trees looming in the headlights.
Pulled over by the side of the road today, bracing her weight on the old sign that read Welcome to Shelter Creek, Maya had gasped for breath and tried to remember what a long-ago therapist had taught her about panic attacks.
Notice what’s real. Notice what’s around you.
Maya had tried to focus on the bumpy gravel beneath her sneakers. The warm, dry air of the summer afternoon. The oily, metallic smell of her truck engine, hot after three days of driving west from her home in Boulder, Colorado. The scolding shriek of a Steller’s jay in a nearby tree.
She’d calmed herself down, but she was desperate to be alone. To have quiet. She was falling apart, and wilderness, solitude and work were the glue that could put her back together.
Luckily Grandma understood. When she’d opened her front door and found her granddaughter sitting on her front porch, stuffing scientific equipment into her backpack, she’d just given Maya a giant hug and gone to pack her some food. Grandma had accepted Maya’s quirks a long time ago.
Maya scanned the moonlit landscape one more time. No critters that she could see, though surely there were all kinds of nocturnal animals roaming these fields. “Ready or not, here I come!” she called, just to make some more noise, and started out across the ridgetop, trying to relax and finally enjoy the night.
At least being home gave her a chance to walk this trail again. She’d hiked these hills every chance she’d had when she was young. Peaceful, wild places had always called to her. Maybe because her early childhood had been filled with so much chaos before she’d come to live with Grandma in Shelter Creek. Maybe because, in wild places, things were simple. One foot in front of the other. Look, listen, think. Alone in the wilderness, other peoples’ decisions, their random acts of craziness, couldn’t affect you. Couldn’t turn your entire life upside down in an instant.
Her Kind of Hero Page 22