Gabe’s eyes got big. “Oh my God, you like her,” he said.
“I just met her,” he said, laughing nervously. “I’d better go make sure she sees us over here.”
Gabe looked over at Sarah then back at his father. “I think I’ll go sit with Alex and the guys over there,” he said, pointing across the room to a group of boys his age.
“That’s fine. I’ll see you after lunch,” Trevor said, already getting to his feet.
His son shook his head and said, “Gross,” but Trevor was already halfway to Sarah and didn’t hear him.
***Sarah***
When she walked in the room, it felt like every eye turned to her, and she wished she’d never come, but then she saw Trevor coming toward her, a huge smile on his face. Her pounding heart did a few flip-flops at the sight of him, and she couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face. She hadn’t felt very hungry coming over, but now that she smelled the food, her stomach began rumbling.
“I’m glad you made it,” Trevor said when he reached her. “The food here is way better than I thought it would be.”
Sarah nodded. “I had dinner here last night, and I would have to agree,” she said, feeling stiff and awkward.
“I’ve got a table over there in the corner,” Trevor said, pointing across the room. “I’ll wait there for you.”
She filled her plate, then took it across the room, trying to ignore the stares that followed her. Choosing a seat across from Trevor, which felt like the safest place to be, she fussed with her food for a few seconds, before finally taking a bite. She ate for a few minutes, the food good enough to distract her from both the silence between them and the whispering behind her back.
But it wasn’t long before Trevor said, “We seem to be attracting some attention.”
She looked up from her food to see three men approaching them. “What do you think they want?” she asked, even more nervous than she’d been before.
Trevor shrugged. “I’m not sure, but we’re about to find out.”
When they got to them, one of the men said, “Sorry to interrupt your lunch, but we just wanted to come over and introduce ourselves. I’m Ben, and this is Mike and Steve; we all work down at the barn.”
“Oh, well, it’s nice to meet you,” Sarah said. “Would you like to join us?”
She caught the scowl that briefly appeared on Trevor’s face, and a thrill ran through her. “Yes, join us,” he said, a forced smile on his face.
“We’ll be right back,” Ben said, then headed for the buffet, Mike and Steve following behind.
“I think Ben is the barn manager,” Trevor said when they were gone. “I didn’t meet him today, but Gabe talked about him.”
“Gabe?” she asked.
“My son; he’s almost twelve,” Trevor said, pride and affection in his voice. “He started riding lessons this morning.”
“That’s nice; he must be enjoying himself up here,” she said, thinking that Trevor didn’t look old enough to have a son that age.
“It’s been hard for him since his mother died,” Trevor said. “We needed a change, and this is certainly a change from the city, but he seems to be adapting.”
“I’m sorry about your wife; it must be hard on you too,” Sarah said, promising herself she’d never let him know she could talk to spirits.
He shrugged. “Our marriage hadn’t been good for a long time, but it’s still been difficult.”
Sarah knew right then that as attracted as she was to Trevor, his life was much too complicated, and she already had too many problems in her life. To her relief, she was saved from having to say anything more by the arrival of Ben and his friends, all carrying huge trays of food. When Ben saw her looking at his heaped plate, he laughed and sat down next to her.
“It’s been a long time since breakfast,” he said, then took a bite of his food.
***Trevor***
Trevor watched, his frustration growing as several more men came up to the table and introduced themselves, then sat down. He had absolutely no reason to feel jealous, but that was exactly what he was feeling as Sarah laughed and joked with everyone at the table but him. Several times, he thought that she was sending him a pleading look, but it disappeared only to be replaced by a smile, and he’d reached his breaking point.
But he didn’t want to cause a scene, so when his phone rang, he gratefully dug it out of his pocket, thinking he’d have a perfect excuse to get away before he did something stupid. “I’d better take this,” he said, not even looking at the screen.
“Okay, I guess I’ll see you later,” Sarah said, her eyes darting from one man to another and the pleading look returning to her face.
Trevor hesitated, but the phone was ringing insistently, so he got up and left the dining hall. When he saw who was on the phone, his relief evaporated, and his stomach knotted up with anxiety when he realized that he’d completely forgotten about Richard.
He answered the call with a curt, “I told you not to call me.”
“And I expected to hear from you yesterday,” Richard answered. “That was our agreement.”
Trevor sighed, wishing he hadn’t agreed to check in with him every day. “It was late before we got settled last night. I didn’t want to wake you,” he lied.
Richard made a sound he didn’t like, and he winced, expecting the worst, but instead he asked, “Have you been inside the lodge yet?”
“Well, not exactly,” he answered, cringing again.
“What do you mean not exactly?” Richard asked, sounding like he was losing his patience.
“I was in the basement and the back hallway, but I couldn’t make it inside any further,” he lied again.
Richard sighed. “Do I need to remind you what’s on the line here? Don’t think that just because you’re in Serendipity, I can’t get to you.”
It was Trevor’s turn to lose his patience. “I’ve been here less than twenty-four hours,” he said, a surge of power making his body tingle. “You’re going to have to be patient and give me some time to figure out what’s going on here.”
Richard was silent for a second, then he growled. “If I don’t get an update from you every night, I’m sending someone up there for Gabe, and you’ll never see him again. Do I make myself clear?”
“Crystal clear,” Trevor said, then hung up the phone, a small act of defiance that let him hold onto just a little of his pride.
***Sarah***
Sarah had been done with lunch for ten minutes but unable to extract herself from the crowd of men she seemed to have attracted. Beginning to feel overwhelmed, and afraid that she wasn’t going to be able to get away any time soon, it was a relief to see Marley walk through the door, but the feeling didn’t last long when she saw who she was with. She’d been preparing herself since she got here for the moment she met Jake, the man who’d terrorized her childhood friend and possibly killed her.
It was a bit of a shock to see Marley with him, but she recovered until Marley said, “Sarah I want you to meet my husband, Jake.”
Jake held out his hand. “I’m sorry it’s taken us so long to meet. I should have been around to greet you yesterday.”
She stared at his hand for a just a second too long, making them exchange a quick glance, but then managed to reach out and shake Jake’s hand. “That’s okay. Marley did a great job of getting me settled.”
“I was telling Jake about the paintings you brought, and we wondered if we could see them,” Marley said.
“Oh, I ummm...they’re not really finished, something’s missing, and I can’t figure out what,” she said. “But I promise when I’m ready, you’ll be one of the first to see them.”
Jake shrugged. “Fair enough. I’ve seen your work, and it’s haunting and beautiful,” he said. “But I understand from what Marley told me that you’ve gone in a new direction.”
Sarah nodded. “It just kind of happened, and I’m not sure how I feel about it,” she answered honestly. “I hope it will
all make sense eventually.”
“Well, I wish you good luck, and if you need anything, anything at all this summer, I’m only a phone call away,” Jake said. “We’ll let you get back to your lunch.”
“Oh, I was finished,” Sarah said, relieved to have found an opening. “I need to get back to the studio anyway.”
There was a collective moan of disappointment from the group seated around her, but she ignored it. “It was nice to meet you all,” she said, picking up her tray and walking away as fast as she could.
As she dumped her tray, she promised herself that she’d eat in her cabin from now on; the attention in the dining hall was just too much. There had been a time in her life when she’d enjoyed all the attention, had reveled in the fact that men found her attractive, had even at times used it to her advantage. But she’d been a much different person back then; now she wanted to be anonymous.
Thanks to Trevor, that would now be impossible in Serendipity. Feeling her anger rise when she remembered him leaving her there alone at that table full of men, she emptied her tray and stomped out of the dining hall. The next time he came peeping through her windows, she was going to let him know what a huge jerk he was. It was time someone taught him some manners.
Chapter Eight
***Trevor***
Trevor went back into the dining hall looking for Sarah but was told by the table full of men, which had grown while he’d been on the phone, that she’d left. Feeling annoyed that she hadn’t waited for him, he stomped down the trail through the valley to the barn and knocked on the door to the studio. He was just about to knock again when the door opened a crack, and Sarah looked out.
“I thought I should make sure you made it back okay since you didn’t wait for me,” he said, noticing the scowl on her face but thinking she had nothing to be annoyed about.
The frown on her face got deeper. “I didn’t wait because you announced you had to take a call, then disappeared, leaving me alone with all those men,” she said. “Marley showed up, and I was finally able to escape, thanks to her.”
“Escape? You were only in the dining hall, not a biker bar or something,” he said, unable to stop the sarcasm that filled his voice. “Besides, it looked like you were enjoying yourself, and I wasn’t the one who invited Ben and his cronies to join us; that was you.”
Sarah’s face turned red, then she turned and walked away from him but didn’t shut the door, so he followed her inside. The studio was one huge open room, but he could see it filled with kids busy painting or sculpting. He found her at one of the tables along the back of the room messing with some paintbrushes and tubes of paint.
When she heard him approach, she said, “I was just trying to be polite.”
He snorted, unable to let go of the jealousy that sprang to life when he remembered the scene in the dining hall. “Looked to me like you were being a little more than just polite,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the table.
Sarah looked up at him, her eyes flaring with anger, her cheeks pink, and he had to stop himself from pulling her into his arms and kissing her. But then an image of Claudia popped into his head, and the feeling disappeared when he remembered that she’d behaved the same way. Back then, he’d been young enough to think that he was the only man she’d ever used her charms on, but as it turned out, he’d only been one of many.
“I don’t know what you think you saw, but I would have been much happier if all those men had just left me alone,” she ground out between clenched teeth.
Trevor laughed. “You expect me to believe that?” he asked. “I know how women like you operate, and I’m not falling for the polite routine.”
***Sarah***
Sarah could only stare at Trevor in shock at first, then she asked, “What do you mean women like me?”
Trevor hesitated for a second, then waved his hand in the air. “You know exactly what I mean; women who use their sex appeal to get what they want. You were flirting and laughing with those men today, eating up their attention.”
She didn’t think she’d ever been as mad in her entire life as she was right then. “I think it’s time for you to leave. You know nothing at all about me or what I want,” she said, turning away from him so he wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes. “You have no idea what it’s like for me to look like this. You didn’t even try to see it from my perspective; you just assumed.”
“I know what I saw,” Trevor said, then stomped off, slamming the door after him.
Sarah walked over to the nearest chair and collapsed into it, regretting ever coming out of her apartment. But after a few minutes, the anger and hurt began to dissipate, so she got back to her feet and started putting away the paintings in a back closet where she knew they’d be safe. Eventually, she’d be ready to look at them, but for now, she had campers to prepare for, and the mystery of Melissa’s disappearance to solve.
The afternoon flew by once the paintings were out of her mind, and by the time she was ready to go home for the day, she felt more prepared to share her love of art with the campers. Although oils were her preferred medium, she knew that it was a labor and time-intensive way to paint, so for the summer, she’d decided to use watercolors instead.
Scattered around the room were tables set up for the campers to try other kinds of art: sculpting, photography, and even a table where they could use tools and wood to make a birdhouse. She had stacks of sketchbooks and charcoal all ready for those who wanted to explore the forest around them and capture it. As she worked, she felt the tension from earlier in the day begin to evaporate; for a second, she’d lost track of why she was there, but the afternoon had refocused her.
Tonight, after dinner, when the camp quieted down, she’d take a walk, explore a little, see if she could find any traces of Melissa. The feeling that there was more going on than Rachelle had told her hadn’t faded any, and she hoped that she wouldn’t find Melissa’s spirit. But one way or another, she was ready to solve that mystery and get on to the next one: her paintings.
She was just on her way out the door when Marley rode up on a beautiful brown horse. “Good, I’m glad I caught you before you went home,” she said, jumping down.
Sarah walked up to the horse and rubbed its nose, wishing she knew how to ride. “I always wanted to learn to ride,” she said.
“Well, good, because that’s part of what I wanted to talk to you about,” Marley said. “I’ve arranged for you to have a lesson tomorrow morning.”
“Oh,” she said, a bit surprised. “I guess that sounds okay.”
“Don’t worry, we have some very gentle horses for beginners,” Marley said, sensing her nervousness.
“I’m definitely a beginner,” Sarah said, laughing.
“So was I when I got here,” Marley said. “My first ride wasn’t exactly perfect; I fell off twice, so don’t worry, we’ve all been there.”
“I’ll do my best not to fall off,” Sarah said, a bit relieved by Marley’s confession, even if she was lying, which she knew she was.
“How are things going here?”
“Good, I think I’m ready,” she said. “You did a good job of stocking the studio; there’s just about everything I could want in there.”
“Most of that came from donations,” Marley said, “but I’m glad you’re happy.”
“I’m really looking forward to next week,” Sarah said, realizing that she meant it.
Marley nodded. “The campers get here on Wednesday, and from then on we won’t have a moment of peace for three months. Which brings me to the next reason I stopped by. We’re having a barbeque tomorrow night, and all the counselors need to be there.”
Sarah sighed, then wished she hadn’t when Marley looked over at her. “Okay, I’ll be there,” she said, forcing a smile. “It sounds like fun.”
“But you don’t look like you really feel that way,” Marley said. “Is there something wrong?”
“I’m sorry,” Sarah said. “I just don’t
like parties very much; too many people make me nervous.”
Marley studied her for a few minutes, then said, “Too many men, you mean.”
Sarah was a bit surprised that she’d figured it out so quickly. “How did you know?”
“I saw you at lunch today; you practically ran away after I showed up. It wasn’t hard to see that you weren’t enjoying all the attention,” Marley said.
Sarah snorted. “Try telling Trevor that; he accused me of encouraging it,” she said, then wished she hadn’t.
Marley studied her again, then said, “Don’t worry I’ll figure something out. I really do need you there.”
“Okay, I’ll be there,” Sarah said, knowing deep down that she could trust Marley.
“We’re going to start around five with some finger foods, then dinner at seven, followed by dessert and a little announcement,” Marley said, grinning at Sarah.
“An announcement?” she asked, suddenly a little worried but not sure why.
“I can’t tell you any more than that, but just let me say this: learn as much as you can tomorrow morning,” Marley said, then swung back into the saddle. “I’ve got to tell a few more people before dinner.”
Sarah watched her ride way, wondering again how she could have married a man like Jake, but then a wave of doubt washed over her. Rachelle’s story seemed so believable back in her apartment, but now that she was here, had met Jake and Marley, she was beginning to question it. Not only did Jake seem like a nice guy, but Marley didn’t seem like the kind of woman who would let a man treat her liked he’d supposedly treated Melissa.
It wasn’t adding up, and it was time she found out the truth, and the barbeque the next night might be just the time to do a little digging. If Melissa had been here, someone would have seen her. As she’d learned the hard way, it wasn’t easy to stay hidden for long in Serendipity. Feeling a new determination to solve at least one mystery, she headed for her cabin and a quiet dinner alone.
Mountain Wolf's Courage (Daddy Wolves 0f The Wild Series Book 4) Page 5