Can't Forget You

by Rachel Lacey

  After he had secured Nicole’s harness, he turned to Jessica. Even in the darkness, their gazes clashed and held, and her body started to sizzle from the inside out. Then his hands were on her as he slid the harness over her legs and around her waist, and even though he worked completely professionally, she couldn’t help remembering the way he’d grabbed her ass yesterday, how he’d pressed her against him until she’d almost gone off like a rocket right there in his arms, fully clothed.

  But equally seared into her brain was the way he’d shut down afterward. Shut her out. The heat that swept through her then had a lot more to do with wanting to kick his ass than wanting to kiss him.

  He cinched the harness tight around her and then turned back to Nicole, clipping her harness onto the line overhead, “Put your hands here.” He indicated a handle above Nicole’s head. “And keep them there until you’ve landed on the next platform. You can kick off whenever you’re ready. Try not to scream.”

  Nicole gave him a funny look before kicking off into the night, screaming as she went. Which left Jessica alone on the platform with Mark. In the dark. Her heart felt like it might pound right out of her chest.

  He said nothing, just a shadowy figure in the darkness.

  “You kept her,” she said finally, unable to help herself.

  “The shelter was closed.”

  “It was open today.”

  “I brought her in before work. They scanned her for a chip, told me they were already overcrowded, so I offered to keep her until her family shows up to claim her.”

  “And if they don’t?” She spoke so quietly she was almost whispering. Something about being up here in the dark with him felt way too cozy. Somehow, his voice sounded even sexier when she couldn’t see the rest of him. And she was furious with herself for still wanting to kiss him.

  He didn’t answer her question. “You’re up,” he said instead, gesturing toward the zip-line.

  “Right.” She stepped forward, watching as he clipped her to the line. Then she kicked off from the platform, soaring into the darkness after her sister.

  * * *

  Stifling a scream, Jessica whooshed through the night. Something that felt an awful lot like an enormous spiderweb smacked her in the face while a pair of eerie red eyes glowed in the darkness nearby. She sped on through the darkened forest. A light strobed, illuminating a ghoulish scene to her left. As she watched, a blood-spattered monster lunged toward her. Shrieking, she recoiled, swinging on the line as it carried her farther into the night. A glowing ghost fluttered by overhead, and then she was approaching the landing platform, lit by a sliver of moonlight. She lifted her feet as the line slowed, bringing her in for her landing.

  An arm reached out of the darkness, groping at her, and she yelped, skittering sideways even as she heard Nicole’s laughter somewhere nearby. A teenager, dressed all in black as Mark had been, unclipped her from the line and motioned for her to join her sister in the center of the platform.

  Behind them, the line whirred again, and then Mark swung onto the platform. On cue, the teenager attached himself to the next line and whizzed off into the darkness.

  “That was so great!” Nicole said, her voice hushed. “And we still have four more lines to go.”

  “Yes.” Jessica felt a warm tingle pass over her skin as Mark came to stand beside her, followed by the all-too-familiar desire to kick him in the shins. She was glad for the darkness hiding the tension between them tonight. He seemed as calm and closed off as ever, but she wasn’t nearly that unaffected—or as good at hiding her feelings—and she was certain her eyes had to be spitting red sparks in his direction every time she looked at him.

  Mark’s phone blipped, letting him know his employee had arrived at the next platform so he stepped forward and attached Nicole to the line. She whooped as she soared off into the night. A few seconds later, she screamed.

  Jessica laughed.

  “How’s your knee?” Mark asked.

  “Sore.” She glared at him in the darkness, annoyed with him for bringing it up and reminding her how he’d swept her off her feet yesterday when she’d twisted it.

  “You should have it looked at. You might have torn something.”

  “If it’s still bothering me in a week or so, I will.” She paused. “Have you named her yet?”

  “Named who?”

  It was unsettlingly intimate to be standing up here on this platform in the dark with him. If she didn’t strangle him first, she might end up kissing him again. “The dog, of course. She looks like a Penny to me. Maybe Maggie.”

  Mark made an unintelligible sound.

  She decided to take a page from his book and say nothing. Then it was her turn on the zip-line again. As she soared off into the darkness, something huge flapped over her head, and she screamed, just as Nicole had done.

  By the time they’d made it to the end of the course, she could officially say that the haunted zip-line was awesome. She got scared out of her wits several times, which was totally her idea of a good Halloween time. The guys had outdone themselves. She wasn’t even sure how they’d done some of the stuff that had jumped out at her during the course. There was something extra thrilling about whizzing through the night sky, unable to stop or even slow down, never knowing what lay ahead.

  This was her first visit to Off-the-Grid as a customer, and she definitely would have come back for more if not for the tall, brooding man walking beside her as she and Nicole made their way along the trail from the final zip-line platform to the office.

  Naturally, they’d installed a few booby traps along the trail too.

  By the time they made it back to their car, Jessica and Nicole were clinging to each other, laughing. “That was so much fun!” Nicole said as they got back into her car. “But the thing that surprised me the most tonight?”

  “What?” Jessica asked, sensing a trap.

  “The tension between you and Mark.”

  Jessica made a face. “So we don’t exactly get along anymore.”

  “That’s not what it looked like to me,” Nicole said, giving her a sly look. “From where I was standing, it looked more like you wanted to get naked together.”

  “Well…” Crap. It was no use lying to her sister. “Fine. We kissed yesterday, which was a really stupid mistake because the chemistry is definitely still there but the relationship potential isn’t.”

  “Whoa!” Nicole was staring at her, wide-eyed. “You and Mark kissed yesterday? And I’m just finding out about it now?”

  Jessica lifted one shoulder halfheartedly. “I wasn’t eager to rehash it.”

  “Well, he is,” Nicole said, a gleeful glint in her eye. “He was looking at you like he wanted to eat you up. And you looked pretty hot and bothered around him too.”

  “Not going there.”

  “But why not?”

  “I already told you—there’s no future for us so there’s no way I’m going to make things even more awkward by sleeping with him, especially now that we co-own this land.”

  “Why are you so sure there’s no future for you guys?”

  “Because he’s Mark. He’s a loner. He’s so closed off he doesn’t know how to be any other way. He’s just passing through life, always in search of his next adventure.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Jessica remembered the way his eyes had shuttered yesterday after their kiss. It’s forgotten. “Yes, I’m sure.”

  * * *

  Mark spent the next week neck-deep in work. Between regular hours at Off-the-Grid, the haunted zip-line, prepping for the Adrenaline Rush, and initial construction on the mountain bike course, he was too busy to do much of anything but work and sleep.

  Which suited him just fine. Too busy to think was the way he operated best.

  “Your damn dog needs a name.”

  He looked up to see Ryan in the doorway to his office, the dog at his side. She wagged her tail with delight. “She’s got a name. Whenever her owners come to get her, we�
�ll find out what it is.”

  “No one’s coming for this dog,” Ryan said. “You’ve had her over a week, and she looked like she’d been on her own out there for a while before that. So give her a damn name so we can stop calling her ‘the dog.’”

  Mark shrugged.

  “If you don’t name her, I’ll let Emma do the honors, and you won’t like it.”

  “Oh please, can I name her?” Emma pushed her way past Ryan into Mark’s office. She sat cross-legged on the floor, and the dog walked over to lick her face. Emma giggled. “Daisy. Or Poppy. What about Marigold?”

  Mark lifted his eyes to Ryan. “She going to name your daughter after a flower too?” Earlier that week, Ryan and Emma had learned they were expecting a baby girl.

  Ryan beamed. “Actually, yes. We decided on Lily. Lily Rose.”

  Aw hell. Emotion punched Mark hard in the stomach as he imagined Ryan and Emma with their daughter. Lily Rose.

  Emma was beaming too. “Flowers make beautiful names, Mark. Don’t knock it.”

  “It’s a great name,” he said, and he meant it. It would suit their baby perfectly. Emma owned her own landscape design company. She’d planted every flower here at Off-the-Grid.

  “So back to the dog,” Ryan said, “because if I have to call her ‘the dog’ one more time…”

  The dog in question lifted her head, looking from Ryan to Emma to Mark, tail wagging.

  “Thought she was a bear when I first saw her lurking in the bushes out there,” Mark said.

  “Well, she’s obviously not a bear,” Emma said, still rubbing the dog’s head.

  “It’d be a funny name for her though,” Ryan commented.

  “What? Bear?” Emma frowned at him.

  Mark glanced down at the dog, with her big fluffy ears and soft brown eyes. Seemed somehow fitting given how they’d met. “Yeah, I like that. Bear.”

  “You guys can’t be serious!” Emma looked outraged. “You realize she’s a girl, right?”

  “That makes it funnier,” Ryan said.

  “I could stick with ‘the dog,’ if you prefer,” Mark told Emma.

  “Men are infuriating,” she said, climbing to her feet. “I have to get to class. See you guys later.”

  Mark tuned them out while they kissed and said good-bye. He needed to pack up and head out if he was going to have time to grab supper before coming back here for the haunted zip-line. He looked down at the dog. Bear? Maybe. She lay with her head on her front paws, watching the humans in the room. As soon as Mark stood, she bounced to her feet, ready to follow him. Good damn thing too, since he’d never gotten around to buying her a collar or leash. He’d picked up a bag of dog chow at the supermart, but that was the extent of his dog-related purchases so far.

  Suppose Ryan was right and no one was looking for her. What then? Did he leave her at the shelter or keep her?

  He didn’t know the answer to that question yet, and until he did, she didn’t need a name. Instead, he led the way out the back door, headed for his SUV. The shelter was already closed for the night so she was still his, at least until tomorrow.

  “Hey, do you mind dropping this paperwork off at the spa on your way out?” Ryan asked, poking his head out the door.

  “What is it?” Mark asked, doubling back to take the papers.

  “A copy of the zoning approval.”

  “At least they didn’t give us any BS this time.” Mark took the papers from Ryan.

  “True that.” With a wave, Ryan went back inside.

  Mark unlocked the SUV and opened the back door for the dog. She hopped right in like an old pro. He cranked the engine and drove a half mile down the road to the spa, but Jess’s Kia was nowhere to be seen. She must have already left for the day, and he didn’t have time to swing by her house before the haunted zip-line opened so he’d catch up with her in the morning.

  Instead, he drove into town and parked at the deli because the fridge at his condo—and his stomach—were running on empty. Leaving the dog in the car with the windows down, he walked inside. The place was packed with the dinnertime crowd so he took his place in line, deciding on a grilled chicken panini for himself. And, what the hell, one for the dog too. She loved her sandwiches as much as he did.

  He messed around on his phone while he waited, trying to think of an excuse not to go to the Halloween party at the spa next weekend. Ethan and Ryan had insisted they all put in an appearance as a show of good faith since they were joining forces with Jess on the new land.

  But parties weren’t Mark’s scene. At all.

  The very thought made his skin crawl. He’d finally made it to the counter so he ordered his sandwiches and grabbed a can of Coke. With the line pressing in behind him, he moved down the counter to wait for his meal. He didn’t see why all three of them needed to go to the party. Surely he could just be a no-show, and no one—other than Ryan and Ethan—would even notice. Okay, Jess might notice, but he suspected she’d be glad for his absence.

  The teenager behind the counter pushed a white bag in his direction. Muttering his thanks, Mark turned toward the door.

  And froze.

  The woman clearing tables in the back…for a second he could swear it was…but it couldn’t be. She was blond, slim, early forties maybe. As he watched, she turned her head, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end, sending a chill prickling across his skin.

  His mother.

  No. No way. Not here in Haven. He hadn’t seen her in over twenty years. Hell, he had no idea what she looked like now or if she was even still alive. No idea why he’d had such a visceral reaction to this woman, who was nothing but a complete stranger.

  No idea why he was hustling out of the deli like he had a sniper trained on his head.

  He climbed back into his SUV and was halfway home before his brain caught up with his wheels. He’d made a mistake. That’s all. His mother was long gone.

  Long fucking gone.

  He’d been six years old the last time he saw her, and he intended to keep it that way.

  I’m sorry, but I can’t do this anymore.

  That’s what she’d written in the note she left behind. Mark could still remember the funny tightness in his stomach as he’d stood in front of the school, watching the other kids leave with their parents and wondering why his mom was so late picking him up that day. Once all the other kids had gone home, he’d sat in the principal’s office until a woman named Mrs. Coates from social services came to get him.

  She’d been the one who found the note in his backpack.

  When she told him she was taking him to a foster family until they found his mom, he’d been so terrified he’d wet his pants. He remembered the hot, prickly embarrassment of walking out to Mrs. Coates’s car in wet pants. Of being driven to a house with people he didn’t know in wet pants. He remembered waiting, and waiting, and waiting for his mom to come back for him. Being shuffled from house to house as days became weeks and weeks became months. On his seventh birthday, he’d been sure she would finally come. She’d never miss his birthday.

  But she hadn’t come. Like the foolish child he’d been, he’d waited and waited for a mother who was never coming back. When life got tough, she’d just dropped him off at school with a note in his backpack and skipped town, leaving him behind for somebody else to pick up the pieces.

  He’d finally faced reality when he was ten and overheard his foster mother refer to him as an orphan. For all intents and purposes, he was an orphan. So he’d taken control over his situation the only way he knew how: He decided to pretend that both of his parents had died in the car crash that had killed his father and sent both Mark and his mother to the hospital.

  Over time, he’d almost started to believe it was true. His hurt and anger toward her faded a little bit more every time he told someone his parents had both died in a car crash. He’d grown up an orphan, and it was too late to change things now.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The next morning, Mark headed
for the Pearcy County Animal Shelter before work. It was time to decide once and for all what to do with the dog. She walked obediently inside with him. No collar. No leash.

  “Any word?” he asked the young guy, Logan, behind the desk. He’d been in at least five times already, asking if they’d found her family yet.

  Logan shook his head. “We’ve been in contact with every shelter and vet within fifty miles of here, and no one’s missing a dog like that.”

  The dog in question sat beside Mark and stared at Logan, her ears pricked to attention.

  “How’s that possible?” Mark asked, frustrated.

  Logan glanced down at her and shrugged. “It wouldn’t be the first time someone drove a dog out into the middle of nowhere to dump them when they didn’t want them anymore.”

  Mark’s scalp prickled. “People do that?”

  “All too often, I’m afraid. At least this one doesn’t look like she got thrown out of a moving vehicle.”

  Mark looked down at the dog, imagining her sitting by the side of the road waiting for her family to come back and get her. The abandoned six-year-old boy inside him roared with anger. A dog was a responsibility. A life. You didn’t just dump them on the side of the road when you got tired of looking after them.

  “So are you going to keep her?” Logan asked.

  “What?” Mark’s head snapped up. “She’s not mine.”

  “She’s not anybody’s,” Logan said. “We’re pretty full right now. I hate to say it, but a nice dog like this one sometimes gets overlooked here at the shelter. She’s too quiet. People notice the loud ones, the ones who bark and jump and beg for attention. A dog like this one sits in the back of her cage, gets depressed. No one notices her.”

  Goddammit. “She’s staying with me,” Mark said before he’d even consciously made the decision.

  “Glad to hear it. We’re having a vaccination clinic in a couple of weeks. Bring her in, and we’ll get her all taken care of.” Logan passed him a yellow flyer.