by Cindy Gerard
"Because this is our project," she pointed out unnecessarily. "And because we don't leave customers in the lurch."
"Fine," Clay said, knowing he sounded like that belligerent six-year-old again but not caring. He snagged his Stetson from the hat rack and headed out of Garrett's office, pausing with a broad hand clasped on the door frame. "We'll finish it. And in record time. Just keep her off the building site, and I'll work twenty-four hours a day to get it done."
Both Maya and Garrett let out pent-up breaths when Clay slammed the door behind him.
"Ideas?" Maya asked hopefully into the thick silence that had settled.
Garrett pinched his jaw, considering an idea he and Emma had been contemplating for some time concerning Clay and Maddie. "Maybe. What I've got in mind will take a little contriving. But it might be our only shot."
"Then take it. Anything to get through this and not lose credibility in the business."
"The credibility, we can salvage. I know Maddie. She's just blowing smoke and venting steam with her threat to press charges. She'll settle down on that count. It's the loss of blood that worries me." His quick grin was both devious and secretive.
"Whatever you're planning," Maya cut in quickly, a look of reluctant guilt washing over her face, "I don't want to know about it. Not one word. What I don't know can't implicate me, and I lost enough sleep over my culpability when you boys plotted to kidnap Emma. I don't want to be a party to another scenario as potentially explosive as that one."
Garrett picked up the phone. "You might want to leave, then," he suggested with a sly grin as he punched in Jesse's pager number, "because you definitely don't want to hear this conversation."
"Say no more." Maya scooted off Garrett's desk and headed for the door. "I'm sure I have something to do. Logan must need me or miss me or want me for something."
"That, I don't doubt," Garrett said, pleased that his mother continued to be so happy in her recent marriage to Logan Bradford. She'd been alone for fifteen long years after their father had died. She was still a vital, beautiful woman and deserved all the happiness Bradford could give her.
What she didn't need any more of was trouble from any of her boys. "Mom," he said, stopping her as she reached the door. He replaced the receiver and waited for Jesse to answer his page. "Don't worry. We'll make sure there's no gunplay."
With a pained look, Maya left, asking the good Lord to save her from her smart-mouthed children and to forgive her for turning Garrett and Jesse loose on Maddie and Clay.
The end, she prayed, would justify the scheme. Those two were in love with each other. She just knew it. But if they didn't get the chance to sort through an inordinate amount of baggage they'd dragged with them from childhood, they were going to seriously maim each other—emotionally for certain, and physically too if their last little encounter was any indication—before they ever figured it out.
* * *
Maddie cast a mellow look at the forest surrounding her, Wind River gurgling a few yards distant and the mountains rising above it all. "I'm really glad I let you talk me into coming along this weekend."
Emma smiled at Maddie before diverting her gaze back to Sara Jane. The little girl was busy constructing a fort with rocks and twigs near the riverbank. "You needed a break. So did I. And Sara has been curious about the cabin where Daddy took Mommy to make her smile again."
A soft, reflective glow washed over Emma's features. Maddie knew Emma was thinking back to the week she and Garrett had spent here healing their marriage and learning to trust each other again. It was a contented look. A satisfied look that Maddie understood was private and special. She wasn't sure what all had happened here between Garrett and Emma this past summer. And she would never ask. It was an intimate and special time for the two of them.
She understood the magical results of their time in this mountain retreat, though. Emma hadn't looked this happy in years.
"I'm glad everything worked out with you and Garrett, Em," she said softly.
Emma smiled. "Me, too. And now, what better way to get back in touch with nature and bond as women than with a weekend retreat to the infamous James boys' cabin."
Maddie snorted indelicately and shoved the sleeves of her baggy red sweater up to her elbows. "Yeah, there is something cleansing about knowing we're the first women to go solo in a for-men-only domain."
"Just like pioneers," Emma added in agreement. "It's beautiful here, isn't it?"
Perched on a downed pine trunk beside Emma, Maddie inhaled deeply of the scent of mountain forest and crisp clean air. She took a long, slow look around her. Yes, it was definitely beautiful here. The Wind River, running clear and shallow in early fall, snaked around bend after bend, following a natural path that it cut out of the valley. The jagged mountain range in the background, though commonplace to someone who had grown up near the Tetons, still held uncommon value and breathtaking beauty for her.
After spending just one day and night here, Maddie understood why this particular spot and the cabin Jonathan James had built for his family almost thirty years ago held such import in the brothers' hearts. Those of them who had hearts, she clarified mentally, as Clay's handsome, arrogant face came to mind.
"It was nice of Garrett to suggest that we girls take a minisabbatical here," she conceded, keeping her thoughts about Clay to herself.
"It wasn't just up to Garrett," Emma reminded her. "Clay had to give his blessing, too, just like Jesse did."
"Childhood pact and all that," Maddie said, remembering Garrett's account of how, when they were boys spending summer vacations in their mountain stronghold, they'd declared it a "men-only territory" and that the only way the tradition could be broken was by consensus of all three brothers.
"I'm surprised Clay went for it," Maddie mused aloud, "supreme, selfish, male chauvinist pig that he is and all."
Emma grinned at the throw-away venom in Maddie's statement. "He's not really such a bad guy, Maddie. I think you know that."
"What I know is that he's a perpetual pain in my side. I also know that if you hadn't assured me that he won't be requiring my undying gratitude for the rest of my life, I wouldn't be here now."
"He won't. He knows the getaway is more for Sara Jane and me to experience a taste of what Garrett and the brothers shared as children. And I think that deep down, Clay was relieved you came along as an extra pair of eyes and hands to make sure Sara doesn't get into trouble."
Another snort. "Yeah. Like he takes a lot of stock in my abilities."
"More than he'd ever admit," Emma assured her.
With a roll of her eyes, Maddie let the subject of Clay James drop. She didn't want to talk about him. She didn't even want to think about him. Because if she did, she had to think about that kiss. And that kiss was—well, that kiss was something she needed to forget. Trouble was, her subconscious wouldn't let her. At night—oh, Lord, especially at night—the memory infused her thoughts and her body like a July sun heated pale skin. First it warmed, then it burned, and then it left her alone in the night to deal with the fever that settled much farther than surface deep.
Aware, suddenly, that the memory had taken over again, she made herself think about all the work Garrett and Jesse had gone to, to get them up here for their little getaway.
Garrett had laid all the groundwork, completed the plans. Jesse had come home to help him stock the cabin with food, lay in a supply of wood for their evening fires, make sure the generator and water system were working before packing the three of them up here by horseback Friday afternoon. And it was Garrett, along with Jesse, who had left them before dark that same day.
Satisfied they were well settled, the men had ridden away with a promise to return Sunday afternoon to lead the way back out of the valley and over the mountains. Once down the trail, they'd load the horses into the waiting trailer and make the two-hour drive back to Jackson.
Lords knows, they needed to be guided out. Maddie didn't know about Emma, but she freely admitted
she had the tracking instincts of a rock. She'd been known to lose her car in grocery store parking lots and in clearly marked parking ramps. Finding her way out of these mountains on her own wasn't even a remote possibility.
In the meantime, however, feeling secure in Garrett and Jesse's eventual return, she wasn't concerned about finding her way back. Frankly, she wasn't concerned about much of anything but whiling away this glorious sunshiny Saturday with her best friend and the child whose heart had won hers the moment she was born.
"She's so beautiful," Maddie said as she watched the sunlight play with the highlights in Sara's chestnut hair.
Emma followed her gaze. "Sometimes it's hard to fully embrace the fact that Garrett and I made something so perfect."
Understanding completely, and wondering, with a bit of melancholy, if she would ever know first-hand the sweet, precious experience of motherhood, Maddie just nodded.
Silence settled like a calm breeze then suddenly felt full, as if something important had been left unsaid.
Maddie turned to Emma to see that she was watching her with a secret little smile on her face.
"What?" she asked, suddenly breathless with expectancy but not knowing why.
Emma's smile became radiant as she reached for Maddie's hand. "I'm pregnant."
For a moment all Maddie could do was stare. Then the sting of joyous tears filled her eyes. "Oh, Em. That's so … that's so wonderful! When? And how are you? And does Garrett know?" The questions tumbled out, one on top of the other, making them both laugh and tear up at the same time as they shared a long, affectionate hug.
"March. And I'm fine. And yes, Garrett knows and he's ecstatic."
"Oh, my gosh! This is so great! But … oh, wait. Should you be up here? I mean, the horseback ride and all. Is it a problem?"
Maddie's concern was well founded. Emma had miscarried, a little over two years ago. It had been devastating to both Emma and Garrett and ultimately had even affected their marriage.
"No problem," Emma assured her quickly. "Doctor says there's no reason to be concerned about the danger of another miscarriage. I'm healthy. The baby's healthy. The fresh air and exercise can be nothing but good for both of us."
Reassured, Maddie couldn't stop grinning. "Does Sara know?"
Emma shook her head and glanced in Sara's direction. "No. We want to wait until I'm showing before we tell her. No sense in getting her wound up about it too soon. In the meantime, we told Maya and Logan and my mother last week. Garrett's telling the brothers as we speak."
The rest of the afternoon they chattered excitedly about redoing the nursery, about Emma and Garrett's choice to wait until the birth to find out if the baby was a boy or a girl and about a dozen other inconsequential but vastly important details surrounding the pregnancy and birth.
And later that night, after the three of them had cooked plump, juicy hot dogs over the fire in the fireplace, stuffed themselves with s'mores until they'd had to change from their jeans to sweat pants and finally settled into their beds, Maddie stared into the dark.
Happy for her friend.
Grateful for their friendship.
Battling tears she hated herself for needing to shed.
She tried so hard not to be anything but grateful. Instead, she felt the ugly beginnings of envy creep in and blacken her good intentions.
She couldn't help it. She wanted what Emma had. She wanted the love of a good man. She wanted a child. Her child. To love. To teach and nurture. To hold against her breast and share with the man who helped make it happen.
Moonlight spilled through the window in the loft bedroom and across the bed where she lay, diluting the darkness, isolating her in a tumble of moonbeams and solitude. And in this warm oak-hewn cabin she shared with her best friend and her child, she'd never felt more alone or miserably self-pitying in her life.
* * *
"Will you quit grumbling and just bite the proverbial bullet?"
Clay glared at Garrett's back as they traversed a particularly tricky leg of the trail up the mountain. "If I wanted to bite bullets, I'd have joined the carnival as a novelty act. And if I'd have wanted to ride all the way to the cabin just to turn around and guide the shrew of the century back to town so she can embed herself as a burr under my saddle again, I'd have volunteered for the job."
"All right, already. I get the message. Believe me, if I could have found someone else to help me bring the girls and all the gear it took to get them through the weekend back home, I wouldn't be listening to you griping."
Clay snorted. "Leave it to Jesse to bail out when you needed him."
"It couldn't be helped. He had a change of plans."
Actually, it was a change Garrett had orchestrated with Jesse's willing assistance. With luck, Clay would never find out that tidbit of information. Making sure Jesse wasn't around was what made Clay's trek to the cabin necessary. And that, after all, was what this little setup was all about.
Clay gave another disgusted snort and rode on. "Don't expect me to be civil."
"I can, without reservation, say that that thought never crossed my mind," Garrett muttered dryly and wondered for the umpteenth time if he dared follow through with his plan. Telling himself things couldn't possibly get any worse, he set his hat tighter on his head and decided to stay the course.
And may heaven help us all if this doesn't work.
* * *
Once Clay and Garrett reached the cabin, it took some planned confusion, some devious contriving and some downright calculated risks on both Emma and Garrett's part, but finally, everything fell into place.
With Emma running everything from interference to decoy, she managed to send Maddie on foot to find the jacket Sara must have left by the river. At the same time, Clay played right into their hands. Counting on his religious avoidance of Maddie, Garrett sent him after the same jacket—but in the totally opposite direction.
That critical part of the plan accomplished, Emma left the note they'd written in preparation for this moment on the table in the cabin while Garrett rounded up all five horses. Then, with the stealth and swiftness of the James Gang of old on the run from the law, the three of them hightailed it out of the valley, out of sight and out of shouting distance.
It was do or die time for Clay James and Maddie Brannigan. Without horses they were as good as stuck here until Garrett came back for them a week from today. Oh sure, Clay could walk out if he had a mind to spend a solid day on foot and then take his chances hitching a ride back to Jackson when he did stumble out of the mountains. Maddie, however, was another story. She was a tenderfoot from way back. Garrett was counting on Clay to have the innate decency not to drag her on a long hike or to leave her to fend for herself. He was counting on a lot of things—like two stubborn, strong-willed people figuring out that they could fire something other than anger in each other's direction if they'd just give it a chance.
As they crested the ridge at a hard gallop, Garrett noted the thunderheads rolling into the valley they'd left behind. He sent a silent thank-you skyward and stepped up their pace so they could stay ahead of the storm. A good old-fashioned soaker was the perfect incentive for Clay and Maddie to bow to the elements and commit themselves to settling in.
Beside him, Emma murmured her own prayer heavenward. She prayed that when Garrett went back for them seven days from now, not only would Clay and Maddie both be in one piece, but that they would have discovered that essential element that everyone around them already knew.
* * *
After a fifteen-minute hike to the spot where Emma was sure Sara Jane had left her jacket and another half hour searching in vain, Maddie decided she'd been sent on a wild-goose chase. She smiled, silently thanking her friend for her discretion. Emma, sweet soul, knew how difficult it was for Maddie to be around Clay. The jacket diversion was Emma's way of keeping distance between them.
With a promise to thank Emma for her thoughtfulness when she saw her, she began the hike back to the cabin. Nor
mally, given her sense of direction, she wouldn't have braved the trek alone. They'd picnicked at this spot three times this weekend, however, and she felt comfortable finding her way back. It was with no small amount of pride that she did just that.
As she broke clear of the forest, and the cabin came into sight, however, her pride was sullied by a little frisson of unease. Where there should have been activity, there was a total lack of it. Where there should have been voices, there was a ringing, empty silence.
And where five horses should have been waiting, saddled up and carrying full packs, there was only one man. One extremely angry man.
Clay stood, a lone figure, his feet planted wide, his back ramrod straight, a sheet of paper crushed in a tightly clenched fist. The icy glare he shot her from beneath the shadowed brim of his Stetson as he turned away from the distant mountain peak and toward the sound of her approach could be summed up in one concise four-letter word. Fury.
* * *
"They did what?" The hard, clipped words exploded from her, punctuated by an oath, when Clay told her that Garrett and Emma had ridden out of the valley and left them there.
Clay uttered another crisp, concise curse and kicked hard at the dirt beneath his feet. He jerked his hat from his head, dragged a hand roughly through his hair then resettled the Stetson with a hard tug before shoving the crumpled note into her hand. "Read it yourself."
With wild eyes Maddie smoothed out the paper. Then she tried to read the words through a panic mottled by the red-hot anger pounding behind her eyes.
The note was short, to the point, and devastating:
We love you both. However, we can't stand seeing you go at each other anymore. You've got a week to work something out. Just don't add to our guilt for tricking you this way by drawing blood. Maddie—we'll take care of the gallery and Maxwell. Clay—Garrett will handle things at work.
With a squeal of disbelief, Maddie read it again then zeroed in on the final line of Emma and Garrett's message:
This valley is special. So are both of you. Let the magic and the moments work for you the way it did for Garrett and me. Garrett will be back for both of you in seven days.