“Green Acres is the place to be,” sang someone on the other end of the line.
Parker chuckled at her best friend. She could picture Alexis Reynolds clearly, her platinum blond hair falling over her shoulders and down her lithe frame while her sharp blue eyes danced with laughter. “Hi, Alexis.”
“Hello, darling. Have you fed the chickens and milked the cows yet?”
“I don’t have any chickens or cows, Alexis. In fact I haven’t seen a single chicken since I got here.”
“But be honest. You have seen cows, haven’t you?” Alexis said playfully.
Parker looked down at the piece of beef on her fork. “I guess you could say that.”
“I knew it. So what does the new dyke about town have planned for her first Saturday night in Wisconsin?”
“Um”—Parker glanced around the room—“I’ll probably unpack.”
“Oh, come on, not even a dinner date?” Alexis sounded a little worried.
“No. I’m having Chinese food at home.”
“Oh, dear.” Alexis sighed heavily. “I just had the most horrible vision of you sitting alone surrounded by boxes, eating old moo shoo and drinking whiskey out of a Dixie cup.”
“It’s not whiskey. I’m drinking a very nice cabernet,” Parker replied in an attempt to reassert her dignity. Then she added more softly, “And I can’t find my cups.”
“Honey, you’re positively depressing. When do you plan to stop punishing yourself?”
“Alexis, we’ve been through this already. I’m not punishing myself,” Parker said seriously. “I’m starting over, clean slate, back to the basics—”
“Off to find yourself in the great wild yonder,” Alexis added with fake enthusiasm.
“Yes.”
“And isolating yourself to wallow in self-pity is part of this rejuvenation process?”
“I’m not wallowing.”
“Sitting at home and drinking alone on a Saturday night doesn’t constitute wallowing?”
“I’m simply enjoying some peace and quiet for once.”
“I have a feeling you plan to do that a lot in the upcoming months.”
“Don’t make me sound like a hermit, Alexis. I’ve only been here two days. I’m still getting settled.”
“I know. I’m just worried about you.” Alexis’s voice softened. “I can’t stand the thought of you up there alone. You’re a social creature, honey. You’ll go crazy if you sentence yourself to solitary confinement.”
“I know. But I really am okay. In fact, I’m already filling my social calendar.”
“Really?” Alexis sounded skeptical.
“Really. I’m going to a softball game tomorrow afternoon,” Parker said, without adding that her boss had told her to.
“A softball game?” Alexis sounded perplexed.
“Yes, apparently it’s in season. The whole staff gets together to play every Sunday.” Parker tried to make the event sound appealing.
“Yes, yes.” Alexis affected a snooty air. “I’ve heard of such things among country lesbians. Sporting events accompanied by the traditional potluck. I think the requisite attire is flannel and work boots.”
Parker laughed. “Then I’d better head to Wal-Mart. I haven’t unpacked my flannel yet.”
“Don’t you dare. I’d rather you drink alone than spend your Saturday night at Wal-Mart.”
“You’re right. I’ll just have to forgo the flannel.”
“But how will you signal to the other women that you’re one of them? Mating call? Secret handshake?”
“No.” Parker sighed, despite her friend’s humor. “I’m through with mating calls for a while.”
“Uh-oh, we’re back to wallowing.”
“No, not wallowing at all. This is exactly what I want from my life right now.”
“Loneliness.”
“Independence.”
“Thank you, Mia,” Alexis mumbled under her breath.
“It’s not about Mia. Really. I’m just focused on rebuilding my career and reputation. You know I want to make a difference in the world. Another relationship right now would only keep me from getting myself back together.”
“Especially if she shows more interest in frat parties than partisan politics.”
“Alexis, I mean it. Leave Mia out of it. This isn’t her fault,” Parker said, even though the ache in her chest suggested that statement wasn’t completely true.
“Who said anything about Mia? I was speaking hypothetically,” Alexis responded dryly. “But if the shoe fits—”
“Can we change the subject? Why don’t you tell me what you plan to do tonight?”
“Well, some of the girls from the office have tickets to that Wizard of Oz musical, but I’d rather hit the clubs.”
Parker tried not to let her voice reflect her twinge of sadness. Getting away from Chicago had been the right choice, even if it hadn’t been easy to make. “I hear that’s supposed to be amazing.”
“Why don’t you come down next weekend and we’ll see it together?”
“Alexis, you know I can’t. I have a job here.”
“You won’t see any hit musicals at Bear Run,” Alexis answered sullenly.
“No, probably not, but you should go and then tell me all about it.”
“If you say so.” Alexis sighed again. “I’d better run. Hugs and kisses.”
“You, too.” Parker hung up and took another swig of wine directly from the bottle before she stood up. Dwelling on her doubts wouldn’t improve the situation, so she resigned herself to an evening of unpacking.
Chapter Two
“Campbell,” the pitcher shouted when the ball hit the palm of his glove. “Cool it. We’re just warming up.”
Campbell laughed at her brother as he shook his gloved hand to relieve the sting. “Sorry, Sammy. I forget how fragile you are,” she teased.
“You know I can take any heat you’ve got. Just let me warm up first.” Sammy defended his ego.
“Whatever you say.” Campbell crouched behind home plate. She then pounded her fist into the pit of her mitt, signaling for him to quit talking and start throwing.
Sammy wound up and, using a swift underhand motion, hurled a softball directly over the plate and into Campbell’s mitt with a crisp pop. After slipping her mask over her head, she shouted to a group of men standing near a sideline. “We’re ready.”
“Uh-oh,” someone sitting on the makeshift bleachers behind a chain-link fence said. “Campbell’s got Sammy worked up again.”
Campbell chuckled and put her mask back down. “Batter up.”
The first hitter approached the plate, a man in his mid thirties with a beer belly bulging under his long-sleeved T-shirt. Campbell flashed her index finger from her fist, just below her catcher’s mitt, signaling for Sammy’s signature pitch. He wound up and delivered the ball swiftly across the inside of the plate. The batter swung several seconds too late.
“Strike one,” Campbell called as she tossed the ball back to Sammy.
Knowing that she had bolstered her brother’s confidence, she once again lowered her index finger, this time flashing it slightly to the left. Sammy let loose another fireball. The batter swung with a loud grunt but didn’t even come close.
Campbell smiled as she flashed the next sign. An index finger, held steady, pointing directly downward. Her brother wasn’t the only one with a competitive streak, though Campbell didn’t show hers as readily. Sammy gave her an almost unperceivable grin before he brought the heat right down the middle of the plate. The batter’s knees almost buckled as the ball flew by him. He’d barely gotten the bat off his shoulder when Campbell called out, “One down, two to go.”
The second hitter, another man in his thirties, went out swinging on strikes, but Campbell realized Sammy was getting too comfortable. She needed to rattle him before he got too cocky.
The third batter, a young woman, stepped up to the plate and dug in with her back heel. This time Campbell flashed two finger
s downward just below her mitt. They both knew Sammy couldn’t throw a curveball. He rolled his eyes and threw another one right down the pipe at breakneck speed. The woman caught a piece of the ball and sent it straight up in the air. Campbell hopped to her feet and threw off her mask in the same motion. Aligning her body directly under the ball, she trapped it neatly with one hand.
Campbell winked at her brother on her way to the sidelines. “If you’d learn to throw a curve, I wouldn’t have to bail you out like that.” That should keep him hyped up for the next inning.
“Bail me out?” Sammy asked as he joined her in the dugout.
Campbell shrugged as she slipped off her mitt and grabbed a bat.
“One person got a bat on the ball all inning, but you bailed me out?”
“Am I going to have to separate you two?” their uncle, Emery Carson, asked, clasping Campbell’s shoulder.
“Yeah,” Sammy grumbled, and stalked off. Campbell and Emery both smiled as they watched him go. “You know, this is just a friendly game. There’s no need to get him all riled up like that,” Emery said when Sammy was out of earshot.
“Yeah, but that’s what big sisters are for.”
Emery laughed and threw his arm around her shoulder. While Campbell was close with all her family members, she and Emery shared an unspoken camaraderie that reached back to her early childhood. “Hey, I just saw someone I want you to meet after the game.”
“Who?” Campbell had known everyone around the resort for years.
“The new marketing woman just got here.” He nodded toward a slender woman who stood off to the side of the bleachers with a pair of low-rise blue jeans slung loosely over her hips and a fitted gray shirt tight enough to show her curves without clinging to them. Her long dark hair was in a loose ponytail, and the corners of her mouth were turned slightly upward in a look of amusement that didn’t quite qualify as a smile. Her eyes were hidden behind sunglasses, but Campbell thought she was looking in their direction. She immediately felt a strange twinge in the pit of her stomach, but she couldn’t determine why her attraction to the stunning woman unsettled her.
“Hey, you still here?” Emery asked, waving a hand in front of her eyes.
Campbell blushed when she realized she’d been caught staring. “Yeah, sorry. What did you say?”
Emery raised a questioning eyebrow. “You’re up.”
“Oh.” She clutched her bat and headed toward the field before she turned back to Emery. “How many outs?” she asked sheepishly.
“One. Sammy’s on first.”
Campbell nodded and tried to refocus on the game. She set her feet in the batter’s box and took a warm-up swing, then turned her attention to the pitcher. After the windup she saw the ball leave the pitcher’s hand, but it was over the plate before she even got the bat off her shoulder.
“Strike one,” the catcher called out, a little too enthusiastically.
Campbell glanced back at him. “Thanks for clearing that up.”
She returned her attention to the pitcher and tried to determine the ball’s speed as soon as it left his hand. Once again, in the split second she had to make a judgment on the trajectory of the ball it was over the plate, her bat too far behind it to make any contact.
“That’s two,” the catcher yelled.
Campbell tightened her jaw and set her sights on the pitcher. The attractive new stranger had shaken her up, but she was determined not to let another ball past. This time when the pitcher released the ball she was already moving the bat, but in mid-swing she realized the ball was outside the strike zone. Too far gone to pull back, she fully extended her arms over the plate and felt the end of the bat collide with the ball. She knew it wouldn’t go far, so she quickly dropped the bat and sprinted toward first base.
As she ran, the shortstop scooped up the ball and tossed it to the second baseman, who tagged the bag before Sammy was even halfway there, then hurled it toward first for the double play. Campbell powered up her stride, but even as her foot touched the bag she knew the baseman had the out locked up. After she burned out her speed, she didn’t even look back. Instead, she jogged toward the bench to grab her mitt and mask.
As she turned to leave the dugout, Sammy stood in front of her with his arms folded. “You sure bailed me out that time.”
After the game, Campbell threw her gear into an old gym bag and strode over to speak with a few spectators lingering behind the backstop. She smiled at the older couple standing side by side talking to Sammy.
“Twenty-eight years old and still swinging at pitches in the dirt.” Her dad’s easy laugh rolled over her as he hugged her.
“Thanks.” Campbell returned the hug.
“You notice he wasn’t out there swinging,” her mother added. Campbell towered over her, but that didn’t stop her mom from hugging her as well.
“That’s because your mother won’t let me anymore.”
“His knees won’t let him, but he likes to blame me.” As she winked at Campbell and Sammy, her brilliant blue eyes shone with mischief.
Emery joined them, bringing with him the woman he’d pointed out earlier. “Everybody, this is Parker Riley. She’s our new marketing gal, up from Chicago. Parker, this is my brother Greg, sister-in-law Irene, and their kids, Sammy and Campbell.”
Parker slipped her sunglasses up to rest on her head and flashed a full smile directly at Campbell. “It’s nice to meet you.” The gaze of the woman’s soft brown eyes was unnerving, though Campbell still couldn’t pinpoint why.
“I heard you got a place at the slope-side condos,” Greg said.
Parker gave him an inquisitive look. “I did.”
“News travels fast around here, honey.” Irene’s piecing blue eyes, the same ones Campbell saw in the mirror each morning, sparkled when she laughed.
“I guess it does. I only got here Friday night.”
“Do you need help unpacking?” Sammy asked, edging closer to her.
“I’ve got it under control.”
“Well, if you need anything, just give me and Campbell a call. We live a short walk through the timber from where you are.”
“And we’re only a bit farther up the mountain,” Greg added, “though I don’t do much walking anymore.”
“Thanks, that’s nice of you,” Parker responded, politely but dismissively. There was a defiance in her stance that made Campbell suspect this woman didn’t often depend on other people for help.
“We’d better get on home,” Irene said. “Do you need a ride somewhere, Parker?”
“No, I’m on foot.”
“We are, too, Mom.” Sammy said. “We’ll head back with her.”
Campbell rolled her eyes at her brother’s transparent attempt at chivalry.
“All right, it was nice to meet you, Parker, and we’ll see you two later,” Irene said.
The family said good-bye to one another with hugs all around before Parker, Campbell, and Sammy took the road that circled the resort and surrounding residences. The breeze was beginning to turn chilly in the shadows, but the late-afternoon sun was enough to warm them where it reached between the trees and the buildings they passed.
Campbell was unsure what to make of Parker. She was beautiful, but also reserved. If not for her practiced smile, she would have come across as aloof. Despite her cordial interactions with them, she seemed distracted, as if she’d rather be somewhere else. Her clothes were a designer attempt at casual, and her perfectly manicured nails indicated that she wasn’t used to spending much time outdoors.
Campbell tried to figure out why this woman disconcerted her, but finally concluded that Parker seemed slightly uncomfortable with her company and not very eager to make small talk.
Sammy, on the other hand, appeared determined to keep up a conversation with the newcomer, asking, “So, what do you think of the mountain?”
“It’s very pretty with all the leaves changing colors,” she responded with seeming sincerity.
“I bet you di
dn’t get much foliage in Chicago, did you?”
“No, I lived right downtown, a few blocks off the lakeshore, and didn’t make it far from there very often.”
“Were you in marketing?”
“I was in politics,” Parker said, a hint of tension in her voice.
Campbell wondered what it was about politics that the woman didn’t want to discuss. People in politics usually didn’t want to discuss anything else.
Thankfully, Sammy appeared to be oblivious to her discomfort as he rambled on. “Then what brought you up here to our little mountain in the woods?”
“It was time for a change, and this was a big one,” Parker stated flatly, then added that contrived smile.
Campbell heard the noncommittal comment for what it was, an attempt to dodge the heart of the question. The woman wasn’t introverted, but guarded, and that fact piqued Campbell’s suspicions. Sammy was right to wonder why a woman like this would come to a place like Bear Run. Something didn’t add up, but she obviously didn’t want to talk about her personal situation, and Campbell didn’t intend to push the subject any further.
“Yeah? Well, I imagine this place will be very different from what you’re used to,” Sammy continued. “What about your family? They must be sad to see you move.”
“Sam,” Campbell finally cut in, “leave the poor woman alone. She’s not even unpacked.”
“Sorry, I was just trying to make conversation.”
“You can pick it up some other time.” Campbell motioned to the small, one-lane road that headed up into some timber and a group of one- and two-story houses. “This is our turn.”
“Thanks for walking me this far,” Parker said with a polite smile that seemed slightly more genuine than the others she’d produced. Maybe she was warming up, or maybe she was just happy to be rid of them.
“Anytime,” Sammy said genially. “If you ever need anything, we’re the fifth cabin up on the left.”
“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind.”
“It was nice to meet you,” Campbell added as Parker turned to leave.
“You, too.”
Trails Merge Page 2