Take Only Pictures

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Take Only Pictures Page 22

by Laina Villeneuve


  “You’ll fucking pay for this, Teeny.”

  She responded by ramming the point of the hook into his flesh. When he hollered with rage, a figure blocked out the light in the doorway, startling Kristine. “You need any help in here, Kristine?” Sol asked.

  “I’m the one who needs help here,” Nard snapped. “She’s fucking crazy.”

  “Shut up, Nard,” Sol said. “Pretty clear who the crazy fucker is.”

  Kristine looked up to see Gabe, a look of pure shock on his face.

  “Kristine?” He looked from her to Nard, understanding dawning in his eyes. “You never said…”

  Nard screamed, “She’s fucking gelding me! Do something!”

  Sol held up both palms and took a step back. “You put yourself there, boy. You ready to tell your daddy why she felt the need?”

  Kristine dropped the hay hook, her muscles relaxing. He’d need some doctoring. That was enough. She could walk away knowing he’d have to explain his injury. She kept a piercing eye on Nard. “Get your stock loaded up and get the hell out of here. Don’t come near me again. Don’t even think about me,” she stated with finality.

  Sol grabbed him by the collar and roughly pulled him out the door. “Let’s get the stock loaded and deliver you to Leo. You’re done here.”

  Gabe stood there for a moment, an awkward silence growing. Kristine placed a trembling hand on his shoulder. She didn’t know what to say either.

  He wrapped his arms around her, holding tight. “All those years ago…” He spoke into her crown, his breath warm but his voice cool.

  Kristine closed her eyes, wishing she could go back six years and at least have the maturity to explain why she’d left. She took a step back, realizing he was probably thinking the worst. “It’s not as bad as you think,” she said. Though the dark of the saddle shed offered a place to hide, she had to get away. Standing there, she could still feel Nard’s hands on her. She stepped out into the light and walked to the pack dock and sat perched on the edge. She took a deep breath and told Gabe what she’d told Gloria. He stood in front of her, arms crossed, face growing angrier as she explained how Nard had caught her after she’d snuck off in the woods with someone.

  Gabe dipped his chin to his chest, his breath labored as she explained the good timing of the bear that had saved her from a different fate. When she’d finished, he looked back up at her, processing what she’d said. Without a word, he stepped back into the saddle shed, emerging a minute later with a flask in his hand. He sat next to Kristine, his long legs extended in front of him, and took a deep swallow from it.

  “What the hell’s that?”

  “Sol’s emergency medicine for when his ‘old bones are fucking with him.’” He took another draw before handing it to Kristine. “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you tell me when you took off? Why invent that stupid story about Coppertop nailing you in the head? You made me cover up for that asshole.” He stood again and paced away from her. “Why would you do that to me?”

  Kristine took a small swig from Sol’s flask, enjoying the burn at the back of her throat, struggling not to cry. “It would have been obvious who I’d been screwing around with,” she said quietly.

  He stopped pacing but didn’t turn until he’d figured it out. The hurt in his eyes was exactly as she’d imagined it would be. The years she had avoided it by lying to him did nothing to dampen his wounded expression. “You slept with Nicole? My Nicole?” His voice cracked.

  Kristine bowed her head. “Yeah, I didn’t know about that until after…when she said…” She did not want to share or even remember the post-sex revelation she experienced when Nicole compared her kissing to her brother’s.

  Gabe strode back to the pack dock and snatched the flask from Kristine and took a deep swallow before he sat down next to her, shoulders hunched. “You slept with my first love and then the two of you talked about me? That’s even worse.” His voice rose.

  “If I’d known, I never would have let it go so far. I…”

  “How could you not know? I told you I was in love. I talked about her all the time.”

  “You never said who. You flirted with everyone. I thought you were into one of the day-ride girls, someone your age.” She took a deep breath, realizing her defensive answer came from trying to hide the truth. She had to own up to everything. “I was too busy screwing around to notice. Dad told me to watch out for you, and I didn’t. I did what I always did when I got away from Quincy, and I felt like such a shit when she told me.” Kristine flushed. “My head was spinning on what I could do to make it right, and then Nard was there shoving it in my face, saying I couldn’t keep going around hurting people leading them on. I knew how angry and hurt you’d be and thought you’d feel like I deserved it.”

  “You think I’m that low?” he demanded angrily.

  “If I’d told you about Nard, you’d have found out about Nicole. Everyone would have found out, and I couldn’t live with that. You know the grief you would have gotten if they found out that your sister had slept with…” She couldn’t make herself say it even now. “I had to get away from you as much as anything. I didn’t want to see the look you’re giving me right now.”

  Gabe turned away from her, rubbing the back of his close-cropped hair. “You let them think you were a flake instead.”

  She shrugged. “I didn’t have to work with them anymore. You did.”

  “So you were watching out for me.” He sounded doubtful.

  “Trying to find a way to make it up to you. Why do you think I came back this summer? I still feel bad about it.”

  “You should. I really liked her.”

  “I know. We all knew. When I saw you at Christmas, you were still licking your wounds.”

  “She said she’d write. I thought she liked me…I never knew why she cut me off like that.” His head hung low as he passed the flask from hand to hand.

  “You can’t ever know what’s going to come from a summer fling,” Kristine said gently, remembering how hard she fought her feelings for Gloria because she fretted about the sting that would come at the end of the summer.

  “So that’s what it was for you?”

  Kristine put her hand on Gabe’s shoulder. “I knew that for you it was serious. That’s why I had to go.”

  “But you knew for her it was a fling,” he said pointedly.

  “You didn’t need to hear that from your sister.”

  “Now all I can think about is whether she was thinking about you when she was kissing me. Thanks,” he grumbled.

  Kristine bit her lip. “She wasn’t the best kisser.”

  “Enough!” Gabe tipped the flask back again, then offered it to his sister.

  She declined, and they sat staring at the mules waiting to be put away for the night. Kristine shivered as the cool evening air settled around them. Her thoughts spun on the regret of lying to Gabe tangled with the fear and anger from Nard’s attack. It felt the same as it had the night she’d left six years ago. She wished she could change the course of events and make things right. She wanted to know what Gabe was thinking but at the same time wished there was a way they could just forget about it. A new reality hit her. “I have to tell Dad now, too.”

  Gabe nodded beside her. “Better call him before Leo does.”

  “On the ride back home that night, I had convinced myself that it would jeopardize Dad’s business with Leo.”

  “You’re more important than that,” Gabe said frankly.

  She rested her head against his shoulder. “I’ll call him tomorrow. I don’t feel up to it tonight.”

  “You should have told us back then. Even though I would have hated you.”

  “I never said I made the right choice,” Kristine said. “Do you hate me now?”

  “Yes.”

  Kristine’s head shot up.

  “Because you still get the girl.” His eyes were on the road, on Gloria approaching with her knapsack slung over one shoulder. “I get dumped, and you get
the girl. Go on,” he said with a resigned sigh. “It’ll take some time to sink in, but I don’t hate you.”

  “Is everything okay?” Gloria’s voice was heavy with concern as she approached them.

  “It is now,” Kristine said, standing to wrap her arms around Gloria. She felt something different in Gloria’s hug and stepped back to look in her eyes.

  “What’s going on?” Gloria asked, looking from one sibling to the other.

  “I gotta put the stock away,” Gabe said. He tipped his hat and left them.

  “Kristine?”

  Kristine let out a long breath, feeling tears threatening again. “Gabe knows.”

  “Did something happen?” Gloria asked, alarmed. She took Kristine’s hand.

  “I’m okay. I’ll fill you in.” She stroked Gloria’s cheek, tickling the stray hairs of her ponytail at the base of her neck. She wanted Gloria to hear the details of her afternoon, but she was puzzled by the way Gloria held herself. Something was different. She seemed distant. Guarded? “What about you?” she asked.

  “I’m fine,” Gloria said, smiling. “I talked to my mom earlier.”

  Kristine’s face went pale. She was so caught up in what had happened with Nard that she didn’t even consider that something may have changed with Gloria’s mother’s health. “She’s okay, isn’t she?”

  “I was just checking in with her. I didn’t mean to scare you,” she said.

  Distracted. Kristine finally placed it. Gloria was distracted by something.

  “Hello, by the way,” Gloria said, leaning forward to kiss Kristine. Kristine loved that they had a hello kiss. Fairly quick, but warm, supple, the sigh of a soft place to rest after a long day. She returned the kiss, moving beyond the hello kiss into the kiss of want, the one that said she had missed Gloria and had every intention of removing all her clothes as soon as possible. Gloria hummed in response, and when they broke apart, her eyes were all fire and desire and it felt like she was fully present again. “Really?”

  “Like you’re surprised,” Kristine answered, swatting Gloria on the ass. “I know you’re going to make me talk it all out, but don’t think you’re going to be able to keep me from having my way with you.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of trying to stop you,” she answered, slipping her hand into Kristine’s.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “Sorry I’m so late,” Kristine said, dropping her boots by the door and a kiss on Gloria’s cheek. “Lemme just get the top layer of grit off, and then I’m yours.”

  “I like the sound of that,” Gloria said, turning to snatch a quick kiss before Kristine cleaned up. In the week since Kristine’s return from the backcountry, they’d fallen into a routine. After Kristine told Leo the truth about why she had left all those years ago, he sent Nard back to Bishop, put Gabe on Nard’s last few overnight trips and sent other people up from the Lodge to help for the day if more than one spot trip was leaving out of the outpost. Thus, after Kristine had loaded stock that was headed back to the Lodge into the truck or put them up in the corral, they had the place to themselves.

  Gloria listened to the water running in the bathroom and knew that Kristine was up to her elbows in soap. Once she’d removed the day’s dust from her face, they’d eat dinner together, catching up on their respective days. While Gloria did dishes, Kristine finished her chores before it got dark. They then had the rest of the evening to lounge and read. She smiled thinking about how many nights they got distracted by each other. What started as an innocent backrub or foot rub quickly evolved into another exploration of each other’s body.

  Being with Kristine was so different to anyone she’d ever been with before. She didn’t feel crowded by her like she did by Meg. Intuitively, Kristine gave Gloria the space she needed. When she had to work, Kristine might pause to run her fingers through Gloria’s hair or kiss her neck just behind her ear, but then she’d move to her own project, not threatened by the demands of Gloria’s work.

  At the same time, she felt more deeply connected to Kristine than she had with any of the women she’d hooked up with during her other temporary assignments. She and Kristine shared more than sex, and she found that she didn’t want to give up that compatibility.

  Kristine emerged with a clean tee and freshly scrubbed face and neck. She’d run her wet fingers through her short hair, accentuating the natural wave. She looked beat.

  “How many hours were you in the saddle today?”

  “Too many,” Kristine said, sinking into her chair.

  “When I came back from Mammoth, your stock was here, but I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

  “Typical Leo. He overbooks at the end of the season, forgetting who is going off to college early. Takeisha helped Dozer out of the yard, but she brought my stock home since she wanted to get on the road and still had her cabin to pack up. I got to finish up the drop with Dozer.”

  “Did he give you any grief?” Gloria knew that Kristine hadn’t wanted a big deal made out of what had happened with Nard. Leo’s sending him off to Bishop had thrown a wrench in her hoping for a quiet resolution. As Kristine had suspected, Nard was quick to reveal her indiscretion with Gabe’s girlfriend. She wondered if the fallout was as bad now as Kristine had always feared it would be.

  “None. I expect Gabe’s getting the worst of it, but he won’t say anything when I ask.”

  Gloria waited for her to continue. Typically, Kristine chatted about her guests and events on the trail, but tonight they ate in silence. Their normal easy dinner conversation had stalled. Kristine looked to be chewing on something more than her food. Gloria certainly was, having finally received confirmation from the lab that she’d been right about the bear she’d shot and wanted to share the news with Kristine. “What are you thinking about over there?”

  Kristine smiled at Gloria’s question. “You can tell, huh? Guess I’m pretty easy to read. It’s just this conversation with Dozer I had. Like I said, he didn’t mention Nard, but he was surprised that I wasn’t on Leo’s case for keeping me in the saddle all day or using stock that should be done for the summer. I explained to him that I spent all these years feeling guilty for walking away, but today, I got to see that Leo makes do. He always manages to get someone in the saddle to keep things going. It’s not my responsibility. It never was. It isn’t my place anymore.”

  “You said all that to Dozer?” She found it difficult to picture the conversation happening between Kristine and the man she’d shot in the ass at the beginning of the summer.

  Kristine laughed. “That’s the thing! He just kept working, totally uncomfortable. I said we don’t usually talk about this sort of stuff, and he said, ‘Yeah, don’t you have a girlfriend?’”

  Gloria’s eyes widened and Kristine shrugged shyly. She didn’t know what to say. She’d very much like to be Kristine’s girlfriend, but they weren’t going to be here in the cozy cabin for very much longer. She had to leave, and she was still scared to ask Kristine to come with her. She hadn’t let anyone stand in the way of her career and certainly didn’t want to hold Kristine back in hers. She saw Kristine start to worry over the silence. She pushed her food around on her plate, her eyes hidden. Gloria realized she had to level with her, she had to let her know why it wasn’t that easy. “I got the promotion.”

  Kristine’s eyes shot up. “What?”

  “Leo came by to say he got a call from Scott. He seemed grateful I’d saved his ass. Mauled guests might have had a negative impact on business and all.”

  “Not that he’d ever come out and thank you.”

  “No. But he came by. It was a nice acknowledgment. I went up to talk to Scott about it all. He seemed pretty impressed to get a call from the Director of Fish and Wildlife. He relayed that it’s actually me they want to talk to. Long story short, they want me in Sacramento to formalize my recommendations for how to decrease the contact between humans and bears in this area, and then I have my pick of field offices to run.”

  Kristine set down her
fork. “Wow. That’s super.” Her voice sounded strained. “When do they want you in Sacramento?”

  Gloria reached for Kristine’s hand, hating the trepidation she saw in her eyes. “Tomorrow.”

  “So that’s it.” Kristine pushed away from the table, clearing her plate. She stood at the sink with her back to Gloria.

  “I don’t want it to be,” Gloria said. She rose and crossed the kitchen, putting her hand on Kristine’s shoulder. “I can tell them I need time to think about which field office would work best for me. We could get lucky. You could get a job in a city that has a field office. Then we’d be set.”

  Kristine turned. “That’s ridiculous. You’ve wanted the Eureka field office forever. You have to take it.” Gloria’s heart sang with the knowledge that Kristine knew her so well but sank when she saw the defeated look on Kristine’s face. “We’ve talked about the schools out there, about the possibility of teaching there, but if that doesn’t come through…”

  “I know you have to follow your dream,” Gloria said. “I would never ask you to give that up.”

  “But the same is true for you. I couldn’t ask you to pass up the chance to be near your folks.”

  “Where does that leave us?” Gloria whispered.

  “Making the most of tonight?” Kristine asked hopefully.

  Gloria wanted more than one night and was disappointed in Kristine’s flippant response. It wasn’t that she didn’t want Kristine. It was that she wanted Kristine in the long term. She wanted all of Kristine’s nights, but she knew she couldn’t ask for that. Kristine’s hands pulled at the fabric of Gloria’s shirt. She raised her hands allowing Kristine to remove her tee. She shuddered as her lover unclasped her bra, freeing her breasts, her nipples already tight buds, begging for Kristine’s mouth. Gloria smiled as Kristine pulled off her own shirt and bra. Kristine’s comfort with her body was one of the sexiest things about her. But Kristine shirtless, all feminine and soft on top, remained rugged below, still clad in her cowboy boots, jeans and belt buckle. The contrast of her bare breasts and belt buckle illustrated Kristine’s complexity perfectly. She raised an eyebrow and led Gloria to the bedroom, pressing her back to the mattress, stripping off her jeans and panties.

 

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