by Ann Evans
It felt as if they were the only two people in a deserted universe. For a handful of heartbeats Nick was satisfied with the warm sense of serenity and purpose that flowed through him, but the mood suddenly became heated. His arousal was urgent and instant. He wanted all of her.
He lifted his mouth, searching her eyes. They had a cloudy, indistinct look that was new, and in them he read everything she needed and everything he wanted.
There was no need to say anything more.
He brought his hands up to the buttons of her blouse. His fingers felt thick, so clumsy that he cursed them, but in another moment he had pushed the material apart, exposing her lace-clad breasts. She shivered; whether it was from the cool, dusk air or her own desire, he didn’t know.
“It’s all right, Kari,” he said softly. “I won’t hurt you.”
He touched his lips to her throat, feeling the wildness of her pulse beneath his tongue, sensing that the tide of her flaming blood was as strong and sure as his own. It had only been a matter of time, he thought. One way or another, sooner or later, this had been destined to happen.
But in the next moment she caught his hand as it settled over the clasp of her jeans. “Nick, don’t,” she said, her voice so low he almost didn’t hear the words. “We can’t.”
He groaned, lifting his head. “I can’t think of any reason why we shouldn’t. You want this as badly as I do.”
She brought her hands to either side of his face, searching his eyes. “I do. But I’m…not taking anything for protection. Do you have—”
“Damn it!” he swore, understanding with irritating swiftness. He took a step back from the boulder, dropped his head, and braced his arms on either side of her thighs. Anger—at himself—stretched its limbs inside his chest. “Just give me a minute,” he said, breathing in a tight, controlled manner.
“I’m sorry.”
He expelled one last, harsh breath, feeling his blood start to settle, but not soon enough to suit him. Not nearly soon enough. After a long moment or two, he shook his head at her, even managing a small smile of wry regret. “All these years of taking precautions, and for the first time in my life I’m completely unprepared.”
He was gratified to see that she looked disappointed. “I’m sorry, Nick,” she said again. “But I just can’t.”
He tossed her a black scowl. “I thought you were the woman with no impulse control.”
“I grew out of it,” she said, clearly trying for a lighter tone. As though realizing that didn’t work, her features became serious once more. She touched his arm and he almost wished she hadn’t. He had to strive very hard, very hard, to keep from pulling her up against him again.
“Please try to understand. No matter how much I would like—” She went scarlet, and began again. “I have certain goals for my life. I want adventure and travel and meeting new people. If I end up getting pregnant, being as tied down as my mother was, then I’ll end up like my mother. Resentful and bitter. I don’t want to feel that, in a year from now, all the really important events in my life have already happened.”
He took a few more steps back, realizing suddenly that he wouldn’t, couldn’t run roughshod over that argument. Wasn’t she doing him a favor, really? All those dreams of being like her father, footloose and free, no responsibilities to keep her anywhere she didn’t really want to be. He knew better than to get involved with someone like her. Any relationship with this woman would turn sour in no time. She was beautiful and spirited and oh, so not for him.
Somehow he managed a rough smile and nodded. “Good enough,” he said. In a gesture of pure impatience, he picked up her backpack. “We should get going. If we stay any longer, we’ll both have to find out just what our convictions are made of.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THAT NIGHT Kari lay in bed, annoyed with herself for being unable to shake off the memory of what had transpired between her and Nick.
It wasn’t that she wished it had never happened. Quite the contrary. It was that she wished they had been able to finish it. To finally get all that mysterious sexual tension between them out in the open. To explore the thrill and pleasure that two people attracted to one another could share.
But the fates hadn’t been on their side and without protection, she wasn’t helping. There was just no way Kari would willingly take chances like that. Not with her future on the line.
How horrible to have become so sensible! What good was that when it meant missing out on what could have been one of the truly great adventures of her life?
And why did Nick, who could be so contrary about everything else, have to be so darned understanding about her refusal? Any other guy, brought to the brink like that, would have sulked or gotten downright nasty. But he hadn’t.
On the trip back, and tonight at dinner, he’d just acted as if nothing unusual had happened. In fact, in an attempt to keep the promise he’d made to her during their conversation at the National Park office, he gave her a slip of paper with a name and telephone number written on it. Walt was finally back in town. The old guy would be glad to talk to Kari, to see if he could shed any light on the circumstances of her father’s trip.
Really, Nick had been quite annoyingly civil.
She fell asleep around midnight, then slipped into such a disturbingly erotic dream that it brought her awake with a jolt, sweating and out of breath. Frustrated and more annoyed than ever, Kari scooped her cell phone off the bedside table and punched in Eddie Camit’s number. The photographer was a night owl who never minded a late-night call.
After the fifth ring Eddie picked up. “What?” he demanded. “I’m busy. Who the hell is this?”
Throbbing music and scattered background noise seeped around his words. He was likely at some nightclub—Eddie loved to dance. Clearly he hadn’t been in bed, and the knowledge that he was having fun while she’d been fantasizing all sorts of foolish things in her sleep made her grumpy.
“Why haven’t you called me?” she complained.
“Because I don’t have anything to tell you.”
“Is New Zealand on or off?”
“Still off.”
“And Jamaica?”
“I told you I’d call as soon as I heard.” He muttered something she didn’t catch. “Damn, Churchill. Who peed in your cornflakes?”
She sighed, staring up at the ceiling. Even in the dark she caught a glimpse of that ridiculous red helicopter circling overhead like a giant mosquito. Sleeping in Nick’s old bedroom wasn’t helping a bit. Everywhere she turned, there he was. “I just need to get out of here. Save me, Eddie.”
“Are you in jail?” he asked, his voice going low and serious.
“Of course I’m not in jail.” She scowled into the phone. “I’m just…eager. You call me the minute—the instant—you hear something. Okay?”
“Oh my God. You’re not in jail. You’re at a computer convention.”
She had to laugh at that. She and Eddie had done a piece on computers once, and they’d both come away agreeing that there was no way to make the darned things look or sound exciting.
“Just call me,” she said and snapped the phone closed.
After that, she felt a little better. Refocusing on her career was what she needed. What she’d said to Nick was absolutely true—she wanted the life her father had known, and anything else would be unendurable.
She put her hands behind her head, took a couple of deep breaths and tried to relax, an activity for which she had no talent. She wished she could move back into one of the upstairs guest rooms. Any place that didn’t have so much of Nick’s personal history stamped all over it. Every book he’d read, every medal he’d won. Those crazy model helicopters and planes. The photographs were the worst. She’d finally had to position them so that she didn’t see them every time she entered the room.
Overhead, the helicopter glinted and started a slow spin. She narrowed her eyes at it.
Keep your distance, D’Angelo. I’m watching you.
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But when she fell asleep a second time, she dreamed of rainbow-colored waterfalls and flying red dragons that chased her through dark forests that offered no escape.
KARI DIDN’T SEE NICK the next morning or that afternoon, which suited her just fine. After the weekend there had been a lot of check-outs, and while the dining room was unexpectedly slow, Sofia and her little band of housekeepers were as busy as ants at a picnic.
Kari had just put in the last load of towels when the older woman joined her. Moira, one of the maids, hovered at her elbow.
“Could you do me a kindness?” Sofia asked with a smile. “Will you take Moira home? Her father’s been called back unexpectedly to his job and there’s no one to watch her little brothers after school since her mother passed away. I’d ask Adriana to do it, but I don’t think she can drive yet.”
“Sure,” she agreed. Renata was tough and had always treated her kindly, but Kari had to admit, she was partial to Sofia, who had a sunnier disposition and seldom had an unkind word for anyone.
The trip down the mountain was short and uninteresting. Moira made little conversation, and eventually Kari gave up her attempts to chat and concentrated on maneuvering some of the road’s sharper turns. The girl’s home was on a small tract of land on the outskirts of Broken Yoke, the town on the banks of the Lightning River. When Kari pulled the company van up in front of the plain, cramped-looking house and Moira got out, a trio of little boys exploded out the front door and came crashing against her legs.
Moira was clearly the mother figure in that household now, but she didn’t seem to mind. She stood like a mountain peak among foothills of children, laughing at their antics and reaching out to touch them with loving hands. As quiet as she’d been in the van, it came as a surprise to see her so animated.
What must it be like, Kari wondered, to be part of such a large family or to be responsible for so many children? It made her realize how easy her life was. No one to pluck at you or to depend on you too much. No one to hold you accountable for anything. To just be able to pick up and leave anytime you wanted. She couldn’t imagine how people like Nick and Moira did it.
With a final wave, Kari pulled out of the driveway. To get back to the mountain road, she had to drive through the center of town again. Broken Yoke had once been a wild frontier village, rich with silver, but it had clearly fallen on hard times in recent years.
Tourists in search of ski slopes and quaint shops didn’t jump off the interstate to make a stop here. There were a few Victorian buildings on Main Street, a shady public park that ran right down to the edge of a sweetly gurgling creek, but little else of charm or interest.
She passed a small clapboard building that boasted the name Walt’s Wilderness Tours spelled out in crudely cut pieces of wood. On the porch sat an elderly man in a rocking chair, reading a newspaper. This had to be the old guy Nick had told her about.
She parked, and even before she reached the front steps the man was getting out of his chair. He sported a beard that looked as if birds had once used it for a nest and had a plaid-shirted, homespun appearance that made Kari think of a retired lumberjack she’d once interviewed in Oregon.
“Are you Walt?” she called out.
“If I’m not, we’re gonna have to change the sign. What can I do for you?”
“I’m Kari Churchill. I believe Nick D’Angelo spoke to you about me. I’m looking for information about a trip my father took out to Elk Creek.”
“Yep. He said you’d probably be by to see me right quick. Which Elk Creek did your father hike into?” he asked.
“There’s more than one?”
The old man grinned, revealing teeth that looked like piano keys. “Elk Creek Pass, Elk Creek Canyon, Elk Creek Falls, Elk Creek Meadow. They weren’t too original in the early days around here. Which one you want?”
She couldn’t help it. Her heart started to pound. “I thought I knew, but maybe I don’t,” she said. “Could we sort it out over a map?”
“Ain’t too often I get a pretty young lady for company,” he said, waving his hand toward the inside of the store. “Come on in.”
FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LATER, Kari left Walt and got back in the car. She got no farther than the next block before she had to pull over in the parking lot of a drugstore. She felt breathless, almost dizzy.
The wrong place. Elk Creek Canyon had been the wrong place.
Or, at least, there was a good possibility. After she’d explained her interest to Walt, he’d told her in very colorful language that the damned young fools up at the Visitor Center had probably sent her to the wrong Elk Creek. Or maybe she’d misread the newspaper articles, or made the assumption that there was only one Elk Creek once she’d seen it on the map. Regardless, it was more likely she was really looking for the Pass—wild and beautiful and remote—not the Canyon.
Which could be why she’d sat out in that dreary, dull place yesterday and felt absolutely no sense of her father having been there.
And there was one more bit of potential good news, though she’d have to wait a day or two to get it. Walt knew all the guides in the area. He might actually be able to put her in touch with the one who’d led her father out to the forest. The thought made Kari’s heart beat even faster.
That had always been one of the mysteries surrounding Madison Churchill’s death. He had registered with the park service to camp at a popular tourist destination. But when he’d failed to check in after the unexpected snowstorm, the search team had not found him there. Valuable time had been lost and when they’d finally located him he’d been past saving. No one had ever been able to explain why he’d registered at one spot, only to turn up at another miles and miles away.
But Walt might be able to ferret out the answer to that one. Just give him a day or so, he’d told her.
Encouraged, Kari decided a celebration was in order. She spotted an ice-cream shop across the street. Nothing ushered in success like a heavy dose of hot fudge.
She was about to get out of the van when she spotted Tessa coming out of the drugstore. She entered the building next to it, a large plastic sack dangling in one hand. Maybe the girl would like to join her.
But then the sign over the building brought Kari up short.
Bus Station.
What business would the girl have there? This morning, none of the D’Angelos had mentioned a family member coming or leaving town.
A vague, uneasy feeling stole over Kari. She got out quickly and went through the glass door. It was a small, functional place, and in no time she saw Tessa standing near the bus bay. With a boy. Luggage lay around their feet.
They didn’t see her approach. Both were absorbed in the contents of the bag Tessa held. They looked like kids exclaiming over Halloween treats. They were kids.
“…should be enough snacks to hold us until we get to Albuquerque,” Tessa was saying as Kari reached them. “I got those chocolate-covered raisins you like.”
“Tessa?”
The blond boy looked up and Tessa swung around. Her features went dead-white and her eyes moved like a trapped rabbit’s. “Oh, K-Kari,” she stammered. “Oh, hi.”
“Hi.” Kari kept her voice light and casual. “How come you’re not in school?”
“My last class was at two-fifteen.”
“Oh.” She supposed that was possible. But all that luggage, some of it decidedly feminine. Without a doubt, she knew there was trouble here. “So…. You and your dad are in town?”
“No. Dad’s in Denver. Picking up stuff for the lodge.”
Kari jerked her head toward the front door. “I’m heading back there. Do you need a ride?”
“Uh, no. I’m just hanging out with Kyle.” As though suddenly remembering her companion, the girl swung a look in his direction. “This is Kyle.”
Kari held out her hand, which the boy shook limply. She noticed that his palm was sweaty. “Nice to meet you.” She flashed a look around the bus station. “Not really much of a hangout.”
“Well…actually…” Tessa began to explain.
“She’s here to say goodbye.” Kyle finally spoke up.
Kari’s stomach flipped nervously. “Goodbye?”
“Yeah. I’m going to stay with my dad in Phoenix for a week. Tessa’s just seeing me off.”
Kari’s eyes flickered down to the suitcases and backpacks. Clearly two sets. Wherever Kyle was off to, it wasn’t alone. “Lots of luggage for one guy,” she said. Then she smiled. “And they say women overpack.”
The three of them laughed at that, though the two teenagers barely managed to make it sound normal. Tessa had gone from white to pink to beet-red. As for Kari, if she’d thought her heart was hammering before, she thought it might leap out of her chest now. She didn’t have a clue how to deal with this situation. She just knew she couldn’t walk away from it.
“I need to hit the rest room,” Tessa said suddenly. “Excuse me.”
She pushed past Kari, leaving her alone with Kyle, who looked distinctly uncomfortable. He spent the next few minutes trying to make small talk and failing miserably. He was good-looking in a rough sort of way, with small teeth and a spiky haircut that made him look as if he’d just gotten a shock. Which, with Kari’s sudden appearance, probably wasn’t far from the truth.
Divide and conquer seemed like the best approach. Whatever Tessa had planned, if she could be made to see reason at all, Kari would probably stand a better chance of convincing her with Kyle out of the picture.
She cut across the boy’s meandering discussion of whether or not the area would have its first snowfall before Halloween. “I’ll just make sure Tessa’s all right.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“Into the women’s bathroom?” Kari asked.
“Oh. Okay. You go. But tell her to hurry up. Our—my bus is gonna be here pretty soon.”
Kari pushed through the door of the rest room. When she didn’t see Tessa right away, she nearly panicked, having visions of the teenager crawling through a window and running down an alleyway like some fugitive from a movie. Then she heard a distinct sniffle from one of the stalls. She went over to it and rapped lightly on the metal door.