She continued on toward the tour company, glancing across the street at the quaint church where children played in the playground. Bethany had spent many Sundays sitting beside Nate on the second-from-last pew of that church. Since moving from Treasure Creek, she’d not been in church on a regular basis. Her faith, like her heart, had taken a hit when Nate had told her he didn’t love her, and that she shouldn’t hang around town because of him.
Bethany’s dreams back then had conflicted with one another. She’d wanted to be successful in her own right as a wedding planner, and she’d wanted Nate. And she’d wanted children with Nate. In her naivety, she’d thought she could have it all. But there weren’t many weddings in Treasure Creek before the article.
Now she was just looking to have a lovely life. She wanted satisfaction and fulfillment. She wanted…something elusive that she hadn’t found with her career in San Francisco. Sure, she’d flown to Italy and Australia and other places to carry off the weddings of wealthy clients for the firm she’d worked for, and loved every minute of it. But now, at twenty-nine, with no husband and no children, she knew she wanted more. And she hoped that more was here in Treasure Creek.
She wanted to know that God had a plan for her life—a plan that she would understand soon. Maybe, being back in Treasure Creek, she’d find the faith she once had. The faith to believe that God really did have her in the palm of His hand.
A prayer for Joleen was a start.
Out in the wilderness, she’d always felt closer to God. Who wouldn’t? Maybe out there she’d feel the peace she’d missed.
“Nate, I want you to look around the cabin at point three on your tour, but I really don’t want you going to Klink’s Ridge,” Amy said, from across the desk in her office. “We both know no good can come of that. And if by some stretch of the imagination the treasure is in there, then it will just have to stay there, unless you find another entrance. I can’t imagine my great, great grandfather scaling the wall to hide something in such a dangerous place.”
Nate ran a finger along the crease of his cowboy hat. He planned to scale that ridge and find the cave that his grandfather had believed held the treasure. He’d tried it once and almost fallen to his death, just like his grandfather had. But Nate had made a careless mistake. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. He’d been thinking about it, and felt he owed it to his grandfather to figure out if he’d discovered anything before he plunged down the face of that cliff. Amy didn’t need to worry herself about it, though, so he kept his plans to himself.
“I’ll be checking around the cabin. When you showed me the map I realized—because the map leads me to believe the treasure is buried near a cabin—that maybe my grandfather thought the same thing. This opening on the face of Klink’s Ridge may be a cave opening he thought linked to a cave. I’m not sure what my grandfather was thinking. I may never know. But I’m going with my gut here and checking all this out.”
Amy nodded. “There are just some things in life only God knows the reasons for.”
Nate’s thoughts went instantly to the day he heard the doctor tell him he would never father children. After a mild case of the measles—despite his childhood vaccine—Nate had been shocked when his dad suggested the doctor test him during his checkup. He’d been nineteen, and when the test revealed that he was sterile his world had changed. He’d gone from being a man with everything to a man with nothing in an instant, knowing there was no way on earth he would be able to look Bethany in the eye and ask her to marry him. Why had this happened to him? He’d asked himself and God that question over and over again…with no answer.
God’s reasoning wasn’t something he thought about much anymore. He still went to church on occasion, just because in Treasure Creek it was expected. He’d be considered a heathen for certain if he never stepped foot in the church…and maybe yes, there was a possibility that he might hear something from the preacher that helped him process the reasoning behind his inability to give the woman he loved the children she wanted so badly. Even now the thought made him ache through and through.
“I’ve found the perfect guide to help you with this tour group.”
Amy’s soft voice broke into his deep thoughts and he pulled back from the mental road he’d been traveling on—it was a road that led him nowhere good. He was glad to have something else to think about. Before Bethany had come home, he’d pressed any longing for her he had deep into the most hidden recesses of his being so that he was able to cope. Coping. It was a double life he lived, but knowing she was living her dreams helped him. Now that she was here, coping was going to be a killer.
“Who’s going with me?” he asked. He liked all the younger tour guides. Most were just out of high school, ready to learn as much as possible so they could begin leading their own tours. None of them had ever been as great to have along as Bethany had been…she’d always given the tours a good twist. Her insights into the country and the animal life always added a fun element.
“The Taylors have adopted this little boy, and he’s pretty rambunctious and has a few attention problems. They requested a female guide to help lead the tour, because the mother felt she would be more comfortable, given the situation.”
Nate wasn’t surprised to have an extra guide on a family tour, especially since he was going to take a few private excursions in the hopes of finding the treasure. But a woman—who? The only woman guide they had at the moment was Casey Donner, and she was already out in the field. At least he thought so. “Who? Did Casey get back in early?”
“No. It’s someone new.” Amy tapped her pencil on the table, then let it drop as she pushed her chair back and got up.
She was acting differently. What was up, he wondered, as she crossed to the door, cracked it open and peeked out into the waiting area then closed the door. The last thing he wanted on this tour was to be breaking in a wet-behind-the-ears woman.
Turning, she settled serious eyes on him. “Okay, she’s here now. This is going to be great, Nate. Remember, I’m doing what is best for this family, and I expect you to do the same. Here at Alaska’s Treasures tour company we always think of the clients first.”
Nate wasn’t sure how to take Amy’s tone or the look on her face. But her words had his stomach feeling suddenly like hot mush. “Amy, what have you done—” he started, but she opened the door and beckoned someone inside.
The last someone he’d ever expected to see walk through that door as a tour guide. Bethany.
Chapter Three
Bethany walked into Amy’s office and stopped in her tracks. Nate jerked to his feet so fast, he sent his chair sliding into the bookcase behind it as he gasped in horror.
What had she done to make this man change toward her like he had?
“Amy,” she snapped, her temper at his attitude spiking. “I’m not sure I understand—or like this one bit.”
Nate positively glowered at Amy, looking like he could wring her neck. The man obviously had a problem, and it looked like Bethany was it.
Unaffected by either of them, Amy smiled breezily, as if Nate looked at her that way all the time. She drew Bethany into the room and closed the door. “Look, I didn’t think either of you would understand this. That’s why I chose not to tell you what I’d done until now. But, Bethany, the minute I heard you were coming to town I knew you both would be the perfect guides for this family tour. Remember, I’ve seen you work together before—you were the best team ever. And this family needs a compassionate woman like you along, Bethany. You are an answer to a prayer, coming back at the time that you did. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. And they also need you, Nate, because I believe you have something to offer the little boy. He is seven years old, his name is Cody, and he needs strong male role models in his life. You are that in every sense of the word—” she dropped her chin to her chest and lifted a brow “—when you aren’t looking as if you just stepped barefoot into a pot of boiling water.”
At that, his jaw jerked and he st
arted to say something. Amy held up her hand. “You can help this little boy by being a positive role model to him.
Believe me, I’m so thankful that Ben’s and my sons have so many of you men around to show them how to be good, strong Christian men. That’s what you can do on this trip.”
Bethany glanced at Nate. Nate glanced at her.
How could either of them refuse that?
This was not good. Bethany wanted to leave. She wanted to stay. She wanted to know what Nate’s problem was.
He thumped his hat against his thigh, looking like a trapped grizzly.
“I’ll do it,” she said. She wasn’t so sure about being an answer to a prayer, but if there was a chance she could help this little boy by being a kind and compassionate guide, then she would. Nate would just have to deal with it. Especially since it looked like he wasn’t going to be any of those things.
“I’m in, too,” he grunted, making his way past her to the door. He stopped beside her. “Can you still hike that kind of terrain? And when was the last time you rode a horse?”
“Nate McMann, I could outhike you any day of the week when we were in high school, and you know it.” The gall of the man! “And though I might not be able to break wild horses like you can, I can still ride with the best of them.” She had no intention of telling him that she hadn’t ridden a horse in nine years. Oh, no, she’d sit in that saddle like she’d been riding every day, just so she’d have the satisfaction of wiping that condescension off his face.
“I never said you couldn’t ride or hike,” he said, his tone sent shivers through her. Confused her. “We have our orientation tomorrow then Gage drives us out day after tomorrow at daybreak. Be there on both counts.”
He was gone the minute the words were out. Bethany watched him stalk down the hallway. The man still got to her. There was absolutely no denying that. It was maddening and crazy. But, maybe this was what she needed. Maybe this was the thing that would clear the air once and for all.
Nate had been living on the outskirts of her life like a larger-than-life memory. It didn’t matter that he’d hurt her, the memory of him was there. She’d stalled out in the dating world—no man since had lived up to that memory…and she’d dated some really great guys. If only she’d been able to love one of them.
“Is there anyone else on the tour?” she asked, turning away and closing the door.
Amy smiled knowingly. “I know I threw you for a loop, Bethany, and I’m sorry. Do you forgive me?”
They’d been friends for a long time. “Maybe. Okay, yes. But I’m not so sure he will.”
Amy walked around to her desk and sank into the chair that had once been Ben’s. She let out a long sigh as she glanced around the office. “He’ll get over it. He hasn’t been the same since you left, you know.”
That got Bethany. “He sent me away. Remember?”
“I remember. Still, something about the whole thing never rang true.”
Bethany didn’t want to dwell on her past. She’d gone over it and over it for years, and never came up with an answer. One day he’d loved her and the next he hadn’t. It was as hard and as cold as that. “I survived and am a stronger woman because of what happened between us. I asked you this yesterday, but didn’t get much of an answer. How are you surviving?”
Amy glanced out the window that had the blinds angled slightly downward, so they could see out but people couldn’t see in. Bethany sank into the chair Nate had almost knocked over. Amy’s weary, sad gaze came back to meet hers.
“I’m making it, Bethany. But sometimes I feel overwhelmed. Ben…” her voice rasped with emotion. She paused and drew herself up, forcing the emotion away. “He wrote me a letter basically asking me to remarry by Christmas if anything were to happen to him. Every man in the district is asking me to marry him. What was Ben thinking? Why would he ask me to do such a thing?”
It was the same question Bethany had been wondering about Amy. “He loved you and I’m sure he was thinking only the best for you.”
“Yes, I know,” she said, looking distant. “But even Ben can’t make me fall in love with someone—he isn’t an easy act to follow. How about you? Why haven’t you ever married?”
Bethany shook her head, unable to admit that she felt the same way about Nate McMann. Well, it wasn’t exactly the same thing. Ben James had loved Amy with his whole heart and soul. Not being able to forget a man like that was understandable. But feeling that way about a man who’d basically kicked her to the curb made her feel foolish. And she hated feeling foolish.
“I just haven’t had the time to really search for the right guy. I’m sure he’ll come along. But if he doesn’t, I always have my work. What would we do without work?”
“I don’t know. But it’s my boys who have gotten me through. I’m here at work because I have to be, but it’s Dexter and Sammy who have gotten me though their daddy’s death.”
Bethany’s heart caught with longing. “Yes, I can imagine they’ve been little blessings.”
Amy smiled proudly. “Oh, yes. They are constant sources of joy. Their daddy would be so proud of them.”
Bethany knew this was true. Ben was the kind of man who took pride in his family. He’d been a great guy.
“He’d be proud of you, too, Amy. What you are doing takes such strength.”
“God has given me that. Besides, this tour company was Ben’s passion. I want to help the town and also carry on his legacy. The boys may want to carry on their daddy’s business one day. I want it to still be here when they are able to do that, if they choose.”
“From the looks of things, you don’t have anything to worry about.”
Amy’s brows dipped. “I don’t know. The attention from the article has helped us turn a corner economically for now, but we have to keep them coming. We can’t afford to make a misstep. Every tour counts. Every positive word and great review matters. I mean, all these women are great for excitement and the attention they’re bringing us, but in the long run it’s the same, regular tourists who will carry this company for the future. Families like the ones on your tour.”
She was absolutely right. Bethany would have to focus on that, and not on the brooding cowboy who could very easily stomp on her heart again during this tour. “I’ll do my best to give this group a great experience. Now, who else is on this tour? Usually there’s more than one family.”
Amy took a refreshing breath and smiled excitedly. “There is. It’s the cutest newlywed couple. Can you imagine wanting to take an Alaskan tour for your honeymoon? Especially one this late in the season.”
It was Bethany’s turn to look at Amy in horror. “Newlyweds.”
Amy laughed. “Hold on, they’ve taken an Alaskan cruise here. So it’s not like they got married yesterday.”
“That’s a relief!” Bethany exclaimed, making Amy laugh again.
“I think it’s adorable, really. And since it’s one of the last tours of the season and a little bit cold—they’ll have plenty of snuggle time.”
Bethany thought about it. “You’re right, but, um, did you tell Nate about them?”
Amy looked appalled. “Are you kidding! He’ll hate it if there’ll be any mushy stuff going on. You should see how uptight he gets watching all this sparking and romancing that’s been going on around him. It’s like the guy has forgotten that love makes the world go round.” A mischievous twinkle sparked in her vivid blue eyes. “I booked him specifically on his tour. I for one think Nate McMann needs to open his eyes and see that if he doesn’t change he’ll grow old alone. And it won’t be pretty.”
Bethany didn’t know how to take that. “I hope you don’t have any ideas about me and him—”
“And what if I did?”
“Then you’d need to get rid of them right away.”
“So you don’t have feelings for him?”
“No, Amy, I don’t. It’s taken some time,” she admitted. “But I don’t.”
Amy stood up and came around the
desk. “Good. I was a bit worried that old feelings might cause problems on the tour. I’m relieved to know that won’t be the case. And the sparking and romancing of the newlyweds isn’t going to get to you?”
“Nope. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” She would be fine. She would.
As Bethany left the building she felt relief. For a minute there, she’d feared Amy might be matchmaking. Bethany had eaten supper at Lizbet’s Diner last night and had heard all about how Amy had been matchmaking over the last few months. She was more than a little relieved to know that this wasn’t one of those instances. Yes, it had crossed her mind the first moment she’d walked into the room, and Nate had practically knocked his chair over bolting out of it. But then she’d found out there was a child involved, and she knew Amy wouldn’t use a child.
“No, Amy, I don’t have feelings for him.” Bethany’s words came back to her as she walked down the sidewalk. If only she could be sure those words were the truth….
Chapter Four
The Taylors were a lovely couple in their midthirties. Their son Cody was seven, extremely active and very curious—which Bethany thought was a good thing. It took only a few seconds after introductions were made for her to see why Shelly Taylor wasn’t comfortable on the wilderness hike without help. Cody was so active that she looked one way for a second, and the next second he left the room. If that happened out on the trail he could be in danger.
Bethany had a feeling she was going to earn her keep on this trip. Especially since Nate seemed preoccupied while they loaded gear into the van. Of course, Amy had told her when she arrived that he hadn’t been at all pleased to learn that Ely and Lisa March were newlyweds.
He’d learned this the day before, at the orientation meeting where they’d all met to make certain everyone had all their gear in place and understood the rules. He’d barely spoken to her, being all business—or maybe he’d thought that if he pretended she wasn’t there she might just disappear. Who knew?
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