When she climbed onto the train, she didn’t look at him. Maybe that wasn’t such a good sign. But he was not to be deterred.
“Good morning,” he said, cheerfully.
“Good morning,” she echoed, still not looking at him as she veered in the other direction.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Wonderfully,” she said, over her shoulder. And kept walking.
Daniel wondered that perhaps she hadn’t actually slept all that well. He would give her some time. She would come around.
She was, after all, wearing the necklace.
He went to seek out the engineer. There would be plenty of time later for courting Miss Madison McKivitz of Houston, Texas.
Madison had started out being a little distant from Daniel on purpose, then it had been because she was so incredibly busy. Today’s rowdy passengers made yesterday’s look they were on tranquilizers.
The questions took the most time. She’d gotten no further than the second gondola car because of the questions. She was thankful she had studied the materials Mattie had given her as she answered questions from the history of the train to the route to the type of trees they passed.
She was as surprised as anyone when the train skidded to a sudden halt in one of the turns. The passengers all searched frantically to see what had caused the delay.
“What is it?”
“Is something wrong?”
The questions swirled, most of them directed at her. “I really don’t know. But, I’ll find out,” she said finally, turning to head to the next car.
“Look, it’s bears!” one of the passengers called, pointing to the tracks in front of the train.
It was then that she saw them. Cavorting on the tracks was a momma bear and two bear cubs. Every passenger on the train who could find a spot moved to the right side of the train and more cameras clicked than at a sighting of Channing Tatum.
Amused, Madison altered her attention between the passengers and the bears they watched.
As the momma bear looked on, the two cubs chased each other and tumbled on top of each other, rolling through the grass.
With all their attention on the bears, no one saw the little boy of about two or three years old get off the train and start toward the bears.
Madison, though, did see him. She, too, hopped off the train and started to follow him. The little boy ran pretty fast to be so young. She moved slowly so as not to startle either the boy or the bears.
She could have used a little more lead time, however. The momma bear saw him and was closer to him than Madison was.
After standing up on her hind legs and ushering her cubs behind her, she landed hard and watched the clueless little boy, laughing happily, approach her babies.
By then, the other passengers had seen what was going on. However, everyone seemed immobilized as they watched the drama unfold. Madison was the only one besides the little boy off the train.
The momma bear went toward the child slowly. He continued to race toward the bears, laughing and obviously anticipating playing with the live teddy bears.
When he reached the bear, she must have recognized him as a cub similar to that of her own babies. She put out one huge paw, swiped him away, and turning, slowly ambled away.
The child was thrown aside and tossed to the ground, but left alone. Silent. Bleeding.
With the bears rushing toward the trees, Madison ran toward the boy and turning him over, checked for damage. He was bleeding, but he had a pulse. Pulling off one of her boots, she pulled her sock from her foot and wrapped it around the boy’s bleeding shoulder. By then, the child was wailing. She took that as a good sign.
Then, within seconds, Daniel was at her side as were several other passengers including the child’s parents. Daniel had already radioed for a helicopter to come and take the boy to the emergency room.
Madison stayed with them, assuring them that their child was going to be alright, until the emergency vehicle arrived.
It was an hour later before they were back on the train and on their way to Silverton.
She and Daniel went around to all the cars and assured them that though they were a couple hours behind schedule, everything would come out alright. For those who wanted to ride the train back, they would still get their two hours in Silverton. For those on a schedule, there would be a bus waiting in Silverton for them to ride back so they wouldn’t lose any time.
After all of that was taken care of, Madison found herself alone with Daniel, once more, on the platform between cars.
“You were impressive,” he said.
“I didn’t do much,” she said. “I could have gotten to him sooner, but I wasn’t sure how the bear would react.”
“No, you handled it perfectly,” he said. “If you had rushed the bear, she probably would not have been so easy on you. She saw the boy as a nuisance and probably didn’t mean to hurt him at all. If she had meant to hurt him, she would have.”
“Still, it was not more than anyone else would have done.”
“It was more than anyone else did,” he said, reaching out to run his hand along her shoulder. “And you are short a sock.”
“Now that is true.”
“How did you think to do that?”
“I don’t know. Instinct.”
“Kids of your own?”
“Not that I know of.”
Daniel laughed. “I kind of think you’d know.”
“Yeah, no kids,” she hesitated. Did she really want to know if Daniel had children? She was trying to avoid getting close to anyone, especially him. She couldn’t resist. “You?” she asked, fearing the answer.
“No, no kids for me either. At least not yet.”
At least not yet. That was an odd thing to come out of a guy’s mouth. Most guys avoided the topic, much less admitted that they may actually want children someday.
She must have had an odd expression on her face because he smiled. “Yes, I can admit that someday I might want children.”
“I’m sure your girlfriend is happy to hear that.” She felt it was a logical gamble since he wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.
“I’m sure she would be if I had one.”
“Wife then.”
“No, no wife then.”
“Boyfriend.”
He laughed. Again. “You’re funny.”
“Thanks.”
“You can ride the bus back if you want to.”
“Are you kidding? And miss all the excitement?”
After the train docked in Silverton, and the passengers went into town, Madison found a quiet place in one of the coaches to sit, take out her journal, and start writing.
She wrote about the events of the day, the bear, the boy, her quick response and obvious knowledge about how to care for him. She had not hesitated. And she had not been afraid. What did it mean?
Daniel must have learned from yesterday’s experience because today he didn’t come up behind her. Today, she looked up to see him standing in the doorway watching her.
She closed her journal, and tucked it into her bag.
“Here you are, sitting inside when it’s such a beautiful day outside.”
She looked out the window. It was, indeed, a beautiful day. It wasn’t cold and it wasn’t hot. It wasn’t cloudy. It was perfect.
“I see you’ve come to rescue me from myself,” she said.
“Again.”
“Can I repay you by buying you lunch?” she surprised herself by asking. She found that she was actually hungry today.
He looked a little surprised. “Sure,” he said.
She found that she felt a lot steadier today, even after having to save a boy from a momma bear.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“I’m ok,” she said. “You?”
“I’m proud of you.”
“Proud of me?”
“Yes, you took charge today. If you didn’t already work for me, I’d hire you.”
“I do
n’t know that I actually work for you, but I’ll take it as a compliment.”
He looked at her strangely, but didn’t respond to her statement. “Feel like pizza?” he asked.
“Sure,” she said, looking at the quaint little pizza parlor called Smedley’s Pizzeria next to Smedley’s Ice Cream Parlor. It even had white table cloths on the tables. “It looks nice.”
“It is nice. And the food is good, too.”
They found a table in the midst of noisy tourists.
“If it’s too loud,” Daniel said, “we can go.”
“No, I like it,” she said, with a sideways grin. “It reminds me of the city.”
“Right. I forgot for a moment that you’re a city girl.”
“How could you? With my brakeman uniform and all.”
“I don’t know what I was thinking.”
She ordered a slice of cheese pizza and he ordered a slice of supreme.
“You seemed to know just what to do with that boy,” he said. “Have you had first aid training?”
“Of course. Mattie required it.”
“Yeah, but that’s pretty basic. I mean before.”
“Hasn’t everyone at some point? I’m telling you, it was instinct.”
“Ok. It’s just rare for someone to do that.”
“I don’t think you give people enough credit,” Madison said. “I just happened to be the first one to see him.”
“Nonetheless, I hope you’ll let me show my appreciation.”
“Your appreciation? What do you mean by that?”
“Let me take you to dinner.”
“To dinner? Sounds like a date.”
“No, not a date. Just dinner.”
“Why?”
He groaned and ran his hand through his hair. “To show my appreciation.”
She smiled. She was enjoying causing him frustration.
“By the way,” he asked. “How do you like your uniform?”
The server brought the pizza and set it down in front of them. “Can I get you anything else?”
They said no. “By the way,” the server said, with a wink at Madison. “You two make a cute couple.”
They both stared at her retreating back, speechless. Then they looked at each other. Madison shook her head. “It’s the uniform,” she said. “She probably thinks we dressed alike on purpose. So, to answer your question, right now I don’t think much about the uniform.”
Madison took a bite of the cheesy pizza and, closing her eyes, chewed slowly.
“Is it that good?” Daniel asked.
Madison opened her eyes and looked at him as she chewed. “You try,” she said, “and tell me what you think.”
He took a bite, but instead of closing his eyes, looked at her while he chewed. “It is good,” he said. “Anyway, are you going to let me take you to dinner?”
“Why don’t you just take me to lunch?” she asked, then took a sip of her coke.
“I am taking you to lunch.”
“Great. Then we’re even. I did it for the little boy anyway.”
“I know you did. But you did it as part of your job.”
“Not really. I would have done it anyway,” she said, pushing aside her plate.
“Somehow I think you would have.”
“Wouldn’t you have done it?” She gazed into his green eyes, wondering why he was making such a big deal out of it.
“I probably would have. But I’m a little unusual, I suppose.”
“Really? How are you unusual?” She asked.
“I like to help people.”
“Everybody says that.”
“Maybe,” he said, leaning back in his chair.
“No, really. Everyone says they want to help people, but few people actually do it.”
“My point exactly,” he said.
“You’re incorrigible.”
He laughed. “Where did you go to college Madison?”
Madison sipped her coke. It was a simple question really. One that anyone would be able to answer - even if it was to say that they didn’t go to college at all. But she did. She knew she did go. She just couldn’t remember where she went.
To most people, she would have made something up. She would have said she went to University of Colorado or Colorado State. Who would be any wiser? But, first of all, she didn’t want to lie to Daniel and second, she knew that she could lose her job for lying to her employer. She had told Mattie that she hadn’t remembered and Mattie had hired her anyway. Mattie had also agreed not to tell anyone.
But Madison needed to tell Daniel. She didn’t want to, but she had to.
“I don’t know,” she said.
He stared at her, motionless. Apparently, he wasn’t sure what to say. What did one say, after all, when they told you they didn’t remember where they went to college? She was obviously too young for Alzheimer’s disease. Or was she? Maybe she had early onset.
She hated when she did this. When she had ideas about what was wrong with her and tried to decide if that was, indeed, what she had.
“What do you mean you don’t remember?” he asked, his voice no more than a whisper.
She sighed. He would never look at her the same way. “I just don’t know.”
“How can you not know?”
“I have amnesia.”
Silent. Again. Then, “What do you remember?”
“The last thing I remember is waking up in a vaguely familiar condo a week ago.”
“It must be where you live.”
“I don’t think so.”
“How do you know?”
“I don’t. It’s just a feeling. I didn’t recognize anything there.”
“You don’t remember anything else about your life?”
“I remember my childhood and high school, and I have occasional images after that, but nothing recent. My driver’s license says I live in Houston. That’s all I know.”
“What about a cell phone?”
“I don’t seem to have one with me.”
“Where did you live in Houston?”
“I didn’t recognize the address.”
“How can you not know where you live?”
“I don’t know.”
“How can you not know?”
“I don’t know how I can not know. It makes no sense to me either.”
“Can’t you contact the police in Houston to find out who you are?”
“I did. Or rather Mattie did. Apparently, I moved and didn’t get around to changing my driver’s license.”
He sat back and considered this new information. “I’ve never heard of anything like this before. So, you moved to Durango, Colorado, but you don’t remember doing it?”
“I can remember everything since I got here. So, it’s anterograde amnesia.”
“How do you know that?”
“Beats me. Apparently, I studied it at some point.”
“What do you think caused it?”
She shrugged. “Maybe I had brain damage.”
“You’re sure you’re safe living where you are?”
“No one has shown up yet. And I have a key.”
“I don’t know. It sounds risky. Maybe you should stay with me.”
“Good try,” she said. “I’ve lost my memory, not my good sense.”
“Humph. We’ll come back to the idea later. How did you end up at the train?”
“I was walking around downtown Durango, heard the train whistle, and followed it to the depot. What can I say? I was drawn to it.”
“Strange,” was all he said.
“So... when you ask me questions like who I am and where I came from, I can’t answer them.”
“You seem to be dealing with it well.”
“I’m making the most of it. I’m writing everything I do and think in my journal. One, so that if it happens again, I can refresh my memory, and two, so maybe something will trigger my memory.”
“That explains so much,” he said.
“I didn’t w
ant to tell you,” she said. “I don’t want it to change anything.”
“It doesn’t change anything for me.”
“I can’t tell you my work history. I can’t tell you who I’ve been in the past. I can tell you very little about myself.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” he said. “You’ve shown me. You’re a good person. Kind. Caring. Responsible. Intelligent. You have so many good qualities.”
“Thank you.”
The restaurant had cleared out for the most part. Madison knew it was about time to get back to the train.
Walking back to the train, they saw a herd of elk with two fawns bounding around the field. They stopped and watched them in companionable silence.
Madison hadn’t wanted to be close to Daniel. She hadn’t wanted to be close to anyone, but now that she was, she didn’t want the closeness to end. She was afraid. She was afraid that he would reconsider the friendship that he had seemed to be offering to her these past two days. She was afraid he would see her differently - either as someone vulnerable to take advantage of or someone who was not quite right in the head and not worth spending time with.
“Madison,” Daniel said, getting her attention. When she looked at him. “If you need anything - anything at all, tell me. I want to help you. I wanted to get to know you anyway before you told me about the amnesia. Now I still want to get to know you, but I also want to be there for you. And seriously, if you need a place to live, you can stay with me. No strings. None. I’m not out to hurt you.”
Maybe he was a mind reader. Maybe she had some kind of illness that she spoke and didn’t remember what she had said. Jeez. She sounded schizophrenic. Did I broadcast my thoughts?
“Daniel, just now, before, while we were watching the elk. Did I say anything to you?”
“No, nothing. We were just standing there.”
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. I was worried that I had said something to you and didn’t remember it. I was thinking a lot of what you just said.”
“This must be terrifying for you. I was only responding to some of what I thought I would be feeling if this happened to me.”
She nodded. “You’re a good man.”
“I try.”
When they stepped back on the train, and into the gondola car where the little boy had been riding, everyone began clapping.
Pretend You'll Stay (Winter Kisses Book 2) Page 5