by Linda Style
“Or not,” she said. “My uncle Gordon always told me to be careful what you wish for. Some things are better left to the imagination.”
“You haven’t mentioned him before. Do you have a lot of relatives?”
“No. And Gordon’s not really an uncle, but he and my dad have been friends since elementary school. He’s the family attorney, and he’s also my godfather.”
“And you like him.”
“I do. He’s a wonderful man.”
“Wow,” Linc said as the road curved and a broad expanse of sky opened before them. “Look at that. I can see for miles.” He was quiet, looking about, taking in the much photographed vistas. “Y’know, I like the wide-open spaces,” he said. “No walls, few people. I may want to settle down in a place like this.”
Linc’s soft tone, the measured last sentence, told Tori he was looking for a response from her. “It’s no secret that I think it’s a great place to live,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. But, there are some drawbacks. Like jobs. There aren’t that many in Spirit Creek. Not good ones anyway. And in Sedona, you almost have to be retired or own an art gallery.”
“Or sell Native American jewelry.”
“That, too.”
“When we were searching for the dogs, I saw a business for sale that looked interesting.”
She drew back to look at him.
“If I had money, that is.”
“What kind of business?”
“Jeep tours. I forget the name, but that’s what the sign said. I could be outside all the time that way.”
“I know the one,” Tori said. “Actually, Serena’s brother owned the company before the bank foreclosed on it. Being located in Spirit Creek was a drawback for the business. The owner had to compete with the touring companies in Sedona, which is where most tourists stay. And since the tourist season dwindles in the coldest and hottest parts of the year, it’s probably hard for even the popular tours to stay afloat.”
“It was just a thought.”
Tori parked in front of The Animal House, where another childhood friend had set up shop. “I’ll check if the vet has time to see Cleo.” Tori got out and went inside. The Animal House was one business that always seemed to be booming, only today, there was no one waiting in the small, but cheery office. “Hello,” she called out, then hit the bell on the desk. Pictures of local pets and livestock and their smiling owners graced almost every inch of wall space.
Travis Gentry rounded the corner from the back room where he treated the smaller animals. “Hi, Trav.”
“Mornin’, Tori. What can I do for you? You got a sick dog?”
“Not exactly. Cleo got out of the yard this morning and has a sore leg. She also seems a little lethargic. I’m hoping you have time to take a look at her.”
“Sure, bring her in.”
“Great.”
Tori went out to the car, opened the door and called Cleo. Cleo picked up her head for just an instant, then lay back on her front paws. “C’mon, Cleo.”
Cleo didn’t move, and Tori glanced at Linc. “Darn it. I’m going to have to have the vet come out here.”
He looked at her questioningly. “Is that a problem?”
“No. Not at all.” She was about to try again when she saw Trav coming toward them. Though Tori hadn’t gone to school in Spirit Creek, she knew from her friends that Travis Gentry, blond, buff and one of six Gentry siblings, had been the Spirit Creek High School heartthrob, homecoming king and star quarterback. His family owned half the town and his grandmother’s opinion carried a lot of weight in things that mattered in the community.
When Trav had decided to be a vet instead of setting a course to be president, Amelia Gentry had cut him from her will. Getting on the wrong side of Amelia Gentry was like walking into the eye of a tornado.
When Trav reached the SUV, Tori said, “It’s the right front paw. And she’s so sleepy, she didn’t come when I called her.”
“Well, we’ll just see what’s going on here.” Travis quickly went into vet mode, examining Cleo’s leg, her eyes and inside her mouth. He pushed and prodded, asking questions at the same time. “Have you given her any medications?”
“No, why?”
Travis frowned. “Her pupils are dilated and she acts like she’s on some kind of tranquilizer. Could she have gotten into your medications?”
Tori squared her shoulders. “No. I don’t have any, and if I did, they wouldn’t be lying around where the dogs could get them.”
But…She glanced at Linc. He had pain pills from the hospital. Still, she couldn’t imagine he’d leave anything like that where the dogs could get it.
If the vet hadn’t noticed Linc before, he did then. Nodding, he said, “Hello.”
“Travis, this is…an old friend,” Tori said. “He’s recovering from surgery and staying with me until he’s back on his feet.”
The vet studied Linc, a little too long, Tori thought, then reached out to shake Linc’s hand.
“I’m Linc. Nice to meet you.” Linc glanced at Tori again and tapped his watch.
“So,” Tori said, not wanting to explain anything more about Linc than she had to. “What should I do about Cleo?”
“I don’t see any leg injury. And she doesn’t seem to be in any pain. As far as being sleepy, it could be anything. She could’ve eaten something that caused a reaction, but there’s no way to know unless we do a blood test and send it to a lab. I can do that and keep her here to monitor for the next twenty-four hours.”
Tori wasn’t completely comfortable with that, but Trav knew better than she did. “Okay. Thanks for looking at her without an appointment. Can you send a bill?”
Travis nodded, reached inside the SUV and prodded Cleo to get out. Tori helped him, and between the two, they managed to get her inside the vet’s office. When she was settled, Travis said, “Don’t worry. All her signs seem fine. I’ll call you if anything comes up, but I don’t expect it will.”
“Thanks, Trav.” Tori hugged Cleo, then went outside, shut the back of the SUV and climbed into the driver’s seat. Later, on the road, she said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know it would be such a big deal.”
“No problem for me,” Linc responded. “I just hope she’s okay.”
“Yeah. Me, too. Trav seems to think it’s nothing.”
They were both quiet then, but soon Linc asked, “Was having me there a problem for you?”
She turned so fast she almost got a kink in her neck. “A problem? What kind of problem?”
“Having to explain who I am.”
“I—it wasn’t that. I was…preoccupied. Concerned about Cleo and—” And she hadn’t realized it herself until it happened. She tightened her grip on the wheel. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I didn’t mean to do that.”
He sighed. “No, stop that. It’s not you. I’m just…I’ve tried not to think about how much I’m putting you out, but it’s obvious that I am. And,” he added quickly, “this meeting made me realize people are going to want to know who I am and what I do, and if I tell the truth, even though I was exonerated, they’ll probably wonder about it anyway.” He scrubbed both hands over his face, then curled them into fists. “It’s so frustrating. And geez, Tori, I don’t want you to have to start explaining for me. I’ve disrupted your life enough already.”
Hearing him, seeing the pain in his eyes, made her want to cry. But she couldn’t. He had to get well. Her job was to make sure he got well. “Now you stop it. It’s fine. It’ll all be fine. You haven’t disrupted anything. And now I’m going to take the scenic route,” Tori said.
It took a moment for him to glance over, and though she saw the incredulous look on his face in her peripheral vision, she kept her attention on the road. “You’ll like it,” she said.
She turned onto 179 and headed toward Oak Creek, and a few minutes later, he leaned forward as Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte majestically into view.
Linc’s mouth fell open and
for a moment, he seemed speechless. “It’s awesome,” he finally said, a quiet reverence in his voice.
She pulled into a parking spot.
“Wow. Just wow. You know―” Linc said. “―I looked up the area on the Internet, but pictures don’t compare to the real thing.”
Tori never tired of the landscape; sculpted by nature into buttes, spires and mountains resembling coffeepots, bells, courthouses and Snoopy, for which they were so appropriately named. “It is breathtaking, isn’t it?”
“You’re fortunate to live here. I bet it’s expensive.”
“I am lucky, and it is.”
When she didn’t elaborate, he said, “Did I tell you thanks for the use of the laptop?”
“You did. More than once. And that’s one more thing you remembered how to do.”
He nodded. “Right.”
Glad he seemed more comfortable now, she was, too, and remembered a couple calls she had so make. She picked up her phone and punched in Quint’s speed-dial number. When she got Quint on the phone, she told him about the gate. “Can you get to it soon?”
“Sure. The paint and other supplies came in for the wall, so I was going to come over today anyway. It’ll be done in no time.”
Hanging up, she heard Linc’s stomach growl. She’d been so concerned about everything else, she hadn’t given a thought to breakfast and now it was close to noon. “I’m going to stop at a store just down the road and pick up a few things for lunch,” she said.
His stomach growled again as if in response. “That isn’t—”
“Uh—uh—uh.” She stopped him cold. “You wanted to see some of the area, so we’re going to do just that. In fact, I’m going to pick up a few things and we’re going to have a picnic.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
LINC LOOKED AT HER sideways, but didn’t say a word. She turned on the radio and drove to the store with a smile on her face. She hadn’t been on a picnic since she was a kid and had no idea why she’d said they were going to have one. But she liked the idea. Something to get her mind off the broken fence, even though the sheriff was probably right that the perpetrators were just teens looking for some excitement.
Linc seemed serious while humming along with a couple different songs on the radio, so she didn’t interrupt. At the end of a song, he finally said, “Sounds like fun.” A smile emerged. “Yeah, a picnic sounds like a lot of fun.”
His tone was low and sexy. Heat surged through her body.
Reaching the small gas station store, she practically leaped from the moving vehicle, went directly to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face. Then she went into the store and gathered some stuff from the limited choices for a makeshift picnic.
As the clerk was bagging her purchases, he held up a couple of plastic wineglasses and a disposable corkscrew. “Good thought,” she said with a quick laugh. How stupid would that have been. Buy wine and not be able to drink it.
The clerk handed her the bag. “Enjoy.”
She thanked him, went to the door and pushed it open with her shoulder, wondering if the “enjoy” part would be possible. When was the last time she’d enjoyed spending time with a man alone? When had she let it happen? Every date she’d had since Dylan always ended badly. Mostly because she was on guard, so uptight, she couldn’t possibly enjoy it.
With Linc, she wanted him to be at ease, to feel she was comfortable with his being there, with her helping him, and that wasn’t going to happen if she didn’t let her guard down. She wanted that. She wanted to let go and be free. And knowing that might never happen was the worst feeling of all.
But right now…at this moment in time…she was going to try.
“Okay,” she said when she opened the side door and placed the bags on the floor. “We’ve got lunch.”
Linc craned to see what she’d bought. “My taste buds are tingling.” Bruno raised his head.
“Well, they’ll have to tingle some more until we get there.”
“There, being where?”
“We’re going to Red Rock Crossing.”
“Isn’t that near the mountain out your window?”
“It is, but it’s not as close as it looks. You’ll like it. There’s lots of foliage…fall colors right now…a creek, an old mill and a picnic area.”
“Uh…that sounds great, but—” he pointed to his bad leg “—you’re going to have to help me.”
“I know. But all you have to do is get to a table, or if they’re too far away, we can sit on the grass. I have a blanket in the back.”
Linc was quiet for the longest time and kept his gaze straight ahead.
“Is that okay?” she finally asked. “You said you liked being outside, so I thought—”
He reached over and touched her hand. “It’s very thoughtful.”
Looking at him, his pupils seemed to dilate.
“And,” he said softly, “there’s nothing I’d rather do than have a picnic with you.”
His touch was warm and sensual. “Oh, here’s the turn,” she said quickly, moving her hands to the top of the steering wheel.
He pulled back, but kept looking at her. She pushed a stray hair from her eyes, every cell in her body suddenly acutely aware of him…and the desire pooling low in her belly. When they reached the picnic site, she parked the car and jumped out.
The parking area was larger than she remembered, and the tables seemed an airport away. She walked around the SUV and opened the back. “We can sit over there on the grass. It’s closer than the tables.”
And if she continued to act like a ditz, he’d think she was nervous being around him, and though she was, it was for a completely different reason than he’d be thinking. And then he’d get all uncomfortable letting her help him again. “Okay with you?”
“Everything is okay with me,” he said.
And everything he said seemed to have a double meaning. To her. He hadn’t said or done anything to give her that impression. He hadn’t done anything except tease her a little a time or two. “I’m going to leave the back window open for Bruno,” she said. “He won’t go anywhere unless I say so. And I’m going to put the stuff over there so we’re close to the car. Then I’ll come back to help you.”
~~~
Linc watched as Tori spread the blanket near the water where tufts of salt grass rose in bunches at the creek’s edge. Cathedral Rock rose like a giant monolith in the background and the sun glinted off the clear blue water like diamonds. A perfect backdrop for a picnic. Tori took a few things from the bags and arranged them neatly on the blanket. He couldn’t tell what she’d bought, but it didn’t matter. He was ravenous. And not just for food.
Her thoughtfulness made him like her even more. She didn’t owe him anything, and yet she went out of her way to do whatever she could for him. He’d like to think she had romantic motives, but she’d said she was super accommodating with all her friends.
When she came back, he put an arm around her shoulders and managed to hobble alongside her toward the blanket. He wasn’t in any hurry. He liked having her close, smelling her sweet scent. Sweet, yet fresh. She wore a ballcap and her hair was still in a ponytail. She hadn’t had time to change her workout clothes, layered shirts and tight black pants that showed every taut muscle in her sexy legs. Something about the outfit brought out his primitive desires. But then, she’d be sexy no matter what she was wearing.
“Here we are,” she said, sliding out from under his arm, but still holding on while he lowered himself to a sitting position. They were the only people around. The air was crisp and still, the burbling waters of Oak Creek the only noise.
She sat on the blanket across from him, legs crossed, and started to unwrap a block of cheese. In the quiet, with all the open space around him, the baby-blue sky stretching as far as he could see, he felt as if he was experiencing a rebirth of some kind.
“This is one of my favorite places,” Tori said. “I used to come here a lot during the summer when I was in my teens.”
“Fond memories, I bet.”
She smiled. “The best ones of my life.”
“Really. That surprises me.”
“Why is that?”
“I don’t know. I guess since you’d been married—”
“I—I wasn’t thinking about that time in my life.” She looked down and continued opening things that smelled really good. “Probably because I was here very little after I was married.” She handed him a bottle of red wine and a corkscrew. “Do you remember how to open wine?” she asked, a little tease in her voice.
“If I don’t, I think I can figure it out.” He stuck the corkscrew into the bottle and managed to get it out without incident. “There. Easy as pie. What’s next?”
She handed him a glass. “Pour us each a glass, and we’re ready to eat.”
He’d been so preoccupied watching her that he hadn’t noticed the feast in front of him. Apples, grapes, deli meats and two different kinds of cheese, crackers and French bread. He poured one glass, handed it to her, then poured another. “They had all that in that little store at the gas station?”
“Yeah. It surprised me. There was a special deli section from a store in Sedona. I guess because there are so many picnic places nearby.” She raised her glass to his. “Cheers.”
“To you,” he toasted. “May all your dreams come true.”
They both took a sip, and just as Tori ran her tongue across her lower lip, Linc leaned forward.
Tori sensed Linc was going to kiss her. Seconds suddenly became hours. She should pull back. But she couldn’t. She wanted to kiss him…to feel his lips against hers. But more than anything, she wanted to feel wanted.
What harm was a kiss? It would be something to hold on to when the inevitable happened.
So, she sat there, immobilized…eyes fixed on his mouth…until at last, his lips met hers. Warm and soft and inviting, and she was helpless to do anything but kiss him back. She leaned closer, her pulse pounding out a jungle rhythm of raw desire as she reached up to put her arms around his neck.