“After Eva died— God, I still can’t believe that bastard killed her…. The three of us were at our wit’s end,” he said frankly. “Naomi and Eric always talked about you. Even Eva used to complain, saying she was tired of living in your shadow. I figured you were the replacement we needed. Only I never figured on you getting hurt.”
Lindsey shook her head in confusion. “I don’t understand. I thought—”
“I’m the one who asked Hunter to send you here. Lindsey, I’m sorry. It wasn’t my place to make that decision,” Keith said. “I should’ve gone through proper channels, gone through Eric. I nearly got you killed—and…and I felt you ought to know.”
Lindsey almost explained that Naomi had had the same idea, but didn’t have the energy. Nor did it make any difference now. “Apology accepted,” she said graciously.
Keith exhaled heavily with relief and returned her smile. “Thanks, Lindsey. You’re a class act. Friends?”
“Only if you never volunteer me again,” she teased. “There’s such a thing as being too popular.”
“You’re one lucky lady,” Keith said fervently. “We’ve all been lucky.”
Lindsey’s smile faded. If I was really lucky, Eric would be here. Where is he?
ERIC RUBBED AT HIS RED EYES with a weary hand. He’d finally finished the last of the paperwork required by the hospital, the rangers’ office, the police and the coroner, since he’d been the one to uncover Wilson’s body.
Finding the man hadn’t been a pleasant experience. One of the police rescuers, the EMT, had shaken his head at the gash that had killed Wilson, while Ginger had cringed and whimpered at the smell of death. Eric could only try to settle the dog and pity the waste of human life. He thought of Eva, of Keith’s shoulder and Lindsey’s injuries, Pam’s missing toes, Joyce’s anguish. The man’s death couldn’t undo that damage. But perhaps Pam and her mother could now live a normal life.
Like the one he wanted for Lindsey and himself. If she’ll still have me… If she isn’t furious that I wanted her here—asked for her as the replacement…. Damn, I’ll have to tell her. No more misunderstandings between us. I nearly lost her three times, and twice this week. Never again.
He ached to be at her side instead of with officials and paperwork and computers and phone calls. But that was his job—and there was no one left on his team to help. Hell, he was lucky he even had a team, after everything that had happened. Lindsey’s revelation that Wilson had deliberately started a slide to kill Eva and keep his location safe had shocked him. He’d insisted on calling Eva’s family himself and telling them of the latest developments. They deserved to know about Eva’s death, and they needed to know that Eva’s killer was dead. No matter how late the explanation came, the truth needed to be told….
Or at least as much of it as would benefit the living. He’d told Pam’s mother that Wilson had died quickly in the slide, sparing her the details, and had made certain that none of the police officials would share that information with the family, unless they insisted on a formal report. He had also requested that Naomi not share the news with Lindsey at present.
Lindsey’s hysteria when he’d finally pulled her out of the snow had shaken him badly, for she was the strongest woman he knew. He couldn’t imagine the fear she’d gone through, and knew for certain that she’d carry those memories the rest of her life. So would he. He figured she’d never return to Yosemite. Naomi or Keith, either. He’d have to go back alone, at least until the end of winter and the first spring thaw. Fortunately he’d leave Naomi and Keith in the competent hands of loving family.
And Lindsey… Would she ever forgive him for both past and present mistakes? Would she ever want to become his wife, considering the rocky history they shared?
Now that he’d finished this damned paperwork, he intended to find out.
Lindsey’s hospital room
Late afternoon
LINDSEY FINISHED WATCHING the local news. Pam’s rescue and her father’s death had been reported. Her family had called from San Diego, and so did Wade. Lindsey didn’t know who’d been more upset, her parents or her ex-fiancé. The phone rang most of the afternoon. Everyone, including her parents and sisters, wanted to come up to take care of her, but for now, Lindsey had asked that they wait.
“You’ll need help getting the dog home. What aren’t you telling us?” her sisters, and particularly her mother, demanded to know.
“Wait until I find out what’s going on,” she said when she had her oldest sister Kate on the phone. “I don’t care what the reporters are saying, I’m not at death’s door, and I don’t want any visitors right now.”
“I can convince Mom and Dad to hold off a bit, but I doubt I can convince Wade,” Kate said slowly. “What do you want me to tell him?”
“He’s already called. I told him myself.”
Kate remained tactfully silent, but Lindsey continued. “It’s over, Kate. I think he already knew that before we talked.”
“How’d he take it?”
“He was a good sport. When I told him the hospital had to cut off his ring, he said he shouldn’t have tried to give it to me in the first place. Said he pretty much figured it was over that day at the airport.”
“Poor guy.”
“Yeah. He was great on the phone. He even said it’s probably for the best, and wished me well.”
“Must’ve been hard on him. Did you give him a reason?”
“No. What could I say that wouldn’t make him feel worse?”
“Ah. Eric?” her sister wisely guessed.
“I’m still waiting to see him, so stall everyone, would you? I’ve got a broken arm and a cracked rib—painful, but that’s all. I wouldn’t even have stayed the night if I had someplace other than a motel to go.”
“All right, I’ll do my best,” Kate said. “But you call me back as soon as you know anything,” she insisted.
“I will. Thanks, Kate. You’re a lifesaver.”
“No, you’re the lifesaver. Take care of yourself. I love you.”
“Love you, too. Bye.”
Lindsey had just hung up the phone when a knock sounded on her door. “Come on in.”
Eric entered. To her surprise, he had Ginger with him.
“Hi,” she said. I won’t get anywhere with this man if that’s all I can come up with.
“Hi, yourself.” Eric closed the door behind him and took the room’s only chair—but not before kissing her on the forehead and inquiring about her arm. He quietly told Ginger, who needed no urging, to lie down.
“Been one hell of a day,” he sighed. “I don’t know where to start.”
Lindsey waited patiently. Eric looked as tired as Ginger. She watched his hand drop down to the animal’s head and lightly stroke the fur. “Where’s your ring?” he asked.
“They had to saw it off in the E.R. My whole hand and arm swelled up, and it was cutting off my circulation.”
“Sorry about the ring,” Eric said.
Something in his expression gave her the courage to say, “I’m not. Wade put it on at the airport, and I couldn’t get it off. I never wanted to wear it here in the first place, and I told him that.”
Eric’s head lifted. “Any particular reason?” he said, his voice strained.
“Yeah. You.” Suddenly nervous, she couldn’t go on.
“I still have your old ring.” He reached for a chain on his neck and pulled it out. Along with the cross she’d given him to wear long ago was her original engagement ring. “I never wanted it back. Keep it, Lindsey. Do whatever you want with it. Sell it, toss it…wear it.” He held it out to her, silently asking the question they both knew needed to be asked.
“I think I’ll wear it.” She opened her palm and he placed it there. The ring was warm from his body, and before she knew it, she’d slipped it on the ring finger of her uninjured hand. “It’s a perfect fit,” she said in awe.
“I know we aren’t,” Eric said slowly. “But we’ll do it right this time.” Before she had a
chance to answer, he went on. “I never stopped loving you.”
Lindsey felt her eyes fill with tears of joy as her breath caught in her throat.
“I’ve learned a lot of things these past ten days, Lindsey. I never understood how it was with you and dogs. I lived with Ginger here for four years and never understood. But when we were going to search at the location where your receiver transmitted, and Ginger wanted to search elsewhere—something happened.”
“You understood her,” Lindsey said softly.
“I did. And I had to make a terrible choice, Lindsey. Trust modern technology, or trust what you and your dogs tried to teach me. When I decided to listen to Ginger—to you—I put your life and our future in her hands. Pam’s life, too. I’ve never felt that kind of trust before. Not even with you. But after I decided to trust Ginger’s nose…”
He paused, looking for the words. “Not only did the dog and I bond, but I suddenly understood you, and your way of life, in a way I never had before. I owe you an apology, Lindsey, for the past. I didn’t understand. I didn’t trust myself with anyone except Naomi. That’s not true anymore.”
Lindsey adjusted the pillow under her casted arm. Hope began to beat strongly in her heart. “So then there’s nothing to stand in the way of us getting married?” she asked.
“If we can stay together this time.”
“I never really let you go, not in my heart,” Lindsey said. “And God knows I should’ve tried to explain things better about Missy. I’m not your twin, and you can’t read my mind. I had no right to expect you to. We all react to death in different ways.” She reached for him, moving forward to loop her uninjured arm around his neck.
He held her as tightly as he dared, her bruised cheek beneath the black eye resting on his shoulder.
“We still have some things to work out,” he said, stroking her hair, his blunt words at odds with the happiness on his face. “I have to go back to the cabin and finish out the winter alone. I hate to leave you there, and I’ll transfer out as soon as possible, but they can’t find a replacement on such short notice. I’m all that’s left.”
Lindsey raised her head from his shoulder so she could meet his gaze. “I know,” she said, remembering how she’d felt pressured to return to Yosemite to help a child she’d never met. “There just aren’t enough of us to go around.”
“You okay with that?”
She wasn’t, not really, but she knew about duty and obligation, and knew what he needed to hear. “I am.”
“That’s one problem down. Two to go.”
Lindsey let him take her good hand in his and bring it to her lips. “What’s next?”
“I want to keep Ginger. Learn to work with her. I’ve lived with her four years, Lindsey,” he said quickly. “It’s not as if I’m a stranger. And I think Eva would want me to have her.”
“I’ll have you around, so I’ll see plenty of Ginger,” Lindsey said graciously. “And since the two of you saved my life—and Pam’s—I’d hate to break up a winning team.”
“Thanks for understanding.” He continued to hold her hand with his own.
“You said one more problem?” Lindsey prompted.
“Yeah. This is kind of off the subject, but…” He lifted his face, definitely embarrassed. “I’m the one who asked for you as a replacement. I hope you can forgive me, even though—”
Lindsey didn’t hear the rest. She burst into laughter. Ginger rose from her spot on the floor to put two paws on the bed. Her joy and sheer relief at rediscovering the love she’d lost made it impossible to speak for a moment. Naomi, Keith and Eric had all secretly asked for her as the replacement. Finally she was able wipe her eyes, take his hand again and murmur, “I’m glad you wanted me, Eric. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Yosemite Valley, Bridalveil Fall
Summer
THE WEDDING GUESTS ENJOYED the afternoon sun, the picnic and barbecue-style food, against the soothing background noise of Bridalveil Fall. The spring thaw and roar of millions of gallons flowing down the Sierra Nevada was over. Now the waterfall was a delightful, misty shadow of its earlier massive torrent; indeed it looked like a lacy bride’s veil as the High Sierra breeze blew intricate patterns into the falling spray.
Friends and family gathered around the picnic tables, while dogs beneath the shady trees kept eyes, ears and noses on guard for bears, deer, rabbits or, better yet, people who accidentally or deliberately dropped hot dogs or hamburgers their way. The casual atmosphere and clothing didn’t take away from the joy of ceremony soon to begin for the engaged couple.
Lindsey sat quietly in the small rangers’ cabin as her mother and sisters fussed with last-minute details of her hair and veil. Her father was with Eric in the wooded alcove outside the cabin while Kate’s husband had generously offered to keep an eye on the family dogs, which now included Ginger. Despite the crowd of women in the room, Lindsey’s thoughts were elsewhere as she reviewed the past few months.
JACK HUNTER HIMSELF had offered to replace Eric at the rangers’ cabin in Tuolumne Meadows, leaving Eric free to stay with his whole team at the hospital. When everyone had recovered, he went back to Yosemite.
The past few months had been hectic, and full of changes and surprises. This time, those changes were welcome.
As Naomi had promised, she hadn’t checked into a San Francisco hospital until Keith was out of the Lee Vining hospital, his shoulder in a sling. The doctors had assured him it was healing well, and except for the scars, there would be no lasting ill effects from Wilson’s murderous attempt. Keith and Eric had then accompanied Naomi to the San Francisco hospital, where she underwent surgery. The tumor Ginger and Lindsey had discovered was malignant, but according to the doctors, hadn’t spread into the lymph system due to early detection. Naomi had opted for only partial removal of the affected breast quadrant by the oncologist and then repair by a plastic surgeon during the same operation, a new innovation. She’d had survived chemo with spirits and—as is rarely the case—hair intact.
“I’m the luckiest woman in the world,” she’d told everyone during her stay in the hospital. “I’ve got my health, a new husband, and I even got to keep all my hair for the wedding photos. I couldn’t ask for anything more,” she said, holding Keith’s hand from her bed. “Except for Lindsey to be my sister. For heaven sake’s, Eric, when are you two going to tie the knot?” she kept asking. Lindsey had flown home to San Diego to recover at her parents’, leaving Ginger with Eric.
Naomi’s admiration and respect for Keith had turned into something more. “It isn’t the same kind of love I had for my first husband,” Naomi confessed to Lindsey via phone one evening. “A part of me will always love Bruce. But being with Keith has made me happy again in a way I never expected. Somehow, when I’m with him, I don’t miss Eric. I couldn’t say that about my first marriage.”
“Keith’s a good man,” Lindsey had said. “What are you two going to do?”
“Keith’ll be going into antiterrorist work with the San Francisco bomb squad,” Naomi said. “I can’t say I’m thrilled, but it’s what he wants.”
“What about you?” Lindsey asked. “You can’t go back to being a ranger.”
“No, and even if I could pass the physical, I wouldn’t. I think I’m going back to school,” Naomi said. “Take some more medical classes. Ever since Keith’s shooting, I’ve felt that I need to learn more, to be more than just a paramedic.”
Lindsey smiled. “Are we talking Dr. Naomi?”
“I don’t know, yet. It depends on my health—if the cancer comes back,” she said bluntly. “I don’t know if I’ve really beat this thing. It’s too soon to tell. In any case, I want to make sure I have enough free time from my studies for the people I love. Like Keith, and Eric. And you.”
Naomi had married Keith in a small ceremony at the hospital chapel the very day of her discharge, without pomp or circumstance. When Keith started his explosives training with th
e San Francisco Police Department, she returned to school again, part-time, taking premed courses. So far the couple had remained healthy as well as happy.
Another couple had been married soon after, too. Joyce Wilson had been forced to stay in town for an extended stay, thanks to her daughter’s condition. She found herself receiving frequent visits from the chief of police at both the hospital and Joyce’s motel. McClanahan, a middle-aged childless widower who’d taken a shine to Pam, had fallen hard for the mother. The ex-Mrs. Wilson, now Mrs. McClanahan, had called Lindsey herself.
“I know everyone says it’s too soon, but I don’t care. He loves us both, he’d never hurt us, and he’s a police officer,” she said wryly. “I have to admit that’s very appealing. I’ll be safe, and so will Pam. He’ll be a good father and husband. That’s enough for me.”
Pam had recovered from her ordeal and was in therapy. Isolated as he was, Eric couldn’t make it to the wedding, but Lindsey had attended. She saw plainly that the romance was somewhat one-sided, but Pam’s mother had married for love the last time. Maybe Joyce felt that a sensible affectionate marriage would serve her better. In any case, the couple seemed more than compatible, and the police chief was definitely in love. So was Pam.
Lindsey had chatted with Pam during the wedding.
“My new daddy’s getting me a puppy!” Pam had whispered, wriggling and rustling her frilly formal dress during a particularly lengthy and sadly dull wedding sermon. Joyce sat on one side of Pam, and she and McClanahan had insisted that Lindsey join them in the bride and groom’s pew. “I want one just like Ginger!”
“I’ll bet you’re excited,” Lindsey whispered back. She slipped her arm around the child, who, except for the gaily-beaded soft white moccasins she wore on still-sensitive feet, bore no outward traces of her terrible ordeal.
“Uh-huh. As soon as we get back from the honeymoon, I get my dog. I want a girl and I wanna name her Ginger. But Mom says…”
Joyce made a gentle shush. A happy Pam ignored her mother. Lindsey doubted she’d even heard her, Pam seemed so excited. “Mom says the puppy’ll want her own name, but I think she’s wrong. My new daddy—” Pam leaned forward to point at the man sitting next to her mother “—said I should ask you.”
The Replacement Page 24