The Search

by Нора Робертс

  “You’re not beautiful.”

  “There you go again, Mr. Romance.”

  “You’re not, but you grab hold. I haven’t figured out why.”

  “Let me know when you do. Take him up and down.”

  “And I’m doing this because?”

  “He’s learning how to navigate unstable footing. It gives him confidence, enhances his agility. And he likes it.”

  She stepped back, watched the two of them play the game a few times. Not beautiful, she thought. The observation, and the fact that he just said it, should’ve been a flick to the ego—even though it was perfectly true. So why had it amused her, at least for the few seconds between that and his next comment?

  You grab hold. That made her heart flutter.

  The man incited the oddest reactions in her.

  “I want him,” Fiona said when Jaws all but swaggered down the slide.

  “You’ve got your pronouns confused. Me. You want me.”

  “I admire your ego, but I meant him.”

  “Well, you can’t have him. I’m getting used to him, and besides, my mother would be seriously pissed if I gave him away.”

  “I want him for the program. I want to train him for S-and-R.”

  Simon shook his head. “I’ve read your website, your blog. When you say train him, you mean us. Those crazy pronouns again.”

  “You read my blog?”

  He shrugged. “I’ve skimmed it.”

  She smiled. “But you have no interest in S-and-R?”

  “You have to drop everything when a call comes in, right?”

  “That’s pretty much right.”

  “I don’t want to drop everything, or whatever.”

  “That’s fair enough.” She took a little band out of her pocket, bound her hair back with a couple of quick twists. “I could train him as an alternate. Just him. He responds to me, obviously. And any S-and-R dog needs to respond to other handlers. There are times one of our dogs is unable—sick, maybe, injured.”

  “You have three.”

  “Yes, because, well, I want three, and yes, because if someone else’s dog is unable, one of mine can go as backup. I’ve been doing this for years now, Simon, and your dog would be good. He’d be very good. I’m not giving you the pitch to join the unit, just to train your dog. On my own time. If nothing else, you’ll end up with a dog with superior skills and training.”

  “How much time?”

  “Ideally, I’d like to work with him a little every day, but at least five days a week. I can do it at your place and stay out of your way while you’re working. Some of what I teach him you’ll want to follow up on.”

  “Maybe. We can see how it goes.” Simon glanced over to where Jaws was engaged in one of his favorite activities: chasing his own tail. “It’s your time.”

  “Yeah, it is. Clients coming,” she announced. “You can sit this one out if you want. I can work with him solo.”

  “I’m here anyway.”

  It was interesting, Simon decided, and semi-distracting. Fiona called it The Runaway Game, and it involved a lot of running—dogs and people—in the field across her bridge. The class worked in pairs, or with Fiona as a partner—one dog at a time.

  “I don’t get the point,” he said when Jaws was up. “He’s going to see where I’m going. He’d have to be an idiot not to find me.”

  “It teaches him to find you on command, and to use his scenting skill—that’s why we’re running against the wind, so our scent goes toward the dog. Anyway, he’s going to find me. You need to get him excited.”

  He looked down at the dog, whose tail chopped the air like a Ginsu knife. “He gets excited if somebody glances in his direction.”

  “Which is to his advantage. Talk to him, be excited. Tell him to watch me when I run away. Watch Fee! Then the minute I drop down behind the bush, tell him to find and release him. Keep telling him to find me. If he gets confused, give him a chance to catch my scent. If it doesn’t work the first time, I’ll call him, give him an audio clue. You need to hold him, keep him with you while I get his attention, and run. Ready?”

  He finger-combed his breeze-ruffled hair out of his face. “It’s not brain surgery.”

  She gave Jaws a rub, let him lick and sniff at her before she straightened. “Hey, Jaws! Hey.” She clapped her hands. “I’m going to run. Watch me, Jaws, watch me run. Tell him to watch me. Use my name.”

  She took off at a dash.

  She hadn’t exaggerated, Simon noted. She was fast.

  And he’d been wrong. When she moved, she was beautiful.

  “Watch Fee. Where the hell’s she going, huh? Watch her. Jesus, she’s like an antelope. Watch Fee.”

  She dropped down, out of sight, behind a bush.

  “Find her! Go find Fee.”

  The pup tore across the field, expressing his excitement with a couple happy barks. Not as fast as the woman, Simon thought, but... Then he felt a quick surge of surprise and pride as Jaws homed straight in.

  A couple of the other dogs had needed the hider to call out, and one had required the visual clue of the hider waving a hand beside the bush.

  But not Jaws.

  Across the field he could hear Fiona laughing and praising even as his temporary classmates applauded.

  Not half bad, Simon thought. Not bad at all.

  She ran back with the dog happily chasing her.

  “We do it again, right away. Praise first, reward, then we go again.”

  “Heaced it,” Simon murmured when the class was over. “Three times in a row, different hiding spots.”

  “He’s got the knack. You can work with him at home, with objects. Use something he likes, that he knows the name of—or work to teach him the name. Show it to him, then make him sit/stay and go hide it. Easy places at first. Go back, tell him to find. If he can’t find it, guide him to it. You want success.”

  “Maybe I should tell him to find my tennis shoe. I don’t know where the hell he put it.” He looked at her, a long, thorough look that had her raising her eyebrows. “You run like the fucking wind, Fiona.”

  “You should’ve seen me run the four-hundred-meter hurdles in college. I was amazing.”

  “Probably because you have legs up to your ears. Did you wear one of those skinny little uniforms—aerodynamic?”

  “I did. Very flattering.”

  “I bet. How long before the next class?”

  “Forty-five minutes.”

  “Long enough.” He began to back her toward the house.

  She kept her eyes on his, and he saw the laugh in them, a sparkle on the serene blue. “No ‘Would you like to?’ or ‘I can’t resist you’?”

  “No.” He clamped her waist, lifted her up the porch steps.

  “If I said I’m not in the mood?”

  “I’d be disappointed, and you’d be lying.”

  “You’re right about the lying. So...” She pulled the door open, tugged him inside.

  But when she backed toward the steps, he shifted directions.

  “Couch is closer.”

  It was also softer than the dining room table, at least until they rolled off and hit the floor. And it was, Fiona thought when she lay beside him trying to regain her breath and the path to coherent thought, every bit as exciting.

  “Eventually we might make it to a bed.”

  He trailed, very lightly, a fingertip over her breast. “Cancel the class and we’ll go up now.”

  “It’s a shame I’m a responsible woman—and one who barely has time to take a shower.”

  “Oh yeah, the obligatory shower. I could use one.”

  “Doubling up would only lead to shower sex.”

  “Damn straight.”

  “Which, while fun, I have no time for. Besides, you and Jaws can’t do the next class. It risks overtraining. But you could—” She broke off when the dogs announced visitors. “Oh hell, oh shit!” Scrambling, she grabbed her shirt, her pants, bundled them in front of her as she hun
ched toward the window.

  “It’s James, and oh God, Lori. It’s James and Lori and I’m naked in the living room on a Sunday afternoon.” She glanced back. “And you’re naked on the floor.”

  She looked so sexily flustered, a little wild in the eye and pink from her toes to her hairline.

  Delicious, he thought. He could’ve lapped her up like ice cream. “I like it here.”

  “No! No! Get up!” She waved her hands, dropped her shirt, grabbed it again. “Up, get something on. Go... go tell them I’ll be out in five minutes.”

  “Because you’re taking an after-sex shower?”

  “Just... get your pants on!” Still hunched, she sprinted for the stairs.

  Grinning—she looked even more interesting running naked—he tugged on his pants, tossed on his shirt and, grabbing his socks and boots, strolled out onto the porch.

  James and Lori stopped greeting the dogs. James’s eyes narrowed. Lori flushed.

  “She’ll be out in a couple minutes.” Simon sat to put on his socks and boots. Jaws instantly made a lunge for a boot. Simon swung it out of reach, said, “Cut it out.”

  “Nice-looking dog. How’s his training coming?”

  “It’s coming. We just took in a class.”

  James’s eyes stayed narrowed. “Is that what you just did?”

  Simon laced up his boot, smiled coolly. “Among other things. Is that a problem for you?”

  Lori patted frantically at James’s arm. “We just dropped by to see if Fiona wanted to grab some dinner after her classes. You could join us.”

  “Thanks, but I’ve got to get on. See you around.” He walked to his truck. Jaws danced in place, obviously torn, then ran after Simon, leaped into the cab of the truck.

  “I don’t know about this,” James muttered.

  “It’s not our business—exactly.”

  “It’s the middle of the afternoon, practically. It’s daylight.”

  “Prude.” Lori elbowed him and laughed.

  “I’m not a prude, but—”

  “People make love in the daylight, James. Plus I like knowing he’s around, spending time with her. Didn’t you say we should come by just to check on her?”

  “Yeah, but we’re her friends.”

  “I think Fee and Simon are pretty friendly. Just a wild guess. I’m sorry if you’re jealous, but—”

  “I’m not.” Genuinely surprised, he stopped scowling after Simon and turned to her.

  “I know you and Fee are close,” Lori began, lowering her lashes.

  “Wow. No. Not that way.”

  The lashes lifted again. “At all?”

  “At all, as in never. Jeez, do people actually think... ?”

  “Oh, I don’t know about people. I guess I just thought you were, or had been or maybe hoped to.” She managed an embarrassed laugh. “I’ll shut up now.”

  “Listen, Fee and I are... we’re like family. I don’t think about her that way. I don’t think that way.” He paused until she looked at him, looked in his eyes. “About Fee.”

  “Maybe you think that way about somebody else?”

  “All the time.”

  “Oh.” She laughed again. “Thank God.”

  He started to touch her; she started to let him. And Fiona rushed out of the house.

  “Hey! Hi. It’s my day for pals. Did Simon leave?”

  James let out a long breath. “Yeah, he said he had to go.”

  “Sorry,” Lori put in. “Lousy timing.”

  “Actually, it could’ve been worse. Or much more embarrassing for all. Let’s just close the door on all that. So.” She offered a big, bright smile. “What are you two up to?”

  Thirteen

  “Organic milk.” Fiona unloaded the items she’d picked up for Sylvia. “Free-range eggs, goat cheese, lentils, brown rice and one shiny eggplant. Mmm, yummy.”

  “I shudder to think what you’ve got in the car.”

  “Besides Bogart? You’re better off not knowing.”

  “Fat, salt, starch and sugar.”

  “Maybe, but also a couple of very pretty apples. And look what I got for you,” she said to Oreo, “because you’re so cute.”

  She pulled out a squeaky toy, gave it a squeeze and sent the little dog into a quiver of delight. “Sylvia,” she said when she offered the toy, and Oreo pranced off with it. “I’m having an affair.” With a laugh she turned two quick circles. “I’m closing in on thirty, and I’ve never been able to say that before. I’m having a hot, steamy, crazy affair.”

  With the one shiny eggplant in her hand, Sylvia smiled. “It’s certainly giving you a relaxed, happy glow.”

  “Is it?” Fiona laid her hands on her own cheeks. “Well, I am relaxed and happy. You know it was never an affair with Greg. It was friendship and a crush and a relationship one after another, or altogether. But a slow build. And this? This has been pow! Explosive.”

  She leaned on the kitchen counter, grinned. “I’m having scorching, no-strings sex, and it’s fabulous.”

  “Do you want to keep it that way?” Sylvia gave Fiona’s hair, loose today, swinging, a quick stroke. “The no strings?”

  “I’m not thinking about that yet.” Fiona lifted her shoulders, let them fall in a kind of internal hug. “I like this phase of not thinking about it.”

  “Exciting. A little dangerous. Unpredictable.”

  “Yes! And that’s all so unlike me. No plans, no checklist.”

  “And all glow.”

  “If it keeps up, I may turn radioactive.” Charged, she broke a sprig of glossy green grapes from the bunch in the bowl on the counter and began popping them into her mouth. “I’ve been training Jaws one-on-one. Over a week now, which means either I go over there or Simon brings the dog to me. And we don’t always... There isn’t always time, but there’s always heat.”

  “Don’t you ever go out? I mean, wouldn’t you like to go have dinner or catch a movie?”

  “I don’t know. That all seems...” She whisked a hand through the air. “Outside right now. Maybe we will, or maybe it’ll burn off. But right now, I feel so involved, so excited, so—cliché time—alive. I’m a walking buzz. Did you ever have one? A hot, steamy affair?”

  “Yes, I did.” After tucking the eggs away, Sylvia closed the refrigerator. “With your father.”

  Fiona patted a hand to her throat as a grape threatened to lodge. “ Seriously?”

  “I think we both decided it was just sex, just a fast, exciting ride—during that no-thinking phase.”

  “Hold on a minute, because I want to hear this but I don’t want to get a picture in my head. That’s too weird. Okay, okay.” She squeezed her eyes shut, nodded. “No video. You and Dad.”

  Sylvia licked her fingertip, made a hissing sound. “Scorching. I was managing Island Arts in those days. I have many, many fond memories of the stockroom.”

  “I must say... wow. Dad in the stockroom.”

  “Exciting, a little dangerous, unpredictable.”

  “Like you,” Fiona murmured. “Not so much like him—or my perception of him.”

  “We were like teenagers.” She sighed, smiled. “God, he made me feel that way. Of course, I was much too unconventional to consider marriage, so I imagined we’d just continue as we were, until we stopped. And then, I don’t know, Fee, how or when or why, not specifically, but then I couldn’t imagine my life without him. Thank God he felt the same.”

  “He was so nervous the first time he took me to meet you. I know I was young, but I knew he loved you because he was so nervous.”

  “He loved us both. We were lucky. Still, when he asked me to marry him, I thought, Oh no, absolutely not. Marriage? Just a piece of paper, just an empty ritual. I thought absolutely not, but I said yes—and stunned myself. My heart,” she murmured, laying her hand over it. “My heart wouldn’t say no.”

  Fiona ran those words through her mind on the drive home. My heart wouldn’t say no.

  She thought it lovely, and at the sam
e time felt relief that, at the moment, her heart kept silent. A speaking heart could break—she knew that very well. As long as hers remained content, she’d stay relaxed and happy.

  Spring was beginning to show her face as field and hill and forest steeped in green, sprinkled by the bold yellow of wild buttercups, like grains of shaken sunlight. Maybe there was a dusting of snow high up on Mount Constitution, but the contrast of white peaks against soft blue only made the shy blooms of the early white fawn lilies more charming, the three-note call of the sparrow more poignant.

  Right at the moment, she felt like the island—coming alive, blooming, busy with the business of being.

  Classes and clients and work on her blog packed her days, while her unit and training added the spice of satisfaction. Her own three dogs gave her love, entertainment, security. Her very hot neighbor kept her excited and aware—and had a dog she believed she could mold into a solid, even superior, Search and Rescue dog.

  The police didn’t have any news—not that they were sharing, in any case—on the three murdered women, but... There’d been no more abductions reported in two weeks.

  As she rounded a curve she caught sight of the iridescent blur of a hummingbird zipping along a clump of red-flowering currant.

  If that couldn’t be taken as a good omen, she mused, what could?

  “No bad news, Bogart, just the—what is that song?—the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees. Hell, that’s going to stick in my head.”

  He thumped his glossy black tail, so she sang it again. “I don’t know the rest—before my time, you know. Anyway, errands are done, we’re nearly home. And you know what? Maybe I’ll give Jaws’s daddy a call, see if he wants to come over for dinner. I could cook. Something. It might be time we had ourselves a date—and a sleepover. What do you say? Do you want Jaws to come over and play? Let’s get the mail first.”

  She turned into the drive, parked and walked over to the box on the side of the road. She tossed the mail into one of the grocery bags. “We’d better get this stuff put away so I can see if I actually have anything to make for dinner—the sort you make when somebody comes over.”