by Cora Seton
She was about to explain this to him when he stopped in his tracks and took her hand again before she walked right into him. “I think it’s coming down harder,” he said.
Distracted by the feel of his hand holding hers again, Hope had to scramble to catch up with what he’d said. She looked up. Took in the way the snow was sheeting down, realized how fast it was accumulating. “You’re right.”
“I’m always right,” he said. “Come on. Let’s go see those bison while we still can.”
Hope resisted the urge to snort. Always right.
She knew Curtis was joking, though, and couldn’t take offense, even though she was still bristling at what he’d done to her planner. All those items undone…
They’d stay undone the way things were going. This snowstorm wasn’t kidding around.
All Hope could do was follow him as the realization sank in that she and Raina would be hard-pressed to go anywhere in the morning unless it stopped soon. Curtis must have heard her sigh. “Hey, I made you a promise. I said I’d get Raina to her wedding, and I meant it. Leave it to me, okay?”
“But—” Hope didn’t like to leave things to chance.
“Relax. I’ve got this. You want to see the bison, don’t you?”
“Are they out in this?”
“They’re out in everything. Bison don’t care about a little snow.”
It took a long time to walk to the pasture, but Curtis kept hold of her, and Hope found herself relaxing a little. It wasn’t like she could do anything else right now. Tomorrow they’d sort things out and get back on track. This wasn’t the first Raina-induced disaster she’d negotiated.
When they reached the pasture, she couldn’t see anything, and she swallowed her disappointment as Curtis scanned the area, until he put an arm around her waist, leaned close and said, “There!”
She followed the direction in which he was pointing and stared into the darkness until she made out large shapes moving toward them.
“They think I’ve got a treat.”
Hope’s throat tightened in awe as the shapes grew closer, their indistinctness coalescing into solid, shaggy beasts plowing slowly through the falling snow.
“They’re so big,” she whispered.
“They’re really something, aren’t they?”
She could only nod. She didn’t mind that Curtis had put his arm around her waist, or that his hand rested on her hip. She didn’t think she’d ever seen anything so beautiful as the herd crowding up to the fence. Sharing it with someone else made it more special.
“Hey,” he said softly, and it wasn’t until his gloved finger touched her cheek that Hope realized she was crying.
“I’m sorry. I’m being silly. It’s just… I always wanted to see them again, since I was a little girl. I like to dream about what it was like here in North America before people arrived—when nature was alone.”
“You’re interested in history?”
“I’m interested in everything.” That sounded stupid, but in the presence of the archaic beasts now clustering just feet away from them, Hope couldn’t censor her words. It was the truth, after all. “If it has to do with nature, I’m in love with it.”
He was going to laugh at her, she knew it. Everyone did—except Raina, which was one of the reasons she’d bonded to Raina for life. Even when they were little kids, Raina had honored her interests, bringing her birds’ nests, interesting stones, dried leaves and flowers. She’d never made fun of Hope’s collections. She’d followed Hope around for hours while Hope compared the items they found with photographs in identification books.
“You keep surprising me,” Curtis said. He was looking at her again instead of the bison. Hope supposed he saw them every day.
“They look so soft.”
“They’re kind of wooly.” Curtis reached in his pockets and pulled out an end of a carrot. “We’re really not supposed to do this, but I can’t help myself.” He offered it to her.
“You mean—I can feed one?”
“Keep your hand absolutely flat and move it away as soon as the bison grabs the carrot. They aren’t tame.”
“Okay.” Her heart beating hard, Hope stepped right up to the fence that surrounded the pasture, took off her glove, put the carrot stub in her palm and held out her hand.
Several bison eyed her nervously before one stepped forward.
It was over all too soon. The bison lipped the carrot into its mouth and crunched it up. Hope quickly pulled her hand away, then just as quickly reached out again and patted the bison’s head.
“Hope!” Curtis lifted her right off the ground and whirled around before setting her down again far from the fence. “I just told you they aren’t tame.”
“I had to know what it feels like.” She pulled her glove on again.
“I didn’t figure you for being so reckless,” he scolded her.
Reckless. Hope nearly laughed. No one had ever called her reckless.
She felt exhilarated, though, like her heart might leap from her chest and take wing. Like she was a child again.
“I think you’ve had enough excitement for one day,” Curtis mock-grumbled. “Time to get you back to the bunkhouse.”
“It was exciting,” she admitted.
Curtis moved to face her and paused, resting his hands on her hips again, the strangest expression on his face. When he bent to kiss her, she found herself going up on tiptoe to meet him, then quickly pulling back when their mouths brushed. His kiss was whisper-soft, but that small taste of him had her pulse jumping, her body wanting more.
“I… I didn’t mean to do that,” she exclaimed.
“I did.”
He’d kissed her. He hadn’t meant to do it, but he had, and now he didn’t know whether to curse himself or pat himself on the back.
Hope had risen to meet him when he’d bent down, so she wasn’t immune to him. Still, her instant disavowal of her intentions didn’t bode well. He couldn’t screw this up by going too fast. Time to change tactics.
“Let’s go get that hot chocolate. You can tell Raina about the bison herd and the tiny house and check to make sure she called Ben.” He congratulated himself for remembering Raina’s fiancé’s name. He needed to assure Hope he was paying attention and the kind of guy she could trust.
She nodded, and he led the way back, this time refraining from taking her hand. He’d let her make the next move. Any old little move would do.
Back inside the bunkhouse, they shucked off their outer clothes and found the rest of the inhabitants of Base Camp sitting on folding chairs in the main room. The cameraman focused on them instantly.
“I’ve got hot chocolate for you.” Avery hopped up and returned moments later with two cups. “It should still be warm enough.”
“What did you think of the house?” Raina asked Hope as she sat down.
“It’s beautiful. So are the bison. You wouldn’t believe—”
“You saw the bison?” Raina was almost as excited as Hope had been, and Curtis began to understand the relationship between these two women, who’d seemed at first to be so different. “You’ve always wanted to get close to bison! What were they like?”
“I got to feed one.”
“You fed one?” Byron looked disappointed. “I knew I should have gone with you.”
Curtis wondered what he would say if he knew about the kiss. The Base Camp camera people were always after them to keep the action on camera.
“You’re not supposed to feed the bison,” Avery admonished Curtis with an exasperated look.
“It was worth it,” he said in a low voice and was rewarded with a smile. Avery knew darn well what he was up to.
“I got to pet it, too. Just for a second,” Hope added.
“You pet one of the bison?” Avery shot Curtis another exasperated look.
“I told her it wasn’t a good idea,” he assured her.
“Curtis, did you know you just fulfilled one of Hope’s bucket list items? Petting a bi
son. It’s the first one she ever put down.” She grabbed Hope’s planner, flipped through a bunch of pages and held it up to show him.
She was right; on a page labeled, “Bucket List,” item number one said, “Pet a bison.”
When he met Hope’s gaze, he found her smiling, a genuine grin that took years off her face. “I was ten when I made my first bucket list,” she explained. “I’ve been transferring it from scraps of paper to diaries to planners ever since.”
“It’s tradition to keep that one in first place,” Raina said. “It’s the one that sums up everything Hope wants.”
Curtis couldn’t help smiling at Hope and Raina’s excited chatter. When Hope had arrived, he’d found her attractive enough to take interest, but it was her animation about the natural world that was tugging at him in a different way.
“Drink your hot chocolate,” Avery urged both of them.
“Avery’s an amazing cook,” Raina exclaimed.
“All I did was heat some milk.” Avery laughed.
“That’s more than I know how to do,” Raina said seriously.
Curtis caught Hope’s eye over Raina’s head and raised an eyebrow. Hope shrugged but returned his smile. His heart did a funny little thump.
“Did you get a hold of Ben yet?” Hope asked Raina.
“I told him we’re staying here overnight, and he was happy about it: he loves Base Camp, too, and he’s down with all my plans. He said it’s not too bad in Bozeman and the plows are running. The last of my family got in an hour ago, and planes are still landing at the airport.”
“That’s pretty typical,” Avery said. “It can be fine there and horrible here. Something about the weather patterns.”
“What do you mean, all your plans?” Hope asked.
“Oh, you know.” Raina waved a hand airily. “He said go as slow as we need to tomorrow. He’ll handle everything on his end. I told him I’d be there for our wedding but not to panic before then.”
“He’s only two hours away! Of course we’ll get there before your wedding—that’s not until Sunday!” Hope exclaimed.
“I know. But things can take time.”
Was it Curtis’s imagination, or was she scheming again?
“We’ll get there tomorrow, won’t we?” Hope asked Curtis.
“Of course,” Curtis said firmly.
Hope relaxed a little. As long as Ben knew what they were facing, maybe this was going to turn out okay. She had a hard time feeling upset about being here now that she’d had an up-close-and-personal experience with the bison. She’d pay for it with all the extra chores on her to-do list tomorrow, but it had been worth it. Like Raina said, petting a bison was a dream come true.
On the trip to Yellowstone she’d taken with her folks as a child, she’d had two magical experiences with animals. The first came as they’d driven down one of the interior roads of the park and come face to face with a bison.
The huge animal had stood its ground in the middle of the winding road, and Hope’s father had kept one hand on the gear shift, the other on the steering wheel as they waited to see what would happen next. “If he comes at us, we’ll have to back up. He could do a lot of damage to the car.”
“He won’t come at us,” Hope had said from her position in the back seat. “As long as we give him space, he’ll give us space, too.” She couldn’t say now why she’d been so sure back then, but she had been.
“You’re probably right, honey.”
She’d seen her parents exchange a look, but she’d kept her attention on the huge beast ahead of them. Even though twenty feet and the car’s windshield separated them, she knew the bison was watching her, too. She’d felt like he had a message for her, but she’d struggled to comprehend it.
“He’s looking right at you,” her mother had whispered.
Hope had felt the gravity of that gaze. The bison was a wild creature, so solid and sure of itself. Its stare was implacable but not threatening at all. It was as if the creature was measuring her.
Hope had held her breath.
“What do you think he’s thinking?” her mother had asked, her voice still low.
“He’s thinking… I should be me, the way he’s just him. I should be all the way Hope.” There was more, but she hadn’t been able to put it into words. Something about the world being old and young and everything and only one thing. She’d wished she could get out of the car and get closer. Maybe then she’d understand.
“Sounds like a very wise bison,” her father had said. Both parents had spent far more time watching her than the animal in the road ahead.
She couldn’t say how long they sat there before the bison broke off eye contact with a toss of his head and ambled off the road. All she knew was that her parents were quiet for a long time after that, even after her father had started driving again.
That night they’d sat outside the tent talking after she’d gone to bed in her sleeping bag.
“She’s got a big imagination,” she’d heard her father say.
“She’s spending too much time by herself,” her mother had countered. When they got home, her mother had enrolled her in Girl Scouts. Hope hadn’t minded; her troop went on lots of camping trips.
“Has your root cellar been robbed again?” Raina asked the room at large, as if it was a normal question. Hope shook away thoughts of the past.
Greg answered without hesitation. “No, we haven’t had any problems since it was robbed the first time.”
“Are you still patrolling?”
“Yes. Jericho and I are about to go out—just as soon as Boone and Clay get in.”
“Boone? He’s coming here? He’s one of my favorites on the show—” Raina broke off and blushed. “Sorry.”
Right. The show. Hope had forgotten about that. She glanced up at the cameraman and looked quickly away again.
“Boone will be happy to hear he’s got a fan,” Greg said to Raina with a wink.
“I bet he’s got a lot of fans. He’s hot.”
Hope turned on her friend. “Raina! Don’t talk like that. What about Ben?”
Raina waved that off. “Ben says if he was a woman, he’d be hot for Boone, too.”
Anders shook his head. “That’s the hardest part about doing all this—knowing other people are watching—and judging.”
“Anders, here, never wins the handsomest SEAL polls on the show’s website,” Curtis explained.
“You never do, either.” Anders leaned back in his chair and laced his hands behind his head.
“Really?” Hope clamped her mouth shut. Had she said that out loud?
Curtis grinned. “Unbelievable, huh?”
She had said it out loud. Hope took another sip of her hot chocolate to cover her embarrassment.
“You’re cute,” Raina told Curtis, giving him a once-over. “But Boone is all stern and manly. That’s what gets the votes.”
“Ouch.” Curtis crossed his arms over his chest. “I can be stern and manly.”
Laughter from several points around the room seemed to contradict that, but as far as Hope could see, Curtis was all man. He had a sense of humor, obviously, which she appreciated, but he was strong and decisive—and didn’t Raina say all the men at Base Camp had been Navy SEALs?
Speaking of Raina, how could she sit there so unconcerned and banter with a bunch of men she’d never met, when she was on track to miss her own wedding rehearsal due to the blizzard of the century?
Hope took her planner back from Raina before remembering the only item left on today’s page.
“Go ahead, cross it off,” Curtis said. He leaned over, snagged a pen off the wooden desk that sat in the corner and handed it to her. “Or do you want me to do it?”
“I’ll do it.” She quickly filled in the box, feeling ridiculous.
“Don’t forget to cross petting a bison off your bucket list,” Raina said. She leaned over and flipped to the right page. “There.” She pointed to the little square. Hope filled that one in, too,
with a sense of accomplishment even if she was squirming under everyone’s attention.
“Now I’ll just put that away for you until you finish your cocoa.” Curtis took the little book from her hands—and sat on it.
“Hey!” Hope reached for it, then quickly pulled her hand back.
Raina laughed. “You catch on quick,” she told Curtis. “That’s the only way to get her to stop checking it.”
The door opened, and two more men came in, stamping the snow from their boots and peeling off their jackets. Avery went to fetch more hot chocolate.
“Looks like we have guests,” one of the men said, coming farther into the room.
“Boone!” Raina’s shriek split the air. She scrambled to her feet.
Boone frowned. “I’m sorry, do I know—”
“Raina’s a big fan of yours, Boone,” Greg explained with a smile.
“Oh. Uh, nice to meet you, Raina.” Boone didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands, but ultimately he stuck one out to Raina and shook hers.
“Nice to meet you, too.”
“Hi, Raina,” the other man said.
“Hi, Clay. Glad to meet you, too.”
Hope got up and shook hands, as well, still marveling at the way Raina knew all these people.
“Hope and Raina went off the road at the end of our lane. Curtis and Anders found them, luckily,” Avery said, returning with two more mugs.
“I’m taking them to Bozeman tomorrow,” Curtis added.
Boone laughed. “I doubt it. Have you seen it outside?”
“We’ll get through,” Curtis asserted.
“No, you won’t,” Boone contradicted. “Hope and Raina will just have to sit tight for a day or two with us—”
“No can do, Chief. I’m going to get them through.”
“I need to reach my fiancé,” Raina chirped.
“Fiancé?” Boone echoed.
“That’s right; I’m getting married on Sunday!”
“Which is why I have to get Hope and Raina to Bozeman—tomorrow. Can’t let Raina down—or Hope,” Curtis said evenly. He caught Boone’s gaze and held it.