by Cora Seton
“He’s fine,” Curtis said shortly. “Believe me, you don’t want him here filming everything you do and say.”
“You shouldn’t have left him behind,” Raina retorted. “It was mean.”
Curtis was quiet a minute, and Hope eyed him surreptitiously, wondering what he was thinking.
“Raina—this isn’t a Sunday drive. We’re taking a risk heading to Bozeman in this storm. A big risk.”
“We’re doing fine,” she said stubbornly. “And we’ve got all his equipment. He can’t even film things back at Base Camp.”
Curtis ignored that last bit. “But if something happens, I’ve got the means to get three of us to safety. I couldn’t guarantee I could get four of us there. I didn’t leave him behind to be mean. I left him behind so he’d be safe.”
“Nothing’s going to happen to us,” Raina said. “It’s my wedding on Sunday. That’s not the way things work.”
Curtis made a strangled sound but didn’t answer, and Hope could practically see the struggle going on inside him. A muscle worked in his jaw, and she braced for an outburst. Curtis had served for years as a Navy SEAL. She’d bet he’d seen situations that didn’t work out the way he’d wanted them to.
“Raina, I’m sure Curtis—”
“If he can pack for three, he can pack for four,” Raina said.
Hope turned in her seat and looked through the back window to the bed of the truck. A tarp was tied down tightly over its contents, which she noticed for the first time were bulkier than she’d expect for a four-hour trip.
“What do you have back there?” she asked Curtis.
“Like I said before, everything we could possibly need.” His voice was tight.
Raina huffed out an impatient breath. “As soon as we reach Bozeman, we need to find that vet,” she said to Hope.
“After we find Ben,” Hope countered. “Ben, vet, tailor, rehearsal.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Raina drawled.
Curtis chuckled from the front seat, and Hope was relieved that the tension in the cab had diminished somewhat. “She sounds like my old drill-master,” he said to Raina.
“You have no idea,” Raina told him. “There’s no screwing around when Hope’s nearby.”
Hope appreciated the attempt Curtis was making to distract Raina. “I made Ben a promise. Raina isn’t so good with time management.”
“That’s true; I tend to be a little late most of the time,” Raina agreed, bending down to inspect a kitten that was wriggling around.
“A little late.” Hope snorted. “More like a lot. Her fiancé knows there isn’t a chance she’d make it to her wedding on time without me to make sure she’s there.”
“Ben bribed Hope to get me there,” Raina said cheerfully.
“Oh, yeah? How’d he do that?” Curtis asked.
Hope wasn’t sure why she was embarrassed all over again. After all, she did deserve some incentive for putting up with Raina’s eccentricities.
Raina answered before she could. “He’s setting her up with his best friend.”
Hope caught Curtis’s frown and wanted to throttle Raina. “Not like that,” she assured Curtis, although she didn’t know why she felt the need to explain herself to him. “For a job.”
“What kind of job?” Curtis sounded suspicious.
“A park ranger job,” Raina answered. “Hope’s going to spend the rest of her days in Yellowstone, lost to all good company forever.”
“Not forever.” Hope got a hold of herself. Raina really could try her patience. “I’ve always wanted to be a park ranger,” she told Curtis. “It’s really hard to get a position in Yellowstone. Ben’s friend might be able to help me.”
“Got it.”
Curtis was gruff, and Hope could have kicked Raina when she chimed in, “I think Scott will fall head over heels with Hope as soon as he sees her and ditch his current girlfriend. Wouldn’t a Yellowstone park ranger wedding be sweet?”
“Raina!” She looked up to see Curtis watching her in the mirror again.
“Is that what you want? A Yellowstone park ranger wedding?” he asked.
“No! I’ve never even met Scott. Besides, I don’t want a man at all. I’m concentrating on my work. I want to help restore the ecology of the park.”
“And find a hot ranger to share your sleeping bag. She hasn’t had a date in ages,” Raina informed Curtis.
Before Hope could stop herself, she pictured sharing a sleeping bag with Curtis.
The image lingered in her mind longer than it should have.
She shut her eyes. When she opened them again and met his gaze in the mirror, his interest was plain to see.
But she couldn’t fall for Curtis—or for any rangers, either. No more deviating from the plan. For now, that meant getting Raina to her wedding and pleading her case to Ben’s friend.
Winning the job of her dreams.
Even if it meant leaving Curtis behind.
Chapter Four
‡
“We must be close to Bozeman now,” Raina chirped from the back seat sometime later.
Curtis didn’t have the heart to correct her, but he had a feeling Hope knew what he didn’t say out loud. They were crawling down the highway, and he didn’t think they’d gone more than eight miles since they’d stopped to rescue the kittens. He could barely stay on the road, and if conditions got any worse, they’d have to stop until a real snowplow overtook them.
If one ever did.
“I think we’ve still got a few hours,” Hope said quietly.
Curtis glanced back. She was stroking Edgar’s head, cradling the kitten under her chin. Daisy was crouched in the space between the front and back seats, her head on the cushion, watching the two women and the sleeping kittens. Curtis sent up a silent prayer of thanks she wasn’t a more boisterous dog.
Raina shifted. “I’m sure—”
“Watch out!” Hope shouted.
Curtis turned forward, spun the wheel to avoid a parked car that appeared out of the swirling flakes and slammed the truck’s brakes, skidding and coming to a stop some yards beyond it.
“There’s someone out there,” Raina cried.
Curtis caught sight of a tall figure, muffled against the driving snow, approaching the truck. He swore under his breath, wrenched the door open, climbed out and quickly shut it again to conserve the heat inside the cab.
“That’s a damn fool place to stop your car,” he shouted at the man. Ice cold flakes of snow feathered into his eyes, nose and mouth. A frigid wind whipped his exposed skin.
“It’s stuck. I went off the road and got the right front wheel in the ditch. Can you help me out?”
Curtis followed the stranger to check out the situation. “You’re in too deep. I’m not going to be able to get you out of that. You’ll need a tow. Better ride with us.”
The man shook his head. “Come on, man, you’ve got a truck. Pull me out.”
“I don’t think—”
“I’ll make it worth your while.” To Curtis’s surprise, he pulled out a wallet and began counting bills. “I’m in a hurry,” the man said as the wind tried to whip his words away. “My name’s Barton. Blake Barton. I’m about to miss an important meeting. Besides, I’m not leaving my Jag out here.”
“That Jaguar’s not going—”
“You need more? Here. Take it all.” Blake waved more money at him.
Curtis took it. What the hell. If this greenhorn wanted to drive a sports car in the snowstorm of the century, more power to him.
He walked back to the truck, unhooked a rope, lifted the tarp covering all the equipment in the bed, pulled a chain out of the back and got to work, stopping to inform the women what he was doing.
“We don’t have time for this.” Hope waved her planner at him.
“I’ll make it quick,” Curtis told her.
Forty-five minutes later, however, Curtis had no choice but to offer Blake a lift again. The Jaguar sat on level ground, but the front axle had b
een badly bent.
“Fine,” Blake said caustically. “I’ll take a ride.”
As if he was the one doing them a favor, Curtis thought.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Blake added, his hand out.
Curtis fished the bills he’d handed over out of his pocket and gave Blake half.
“Where’s the rest?”
“I’m keeping it. Pain and suffering,” he added without any more explanation.
Blake shut his mouth with a snap and stalked to Curtis’s truck. Pulling open the passenger side door, he bent to enter, then recoiled as quickly as Daisy bounded over the console into the front seat to check him out.
“It’s like a zoo in there!”
“We’ve picked up some other unexpected passengers,” Curtis acknowledged and climbed in on his side.
“Lunchtime,” Raina greeted him cheerfully.
Curtis took in the picnic basket Kai and Addison had handed them when they’d left the bunkhouse and the food she’d spread out among the seats. The kittens, now awake again, were doing their best to escape her lap and check it out, too.
Hope sent him an apologetic look. “Raina was hungry.”
“So are Minna, Louisa, Reggie and Feldspar,” Raina said.
“I’m hungry,” Blake said, perking up.
“Fine. Let’s eat. But I’m going to keep going. I don’t want to be out here after dark.”
“Are you married?” Raina was asking Blake when Hope managed to pack up the last of the food into the basket. She put it back among Byron’s camera gear, wondering how he was getting by without it. Edgar was definitely more chipper now that she’d fed him more water mixed with a little sugar Curtis had unpacked from somewhere. The other kittens were getting downright rambunctious. Daisy seemed to have decided it was her job to herd them back into Raina’s lap whenever they escaped. She accomplished this by nudging them with her nose and whining to get Raina’s attention. Raina was so busy grilling Blake she seemed to have little bandwidth for anything else.
“No,” Blake said. “No time for that. I’m an investment broker. I work with clients with significant wealth. Travel all over the world. Never in the same place for more than a few days.”
“I’m getting married. Just as soon as we reach Bozeman.”
“We’re never going to reach Bozeman,” Blake said gloomily, peering out of the windshield at the snow hurtling down from the heavens. Unwrapped from his coat and hat, he’d turned out to be tall and thin, with sharp features and a way of beetling his brows in concentration.
“Curtis will probably get married soon, too. He’s a settling-down kind of guy,” Raina went on.
Hope considered him. Was that true?
“Hell,” Curtis muttered, leaning forward in his seat.
“What’s wrong?” Hope couldn’t keep her worry out of her voice. Were they lost?
No, they couldn’t be—all they had to do was follow the highway to Bozeman.
“I know that turnoff.” He pointed out the windshield, and Hope strained to make out an off-ramp leading from the highway. She hadn’t even seen a sign. “It goes to Reeve’s pass. Nothing up there but some hunting cabins and summer places. We’re not even as far as I thought we were.”
“You need to drive faster,” Blake said.
“You want us to land in the ditch like you did?”
“No, but I could walk faster than you’re driving.”
“You can walk any time you want to—”
“Curtis, look!” Raina pointed at the faint glow of lights ahead on the highway. Curtis slowed even further.
“Hell,” he said again. Hope knew why. A cordon of orange cones and blinking lights directed traffic off the highway.
Hope read the signs. “Detour—avalanche ahead. Detour? How much time is it going to add to our trip?” She had a feeling she wouldn’t like his answer.
“Looks like we’re not going to make the trip.” Curtis’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “If we follow those arrows, we won’t be heading to Bozeman. This detour takes us back the way we came.”
The inhabitants of the truck were silent as they took this in.
“Not… going to Bozeman?” Raina looked from him to Hope. “But… we have to go. Isn’t there any way around?” She pulled out her phone, but Hope could see she still wasn’t getting reception.
“Like I said, they’re routing us back the way we came—”
“There has to be a way! Hope—”
Hope wished she could tell Raina it was all going to be okay, but as hard as they’d tried to get through, it didn’t look like they were going to make it today.
“It’s too dangerous to keep going, honey. We tried. I’m sure the snow will melt tomorrow, and we’ll get through then.” She wasn’t at all sure that was true, but she had to hold out hope.
“But I’ll miss my dinner with Ben’s grandparents! And what if it doesn’t melt? Hope, I promised Ben—”
“Ben will understand. He’s a reasonable man.” It wasn’t like it snowed this way all the time, but Hope’s stomach was knotting up. She should have known they were cutting it close. She should have insisted they leave several days early. Raina was the one who had wanted to work until the last minute, and now Hope knew why. She must have given notice at her preschool job when she learned Ben’s project was being extended. Hope knew how much Raina loved the kids at her school and how hard it must have been to say goodbye.
“I just wanted not to let him down—just once.” Raina twisted her hands together in her lap as the kittens swarmed over her.
Hope glanced at Curtis and caught him watching Raina in the rearview mirror. She couldn’t decipher his expression, but suddenly he put the truck in gear and began to back up.
“What are you doing?” Hope swiveled around to make sure they weren’t going to hit anyone, but the road behind them was empty.
“I’m heading back for that turnoff. We can take Reeve’s Pass and reconnect with the highway past Livingston. That should be far enough it’ll be beyond the avalanche.
“Is it safe?”
“I’ll get us through,” Curtis said.
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I’ll get us through.” He caught her gaze in the mirror. “Look, Hope, you’re going to have to trust me. Can you do that?”
She couldn’t look away. There it was again—that quality she’d tried so hard to define earlier. That competence and commitment. Curtis was a man who knew what he was capable of, and he was sure he was capable of getting them over the pass.
“Okay.”
“Raina? How about you? Do you want to give it a try?”
Raina nodded her head vigorously in the affirmative.
“I don’t know about this,” Blake said.
Curtis hit the brakes. “You can get out and walk.”
“I’m not getting out,” Blake growled. “Fine. Take the pass. You’d better know what you’re doing.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
Curtis breathed a little easier when he finally made it back to the turnoff and switched the truck into drive again. He didn’t think he’d ever driven backward for so long, and although the highway was deserted, he’d known that someone could come barreling around a bend in the road at any moment. In fact—
Those were headlights behind them. And they were coming in fast.
He hit the gas and the truck leaped toward the off-ramp. Curtis regained control of it but took the ramp faster than he would have liked.
The off-ramp dipped down, and the headlights behind them disappeared. Poor schmuck wasn’t going to be happy when he reached the detour, Curtis thought, but then he focused his attention back on the road ahead. It was plain to see there hadn’t been a plow through here, and while the wooded slopes on either side sheltered it from the driving wind that had made drifts on the highway, and the overhanging boughs blocked some of the snowfall, it was still deep.
He hit the button that engaged the plo
w. “It’s going to be slow going, and this road is deep in places. Everyone settle in and let me drive, okay?”
They all nodded. Even Blake seemed to understand this was serious.
Their progress was slow but steady. Once or twice Curtis had to stop, back up and take several passes with the plow before they got through, but each time they did in the end. He was beginning to feel like maybe this was going to work when Raina piped up.
“I’ve got to pee.”
Curtis nearly groaned but stopped himself. It had been hours since they’d set out.
“All right, but I need to find a safe place to get off the road.”
“Okay,” Raina said. “Just don’t take too long.”
Curtis scanned the road ahead of them for somewhere he could get off onto the shoulder—without getting stuck in a snowdrift. He didn’t want to be hit in the unlikely event someone else was on the road.
There. The road emerged from the trees and widened, the ground sloping away on either side. He slowed way down and moved the truck forward carefully, easing it off to the side.
“Don’t be long, and don’t go too far off the road. You don’t know the terrain, and you don’t want to get lost,” he said as he navigated the shoulder.
“Blake—you’ll have to hold the kittens,” Raina said.
“Like hell.”
“Blake!”
“I’m allergic to cats!”
“It’s just for a minute.”
Curtis bent to peer out of the windshield, but a gust of wind-tossed flakes blinded him. “Pipe down!” he ordered, aware the shoulder might slope away more quickly than it appeared under all that snow. He slowed to a crawl, inching forward another few feet. Should he stop here—?
Or farther on—that looked good. Up there where—
Blake turned on him. “I don’t like your tone—”
“Curtis!” Hope’s shriek meshed with the scrape and crash of metal on metal as something huge and heavy hit them from behind. The truck shot forward and off the side of the road. The women’s screams, Daisy’s howl and the shrill mews of the kittens formed a cacophony of sound that rivaled Curtis’s jumbled impressions as the truck slipped and slid down the steep bank, nearly rolling over before it crashed to a halt at the bottom. Curtis gripped the wheel, breathing hard, until his thoughts caught up with him.