Smoky Mountain Sweethearts
Smoky Mountain Sweethearts
Cheryl Harper
How close is too close to the flame?Sam Blackburn excels at fighting fire with fire in Tennessee, whether it’s putting out deadly forest blazes or rescuing his old friend, widow Avery Montague, who’s lost her nerve on a steep mountain cliff. What happened to the daring, adventure-loving teenager who wasn’t afraid of anything? As kids, Avery was always pushing Sam to be brave, to be better, so he’s ready to return the favor. Except he’s up for his dream job in Colorado as a hotshot smoke jumper, and he can't be in two places at once. His future is fraught with risk, but what’s the point of living if you don’t take chances? He just wants Avery to find the courage to go after what she wants, and he's hoping it's him…
How close is too close to the flame?
Sam Blackburn excels at fighting fire with fire in Tennessee, whether it’s putting out deadly forest blazes or rescuing his old friend, widow Avery Montague, who’s lost her nerve on a steep mountain cliff. What happened to the daring, adventure-loving teenager who wasn’t afraid of anything? As kids, Avery was always pushing Sam to be brave, to be better, so he’s ready to return the favor. Except he’s up for his dream job in Colorado as a hotshot smoke jumper, and he can’t be in two places at once. His future is fraught with risk, but what’s the point of living if you don’t take chances? He just wants Avery to find the courage to go after what she wants, and he’s hoping it’s him...
“I’m going to find what makes me happy, Sam. And then I’m going to do it.” Avery tipped her chin up and met his stare. “Dare me.”
She might as well have been seventeen again, but the feelings he had were so different. Instead of wanting to beat her in whatever race they cooked up, he wanted to help her, to encourage her. A breeze sent one curl over her forehead to land across her eyes. Before she could brush it away, he smoothed it aside, happy to see the spark of determination in her gaze. “Do it, AA. You’re the only one who can.”
Sam knew there was never going to be another moment to try it—the kiss that could settle everything. The woods were quiet. The water was turning golden with the sunrise. The two of them belonged in that spot at that time.
So he slowly pressed his mouth against hers, the sweet taste of her lips completing the most perfect moment...ever.
Dear Reader (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b),
Sometimes the only way to move forward is to go back.
In Smoky Mountain Sweethearts, the first book of my new miniseries, I have a smart, formerly fearless heroine who desperately needs something to shake her up, and a hero who has never failed to push her higher.
After experiencing a tragic, heartbreaking loss, Avery Montague returns home to her small town, searching for what (or whom) it will take for her to become herself again. Meanwhile, childhood friend Sam Blackburn’s certain a new firefighting job is the challenge he’s been looking for—until he rediscovers Avery. Add in family, friends and the hiking that they love, and special things start happening for Avery and Sam. I hope you enjoy spending time racing up the trails of east Tennessee with them!
To find out more about my books and what’s coming next in the Otter Lake Ranger Station miniseries, visit me at cherylharperbooks.com (http://www.cherylharperbooks.com) and find me on Twitter, @cherylharperbks (https://twitter.com/cherylharperbks?lang=en).
Happy reading!
Cheryl
Smoky Mountain Sweethearts
Kate James
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CHERYL HARPER discovered her love for books and words as a little girl, thanks to a mother who made countless library trips and an introduction to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House stories. Whether stories are set in the prairie, the American West, Regency England or Earth a hundred years in the future, Cheryl enjoys strong characters who make her laugh. Now Cheryl spends her days searching for the right words while she stares out the window and her dog, Jack, snoozes beside her. And she considers herself very lucky to do so.
For more information about Cheryl’s books, visit her online at cherylharperbooks.com (http://www.cherylharperbooks.com) or follow her on Twitter, @cherylharperbks (https://twitter.com/cherylharperbks).
To the men and women who protect and preserve America’s wild places, open spaces, and the plants and animals that call them home, thank you.
Contents
Cover (#uc83d4eec-b991-57cb-ba97-a70b391383ce)
Back Cover Text (#u689ab880-7e6b-5257-be52-72e7af2cb3ae)
Introduction (#u2b15a22c-0797-5d4b-b83b-0b683d68f97b)
Dear Reader (#u8fe009ef-22b2-5e11-b103-20ca75ce9523)
Title Page (#u751b99f8-faf9-5c88-8ad3-c7e649bb6a2c)
About the Author (#uffa01813-1d12-5b8b-8658-57354fc27490)
Dedication (#u4b73de2f-77aa-5af8-b349-d5ff3ffa2375)
CHAPTER ONE (#u41ab3102-d329-51d4-b6fb-e8a59b47ea33)
CHAPTER TWO (#uff1daa8a-0196-5f97-a693-8390e21d0bad)
CHAPTER THREE (#u8455529c-5c4e-5da9-a2a9-40e92acde6a7)
CHAPTER FOUR (#uf252af09-8ba9-532b-91a4-642c915ec1e4)
CHAPTER FIVE (#uf8e13489-81ce-5d42-a37a-55ce28b98deb)
CHAPTER SIX (#ub8bfed3b-ef38-5e94-878e-7b48cda89595)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)
BEING ROUSTED OUT of bed like she was thirteen again wasn’t how Avery Montague thought she’d start the last Friday before her thirty-fifth birthday, but her mother had never let little things like closed doors stand in her way.
If she’d wanted to sleep in, Avery never should have gotten hotel rooms with connecting doors.
“Get up. We can’t miss that flight.” The long a in “can’t” sounded so much like home that Avery had to wait for a second to let the wash of homesickness fade. Every one of her mother’s cain’ts used to drive her crazy. On the few occasions she’d managed to talk her husband, Robert, into a visit at the holidays, they’d locked eyes to communicate silently whenever her mother said it. He’d been amused at Avery’s pet peeve.
Homesickness was chased away with the dueling realizations that he was still gone and she was free to do whatever she wanted again. That freedom wasn’t a gift most days.
After almost ten years of marriage, including three years of being his nurse, she’d spent the last two years adjusting to the realization that she could step out the door without fearing that life would never be the same when she came back home.
No matter what she did from this point, her life would never be the same. The dream of building a family with the man who’d derailed the plans she’d made at eighteen was over.
But her life? It kept on going, one hour dragging into the next. Some days she had to brush away the thought of how much simpler it would be to just...stop.
“We won’t miss the flight, Mama. I’m packed. Let me put on some clothes and run a brush through my hair and I’m ready.” Avery slipped out of the adequate sheets the airport hotel preferred and ignored her mother’s gasp as she padded barefoot across the floor.
“Gonna bring back a toe rot or something, girl, if you don’t put your shoes on.” Her mother was fussing with the large bag of cosmetics she almost never let out of her sight.
The laugh that bubbled out surprised Avery. Trust her mother to say something to make it easier to go on. “Toe rot? That’s what you’re worried about?” Avery studied the carpet from the bathroom and realized her mother might have a good point. The suspicious stains had clearly been cleaned more than once, but who knew how long it took for toe rot to disappear?
Her mother was wagging a perfectly French-manicured finger at her when Avery wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You don’t watch enough news programs, Avery Anne Abernathy. I am telling you, there is funk in that carpet.”
Whatever funk she got from walking unprotected across hotel carpet might be worth it for the way her mouth held a smile as she headed back into the bedroom. For so long, she’d had nothing to smile about, but now she was going home.
One quick glance in the mirror was all it took to know she was leaving in the nick of time. The dark circles under her eyes were familiar. So was the gray in her short hair. Only the small curve of her lips, which surprised and pleased her, seemed out of place.
If she didn’t hurry, her mother would barge back in with a can of hair spray in one hand and her leftover cheesecake in the other. She’d be forced to eat while her mother teased and sprayed. Then they would definitely miss their flight into Knoxville, and Avery wasn’t sure how well she’d weather a setback like that.
She quickly slipped on the jeans that were so loose they were uncomfortable and yanked on a sweater. For years, through Robert’s treatments and hospital stays, Avery had learned never to leave home without layers. It might be October, but the cold had become a permanent part of her life.
Her mother was still fussing when Avery stepped out of the bathroom. Her view from her room into the connecting room showed a whirlwind of destruction. “Mama, you only slept in that bed for one night. What in the world were you doing?” The sheets were tumbled into a ball while all the pillows save one were stacked against the headboard in a teetering tower. Avery was worn out just studying the mess.
“Hunting for the bedbugs.” Janet Abernathy rolled her eyes. “Hotels are famous for bedbugs.”
Avery almost argued with her. If hotels were famous for bedbugs, no one would stay in them, ever. And this airport business-class hotel might not be big on amenities or renovation, but it was clean enough. Arguing wouldn’t change her mother’s mind, though. Janet Abernathy never missed a news program. Because of that, she knew the world outside of Sweetwater, Tennessee, was filled with dangers. Only constant vigilance would do.
Avery’s suitcase was still on the side of the bed where she’d left it. If her mother’s room was an after shot of a crime-scene investigation, hers was barely disturbed. At least she’d slept through the night. She was beginning to depend on that.
With a shove of her hairbrush and the clothes she’d slept in into her bag, Avery was packed. She quickly zipped up the suitcase and slipped on her flats while she smiled again at her mother’s relieved sigh.
“Do we need to call a cab?” her mother asked as she looked one last time in the mirror over the desk.
“No, they’ll get us one downstairs,” Avery said as she moved to stand next to the door.
“I can wait if you’d like to put on lipstick,” her mother said with an encouraging nod. “I have choices.”
“And I still don’t care to see them,” Avery answered as she pulled open the door. “We better hurry.” They were still two hours before boarding, but it was important to both of them that they get home soon. And coffee was the only thing that would make this day bearable.
Avery handled the checkout while her mother fiddled nervously with her bags, her hair and her rings, both eyes locked to the muted cable news channel running in the hotel lobby. “It’s okay, Mama. We’ll be home soon.”
Instead of fussing back, her mother reached over and squeezed Avery’s hand. “And I’ll be glad to know you’re safe, my girl.”
The tears that sprang to Avery’s eyes were disappointing. For months, she had been fighting these stupid emotions that blindsided her when she was least expecting them. She’d gone to therapy and used antidepressants and self-help books. Still, the tears were there, under the surface. This wasn’t like her at all.
If she was going home and planning on leaving the house at some point, she had to get that control back. The day she’d been packing and opened the front door of the house to find her mother standing on the step, she’d buckled so badly under the weight of the tears that she was certain her mother would never look at her the same.
Avery Abernathy had only cried when she was mad or when her father died.
Avery Montague cried at the drop of a hat.
Herding her mother through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport was the perfect distraction from any worries she might have. It was a bit like keeping up with a teenager who had a credit card with no limit. When they finally sat down at the gate, Avery was on her second cup of coffee and her mother had a load of shopping bags.
“Watch my seat. I have to go to the ladies’.”
Probably to put on more lipstick.
Avery wrestled the lid off her cup and blew to cool down the coffee she desperately needed.
At least she’d done the hard part. The bags were checked, except for her mother’s airport must-haves. When they landed in Knoxville, Avery would do her best to hustle her mother right to baggage claim and on out into the parking lot.
The businessman seated opposite her pointed at all the bags stacked in the chair. “Forget a few things?” His charming smile was easy to answer.
“I think it was more about killing time.” Avery sipped her coffee and watched her mother meander around the newsstand across the way. She had two magazines in one hand already.
“Is Knoxville home?” the guy asked as he set his computer aside.
“No, over an hour away.” Her home had been in Chicago for almost ten years, but it was easy enough to understand his question. And Sweetwater was where she was headed to stay.
“I’m based out of Knoxville.” He reached for his wallet to pull out a card and hand it to her. “I’m Chuck. Nice to meet you.”
Chuck Armstrong was a liquor distributor, apparently. Why would she need his card?
“Nice to meet you, too,” Avery said and laid the card carefully next to her on the seat. She’d drop it in the trash somewhere to avoid hurting his feelings. Maybe he thought she had a restaurant or something.
“Lookee what I found,” her mother crowed as she plopped down next to Avery. “Cute actors. Cute singers. Cute designers. And cute dogs. If you can’t find something to read in this stack, you ain’t even trying.” She dropped the magazines in Avery’s lap and pulled off the one on top. “This one’s mine.”
“Cute couches. That’s what you’re going with?” Her mother devoured decorating shows, books and magazines, and occasionally decided to revamp the house Avery had grown up in. “What color is the living room now, Mama?”
Her mother sighed. “You don’t remember how many paint chips I tested?” Their conversations for a while had been all about her mother’s projects, mainly because Avery had stared at hospital walls and nothing else for days straight. “Colonial gray. That’s what I’ve got right now.” She tapped the white sofa with splashes of bright red flowers. “This would be darling.”
It would. Years of study meant Janet Abernathy had a good eye. “Have you ever thought about opening up an interior-design business?”
Her mother straightened in her seat and shot her a surprised glance. Then she laughed as if Avery had said the most amusing thing she’d heard in a while. “It’s a hobby. I don’t have any training. And who in Sweetwater’s going to be hiring an interior designer? No, ma’am. Right now, my focus is on you. Once you’re home, everything will be okay.” She turned the page slowly and then folded the corner down so she’d remember to come back to it. If she’d been in a better frame of mind, stronger, Avery would have insisted they talk about this. Her mother needed more in her life.
At this point, Avery was not in a position to argue, but having her mother’s attention focused solely on her? This could be a problem.
“I like working at the school part-time, here and there as needed. It’s never dull,” her mother said with a careless shrug. Since her eyes never met Avery’s, it was hard to decide if she meant what she was saying. “Are you thinking of opening up a...something? Going into business for yourself? It ain’t easy. I mean, I don’t know why you can’t go back to school, but...”
This was her mother’s subtle way of asking what Avery was going to do with the rest of her life. Since she’d been mainly focused on tying up all the loose ends left by Robert’s death, closing up and selling their two-story house, and sleeping sixteen hours a day, Avery hadn’t had much time for career planning. The first several times her mother had asked, Avery had shut her down. Sharply.
Going back to law school? All she could imagine was the stress and terrible grief from the memories it would no doubt provoke.
That was where she’d met Robert.
She couldn’t go back.
Her mother would continue to ask what Avery planned to be when she grew up. She needed a better answer.
And after almost two years, she should have one.
“Maybe. I don’t know yet.” As long as she was happy living with her mother, Avery could float for a long time without any income at all.
Her mother wouldn’t be satisfied to leave her alone for more than a week.
“Girl who put herself through college...”
But never graduated law school.
Her mother’s mutters trailed off, but it was easy to see that she disapproved of Avery’s lack of focus. At least she’d learned a bit of control.
As the gate crew called the first group to board, Avery slipped the magazines in her tote and the business card fluttered to the ground. Her mother picked it up to hand it to her. “Leftover from some other trip?”
Avery shook her head and pointed with her chin at Chuck, who was waiting in the line with the priority passengers. He was scrolling through something on his phone. “No, that guy introduced himself and gave it to me. I didn’t want to give it back or...” Avery blinked. She still wasn’t sure what had happened in that weird conversation.
When the next boarding group was announced, Avery stood and grabbed her mother’s shopping bags. Her mother was shaking her head sadly. “What?”
“He was hitting on you. That was an invitation to call him when you’re in town or something.” Her mother dropped her purse on one shoulder and took her armful of bags from Avery.
The wave of people heading for the line flowed around Avery while she processed what her mother had said. “Hitting on me? No way.” She wasn’t dead but she might be half a step away. It had been months since she’d applied mascara. “What man in his right mind would be hitting on me?”
Once upon a time, that had been a common occurrence. She never would have missed Chuck’s interest at twenty. Then she’d fallen in love, gotten married, and that all stopped.
She was technically single again, but how could the world tell?
After she’d lost so much weight that her wedding rings had slipped on her fingers, Avery had taken them off and put them safely away. Did she need to find them again?
“Any man who likes smart women would be hitting on you, sweet girl. That hasn’t changed.” Her mother wrapped a hand around her arm to urge her into the boarding line. “And that won’t be the last time, either.”
“I’ll get my rings resized, put them back on. That’ll help.” It hadn’t stopped every flirt through the years, but she’d lost the knack of understanding a man was flirting and the ability to answer properly. Chuck had deserved a better conversation than the one he’d gotten. She still wouldn’t be calling him for a date, but she could have given him his card back without a trace of guilt.
She wasn’t in the market for Chuck or any other man.
“Not to come back to life, it won’t,” her mother snapped before graciously handing a member of the gate crew her boarding pass.
Avery did her best to respond to the attendant’s pleasant greeting and then nodded in a friendly manner at Chuck as she passed. He tapped his phone in a nonverbal signal that she should call him. Once all the bags were stuffed overhead and her mother had settled with her neck pillow, her blanket and her magazine, Avery tipped her head to say, “I’m perfectly fine without a man in my life for now.”
“Thing is, you better not lose something that will make you happy because you got your head buried under a pillow.” Her mother pursed her lips. “Grieving is important and only you know how to do it for you. It’s been two years, and I love you too much to let you grieve yourself right on into the grave.”
Avery closed her eyes and inhaled slowly. “This isn’t grieving. This is...”
“...being confused.” Her mother turned to catch Avery’s stare. “I get it. I’ve been there. Let me tell you something. The more time you lose figuring out what you want, the harder it is to go for it. Once you stop, it’s hard to get started again.”
“I’m not confused. I’m sad, Mama. Heartbroken. I can’t even believe this conversation.” Avery yanked open the magazine she’d picked up off the stack, the cute-dogs one, and flipped it open to study the table of contents, a weak sizzle of anger fizzling quickly.
Her mother cared even if she didn’t understand.
The short flight to Knoxville was so easy that Avery had to sit back and think how long it had been since she’d flown. At least seven years. Maybe her first step should be a real trip, one without her mother. She did not want a weeklong lecture about the dangers of foreign toe rot.
The Knoxville airport was easy to navigate, but Avery was breathing hard and feeling the strain all through her body by the time she and her mother made it through baggage claim and to her mother’s small SUV. With the last push of her strength, Avery loaded the bags and staggered around to the passenger side to flop down in the seat.
Her mother, instead of showing signs of fatigue, was perking up. “Want to eat before we head home?”
“No.” Avery covered her forehead with one hand. “Let’s pick something up, if you want.”
If she had to get out of the car anywhere other than her mother’s driveway, she’d stumble. Her mother didn’t need to deal with that scare right now.
As they left the city behind and the road wound through the rolling hills toward the Great Smoky Mountains in the distance, Avery breathed deeply and memorized the dense forests, the running streams and the way the mountains rose behind Sweetwater all over again. If there was any place in the world that would feed her the energy that had been slowly drained over years of distance and struggle, it was this one.
“Need some rain. Fall color’s off, all the dry, dead leaves,” her mother said, “but it’s still the prettiest place on the planet.” Avery had loved so much of Chicago, but it was impossible to argue with her mother.
Avery turned on the radio and the country music that flowed out of the speakers made it easy to relax through the curves that her mom handled like a race-car driver. Whatever came next, this was the right decision.
“Thanks for coming to get me, Mama,” Avery said softly. She might have stayed in that house until they’d kicked her out and in Chicago until she faded away. Already Avery could feel the color in this world.
“I should have come sooner.” Her mother’s lips trembled and she flapped her hand in front of her face like she’d done anytime tears threatened for as long as Avery could remember. “And I want everything for you, Avery, all you ever wanted.”
“I was fine. I’m fine.” Avery had assured her mother she was coping with every phone call.
Her mother’s snort was easy to understand. “You’re not fine, honey. But that’s okay. You will be.” The grim set of her lips was worrying, but Avery didn’t have the right words to convince her otherwise.
And the way she felt, she needed to conserve her energy. They passed the tourist draw of Gatlinburg and wound north before turning off to stop outside Sweetwater. As her mother drove down the lane to her farmhouse, Avery was relieved that almost everything outside was the same. “What happened to the oak?” It had once been home to a rope swing and the beginnings of a tree house that her father had started but never finished.
“Storm came through. I told you that.” Her mother waved a hand as she slid out of the SUV. “Maybe not. I thought it might depress you.”
And we both know I don’t need to be any more depressed.
“Had to call in a tree service. Sammy was too concerned about how close it was to the house to try to take care of it himself.” Her mother yanked open the back of the SUV and started unloading the bags. “Plus, it was in the park’s busy season. Kid works as many hours as he can.”
Kid? Samuel Blackburn was exactly Avery’s age, definitely old enough to have outlived “kid.” He’d been the thorn in her side growing up, but his mother was still Janet Abernathy’s best friend.
“After we get you settled, I’ll run over and let Regina know I’m home. She’s been watching the place for me.” Her mother hustled up the four steps to the wide front porch and unlocked the front door. “Need to get you a new key made. Had the locks replaced after I had the renovations done.” She paused in front of the grand entryway and said, “The new foyer.”
“It’s lovely.” The old wallpaper was gone. Gleaming hardwoods were stained dark, and the front room was done up in grays and blues. “I could spend all day in here with a book.”
Her mother pointed up the stairs. “Your room is ready. You go take a nap. You look tired. I’ll see about dinner and let Regina know we made it in.”
Before she could disappear, Avery wrapped her arms around her mother’s shoulders and squeezed. “Thank you for letting me come home.”
Her mother sniffed. “Girl, if you make my mascara run, we will both be sorry.”
Avery squeezed her again and then let go. “Now, do I need to be worried about toe rot in my room?”
“Only if you brought it in,” her mother said as she narrowed her eyes. “You bring any rot at all into my place and we will have words.” She waved and then stepped back out on the porch.
Avery was still smiling when she opened the door to her old room. The linens and paint were different. All her awards had been boxed up, but the afternoon light through the window that warmed her favorite spot in the world, the window seat that used to overlook the old oak, was exactly the same.
Her phone rang and she didn’t even pull it out of her purse. She knew who was calling, the only one of her friends who still made the effort. Maria Benton had been one of the lawyers fighting for people who needed them most in Chicago’s Legal Aid. She’d spent the time Avery had volunteered there testing her and encouraging her, and when Robert had been diagnosed, she’d been Avery’s most loyal friend.
And for two years, she’d called and left messages and never once accepted Avery’s excuses for why her return calls were so very few. It hurt to talk to Maria. It hurt to remember that old life.
Today, Avery was going to put off until the day after tomorrow what she couldn’t face today. She was home now. She’d have more energy any day now. That was the day to call Maria. Until then, there was voice mail.
Avery dumped her bags on the floor and sprawled sideways on the queen-size bed. A nap. Then she’d get started on figuring out the rest of her life.
CHAPTER TWO (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)
SAM BLACKBURN HAD climbed The Eagle Nest so many times in his life that it had lost some of the thrill. Doing it in the fine mist that Sunday afternoon certainly added a degree of difficulty. Still not enough to satisfy the restless urge that had been plaguing him ever since he’d read about the opening for a spot on the Highland firefighting crew out of Colorado. They tackled the most dangerous wildfires out West.
That was the kind of challenge he needed.
Sam dropped down to sit next to Ash Kingfisher. They’d worked together for years and known each other longer than that. If he tried to start a meaningful conversation with Ash at this point, the man in charge of the Otter Lake Ranger Station might give him a hard push right over the edge.
Ash was a good leader but a terrible conversationalist.
The best thing about the rain was that it meant this trail, one of the most popular hikes in the reserve, was deserted. It wouldn’t do much to alleviate the drought that had started in the spring and lasted all summer, but it was nice to remember that rain was still a possibility.
Sam clenched his hands together to keep from twiddling his thumbs and stared out over the trees. Might as well be at the top of the world on a day like today.
“Out with it.” Ash inhaled deeply, his face completely expressionless.
“I’m going to apply for the wildland firefighting crew opening,” Sam blurted as he stared hard in the opposite direction. If Ash sneered, he’d know the guy had even less faith in his chances than Sam did.
“Might as well.” Ash rolled his shoulders and wiped a drop of rain off his forehead.
Then he stretched out the leg that sometimes gave him trouble and moved his foot from side to side. The climb up the rocky top of the mountain was a challenge for most people. Sam spent more time going up and down trails than he did on flat land, but Ash was in the office now.
“Don’t even think it,” Ash muttered.
“What?” Sam asked. He knew there was no way the guy could read his mind, but Ash missed nothing.
“I’m not slowing down a bit.” Ash turned his head slowly to give him a narrow stare.
“Fine.” Sam nervously chewed on his thumbnail and then yanked his hand away. He wasn’t a kid anymore. When he was growing up, Avery Abernathy would have snorted in disgust and pointed at him like he was a baby if she’d caught him chewing his fingernail. “Bad habit. Nerves. Knew a girl once who did the same thing but would deny it until the end of time.” Nervous babbling. No good. Sam clamped his hands together. “How good are my chances?”
Ash sighed. “Gonna be competitive.”
“All the good jobs are. I had to volunteer here for two years before I even got an interview,” Sam said. “That your only concern?”
Ash squeezed his eyes shut. “Are we about to have a moment?”
Sam huffed out a laugh and called Ash the worst combination of curse words he knew.
“Well, I’d say you’ve got a real problem with authority,” Ash drawled, “but no one is going to deny you’ve got experience, conditioning and training. If it was New Mexico, I’d be worried. You’d get sand in your shorts and run crying to mama, but the mountains will be enough like home.”
“A problem with authority,” Sam said. “That must be why I hang out with you.”
Ash’s slow blink was his only acknowledgment that Sam might have a point.
“If it comes to it, I will make sure my high opinion of you and your dedication to the job are well known,” Ash said as he stood slowly. The rocks were wet but still solid. “That what you brought me all the way up here for?”
He’d thought Ash needed to get out of his cabin. Brooding didn’t even begin to cover what the guy could do with free time, but there was only so much a guy could do. “Yep. That’s it. I wanted to make sure I have your endorsement.”
“What do I know about firefighters? I manage calm, stable reserve rangers. Those guys, the ones who parachute in to put out these fires, they’re crazy.” Ash shook his head. “You should fit right in.”
“They’re the best of the best, taking on the worst wildfires, the ones that can destroy whole forests, not to mention everything else in their path.” Sam turned to start the slow descent down the rock face. “Here, we babysit controlled burns and put out lightning strikes.”
“And save lives and conserve native flora and fauna and history and put your lives on the line by standing too close to the flames when it counts.” Ash grunted. “That ought to be enough danger for any one person for a lifetime. Those fires or these, those forests or these, your job is important,” he said before he drawled, “sweetheart.” His sarcasm had saved them both from one of those touchy-feely moments.
Sam concentrated on making it down to the trail. If he stumbled and fell, he’d never hear the end of it. Well, if he fell over the edge, he’d never hear the beginning of the trash talk, but his funeral would be embarrassing.
“You told your mother yet?” Ash asked as he stepped down next to Sam. They still had the hike back to the trailhead, but it would be a piece of cake, even for Ash.
“Not yet.” That was the part he dreaded. “Think I’ll wait to see if I even rate an interview. You know how it goes. Postings usually come up in January, so it may take forever, but this drought...” Sam shrugged. “It’s worse out West. I figure they’re in a hurry to get the crews fully staffed.”
Ash grunted. “Probably can’t leave a vacancy for long. Too dangerous.”
Spring and summer would be the busy seasons. They were here in the Smokies as well, but search and rescue got more interesting in the winter. He’d plan to spend plenty of time volunteering here at home. That would scratch the itch.
“Gonna be a job up soon in search and rescue, incident commander.” Ash turned to stare over his shoulder as he headed down the trail. “Think you might be interested in that?”
Sam had the volunteer hours. There’d be hours and hours and hours of training and the competition for jobs here wasn’t much less intense than it was for the few slots that opened in the regional firefighting teams.
He could consider it as a backup plan.
But he loved fighting fire.
Sam shook his head. “No, I know what I want.” He wanted a new challenge. He needed it.
Ash didn’t answer as they made it back to the trailhead. Sam had no idea if getting Ash out of his cabin had made a lick of difference, but he wasn’t ready to go home.
“I was thinking of heading over to Obed to do some climbing. Want to go on your next day off?” Sam asked as they made it back to the parking area.
“Nope. I like my feet on the ground.” Ash didn’t hesitate as he slid into the reserve’s SUV. He raised two fingers in his version of a wave, backed out of the parking spot and headed for his cave.
Leaving Sam with nothing to do and energy to burn.
He turned to look back up the trail and took off running. Maybe he could beat his best time. If he did it in the rain, that would be something to brag about.
Not that he’d have any proof, but four more miles in the rain should be enough for one day. Sam hit the trail hard, clearing the first switchback easily, and ran until his heart pounded and he had to concentrate on breathing. The view was forgotten as he focused on each step of the rocky path up and then back down the mountain.
Pleasantly tired and overall satisfied with tying his best time, Sam slid into the truck and started it up. Not much for a firefighter to do on a misty day like this one. There was no lightning to keep things interesting. It was a bad idea to whine about things being too quiet. Mother Nature had a way of kicking up a fuss, but his trip back to Sweetwater was easy enough. When he parked in front of the housing for Otter Lake rangers, he could see his mother’s Cadillac.
Apparently, he’d missed everything but the goodbye, though, because Regina Blackburn was trotting down the covered steps that led to the second-floor apartments. “There you are. Soaking wet.”
She smoothed her sleek bob behind one ear and plucked at his gray T-shirt. “I brought over some groceries and the leftover roast beef you forgot to take with you last night. It’s in the fridge.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Sam said as he pretended he was about to give her a bear hug. She shook one hot-pink fingernail in his face.
“Don’t you do it. I’ve got cards with the girls and no time for a change.” She gave each cheek an air-kiss. “Now, I’d ask you what you were doing, but it was something foolish that will make an old woman have palpitations if she discovers her favorite son participating, am I right?”
Sam mimed zipping his lips and tossing the key. The Eagle Nest was safer now after the trail renovation than it had been in decades, but she’d never agree.
She raised one eyebrow at him. “How you can risk that pretty face is beyond me. You better keep it safe.” She tapped his cheek.
“Yes, Mother.” He ducked his head and wondered when she’d notice all the mud on his legs. He should point it out to hear her fuss.
“I should run,” she said and pouted. “Wish you’d been here sooner. We could have warmed up the leftovers.”
The thing about loving his mother was that he was skating dangerously close to becoming one of those guys, the mama’s boys. But she was amazing.
Since she’d retired, she’d taken keeping him well fed seriously.
“I needed to get Ash’s opinion on something.” Sam stared up at the tall pines lining the parking lot and decided to rip off the bandage. “A job opportunity. In Colorado.”
She paused midstep and slowly turned. “Ash’s opinion. On a job that might as well be on the other side of the world.” That was pretty much how he’d expected this conversation to go.
“Yeah, for the Highland team that’s based at Copper Mountain.” Sam braced his hands on his hips, prepared for the worst.
“The crew that fights out-of-control blazes,” she said slowly. “That dies fighting those fires.”
Much like the improved hike to The Eagle Nest, he could tell his mother that they were trained for those conditions and had countless successes for each accident the crew suffered, but she’d never accept that as a logical reason not to worry.
“I won’t get an interview, Mom,” Sam said as he ran a hand through his damp hair. “I bet there are a hundred better-qualified applicants for this one opening. I thought you’d want to know.”
“Well,” she said as she smiled brightly, “you know I believe you can do anything you want to do, so...” Then she marched to her Cadillac and slid in. She gave him her normal jaunty wave on the way out of the parking lot, but he had the feeling she’d be losing sleep until he got his form rejection email.
That would make two of them.
He shouldn’t have told her. That had been his original plan. He always got into trouble when he did too much thinking. Sam trotted up the steps two at a time and resolved to send in his application and then eat every single bit of roast beef in his refrigerator before calling his mother to ask if she had any more.
If she was upset over his news, some of her mood would be restored by his love of her cooking. Regina Blackburn could be talked out of a funk by one needy phone call from her son.
CHAPTER THREE (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)
THE THING ABOUT epiphanies was that they never came when Avery wanted them to. After nearly a solid week of living under her mother’s extremely watchful eye, it had become clear they both needed a break from all their new togetherness.
Borrowing the car had been her first step to freedom. When her mother asked for a destination, only one place came to mind. It had been ten years since she’d made the easy hike up to Yanu Falls inside the reserve, but she would never forget the exhilaration of standing on the cliff overlooking the falls that led to a cove of Otter Lake.
Since her mother was hovering again, Avery had grabbed a water bottle, waved her cell phone and said she’d be back that afternoon. After so many years of living in the city, even driving the wide-open road winding up to the Otter Lake trailhead seemed to roll off the weight of years.
The first inkling that not everything would go according to her plan was when she’d collapsed, panting, on the first bench along the trail, the one she and her friends had always called “Better Off Dead.”
Because anyone who had to stop there to rest already had one foot in the grave.
She and her friends had been punks, obviously.
The hike that had taken her half an hour at seventeen took four times that long now, and she’d made unscheduled stops at every bench and flat rock she could find along the way.
None of that mattered once Avery reached the clearing, because she’d managed it. All by herself. Even two weeks ago, walking into the grocery store had been too much of a physical challenge.
“But either all that gasping for air has killed brain cells or the realization of what I’m supposed to do with the rest of my life isn’t coming today,” Avery muttered and pulled her phone out to check the time. She’d sat there, legs folded under her, for so long that they might have frozen into position. She hadn’t seen a bear or an otter, the two main draws, other than the panoramic view of old, dense woods, a wispy waterfall and the sparkling waters of Otter Lake in the distance.
Avery inhaled slowly and forced herself to stand. At least it was easier to breathe here. The cool, dry air flowed in and out, something that she’d learned to never take for granted again after too long inhaling canned hospital air and feeling the crushing panic that came from watching someone she loved dying.
“Forget the revelation. You have another problem.” Avery raised her cell phone higher, hoping to find a signal, without any luck. The sun was dropping quickly, and the climb down, while it would go faster, wasn’t going to be as quick as she’d expected, either.
Her mother would be worried.
In an effort to hurry, Avery stretched her legs, grabbed her long-empty water bottle and started back up the first small rise that led back down to the trailhead parking lot. The unseasonably warm breeze had been perfect while the sun was up. Now a jacket would be nice.
Thanks to the shadows of the setting sun, it was harder to see all the rocks and tree roots that bumped across the trail, so halfway down the second long rise, Avery stubbed her toe, stumbled and landed on one knee with an ugly curse.
The urge to sit down and sob over the injustices of life welled up almost as quickly as she realized she wasn’t hurt, but banged up. The fact that her emotions ran away with her before she even knew where she was heading was twice as irritating as a scraped knee.
“You can’t sit in the dirt and cry like a baby, Avery. People will be searching for you.” The last thing on this earth that she wanted was to be the subject of a manhunt, and if she didn’t get to the bottom and her mother’s car and cell phone service soon, she’d have to move, leave the country and change her name.
She’d brushed off her jeans and tightened her shoestrings in the effort to convince her feet to get with the program when she heard someone yelling. Whoever he was was still a distance away and she couldn’t make out what he was saying, but there was no denying that her search party was already on the hunt.
Annoyed at herself and at her mother, Avery cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, “Here. I’m here.” Then she pulled her cell phone out and checked again. Still no signal.
Determined to save the poor guy headed her way as many steps as she could, Avery marched up the next rise and had to catch herself on a fallen tree when she tried jogging over rough rocks.
“Avery.” This time she could make out the word clearly.
“Here. I’m here.” Her voice was breathier than it should be, thanks to the pang in her side that made it easier to stay hunched over for a second.
Then her rescuer appeared over the rise and trotted down to meet her.
“Sam Blackburn. It’s been a long time,” Avery said with a lame attempt to convince him she was perfectly fine and had everything under control. They might not have seen each other except for brief flashes whenever she’d made it home for Christmas, but she’d pick him out of a sea of faces. They’d once moved in the same crowd, the previously mentioned punks. She and Sam had either been friends or vicious competitors growing up, but his grandfather was the first one to bring her here to see the falls. Sam and his mother had lived with Gee next door to Avery’s family forever. After Avery’s father’s death, he’d showed her and Sam all the trails she’d ever explored in the Smoky Valley Nature Reserve, as a way to save Janet Abernathy’s sanity. When the weekend rolled around, she and Sam were dogging Gee’s steps. And Sam had been the cause or the witness of most of her teenage stunts until she’d graduated from high school and moved to Knoxville to go to college.
While Avery was one more hike up to the cliff away from death, Sam was as strong as he’d been at seventeen. She was also in need of a rescue while he was barely breathing fast. Life was unfair.
“Have a seat.” He wrapped his fingers around her wrist to test her pulse and handed her the flashlight. “Hold this for me.”
Avery eased down to the rocky path and turned on the light as Sam pulled a handheld radio off his utility belt.
“Blackburn to base.” Sam handed her a canteen. “Drink.”
Avery wanted to argue but he wasn’t ready for that yet.
Whatever he made out through the static prompted the answer: “I found her, headed back down to the Yanu trailhead. Good condition. Pulse is fast but steady. Hold the second group. We’ll walk out.”
When he turned back, Avery tipped up the canteen, took three good swallows, wiped her mouth and offered it to him. “Are you the Otter Lake ranger station’s arm of a county-wide manhunt?”
Sam eased down beside her and ran a thumb over the tear in her jeans. “I’m it. Your mother called me instead of 911. Once she told me you were headed to the park, I had a feeling I knew where to find you. The fact that she couldn’t reach you on your cell phone was another good clue. Worst cell reception in the area here.” He waved the canteen. “Drink.”
Avery snatched it back. “You know, it was a couple of hours on a beautiful fall day, not the desert at high noon.” She took three more swallows to make him happy and then capped the canteen and slung it over her shoulder. “I’ll hold on to this in case I need it, okay?”
“Good idea. It doesn’t take long to get dehydrated, especially as dry as we’ve been lately.” Sam checked her pulse again. His warm fingers reminded her how much she wished she’d brought a jacket. The shiver that shook her shoulders was impossible to ignore.
“Sorry,” he mumbled as he grabbed the backpack he’d dumped on the trail. When he pulled out a balled-up windbreaker with a flourish, it was easy to remember every sword fight they’d ever had across her front yard. “Slip this on, and we’ll get moving.”
She was taking a mental walk down memory lane; he was planning his rescue. Did he remember any of those times? They hadn’t been the best of friends, but they’d been more than acquaintances.
Ignoring the spear of disappointment at something else she’d lost before she even realized it was gone, Avery slowly stood and did her best to swallow the groan that bubbled in her throat. Sitting was murder. If she didn’t stay in motion, her muscles would leave her here to die.
Before she’d made it all the way to the top, that would have seemed appropriate, sitting beside the trail to let whatever was coming wash over her.
Now she knew she could make it if she kept going. The only option was to fight her way back down to the trailhead.
Oh, man. Was that the epiphany?
“I’ll follow your lead,” she said as she offered Sam the flashlight. She hoped he could see nothing more than grim determination on her face. If he were a stranger, that was all she’d give him.
* * *
THE SPLASH OF light across Avery’s face was a reminder of how fatigued she was. When Sam had first seen her on the trail, his immediate concerns were dehydration and shock. She was pale, the finest lines around her eyes and mouth tight with pain or something.
But when she’d opened her mouth, she might as well have been the wild girl he’d explored these trails with as a boy.
“I’d rather you set the pace,” he said. “Take the flashlight. Make sure to aim it far enough out that you don’t obliterate your night vision completely because you’ll need to watch the edge of the trail.” Falling would be devastating right now. The foliage was so thick that finding her would be next to impossible until the sun rose. Even then, the old growth along the trail could be impenetrable. “When you get tired, stop.”
“Aye, Captain,” she drawled, and it was enough to draw a smile to his face. She’d never once wanted to be first mate. Avery Abernathy was going to be the king, the captain, the criminal mastermind and the first to charge the enemy.
Their pace was slow and steady. The flicker of the flashlight warned him she was tiring, but she kept going. He could hear her labored breathing but it was a reassuring sound as night settled around them.
The phone call from her mother had scared him.
He’d been preparing to take a final drive through the trailhead campgrounds when his mother called. As soon as she had handed the phone over to Janet Abernathy, he’d tried to reassure her. He could remember Avery’s favorite spot. It would be easy enough to check. There was no need to worry.
“She hasn’t been herself lately.” Janet’s voice was tight and Sam knew she was trying to explain something to him without saying it. “I...I don’t know, Sam.”
On his way up the trail, he’d run through all the scenarios, but there weren’t many that fit. She was too weak to make it back down.
Or she’d gone up with no plans of following the trail back down at all.
Suicide wasn’t something any reserve ranger wanted to encounter, but they’d all experienced the fear last year when a kid, a sixteen-year-old high school sophomore, had driven all the way from his home in Samson City to jump from an overlook along the Hickory Branch motor trail. His attempt had failed, but Sam could still remember the faces of the guys who’d brought him up.
Nobody would be the same after that.
Finding Avery fighting to get back down was such a relief he’d had a hard time getting words strung together.
She tripped and would have fallen again, but Sam caught her arm in time to ease her to the ground. “Rest. We’re close now.”
“How can you tell?” she asked as she brushed her hands over her cheeks. He couldn’t tell if she was crying, but now she had dark mud smudges on both cheeks. He reached into his pack and pulled out wipes.
“Years of experience on this trail,” Sam explained as he wiped the dirt away and tapped the canteen still hanging from her shoulder. “Drink.”
Her beleaguered sigh was enough like the old Avery that it was easy to laugh. “When I have to stop to use the nearest ladies’ room, it will be all your fault.”
“I’ll take the blame.” Sam took the canteen when she thrust it back at him.
“This was not how this day was supposed to go,” she said quietly.
“No?” He knew she was tired. Her words were slurring, and every time she shifted, a faint frown flitted across her face.
“No. I was going to go up confused and come back down enlightened.” She rested her head on her folded arms. “And you were nowhere in the picture.”
“Enlightened about what?” Sam asked as he reached under her to scoop her off the ground. As expected, she squawked and tried to struggle out of his arms. At seventeen, she’d been strong enough to set him down hard on the ground. Picking her up now was like collecting a fallen branch, lightweight and brittle enough to break. As thin as Avery was, she still knew where to hit. One smack on the arm made him snap, “Settle down or I’ll drop you.”
“On my head?” she asked. In the dim light, he could see her lips twitching. He’d threatened that a thousand different times when they were kids.
“If I think it will help, yes.” Sam grunted as she sighed heavily and dropped her head on his shoulder. “Ten minutes. You only have to suffer through this for ten minutes.”
He thought she was resolved to stew in silence. She’d taught him a good lesson about women at an early age. When they got quiet, it was time to worry.
“Thank you for coming for me.” She said it so quietly he had to dip his head to get the end of the sentence. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me anymore.”
“Nothing conditioning won’t solve, AA.” Sam squeezed her tight and made it up over the last hard climb. “That’s all.”
This time, her sniff had to be tears.
“Aim the flashlight down, farther out.” Sam had so many questions, but the ground team was waiting, and he wasn’t sure he was ready for all the answers.
“AA. Nobody’s called me that in a long time.” She sniffed again. “Probably because I haven’t seen you in a long time. I can’t believe I missed it.”
He could see the lights of the rescue vehicles as he rounded the last curve in the path. “When we get to the bottom, I’ll hand you off to the medic. She’s going to recommend you go to the hospital for a checkup.”
Her immediate gasp made him add, “But I’ll call my mother. She can bring Janet up to get you. That’s what you’d prefer, right?” He almost offered to drive her home, but the report wouldn’t write itself.
Besides, he needed time to reconcile himself to the fact that Avery Abernathy had come back, but she was so different from the girl he remembered, she might as well be gone.
She used to be fire; this woman was fog or mist, something too delicate to last for long.
“Yes. Thank you.” She squeezed his shoulders and added, “Always the hero.”
When the medic met him at the edge of the trail, Sam handed her over and waved his cell. “A hero? You said it. I’m going to hold that over your head, AA.”
Her smile was shaky but she gave it her best shot. Here in the lights, it was easier to see how thin she was and the dark circles of fatigue on her face. Whatever she’d been through, she was lucky to have come out on the other side.
He wouldn’t sleep tonight because he’d be filling in those blanks in his mind.
“And happy birthday.” Her mouth dropped open in shock. He’d surprised himself. Remembering that today was her birthday suggested she was more on his mind than even he knew.
As he turned his back on the group and called his mother, Sam stared up at the pieces of night sky he could make out through the trees. Whatever he’d expected this shift to hold, carrying Avery Abernathy in his arms had never figured into his plans.
CHAPTER FOUR (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)
IF SHE’D KNOWN how much trouble searching for this particular epiphany would cause, Avery would have stayed in her room and taken a nap.
But naps had gotten her nowhere.
Telling her story to the law-enforcement ranger staring down at her was also getting her nowhere.
“Honestly, Officer Hendrix,” Avery said as she exhaled loudly, “I’m not sure what part of ‘I waited too late to start my descent and got caught in the dark’ is so difficult to understand.” As Sam tipped his head to the side, Avery realized her tone might not have been as conciliatory as it should have been. “Sir.”
“Actually, it’s ‘Ranger,’ although I am a law-enforcement officer here at the reserve.” He rested one hand on the gun holstered on his belt. “Your story matches Sam’s, so I’ll take you at your word.”
Before she could argue that taking her at her word had nothing to do with anything Sam might have to say, Sam waved his cell. “They’re already on the way. No one answers, so Mom’s—”
The loud rattle of a large Cadillac cut him off as Sam and all the other reserve staff on hand turned to watch a yellow Cadillac lurch to a stop in the parking lot.
“Yeah, I figured it wouldn’t be too long.” Sam sighed and offered his hand to Avery. “If you’ve got everything you need in the incident report, I’ll help Avery to the car.”
Avery waved off his help. “I can walk. It’s an easy walk. Even I can manage that.”
Sam nodded as if he’d expected her to say exactly that.
Ranger Hendrix raised both eyebrows. “I hope you’ll come back and take the climb when you’re...better.” He tapped his pen against his notebook. “Climb like this, it’s good for mental health.”
She wanted to demand to know what the pause was about, but she wasn’t going to do it here with this crowd watching her.
Eleanor Rivera, the medic who’d checked her blood pressure and temperature, said, “I still think an ER visit might be a good plan.” She pointed down at the rip in Avery’s jeans. “You did take a fall up there.”
Rolling her eyes would get her nowhere, so Avery gritted her teeth and muttered, “I have had worse scrapes in my own front yard.”
“She has.” Sam raised his hand as if he’d testify. “Uglier bruises, too.” Then he shrugged. “Doesn’t mean having a doctor examine you would be a waste. You aren’t as young as you used to be.”
For a split second, Avery had to replay his words in her head. “As young as I used to be?”
“It’s her birthday,” Sam said as he turned in a slow circle to address the crew assembled there. “It wouldn’t be polite to tell you how many candles AA has on her birthday cake, but...”
The return of the Sam Blackburn who’d used the same tactic to force her to take dares she knew better than to attempt helped Avery settle in.
“And if I ever hear you insinuate another woman is old,” his mother said from behind his shoulder, “I will give you the birthday spankings I still owe you, young man.”
Regina Blackburn had the kind of good looks that made her ageless. She could still be watching their race to the top of the old oak next door as she stood there with both hands propped on her hips. “I’d force him to apologize, but...”
“We’d both know he wouldn’t mean it.” Avery finished the phrase Regina had said often enough when they were kids that it brought on another flash of homesickness.
“I suspect he was trying to infuse steel in her backbone,” Avery’s mother said as she tightened the belt on her robe. “Dragging an older woman out into the night because you needed a walk in the woods, Avery Anne Abernathy? I do not know what’s gotten into you.”
Sam’s mother tried to calm Janet Abernathy with an arm around her shoulders, but Avery’s mother brushed it off. “And poor Regina here, she insisted on driving because I was too upset.” The shrill last word echoed in the small parking lot.
It was funny to watch the search-and-rescue crew take a unanimous step back. Annoyed mothers brought out the same response the world over.
“Let’s get out of here,” Sam said as he wrapped a hand around Avery’s elbow. “She’s not going to the hospital.”
“You going to take these ladies back down the mountain?” Hendrix asked in his official lawman’s voice. “Because we are dangerously close to closing time. I’ll complete the incident report and leave it in the commander’s office for your review.” He tipped his head to Avery, who stood next to her mother. “I hope we’ll have a chance to meet each other at a more social spot.” When he smiled, his whole face lit up. Dour, official Officer Hendrix made her want to stutter and promise to never speed or jaywalk again, in a national park or anywhere. Smiling Officer Hendrix sent a small flutter of the old familiar feeling through Avery, the one that said a man found her attractive and in a totally nice way. It had been so long since it happened, she wasn’t sure what to do with the flutter, but if Officer Hendrix had given her a business card with his phone number, she would have taken it gladly and held on to it until she made up her mind.
“Thanks, Hendrix,” Sam said as he put his hands on Avery’s shoulders and turned her toward the cars. “I’ll make sure they get home.” His mother jingled his keys and Sam nodded.
When Avery’s mother realized she’d raced to the rescue in a house robe and bunny slippers, she was going to be even angrier.
Avery turned at Sam’s urging but looked over her shoulder at Ranger Hendrix. He was helping to pack up the gear the medic had scattered on the tailgate of one of the service trucks. It was hard to imagine what dinner with such a strong, healthy guy might be like. It had been years since she’d tried to carry on a conversation anywhere other than seated next to a hospital bed.
“Half a second ago he was ready to toss you into the reserve’s jail for wasting resources,” Sam muttered as he urged her toward the car, his arm wrapped securely around her hips. “Now’s not the time for making heart eyes anyway.”
“Reserve jail. Is that a real thing?” Avery tried to put on the brakes, pushing hard against his urging with her feet, but he was too strong. Gentle, but insistent and strong. “And heart eyes. What does that even mean?”
Sam rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. The emoji.” He fluttered his eyelashes in a ridiculous way. “Flirty, love, heart eyes.” He reached around her to open the door to his mother’s car so that Avery could slide easily into the back seat. Avery studied Regina Blackburn’s oblivious face and then her mother’s interested expression. Neither was good at pretending they weren’t watching this conversation with way too much investment.
“Flirty love eyes,” Avery said slowly. “I don’t remember how to do that, Sam. Come on. He’s a nice guy doing his best to encourage me to return to the trail.”
The muscle in Sam’s jaw twitched but he straightened his shoulders. “Sure. Nice guy. His wife left town with another guy. That’s the kind of nice he is.”
“Samuel Blackburn, you don’t blame the man for his wife’s terrible decisions,” Regina said with a scandalized yank of her cardigan. “You know better than that.”
Sam bit his lip. “Right. I’m saying he still has a wife.”
“You were warning me away from a guy, doing a service as...what? An old friend? Nemesis? Frenemy? What were we?” Avery slid deeper into the soft leather seat and sighed with relief as her tired muscles melted into puddles. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t need a man and I certainly don’t need a bossy one, Sam.”
“Unless you’re stuck on the side of a mountain?” Sam asked slowly.
Good point. Not that she’d let him know that. “I would have gotten myself down. If you’ll remember, I was always able to rescue myself. No need for the knight to come racing in.” Avery ignored the sore ache of her knee, determined to make sure that Sam Blackburn, his mother and hers listened. If she’d gone up searching for a revelation, it had taken getting stranded to understand it. “I’ve been through harder things, Sam. Tonight all I had to do was keep putting one foot in front of the other. I can do that.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Duh. AA, nobody doubts that.” He shut the door firmly and walked off, both hands braced on his hips. From this vantage point, it was nearly impossible to miss that Sam Blackburn had grown into the kind of man that drew women like bees to the sweetest flower. He was tall, with broad shoulders. Here in the light, she could see the sprinkling of gray at his temples, the only sign that he’d celebrated birthdays of his own. Handsome and strong, the qualities every woman stranded on the side of a mountain hoped for in her rescuer. It was too bad his personality was stuck in high school.
His tough talk had been all that had kept her from falling apart more than once that evening. He goaded her into saying and doing things she wasn’t sure she could.
By acting like a jerk.
There were times when they were kids that he was no longer acting, but tonight, it was impossible to ignore the fact that he’d given her enough indignation to power through.
Neither Regina nor her mother said anything as they pulled away from the trailhead parking lot and out onto the dark two-lane road headed back to town.
And the silence was starting to get to her.
“I’m sorry I didn’t start down sooner,” Avery mumbled. When she was younger, hitting her mother with the apology before she could dig deep into her aggravation had been a good strategy. That, coupled with Janet’s worry over Avery’s health, might be enough to postpone the lecture until morning. “I could have driven your car home, Mama.”
The tense silence that followed her statement was enough to convince Avery that nothing was going to postpone the lecture boiling inside her tiny mother.
“We will talk about this when we get home, Avery,” her mother said succinctly. She didn’t turn around in the seat, but Regina glanced back in the rearview mirror, confirming for Avery that her mother was in a high state of mad at that point. Only good manners and being in the presence of company were saving her from a thorough speaking-to.
Resigned to accepting her fate, Avery rested her head against the cushion and closed her eyes. They were close to the rolling hills of Sweetwater when Regina said softly, “You know, Sam’s single.”
Avery slowly opened her eyes in time to watch her mother thump her head against the headrest.
“I’m saying, if he’d find a nice girl here in town, the need to run off to bigger and better fires might disappear.” Regina waved her hand. “In smoke.”
“Good one, Ms. B. Smoke. Because he’s a firefighter.” Avery covered her wide yawn with one hand. “What I don’t get is how that fits into this conversation.”
“I think he was jealous.” Regina turned down the narrow street that led to their houses. “Of poor Brett Hendrix, who is a good man. He’s got kids and that woman did run off and leave him with zero help.” She tsked as she shook her head. “He needs a good woman.”
“But not me.” Avery slowly opened the car door after Regina put the car in Park in her driveway. “Good to know.”
“I’m saying,” Regina said as she shut her own door, “that if Sam is warning you away, maybe he’s got some interest.”
Avery skidded to a stop and braced her hand against the low fence that marked the boundary between the two lots. “In me. Interest in me.”
Regina shrugged.
“They nearly put each other in the hospital at least three separate times, Reggie,” her mother said drily. “I’m not sure we want to put them back together, especially in close quarters.”
The rest of their conversation was lost as Avery forced one foot in front of the other, climbing the porch steps carefully to keep as much weight off her aching knee as possible.
She’d better find a painkiller before she passed out for the night because it would be hard to sleep. The front doorknob turned easily. Avery refused to consider how often her mother left the doors unlocked.
Avery stared up at the flight of stairs that would lead to both the bathroom, home of all medicines in her mother’s house, and her comfy bed. The overwhelming fatigue convinced her to make a quick stop in the living room. She’d eased down and smacked a pillow into the proper shape when her mother stepped inside.
Knowing her efforts were doomed, Avery nevertheless attempted a diversion. “You don’t care if I sleep on the couch tonight, do you, Mama? My knee’s making its opinion of the stairs clear.” She made sure to wince theatrically when her mother paused in the doorway, her hands braced on her hips, terry robe gaping over a hot-pink sweatshirt. “If you’re wearing sweats, what’s with the robe?” Normally, the woman who wouldn’t step foot outside the front door without lipstick would not be caught outside her home in anything less than easy Saturday chic.
“Sleep on the couch. That’s fine.” Her mother closed her eyes and Avery waited until the tense silence became too much to bear.
“And what is with Regina? There’s no way Sam is interested in me.” Avery shoved another pillow under her knee and stretched out on the cushions. “He’s the one who dared me into swimming across Otter Lake in November.” It wasn’t impossible. She’d proved that. But it wasn’t smart. A quick trip to the emergency room for a light touch of hypothermia was a significant reminder. “He’d be more likely to plot my downfall.”
Her mother nodded once and then she held up a hand. “Avery, you need to get something straight.”
The emotion shaking her mother’s voice snapped Avery to attention. If she’d been trying to avoid an angry lecture by playing ignorant, the game had changed. Her mother wasn’t playing any games.
“What is it, Mama?” Avery asked, her choked voice betraying the nerves that had rattled to life with her mother’s grim expression.
“I wasn’t sure you were coming home.” Her mother’s voice broke and she had gripped both arms tightly, fingernails digging into the terry cloth.
Confused, Avery eased up. “Tonight? Of course I was.” Where else would she go? She’d been driving her mother’s car.
Which was still parked at the trailhead.
“Tonight. From Chicago. Ever.” Her mother took a step forward. “I’ve been worried sick about you, and all I get are nothing updates.”
“But I’m here now. I’ll get better.” Avery shook her head. “I’ll do better. You can see me doing whatever it is you’ve been dying to know but have missed out on.” Lately, that meant catching up on a lot of sleep. What were they talking about?
“Avery,” her mother said as she stepped up next to the couch, “do you want to get better? You don’t go out, you don’t eat, you haven’t talked to your old friends or... All you do is sleep. Do you want to get better?” She eased down on the cushion next to Avery’s ripped jeans. “Honestly.”
“Of course,” Avery said without hesitation. What was the other choice?
Her mother nodded. “It’s that...” She unwound one arm and pinched her nose, the old trick they both used to dry up tears. “I was afraid you meant to...stop. To stop everything there in your favorite place in the world. To give up.”
Avery could not figure out what they were talking about. “How would I have gotten home? You mean, sit there and...” Avery studied her mother’s grim face and the tears that were making a lie of the old trick. “...die?” Nausea rolled through Avery.
“I tried to prepare Sam for the fact that might be the plan.” Her mother wrapped her hands in her robe. “They handle things they shouldn’t have to.”
Avery straightened with a snap. “You told Sam you were afraid I was going to...” Avery paused to try one more time to figure out any legitimate reason this conversation would be going the way it was. “You told him I was going to kill myself at the Falls?” The hard burst of pain behind her collarbone shocked a gasp out of Avery. She’d been through enough pain that it was easy to live with now. She’d become a master at the slow grind of devastating grief, but this sharp jab of disappointment or embarrassment or shame or some confused combination of all three made it hard to breathe.
Aware of the ragged gasps coming from her mouth, Avery covered her lips with one hand and wiped away a tear with the other. “What?”
“I never would have believed it possible, but I was afraid I was about to lose you.”
Her mom wilted in front of her.
“Growing up, you and Sam both, I worried you might kill yourselves in some kind of stunt, trying to outdo each other racing up the mountain or even climbing that oak tree.” Her mother sighed. “And that would have been terrible, but losing you because you couldn’t go on living... I’m not sure how I’d survive.”
Since her mother had always had enough energy and firm enough opinions to fill two petite women, Avery understood immediately how afraid she’d been. She would feel the same way if she found out her mother had lost as much weight as she had.
Add to that the inability to fill her days with anything other than sleeping or staring out the window, and Avery would have checked her mother in somewhere, worried to death about the changes to her personality.
“Why didn’t you talk to me, Mama?” Avery asked.
“What would you have said? You were always doing fine. I was silly to worry so much. I needed to find something else to do with my time.” Her mother stood to pace. “And some of that’s even true, but now, tonight, you and I are about to make a change. You cain’t go on like this, Avery Anne.” The pleading in her mother’s eyes didn’t quite match her firm tone, but Avery could tell this was important. She couldn’t brush it off.
“Fine. We’ll make a change.” Avery ran a hand through her messy hair. “I went up that mountain hoping to find some direction, the answer to your favorite question. I don’t know what I want to do with the rest of my life. I hoped for some revelation. Instead, I got a rescue.”
Her mother snorted. “Think answers land with lightning bolts, do you? What did you figure out?”
“When I was seventeen, I won a race to the top of the falls.” Avery ran a hand through her curls. “I cheated. I had to cheat to beat Sam by that point. He had a foot in height and I don’t know how much in muscle on me, so I tricked him into heading back to the parking area for something and I started climbing. When he made it to the top, I was stretched out on the flat rock there, grinning like a mule with a mouth full of briars.”
Her mother rolled her eyes. “I don’t doubt it. You have always loved to win.”
“That’s what Sam said.” Avery laughed. “As if he’s ever been any better.” She eased back against the pillows. “We argued over the ‘rules’ of the race. Since we neither one of us ever worried much about losing, they were hazy as usual, and I wiggled my way out of every one of his objections.” Her smile faded. “He told me then a shark like me ought to make a killing as a lawyer.”
Her mother nodded but she didn’t add any of the usual comments about how she couldn’t accept a girl who’d worked her way through college and law school had given up before graduation to follow a man. Really, Avery had heard it so often she should be inured to it by now.
But at this point in her life, when nothing had worked out like she wanted, it was hard to imagine how she could have let herself get sidetracked from her own plans.
“That’s the first thing you do, go back to school and get that law degree,” her mother said as she fussed over the rip in Avery’s jeans. “You and Sam have slowed down on the dumb dares, but I was pretty sure one or the other of you would need a good lawyer someday.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
Avery tried to imagine what it would be like to go back to school at this point. Where would she even start? She’d gotten home, her plan to never leave again. To finish her law degree, that plan would go out the window.
“I don’t know, Mama. I need to do more thinking on it.” It would be easy to fall back to her original plan. Her mother would stop worrying so much. She had the money to finish up the degree. But nothing about the suggestion filled her with any spark, not like the first time she’d grabbed ahold of it.
Her mother stood. “That’s all well and good, girl, because I’m not ready for you to leave again, not yet. We’ll get there, but not yet.” Her mother studied her closely. “I’ll go get you some ibuprofen and water. You need to be drinking some water. Dehydration is no joke.”
“Wait.” Before she could turn away, Avery grabbed her mother’s hand. They hadn’t resolved her worry, not really. Avery wasn’t certain she had the right words, but she had to try. “You were worried I was ready to give up, and I was sitting on the fence.” Avery licked her dry lips and wished for some of the water everyone was pushing on her. “But I did get a revelation, Mama. After Sam showed up, I was mad as a worn-out rag could be, but I knew in my head I could get myself down from the mountain. I didn’t need him carrying me.”
Her mother raised a skeptical eyebrow but didn’t argue.
“I would have done it.” Avery firmed her lips and raised her chin. “I could have done it because I’d already made it through the hard part. To get back to level ground and the real world, all I had to do was keep putting one foot in front of the other. Climbing to the top? That was the hardest part, and it was so challenging I’m ashamed of myself for how weak I’ve let myself become. But getting down? That’s nothing. All I have to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other because I’ve already made it through the hardest part. You get it?”
Her mother tilted her head to the side. “We ain’t talking about mountain climbing anymore, are we?”
“No, ma’am.” Avery squeezed her mother’s hand. “I nursed the man I loved. I watched him die.” Her voice cracked but she straightened her shoulders. “I untangled all the strings of a life together and now... I gotta find my way back. I’ve already done the hard part.”
Her mother bent to stare into Avery’s eyes as she brushed her hair behind one ear. “That’s one powerful revelation, young lady.” She sniffed. “But don’t you forget you ain’t got to do all that by yourself. Sometimes you do need a rescue. Let the people who love you do some stepping now and then, okay?”
Before either one of them let the tears that would embarrass them fall, her mother spun on her heel. “Ibuprofen and sleep. Tomorrow you’re getting out of this house or else.”
CHAPTER FIVE (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)
OVER THE YEARS, Sam had learned to get out of the way when his mother was scheming. When he saw her on the front porch the next day, conferring seriously with Janet Abernathy as he parked behind her car, he was sure he was the subject of the conversation.
The way they both jumped guiltily as he slammed the door confirmed his suspicion and increased the certainty that he had no desire to know what they were plotting.
“Afternoon, ladies,” he said as he waved the empty containers that had once held the tastiest roast beef his mother had ever made. Since she was a cook from way back, that was saying something. He had his fingers crossed there might be more in the refrigerator. He’d skipped lunch on the off chance that he might get lucky on this visit. “What shenanigans are you up to on this lovely afternoon?”
Avery’s mom cleared her throat. “Well...” She trailed off and shot a “you tell him” look at Sam’s mother.
“Well,” Sam said as he put the empty containers on the porch railing. “Someone hit me.”
“No shenanigans, Sam. We were trying to decide how to retrieve Janet’s car from the Otter Lake trailhead.” His mother’s innocent expression was enough warning that the other shoe would be a doozy. “We hadn’t quite come to a decision, so your arrival is like a wonderful sign, son.” She blinked wide eyes at him, her face the picture of naive motherly love.
And scheming.
“Uh-huh,” Sam muttered as he shoved his hands in his pockets and stared up at the second-story window where he could make out Avery’s shadow. “I’m listening.”
Janet followed his stare and then heaved a sigh of relief. “Such a smart boy, Sam. You were always such an intelligent kid. You’ve always understood how to talk to Avery.”
So we’re going with flattery.
Sam propped one foot on the last step. “I believe you shouted at me more than once that I was going to get her killed.” And he might have. He’d been more bravery than smarts growing up. He hoped he was getting a handle on that, but on days like this one, perfectly beautiful, sunny days, when he had nothing better to do than stare into space and wish for something, anything, to happen, he wondered. Ever since he’d sent in his application for the hotshots, he’d done nothing but refresh his email and wish for a distraction.
He glanced up at Avery’s window again. Her shadow was gone.
“Tell me your plan,” he said slowly. “Wait. Let me tell you mine first. You both ride up in Mom’s car, and then Janet drives her own car back. Simple enough.” He didn’t know why he wasted his breath. If they were going with the logical plan, they’d already be on the road.
“Or...” His mother scooted forward in her chair, her expression conspiratorial, as if he was being let in on a big secret. She’d used that on him successfully before, so it was easy enough to avoid her trap.
If he wanted to avoid her trap.
“Or you could take Avery up, get her out of the house, drive through town and hit some old familiar spots,” her mother said as she traced an imaginary route with her finger, “and end up at the trailhead.”
Sam crossed his arms over his chest. “Or you could do that.” He pointed at the Cadillac. “In your car. Get lunch on the way up?”
It seemed like a good suggestion. His mother might be the best cook he knew, but she never turned down a reason to eat food someone else cooked.
Avery’s mother reached forward to press her hand to his forearm. “Sammy,” she said, in the same tone she’d used to ask for every favor since he was old enough to haul garbage cans or mow the grass, “she has to get out of that house. I told her that last night. I mean, I made it a threat. Still no change today. She needs time with old friends and people who aren’t old enough to be her mother.” Janet snorted. “And yes, that includes her mother.”
They both watched him closely.
They might be right. If she got out of the house, some of the old Avery color might come back.
That didn’t mean she wanted him to be her chauffeur.
“This is because of the remarks I made about Hendrix last night, isn’t it?” Sam said as he pushed away from the porch, annoyed at himself all over again. He’d known it was an error, but he’d hoped they’d let it slide in the tense aftermath of Avery’s rescue. “You’re matchmaking. You think she won’t see through that?” Since he still hadn’t decided how he felt about the way she’d looked at Brett Hendrix, he wasn’t sure if their plan was bad enough to be safe or bizarre enough to work, so the best option at this point was to destroy it with logic. “She’s a widow. She needs time to figure everything out, and I am going to be leaving Sweetwater soon. I hope.”
Watching his mother’s joy at her scheme fade was painful, but he had to be firm about following his own plans. If not, this restlessness would drive him insane.
“And how many times do I have to say that I don’t need or want a man in my life before you believe me?” Avery said from her spot near the fence separating their houses.
Her mother turned. “I don’t know what either one of you are talking about. I thought someone else might have more luck lighting a fire under you.” Sam had had less opportunity to judge Janet Abernathy’s acting skills, but he almost bought it. “I only want to get my car back.”
Avery shook a key ring in the air, the jingle of keys loud in the peaceful afternoon. “Yeah, me, too. That’s why I came out. Miss Regina, can Mama and I borrow your car or will you give me a ride back to Otter Lake?” Avery smiled. “Then I’ll be happy to treat you both to dinner while Sam goes to do...whatever he’s going to do.”
Sam frowned at her dismissive tone, uncertain how he became the bad guy when all he’d done was return empty dishes in the hope of leaving with full ones. “You afraid to spend time with me, AA? You are falling for me.” He held up both hands. “I get it. I do. But believe me when I say, when I move to Colorado, I can’t be bringing you along. Single guys supposedly have an advantage and I am happy for every advantage.”
The tense silence that followed his dumb words, only meant to tweak Avery’s attitude, was a clue that he’d miscalculated. If he wanted his mother to get with the program and root for him to get this job, mentioning anything that would further delay her plans for his settling down and giving her the grandchild she’d been going on about since before he’d figured out how to talk to a girl without punching her in the arm...that was a mistake.
Did he want her to focus on Avery? He wanted that even less than Avery did.
“What sort of ridiculous policy is that, I’d like to know?” his mother snapped. “That’s discrimination. That’s what that is.”
Sam met Avery’s stare, happy to see the wicked glint in her eyes. She knew his distraction had taken a turn he hadn’t expected.
“I want to speak to your boss about that.” Regina yanked her jacket down. “After you get the job, of course.”
His mother never once doubted his ability to do anything he wanted to do or be anything he wanted to be. Casting doubt on his suitability, even if he had made up most of that, was one way to turn her from worried opponent to supportive ally.
“It’s not a written policy, Mom,” Sam said. It would be illegal even if it was never written. “It’s better, makes the work easier, if the strings are limited.”
Her disgusted huff was loud and clear in the sunny front yard.
“You know, Avery is almost a lawyer,” Janet said slowly. “Didn’t you take a bunch of courses in employment laws or something?”
This time, Sam knew his own eyes held a wicked glint. He’d never planned on dragging her further into the mess, but it was nice to watch her squirm.
“Labor laws, and yes, but I was concentrating on contracts,” Avery said as she limped through the gate in the fence line. “And as you repeatedly remind me, I never finished that degree. Besides that, there’s no way that is a policy, written or unwritten.” She crossed her arms over her chest, feisty in the bright sunshine because she knew his game and was determined to play to win. “He’s reaching for an excuse, Ms. B. If he finds the right girl, he’ll change his tune.”
Sam ran a hand down his nape, off balance and uncertain which argument to make. Avery would shut it down, whatever tack he chose. “Doesn’t change the fact that Avery is about as low on the list of possible suspects as could be. My match? She’ll beat me to the top of Yanu Falls.” He crossed his arms over his chest, a perfect mirror of her annoyed pose. “Fair and square.”
Her face had more color after a full night of rest, but she needed a push. He could push.
The atmosphere of a rousing cat-and-mouse game evaporated as Avery stomped closer to his reserve truck. “Let’s go get the car. Straight there. Straight back. We don’t negotiate with terrorists or matchmakers.”
Before Sam had a chance to agree or disagree, Avery yanked the door open and slid inside.
He propped his hands on his hips and tried to decide how he’d lost control of the conversation and whether or not he was going to take her interference in stride. Normally, his mother was the only managing woman in his life and he loved her enough to go along with it. Every now and then, Janet Abernathy took a step forward and did string-pulling, and he could accept that good-naturedly because she was his mother’s best friend and she loved him almost as much as his mother did.
The last thing he’d want, though, was to sign up for a third bossy female. Avery was glaring at him through the windshield and made a “hurry up” motion with her hand.
“You know, it would tick her off if you go for a drive through town. It’s your day off. Live a little.” His mother picked up the empty containers he’d left on the porch railing. “If your trip takes long enough, I’ll have dinner ready and we can refill these before you go home.”
“Take her by the pie place,” Avery’s mother said. “Girl needs to eat and you remember how she loved it.” The pie place stood across the main street from Sweetwater’s library. Avery had loved both.
“You two are determined one of us is going to end up in the hospital, aren’t you?” Sam smiled and stepped away.
Slowly he strolled back through the grass and approached his truck. He bent his head through the driver’s-side window and said, “You could ask nicely, you know. A girl who wants a favor ought to try that first.”
“Okay, but a woman who knows how to make you sorry is sitting in this seat,” Avery said sweetly. “Don’t make me go crying to your mother.”
The old, familiar threat had lost little of its power, but Sam was happier, more relaxed than he had been in days as he slid behind the wheel. He’d almost forgotten the fact that he was waiting for an email. He was still stuck right where he was, but he could put off checking his email for an hour or two. Avery was here to distract him. “Fine, but we have to make a stop first.”
If rolling eyes could have a sound, hers would. She’d always been so dramatic. That was what made it fun to pester her until she reacted. “Okay, but if there’s not a fried pie in my future, your afternoon is going to take a terrible downhill turn.”
Sam was grinning as he backed down the lane. Until he remembered their audience and cursed under his breath.
“What?” Avery said as she checked over her shoulder for traffic on their dead-end gravel road.
“I was acting like I was enjoying myself. We don’t want to encourage them.” Sam immediately assumed a scowl. Let them think whatever Avery said had wiped away his good mood. He wasn’t sure why it hadn’t, but he glanced over at her. “If they gang up on us, can we prevail?”
Avery blinked slowly at him. “Prevail?” She whistled. “I like it. A battle of good versus evil, all over our dating lives.” She rolled down the window and stuck her head out, the breeze ruffling short gold curls instead of the long, messy ponytail she’d had at seventeen.
It took him a minute to drag his eyes back to the road. The mix of old Avery, the wild girl who’d leaned half her body out of the car to catch the breeze, and the new Avery, a woman with closely cropped hair with a touch of silver here and there, confused him. He could see the girl, even though he would say he wouldn’t have recognized the woman without a clue when he’d found her on the mountain trail.
Time in Sweetwater was bringing her back to life.
She’d caught him watching her.
“What? A beautiful fall day is perfect for the windblown hairstyle. Soon we’ll have cold and rain. Might as well enjoy it to the fullest.” Avery ran a hand through her hair. “I haven’t done that in so long. It feels good, wind blowing through my hair.”
Sam nodded. “Sure. There’s a lot less of it to mess up now, too. And if we don’t get some rain soon, this whole place will be a dust pile. Driest summer and early fall we’ve had in a decade.”
Sam wasn’t watching but he heard what he thought might be the snap of her teeth. Was she grinding them together? “What did I say?”
“As if you don’t know.” Avery pulled up one leg and braced it on the dashboard like old times. “I can’t tell if you really don’t like my hair or you’re poking again, trying to get a rise.”
Sam tightened his hand on the steering wheel. It was a bit of both, if he was being honest.
Still, he wasn’t a fool. Commenting on a woman’s hair was a minefield of wrong decisions.
“It was simpler, less fuss. Straightening it every day was such a hassle and I had more important things to worry about.” She played with the hair at her temples. “Robert didn’t like it, either, but it had to be done. Believe me, deciding to cut my hair wasn’t the hardest thing I did, but it sure wasn’t easy. Losing that ponytail was like...”
Sam waited for her to finish the sentence but she shook her head. Even if he’d managed to punch through the sadness that made her seem so fragile when he’d met her on the trail, some of it hovered around her now. He wanted to chase it away again, but not by his usual means.
He studied her out of the corner of his eye. She seemed so vulnerable, but every conversation was revealing enough of her grit to reassure him AA was still in there.
“It was like saying goodbye to myself, the person I knew I was,” Avery said softly.
If he reached over to give her an encouraging hug, she’d make him regret it.
The urge to do it anyway was something he had to get under control.
“If we’re going to the library and the pie shop, you’re going to have to drive faster. The library closes at five.” Avery tapped the digital display on the dashboard. “And since I’m out of the house like a perfectly normal human being who has no worrying grief or latent suicidal tendencies, I want my prizes.”
That was what he wanted to talk to her about, whatever it was that had her mother so worried, but she met his stare. “I’m fine, Sam. My mother will make sure of it.”
Here, in the sunshiny afternoon, it was easy to agree. Sam grunted. “Someday, I’m going to spend time analyzing how my stop for more leftovers took such a wrong turn.”
“When you head to this new job,” Avery said with a wave of her hand, “you’ll have time and distance. That makes it so much easier to see through my mother’s expert finagling.”
Sam shot her a quick look and then hung an arm out the window. “Yeah, and what brings you home, then? Time and distance sound good to me.”
“Sometimes you miss that finagling,” Avery said as she fussed with those windblown curls. “Sometimes you need it, Sam.”
The quick trip through Sweetwater was silent as he thought about her words. As he parked in a spot in the center of town, perfectly situated for both the library and the pie shop, Sam wondered if she was warning him. He’d never been away from home. What if he was as restless and dissatisfied in Colorado as he was here? There weren’t any bigger mountains for him to climb.
Avery opened the door and then paused. “I don’t know what my mother told you...about last night, but I wasn’t even thinking of how I might possibly someday want to kill myself.” Her cheeks were pink as she met his stare. “You know me, Sam. That’s not me.”
She wanted him to agree, so he did. “Of course it’s not you. That was part of the finagling, I bet, a way to get me to leave my nice, cushy vehicle and head out onto the dark, cold trail.” He stretched in the seat. “They were already matchmaking. No way did I ever believe it, AA.”
Her eyes narrowed as she studied his face, like she wanted to trust him but wasn’t sure she could. Then she tipped her chin up. “You coming in?”
“To the library?” Sam asked in his best “you’ve got to be joking” voice. “I’m headed for pie and right now.”
She shut the door. “Meet you there in five.” Then she was trotting slowly across the small lawn in front of the library. In the old days, she might have thrown a cartwheel in for punctuation. As it was, he was glad she made it to the door without stopping. In the light of day, he could see the same fatigue in her face, but something had changed in her eyes.
And that was the thinking of a man who was spending too much time considering a woman who would never be his type. Ever. They made better competitors than friends, but he was glad she’d pushed him as hard as she had. Right now, she needed some pushing. He could do that.
First, he was going to get two fried pies, and if she took longer than fifteen minutes, he was going to eat them both.
CHAPTER SIX (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)
WALKING BACK INTO the library where she’d spent so many happy afternoons after school was like taking a deep breath above the surface after touching the bottom of the pool. Everything was familiar and yet new. Even the librarian had changed.
“I’d like to apply for a library card,” Avery said as she turned in a slow circle, taking in the new paint color, the new carpet and the same familiar smell of old books.
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Cheryl Harper
How close is too close to the flame?Sam Blackburn excels at fighting fire with fire in Tennessee, whether it’s putting out deadly forest blazes or rescuing his old friend, widow Avery Montague, who’s lost her nerve on a steep mountain cliff. What happened to the daring, adventure-loving teenager who wasn’t afraid of anything? As kids, Avery was always pushing Sam to be brave, to be better, so he’s ready to return the favor. Except he’s up for his dream job in Colorado as a hotshot smoke jumper, and he can't be in two places at once. His future is fraught with risk, but what’s the point of living if you don’t take chances? He just wants Avery to find the courage to go after what she wants, and he's hoping it's him…
How close is too close to the flame?
Sam Blackburn excels at fighting fire with fire in Tennessee, whether it’s putting out deadly forest blazes or rescuing his old friend, widow Avery Montague, who’s lost her nerve on a steep mountain cliff. What happened to the daring, adventure-loving teenager who wasn’t afraid of anything? As kids, Avery was always pushing Sam to be brave, to be better, so he’s ready to return the favor. Except he’s up for his dream job in Colorado as a hotshot smoke jumper, and he can’t be in two places at once. His future is fraught with risk, but what’s the point of living if you don’t take chances? He just wants Avery to find the courage to go after what she wants, and he’s hoping it’s him...
“I’m going to find what makes me happy, Sam. And then I’m going to do it.” Avery tipped her chin up and met his stare. “Dare me.”
She might as well have been seventeen again, but the feelings he had were so different. Instead of wanting to beat her in whatever race they cooked up, he wanted to help her, to encourage her. A breeze sent one curl over her forehead to land across her eyes. Before she could brush it away, he smoothed it aside, happy to see the spark of determination in her gaze. “Do it, AA. You’re the only one who can.”
Sam knew there was never going to be another moment to try it—the kiss that could settle everything. The woods were quiet. The water was turning golden with the sunrise. The two of them belonged in that spot at that time.
So he slowly pressed his mouth against hers, the sweet taste of her lips completing the most perfect moment...ever.
Dear Reader (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b),
Sometimes the only way to move forward is to go back.
In Smoky Mountain Sweethearts, the first book of my new miniseries, I have a smart, formerly fearless heroine who desperately needs something to shake her up, and a hero who has never failed to push her higher.
After experiencing a tragic, heartbreaking loss, Avery Montague returns home to her small town, searching for what (or whom) it will take for her to become herself again. Meanwhile, childhood friend Sam Blackburn’s certain a new firefighting job is the challenge he’s been looking for—until he rediscovers Avery. Add in family, friends and the hiking that they love, and special things start happening for Avery and Sam. I hope you enjoy spending time racing up the trails of east Tennessee with them!
To find out more about my books and what’s coming next in the Otter Lake Ranger Station miniseries, visit me at cherylharperbooks.com (http://www.cherylharperbooks.com) and find me on Twitter, @cherylharperbks (https://twitter.com/cherylharperbks?lang=en).
Happy reading!
Cheryl
Smoky Mountain Sweethearts
Kate James
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CHERYL HARPER discovered her love for books and words as a little girl, thanks to a mother who made countless library trips and an introduction to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House stories. Whether stories are set in the prairie, the American West, Regency England or Earth a hundred years in the future, Cheryl enjoys strong characters who make her laugh. Now Cheryl spends her days searching for the right words while she stares out the window and her dog, Jack, snoozes beside her. And she considers herself very lucky to do so.
For more information about Cheryl’s books, visit her online at cherylharperbooks.com (http://www.cherylharperbooks.com) or follow her on Twitter, @cherylharperbks (https://twitter.com/cherylharperbks).
To the men and women who protect and preserve America’s wild places, open spaces, and the plants and animals that call them home, thank you.
Contents
Cover (#uc83d4eec-b991-57cb-ba97-a70b391383ce)
Back Cover Text (#u689ab880-7e6b-5257-be52-72e7af2cb3ae)
Introduction (#u2b15a22c-0797-5d4b-b83b-0b683d68f97b)
Dear Reader (#u8fe009ef-22b2-5e11-b103-20ca75ce9523)
Title Page (#u751b99f8-faf9-5c88-8ad3-c7e649bb6a2c)
About the Author (#uffa01813-1d12-5b8b-8658-57354fc27490)
Dedication (#u4b73de2f-77aa-5af8-b349-d5ff3ffa2375)
CHAPTER ONE (#u41ab3102-d329-51d4-b6fb-e8a59b47ea33)
CHAPTER TWO (#uff1daa8a-0196-5f97-a693-8390e21d0bad)
CHAPTER THREE (#u8455529c-5c4e-5da9-a2a9-40e92acde6a7)
CHAPTER FOUR (#uf252af09-8ba9-532b-91a4-642c915ec1e4)
CHAPTER FIVE (#uf8e13489-81ce-5d42-a37a-55ce28b98deb)
CHAPTER SIX (#ub8bfed3b-ef38-5e94-878e-7b48cda89595)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)
BEING ROUSTED OUT of bed like she was thirteen again wasn’t how Avery Montague thought she’d start the last Friday before her thirty-fifth birthday, but her mother had never let little things like closed doors stand in her way.
If she’d wanted to sleep in, Avery never should have gotten hotel rooms with connecting doors.
“Get up. We can’t miss that flight.” The long a in “can’t” sounded so much like home that Avery had to wait for a second to let the wash of homesickness fade. Every one of her mother’s cain’ts used to drive her crazy. On the few occasions she’d managed to talk her husband, Robert, into a visit at the holidays, they’d locked eyes to communicate silently whenever her mother said it. He’d been amused at Avery’s pet peeve.
Homesickness was chased away with the dueling realizations that he was still gone and she was free to do whatever she wanted again. That freedom wasn’t a gift most days.
After almost ten years of marriage, including three years of being his nurse, she’d spent the last two years adjusting to the realization that she could step out the door without fearing that life would never be the same when she came back home.
No matter what she did from this point, her life would never be the same. The dream of building a family with the man who’d derailed the plans she’d made at eighteen was over.
But her life? It kept on going, one hour dragging into the next. Some days she had to brush away the thought of how much simpler it would be to just...stop.
“We won’t miss the flight, Mama. I’m packed. Let me put on some clothes and run a brush through my hair and I’m ready.” Avery slipped out of the adequate sheets the airport hotel preferred and ignored her mother’s gasp as she padded barefoot across the floor.
“Gonna bring back a toe rot or something, girl, if you don’t put your shoes on.” Her mother was fussing with the large bag of cosmetics she almost never let out of her sight.
The laugh that bubbled out surprised Avery. Trust her mother to say something to make it easier to go on. “Toe rot? That’s what you’re worried about?” Avery studied the carpet from the bathroom and realized her mother might have a good point. The suspicious stains had clearly been cleaned more than once, but who knew how long it took for toe rot to disappear?
Her mother was wagging a perfectly French-manicured finger at her when Avery wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “You don’t watch enough news programs, Avery Anne Abernathy. I am telling you, there is funk in that carpet.”
Whatever funk she got from walking unprotected across hotel carpet might be worth it for the way her mouth held a smile as she headed back into the bedroom. For so long, she’d had nothing to smile about, but now she was going home.
One quick glance in the mirror was all it took to know she was leaving in the nick of time. The dark circles under her eyes were familiar. So was the gray in her short hair. Only the small curve of her lips, which surprised and pleased her, seemed out of place.
If she didn’t hurry, her mother would barge back in with a can of hair spray in one hand and her leftover cheesecake in the other. She’d be forced to eat while her mother teased and sprayed. Then they would definitely miss their flight into Knoxville, and Avery wasn’t sure how well she’d weather a setback like that.
She quickly slipped on the jeans that were so loose they were uncomfortable and yanked on a sweater. For years, through Robert’s treatments and hospital stays, Avery had learned never to leave home without layers. It might be October, but the cold had become a permanent part of her life.
Her mother was still fussing when Avery stepped out of the bathroom. Her view from her room into the connecting room showed a whirlwind of destruction. “Mama, you only slept in that bed for one night. What in the world were you doing?” The sheets were tumbled into a ball while all the pillows save one were stacked against the headboard in a teetering tower. Avery was worn out just studying the mess.
“Hunting for the bedbugs.” Janet Abernathy rolled her eyes. “Hotels are famous for bedbugs.”
Avery almost argued with her. If hotels were famous for bedbugs, no one would stay in them, ever. And this airport business-class hotel might not be big on amenities or renovation, but it was clean enough. Arguing wouldn’t change her mother’s mind, though. Janet Abernathy never missed a news program. Because of that, she knew the world outside of Sweetwater, Tennessee, was filled with dangers. Only constant vigilance would do.
Avery’s suitcase was still on the side of the bed where she’d left it. If her mother’s room was an after shot of a crime-scene investigation, hers was barely disturbed. At least she’d slept through the night. She was beginning to depend on that.
With a shove of her hairbrush and the clothes she’d slept in into her bag, Avery was packed. She quickly zipped up the suitcase and slipped on her flats while she smiled again at her mother’s relieved sigh.
“Do we need to call a cab?” her mother asked as she looked one last time in the mirror over the desk.
“No, they’ll get us one downstairs,” Avery said as she moved to stand next to the door.
“I can wait if you’d like to put on lipstick,” her mother said with an encouraging nod. “I have choices.”
“And I still don’t care to see them,” Avery answered as she pulled open the door. “We better hurry.” They were still two hours before boarding, but it was important to both of them that they get home soon. And coffee was the only thing that would make this day bearable.
Avery handled the checkout while her mother fiddled nervously with her bags, her hair and her rings, both eyes locked to the muted cable news channel running in the hotel lobby. “It’s okay, Mama. We’ll be home soon.”
Instead of fussing back, her mother reached over and squeezed Avery’s hand. “And I’ll be glad to know you’re safe, my girl.”
The tears that sprang to Avery’s eyes were disappointing. For months, she had been fighting these stupid emotions that blindsided her when she was least expecting them. She’d gone to therapy and used antidepressants and self-help books. Still, the tears were there, under the surface. This wasn’t like her at all.
If she was going home and planning on leaving the house at some point, she had to get that control back. The day she’d been packing and opened the front door of the house to find her mother standing on the step, she’d buckled so badly under the weight of the tears that she was certain her mother would never look at her the same.
Avery Abernathy had only cried when she was mad or when her father died.
Avery Montague cried at the drop of a hat.
Herding her mother through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport was the perfect distraction from any worries she might have. It was a bit like keeping up with a teenager who had a credit card with no limit. When they finally sat down at the gate, Avery was on her second cup of coffee and her mother had a load of shopping bags.
“Watch my seat. I have to go to the ladies’.”
Probably to put on more lipstick.
Avery wrestled the lid off her cup and blew to cool down the coffee she desperately needed.
At least she’d done the hard part. The bags were checked, except for her mother’s airport must-haves. When they landed in Knoxville, Avery would do her best to hustle her mother right to baggage claim and on out into the parking lot.
The businessman seated opposite her pointed at all the bags stacked in the chair. “Forget a few things?” His charming smile was easy to answer.
“I think it was more about killing time.” Avery sipped her coffee and watched her mother meander around the newsstand across the way. She had two magazines in one hand already.
“Is Knoxville home?” the guy asked as he set his computer aside.
“No, over an hour away.” Her home had been in Chicago for almost ten years, but it was easy enough to understand his question. And Sweetwater was where she was headed to stay.
“I’m based out of Knoxville.” He reached for his wallet to pull out a card and hand it to her. “I’m Chuck. Nice to meet you.”
Chuck Armstrong was a liquor distributor, apparently. Why would she need his card?
“Nice to meet you, too,” Avery said and laid the card carefully next to her on the seat. She’d drop it in the trash somewhere to avoid hurting his feelings. Maybe he thought she had a restaurant or something.
“Lookee what I found,” her mother crowed as she plopped down next to Avery. “Cute actors. Cute singers. Cute designers. And cute dogs. If you can’t find something to read in this stack, you ain’t even trying.” She dropped the magazines in Avery’s lap and pulled off the one on top. “This one’s mine.”
“Cute couches. That’s what you’re going with?” Her mother devoured decorating shows, books and magazines, and occasionally decided to revamp the house Avery had grown up in. “What color is the living room now, Mama?”
Her mother sighed. “You don’t remember how many paint chips I tested?” Their conversations for a while had been all about her mother’s projects, mainly because Avery had stared at hospital walls and nothing else for days straight. “Colonial gray. That’s what I’ve got right now.” She tapped the white sofa with splashes of bright red flowers. “This would be darling.”
It would. Years of study meant Janet Abernathy had a good eye. “Have you ever thought about opening up an interior-design business?”
Her mother straightened in her seat and shot her a surprised glance. Then she laughed as if Avery had said the most amusing thing she’d heard in a while. “It’s a hobby. I don’t have any training. And who in Sweetwater’s going to be hiring an interior designer? No, ma’am. Right now, my focus is on you. Once you’re home, everything will be okay.” She turned the page slowly and then folded the corner down so she’d remember to come back to it. If she’d been in a better frame of mind, stronger, Avery would have insisted they talk about this. Her mother needed more in her life.
At this point, Avery was not in a position to argue, but having her mother’s attention focused solely on her? This could be a problem.
“I like working at the school part-time, here and there as needed. It’s never dull,” her mother said with a careless shrug. Since her eyes never met Avery’s, it was hard to decide if she meant what she was saying. “Are you thinking of opening up a...something? Going into business for yourself? It ain’t easy. I mean, I don’t know why you can’t go back to school, but...”
This was her mother’s subtle way of asking what Avery was going to do with the rest of her life. Since she’d been mainly focused on tying up all the loose ends left by Robert’s death, closing up and selling their two-story house, and sleeping sixteen hours a day, Avery hadn’t had much time for career planning. The first several times her mother had asked, Avery had shut her down. Sharply.
Going back to law school? All she could imagine was the stress and terrible grief from the memories it would no doubt provoke.
That was where she’d met Robert.
She couldn’t go back.
Her mother would continue to ask what Avery planned to be when she grew up. She needed a better answer.
And after almost two years, she should have one.
“Maybe. I don’t know yet.” As long as she was happy living with her mother, Avery could float for a long time without any income at all.
Her mother wouldn’t be satisfied to leave her alone for more than a week.
“Girl who put herself through college...”
But never graduated law school.
Her mother’s mutters trailed off, but it was easy to see that she disapproved of Avery’s lack of focus. At least she’d learned a bit of control.
As the gate crew called the first group to board, Avery slipped the magazines in her tote and the business card fluttered to the ground. Her mother picked it up to hand it to her. “Leftover from some other trip?”
Avery shook her head and pointed with her chin at Chuck, who was waiting in the line with the priority passengers. He was scrolling through something on his phone. “No, that guy introduced himself and gave it to me. I didn’t want to give it back or...” Avery blinked. She still wasn’t sure what had happened in that weird conversation.
When the next boarding group was announced, Avery stood and grabbed her mother’s shopping bags. Her mother was shaking her head sadly. “What?”
“He was hitting on you. That was an invitation to call him when you’re in town or something.” Her mother dropped her purse on one shoulder and took her armful of bags from Avery.
The wave of people heading for the line flowed around Avery while she processed what her mother had said. “Hitting on me? No way.” She wasn’t dead but she might be half a step away. It had been months since she’d applied mascara. “What man in his right mind would be hitting on me?”
Once upon a time, that had been a common occurrence. She never would have missed Chuck’s interest at twenty. Then she’d fallen in love, gotten married, and that all stopped.
She was technically single again, but how could the world tell?
After she’d lost so much weight that her wedding rings had slipped on her fingers, Avery had taken them off and put them safely away. Did she need to find them again?
“Any man who likes smart women would be hitting on you, sweet girl. That hasn’t changed.” Her mother wrapped a hand around her arm to urge her into the boarding line. “And that won’t be the last time, either.”
“I’ll get my rings resized, put them back on. That’ll help.” It hadn’t stopped every flirt through the years, but she’d lost the knack of understanding a man was flirting and the ability to answer properly. Chuck had deserved a better conversation than the one he’d gotten. She still wouldn’t be calling him for a date, but she could have given him his card back without a trace of guilt.
She wasn’t in the market for Chuck or any other man.
“Not to come back to life, it won’t,” her mother snapped before graciously handing a member of the gate crew her boarding pass.
Avery did her best to respond to the attendant’s pleasant greeting and then nodded in a friendly manner at Chuck as she passed. He tapped his phone in a nonverbal signal that she should call him. Once all the bags were stuffed overhead and her mother had settled with her neck pillow, her blanket and her magazine, Avery tipped her head to say, “I’m perfectly fine without a man in my life for now.”
“Thing is, you better not lose something that will make you happy because you got your head buried under a pillow.” Her mother pursed her lips. “Grieving is important and only you know how to do it for you. It’s been two years, and I love you too much to let you grieve yourself right on into the grave.”
Avery closed her eyes and inhaled slowly. “This isn’t grieving. This is...”
“...being confused.” Her mother turned to catch Avery’s stare. “I get it. I’ve been there. Let me tell you something. The more time you lose figuring out what you want, the harder it is to go for it. Once you stop, it’s hard to get started again.”
“I’m not confused. I’m sad, Mama. Heartbroken. I can’t even believe this conversation.” Avery yanked open the magazine she’d picked up off the stack, the cute-dogs one, and flipped it open to study the table of contents, a weak sizzle of anger fizzling quickly.
Her mother cared even if she didn’t understand.
The short flight to Knoxville was so easy that Avery had to sit back and think how long it had been since she’d flown. At least seven years. Maybe her first step should be a real trip, one without her mother. She did not want a weeklong lecture about the dangers of foreign toe rot.
The Knoxville airport was easy to navigate, but Avery was breathing hard and feeling the strain all through her body by the time she and her mother made it through baggage claim and to her mother’s small SUV. With the last push of her strength, Avery loaded the bags and staggered around to the passenger side to flop down in the seat.
Her mother, instead of showing signs of fatigue, was perking up. “Want to eat before we head home?”
“No.” Avery covered her forehead with one hand. “Let’s pick something up, if you want.”
If she had to get out of the car anywhere other than her mother’s driveway, she’d stumble. Her mother didn’t need to deal with that scare right now.
As they left the city behind and the road wound through the rolling hills toward the Great Smoky Mountains in the distance, Avery breathed deeply and memorized the dense forests, the running streams and the way the mountains rose behind Sweetwater all over again. If there was any place in the world that would feed her the energy that had been slowly drained over years of distance and struggle, it was this one.
“Need some rain. Fall color’s off, all the dry, dead leaves,” her mother said, “but it’s still the prettiest place on the planet.” Avery had loved so much of Chicago, but it was impossible to argue with her mother.
Avery turned on the radio and the country music that flowed out of the speakers made it easy to relax through the curves that her mom handled like a race-car driver. Whatever came next, this was the right decision.
“Thanks for coming to get me, Mama,” Avery said softly. She might have stayed in that house until they’d kicked her out and in Chicago until she faded away. Already Avery could feel the color in this world.
“I should have come sooner.” Her mother’s lips trembled and she flapped her hand in front of her face like she’d done anytime tears threatened for as long as Avery could remember. “And I want everything for you, Avery, all you ever wanted.”
“I was fine. I’m fine.” Avery had assured her mother she was coping with every phone call.
Her mother’s snort was easy to understand. “You’re not fine, honey. But that’s okay. You will be.” The grim set of her lips was worrying, but Avery didn’t have the right words to convince her otherwise.
And the way she felt, she needed to conserve her energy. They passed the tourist draw of Gatlinburg and wound north before turning off to stop outside Sweetwater. As her mother drove down the lane to her farmhouse, Avery was relieved that almost everything outside was the same. “What happened to the oak?” It had once been home to a rope swing and the beginnings of a tree house that her father had started but never finished.
“Storm came through. I told you that.” Her mother waved a hand as she slid out of the SUV. “Maybe not. I thought it might depress you.”
And we both know I don’t need to be any more depressed.
“Had to call in a tree service. Sammy was too concerned about how close it was to the house to try to take care of it himself.” Her mother yanked open the back of the SUV and started unloading the bags. “Plus, it was in the park’s busy season. Kid works as many hours as he can.”
Kid? Samuel Blackburn was exactly Avery’s age, definitely old enough to have outlived “kid.” He’d been the thorn in her side growing up, but his mother was still Janet Abernathy’s best friend.
“After we get you settled, I’ll run over and let Regina know I’m home. She’s been watching the place for me.” Her mother hustled up the four steps to the wide front porch and unlocked the front door. “Need to get you a new key made. Had the locks replaced after I had the renovations done.” She paused in front of the grand entryway and said, “The new foyer.”
“It’s lovely.” The old wallpaper was gone. Gleaming hardwoods were stained dark, and the front room was done up in grays and blues. “I could spend all day in here with a book.”
Her mother pointed up the stairs. “Your room is ready. You go take a nap. You look tired. I’ll see about dinner and let Regina know we made it in.”
Before she could disappear, Avery wrapped her arms around her mother’s shoulders and squeezed. “Thank you for letting me come home.”
Her mother sniffed. “Girl, if you make my mascara run, we will both be sorry.”
Avery squeezed her again and then let go. “Now, do I need to be worried about toe rot in my room?”
“Only if you brought it in,” her mother said as she narrowed her eyes. “You bring any rot at all into my place and we will have words.” She waved and then stepped back out on the porch.
Avery was still smiling when she opened the door to her old room. The linens and paint were different. All her awards had been boxed up, but the afternoon light through the window that warmed her favorite spot in the world, the window seat that used to overlook the old oak, was exactly the same.
Her phone rang and she didn’t even pull it out of her purse. She knew who was calling, the only one of her friends who still made the effort. Maria Benton had been one of the lawyers fighting for people who needed them most in Chicago’s Legal Aid. She’d spent the time Avery had volunteered there testing her and encouraging her, and when Robert had been diagnosed, she’d been Avery’s most loyal friend.
And for two years, she’d called and left messages and never once accepted Avery’s excuses for why her return calls were so very few. It hurt to talk to Maria. It hurt to remember that old life.
Today, Avery was going to put off until the day after tomorrow what she couldn’t face today. She was home now. She’d have more energy any day now. That was the day to call Maria. Until then, there was voice mail.
Avery dumped her bags on the floor and sprawled sideways on the queen-size bed. A nap. Then she’d get started on figuring out the rest of her life.
CHAPTER TWO (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)
SAM BLACKBURN HAD climbed The Eagle Nest so many times in his life that it had lost some of the thrill. Doing it in the fine mist that Sunday afternoon certainly added a degree of difficulty. Still not enough to satisfy the restless urge that had been plaguing him ever since he’d read about the opening for a spot on the Highland firefighting crew out of Colorado. They tackled the most dangerous wildfires out West.
That was the kind of challenge he needed.
Sam dropped down to sit next to Ash Kingfisher. They’d worked together for years and known each other longer than that. If he tried to start a meaningful conversation with Ash at this point, the man in charge of the Otter Lake Ranger Station might give him a hard push right over the edge.
Ash was a good leader but a terrible conversationalist.
The best thing about the rain was that it meant this trail, one of the most popular hikes in the reserve, was deserted. It wouldn’t do much to alleviate the drought that had started in the spring and lasted all summer, but it was nice to remember that rain was still a possibility.
Sam clenched his hands together to keep from twiddling his thumbs and stared out over the trees. Might as well be at the top of the world on a day like today.
“Out with it.” Ash inhaled deeply, his face completely expressionless.
“I’m going to apply for the wildland firefighting crew opening,” Sam blurted as he stared hard in the opposite direction. If Ash sneered, he’d know the guy had even less faith in his chances than Sam did.
“Might as well.” Ash rolled his shoulders and wiped a drop of rain off his forehead.
Then he stretched out the leg that sometimes gave him trouble and moved his foot from side to side. The climb up the rocky top of the mountain was a challenge for most people. Sam spent more time going up and down trails than he did on flat land, but Ash was in the office now.
“Don’t even think it,” Ash muttered.
“What?” Sam asked. He knew there was no way the guy could read his mind, but Ash missed nothing.
“I’m not slowing down a bit.” Ash turned his head slowly to give him a narrow stare.
“Fine.” Sam nervously chewed on his thumbnail and then yanked his hand away. He wasn’t a kid anymore. When he was growing up, Avery Abernathy would have snorted in disgust and pointed at him like he was a baby if she’d caught him chewing his fingernail. “Bad habit. Nerves. Knew a girl once who did the same thing but would deny it until the end of time.” Nervous babbling. No good. Sam clamped his hands together. “How good are my chances?”
Ash sighed. “Gonna be competitive.”
“All the good jobs are. I had to volunteer here for two years before I even got an interview,” Sam said. “That your only concern?”
Ash squeezed his eyes shut. “Are we about to have a moment?”
Sam huffed out a laugh and called Ash the worst combination of curse words he knew.
“Well, I’d say you’ve got a real problem with authority,” Ash drawled, “but no one is going to deny you’ve got experience, conditioning and training. If it was New Mexico, I’d be worried. You’d get sand in your shorts and run crying to mama, but the mountains will be enough like home.”
“A problem with authority,” Sam said. “That must be why I hang out with you.”
Ash’s slow blink was his only acknowledgment that Sam might have a point.
“If it comes to it, I will make sure my high opinion of you and your dedication to the job are well known,” Ash said as he stood slowly. The rocks were wet but still solid. “That what you brought me all the way up here for?”
He’d thought Ash needed to get out of his cabin. Brooding didn’t even begin to cover what the guy could do with free time, but there was only so much a guy could do. “Yep. That’s it. I wanted to make sure I have your endorsement.”
“What do I know about firefighters? I manage calm, stable reserve rangers. Those guys, the ones who parachute in to put out these fires, they’re crazy.” Ash shook his head. “You should fit right in.”
“They’re the best of the best, taking on the worst wildfires, the ones that can destroy whole forests, not to mention everything else in their path.” Sam turned to start the slow descent down the rock face. “Here, we babysit controlled burns and put out lightning strikes.”
“And save lives and conserve native flora and fauna and history and put your lives on the line by standing too close to the flames when it counts.” Ash grunted. “That ought to be enough danger for any one person for a lifetime. Those fires or these, those forests or these, your job is important,” he said before he drawled, “sweetheart.” His sarcasm had saved them both from one of those touchy-feely moments.
Sam concentrated on making it down to the trail. If he stumbled and fell, he’d never hear the end of it. Well, if he fell over the edge, he’d never hear the beginning of the trash talk, but his funeral would be embarrassing.
“You told your mother yet?” Ash asked as he stepped down next to Sam. They still had the hike back to the trailhead, but it would be a piece of cake, even for Ash.
“Not yet.” That was the part he dreaded. “Think I’ll wait to see if I even rate an interview. You know how it goes. Postings usually come up in January, so it may take forever, but this drought...” Sam shrugged. “It’s worse out West. I figure they’re in a hurry to get the crews fully staffed.”
Ash grunted. “Probably can’t leave a vacancy for long. Too dangerous.”
Spring and summer would be the busy seasons. They were here in the Smokies as well, but search and rescue got more interesting in the winter. He’d plan to spend plenty of time volunteering here at home. That would scratch the itch.
“Gonna be a job up soon in search and rescue, incident commander.” Ash turned to stare over his shoulder as he headed down the trail. “Think you might be interested in that?”
Sam had the volunteer hours. There’d be hours and hours and hours of training and the competition for jobs here wasn’t much less intense than it was for the few slots that opened in the regional firefighting teams.
He could consider it as a backup plan.
But he loved fighting fire.
Sam shook his head. “No, I know what I want.” He wanted a new challenge. He needed it.
Ash didn’t answer as they made it back to the trailhead. Sam had no idea if getting Ash out of his cabin had made a lick of difference, but he wasn’t ready to go home.
“I was thinking of heading over to Obed to do some climbing. Want to go on your next day off?” Sam asked as they made it back to the parking area.
“Nope. I like my feet on the ground.” Ash didn’t hesitate as he slid into the reserve’s SUV. He raised two fingers in his version of a wave, backed out of the parking spot and headed for his cave.
Leaving Sam with nothing to do and energy to burn.
He turned to look back up the trail and took off running. Maybe he could beat his best time. If he did it in the rain, that would be something to brag about.
Not that he’d have any proof, but four more miles in the rain should be enough for one day. Sam hit the trail hard, clearing the first switchback easily, and ran until his heart pounded and he had to concentrate on breathing. The view was forgotten as he focused on each step of the rocky path up and then back down the mountain.
Pleasantly tired and overall satisfied with tying his best time, Sam slid into the truck and started it up. Not much for a firefighter to do on a misty day like this one. There was no lightning to keep things interesting. It was a bad idea to whine about things being too quiet. Mother Nature had a way of kicking up a fuss, but his trip back to Sweetwater was easy enough. When he parked in front of the housing for Otter Lake rangers, he could see his mother’s Cadillac.
Apparently, he’d missed everything but the goodbye, though, because Regina Blackburn was trotting down the covered steps that led to the second-floor apartments. “There you are. Soaking wet.”
She smoothed her sleek bob behind one ear and plucked at his gray T-shirt. “I brought over some groceries and the leftover roast beef you forgot to take with you last night. It’s in the fridge.”
“Thanks, Mom,” Sam said as he pretended he was about to give her a bear hug. She shook one hot-pink fingernail in his face.
“Don’t you do it. I’ve got cards with the girls and no time for a change.” She gave each cheek an air-kiss. “Now, I’d ask you what you were doing, but it was something foolish that will make an old woman have palpitations if she discovers her favorite son participating, am I right?”
Sam mimed zipping his lips and tossing the key. The Eagle Nest was safer now after the trail renovation than it had been in decades, but she’d never agree.
She raised one eyebrow at him. “How you can risk that pretty face is beyond me. You better keep it safe.” She tapped his cheek.
“Yes, Mother.” He ducked his head and wondered when she’d notice all the mud on his legs. He should point it out to hear her fuss.
“I should run,” she said and pouted. “Wish you’d been here sooner. We could have warmed up the leftovers.”
The thing about loving his mother was that he was skating dangerously close to becoming one of those guys, the mama’s boys. But she was amazing.
Since she’d retired, she’d taken keeping him well fed seriously.
“I needed to get Ash’s opinion on something.” Sam stared up at the tall pines lining the parking lot and decided to rip off the bandage. “A job opportunity. In Colorado.”
She paused midstep and slowly turned. “Ash’s opinion. On a job that might as well be on the other side of the world.” That was pretty much how he’d expected this conversation to go.
“Yeah, for the Highland team that’s based at Copper Mountain.” Sam braced his hands on his hips, prepared for the worst.
“The crew that fights out-of-control blazes,” she said slowly. “That dies fighting those fires.”
Much like the improved hike to The Eagle Nest, he could tell his mother that they were trained for those conditions and had countless successes for each accident the crew suffered, but she’d never accept that as a logical reason not to worry.
“I won’t get an interview, Mom,” Sam said as he ran a hand through his damp hair. “I bet there are a hundred better-qualified applicants for this one opening. I thought you’d want to know.”
“Well,” she said as she smiled brightly, “you know I believe you can do anything you want to do, so...” Then she marched to her Cadillac and slid in. She gave him her normal jaunty wave on the way out of the parking lot, but he had the feeling she’d be losing sleep until he got his form rejection email.
That would make two of them.
He shouldn’t have told her. That had been his original plan. He always got into trouble when he did too much thinking. Sam trotted up the steps two at a time and resolved to send in his application and then eat every single bit of roast beef in his refrigerator before calling his mother to ask if she had any more.
If she was upset over his news, some of her mood would be restored by his love of her cooking. Regina Blackburn could be talked out of a funk by one needy phone call from her son.
CHAPTER THREE (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)
THE THING ABOUT epiphanies was that they never came when Avery wanted them to. After nearly a solid week of living under her mother’s extremely watchful eye, it had become clear they both needed a break from all their new togetherness.
Borrowing the car had been her first step to freedom. When her mother asked for a destination, only one place came to mind. It had been ten years since she’d made the easy hike up to Yanu Falls inside the reserve, but she would never forget the exhilaration of standing on the cliff overlooking the falls that led to a cove of Otter Lake.
Since her mother was hovering again, Avery had grabbed a water bottle, waved her cell phone and said she’d be back that afternoon. After so many years of living in the city, even driving the wide-open road winding up to the Otter Lake trailhead seemed to roll off the weight of years.
The first inkling that not everything would go according to her plan was when she’d collapsed, panting, on the first bench along the trail, the one she and her friends had always called “Better Off Dead.”
Because anyone who had to stop there to rest already had one foot in the grave.
She and her friends had been punks, obviously.
The hike that had taken her half an hour at seventeen took four times that long now, and she’d made unscheduled stops at every bench and flat rock she could find along the way.
None of that mattered once Avery reached the clearing, because she’d managed it. All by herself. Even two weeks ago, walking into the grocery store had been too much of a physical challenge.
“But either all that gasping for air has killed brain cells or the realization of what I’m supposed to do with the rest of my life isn’t coming today,” Avery muttered and pulled her phone out to check the time. She’d sat there, legs folded under her, for so long that they might have frozen into position. She hadn’t seen a bear or an otter, the two main draws, other than the panoramic view of old, dense woods, a wispy waterfall and the sparkling waters of Otter Lake in the distance.
Avery inhaled slowly and forced herself to stand. At least it was easier to breathe here. The cool, dry air flowed in and out, something that she’d learned to never take for granted again after too long inhaling canned hospital air and feeling the crushing panic that came from watching someone she loved dying.
“Forget the revelation. You have another problem.” Avery raised her cell phone higher, hoping to find a signal, without any luck. The sun was dropping quickly, and the climb down, while it would go faster, wasn’t going to be as quick as she’d expected, either.
Her mother would be worried.
In an effort to hurry, Avery stretched her legs, grabbed her long-empty water bottle and started back up the first small rise that led back down to the trailhead parking lot. The unseasonably warm breeze had been perfect while the sun was up. Now a jacket would be nice.
Thanks to the shadows of the setting sun, it was harder to see all the rocks and tree roots that bumped across the trail, so halfway down the second long rise, Avery stubbed her toe, stumbled and landed on one knee with an ugly curse.
The urge to sit down and sob over the injustices of life welled up almost as quickly as she realized she wasn’t hurt, but banged up. The fact that her emotions ran away with her before she even knew where she was heading was twice as irritating as a scraped knee.
“You can’t sit in the dirt and cry like a baby, Avery. People will be searching for you.” The last thing on this earth that she wanted was to be the subject of a manhunt, and if she didn’t get to the bottom and her mother’s car and cell phone service soon, she’d have to move, leave the country and change her name.
She’d brushed off her jeans and tightened her shoestrings in the effort to convince her feet to get with the program when she heard someone yelling. Whoever he was was still a distance away and she couldn’t make out what he was saying, but there was no denying that her search party was already on the hunt.
Annoyed at herself and at her mother, Avery cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, “Here. I’m here.” Then she pulled her cell phone out and checked again. Still no signal.
Determined to save the poor guy headed her way as many steps as she could, Avery marched up the next rise and had to catch herself on a fallen tree when she tried jogging over rough rocks.
“Avery.” This time she could make out the word clearly.
“Here. I’m here.” Her voice was breathier than it should be, thanks to the pang in her side that made it easier to stay hunched over for a second.
Then her rescuer appeared over the rise and trotted down to meet her.
“Sam Blackburn. It’s been a long time,” Avery said with a lame attempt to convince him she was perfectly fine and had everything under control. They might not have seen each other except for brief flashes whenever she’d made it home for Christmas, but she’d pick him out of a sea of faces. They’d once moved in the same crowd, the previously mentioned punks. She and Sam had either been friends or vicious competitors growing up, but his grandfather was the first one to bring her here to see the falls. Sam and his mother had lived with Gee next door to Avery’s family forever. After Avery’s father’s death, he’d showed her and Sam all the trails she’d ever explored in the Smoky Valley Nature Reserve, as a way to save Janet Abernathy’s sanity. When the weekend rolled around, she and Sam were dogging Gee’s steps. And Sam had been the cause or the witness of most of her teenage stunts until she’d graduated from high school and moved to Knoxville to go to college.
While Avery was one more hike up to the cliff away from death, Sam was as strong as he’d been at seventeen. She was also in need of a rescue while he was barely breathing fast. Life was unfair.
“Have a seat.” He wrapped his fingers around her wrist to test her pulse and handed her the flashlight. “Hold this for me.”
Avery eased down to the rocky path and turned on the light as Sam pulled a handheld radio off his utility belt.
“Blackburn to base.” Sam handed her a canteen. “Drink.”
Avery wanted to argue but he wasn’t ready for that yet.
Whatever he made out through the static prompted the answer: “I found her, headed back down to the Yanu trailhead. Good condition. Pulse is fast but steady. Hold the second group. We’ll walk out.”
When he turned back, Avery tipped up the canteen, took three good swallows, wiped her mouth and offered it to him. “Are you the Otter Lake ranger station’s arm of a county-wide manhunt?”
Sam eased down beside her and ran a thumb over the tear in her jeans. “I’m it. Your mother called me instead of 911. Once she told me you were headed to the park, I had a feeling I knew where to find you. The fact that she couldn’t reach you on your cell phone was another good clue. Worst cell reception in the area here.” He waved the canteen. “Drink.”
Avery snatched it back. “You know, it was a couple of hours on a beautiful fall day, not the desert at high noon.” She took three more swallows to make him happy and then capped the canteen and slung it over her shoulder. “I’ll hold on to this in case I need it, okay?”
“Good idea. It doesn’t take long to get dehydrated, especially as dry as we’ve been lately.” Sam checked her pulse again. His warm fingers reminded her how much she wished she’d brought a jacket. The shiver that shook her shoulders was impossible to ignore.
“Sorry,” he mumbled as he grabbed the backpack he’d dumped on the trail. When he pulled out a balled-up windbreaker with a flourish, it was easy to remember every sword fight they’d ever had across her front yard. “Slip this on, and we’ll get moving.”
She was taking a mental walk down memory lane; he was planning his rescue. Did he remember any of those times? They hadn’t been the best of friends, but they’d been more than acquaintances.
Ignoring the spear of disappointment at something else she’d lost before she even realized it was gone, Avery slowly stood and did her best to swallow the groan that bubbled in her throat. Sitting was murder. If she didn’t stay in motion, her muscles would leave her here to die.
Before she’d made it all the way to the top, that would have seemed appropriate, sitting beside the trail to let whatever was coming wash over her.
Now she knew she could make it if she kept going. The only option was to fight her way back down to the trailhead.
Oh, man. Was that the epiphany?
“I’ll follow your lead,” she said as she offered Sam the flashlight. She hoped he could see nothing more than grim determination on her face. If he were a stranger, that was all she’d give him.
* * *
THE SPLASH OF light across Avery’s face was a reminder of how fatigued she was. When Sam had first seen her on the trail, his immediate concerns were dehydration and shock. She was pale, the finest lines around her eyes and mouth tight with pain or something.
But when she’d opened her mouth, she might as well have been the wild girl he’d explored these trails with as a boy.
“I’d rather you set the pace,” he said. “Take the flashlight. Make sure to aim it far enough out that you don’t obliterate your night vision completely because you’ll need to watch the edge of the trail.” Falling would be devastating right now. The foliage was so thick that finding her would be next to impossible until the sun rose. Even then, the old growth along the trail could be impenetrable. “When you get tired, stop.”
“Aye, Captain,” she drawled, and it was enough to draw a smile to his face. She’d never once wanted to be first mate. Avery Abernathy was going to be the king, the captain, the criminal mastermind and the first to charge the enemy.
Their pace was slow and steady. The flicker of the flashlight warned him she was tiring, but she kept going. He could hear her labored breathing but it was a reassuring sound as night settled around them.
The phone call from her mother had scared him.
He’d been preparing to take a final drive through the trailhead campgrounds when his mother called. As soon as she had handed the phone over to Janet Abernathy, he’d tried to reassure her. He could remember Avery’s favorite spot. It would be easy enough to check. There was no need to worry.
“She hasn’t been herself lately.” Janet’s voice was tight and Sam knew she was trying to explain something to him without saying it. “I...I don’t know, Sam.”
On his way up the trail, he’d run through all the scenarios, but there weren’t many that fit. She was too weak to make it back down.
Or she’d gone up with no plans of following the trail back down at all.
Suicide wasn’t something any reserve ranger wanted to encounter, but they’d all experienced the fear last year when a kid, a sixteen-year-old high school sophomore, had driven all the way from his home in Samson City to jump from an overlook along the Hickory Branch motor trail. His attempt had failed, but Sam could still remember the faces of the guys who’d brought him up.
Nobody would be the same after that.
Finding Avery fighting to get back down was such a relief he’d had a hard time getting words strung together.
She tripped and would have fallen again, but Sam caught her arm in time to ease her to the ground. “Rest. We’re close now.”
“How can you tell?” she asked as she brushed her hands over her cheeks. He couldn’t tell if she was crying, but now she had dark mud smudges on both cheeks. He reached into his pack and pulled out wipes.
“Years of experience on this trail,” Sam explained as he wiped the dirt away and tapped the canteen still hanging from her shoulder. “Drink.”
Her beleaguered sigh was enough like the old Avery that it was easy to laugh. “When I have to stop to use the nearest ladies’ room, it will be all your fault.”
“I’ll take the blame.” Sam took the canteen when she thrust it back at him.
“This was not how this day was supposed to go,” she said quietly.
“No?” He knew she was tired. Her words were slurring, and every time she shifted, a faint frown flitted across her face.
“No. I was going to go up confused and come back down enlightened.” She rested her head on her folded arms. “And you were nowhere in the picture.”
“Enlightened about what?” Sam asked as he reached under her to scoop her off the ground. As expected, she squawked and tried to struggle out of his arms. At seventeen, she’d been strong enough to set him down hard on the ground. Picking her up now was like collecting a fallen branch, lightweight and brittle enough to break. As thin as Avery was, she still knew where to hit. One smack on the arm made him snap, “Settle down or I’ll drop you.”
“On my head?” she asked. In the dim light, he could see her lips twitching. He’d threatened that a thousand different times when they were kids.
“If I think it will help, yes.” Sam grunted as she sighed heavily and dropped her head on his shoulder. “Ten minutes. You only have to suffer through this for ten minutes.”
He thought she was resolved to stew in silence. She’d taught him a good lesson about women at an early age. When they got quiet, it was time to worry.
“Thank you for coming for me.” She said it so quietly he had to dip his head to get the end of the sentence. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me anymore.”
“Nothing conditioning won’t solve, AA.” Sam squeezed her tight and made it up over the last hard climb. “That’s all.”
This time, her sniff had to be tears.
“Aim the flashlight down, farther out.” Sam had so many questions, but the ground team was waiting, and he wasn’t sure he was ready for all the answers.
“AA. Nobody’s called me that in a long time.” She sniffed again. “Probably because I haven’t seen you in a long time. I can’t believe I missed it.”
He could see the lights of the rescue vehicles as he rounded the last curve in the path. “When we get to the bottom, I’ll hand you off to the medic. She’s going to recommend you go to the hospital for a checkup.”
Her immediate gasp made him add, “But I’ll call my mother. She can bring Janet up to get you. That’s what you’d prefer, right?” He almost offered to drive her home, but the report wouldn’t write itself.
Besides, he needed time to reconcile himself to the fact that Avery Abernathy had come back, but she was so different from the girl he remembered, she might as well be gone.
She used to be fire; this woman was fog or mist, something too delicate to last for long.
“Yes. Thank you.” She squeezed his shoulders and added, “Always the hero.”
When the medic met him at the edge of the trail, Sam handed her over and waved his cell. “A hero? You said it. I’m going to hold that over your head, AA.”
Her smile was shaky but she gave it her best shot. Here in the lights, it was easier to see how thin she was and the dark circles of fatigue on her face. Whatever she’d been through, she was lucky to have come out on the other side.
He wouldn’t sleep tonight because he’d be filling in those blanks in his mind.
“And happy birthday.” Her mouth dropped open in shock. He’d surprised himself. Remembering that today was her birthday suggested she was more on his mind than even he knew.
As he turned his back on the group and called his mother, Sam stared up at the pieces of night sky he could make out through the trees. Whatever he’d expected this shift to hold, carrying Avery Abernathy in his arms had never figured into his plans.
CHAPTER FOUR (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)
IF SHE’D KNOWN how much trouble searching for this particular epiphany would cause, Avery would have stayed in her room and taken a nap.
But naps had gotten her nowhere.
Telling her story to the law-enforcement ranger staring down at her was also getting her nowhere.
“Honestly, Officer Hendrix,” Avery said as she exhaled loudly, “I’m not sure what part of ‘I waited too late to start my descent and got caught in the dark’ is so difficult to understand.” As Sam tipped his head to the side, Avery realized her tone might not have been as conciliatory as it should have been. “Sir.”
“Actually, it’s ‘Ranger,’ although I am a law-enforcement officer here at the reserve.” He rested one hand on the gun holstered on his belt. “Your story matches Sam’s, so I’ll take you at your word.”
Before she could argue that taking her at her word had nothing to do with anything Sam might have to say, Sam waved his cell. “They’re already on the way. No one answers, so Mom’s—”
The loud rattle of a large Cadillac cut him off as Sam and all the other reserve staff on hand turned to watch a yellow Cadillac lurch to a stop in the parking lot.
“Yeah, I figured it wouldn’t be too long.” Sam sighed and offered his hand to Avery. “If you’ve got everything you need in the incident report, I’ll help Avery to the car.”
Avery waved off his help. “I can walk. It’s an easy walk. Even I can manage that.”
Sam nodded as if he’d expected her to say exactly that.
Ranger Hendrix raised both eyebrows. “I hope you’ll come back and take the climb when you’re...better.” He tapped his pen against his notebook. “Climb like this, it’s good for mental health.”
She wanted to demand to know what the pause was about, but she wasn’t going to do it here with this crowd watching her.
Eleanor Rivera, the medic who’d checked her blood pressure and temperature, said, “I still think an ER visit might be a good plan.” She pointed down at the rip in Avery’s jeans. “You did take a fall up there.”
Rolling her eyes would get her nowhere, so Avery gritted her teeth and muttered, “I have had worse scrapes in my own front yard.”
“She has.” Sam raised his hand as if he’d testify. “Uglier bruises, too.” Then he shrugged. “Doesn’t mean having a doctor examine you would be a waste. You aren’t as young as you used to be.”
For a split second, Avery had to replay his words in her head. “As young as I used to be?”
“It’s her birthday,” Sam said as he turned in a slow circle to address the crew assembled there. “It wouldn’t be polite to tell you how many candles AA has on her birthday cake, but...”
The return of the Sam Blackburn who’d used the same tactic to force her to take dares she knew better than to attempt helped Avery settle in.
“And if I ever hear you insinuate another woman is old,” his mother said from behind his shoulder, “I will give you the birthday spankings I still owe you, young man.”
Regina Blackburn had the kind of good looks that made her ageless. She could still be watching their race to the top of the old oak next door as she stood there with both hands propped on her hips. “I’d force him to apologize, but...”
“We’d both know he wouldn’t mean it.” Avery finished the phrase Regina had said often enough when they were kids that it brought on another flash of homesickness.
“I suspect he was trying to infuse steel in her backbone,” Avery’s mother said as she tightened the belt on her robe. “Dragging an older woman out into the night because you needed a walk in the woods, Avery Anne Abernathy? I do not know what’s gotten into you.”
Sam’s mother tried to calm Janet Abernathy with an arm around her shoulders, but Avery’s mother brushed it off. “And poor Regina here, she insisted on driving because I was too upset.” The shrill last word echoed in the small parking lot.
It was funny to watch the search-and-rescue crew take a unanimous step back. Annoyed mothers brought out the same response the world over.
“Let’s get out of here,” Sam said as he wrapped a hand around Avery’s elbow. “She’s not going to the hospital.”
“You going to take these ladies back down the mountain?” Hendrix asked in his official lawman’s voice. “Because we are dangerously close to closing time. I’ll complete the incident report and leave it in the commander’s office for your review.” He tipped his head to Avery, who stood next to her mother. “I hope we’ll have a chance to meet each other at a more social spot.” When he smiled, his whole face lit up. Dour, official Officer Hendrix made her want to stutter and promise to never speed or jaywalk again, in a national park or anywhere. Smiling Officer Hendrix sent a small flutter of the old familiar feeling through Avery, the one that said a man found her attractive and in a totally nice way. It had been so long since it happened, she wasn’t sure what to do with the flutter, but if Officer Hendrix had given her a business card with his phone number, she would have taken it gladly and held on to it until she made up her mind.
“Thanks, Hendrix,” Sam said as he put his hands on Avery’s shoulders and turned her toward the cars. “I’ll make sure they get home.” His mother jingled his keys and Sam nodded.
When Avery’s mother realized she’d raced to the rescue in a house robe and bunny slippers, she was going to be even angrier.
Avery turned at Sam’s urging but looked over her shoulder at Ranger Hendrix. He was helping to pack up the gear the medic had scattered on the tailgate of one of the service trucks. It was hard to imagine what dinner with such a strong, healthy guy might be like. It had been years since she’d tried to carry on a conversation anywhere other than seated next to a hospital bed.
“Half a second ago he was ready to toss you into the reserve’s jail for wasting resources,” Sam muttered as he urged her toward the car, his arm wrapped securely around her hips. “Now’s not the time for making heart eyes anyway.”
“Reserve jail. Is that a real thing?” Avery tried to put on the brakes, pushing hard against his urging with her feet, but he was too strong. Gentle, but insistent and strong. “And heart eyes. What does that even mean?”
Sam rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean. The emoji.” He fluttered his eyelashes in a ridiculous way. “Flirty, love, heart eyes.” He reached around her to open the door to his mother’s car so that Avery could slide easily into the back seat. Avery studied Regina Blackburn’s oblivious face and then her mother’s interested expression. Neither was good at pretending they weren’t watching this conversation with way too much investment.
“Flirty love eyes,” Avery said slowly. “I don’t remember how to do that, Sam. Come on. He’s a nice guy doing his best to encourage me to return to the trail.”
The muscle in Sam’s jaw twitched but he straightened his shoulders. “Sure. Nice guy. His wife left town with another guy. That’s the kind of nice he is.”
“Samuel Blackburn, you don’t blame the man for his wife’s terrible decisions,” Regina said with a scandalized yank of her cardigan. “You know better than that.”
Sam bit his lip. “Right. I’m saying he still has a wife.”
“You were warning me away from a guy, doing a service as...what? An old friend? Nemesis? Frenemy? What were we?” Avery slid deeper into the soft leather seat and sighed with relief as her tired muscles melted into puddles. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t need a man and I certainly don’t need a bossy one, Sam.”
“Unless you’re stuck on the side of a mountain?” Sam asked slowly.
Good point. Not that she’d let him know that. “I would have gotten myself down. If you’ll remember, I was always able to rescue myself. No need for the knight to come racing in.” Avery ignored the sore ache of her knee, determined to make sure that Sam Blackburn, his mother and hers listened. If she’d gone up searching for a revelation, it had taken getting stranded to understand it. “I’ve been through harder things, Sam. Tonight all I had to do was keep putting one foot in front of the other. I can do that.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Duh. AA, nobody doubts that.” He shut the door firmly and walked off, both hands braced on his hips. From this vantage point, it was nearly impossible to miss that Sam Blackburn had grown into the kind of man that drew women like bees to the sweetest flower. He was tall, with broad shoulders. Here in the light, she could see the sprinkling of gray at his temples, the only sign that he’d celebrated birthdays of his own. Handsome and strong, the qualities every woman stranded on the side of a mountain hoped for in her rescuer. It was too bad his personality was stuck in high school.
His tough talk had been all that had kept her from falling apart more than once that evening. He goaded her into saying and doing things she wasn’t sure she could.
By acting like a jerk.
There were times when they were kids that he was no longer acting, but tonight, it was impossible to ignore the fact that he’d given her enough indignation to power through.
Neither Regina nor her mother said anything as they pulled away from the trailhead parking lot and out onto the dark two-lane road headed back to town.
And the silence was starting to get to her.
“I’m sorry I didn’t start down sooner,” Avery mumbled. When she was younger, hitting her mother with the apology before she could dig deep into her aggravation had been a good strategy. That, coupled with Janet’s worry over Avery’s health, might be enough to postpone the lecture until morning. “I could have driven your car home, Mama.”
The tense silence that followed her statement was enough to convince Avery that nothing was going to postpone the lecture boiling inside her tiny mother.
“We will talk about this when we get home, Avery,” her mother said succinctly. She didn’t turn around in the seat, but Regina glanced back in the rearview mirror, confirming for Avery that her mother was in a high state of mad at that point. Only good manners and being in the presence of company were saving her from a thorough speaking-to.
Resigned to accepting her fate, Avery rested her head against the cushion and closed her eyes. They were close to the rolling hills of Sweetwater when Regina said softly, “You know, Sam’s single.”
Avery slowly opened her eyes in time to watch her mother thump her head against the headrest.
“I’m saying, if he’d find a nice girl here in town, the need to run off to bigger and better fires might disappear.” Regina waved her hand. “In smoke.”
“Good one, Ms. B. Smoke. Because he’s a firefighter.” Avery covered her wide yawn with one hand. “What I don’t get is how that fits into this conversation.”
“I think he was jealous.” Regina turned down the narrow street that led to their houses. “Of poor Brett Hendrix, who is a good man. He’s got kids and that woman did run off and leave him with zero help.” She tsked as she shook her head. “He needs a good woman.”
“But not me.” Avery slowly opened the car door after Regina put the car in Park in her driveway. “Good to know.”
“I’m saying,” Regina said as she shut her own door, “that if Sam is warning you away, maybe he’s got some interest.”
Avery skidded to a stop and braced her hand against the low fence that marked the boundary between the two lots. “In me. Interest in me.”
Regina shrugged.
“They nearly put each other in the hospital at least three separate times, Reggie,” her mother said drily. “I’m not sure we want to put them back together, especially in close quarters.”
The rest of their conversation was lost as Avery forced one foot in front of the other, climbing the porch steps carefully to keep as much weight off her aching knee as possible.
She’d better find a painkiller before she passed out for the night because it would be hard to sleep. The front doorknob turned easily. Avery refused to consider how often her mother left the doors unlocked.
Avery stared up at the flight of stairs that would lead to both the bathroom, home of all medicines in her mother’s house, and her comfy bed. The overwhelming fatigue convinced her to make a quick stop in the living room. She’d eased down and smacked a pillow into the proper shape when her mother stepped inside.
Knowing her efforts were doomed, Avery nevertheless attempted a diversion. “You don’t care if I sleep on the couch tonight, do you, Mama? My knee’s making its opinion of the stairs clear.” She made sure to wince theatrically when her mother paused in the doorway, her hands braced on her hips, terry robe gaping over a hot-pink sweatshirt. “If you’re wearing sweats, what’s with the robe?” Normally, the woman who wouldn’t step foot outside the front door without lipstick would not be caught outside her home in anything less than easy Saturday chic.
“Sleep on the couch. That’s fine.” Her mother closed her eyes and Avery waited until the tense silence became too much to bear.
“And what is with Regina? There’s no way Sam is interested in me.” Avery shoved another pillow under her knee and stretched out on the cushions. “He’s the one who dared me into swimming across Otter Lake in November.” It wasn’t impossible. She’d proved that. But it wasn’t smart. A quick trip to the emergency room for a light touch of hypothermia was a significant reminder. “He’d be more likely to plot my downfall.”
Her mother nodded once and then she held up a hand. “Avery, you need to get something straight.”
The emotion shaking her mother’s voice snapped Avery to attention. If she’d been trying to avoid an angry lecture by playing ignorant, the game had changed. Her mother wasn’t playing any games.
“What is it, Mama?” Avery asked, her choked voice betraying the nerves that had rattled to life with her mother’s grim expression.
“I wasn’t sure you were coming home.” Her mother’s voice broke and she had gripped both arms tightly, fingernails digging into the terry cloth.
Confused, Avery eased up. “Tonight? Of course I was.” Where else would she go? She’d been driving her mother’s car.
Which was still parked at the trailhead.
“Tonight. From Chicago. Ever.” Her mother took a step forward. “I’ve been worried sick about you, and all I get are nothing updates.”
“But I’m here now. I’ll get better.” Avery shook her head. “I’ll do better. You can see me doing whatever it is you’ve been dying to know but have missed out on.” Lately, that meant catching up on a lot of sleep. What were they talking about?
“Avery,” her mother said as she stepped up next to the couch, “do you want to get better? You don’t go out, you don’t eat, you haven’t talked to your old friends or... All you do is sleep. Do you want to get better?” She eased down on the cushion next to Avery’s ripped jeans. “Honestly.”
“Of course,” Avery said without hesitation. What was the other choice?
Her mother nodded. “It’s that...” She unwound one arm and pinched her nose, the old trick they both used to dry up tears. “I was afraid you meant to...stop. To stop everything there in your favorite place in the world. To give up.”
Avery could not figure out what they were talking about. “How would I have gotten home? You mean, sit there and...” Avery studied her mother’s grim face and the tears that were making a lie of the old trick. “...die?” Nausea rolled through Avery.
“I tried to prepare Sam for the fact that might be the plan.” Her mother wrapped her hands in her robe. “They handle things they shouldn’t have to.”
Avery straightened with a snap. “You told Sam you were afraid I was going to...” Avery paused to try one more time to figure out any legitimate reason this conversation would be going the way it was. “You told him I was going to kill myself at the Falls?” The hard burst of pain behind her collarbone shocked a gasp out of Avery. She’d been through enough pain that it was easy to live with now. She’d become a master at the slow grind of devastating grief, but this sharp jab of disappointment or embarrassment or shame or some confused combination of all three made it hard to breathe.
Aware of the ragged gasps coming from her mouth, Avery covered her lips with one hand and wiped away a tear with the other. “What?”
“I never would have believed it possible, but I was afraid I was about to lose you.”
Her mom wilted in front of her.
“Growing up, you and Sam both, I worried you might kill yourselves in some kind of stunt, trying to outdo each other racing up the mountain or even climbing that oak tree.” Her mother sighed. “And that would have been terrible, but losing you because you couldn’t go on living... I’m not sure how I’d survive.”
Since her mother had always had enough energy and firm enough opinions to fill two petite women, Avery understood immediately how afraid she’d been. She would feel the same way if she found out her mother had lost as much weight as she had.
Add to that the inability to fill her days with anything other than sleeping or staring out the window, and Avery would have checked her mother in somewhere, worried to death about the changes to her personality.
“Why didn’t you talk to me, Mama?” Avery asked.
“What would you have said? You were always doing fine. I was silly to worry so much. I needed to find something else to do with my time.” Her mother stood to pace. “And some of that’s even true, but now, tonight, you and I are about to make a change. You cain’t go on like this, Avery Anne.” The pleading in her mother’s eyes didn’t quite match her firm tone, but Avery could tell this was important. She couldn’t brush it off.
“Fine. We’ll make a change.” Avery ran a hand through her messy hair. “I went up that mountain hoping to find some direction, the answer to your favorite question. I don’t know what I want to do with the rest of my life. I hoped for some revelation. Instead, I got a rescue.”
Her mother snorted. “Think answers land with lightning bolts, do you? What did you figure out?”
“When I was seventeen, I won a race to the top of the falls.” Avery ran a hand through her curls. “I cheated. I had to cheat to beat Sam by that point. He had a foot in height and I don’t know how much in muscle on me, so I tricked him into heading back to the parking area for something and I started climbing. When he made it to the top, I was stretched out on the flat rock there, grinning like a mule with a mouth full of briars.”
Her mother rolled her eyes. “I don’t doubt it. You have always loved to win.”
“That’s what Sam said.” Avery laughed. “As if he’s ever been any better.” She eased back against the pillows. “We argued over the ‘rules’ of the race. Since we neither one of us ever worried much about losing, they were hazy as usual, and I wiggled my way out of every one of his objections.” Her smile faded. “He told me then a shark like me ought to make a killing as a lawyer.”
Her mother nodded but she didn’t add any of the usual comments about how she couldn’t accept a girl who’d worked her way through college and law school had given up before graduation to follow a man. Really, Avery had heard it so often she should be inured to it by now.
But at this point in her life, when nothing had worked out like she wanted, it was hard to imagine how she could have let herself get sidetracked from her own plans.
“That’s the first thing you do, go back to school and get that law degree,” her mother said as she fussed over the rip in Avery’s jeans. “You and Sam have slowed down on the dumb dares, but I was pretty sure one or the other of you would need a good lawyer someday.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
Avery tried to imagine what it would be like to go back to school at this point. Where would she even start? She’d gotten home, her plan to never leave again. To finish her law degree, that plan would go out the window.
“I don’t know, Mama. I need to do more thinking on it.” It would be easy to fall back to her original plan. Her mother would stop worrying so much. She had the money to finish up the degree. But nothing about the suggestion filled her with any spark, not like the first time she’d grabbed ahold of it.
Her mother stood. “That’s all well and good, girl, because I’m not ready for you to leave again, not yet. We’ll get there, but not yet.” Her mother studied her closely. “I’ll go get you some ibuprofen and water. You need to be drinking some water. Dehydration is no joke.”
“Wait.” Before she could turn away, Avery grabbed her mother’s hand. They hadn’t resolved her worry, not really. Avery wasn’t certain she had the right words, but she had to try. “You were worried I was ready to give up, and I was sitting on the fence.” Avery licked her dry lips and wished for some of the water everyone was pushing on her. “But I did get a revelation, Mama. After Sam showed up, I was mad as a worn-out rag could be, but I knew in my head I could get myself down from the mountain. I didn’t need him carrying me.”
Her mother raised a skeptical eyebrow but didn’t argue.
“I would have done it.” Avery firmed her lips and raised her chin. “I could have done it because I’d already made it through the hard part. To get back to level ground and the real world, all I had to do was keep putting one foot in front of the other. Climbing to the top? That was the hardest part, and it was so challenging I’m ashamed of myself for how weak I’ve let myself become. But getting down? That’s nothing. All I have to do is keep putting one foot in front of the other because I’ve already made it through the hardest part. You get it?”
Her mother tilted her head to the side. “We ain’t talking about mountain climbing anymore, are we?”
“No, ma’am.” Avery squeezed her mother’s hand. “I nursed the man I loved. I watched him die.” Her voice cracked but she straightened her shoulders. “I untangled all the strings of a life together and now... I gotta find my way back. I’ve already done the hard part.”
Her mother bent to stare into Avery’s eyes as she brushed her hair behind one ear. “That’s one powerful revelation, young lady.” She sniffed. “But don’t you forget you ain’t got to do all that by yourself. Sometimes you do need a rescue. Let the people who love you do some stepping now and then, okay?”
Before either one of them let the tears that would embarrass them fall, her mother spun on her heel. “Ibuprofen and sleep. Tomorrow you’re getting out of this house or else.”
CHAPTER FIVE (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)
OVER THE YEARS, Sam had learned to get out of the way when his mother was scheming. When he saw her on the front porch the next day, conferring seriously with Janet Abernathy as he parked behind her car, he was sure he was the subject of the conversation.
The way they both jumped guiltily as he slammed the door confirmed his suspicion and increased the certainty that he had no desire to know what they were plotting.
“Afternoon, ladies,” he said as he waved the empty containers that had once held the tastiest roast beef his mother had ever made. Since she was a cook from way back, that was saying something. He had his fingers crossed there might be more in the refrigerator. He’d skipped lunch on the off chance that he might get lucky on this visit. “What shenanigans are you up to on this lovely afternoon?”
Avery’s mom cleared her throat. “Well...” She trailed off and shot a “you tell him” look at Sam’s mother.
“Well,” Sam said as he put the empty containers on the porch railing. “Someone hit me.”
“No shenanigans, Sam. We were trying to decide how to retrieve Janet’s car from the Otter Lake trailhead.” His mother’s innocent expression was enough warning that the other shoe would be a doozy. “We hadn’t quite come to a decision, so your arrival is like a wonderful sign, son.” She blinked wide eyes at him, her face the picture of naive motherly love.
And scheming.
“Uh-huh,” Sam muttered as he shoved his hands in his pockets and stared up at the second-story window where he could make out Avery’s shadow. “I’m listening.”
Janet followed his stare and then heaved a sigh of relief. “Such a smart boy, Sam. You were always such an intelligent kid. You’ve always understood how to talk to Avery.”
So we’re going with flattery.
Sam propped one foot on the last step. “I believe you shouted at me more than once that I was going to get her killed.” And he might have. He’d been more bravery than smarts growing up. He hoped he was getting a handle on that, but on days like this one, perfectly beautiful, sunny days, when he had nothing better to do than stare into space and wish for something, anything, to happen, he wondered. Ever since he’d sent in his application for the hotshots, he’d done nothing but refresh his email and wish for a distraction.
He glanced up at Avery’s window again. Her shadow was gone.
“Tell me your plan,” he said slowly. “Wait. Let me tell you mine first. You both ride up in Mom’s car, and then Janet drives her own car back. Simple enough.” He didn’t know why he wasted his breath. If they were going with the logical plan, they’d already be on the road.
“Or...” His mother scooted forward in her chair, her expression conspiratorial, as if he was being let in on a big secret. She’d used that on him successfully before, so it was easy enough to avoid her trap.
If he wanted to avoid her trap.
“Or you could take Avery up, get her out of the house, drive through town and hit some old familiar spots,” her mother said as she traced an imaginary route with her finger, “and end up at the trailhead.”
Sam crossed his arms over his chest. “Or you could do that.” He pointed at the Cadillac. “In your car. Get lunch on the way up?”
It seemed like a good suggestion. His mother might be the best cook he knew, but she never turned down a reason to eat food someone else cooked.
Avery’s mother reached forward to press her hand to his forearm. “Sammy,” she said, in the same tone she’d used to ask for every favor since he was old enough to haul garbage cans or mow the grass, “she has to get out of that house. I told her that last night. I mean, I made it a threat. Still no change today. She needs time with old friends and people who aren’t old enough to be her mother.” Janet snorted. “And yes, that includes her mother.”
They both watched him closely.
They might be right. If she got out of the house, some of the old Avery color might come back.
That didn’t mean she wanted him to be her chauffeur.
“This is because of the remarks I made about Hendrix last night, isn’t it?” Sam said as he pushed away from the porch, annoyed at himself all over again. He’d known it was an error, but he’d hoped they’d let it slide in the tense aftermath of Avery’s rescue. “You’re matchmaking. You think she won’t see through that?” Since he still hadn’t decided how he felt about the way she’d looked at Brett Hendrix, he wasn’t sure if their plan was bad enough to be safe or bizarre enough to work, so the best option at this point was to destroy it with logic. “She’s a widow. She needs time to figure everything out, and I am going to be leaving Sweetwater soon. I hope.”
Watching his mother’s joy at her scheme fade was painful, but he had to be firm about following his own plans. If not, this restlessness would drive him insane.
“And how many times do I have to say that I don’t need or want a man in my life before you believe me?” Avery said from her spot near the fence separating their houses.
Her mother turned. “I don’t know what either one of you are talking about. I thought someone else might have more luck lighting a fire under you.” Sam had had less opportunity to judge Janet Abernathy’s acting skills, but he almost bought it. “I only want to get my car back.”
Avery shook a key ring in the air, the jingle of keys loud in the peaceful afternoon. “Yeah, me, too. That’s why I came out. Miss Regina, can Mama and I borrow your car or will you give me a ride back to Otter Lake?” Avery smiled. “Then I’ll be happy to treat you both to dinner while Sam goes to do...whatever he’s going to do.”
Sam frowned at her dismissive tone, uncertain how he became the bad guy when all he’d done was return empty dishes in the hope of leaving with full ones. “You afraid to spend time with me, AA? You are falling for me.” He held up both hands. “I get it. I do. But believe me when I say, when I move to Colorado, I can’t be bringing you along. Single guys supposedly have an advantage and I am happy for every advantage.”
The tense silence that followed his dumb words, only meant to tweak Avery’s attitude, was a clue that he’d miscalculated. If he wanted his mother to get with the program and root for him to get this job, mentioning anything that would further delay her plans for his settling down and giving her the grandchild she’d been going on about since before he’d figured out how to talk to a girl without punching her in the arm...that was a mistake.
Did he want her to focus on Avery? He wanted that even less than Avery did.
“What sort of ridiculous policy is that, I’d like to know?” his mother snapped. “That’s discrimination. That’s what that is.”
Sam met Avery’s stare, happy to see the wicked glint in her eyes. She knew his distraction had taken a turn he hadn’t expected.
“I want to speak to your boss about that.” Regina yanked her jacket down. “After you get the job, of course.”
His mother never once doubted his ability to do anything he wanted to do or be anything he wanted to be. Casting doubt on his suitability, even if he had made up most of that, was one way to turn her from worried opponent to supportive ally.
“It’s not a written policy, Mom,” Sam said. It would be illegal even if it was never written. “It’s better, makes the work easier, if the strings are limited.”
Her disgusted huff was loud and clear in the sunny front yard.
“You know, Avery is almost a lawyer,” Janet said slowly. “Didn’t you take a bunch of courses in employment laws or something?”
This time, Sam knew his own eyes held a wicked glint. He’d never planned on dragging her further into the mess, but it was nice to watch her squirm.
“Labor laws, and yes, but I was concentrating on contracts,” Avery said as she limped through the gate in the fence line. “And as you repeatedly remind me, I never finished that degree. Besides that, there’s no way that is a policy, written or unwritten.” She crossed her arms over her chest, feisty in the bright sunshine because she knew his game and was determined to play to win. “He’s reaching for an excuse, Ms. B. If he finds the right girl, he’ll change his tune.”
Sam ran a hand down his nape, off balance and uncertain which argument to make. Avery would shut it down, whatever tack he chose. “Doesn’t change the fact that Avery is about as low on the list of possible suspects as could be. My match? She’ll beat me to the top of Yanu Falls.” He crossed his arms over his chest, a perfect mirror of her annoyed pose. “Fair and square.”
Her face had more color after a full night of rest, but she needed a push. He could push.
The atmosphere of a rousing cat-and-mouse game evaporated as Avery stomped closer to his reserve truck. “Let’s go get the car. Straight there. Straight back. We don’t negotiate with terrorists or matchmakers.”
Before Sam had a chance to agree or disagree, Avery yanked the door open and slid inside.
He propped his hands on his hips and tried to decide how he’d lost control of the conversation and whether or not he was going to take her interference in stride. Normally, his mother was the only managing woman in his life and he loved her enough to go along with it. Every now and then, Janet Abernathy took a step forward and did string-pulling, and he could accept that good-naturedly because she was his mother’s best friend and she loved him almost as much as his mother did.
The last thing he’d want, though, was to sign up for a third bossy female. Avery was glaring at him through the windshield and made a “hurry up” motion with her hand.
“You know, it would tick her off if you go for a drive through town. It’s your day off. Live a little.” His mother picked up the empty containers he’d left on the porch railing. “If your trip takes long enough, I’ll have dinner ready and we can refill these before you go home.”
“Take her by the pie place,” Avery’s mother said. “Girl needs to eat and you remember how she loved it.” The pie place stood across the main street from Sweetwater’s library. Avery had loved both.
“You two are determined one of us is going to end up in the hospital, aren’t you?” Sam smiled and stepped away.
Slowly he strolled back through the grass and approached his truck. He bent his head through the driver’s-side window and said, “You could ask nicely, you know. A girl who wants a favor ought to try that first.”
“Okay, but a woman who knows how to make you sorry is sitting in this seat,” Avery said sweetly. “Don’t make me go crying to your mother.”
The old, familiar threat had lost little of its power, but Sam was happier, more relaxed than he had been in days as he slid behind the wheel. He’d almost forgotten the fact that he was waiting for an email. He was still stuck right where he was, but he could put off checking his email for an hour or two. Avery was here to distract him. “Fine, but we have to make a stop first.”
If rolling eyes could have a sound, hers would. She’d always been so dramatic. That was what made it fun to pester her until she reacted. “Okay, but if there’s not a fried pie in my future, your afternoon is going to take a terrible downhill turn.”
Sam was grinning as he backed down the lane. Until he remembered their audience and cursed under his breath.
“What?” Avery said as she checked over her shoulder for traffic on their dead-end gravel road.
“I was acting like I was enjoying myself. We don’t want to encourage them.” Sam immediately assumed a scowl. Let them think whatever Avery said had wiped away his good mood. He wasn’t sure why it hadn’t, but he glanced over at her. “If they gang up on us, can we prevail?”
Avery blinked slowly at him. “Prevail?” She whistled. “I like it. A battle of good versus evil, all over our dating lives.” She rolled down the window and stuck her head out, the breeze ruffling short gold curls instead of the long, messy ponytail she’d had at seventeen.
It took him a minute to drag his eyes back to the road. The mix of old Avery, the wild girl who’d leaned half her body out of the car to catch the breeze, and the new Avery, a woman with closely cropped hair with a touch of silver here and there, confused him. He could see the girl, even though he would say he wouldn’t have recognized the woman without a clue when he’d found her on the mountain trail.
Time in Sweetwater was bringing her back to life.
She’d caught him watching her.
“What? A beautiful fall day is perfect for the windblown hairstyle. Soon we’ll have cold and rain. Might as well enjoy it to the fullest.” Avery ran a hand through her hair. “I haven’t done that in so long. It feels good, wind blowing through my hair.”
Sam nodded. “Sure. There’s a lot less of it to mess up now, too. And if we don’t get some rain soon, this whole place will be a dust pile. Driest summer and early fall we’ve had in a decade.”
Sam wasn’t watching but he heard what he thought might be the snap of her teeth. Was she grinding them together? “What did I say?”
“As if you don’t know.” Avery pulled up one leg and braced it on the dashboard like old times. “I can’t tell if you really don’t like my hair or you’re poking again, trying to get a rise.”
Sam tightened his hand on the steering wheel. It was a bit of both, if he was being honest.
Still, he wasn’t a fool. Commenting on a woman’s hair was a minefield of wrong decisions.
“It was simpler, less fuss. Straightening it every day was such a hassle and I had more important things to worry about.” She played with the hair at her temples. “Robert didn’t like it, either, but it had to be done. Believe me, deciding to cut my hair wasn’t the hardest thing I did, but it sure wasn’t easy. Losing that ponytail was like...”
Sam waited for her to finish the sentence but she shook her head. Even if he’d managed to punch through the sadness that made her seem so fragile when he’d met her on the trail, some of it hovered around her now. He wanted to chase it away again, but not by his usual means.
He studied her out of the corner of his eye. She seemed so vulnerable, but every conversation was revealing enough of her grit to reassure him AA was still in there.
“It was like saying goodbye to myself, the person I knew I was,” Avery said softly.
If he reached over to give her an encouraging hug, she’d make him regret it.
The urge to do it anyway was something he had to get under control.
“If we’re going to the library and the pie shop, you’re going to have to drive faster. The library closes at five.” Avery tapped the digital display on the dashboard. “And since I’m out of the house like a perfectly normal human being who has no worrying grief or latent suicidal tendencies, I want my prizes.”
That was what he wanted to talk to her about, whatever it was that had her mother so worried, but she met his stare. “I’m fine, Sam. My mother will make sure of it.”
Here, in the sunshiny afternoon, it was easy to agree. Sam grunted. “Someday, I’m going to spend time analyzing how my stop for more leftovers took such a wrong turn.”
“When you head to this new job,” Avery said with a wave of her hand, “you’ll have time and distance. That makes it so much easier to see through my mother’s expert finagling.”
Sam shot her a quick look and then hung an arm out the window. “Yeah, and what brings you home, then? Time and distance sound good to me.”
“Sometimes you miss that finagling,” Avery said as she fussed with those windblown curls. “Sometimes you need it, Sam.”
The quick trip through Sweetwater was silent as he thought about her words. As he parked in a spot in the center of town, perfectly situated for both the library and the pie shop, Sam wondered if she was warning him. He’d never been away from home. What if he was as restless and dissatisfied in Colorado as he was here? There weren’t any bigger mountains for him to climb.
Avery opened the door and then paused. “I don’t know what my mother told you...about last night, but I wasn’t even thinking of how I might possibly someday want to kill myself.” Her cheeks were pink as she met his stare. “You know me, Sam. That’s not me.”
She wanted him to agree, so he did. “Of course it’s not you. That was part of the finagling, I bet, a way to get me to leave my nice, cushy vehicle and head out onto the dark, cold trail.” He stretched in the seat. “They were already matchmaking. No way did I ever believe it, AA.”
Her eyes narrowed as she studied his face, like she wanted to trust him but wasn’t sure she could. Then she tipped her chin up. “You coming in?”
“To the library?” Sam asked in his best “you’ve got to be joking” voice. “I’m headed for pie and right now.”
She shut the door. “Meet you there in five.” Then she was trotting slowly across the small lawn in front of the library. In the old days, she might have thrown a cartwheel in for punctuation. As it was, he was glad she made it to the door without stopping. In the light of day, he could see the same fatigue in her face, but something had changed in her eyes.
And that was the thinking of a man who was spending too much time considering a woman who would never be his type. Ever. They made better competitors than friends, but he was glad she’d pushed him as hard as she had. Right now, she needed some pushing. He could do that.
First, he was going to get two fried pies, and if she took longer than fifteen minutes, he was going to eat them both.
CHAPTER SIX (#u887f6a20-e0ea-541f-9965-13f10b08a08b)
WALKING BACK INTO the library where she’d spent so many happy afternoons after school was like taking a deep breath above the surface after touching the bottom of the pool. Everything was familiar and yet new. Even the librarian had changed.
“I’d like to apply for a library card,” Avery said as she turned in a slow circle, taking in the new paint color, the new carpet and the same familiar smell of old books.
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Cheryl Harper
Тип: электронная книга
Жанр: Современные любовные романы
Язык: на английском языке
Издательство: HarperCollins
Дата публикации: 16.04.2024
Отзывы: Пока нет Добавить отзыв
О книге: How close is too close to the flame?Sam Blackburn excels at fighting fire with fire in Tennessee, whether it’s putting out deadly forest blazes or rescuing his old friend, widow Avery Montague, who’s lost her nerve on a steep mountain cliff. What happened to the daring, adventure-loving teenager who wasn’t afraid of anything? As kids, Avery was always pushing Sam to be brave, to be better, so he’s ready to return the favor. Except he’s up for his dream job in Colorado as a hotshot smoke jumper, and he can′t be in two places at once. His future is fraught with risk, but what’s the point of living if you don’t take chances? He just wants Avery to find the courage to go after what she wants, and he′s hoping it′s him…