by Vella Munn
She joined him with her arms wrapped around her middle and her emotions going in a million directions. “That’s incredible. Was the lighting like that when you moved in?”
“No. I looked a long time before I found what I wanted.”
“Amazing.” Because of the slope, she was looking down at the trees. “I feel as if I’m floating over a piece of the world. What made you think to highlight so much?”
“I wanted to duplicate what exists in the forest I spend so much time in.”
She dragged her attention off the view and focused on the man responsible for it. She’d been drawn to him from the first, her initial reaction distinctly carnal. This was different, deeper, a response to what she was learning about his soul.
“To think I never knew what the word wilderness truly meant until I came here. I’m starting to understand why some people live off the grid.”
“A fair number discover that leaving civilization isn’t as romantic as they think it’s going to be. I don’t need to shut myself off from the world but living here, having this view, allows me to debrief after a stressful day.”
“What stresses you the most?”
“Being responsible for those who are in the forest is a constant responsibility. There’s no downtime.”
They were in the middle of a conversation she should be able to continue to contribute to, but Garret’s eyes had gotten to her. He wasn’t just looking at her, far from that, if her increased heartbeat was a clue. He wanted depth added, not just to what they were talking about but also to their relationship.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked after a short silence.
You. Us. “Storms.” Her fingers tingled, her lips were numb, and she barely felt her legs. “What watching one from here would be like.”
“Come winter you can find out.”
He was inviting her to spend a stormy night in this room. His steady gaze left her with no doubt of his seriousness. As come-ons went, she’d never imagined anything so creative. When she’d pondered what falling in love felt like, she’d imagined romantic dinners followed by a tantalizing disrobing and slow sex. Obviously her creativity fell short.
“I’d love to do that.” She touched her palm to the base of his throat.
A vein jumped. He swallowed.
“Do you know what we’re talking about?” he asked. “Because I’m not sure I do.”
“I’m not sure of anything.”
He nodded as if she’d said something wise, and she nodded back. The softly lit world was to her left, Garret’s bed to the right, and him in front of her. Maybe waiting for her to do something wise.
It wasn’t going to happen, not from her and not now because he’d stripped her of her intellect. Only wanting remained.
Dangerous wanting.
He slid his arms around her and pulled her close. One masculine forearm pressed on her shoulder blades while another warmed the base of her spine. Her wildly misbehaving arms went around his neck exactly as they’d done before. She closed her eyes so she could focus on the feel of his body against hers. With her mouth parted and seeking his, she rose onto her toes. He was everything to her nothing, a healthy muscled male enveloping what little remained of her melting form.
It was crazy to think that way. Of course she wasn’t melting. Somewhere deep inside the woman she’d been a short time ago, her mind still lived, but it was in hibernation, not needed.
Only him. Only his mouth on hers.
And his bed to her right.
Just the two of them.
Followed by tomorrow’s reality.
“How many is that this year?” Jake asked.
Garret, who’d just reached the office, frowned. “Five? Or is it six?”
“I’ve been keeping count.” Hunter accessed his cell phone. “This will be our sixth wayward hiker since the trails opened this year. About average.”
If he’d thought about it, Garret could have answered Jake’s question since every search he’d ever been on was lodged in his mind. However, for once, he was having trouble concentrating simply because Amber was studying him. Last night he would have bet they’d have sex. They’d come close, but it hadn’t happened because they’d somehow managed to put on the brakes before things had gotten completely out of hand. Fighting a persistent arousal, he’d suggested they go to Sweetheart for dinner before he took her home and she’d agreed. He could have offered to pull something together at his place but the only way they’d stay off his bed was if they left his place, ASAP.
They’d said little during dinner and even less during the return to Bigfork where she’d left her vehicle. Instead of going back to his place, he’d spent the night with his mother and grandmother. As for sleeping, not so much. He couldn’t tell whether she’d had any more success.
“What happens now?” she asked. “I mean, do you get volunteers together and—”
“The police alerted search and rescue right after they called us,” Hunter said. “Fortunately the missing man’s son was able to reach nine-one-one on his cell when the older man didn’t return to their camp last night.”
Uneasy, Garret glanced at the wall clock. The searcher in him rose to the surface. Time to do his job. Maybe even save a life. “But we weren’t notified until a few minutes ago? What did the son do, wait until daylight?”
Hunter shrugged. “You’ve got me. There might be more to the story than we know.”
“Isn’t there always?” Jake said. “Amber, to answer your question, we’ll be leaving here in a couple minutes followed by hooking up with search and rescue. We’ve all done this enough times that everyone knows their job.”
“What’s yours?” Amber asked.
“We organize the search. Give each group their marching orders based on what the area’s like and what the son tells us about where he thinks his dad is.”
“It sounds as if you aren’t sure you can trust his version.”
“Until or if we learn differently, we’ll take what the son says at face value, at least on the outside. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn father and son had a disagreement. The older man might have walked off thinking to cool down.”
“But he could be injured?”
“Injured or suffering from a health issue.”
“Like a stroke?”
“Like a stroke. Hopefully the son knows his father’s health history.”
“I hadn’t thought about that.”
There was no need to respond, nothing he could add to her statement. Caught in unexpected memories of the times when he’d wondered what his old man’s life was like, he checked to make sure his cell phone was charged. Hunter had just left and Jake was heading toward the door.
“Go,” she said. “Please call me when you know something. You’ll be on my mind.”
Just as you’ll be on mine. “I will. I won’t be able to install that dead lock until later. Maybe you should stay at the hotel until—”
“I’ll be fine.”
She probably would. He just wished his mind was more at ease. Maybe he wouldn’t feel this way if a stranger wasn’t waiting to be rescued but maybe needing to make love with Amber last night was responsible for how he was thinking. She’d found a niche in his life, a piece of his mind to command, a part of his body to touch.
“Be careful,” he said.
“That should be my line. Be careful.”
“Always.”
Before she could carve a deeper hole in his understanding of who he was, he headed for the door Jake had just gone through. As he stepped into the sunshine, he tried to give himself credit for not trying to dictate how she should spend her day but, damn it, he wanted to.
“To state the obvious, Garret,” Hunter said as the three men reached where the search would begin. “I felt the vibe between you and Amber. Jake, you did too, didn’t you?”
“Impossible not to. Even I remember what turned on feels like.”
“This is hardly the time,” Garret said.
“Only take a couple of seconds. Are you two getting it on? What you do is your own business. I just don’t want you thinking you have to hide anything from me.”
“Me, either,” Jake said.
“I’m not talking about this.” He opened the door to his vehicle.
“I figured you’d say that.” Hunter pushed open the passenger door and stepped out. “What we want to know is if you have a clue what you’re doing.”
“It’s my problem if I don’t.”
“We care,” Jake said as he followed Hunter. “Otherwise we wouldn’t risk having you bite our heads off by asking nosy questions.”
“I know you care.” He exited and walked around to the back of the vehicle where the backpacks were.
“You’re finally here,” the stocky man said as he hurried toward them. “When are we going to get going?”
“In a few minutes,” Garret assured him. “Just as soon as you tell us everything you believe might help.” Starting immediately, he’d be too busy to think about Amber Baum.
“They probably don’t think of a search as an adventure,” Amber said aloud as she neared the Flathead cabin homeowners’ tract. “I’m sure it’s exhausting a lot of the time.” She’d debated turning on the radio so she’d have something to distract her, but she wouldn’t be able to concentrate. Garret—and the others—had one goal today. No matter how much work was entailed, they wouldn’t stop moving until they’d accomplished their goal. Hopefully the missing man would be in good shape, just turned around or maybe with a sprained ankle. She hated the idea of Garret finding a body.
Not just him. A lot of people were involved.
This was the first time she’d been to the cabin tract and hadn’t given much thought to how it would look. She wouldn’t be here today if constantly wondering what Garret and the others were doing hadn’t been making her more than a little stir-crazy. She had to do something, anything.
The lack of signage had surprised her until she’d come to the conclusion the homeowners wanted as much privacy as possible. The cabins were tucked into Eagle State Forest, one of the few areas in the Flathead National Forest that hadn’t been designated as wilderness. Despite that, thanks to Google Earth, she knew the tract would be hard to distinguish from the acres upon acres of mountains and evergreens.
Still, she was surprised by how dark it was inside the tract. Obviously, homeowners weren’t allowed to cut down trees on their lots. If she owned a cabin, she wouldn’t be happy about not being able to make that decision. At the same time, the countless trees reminded her of the view from Garret’s bedroom window. She supposed that as long as everyone was careful about campfires and machinery use, there wasn’t much danger of a fire here.
There also wasn’t much in the way of sunlight reaching the ground, she concluded as she eased her SUV over exposed tree roots. There was only one road, a narrow, dirt ribbon that snaked around the various cabins. Each structure was tucked away, hard to spot. The sense of isolation didn’t just make an impact, it made her uneasy. She wasn’t sure she’d tell Garret how she’d spent her work day.
As she studied each cabin she questioned why the owners were so protective of them. There wasn’t much to most of them. Yes, they were old enough that they might qualify as historical, but they were far from works of art. Heck, Stephen King might decide to use one as the setting for his next book.
Darn it, she shouldn’t be nervous. Next to how Garret, Hunter, and Jake were spending their day, hers was a piece of cake. The only thing she intended to do was get the lay of the land so to speak. Taking inventory of the individual cabins could and would wait. Since it was a weekday maybe not many cabins would be occupied.
She was again trying to imagine what Garret was doing when she spotted a cabin with a wood shingle roof on her right. She braked and reached for her binoculars. From the looks of things, the roof had been put on one handmade shingle at a time. There weren’t any vehicles on the lot. Hoping she wouldn’t have to explain her presence, she turned off the engine and looked at the map spread out on the passenger’s seat until she had her exact position. What she learned made her a little uneasy, but she picked up her digital camera, and got out. Unseen birds made it clear she was interrupting them. The air was gloriously sweet, same as it had been at Garret’s place.
I wish you were here.
According to the tract map, Werner and Celia Morrisey owned this cabin. Werner was one of the men Garret referred to as the malcontents. The only thing she remembered about him was that he’d worn a baseball cap. The cabin she’d just passed belonged to Doug Taylor who’d mentioned a bad back and how he wanted to replace his roof without having to beg for permission. There hadn’t been a vehicle at Doug’s place either.
After looking all around and unsuccessfully trying to get Stephen King out of her mind, she zoomed in on the Morrisey roof and took pictures. One thing she was sure of, the project hadn’t been easy. Going by how weathered the shingles were in addition to where some were missing, she surmised the roof was decades old. Maybe historic.
Did Werner know who had done the work and when? Maybe his father or grandfather had been responsible, although it was possible someone else had owned the building back then. That was what interested her the most about her career, how history reached into the present and impacted the living.
Yes, the living. To her way of thinking, her job should be about people, not just structures.
Reminding herself that the ground itself didn’t belong to Werner and his family and thus was public land, she stepped away from her vehicle. The cabin had been built on top of dozens of large rocks held together with cement that was breaking down in places. The so-called foundation needed the kind of work Garret had done to his mother and grandmother’s chimney.
The forest service might not have a record of when the cabin had been built, which meant she’d have to rely on what Werner told her, and she couldn’t be sure he’d tell her. Somehow, if she was going to do her job, she’d have to earn the man’s trust.
The daunting task stopped her. It might not be so hard if she and Werner could talk in private, but something else entirely if his friends were around. She’d taken the required psychology courses but didn’t remember anything that covered this situation. Her family members were all in positions of authority and frequently negotiated with people, but she didn’t want to ask for their advice – which left only Garret.
Garret who might counsel her not to talk to Werner or his fellow malcontents without him there to discourage the men from trying to push their collective weight around where she was concerned.
Garret who was deep in a forest on a potentially lifesaving mission while she was patting herself on the back because she’d gotten out of her vehicle.
She snapped a couple of pictures of the stone foundation followed by the walls, single pane windows, and warped front door all while standing a few feet from her car. Much as she wanted to tell herself she’d done her job, she’d have a hard time facing herself if she didn’t circle the building so she’d have a record of what the back looked like and that meant going where the trees cast the deepest shadows.
She wasn’t being watched, she told herself as she placed one foot ahead of another. Just a case of nerves. Nothing she’d tell anyone and particularly Garret about. No reason to stare into the shadows or run away. No reason to say, “Is anyone there?”
“You got a message while you were out,” Liz said. “I told him I’d let you know he called, but if I were you, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to return it.”
“Why’s that?” Amber removed her coat and draped it over the spare chair in her office.
“It’s Sig Ellis. He owns one of the forest cabins.”
“I’ve met him. What does he want?”<
br />
“He wouldn’t say, but I have a good idea.” Liz glanced at the window. “I don’t want to freak you, but he said he spotted you today. I asked why he didn’t talk to you then. He laughed and said you didn’t actually have a conversation.”
Alarmed, she clamped her hand over her mouth. “I went to the cabins. I didn’t see anyone but...”
“Something made you uneasy?”
“I hate admitting it but I was. Is that all? He asked for me?”
Liz clenched her teeth. “I don’t know how much Garret has told you about Sig. He’s a lecherous old man. He tried to kiss me once. I punched him in the mouth and told him to never do that again. He insisted he was just messing around, but I’m not the only woman he can’t keep his hands off. Just make sure you’re never alone with him.”
“I will.” Knowing Sig had been watching her almost made her forget why she’d made a point of returning to the office before Liz left. “Have you heard anything?”
“No. Look, I’ve learned that no news isn’t anything to get worked up about. All that waiting used to drive me crazy, but they have more on their minds than giving me updates. Also, they aren’t always where there’s cell reception” Liz winked. “I’m sure he’ll call you as soon as he has something to report. In the meantime, go home. That’s what I’m going to do.”
As Amber carried the last of her limited belongings into the house that would be her home for the foreseeable future, she reminded herself that what she was going through was nothing compared to what the missing man’s family had to be experiencing. She’d deal with Sig on her own, not lean on Garret, who had much more important things to do.
She locked the door, closed the curtains, and went into the bedroom. Her landlady, who had taken most of her clothes with her, had told her to use as much of the dresser and closet space as she needed. Deciding what to bring to Montana had given her more than one headache because so much of her wardrobe consisted of seldom-used dresses and other garments suited for the parties and other public events her family had dragged her to. In the end, she’d boxed up a good half of the lot and put the boxes in her parents’ basement. Thanks to what she’d learned about Montana winters, she debated telling her folks to donate everything she hadn’t brought with her. Her mother would argue she shouldn’t give away those expensive garments, but she wanted them out of her life.
