Between The Lines (Main Street Merchants Book 5)

by Amelia C. Adams

  It had been nice and warm, but suddenly, the sky seemed a little darker. Jesse glanced up. “Looks like that cloud bank is just about overhead.”

  “It’ll blow through fast, considering how quickly it got here,” Brennan replied.

  “Is that going to be a problem?” Cara asked.

  “No. We’ll just get a little wet, that’s all.” Brennan grinned, reaching out and squeezing her hand. “No worries.”

  They continued on for about an hour. Regan asked Jesse questions about his business, but then she realized that talking while hiking in a higher atmosphere sort of made it harder to breathe, and she should stop. Being quiet left her alone with her own thoughts, though, which was a nice change. Usually she filled up those quiet moments with books, and now, she could hear the background thrumming of her own words and her own opinions.

  “Let’s break for lunch,” Brennan said, and Regan’s own opinion was that this idea was awesome.

  They ate sandwiches and apples, careful to put their plastic sacks away in their bags, but they left the apple cores for the wildlife. Then Cara handed around cupcakes, and it was really mealtime now.

  “Okay, guys, the lake’s not going to hike to itself,” Jesse said after they’d washed everything down with water. He gave Regan a hand up, and they were off again. Her thighs and ankles screamed in protest, but she told them to knock it off.

  After several yards, the path led them along a stretch that felt like little more than a two-foot-wide cliff hanging on the side of the mountain. Regan much preferred to have trees on either side—it felt safer—but she concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and filled her mind with the thought of what it would be like to stand next to that lake. She had always loved water.

  They edged along that way for about twenty minutes. Regan didn’t know what she’d been worried about—this was a piece of cake. Thinking about cake got her thinking about tiramisu, and how sweet Jesse had been to bring her some, and how she wouldn’t mind getting some more—and maybe even sharing it again.

  Suddenly, Cara, who was walking right in front of Regan, let out a cry and flailed with her arms like a windmill, leaning dangerously over the edge of the trail. Regan reached out and tried to catch her, seeing that the ground right under Cara’s boots was crumbling and starting to give way. She managed to clasp on to Cara’s right hand, but it slipped through her fingers. Brennan had whirled around and tried to catch her as well, but he was too late. Cara fell, tumbling down the mountain to come to an awkward heap thirty yards below. She didn’t move, and Regan felt her entire body chill. That was her best friend down there—this couldn’t be happening.

  Brennan’s face was pale, but he flew into action. He grabbed a rope from his pack, tied it around his waist, lashed the other end to a nearby tree trunk, and lowered himself down after Cara. Regan had never seen anyone move so fast.

  Jesse had reached in his pack too and pulled out a satellite phone. He punched numbers rapidly, held the receiver to his ear, then hit the phone several times with his palm, cursing under his breath.

  “What? What’s going on?” Regan asked, trying to stay calm. Everything would be fine. Everything was under control. Right?

  “The phone’s not working. Of all the stupid times for the phone to die . . .”

  “What do you mean, it’s not working? I thought all your equipment was top notch.”

  “Yeah, well, I won’t be giving this one a very high recommendation. Let me change the batteries and see if that helps.”

  Regan looked down the mountainside while Jesse pulled new batteries from his pack. Brennan knelt beside Cara, carefully looking her over. The sick knot in her stomach grew—she thought she could see Cara breathing, but she still wasn’t moving.

  “Nope, the phone’s dead.” Jesse shoved it in his pack. “That was just plan A. We have plans for every letter of the alphabet.”

  “And what is plan B? I’m trying really hard to stay calm here, but you’ve got to understand, Cara’s my best friend. What are we going to do?”

  “First things first—make sure she’s as comfortable as possible. Brennan’s doing that right now.” He called down the ravine. “Is she okay?”

  Brennan leaned back on his heels and looked up at them. “She’s got a compound fracture, and she’s unconscious.”

  Jesse gave a quick nod. “Phone’s dead.”

  “Great.” Brennan shook his head. “Just great. Well, we’ve got to get some help here somehow. We can’t just move her—this break is pretty bad, and I’d want her spine and neck examined first anyway.”

  “Need me down there?”

  “No, we’re okay. You and Regan hike out of here and get to the road. We’re closer to the lake now than we are to camp—I think you should keep going and hit the road that circles around the shore.”

  “I think so too.” Jesse turned and looked at Regan. “Are you up for this?”

  Regan nodded a few times. She was ready to do whatever it took.

  Jesse fished through his pack and pulled out everything he thought Brennan might need while they were gone. Regan divided her snacks in half, and they threw everything down to Brennan.

  “We’ll hurry and be back as soon as we can,” Jesse said.

  “Yeah, please do. I’m worried that she’s been out so long.” Brennan tucked Cara’s hair behind her ear, and it touched Regan’s heart to see how tender he was with her.

  Jesse didn’t waste any time getting them back on the trail. The first task was to get across the part that had crumbled when Cara fell. Jesse leaned forward and stepped across, then turned and held out his hand for Regan. The crumbled section seemed wide, and Regan wasn’t sure she could make it. Jesse’s legs were a lot longer than hers. She looked down to where Cara lay on the ground. Brennan had taken off his jacket and put it under her head like a pillow. She lay so still.

  “Regan? We need to go,” Jesse said.

  Regan flicked her eyes to his face. He seemed calm, but she could sense an underlying urgency in his voice. She took a deep breath, knowing she had to do this. Sure, she could send Jesse up ahead and she could sit here and wait for help too, but then she’d just be adding to the problem. Jesse needed her—she knew from reading books about hiking that you should never strike out on your own.

  She took another breath and stepped across the divide. The “step” was actually more of a falling leap, but hey, it got her there. Jesse reached out and grabbed her hand as she reached the other side. He steadied her landing and held her until she was sure she could move forward.

  “Okay, Bren. We’ll see you in a bit,” Jesse called.

  Brennan lifted a hand in acknowledgement.

  Jesse and Regan picked their way along the trail. Soon, the land rose up to meet them again, and there were trees on one side and the cliff face on the other. Regan felt much safer, and they were able to increase their pace.

  “How long will it take us to get to the road?” Regan asked.

  “About three hours, I figure. I’m still worried about the weather, though.”

  Regan looked up at the sky. The clouds that had been gathering before were now hanging thick and dark. “Cara’s going to get soaked if it starts to rain.”

  Jesse chuckled. “We all will. But don’t worry—Brennan will take care of her. I’ve never seen a guy love a girl like he loves her. She’s in good hands, and I gave him my poncho to use as a tent or ground cover—whatever he needs.”

  “So, you’ll be the one getting soaked.” Regan shook her head. Whatever.

  After a bit, the trail widened, and they were able to walk side-by-side. Jesse took Regan’s hand, and she was content to let him keep it.

  “Most embarrassing moment,” Jesse said.

  “What?”

  “Most embarrassing moment. You want me to go first? Okay. I was thirteen, and the girl I’d had a crush on all year had invited our whole class over to her house for a pool party. Her place was immense—we’re talking, mansion. We�
�re all diving and splashing and having a good time. Some of the guys dared me to go off the high dive, and I did—it was a great dive, too. It’s a shame this wasn’t the Olympics.”

  He paused to help Regan over a large rock. “So I come up out of the water and don’t realize that I’ve lost my swim trunks.”

  Regan bit back her sudden laugh, trying to disguise it as a cough. “No way.”

  “Yeah. I started to climb out of the water just as a cool breeze hit my rear. I glanced down and dropped back into the water. I started paddling around, looking for my trunks, and saw them under the water right in the middle of the pool. My friends were calling me, telling me to come grab a soda, and I told them I wanted to swim a little more first. I dove a few times, got the trunks, and put them back on, hoping no one noticed anything.”

  “And did they?”

  “I thought I was safe—no one said anything about it the rest of the day. But just as I was leaving, the girl I liked walked up and whispered, ‘Nice recovery.’”

  “Oh, no.” Regan laughed out loud this time. “She didn’t.”

  “Yep, she did.” Jesse shook his head. “It wasn’t all bad, though—she did go out with me a couple of times in high school.”

  “But it wasn’t a long-lasting romance?”

  “No. I was too into football and she was too into cheer. You’d think that was a match made in heaven, but our schedules were so different, we hardly ever saw each other. Then she went off to college, and I started up the store.”

  This was the opening Regan had been looking for. “You started the store right out of high school?”

  “Yeah, I did. Kind of crazy, huh?”

  “Crazy, but also brave. How did you manage that? Most of the kids I knew were lucky to get a job at McDonald’s right out of high school.”

  “Um, if I tell you this, you have to promise it’s between you and me.” Jesse brought her to a stop and met her eyes.

  Regan hadn’t expected the moment to turn so serious. “I won’t say anything.”

  He studied her face for a minute. “My parents are the type of people who are always planning for the future. They put huge life insurance policies on each of us when we were born, and when my sister . . .” He swallowed. “When my sister was killed, they took the insurance payout and invested it. They gave it to me for my graduation present on the condition that I’d use it for something solid. So I bought the store. I got a good deal on it from a guy who was getting ready to retire. The extra money went toward more merchandise and an ad campaign that reached from Utah to Nebraska.”

  “That’s really a smart thing to do with the money,” Regan said.

  “It’s smart, definitely. But I’ve never wanted to feel like I benefitted from my sister’s death. My mom gave me a stern talking-to one night and told me that this is what my sister would have wanted, to see me with a way to provide for myself. Her favorite movie was The Sound of Music. That’s why I named the shop ‘Climb Every Mountain.’”

  “Wow. I just thought it was a clever name. I didn’t realize it has a double meaning for you.”

  “Most people don’t. That’s why it’s perfect.”

  A cool breeze picked up, and Jesse stopped to look at the sky again. “Got your poncho?”

  “Yep, it’s in my pack.”

  “You’re going to need it before long.” Jesse pulled a cream sweater out of his bag and slipped it on over his plaid shirt. Regan put her jacket on as well, and then they started walking again.

  “You’re not getting out of it that easy,” Jesse said after they’d been walking for a few minutes.

  “Get out of what?”

  “Telling me your most embarrassing moment.”

  “Oh, that.” Regan’s cheeks turned pink, and she hadn’t even told him anything yet. “Well, just last week, I had a date with this guy. A really nice guy. And it was going well, but then I just left and didn’t really tell him good-bye.”

  “And that was embarrassing?”

  “Absolutely. He should have gotten an explanation or something.”

  A crack of lightning split the sky, and not ten seconds later, the rain started. Regan pulled out her poncho and draped it over her head, motioning for Jesse to share it with her. He smelled good, woodsy, and the light stubble on his jaw was a nice touch. She wondered for a brief second if it was a relief for a guy to get a break from shaving just like it was a relief for her to get a break from wearing makeup. This whole “back to nature” thing was winning more points all the time. Except for Cara being broken at the bottom of a shallow ravine.

  They ran until they reached the cover of some thicker trees, then pressed themselves against the trunk to see what the rain was going to do. Raindrops still made their way through the branches, so they didn’t lower the poncho. They stood close, very close.

  “What kind of explanation would you have given that guy?” Jesse asked, his eyes intent on hers.

  “Just that I needed to go,” she replied, becoming mesmerized in his gaze.

  “Isn’t that about what you said?”

  “I don’t remember, actually.” She couldn’t do this. He was too close. She broke away and went back out onto the trail, leaving the poncho with him. She didn’t care that her jacket was leather and would most likely get ruined—she shouldn’t have brought a leather jacket camping, even if it was the only kind she owned. “Cara needs us,” she called back over her shoulder.

  “Regan, wait.” Jesse caught up to her and took her elbow. She slowed, then stopped, and turned to face him. He cupped her face in his hand and gently brought it to his, stepping closer, wrapping his arm around her waist. At first, she relaxed into the kiss. It was warm, but not too hot, and it was so nice to feel pretty and wanted. But then no. She stepped back, and he dropped his arms instantly.

  “Cara needs us,” she said again.

  He nodded once, and they resumed their hike in the rain.

  Chapter Seven

  Regan had hoped the weather would lighten up a bit, but it didn’t. The rain began to pound harder and harder, and soon, she could barely hold her eyes open to see where she was walking. Jesse wrapped his arm around her and guided her, and she let him—she wasn’t stupid. Okay, she was stupid about lots of things, but getting lost in the woods in a storm was something she wasn’t about to try.

  They forged ahead until they found a thicker stand of trees. They sat down on the ground beneath them and draped the poncho around their shoulders, which were pressed tightly together. The closeness bothered Regan, but she was getting cold, and she knew they needed to share body heat. Not like Jacob and Bella—that was a little too much body heat—but a lot of good they’d be to Cara if they came down with hypothermia.

  They were silent for a bit, and then Jesse spoke. “I don’t get you,” he said. “We get along great. We understand where the other one is coming from, we get each other’s jokes, our chemistry is amazing—” She shrugged, but he continued. “Yes, it’s amazing. And then all of a sudden, you pull away and turn cold. You’ve done it over and over again. It’s like flipping a light switch—one minute, we’re talking and having fun, and the next, it’s like you’re a totally different person. What’s going on? Why do you do that?”

  “It’s nothing.” Regan turned her head and looked out at the surrounding forest, watching the raindrops turn the greenery even greener. “I’m just not buying into the fairy tale, that’s all.”

  “Fairy tale? What fairy tale?”

  “The one about four roommates who all fall in love with perfect men during the same summer and live happily ever after. That’s not my ending, and it’s crazy to think it is.”

  “What do you mean, that’s not your ending?”

  Regan turned back to face Jesse again. “Listen. You’re a great guy. I’m having a good time with you, except for having to go get help for my best friend who has a broken leg. And the rainstorm. But this isn’t real. We’re going to get back to town and go our separate ways, so there’s no
point in any of this.”

  Jesse shook his head in disbelief. “What if I don’t want to go our separate ways, Regan? What if I want to see what this could become? What if I think there’s real potential here?”

  “There’s not, okay? Trust me. There’s just not.” Regan pulled her knees up to her chin. He was just fooling himself, or maybe trying to fool her.

  “There’s more to this than you’re telling me,” Jesse said quietly. “The way you kissed me out there—you’re not pushing me away because you don’t like me. There’s another reason.”

  “You kissed me, okay?”

  “And you kissed me back. At least, you did at first.”

  She couldn’t argue that fact. She also didn’t know why she had. Momentary insanity, she supposed.

  “Tell me, Regan. Whatever it is, just tell me. I’ll listen. I want to know.”

  “Guys are inherently jerks, okay?” She turned away again and pressed her forehead to her knees.

  “What? What do you mean?”

  She didn’t reply.

  “Oh, no, you don’t. You can’t say something like that and then shut me out.” Jesse reached over and took her chin, lifting it until her eyes met his. “What are you talking about?”

  Regan tossed her head, releasing her chin from his grip. She’d look at him, but it was on her terms, not his. And she’d tell him, but only because she wanted to. “His name was Glenn,” she said, spitting it out like a bug had flown in her mouth. “This was last year. We’d been dating for about three months, and one night when he brought me home, he stayed to watch a show I’d recorded on the DVR. He was sitting next to me, and then he was sitting a little closer, and then a little closer, and then he started kissing me. Well, I kissed him back for a minute, but then he wasn’t content with that.”

  The muscles in Jesse’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t say anything.

  “I told him we weren’t ready for that step in our relationship, and he got angry. He grabbed me, and . . .”

  Jesse closed his eyes and pressed his lips together.

  Regan swallowed a few times. She hated thinking about it, let alone talking about it. “Let’s just say that if Laurie hadn’t come home right then, things would have been so much worse. That night, we set up a rule that no one’s boyfriend or date could come into the apartment if none of the other roommates were home. We should have set it up that way from the start—it’s a good rule.”