More than One Night

by Heatherly Bell

  Mad didn’t even begin to cover it. She was beginning to see everyone cross-eyed. That’s how freaking mad she was.

  She hooked a finger toward her trailer. “Tell him I need to see him immediately. My office.”

  * * *

  The view from here was amazing. Not that Sam had much time for sightseeing. He was too preoccupied with not falling. With each handhold getting him closer to the top. Closer to proving to these bozos that it wasn’t smart to dare him to do anything.

  “Hey, Sam!” Julian shouted up to him. “Time to come down.”

  Ty whistled. “You’re in trouble with the boss.”

  Great. He would have thought she’d be inside the trailer recuperating from this morning. Jesus, he’d practically had to pull her out of the water by her ear. The woman was fierce.

  He sort of loved that about her.

  But right about now she should be behind her mountain of paperwork on wildflowers. Speaking of which, he had to talk to her about that. He’d meant to give her the news after lunch, but then the men had dared him to freestyle.

  It took him another few minutes to get back to where he could safely jump down the rest of the way.

  He rubbed his hands together and threw a look at Julian. “Told you.”

  “Now go get your punishment,” Michael said, leering. “Maybe if you’re lucky she’ll spank you.”

  “Nah.” He scowled. “I do the spanking.”

  He left the men howling, though he didn’t understand what was so funny. They all had a weird sense of humor in his opinion. Then again, maybe he simply needed to get one.

  When he opened the door to Jill’s trailer, she stood hands on hips, smoke practically coming out of her ears.

  “You wanted me?”

  “What the hell was that?” She pointed outside.

  “I was freestyle climbing.” He shrugged. “It’s a thing.”

  “And why were you freestyling when we have plenty of harnesses and ropes for this?”

  “A dare. And you never ask why someone would climb the face of a mountain. It’s because it’s there.”

  And sue him if he liked this Jill. A lot. When she was fired up and as irate as she was at the moment, she couldn’t waste her precious time feeling all this ridiculous compassion for him that he didn’t want or deserve.

  “You make me so mad.” She slapped her desk.

  His mouth was doing that weird tip at the side. “I can see that.”

  She stepped toward him and drilled a finger into his chest. “I want you to be honest with me. Are you trying to get hurt?”

  He snorted. “Hell, no. I believe I told you the day you hired me—I’m hard to kill.”

  “That’s not funny.” She rested her palm against his chest. “Hard to kill but not hard to hurt.”

  His heart stiffened and tightened, as if anticipating a blow. She had become a weakness for him and could deliver a roundhouse kick to his second-favorite organ. He couldn’t have that.

  “Look, I know you can relate to taking some risks in life.”

  “Not ones like that.”

  “I always calculate the danger. But maybe everyone views taking chances in different ways.” He removed her hand from his chest and threaded his fingers through hers. “You hired a bunch of adrenaline junkies. That’s who your clients will be, too.”

  “That’s true. But I need you to be guarded. I can’t do this without your help.”

  Before “I need you” came out of her mouth, he stopped her. “You don’t need me or anyone else.”

  As if considering it, she tilted her head and smiled up at him. “It’s true that I’m a strong and powerful woman.”

  “Believe it. One who attacked my hand with an incredible bite.”

  “You asked for that.”

  “True. I brought you down into the gutter with me.”

  “Hardly. But I don’t want to be worried about you when I’m busy trying to save this park from a wildflower.”

  “You won’t have to save it from a wildflower. And you don’t need to worry about me. Look, I’ll tone it down. Honest. I’m not trying to get hurt.” He brought up her hand to his lips and brushed a kiss across the knuckles because he couldn’t help himself.

  She took a deep breath. “Damn it, Sam. You really piss me off sometimes.”

  “Well, I excel at that. Sorry I scared you. I won’t take chances like that again. At least not here.”

  His words were conciliatory while his gut churned. He wasn’t ready for her. For any of this. But damn it all, he wanted to be. He wanted to be that man. More than ever.

  “You drive me crazy but I love the way you drive me crazy.” She stepped forward and let her head fall against his chest. “We don’t have the best timing, do we?”

  “And we meet in strange places. In a bar. On a flagpole.”

  “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?”

  “Not a chance.”

  He wanted to kiss her again. Wanted to allow the warmth she gave him seep into every cell of his body. She made him feel all the things that he wanted to. Happy and useful. Calm. Not at all like there was a storm raging inside him that he had to suppress at all costs. With her, the storm could be controlled, but he couldn’t allow her to be responsible for his happiness. It was too much to take on. Too much for anyone but especially for Jill, who didn’t deserve the chaos he’d bring to her life. The ups and downs.

  He both wanted her, but also wanted much better for her. Not sure where that left him.

  “I’m not just worried about Cal/OSHA and our liability if you get hurt. You know that, right? I couldn’t stand to see you injured.”

  “That’s because you’re the best boss in the world.”

  She didn’t say a word but went narrowed eyes on him because yeah, he knew she was much more than his boss. She was more than he’d ever bargained for on one lonely night in San Francisco when they’d both taken care of each other.

  “Come by my trailer before you go to your meeting.”

  “I don’t think we have enough time——”

  It was hard not to laugh. “Mind out of the gutter, babe. I did some research for you. On the wildflower issue. Found some environmental cases that might interest you.”

  She gaped at him. “Seriously?”

  “Remember delegating? This time I did it for you. Next time? Ask.”

  She went from being pissed as hell at him to practically jumping into his arms and he realized he had buried his lead. He should have opened with the good news. Would he never learn?

  “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she whispered into his neck.

  “Babe, you don’t have to thank me. You should know by now I’d do anything for you.”

  She smiled up at him, green eyes shimmering. “When I’m done with the meeting I’ll come back here and let you know how it went.”

  “You do that.” He kissed her forehead. “I’ll be here.”

  He wanted to kiss a whole lot more but this was not the time. Instead, he simply traced the curve of her face one last time, stepped back and left her alone in her trailer.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Later, Sam wished Jill the best of luck at the council meeting where she’d fight for the right to coexist with a wildflower. Watched as her truck rolled down the hill on her way into town. He’d be holding down the fort. Later, when she got back, he would see what he could do about breaking his own cot. He was up for the challenge.

  Unfortunately the comm system was on the fritz again when he left for his planned hike. It would have been nice to test the safety feature, but he packed his cell phone instead. It would do in a pinch, though he couldn’t be certain what reception would be like the farther he went off trail. He had all the survival gear a man would need.

  He checked in with the m
en before leaving, giving them a map of his direction. It wasn’t the best time of the day to start a ten-mile hike, but he needed to get out of his trailer tonight. The walls were closing in on him. Suffocating him. And if he wound up spending the night under the stars, he’d be ready.

  He set out before sunset, thinking about Jill. Thinking about the first time he’d ever laid eyes on her and how little he’d known about her. He’d imagined an entire life for her that came nothing close to the one she actually had. Turned out the real woman was a lot more complicated than the one that he’d spent several years pining away for. No wonder, since she was real. Complicated. And suddenly his pull to her wasn’t easy and calm. Story of his life. But the thing of it was she was so much more than he’d pictured, too. Compassionate. She cared for her family, her brother and the disenfranchised. She worked so hard not to appear the slightest bit vulnerable, which made her three times as adorable. A memory rolled through of her, lying under him, her face rosy pink from exertion.

  What a mess he’d made out of everything. Agreeing to work for her, even knowing that he’d have a difficult time keeping his hands to himself. Next, he hadn’t stayed on the high ground, but wanted one more time just to see. Knowing deep inside that one more time would sink him for good. And so it had, because that’s how he rolled. Never let it be said that Sam Hawker took the easy way out.

  By sunset, he’d covered a good six miles according to his compass. Still not a single sight or sound of a mountain lion. He was beginning to think they’d moved.

  The red sunset mixed with shades of blue would have been glorious had he cared about it. Instead, Sam took out his flashlight to light the rest of the way. He’d soon have to make a decision whether to spend the night out here or head back. Since he hadn’t stopped thinking about shit he didn’t want to think about, stuff that always seemed to come back to him after the sun came down, he kept walking. And walking. When the sounds of explosions and gunfire and the screams of his friends were fading into the background, he slowed down. He listened to the empty sounds of the night.

  Wind. A rustle in or near the branches of a nearby tree. A mountain lion? He turned toward the sound, tripped and lost his balance. Though he tried like hell to regain his footing, Sam fell down a ravine straight into total darkness.

  * * *

  Jill had been sitting for close to an hour wearing her high-powered kick-ass pantsuit, and calmly waiting her turn to speak, when she took a good long look at the agenda. She wasn’t on it!

  During a fifteen-minute break, she nearly accosted Mark. “I thought you put me on the agenda tonight.”

  Mark wrinkled his brow. “For...?”

  “Are you kidding me? A resident filed a complaint about an endangered wildflower on the ridge.”

  “Oh yes. She called the office yesterday and withdrew her complaint. It turns out she was wrong. Sorry about that.” He walked past her on the way to the coffee dispenser.

  “Sorry? You’re sorry? Mark, you should have called me. I prepared for this! I researched California wildflowers of every type. Purple ones. Pink ones.” She counted off on her fingers. “Sam helped. I have examples of how we could deal with the issue. I care about this issue. I searched the ridge. I... I...”

  Mark held up a palm. “Wow. I’m sorry you went to so much trouble, but hey. This is good news.”

  “Yes. Yes, it is.” She straightened her lapels and smoothed down her pantsuit. “And don’t you forget it.”

  With one last look at Mark’s confused face, she executed a flawless spin on her killer pumps and headed out the door. Carly had been right. Maybe Jill had a tendency to prepare for problems before they had even materialized. She figured it was a leftover from the years when she’d prepared for every one of her parents’ objections before they could voice them. When she’d brought a permission slip home to attend a ski trip during her junior year, or prom night. They’d throw up every objection known to man and she’d knock them down like they were feathers and she was a hurricane. She didn’t always win but let’s just say she was brave in the attempt.

  She really needed to learn how to relax and do some more of that delegating stuff.

  Driving home, free at last from the confines of the council, she wanted to celebrate. But instead of cutting loose at the Silver Saddle like she used to do with the girls back in the day, she wanted a quiet celebration. Up on the ridge to the place that had somehow become her refuge. At first it had been a home away from home. The place where she spent her days and nights in a trailer planning. Dreaming.

  As a result of her childhood, Jill had learned to stand back and watch others live a full life. Even years after strenuous physical activity was no longer an issue, she’d been stuck in the pattern. Sure, she’d played volleyball in college. She jogged occasionally and hit the gym, but when it came to most sports, she still admired from afar but never engaged. Until Sam had taken her out on the zip line at night, she hadn’t realized how much she’d been missing. Too caught up in paperwork and planning, she’d almost been the last one to enjoy her vision come to life. But Sam had shown her that and so much more.

  If she wanted to eventually enjoy this park, she would have to hire someone to help spread the workload around. Just as her board of investors had suggested. Letting go of a little bit of control wouldn’t hurt at this point. It was time to stop working so hard and enjoy life for a while. Because that’s what regular people did. Also, she had to stop all the affirmations and pretending she was this awesome fearless person and just be that woman.

  She stopped home long enough to change and check in with Shakira—working on her ability to someday become a dog’s mom—and then headed up the hill. Sam would like to hear the good news, no doubt. Her buddy. In the short time he’d been here he’d made himself invaluable. She couldn’t do this without him anymore.

  If he still held back from her, and she could see that in his deep blue eyes that held a pain and wisdom beyond his years, she could wait for his trust. He needed healing, and she had a feeling he would get it here. This beautiful place would do it for him. This land. This former hill of wildfires and wildflowers. Of ridges, a lake and rough terrain. Made for hearty people like Sam—and Jill.

  Sam’s trailer was dark but she knocked on it anyway. No answer.

  “He went on that ten-mile night hike he’s been talking about,” Julian said from behind her.

  Jill startled and turned to him. “What hike?”

  “Thought he told you. He’s had this great idea for an excursion hike. An overnight stay, you know, real good stuff,” Julian said.

  Ty walked up, hands in his pockets. “You’re going to be able to charge a lot of money for something like that.”

  “Night hikes?” Why hadn’t he told her that? Was he planning to spring it on her at the last minute? Another surprise?

  She could barely keep up with him. Who hiked at night? As if they could read her thoughts, or more than likely her terrified expression, Julian added, “You definitely don’t need to worry about him. He’s got it covered.”

  “When is he coming back?”

  “Don’t know but probably sometime tonight. He left before sunset,” Julian said.

  Okay, okay. No need to panic. Because it was pushing ten o’clock didn’t mean anything. He might even choose to spend the night out there on the farthest part of the ridge just to see if it would be feasible to bring a group out there. That made sense. Too bad he hadn’t shared his thoughts with her.

  “We were just going to go into town to the Silver Saddle,” Ty said, and then waggled his eyebrows. “Want to come along, boss?”

  “No thanks, guys. You go and have fun. I’ll just hang out here and wait.”

  “Oh yeah, also the comm system isn’t working again, but he took his phone,” Julian said. “And he told us the way he was headed. Drew a map.”

  The communication system was stil
l not working? She’d logged numerous calls into the company and on each visit they’d fixed it only for it to go down again. Another issue to deal with.

  “Which way was he headed?” Jill asked.

  Julian came back with a roughly drawn map in Sam’s handwriting. “Should we stay with you?”

  “No, it’s fine. I’m sure, like you said, he’ll be back later tonight.”

  The men took off, Michael running to hop in the truck at the last minute.

  It was good that Sam had drawn a map of his direction. Smart. He’d taken his phone with him, also smart. Problem was, it probably didn’t work too well that far out on the ridge. Hence the need for a comm system. She tried dialing him anyway and got no answer. Of course, that didn’t mean he was out of reception. Maybe he’d turned the phone off to save the battery. Or maybe he’d lost his phone when a mountain lion attacked him and ate his phone. Now he could be lying in a pool of blood. A big cat circling him, waiting to move in for the final kill.

  She needed to get a grip.

  He could handle himself. Jill realized that. But she couldn’t stop thinking that she wanted, needed, to see that he was okay. She had a map of the direction he’d set out. Thanks to Sam, she was keyed up and ready for adventure. He’d said she was brave. Well, maybe tonight she would prove it to herself. She gathered supplies though she realized Sam would have taken everything he needed. Except a way to communicate. Not entirely his fault, but damn him.

  After she’d changed out of her pumps and power suit, she stuffed a backpack with water, flashlights, matches, gloves and a first aid kit, then she took a deep breath and phoned Ryan. She forced some false calm into her voice. “Hey, you. How’s it going?”

  “What happened?”

  Leave it to Ryan to read her emotions even across the cell towers. “Nothing much. I’m just going for a little night hike and if I don’t call you back in...say three hours, then send a search party. ’K?”