Looking up, she saw Karen Evanston coming out of the restaurant. She hadn’t seen her since high school. Around five-seven with long dark hair and blue eyes that were darker than Kendall’s, she hadn’t changed much.
“Hi!” Kendall hugged her old friend.
“I heard you were back.” Karen reclined and looked away from her to glance at Decker. “Why haven’t you called?”
“I’m sorry. I’ve just been busy. I planned to see if we could get together for lunch sometime.”
“Let’s do plan something. I’ve missed you. You’re working for your dad now?”
“Yes.”
“I always envied how close you were to your parents.”
“Must be an only child thing,” Kendall said.
Her friend glanced once again at Decker.
“This is Decker Colton,” Kendall said.
“So, all the rumors are true?” Karen’s eyes brightened with excitement. “You’re getting married?”
“Well—”
“Yes, we are,” Decker said.
“An...arranged marriage?” Karen hesitantly said. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
“It’s not really an arranged marriage. Nobody is forcing me. And we haven’t officially decided.”
“We’ve set a date,” Decker interjected with a grin.
Karen looked on in amusement. “Yikes. That’s pretty quick. How did this all come about?”
“Our parents thought we would be a good match,” Kendall answered.
“That sounds so...medieval.” Karen laughed lightly, clearly thrilled with this juicy bit of news. “And maybe romantic. I remember you two from high school. I always wondered why you never got together back then, even though Kendall wasn’t popular. None of us were.”
Apparently a lot of people thought that, those who knew them that long.
“I married Ted Nelson,” she added.
Ted Nelson had been one of the biggest nerds in school. Karen hadn’t been into academics. She was more of a social creature.
“Wow,” Kendall said.
“Yeah. He’s a spacecraft engineer. I stay home with the kids. We have two.” She dug into her purse and produced her phone and navigated to a photo of two adorable kids. “Four and two.”
Kendall took another look at her old friend. In a beige dress and holding a designer purse, she was apparently living well. Her husband must make a good living. Kendall had never doubted Ted would be successful.
“They’re cute,” Kendall said, smiling warmly.
“Funny, I always thought you would end up with someone like Ted. I suppose you feel more comfortable with your own kind.”
Her smile faded. Kendall had always suspected Karen had been jealous of her wealthy upbringing.
“Decker isn’t like his father,” she said, glancing over at Decker’s entertained observation.
“No, I meant money.”
“You don’t seem to be struggling much.”
Karen smiled wide. “No, but we aren’t millionaires.”
Kendall didn’t respond. What could she say?
With somewhat of a haughty look, Karen said, “Well, it was good to see you again, Kendall. I should get going. The kids are with their nanny.”
Kendall said goodbye and watched her friend walk down the sidewalk with a high head.
“If the rumors haven’t spread like wildfire yet, they will now,” Kendall said.
“I’m not worried about that. What does concern me is that man in the car. You seemed to recognize him.”
Kendall sighed. Apparently he wasn’t going to let her get away with not telling him something. The thing was, she didn’t know if there was anything to tell.
“I thought he was parked outside the bridal shop my mother and I went to the other day,” she said. “Maybe I imagined it.”
“Maybe you didn’t.”
That disturbed her. “Why would someone be watching me?”
“Perhaps to track your movements. Get to know your patterns. Discover where you live.”
“But why?” She could think of no one who would do that. She had no enemies. Any man she broke up with hadn’t been hurt. It had to be random. Some creep who’d seen her and now had a fixation on her.
“One more reason you should move in with me.”
“He hasn’t done anything. He’s just a stalker.”
“Just a stalker?” he bit out. “We should report him to the police.”
“And tell them what, Decker? I don’t even know who the man is.”
“You can describe him. What kind of car is he in?”
She furrowed her brow in concentration. “It was older, like a faded tan four-door Taurus or something.”
“That’s distinctive. How old? Eighties? Nineties?”
“Probably nineties,” she answered.
“All right. We’ll tell the police after lunch and then tomorrow after you take me hiking to see your wolves, then you’re coming to stay with me.”
“I am not.”
“One night.”
She hesitated. They’d already had sex. What harm would it do to stay one more night with him? While she still didn’t like his forcefulness, the temptation won her over.
“I’ll think about it,” she said.
“That’s what I like to hear.” He pulled her into his arms and dropped a tender kiss on her forehead. “I just want to keep you safe, that’s all.”
“I know,” she murmured, warmth flooding through her at the genuine concern in his voice.
“And I’m also not opposed to testing out this arrangement, either. I think we need more practice.”
At his teasing tone and look in his eyes, Kendall gave him a soft slap on his chest. “Whoa there, big fella.”
“Don’t you want to do some more testing?” he asked.
She almost blurted that she did. “Maybe.”
“I’ll take a maybe.”
* * *
The next morning, Decker picked Kendall up in a Jeep Grand Cherokee. And not just any Cherokee. This was the seven-hundred-horsepower SUV, worth the vicinity of ninety-nine thousand dollars. He liked his automobiles and liked even more how Kendall appreciated its beauty, a sleek medium-dark blue machine with the tires that looked like paws for the road. She walked all the way around it while he waited at the passenger door.
At the passenger door, she stopped. “Very impressive.”
“Who says four-wheeling can’t be done in luxury.”
She sank down onto the plush gray leather seat and he shut her door and went around to the driver’s side.
Inside, he started driving. “Any sign of your secret admirer?”
The lightness in her expression faded some. “No. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”
He would like to remedy that.
* * *
Decker drove on a narrow, somewhat rugged dirt road to a small parking area at the head of a hiking trial, relatively near where Kendall had seen the wolves. As they emerged from the vehicle, she told him they’d hike for about a mile and then get off the trail. From there she’d estimated it was another three or four miles.
“They roam a lot,” she explained, “but their den must be close to this location because I’ve seen them in the area more than once.”
She went on to say that wolves roamed great distances while hunting for food.
“Even near people?” Decker asked. “How busy is this trail?”
“I doubt they ever get near this trail,” she answered. “They must know humans are present.”
He followed behind, enjoying the view of her rear in her breathable taupe pants. She carried a backpack and so did he, filled with all the necessities of a day hike. The weather had cooperated. They had a clear blue sky beyond the canopy of pine trees and a fore
casted upper-fifty-degree high for the day. He’d be removing his jacket before long.
They had the trail to themselves, as well. No other cars had been in the parking area. This trail was pretty remote and steep in some places.
In a clearing, Kendall stopped and looked around. “Wind is gentle and coming from the southwest. We need to stay downwind from them.”
“They’ve never seen you?”
“No. I don’t want them to.” That made sense. Wolves were solitary creatures aside from their close-knit pack.
The next time she stopped, she inspected a patch of aspen trees and then veered off the trail. She kept studying the landscape, changing course every so often.
“Can I ask you something?” He had to know why she’d agreed to set a wedding day but was so reluctant to stay the night with him. Granted, he’d been the one to set the date, but she hadn’t disagreed that night at his parents’ mansion. She’d looked a bit startled but hadn’t said a thing. And when she had left, he’d never forget the way she’d looked back at him as she went through the front doors, as though tantalized.
“Sure.” She didn’t turn back to look at him as she continued to hike.
“What was that man like who you lived with after college?”
“Gabe? He was smart and quiet.”
“Quiet?”
“Yeah. We didn’t talk much. I mean, we did, but he wasn’t the kind to carry on long conversations, a ‘just the facts’ kind of person.”
“What did you have in common?”
“We had similar degrees in college. We both loved wildlife and preserving the environment. He cared about things like that just the way I did.” She hiked without talking a few steps. “I still don’t know what went wrong.”
“Did he tell you he loved you?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Did you believe him?”
“Yes.”
“He must have loved you then.” Decker thought a moment. “What did the two of you do together? For fun.”
“We did things like this and we went to museums and festivals. We did a lot together. He seemed to really understand me.”
He could tell it bothered her not to know what had caused Gabe to stray. “Did he give you a reason?”
She shook her head. “Not really. He said he made a mistake sleeping with the other woman, that it didn’t mean anything.” She hiked a few more steps. “But I knew I could never forgive him, and even if I could, it would never be the same again.”
Decker could relate to that.
“Was he intimidated by your family’s wealth?” he asked.
With that she stopped and turned to face him. “He said he wasn’t.”
“Saying and believing are two different things.” Decker wouldn’t be surprised if that had been a key factor in their demise. “Be grateful it ended when it did. Gabe may have loved you but he might not have never adjusted to you having more money than he’d ever make in a lifetime.”
“But he wasn’t...” She averted her face.
“What was his upbringing like?” Decker asked.
Now Kendall lowered her head. “He grew up poor.” She lifted her head and met his eyes. “Single mom. Never knew his father. That’s why he worked so hard to put himself through college, so he could line himself up with a good-paying job and never be poor again. I admired him for that.”
“And you still should. Unless he was only using you for money. I’ve run into that a few times. Eventually I learned how to recognize the signs.”
Kendall didn’t respond right away, as though mulling that over. Then she said, “No.” She shook her head. “I don’t believe he was that kind of man.”
“Then you’re lucky. Hang on to the good memories of him and forget the bad.”
She looked into his eyes some more, her demeanor softening with appreciation. “You’re pretty insightful, Decker Colton.”
“Naw, just experienced with human nature.”
With a slight smile she glanced back at him as she continued to hike.
About a mile and a half later, Kendall halted and stooped. When Decker came to her side, he saw wolf tracks in the snow.
“We need to proceed slowly,” she said.
He followed her lead, excited to see live gray wolves. He’d be as quiet as a field mouse to have that privilege.
Kendall came to the top of a hill and stayed behind a group of trees and a boulder. She stopped and lifted her hand. Decker waited for her go ahead. Had she spotted the wolves? He looked through the trees and didn’t see anything. He stopped behind her and looked over her shoulder. In the distance, a group of gray wolves had gathered on a patch slope exposed to the sun where the snow had melted. The largest of the six were higher up the slope, one lying on dead grass and the other standing above, as though keeping watch.
Two of the smaller wolves growled and nipped and bounded into each other for some rough play. The other two finished eating a carcass the pack must have killed.
“The biggest ones are the mated pair,” Kendall whispered. “The female is lying down. The others are their offspring.”
The wolves were a family unit. Decker watched the two youngest, the smallest of the pack, stop playing to go over to the carcass. The other two let them take bites. He imagined his and Kendall’s kids playing and was surprised by the strength of his desire to one day witness that.
The male sniffed the air, his head in Kendall and Decker’s direction.
Decker watched the magnificent creature walk toward them, smelling the air. Then his head lowered and he growled, baring teeth. The female sprang to her feet and looked in their direction.
“Don’t move,” she cautioned.
Kendall didn’t have to worry. He’d rather not be attacked by a hundred-and-eighty-pound wolf. This male looked about five feet long and thirty-two inches tall at the shoulder. He was huge. And healthy.
The female was smaller at about a hundred fifty, but she was just as impressive.
“They look like their thriving here,” he whispered.
She nodded with a smile, not taking her eyes off the wolves.
The male trotted toward the carcass and the four offspring.
“We better go,” Kendall said.
Reluctantly, Decker left the scene and noticed Kendall hiked farther away from the trail and not toward it.
“Where are we going?” He hoped they’d try for another view of the wolves.
“I just want to look around a little. I’ve suspected for some time that their den is somewhere near here.” She scanned the landscape. “I’m pretty sure the female is pregnant.”
He’d like to see her pregnant.
She stopped and pointed. “Look.”
He stopped close to her and saw a large boulder in a stand of pine trees and aspen. But he was more aware of her. He turned his head and smelled her hair, wanting to run his hands through it and then turn her head and kiss her.
“It’s their den,” Kendall said, turning and seeing him looking at her.
A moment passed where he thought he would kiss her, but then she pointed.
“Look.”
He did and saw a small opening at the base of the boulder. On a south-facing slope, the den would be drier and warmer.
“I wish we could get closer,” she murmured.
She must not want to put the scent of humans anywhere near their den, especially since the female would be delivering a litter soon.
“This mating pair is young.” She faced him. “Gray wolves live up to about thirteen years in the wild. This pair likely dispersed from their natal pack. Typically they disperse from fifty to a hundred miles from their natal pack.”
“Why do they disperse?” he asked, admiring her passion for what she did.
“They’re strong alphas. These two probably disp
ersed to find a mate and their own territory to start a new pack.”
“How soon after we get married do you want to start having kids?” He knew it was an abrupt question, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.
Her mouth dropped open.
“All this talk about mating pairs is making my mind wander,” he added.
That spread a smile over her face. “We can decide after we’re married.”
She started back down the mountain and he walked beside her.
“Why do wolves howl?” he asked to divert talk about kids.
“I’m not sure. I’m not sure if anyone could answer that with any certainty. It might be to signal territories. It might just be a check-in with other packs. I do know it’s a myth that they howl at the moon.”
He chuckled. “Only in fiction, huh.”
“Only in fiction.”
“We should take a break for lunch,” he said.
He hadn’t told her he had something special planned.
“Okay.” She looked around.
“Let’s hike back down a little ways and then stop.”
“Okay. That’d be good. Farther from the pack.”
“Yes.”
Almost thirty minutes later, he spotted the portable gazebo and staff. He’d arranged for them to set up in an open area, far enough up the mountain so they’d get there by one or two in the afternoon, yet close enough to the parking area to make it easier to set up. They had SUVs and small trailers and it looked like they’d pulled it off just as he’d imagined.
“What is that?” Kendall asked. “Is someone having a party up here? That’s odd. I’ve never seen that before.”
“That’s lunch,” he said.
She stopped and gaped at him. “What?”
“It’s our lunch. I hope you like lobster rolls with tarragon mayonnaise. We’ll start with shrimp cocktail and a Caesar salad. I figured we’d be hungry.”
She gaped at him some more. “You can stop pulling out all the stops now, you know. I like you enough to keep seeing you.”
“Yes, but do you like me enough to marry me at the end of the month?”
Without responding, she walked toward the gazebo.
Colton's Convenient Bride Page 7
