VANCOUVER: The Gem of Canada Is Aglow with Four Romances

by Gail Sattler

  With no sign of Garrett when she arrived at the campsite, she made herself a sandwich and enjoyed her lunch in peace.

  “There you are. I’ve been looking for you. Where were you?”

  “I went for a walk to feed the squirrels.”

  Sunlight glinted off Garrett’s sunglasses as he crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his shoulders slightly back. He would have presented an intimidating stance, if she hadn’t remembered how tender his embrace could be. “I didn’t know where you were. You were gone a long time.”

  “So?”

  His frown deepened. “I was worried.”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “I wanted to be alone and check out Mother Nature. You’ve been very nice to keep an eye on me, but you don’t have to check up on me every minute of every day.”

  Garrett lifted his hat, swiped his hair back, then replaced his hat. “Maybe I have been overdoing it a bit. I apologize.”

  All the harsh words she nearly let loose were forgotten at the sight of his smile. For such an annoying man, he really had a kind smile.

  “I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to be rude. You’ve been very kind, and I do appreciate it. I guess I haven’t been myself lately.”

  “I can understand that. Still want to go to the beach?”

  She opened her mouth to protest, but the words didn’t come out. It wasn’t as if she had anything better to do. She nodded. “Sure. It’ll only take me a minute to change.”

  They walked to the beach in silence at first, but soon Garrett started explaining things he probably thought might interest her along their way, pointing things out in the strangest places. Roberta said very little, content to listen. Some of the things he said were interesting.

  Garrett couldn’t help himself. Towering above her as they walked side by side, he tried to be a gentleman and not gawk at Robbie in her bathing suit. Most women would have draped their towels over their shoulders as they walked, but Robbie wasn’t most women. She wrapped the towel around her waist like a skirt, and instead of her dainty little sandals, she wore a tiny pair of pristine white sneakers and little white ankle socks with baby pink pompoms on the back. He felt like Grizzly Adams clomping along beside her in his favorite hiking boots.

  Instead of staring, all he could do was look around and talk about points of interest along the way. He also talked about things that weren’t very interesting. Anything. Plants. Animals. Birds. He wasn’t usually such a motormouth, but he had to do something, anything rather than stare.

  He turned his head as he pointed and explained about a particular species of squirrel that chattered at them in the treetops. He made the mistake of glancing at her when she asked a question. Garrett squeezed his eyes shut for a second and pointedly kept his focus straight ahead.

  The near-deserted beach stretched out before them. Garrett assured her that tomorrow would be another story. In a few hours, people would start arriving as they got off work for the weekend.

  “Enjoy it while you can.” He sat on the grass and leaned back, resting his weight on his palms, his arms stretched out straight behind him, his ankles crossed.

  “Aren’t you coming in?”

  “Nope. I’m on duty.” For a second, he almost hoped the expression on her face was one of disappointment, but she simply shrugged her shoulders, untied the towel from her waist, then laid it out on the ground. She ran into the water, then at the right depth, lifted her arms over her head and dove in the rest of the way.

  Robbie shot up out of the water, glistening in the sunlight as a spray of water splashed around her. She arched her back, tipped her head backward, and used both hands to swipe her wet hair from her face, then stretched her hands to the sky, radiating total freedom.

  He forced himself to blink and added up the hours until he was off duty.

  She smiled and waved and dove back in. Garrett forced himself to start breathing again. The next time she came up, she started walking toward the shore, so he stood and walked to the water’s edge to meet her. “This is wonderful!” she called from the waist-deep water.

  Rather than stand there staring like an idiot, Garrett turned his head and noticed a movement in the designated picnic section. He raised his hands to his mouth to call out to her. “There’s someone with a dog in the restricted area. I’ve got to go kick them off. I’ll be right back.”

  Roberta waved as he walked away, then turned around to dive into the cool water once again. She’d never been swimming alone, but with Garrett on the shore, she didn’t feel alone, until he left. She swam back and forth a few times, then stood still to catch her breath.

  As she stood, she heard a child splashing nearby and turned to watch. A little boy about four years old played happily on a float toy in water that was almost shoulder height on herself. Worried, she glanced around the near vicinity, searching for a parent. She knew many children took swimming lessons, but no matter how well he swam, he shouldn’t be unsupervised, especially in water that would be over his head.

  The child tried to stand on the float toy, lost his balance, and fell off. The float toy bounced away atop the surface of the water. The little boy screamed and flailed his arms and started to go under.

  Roberta hurried to him and grabbed onto his little arm, pulling him out of the water. The child still kicked wildly and thrashed about.

  “It’s okay! I’ve got you!” she tried to call over his yelling. “Calm down! You’re fine now!” Frantically, Roberta tried to get a grip on his other arm, but couldn’t. The child continued to flail about and scream.

  Since the boy wouldn’t settle down and no one was on shore to come and help, Roberta carried the boy into more shallow water and left the stupid toy to float away.

  When she was finally at a point where the boy’s feet could touch the bottom, a man approached. He grabbed the child roughly from her arms. Ignoring her, the man swore at the little boy as he gave him a resounding smack, making the child scream even louder.

  She was about to rebuke the man for allowing the child to go into the deep water unsupervised when he turned, belched in her face, and made a crude comment. The stench of liquor almost made Roberta gag as he stepped closer. He shuffled the child to one arm and reached forward. Quickly, Roberta stepped back, but when she did, her toe hit a rock. For a split second she stopped moving, and in that split second, the man grabbed her wrist.

  Her throat tightened. “What are you doing? Let me go!” She glanced down to see a rather ugly tattoo on his wrist, then looked up into his face.

  The man sneered at her and said nothing. Roberta sucked in a deep breath to start screaming, when Garrett, fully dressed, appeared in the water beside the man.

  His lips were drawn into a tight line, and his cheeks were absolutely rigid. At the sight of Garrett, the child screamed louder. From Garrett’s expression, Roberta wondered if he was going to hit the disgusting man.

  “Let her go,” Garrett demanded, enunciating every word clearly and slowly. As Garrett stepped even closer, the man dropped her hand.

  Instead of leaving it at that, Garrett crossed his arms, squared his shoulders, and clenched his fists tight. “Now apologize to the lady. And you had better thank her for saving the child.”

  Instead of apologizing, the man yelled a string of obscenities in Garrett’s face.

  “That does it. Out of the water and get off the beach.” Garrett straightened to his full height, towering over the rude man by at least three or four inches. The wet shirt clung to his muscular body, emphasizing his height and the width of his powerful shoulders. Roberta sure wouldn’t have dared cross him.

  The man continued to swear and stomped out of the water, carrying the still-screaming child. Garrett followed him to the water’s edge and stood defiantly on the shoreline, watching the man pick up his belongings and pull the child roughly by the hand down the path to the campsites.

  Garrett walked to an untidy pile at the water’s edge containing his boots and socks and his walkie-talkie. He spok
e into it briefly, touched his soaking wet shorts and the clip on his belt where the unit usually rested, then held the walkie-talkie in his hand instead.

  Roberta ran to retrieve her towel and handed it to Garrett. He wiped his arms, but nothing else, and gave it back. “Let’s go sit down at the picnic table and put our shoes and socks back on.”

  By the time they reached the table, her feet were dry. They sat side by side as Roberta pulled on her socks and sneakers, then waited for Garrett to lace his hiking boots. He neatly folded the tops of his wool socks over the rims of the boots, picked up his walkie-talkie, and they walked to the path leading back to the campsites in silence.

  His shorts had stopped dripping, but were still soaking wet and hung on him like wet rags. Compared to the pristine ranger of this morning, his bedraggled appearance almost sent her into a burst of giggles.

  “I’ve got to get some dry clothes, then get back on duty. If it’s any consolation, I logged this and I’ll be filing an official report. Any minor infraction and his group will be asked to leave.”

  “Thank you, Garrett.” She didn’t know what else to say.

  He raised his hand and rested his fingers on her cheek. His head lowered, making Roberta think he was going to kiss her. Her heart pounded. Then, instead of what she expected, his eyebrows knotted above the sunglasses and he remained motionless. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  Roberta leaned into his hand, finding strange comfort in the roughness of his fingers against her cheek. She shuffled her feet to bring herself slightly closer to him, until she could sense the cool dampness radiating from him. Part of her wanted him to kiss her. Oddly shaken by the thought, she quickly rationalized it away. This latest incident must have upset her more than she realized. “You’ve asked me that more times in the last twenty-four hours than I can count.”

  He let out a sad little laugh. “Do these kind of disasters happen often to you?”

  “Never.”

  He shook his head as he gently ran his thumb along her temple. “I feel like this was my fault. If I had been there, watching, it wouldn’t have happened.”

  His presence on shore would probably have prevented the man from touching her, but that didn’t make anything Garrett’s fault. She was about to reassure him when his walkie-talkie beeped. His hand dropped, and she immediately missed his touch.

  “Excuse me.” He flipped the switch and raised the unit to his cheek. “Lamont.”

  Being so close, Roberta could still hear the caller’s voice. “We followed him like you said, and we’ve got him. Site 45. Left the fire at a full burn while he was gone, and there’s open liquor everywhere. Soon as you get here, we can evict him.”

  “I’m on my way,” Garrett replied. He reached down to the clip on his belt, but instead of clipping his walkie-talkie to it, he pulled his hand away when his fingers brushed the dampness. He held the unit at his side. “I’ve gotta go. I’ll be back when I can.”

  With that, he turned and left.

  Chapter 6

  Roberta had no idea if it was normal for someone to be kicked out of a campground, but she didn’t think so. She couldn’t tell if the victory made her proud or angry with Garrett. On the other hand, knowing the man had been kicked out and his weekend ruined gave her a tremendous amount of satisfaction. A stab of guilt then got the better of her. As a Christian, she was supposed to forgive him. She’d have to work on that.

  Before the arrival of Molly and her friend at suppertime, Roberta planned to rehearse a list of questions to find out what Molly could have said to cause Garrett to stick to her like glue.

  Until then, Roberta settled slowly and gently into the hammock with her book under her chin. At first she smiled, knowing Garrett wouldn’t come near her as long as she had the book in her hand, but then she kicked herself for thinking such a thing. Over the breakfast table, before he put his sunglasses on, she saw the slight discoloration of the bruise on Garrett’s cheek. Regardless of how she felt about him, she still felt guilty, and hoped no one, especially the other rangers, had seen it. She wanted to make it up to him, but didn’t know how.

  After lunch, Roberta prepared to enjoy the rest of the afternoon reading, but in the peace and quiet and the warmth of the summer day, she couldn’t keep her eyes open. She hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep until the sound of footsteps in the gravel jolted her awake.

  She opened her eyes to see Molly walking toward the tent-trailer.

  Slipping more gently out of the hammock this time, Roberta ran to greet Molly.

  “I’m so glad to see you! How’s your mom?”

  Molly sighed, then shrugged her shoulders. “She had a rough night, but she’s okay now. She really scared me this time. How about you? Did Garrett make it by a few times?”

  “Define ‘few,’ ” Roberta mumbled under her breath, then smiled at her friend.

  “Come on, we’re going to unload the boat first.”

  She followed Molly back up to the entranceway. A large canoe was strapped to the top of Molly’s friend’s car. Behind it was a small utility trailer, filled with boxes, oars, and camping paraphernalia.

  “Robbie, have you met Gwen before?”

  Gwen waved from behind the wheel. Considering they were twins, Gwen didn’t look that much like Garrett. While they shared the family resemblance, Gwen’s features were much finer. While not delicate, Gwen was beautiful, if not drop-dead gorgeous. And thin. And probably tall too. Her smile could have lit a banquet hall. Robbie smiled politely as Molly introduced them.

  They turned onto a dirt road labeled “restricted use only,” but Gwen assured her they had Garrett’s permission to be there. The smooth, pristine lake stretched out before them, and a small dock jutted over the water. Roberta stood back as Molly and Gwen heaved the canoe off the top of the car.

  Gwen tied the canoe securely to the dock, and they returned to their campsite. Gwen backed the car with the trailer into the right place the first time, and they unpacked it quickly. While Gwen went into the tent-trailer to make coffee, Molly sat with Robbie at the picnic table.

  Molly plunked her elbows on the table, rested her chin in her palms, and grinned. “What do you think of Garrett? He kind of keeps to himself, so this job in the middle of nowhere is perfect for him.”

  Roberta opened her mouth to ask if there were two rangers here named Garrett, but Molly spoke again before she had a chance.

  “Look, there’s a big rock on the table, with a piece of paper under it.” Molly threw the rock into the bush and picked up the note. “It’s from Garrett. Look at his handwriting, it gets worse every time I see it. No wonder he likes this job. No paperwork.” She briefly held the paper in front of Roberta’s face, as if that would give her time to analyze it, then snatched it back when Roberta held out her hand. “It says, ‘I came to check up on you, but you were armed so I didn’t wake you.’ ” Molly shook the paper, then looked at Roberta. “What does this mean?”

  Roberta blushed. She grabbed the paper out of Molly’s hand, crumpled it up, and threw it into the fire pit. “Nothing,” she mumbled. “Absolutely nothing.”

  Gwen appeared, setting three mugs of hot coffee on the table. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starved. Fresh air always makes me hungry. I’m going to start supper.” While Gwen assembled everything to make a fire, she glanced at the neatly stacked pile of wood. “I see you have a good stock pile here. Did you manage okay by yourself, Robbie?”

  “Oh, yes, Garrett helped me carry the firewood, then chopped up all this kindling for me.”

  Molly and Gwen looked at each other.

  “I’m glad Garrett helped you.” Gwen cleared her throat, then spoke in a more normal tone. “You did a good job setting up the tent-trailer too. Did it take you long?”

  “Probably. I must have taken longer than usual, but Garrett helped with the hard parts.”

  Gwen hesitated for an almost indiscernible moment. “I see you got Garrett’s hammock up. Comfortable, isn’t
it? You were sleeping when we got here, weren’t you?”

  “Yes, I was out like a light. Although I’m embarrassed to admit that the first time I tried it I fell out. Garrett showed me the right way to get in and out without hurting myself.”

  Gwen stopped playing with the wood and turned her head. It almost looked like she was going to say something, but instead she turned back to lighting the fire.

  The three of them barbecued a good supper over the fire. The dishes were nearly done when Roberta heard familiar heavy footsteps approaching in the gravel.

  “Good evening, ladies.”

  Gwen and Molly gaily chorused together, “Hi, Garrett!”

  Roberta grunted.

  “Enjoy your supper?”

  “Naturally. I cooked it,” Gwen replied. “Have you eaten?”

  “Yup.”

  “Good,” she continued. “Because we didn’t save you any.”

  Everyone laughed except Roberta.

  “The place is full, as I expected. The naturalist phoned in sick, so I’m going to have to do the programs this weekend. I won’t have much, if any, free time. In fact, I have to get moving right now to go set up.”

  Knowing he started at dawn, Roberta wondered if he was normally expected to work such long hours. She remembered reading some literature about information programs and slide shows to be presented throughout the weekend at varying times every day. Some of them had sounded very interesting, and judging from her one-sided conversation with Garrett on the path to and from the beach, he possessed a good knowledge about the flora and fauna of the area.

  Gwen laughed out loud. “Maybe we’ll go sit in the back and heckle you.”

  Garrett frowned. “Better not.”

  “Okay, we’ll sit in the front.”

  Garrett said nothing, but his frown deepened. Gwen smiled widely and pushed him on the arm. He stood solid as a rock. “Try and stop us.”

  Molly joined her teasing. “I’m starting to think of a million questions already.”