by Inez Kelley
“The continuing guest lecture thing is fine, no problems with that. The buffer zone is smart, should have thought about it myself. Those two I’m on board with one hundred percent. The heli-logging is another thing. The terrain doesn’t call for it. I’m not going to lay out that kind of capital needlessly.”
“Webb, please. The Falls is the only state park in this region. Logging is going to hurt the scenic draw, which will impact their reservation income. Those kinds of operations can’t withstand a financial loss for long.”
“I’m running a business, not a charity.”
“It’s just money, Webb. Green paper. This is bigger than the dollar. It’s the right thing to do.” Jonah leaned forward, reducing the distance between them. “Progress is a wonderful thing but not if it costs us the past. Think of how the media is going to view it. You have the chance to do something most lumbermen don’t. Educate while people are listening. Show the country that lumber companies aren’t the bad guys.”
Webb scrubbed his face with his palms. The scar beside his glass eye stood out, whiter than the darker hue of his skin. His narrowed eyes locked onto Jonah. He sat back, every inch a CEO, and braced his hands on the glossed wood table.
“Dad always said you could sell stink to a skunk. Fine. I’ll authorize Shaw to heli-log the north face of the first line of ridges closest to the park. The rest is traditional harvesting but that should prevent the worst visual impact for the Falls. It’s the best I can offer.”
Relief was sweet and Jonah sagged. He’d done it. He’d taken Zury’s move and one-upped it, this time to benefit everyone. “Thanks. This is going to work, you wait and see.”
“Are we done now? I’d like to go back to bed before sunrise.”
“Just one more thing.” Jonah pulled several folded papers from under his sweatshirt. His pulse raced as he slid the top three pages across the table.
Webb drained his coffee cup then picked up the pages, holding them at an angle as he didn’t have his glasses. Just as Jonah was about to offer to go grab them, Webb’s head snapped up. “You’re out of your fucking mind.”
“Possibly. I’m also in love with Zury.”
“What?”
His mug was cold and he shoved it aside. “I love Zury. This is important to her so it’s important to me. I know there’s absolutely nothing in it for you or Hawkins but I’m still asking. Your father had faith in me and I’ve done my damnedest to live up to that faith. I made this company my family, my life, for nearly twenty years. So yes, I’m asking for a favor.”
“That’s a pretty speech if you’re asking for a raise but this—” Webb flicked the proposal with his index finger. “This is crazy. No way.”
Jonah laid the second paper in front of him.
“Resignation?” Webb shouted. “What the fuck are you doing, Jonah?”
“What I have to do.” A lump in his throat refused to be swallowed and it made his voice husky. “You’re my friend, Webb, more than my boss. I need this. See, I fucked up and lost her. This weekend’s shown me that I can’t afford to lose another woman I love. So I’ve got to try to get her back. If I can hand her this, I might have a chance. If I can’t, at least I can choose not to be part of it. I can get another job. But I can’t get another Zury.”
For long, tense minutes, they stared. A twitch jumped under Webb’s eye but Jonah refused to blink. He meant every word on that paper. He was walking out of here with something to offer Zury. But leaving the company he’d called home for so long wasn’t without pain.
Webb thrust to a stand and slammed his mug in the sink with a loud crack. “You’re putting me in a bad spot here, Jonah. This has nothing to do with friendship. This is business.”
“Business. Zury’s been on how many damn networks in the past few days, talking you and Hawkins Hardwood up? Anderson Fucking Cooper, Webb. That’s national. She’s doing you a favor and making you look good. How often does that shit happen in normal business life?”
Timber closed his eyes as Jonah scratched behind his silky ears. The dog’s simple pleasure contrasted with the aching void in his heart.
“Haven’t you ever loved a woman with everything in you? I have to do this, no matter what it costs me.”
Webb looked away, his gaze focusing on the silent coffeepot. With a sigh, he picked up the folded resignation letter and tore it in two. “You and Zury are a good match, both pains in my ass. Go get your girl back, pretty boy.”
* * *
from: Jonah Alcott
to: Karen Romano
date: Tue, August 05
subject: Hickory (Wolf) Tree
mailed-by: HHIservers.com
Ms. Romano,
Please advise Ms. Castellano of the recent harvesting schedule change occurring in the Black Cherry Canyon. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the acreage designated as B-6, on Harper’s Mountain’s eastern slope is set for harvest beginning tomorrow, August 6th. I am aware of Ms. Castellano’s fondness for a certain hickory tree on this property and felt compelled to alert her to this action. Per safety regulations, no one will be allowed on the grounds while logging is active.
Best,
Jonah Alcott
Director of Public Relations
Hawkins Hardwood Inc.
BCC/Falls Liaison
(304) 555-6132
Summer grasses crunched under her boots as Zury hurried through the forest. Anger fueled every step. It wasn’t fair. First she’d lost Jonah, and now his freaking company had jiggled the schedule and were going to cut down her abuelo tree far ahead of schedule.
It had been eleven days since she’d rolled away with her heart in pieces. She’d kept things together until after the news conference. Kenny wheeled her to his old Buick, where he stopped and crossed his massive arms over his generous belly, concern written across his dark face. His close-cropped Afro had hints of gray sprinkled through it that glistened in the hospital parking lot lights.
“You okay, Frogface?”
Unable to speak, she just shook her head. Her tears erupted with a loud snort. He wrapped her in a hug and squeezed until she couldn’t cry anymore because she couldn’t breathe. The front of his shirt was wet when he let her go. She went straight into Lorena’s arms.
DeWayne rubbed her back. “Don’t you cry, Z-baby. If a man makes you cry, he isn’t worth your laughs.”
“Oh hush up, DeWayne,” Lorena snapped. “She’s had enough to deal with today. Let’s just get her home and sort through everything later. My girl needs her sleep.”
She’d slept. Lorena had plied her with mounds of home cooking, plenty of tissues and enough space to let her regroup. Days slid together in a smear of interviews and police questions. Her scratched-up feet healed. But her heart stubbornly seemed resistant to any cure.
Jonah must have realized how narrowly he’d escaped the whole Love-entrapment thing because he hadn’t called or texted her once. He apparently was back to work because he’d corresponded with Karen about the Black Cherry Canyon project and its impact on the Falls, but until today had never mentioned her name.
She wondered how he was doing, if the bullet graze on his side would scar. He’d played his injuries off as so very minor but Kenny had told her the truth. Knowing Jonah had suffered so much tore her heart in eleventy-billion pieces. So many times her hand had reached for the phone only to snap back at the last
second.
She jerked a long weed out of the ground and twisted it, wishing it was his neck. He could have missed her a little. They had spent long hours together for weeks, braved the hell of his mother’s funeral together, made love together, faced a gun-toting psychopath together, ese maldito loco.
Together. A familiar lump rose in her throat. They weren’t that anymore. Maybe it was no big deal to him but it had been everything to her. It hurt that her leaving hadn’t rated even the smallest amount of regret for him.
Dick. Cabrón. Asshole. Qué clase de comemierda. Jerk.
Lowering her head, she trekked toward her abuelo tree. Jonah called it a wolf tree, said the massive hickory was sucking the life from the surrounding glen. It would soon be nothing but sawdust, burned in a kiln fire to dry more lumber to gain a higher profit. Tears blurred her vision.
“Sweet Christ on the cross, it took you long enough.”
Zury stopped, her knees slamming into a locked position. Jonah sat on a blanket at the base of her abuelo tree, long lean legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle. ¡Ay Diosito mío! How could he look better now than he ever had? His jeans had a hole in the knee, his red T-shirt had a smear of dirt along the hem, and there was mud caked onto the bottom of his hiking boots.
“I sent that fucking email at nine-fifteen this morning and it’s after six. What’d you do, forget how to get here?”
The short hairs on her nape bristled in ire. What crawled up his ass? “Some of us work for a living, Slick. We had three groups of scouts visiting today and four prospective wedding clients. I was busy. And what the hell are you doing here?”
He plucked a blade of grass and stuck it between his lips. “I have Hawkins Hardwood’s final concessions to present to you. You either take or leave it—it doesn’t really matter at this point. I’m just doing my job.”
She fought the urge to find a big rock and chuck it at his head. “You should have just sent them to Karen.”
“Sorry, darlin’. My assignment as park liaison is to act as a go-between for Hawkins and Black Cherry Falls State Park. That means you. Not your flighty assistant who can’t look at me without blushing. What the hell did you tell her anyway? I’ve never seen a woman turn that many shades of pink.”
A warmth that didn’t come from the sun burst onto her cheeks. Oops. She knew that girly gab session over lunch had gone too far, but she’d been missing him so much and reliving their hike to Lover’s Leap. Still, it served him right for being a total ass.
A gust of wind hit her cheeks, tugging her hair away from her face. It smelled of him, of heat and woods and crisp clean air. Dios, she couldn’t wait for winter, for when the chill in the air would erase the scent of him from the mountains. At least for a few months. Her memories, however, would last a lifetime. A lifetime without him.
Pain gripped her heart. “Jonah, stop. I can’t do this with you.” Damn her voice for wavering. “It hurts, okay?”
His eye twitched but his jaw was rock solid. “This is business. Just business. Whatever we had is over. You walked out on me...rolled, whatever. You still left. So let’s just do our jobs now.”
Jamming her hands into her shorts pockets, she stomped toward his blanket. “Fine. Tell me the concessions and then leave.”
“We’re not in bed or on Falls property. You can’t order me around.”
“Maybe not but I can tell you where to go. Pack sunscreen.”
“How about you can the smart mouth and sit down so we can discuss this without me straining my neck? I still have a goose egg from Redbear’s pistol-whipping.”
She refused to let guilt or sympathy leak onto her face. The bland smile didn’t match his blazing eyes. He was up to something, she’d bet her last nickel. She stood her ground. “What are you doing out here? We could have done this by phone or email, at my office or yours. Why did you come here?”
“Sit down. This is my meeting and I call the shots.”
“Comemierda.” But she sat. He looked entirely too comfortable leaning against the massive twisted hickory. The wind had ruffled his hair into disarray but everything else about him was relaxed. A blue cooler sat off to his side that she hadn’t noticed. At his knee, his smartphone and a set of earbuds waited to be picked up. A heavy accordion file folder stood upright just off the faded quilt. She fixed her eyes there.
Business. Do her job and walk away. The harvesting of the Canyon had only just begun a few months prior. As time went by, she’d have less and less dealings with Hawkins, with Jonah. There would be time enough for her heart to heal, to forget how he smelled of summer wind through the leaves, to forget the butterscotch taste of his mouth, to forget the steady beat of his heart beneath her cheek.
“How are your feet?”
That question, asked in that low, intimate tone, was so not business. Still she shrugged. “Better. How’s the gunshot wound?”
“Really only hurts if I move too fast. All the stitches are out.”
“Good.”
Uncomfortable silence pressed down. Zury refused to look at him and he offered no other conversation. The distant sounds of singing birds filled the sky.
Hands that had touched every intimate part of her reached for the folder, pulling out a single sheet of paper. “This is the overview for discussion purposes. All the legal and contractual paperwork is in this file, which you can take with you.”
She nodded once, her lips pressed tight.
“First, to reduce physical interaction and provide a barrier between your guests or employees with any logging crew and equipment, Hawkins agrees to leave a buffer zone of approximately fifty feet around the perimeter of park land. We request an easement and final authority if any trees in that zone show signs of parasitic nests, disease or other naturally occurring phenomena that could affect the Canyon harvesting and profit margin. Agreed?”
He’d mentioned the bones of this clause before so she merely dipped her head in agreement.
“Good. Second, Hawkins agrees to sponsor monthly forestry lectures, at their cost, to the park for purposes of education at the set budget of twenty-five thousand annually. This includes but is not limited to funded scavenger hunts and nature treks during your spring-summer-fall months aimed at your youth programs and outsourced by interning forestry majors at WVU. The details of these will be coordinated through me and approved by you. You and your staff are responsible for organizing and planning said events and providing an outline of everything needed at least ninety days prior.”
The generosity dropped her jaw. It was a completely new program that would dovetail into their existing curriculum but was covered financially by Hawkins. He’d mentioned a few of those ideas but she’d never expected ongoing educational support. Her mind scrambled with ideas and plans. “That sounds wonderful.”
“I know, my idea.” He shot her a wink then looked back to his paper. “Close your mouth darlin’. You look like you’re catching flies.”
She snapped her jaw shut and narrowed her eyes.
“Third, standing stem harvesting will be employed on the north face of the closest mountains ringing the state park—”
“Wait. What’s that?”
Amusement turned his eyes sky blue. “Helicopters. The loggers go in on foot or four-wheelers, delimb the tree—that’s what climbers do, remember?—and a specialized grappling helicopter hauls the logs out by air. Fewer roads are needed and less heavy equipment is present in the forest. This’ll be scheduled in the winter
s, too, when you have your lowest reservation numbers. The visual impact for the Falls will be as minimal as possible.”
All her resistance bled away and her throat clenched. If the Canyon had to be logged, this was the best possible way for the Falls to survive it. She’d seen the woodlands spread out below Lover’s Leap, couldn’t tell the difference from a distance between which had been harvested and which hadn’t. Jonah had listened to her. He knew the up-close impact was her biggest concern, and he’d addressed it and offered a protection plan for her park.
Why couldn’t he be so giving with his heart? She nodded and looked away as her vision blurred.
“Oh, and you have your Highland Winter Jamboree in December, right? We can schedule it so that the crews work elsewhere in the Canyon during that month so you don’t have huge trees flying overhead. That’s about it. There are other minor details but nothing surprising. If you agree to these concessions, Hawkins will require a few things from you.”
She’d dance naked down Main Street to preserve her home. “Like what?”
“You continue to publicly renounce and distance yourself from any environmental terrorist groups, namely the Terran Guards.”
Just the name brought back horrid images. Her shoulders shook with a violent shudder. “Eric Redbear is still out there. I have nightmares about him. I don’t want a damn thing to do with him or his band of animals.”
“Nightmares? Bad ones?” A tender look softened his face, his lips turning down and carving lines into his cheeks.
“They’re not a picnic.”
“Have you talked to someone?”
“No. I promised Lorena I would if they keep up much longer.”
