“We’re eating trail mix?” she asked, hoping her attempt at following Aimee’s advice to lighten up didn’t come across as too stupid-sounding.
Dan laughed. “I may be a cheap date, but hopefully not that cheap. Local burgers were all I could come up with. But for my lack of gourmet fare, I hope the ambiance will make up for it.”
“Ambiance?” Jana swallowed nervously. His inference that this was a date sent another rush of warmth through her system.
“Yeah. I hope you’ll like it.”
Curious, but afraid to ask what he was talking about, Jana sat on the bed and pulled on her hiking boots. While she tied them, Dan continued to survey the room. “I hope this is comfortable enough for you,” he said, pushing aside the curtain to look out the window. He had slung his pack over one shoulder again.
“This is really too much. I could have just as easily stayed in a motel room outside the park.” Jana stood, and grabbed for a wool sweater she’d hung in the closet earlier. She stared at Dan’s back. His shirt hugged him like a second skin along his shoulder blades, defining the muscles along either side of his spine. He turned, and her eyes quickly darted to the ground, hoping he hadn’t caught her staring.
“Ready?” he asked, and moved to open the door for her. She realized he hadn’t responded to her comment. He stood aside, and waited for her to step out of the room ahead of him. His hand lightly touched her lower back as he followed her into the hall. She suppressed a gasp. His warm hand might as well have been a hot iron as it sent coils of heat radiating up her back, down her legs, and around her waist, to settle in the pit of her stomach. She fumbled in her pocket for the room key.
With her nerves on edge at her heated reaction to his simple touch, Jana followed Dan as he walked briskly down the hall, through the lobby, and out into the bright early evening sunshine. He cut a sharp right along the sidewalk, and headed across the parking lot toward the visitor center. She broke into a jog to keep up with his long, confident strides.
“Where are we going?” she finally asked when they skirted the visitor center and headed for the boardwalks leading to the Upper Geyser Basin. He seemed to be in quite a hurry.
Dan slowed, and glanced over his shoulder. He waited for her to catch up with him.
“If we hurry, we’ll be able to see Old Faithful erupt.” There was a boyish enthusiasm in his voice. Aimee’s enthusiasm. No matter how many times she’d seen Old Faithful erupt, the idea of seeing it again had excited her every time.
“But we’re right here.” Jana swept her arm to their left. Old Faithful’s sinter cone stood like a solitary sentinel several hundred feet away, steam and occasional sprays of water belching from the opening. The benches that lined the boardwalk were already filled with people, but at this hour, the number of spectators was far fewer than earlier in the day.
Dan grinned, and his eyes lit up like a little boy at Christmas time. Jana’s mouth suddenly went dry.
“Have you ever seen it go off from Observation Point?” he asked.
Jana emitted a short laugh. “I’ve probably been on almost every hiking trail here in the park, and more backpacking trails than I can count. Aimee was obsessed with this place.”
Dan’s eyebrows rose, and the gleam of admiration in his eyes sent a flutter through her chest. His lips curved in a lazy grin. He let his shoulders slump in a feigned defeated gesture.
“Well, there goes my surprise then. But since I don’t have a Plan B, could you please act impressed when we get to the top?”
His easy-going manner, and natural smile were infectious. Jana nodded. Dan reached for her hand, and pulled her along with him. Her palms began to sweat. She couldn’t extract her hand free from his firm grip. Some small part of her enjoyed the gesture as she noticed several women they passed flash appreciative looks at him. Get a hold of yourself, Jana. He’s not your boyfriend. He’s merely trying to hurry you along.
He walked briskly down the asphalt walk toward the boardwalks that led to the back geyser basin, and turned right toward the river. They crossed the wooden footbridge over the Firehole River, and instead of following the path to the left that led to the geyser basin, he turned right up a dirt path where a trail marker indicated that this was the Observation Point Trailhead.
The trail began up a gentle incline, heading up and into a lodgepole forest, and Dan slowed and motioned for her to walk ahead of him. He released her hand, and Jana rubbed her damp palms together. Her hand still tingled from his touch.
The trail switchbacked up the mountain, and became gradually steeper. Jana picked her way up the incline, determined not to slow him down. The high altitude air left her feeling dizzy and winded. She inhaled deep, steady breaths. The fragrant scent of pine, damp earth, and sweet grass overpowered the more acrid sulfurous odors the nearby geysers emitted. Every now and then when they hit a particular steep section, Dan’s hand on her lower back propelled her to greater effort to navigate the half-mile of switchbacks, simply to avoid him touching her. His light touches as he assisted her up the hill sent her mind spinning, and left her nerves on edge.
They reached the top of the hill in silence. Trying to take enough of the thin air into her demanding lungs, she breathed as hard as if she’d just completed a five-mile run at home. She took in the breathtaking view of the valley before her. It had been a while since she’d last stood in this spot, and certainly not at sunset. The entire geyser basin was visible from here through the tops of the pine trees, the bright orange sun on the horizon magnifying the brilliant colors of reds, oranges, and greens of many of the geyser run-offs. People walked the boardwalks, and several of the smaller geysers suffused the air with their steam and jetting water sprays, veiling parts of the valley far below in a misty white.
“At this time, there’s rarely anyone up here,” Dan said. “I figured this would be a better place to talk than in a crowded restaurant.” Jana turned, startled to find him standing directly behind her. His lips curved upward. “And you can’t beat the view.”
His eyes held hers, his last words spoken in a low tone. Jana’s heart rate sped up anew, having just recovered from her trek up the hill. She inhaled a lung full of air, drawing in his clean scent. She got the distinct impression he wasn’t referring to the scenery. Jana blinked, and merely nodded. A rustle in the nearby brush was a welcome distraction to the man standing before her. A marmot scurried off a large boulder, emitting a loud whistling sound in apparent protest of the human invasion to its territory.
Dan’s deep brown eyes lingered on her face. Jana found it difficult to breathe. Her throat constricted almost painfully, and she tried to swallow away the imaginary lump. Finally breaking eye contact, he headed for a downed log that had obviously served as a resting place for countless other visitors, and peeled his pack from his shoulder. He pulled out two cardboard boxes, and Jana’s stomach grumbled in answer to the delicious smell of burgers and fries. The odor of deep fried food seemed so out of place here, among the pine and sage.
“Did you know that the Shoshone that lived here considered marmots a delicacy?” he asked, handing her a plastic soda bottle. Jana sat on the log, and took a long drink. “They called them whistle dogs.”
“I can hear why they called them that,” Jana said. “And no, I didn’t know they were a delicacy. I don’t think I could bring myself to eat something as cute as a marmot.” She unwrapped the cheeseburger Dan handed her. About to take a bite, she stopped and eyed the food in her hand. “These are beef burgers, right?”
Dan grinned. “You’ll never know the difference,” he said conspiratorially, kneeling beside her. “You’d be surprised what you might eat in a survival situation.”
“I’ve eaten my share of nasty stuff,” Jana said between bites. “The survival courses Aimee and I took were pretty demanding sometimes. But I never resorted to killing something cute and fluffy.”
Dan stared up at her. His eyes visibly darkened. There was something familiar in their depths. They were the
same color she remembered Daniel’s eyes to be, but the intensity and seriousness were missing in this modern version of that feral mountain man.
In desperate need to focus on something other than the man squatting next to her, Jana readjusted the paper wrapper around her burger, and took a bite. She chewed, and forced the food down past the lump in her throat. Fearing she might choke, she reached for her soda that she’d set on the ground in front of her. Dan got to it first. Her hand grazed his for a mere second, but the contact was like an electric jolt. Tingles raced up her arm, and she shivered when the sensation shot down her back. How could he affect her so deeply? Apparently unperturbed, Dan handed her the soda.
“Would you have done it?” he asked suddenly.
Jana’s forehead wrinkled. She took the bottle from him, careful to avoid touching him. “Done what?”
“Stayed in the past.” Dan placed his hand on her knee, and Jana took a hasty drink from the bottle.
“I . . . I don’t know,” she stammered. If I had met a man like you, I might have.
“Jana, I have to find that time travel device.” His grip on her knee intensified. His facial features took on a surreal intensity. For a split second, it was Daniel who knelt beside her.
In the valley below, the collective oohs and aahs of the crowd pulled Jana’s gaze away from him. Old Faithful was putting on its timeless show. The enormous fountain of water shot high up in the air, enveloped in a veil-like cloud of steam in the cool evening breeze. From their high vantage point, it seemed even grander than watching the spectacle from ground level. Dan removed his hand from Jana’s knee, and stood to his feet.
Although her eyes focused on one of nature’s most amazing displays, her awareness remained fully on the man beside her. He was asking the impossible, but how could she not try and help him?
Chapter 4
“It’s right around here somewhere. It’s been well concealed for two hundred years.” Dan swept a large stick through some dense brush and foliage from the overgrown vegetation, pushing aside the tall grasses with his foot. Jana stood right behind him. She’d been looking around with wide eyes when he’d suddenly left the trail just before they reached the top of the mountain.
They’d made good time coming up the steep Purple Mountain Trail. Dan continued to be impressed with Jana. He’d been pleasantly surprised yesterday when he found out that she was not only a hiker, but had backpacked in the park extensively. After watching Old Faithful go off last night, they’d strolled the back geyser basin until the sun finally dropped behind the mountains. He still couldn’t put his finger on the reason why she seemed so edgy around him.
Jana had relaxed somewhat when she began to tell him about his ancestor, how Aimee had loved Yellowstone, and found her destiny when she went back in time. The way Jana talked about her gave Dan a deeper understanding of his own love for this park.
Your gut was telling you something that first time you saw her. He still couldn’t explain what had drawn him to Jana that afternoon at the Inn. Fate. Karma. Whatever it was, the more time he spent with Jana Evans, the more he liked her, and not just because she was a pretty girl and looked good in tight jeans. She was different from other girls he’d dated. Quiet. Reserved. Serious. Maybe a bit too serious. Over the years, he’d gotten so tired of women acting flirty and pretentious, painting their faces with makeup and changing the color of their hair more frequently than the clothes they wore, it seemed.
Jana was down-to-earth. Natural. With the sun shining on her auburn hair just right, some strands shimmered almost copper, like the coat of a sleek chestnut horse. Her amber eyes were as soft and expressive as a doe’s, and he got the impression that there was a lot behind those eyes that she kept hidden. That she was an experienced backpacker was like icing on the cake.
Dan cursed silently. He had his future to think about. He couldn’t allow his hormones or romantic notions interfere with what he had to do. Memories of the most pleasant evening he’d spent in the company of a girl in a long time sent heat creeping through him now. On their walk the night before, they’d passed several couples – both young and old - holding hands, and some openly showing their affection for each other. Twilight in Yellowstone seemed to bring out the romantic in a lot of people. Dan had firmly kept his arms at his sides and his hands stuffed in his jeans pockets. The urge to hold Jana’s hand while they talked and took in the scenery, to pretend he was on a real date, had hit him with such force, he finally cut their stroll short and headed back in the direction of the lodge.
How many times over the past two months had he dialed her number, only to lose his nerve and hang up after the first ring? Visions of her had tormented him late into the night for weeks after their one meeting, visions of her sitting alone and sad amongst a sea of people at the Inn’s lobby. He simply hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind, and not because they shared a common link. He’d found the perfect excuse to finally bring her back here, and guilt nagged him to no end. After spending a nice evening in her company, his initial feelings for her from their first encounter had only intensified.
He couldn’t allow himself to act on his attraction to her. At least not at the moment. Once he knew his future was secure, then perhaps . . .
“How did you ever find this spot?” Jana asked from behind him. “I mean, we’re off trail, and there’s overgrown brambles everywhere.”
Dan turned to look over his shoulder at her. Shrugging, he said, “Luck? Something just drew me here.”
He straightened, and gazed out at the vast valley far below them. In this location, they stood higher than National Park Mountain on the other side of the valley, and could easily see the smoke plumes from the lower geyser basins ten miles to the south. The green-carpeted Madison Valley appeared below them to the west. Dan’s gaze followed the Gibbon River, as it swept in a large U-shape arch into the valley. The Firehole roared out of the canyon to the south. The two rivers looked like tiny ribbons of shimmering blue, then met up to converge into the slightly wider Madison.
“This looks like a spot where I’d want to be buried,” Dan said, grinning at Jana. Somehow she didn’t seem convinced that he had found Aimee’s final resting place here. She glanced around, doubt etched on her face.
“You don’t think Aimee would have wanted to be buried somewhere where she could oversee this entire valley?” he prodded.
Jana slowly shook her head. “I can’t believe Aimee wanted to be buried anywhere,” she said softly.
“What do you mean?” He frowned. An alarming jolt of adrenaline shot through his system at her words. What if he couldn’t convince her?
Jana shrugged. She looked at him, but only briefly, before her focus returned to the dense shrubbery behind him. “She always talked about having her ashes scattered over the Lower Falls. That’s what she would have wanted. I think Daniel would have known that.”
“Maybe it’s not something they discussed,” he suggested quickly. “Two young people, recently married, wouldn’t have their minds on death and dying so soon into their relationship, would they?” He raised his eyebrows at her.
“I don’t know,” she muttered.
In an effort to divert her attention away from her thoughts of doubt, Dan resumed his scouring of the underbrush.
“There,” he called suddenly. He pried apart the heavy undergrowth, to give Jana a better view. She scrambled up next to him to stare into the shaded area he’d uncovered. Dan drew in a deep breath. The air was infused with the pungent, rich smell of earth mixed with the soft scent of lavender from Jana’s hair. He knelt to the ground, and swept his hand over some rocks that had obviously been placed there. They were not random, as one would find them in nature, but placed in a neat cluster butted up against the trunk of a lodgepole pine. Decades of decaying vegetation had left behind a rich soil, which now covered up most of the area, but he managed to clear away enough dirt for Jana to see the carved inscription in one of the rocks. Natural weathering had obscured the writing
, but the name Aimee, and the number 1811 was clearly legible. There appeared to be more carving, but age had weathered the rock to the point that it was illegible. Jana gasped.
“I left it as undisturbed as I found it the first time,” Dan said. “I didn’t want someone else to stumble onto this spot.”
Jana held her hand over her mouth, and her eyes pooled with tears. Quickly, she stepped away from the spot, and turned her back. Dan rose to his feet. Hesitating, he placed his hand on her shoulder.
“Hey,” he said softly. Jana stiffened. She took a step forward, away from him, and his grip tightened in an effort to make her stay. She froze. What would she do if he pulled her into his arms? Turning in his direction, her large amber eyes stared up at him. Dan swallowed, and he dropped his arm. Involuntarily, he took a step closer. He breathed in the lavender scent of her hair, the clean smell of freshly laundered clothes, and a subtle hint of a flowery fragrance he couldn’t name.
“You still miss her, don’t you?” he whispered. His hands clenched into fists at his side. God, he wanted to pull her to him, wipe away the pain in her eyes, kiss her full lips. He couldn’t risk it. Not now. Get your mind on straight, Osborne. You can’t lose your focus.
Jana nodded almost imperceptibly, and inhaled a shuddering breath. Abruptly, she moved around him, and scrambled up the slight incline back to the trail. He stood, rooted to the spot, and simply watched her. What was going through her mind? Did she believe that this could be Aimee’s final resting place? He’d been quite surprised himself when he stumbled onto this spot a couple of weeks ago. He didn’t know whether to believe if this was a grave, but it was the perfect story to lure Jana back to Yellowstone. She seemed quite skeptical. Is your future worth deceiving her?
He heaved a sigh, and followed Jana up the hill, his mind wracked with guilt.
Yellowstone Deception (Yellowstone Romance Series Book 5) Page 3
