Rocky Mountain Valentine

by Carol Steward

  Lisa could see the passion in his eyes. It wasn’t just this ranch that meant so much to him, it was all of it—the history as well as his heritage. This land was as much a part of Adam MacIntyre as those irresistible brown eyes or his sun-streaked hair. Separating the two would prove catastrophic to both.

  Adam spent the remainder of the afternoon giving Lisa the grand tour of the ranch. Toby lumbered along beside them. He’d given Lisa a choice of horseback or snowshoes, and to his surprise, she’d chosen the latter. “You’re a natural,” Adam said as she passed him by.

  She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Must be the patience of the instructor. Either that, or he’s still feeling guilty.”

  Adam laughed. “Not a chance.” He was living dangerously, letting his guard down with her. It was more than the guilt, and he knew it now. He picked up a handful of snow, formed it into a ball and threw it toward the ponderosa pines. Toby shot across the meadow after it and they both watched in silence.

  Minutes later Adam said, “I enjoyed today.”

  “I did, too. Thank you.” She stopped and took a deep breath. “I can see why you love it here.”

  Could she really understand that this land was as vital to his life as the blood in his veins? “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep hold of Whispering Pines.”

  “Once we get this article out there, you’ll have no problem finding customers. Now you have to promise to bring me out again sometime to get pictures.”

  He stopped next to her. “I didn’t think you believed in promises.”

  “Slip of the tongue.”

  He leaned close. “I do promise to bring you out again and again. It’s about time you realize, Lisa, that not everyone breaks their promises. I’m a man of my word.” His gaze dropped to her lips. Fear glimmered in her eyes. Lisa draped her arms across the top rail of the corrals and rested her chin on her hands. “Could I go along while you do chores this evening?”

  “Don’t you ever slow down?”

  Lisa tilted her head to look him. “Nothing to slow down for.”

  “Ever stop to think you might find something worth slowing down for if you looked for it?”

  She was silent. Adam stood next to her and tried to imagine what she was seeing. She didn’t respond. “It took hitting rock bottom to figure out I wasn’t where I needed to be,” he said gently.

  “Well, I’ve already been there, and I survived.”

  Adam waited, hoping she’d continue. “What happened to that boyfriend you had last year?”

  The wind whispered through the forest.

  “He took a hike,” she finally admitted.

  “Painful, huh?”

  “Not in the way you’re thinking, it wasn’t. Men like him are a dime a dozen.” Her entire face turned pink, confirming she was genuinely embarrassed by her jibe. “I didn’t mean all men are a dime a dozen.” Her gloved hands flew to her face. “Oh,” she groaned. “Me and my big mouth. Adam, I meant nothing personal by that. And I don’t have...I mean, I haven’t had another boyfriend since Dale. I just meant...”

  She was totally flustered, and Adam found her embarrassment almost charming, other than the fact that she was miserable.

  “You know,” she retorted, “if you weren’t such a cad, you would break in here anytime now.”

  Adam cocked his head to one side. “Kind of difficult to follow a statement like that, being a cad and all.”

  Her blush spread. “I’m never saying another word.”

  He smiled. “Promises, promises.”

  Lisa picked up a handful of snow from the fence post and tossed it at him. “He was the scum of the earth. Being a cad is a compliment compared to him.”

  “Great. Now you’re actually comparing me to the scum of the earth. Save me here. What did the man do that was so terrible?”

  Lisa shook her head. “I don’t talk about it, to anyone. But all joking aside—he’s nowhere in the same league as you.”

  “All due respect, Lisa, you don’t open a door like that and expect a man not to want a few details. You’ve got the wheels-a-turning, and I don’t like the ideas I’m generating.” He wanted to think she trusted him enough to clarify her feelings. And he didn’t even want to think what could have possibly caused her enough pain to make such a statement about the entire male gender.

  She squeezed her eyes closed and took a deep breath.

  “Would you rather I ask your sisters?”

  Lisa shook her head. “They don’t know any of it.”

  “You’ve gone through this alone? You haven’t told anyone?” Adam took a deep breath and felt the crisp, cold air burn his sinuses.

  Again she shook her head. She removed her gloves and frantically wiped tears away. “Why did you have to bring this up?” Lisa pulled her gloves back on and pushed past him.

  Adam raised his hands and shrugged his shoulders. “All I wanted to know is if you’re seeing anyone. You’re the one who said that all men are jerks.”

  She nearly fell as she turned around. “I never said that.”

  “You may as well have. And you still haven’t answered my question. You come here and think you’re the only one who can do the asking?” She didn’t respond. “You’re not the only person on earth who’s been hurt, you know.”

  Lisa placed her hands on her hips. “Just forget I said anything. I didn’t ask you to tell me all about your love life. In fact, I couldn’t care less.”

  He knew better. “Any journalist would want to know all the details, and the juicier the better.”

  “Then I guess I’m not that kind of journalist.”

  “You don’t want to know that I was being considered for partner with the investment firm I worked for? Or that my girlfriend was getting information from my files and sending it on to investors?”

  As she listened to him recount the details of the probing attack against his character and ethics, a look of silent understanding crossed the distance between them. “No, I don’t. You don’t have to tell me this.”

  “What? You’re out of questions?”

  He’d struck a chord.

  A look of withdrawal darkened her eyes. “Why are you telling me this, Adam?”

  He weighed her with a critical squint and a momentary look of discomfort crossed her face. “I want you to know I understand what it’s like to be betrayed. I know what it’s like to lose trust in the opposite sex, someone you cared about, trusted, even thought you loved. After months of interrogation, every aspect of my life was picked apart like someone trying to find a needle in a haystack. I came here to catch up with myself and figure out what I really wanted when all of it was over. I found it all right here.”

  “You said you left your job to help your mom. You didn’t say you were fired.”

  “I was suspended during the investigation, and after it was over they ‘generously’ offered me my same position as junior executive. When the investigation started, I was sure that another chance was what I wanted, but once I came home, going back didn’t matter.”

  “And your girlfriend?” He sensed that it wasn’t the journalist in Lisa asking the question this time.

  “She went to prison.”

  Lisa started back to the lodge. Adam followed. A few minutes later, her soft voice broke the silence. “At least justice was served, Adam. And on top of that, you ended up here. Not bad for a second choice.”

  “Sometimes, we’re so set in reaching that goal that we can’t see there might be a better path. I thought a career in finance was exactly what I wanted. If Amelia hadn’t betrayed me, I may have never found my true passion.”

  They reached the lodge and Lisa bent down to unlace her snowshoes. “Not everyone has something like Whispering Pines to fall back to.”

  “No,” he said softly, “but everyone has choices, if they’re willing to take a chance now and then.”

  “You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. You haven’t any idea who I am or where I’ve been.”

&nbs
p; “I see a woman who’s afraid to slow down long enough to fill the emptiness with anything of true meaning. Tell me, Lisa, what’s important to you?”

  She stared at him with a blank expression. Fear dimmed her face. “Same as everyone, I suppose.” She shrugged. “A job, money, family, I guess.”

  Adam tried to hide his disappointment. “You guess? You need to know what’s important before you can find peace.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  LISA HUNG UP the phone. She took a deep breath and released it. One, two, three... “There’s no way, Steve. I won’t do that to Adam.” She and the magazine editor had gone back and forth for three days about the story—ever since she’d told them about the Sweetheart Festival. Now the pressure was on. Lisa wondered if she was right for this business after all.

  Maybe Adam was right. Maybe it was time for her to look for another career, to really find out what was important to her. First there were problems with the camera, then the pictures weren’t exactly what they were looking for and the story wasn’t “captivating” enough. She never should have sent Francie the photos with Adam in them.

  “Toby, want to go for a walk?”

  “Woof.” He ran to the door, his tail wagging nonstop, and waited eagerly for Lisa to put her coat on.

  She looked outside at the freshly fallen snow and added a pair of wool socks before she put her boots on. Taking a piece of paper from Adam’s desk, she wrote, “Taking Toby for a walk. See you for lunch. Lisa.” She left it where he’d be sure to see it.

  After three steps, Lisa realized her walk would have to be taken on snowshoes. She went to the shed and found the pair she’d worn the last time. She pulled her hood over her fleece headband and tightened the drawstring, put her gloves back on and headed for the pasture.

  The brisk air was refreshing. She let it fill her head, her lungs, her mind. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to block out the disagreement she’d had with Steve this morning or the niggling feeling that her career was over.

  She didn’t want to face Adam. She didn’t want to hurt him now, after she’d worked so hard to gain his trust. Why had she even mentioned the festival? It wasn’t like Whispering Pines would be featuring romantic galas every weekend. Her brilliant idea was about to backfire.

  Lisa watched Toby root through the snow, as if looking for a bone he’d buried for dessert. She made a snowball. “Toby, fetch.” She threw the ball and watched absently as the dog ran to find it.

  She’d never gone against an editor’s orders, not even when she’d felt the story would be better from another angle. What had changed?

  Adam.

  Because of him, she’d broken every professional rule in the book. She had gotten too involved. She’d put her feelings for him before the assignment, and now more than ever, she couldn’t afford the distraction of a romantic interlude.

  Lisa erased everything from her mind except the article, mentally exploring ideas to make everyone happy. Time slipped away as Lisa pondered the events of the past two weeks.

  Toby, who had bounced along next to her while she struggled with each step, was now nowhere to be found. Adam had warned her not to wait until she was tired to turn around, as she’d still have that same distance to get home. Everywhere she looked, it was white. Taking tiny steps, she turned and looked for the lodge.

  It’s gone. In every direction, Lisa found a curtain of snow blocking the view. How did a mansion like that just disappear?

  “Toby?” She felt a moment of panic. “Toby, come,” Lisa said, repeating the command properly.

  He darted out of nowhere as if he’d never been happier. Probably hadn’t been, she guessed. He’d probably never seen so much snow. Lisa bent over and hugged Toby. “You scared me.” She looked into his soft brown eyes. “You wouldn’t happen to know the way home, would you?”

  In the distance she could make out a dark line which she guessed to be trees. She reasoned that the woods were just above the lodge at some point, and she’d be wise to find, then follow them. Eventually she’d see the red roof. Her feet felt like weights as she approached the trees, sinking into the drifts.

  She dragged in a deep breath and tears welled in her eyes. Not only had she lost her way in life, she was lost in a snowstorm. Finding his way home had been easy for Adam. Despite their many talks in the past few days, Adam didn’t understand. He made it sound so simple.

  Lisa looked behind her. There were no tracks from her snowshoes. She took another step and watched it disappear before her eyes. Panic snapped her last fragile strand of control.

  “Adam!” She screamed repeatedly at the top of her lungs until her voice disappeared altogether. She trudged on, tired, cold and hungry. It had to be past lunchtime. Surely Adam had found her note by now. He’d come looking for her soon.

  Lisa paused to catch her breath and an icy gust knocked her down. She stood, fearful images building in her mind. She moved into the trees for protection from the wind. As she stepped over a downed tree, she twisted her ankle and landed flat on her back. She lay still for a moment then looked behind her at a rocky cliff. I don’t remember anything like that when Adam showed me the ranch. Trying to get up, she slipped again and banged her knee on the sharp edge of a boulder. Toby ran up beside her and licked her face. His warm tongue only served to warn her how cold she was. “Thanks, boy.” She unfolded the tube of her turtleneck over her cheeks and nose, then tried again to stand. Every time she tried to put her hands down, they sank eight inches into the ground. “Come here, Toby.” The dog paused. “Toby, come.”

  Lisa took hold of Toby, and he darted, slipping from her grasp. A soft groan escaped. She looked around. Everything was white. There wasn’t even a shadow of a dog to comfort her. She scooted close to the rocks and struggled to her feet. Pain shot up her leg and she crumbled to the ground.

  “Snow flurries... The weather forecast said nothing about a blizzard,” she whispered. Lisa straightened her leg and the pain intensified. She choked back a cry, frightened to think of the odds of anyone finding her in this storm.

  “First step in survival—keep thinking. Two—if you can’t find your way out, stay put.” She swallowed, trying to soothe her raspy voice. “Even hearing Adam yell at me would be a treat right now.”

  Find what’s important to you... Lisa’s breath turned ragged. “Adam...”

  Wind blew the snow, not only on the way down, but whipped it up from the ground and swirled it into mounds. Ignoring the pain, she pulled her legs close, afraid to take the snowshoes off for fear she couldn’t get them back on if she had to try walking out again. Curling into a ball, Lisa wrapped her arms around her legs and tucked her face next to her knees to protect herself from the wind.

  It was easy to understand where Adam’s grandparents had come up with the name Whispering Pines. She wished the trees would simply whisper, because right now they howled, creaked and whistled an eerie tune. She puckered her lips and blew. Nothing came out. She was tired and thirsty.

  “Don’t go to sleep, Lisa,” she whispered, then took a handful of snow and put it into her mouth. The cool moisture eased the pain so much, she took another. She moved her fingers. Even with ski gloves on, they were beginning to tingle. Her toes were numb.

  “Think. What was that alpine survival guide’s name? Mike...Mitch?” It didn’t matter, she knew, but the information in the article she’d written for the backpacker magazine could save her life. “Matt?”

  Concentrating on names that started with the letter M might keep her awake anyway. She had to have a distraction.

  “Mark. His name was Mark.” She smiled with satisfaction. “Mark...something.”

  Lisa lifted her face from the shelter of her arms. The sky was darker. Her heart beat faster. It was harder to breathe. Her rear end felt as if she’d sat in a prickly cactus patch. She looked at her feet. Who am I kidding? I won’t be walking out. The snowshoes were useless on her feet, but maybe they’d keep her from getting so wet. She unlaced each one and scoote
d them under her bottom.

  She pulled her hands into the arms of her coat and stretched her back. “Adam. Hel-l-l-p!” She listened for a reply.

  Just the trees whispering. Gusts calmed to a soft stillness, but the icy breeze stung her eyes.

  Where was she? She still couldn’t see the lodge.

  What’s important to you?

  She lowered her face to her knees, ignoring her initial glib responses—money, security, a job. What had happened to her?

  Tears froze in the corner of her eyes.

  Lisa looked up to the gray ceiling hovering above, then quickly lowered her face to the protection again.

  Tears warmed a path down her cheeks and dripped onto her legs. Lisa took a deep breath and her body relaxed. Lisa’s eyes drifted closed....

  * * *

  LISA AWOKE TO Toby’s cold nose nudging between her face and her arms. “Toby,” she slurred. “Toby, where’s Adam? Did you bring Adam?”

  “I’m right here.” His voice seemed miles away. She looked up as he dismounted the huge animal before her. Toby barked in her ear.

  “I’m lost,” she said in a soft raspy whisper.

  Adam knelt next to her. “I noticed. This storm caught everyone off guard.” He moved the fabric from Lisa’s face and examined her, then pulled the turtleneck over her nose again. “You look pretty good, considering. I’m going to get you home and warmed up.”

  She gazed into his eyes, surprised to find him watching her.

  His eyes turned misty.

  Must be the wind.

  Adam blinked. “Any tingling—legs, arms, fingers, toes?”

  Lisa stretched her legs in front of her and winced, then pushed her hands out of her coat sleeves. “My fingers started to, but they’re better now. I twisted my ankle. I can’t feel my feet.”

  “Your legs feel okay?”

  Her breathing was slow and labored. “Cold. Very cold.”

  He nodded. “You did a good job protecting yourself.” Adam eased closer. “I’m going to help you up. Think you can pull yourself onto the saddle?”