The look of pure horror on Lisha Strong’s face was priceless and her daughter captured it for all eternity on her iPhone.
“There is no way I am putting that on,” Lisha said, her hand to her chest as she eyed the bright yellow and very sheer catsuit Bianca held up in her hands. “Who would?”
Garcelle bit back a smile. “I have one in every color,” she admitted before she bit her bottom lip to keep from giggling. “And trust me, Mama Strong, it was worth every red centavo.”
Lisha raised a brow.
“Mama, this is the first time you and Daddy have been apart in ages, and I think you should spice it up for him when he gets back tomorrow night,” Kaitlyn advised as she reached for another sheer entrapment in Frederick’s of Hollywood. “How about this?”
“Be adventurous, Mama Strong,” Bianca advised with a soft smile as her diamond hoop earrings glistened from her ears.
Lisha eyed the three of them. “Ladies, please get from underneath my husband and my clothes.”
The three younger women just laughed before walking back to the rear of the store. Lisha side-eyed her companions as she reached inside her Coach purse. She turned to the young saleswoman. “Have the black one in a large sent to Lisha Strong at 1001 Cougar Lane…and keep the change,” she said, easing the hundred-dollar bill from her purse and into the saleswoman’s hand.
“Right away, Mrs. Strong.”
Lisha closed her purse and made her way to the back to join her daughters. Humph, they don’t need to be all up in me and Kael’s business, she thought with a sly smile. Like they really need to teach me something. Chile, please.
Jade sighed as she dropped her used bath wipes into a Ziploc. The premoistened cloths were as thick and large as washcloths and Jade used enough to cleanse her entire body. It was a great alternative to a shower since they were too far from the public shower to walk to it. Use of any soap near any water source in the state parks was not allowed. She supplied the men with some bath wipes as well until they hiked farther along the trail toward the state campground where the showers were located. She couldn’t lie and say she wasn’t ready to slip into her tub, sip some white sangria, and just zone out.
Bzzzzzzzzz.
Jade stuck the folded Ziploc into her backpack to dispose of later and picked up her silver cell phone. She flipped it open. A picture of Darren rock climbing flashed on the screen. She answered the call. “Hey, partner,” she greeted him.
“Hey, beautiful,” he replied. “How’s the trip going?”
“It’s going great,” she told him, pressing her phone between her shoulder and ear to quickly finish dressing in jeans and another long-sleeved fitted tee. “Weather’s nice. Trail is clear. Fish are biting. No worries.”
“No injuries?” he asked.
Jade unzipped her tent and her eyes fell directly on Kaeden slowly walking from his tent to the picnic table. “Not yet,” she said, saying a silent thanks to the Great One above as she eyed Kaeden wince as he sat down on the wooden bench. “How’s your trip?”
“Everything is cool here too.”
“Good,” she told him, switching the cell phone to her other hand.
“I miss you.”
Jade paused at his sudden words. “Awwww. Thanks,” she said, deliberately trying to keep the mood light.
“I know you like to chill out after a tour, but I really want to see you Sunday night,” he said.
Jade opened her mouth to decline.
“We could just hang out at your place and watch a movie,” he said quickly, as if he knew her refusal was coming.
Jade knew that once she agreed to starting a relationship with Darren, it meant opening some of her life up to him. Spending time. Going on dates. Compromising when there were things she wasn’t inclined to do…
“Uh-hmmm. Okay,” she agreed reluctantly.
“Good.”
“I better get going, Darren,” she said. “I’ll call you Sunday night when I get in.”
“Okay, be safe, baby.”
Jade massaged her eyebrows at the tension building there. “Okay, you too, Darren. Bye.”
She snapped the phone closed. When her awareness of Kaeden was weirding her out, Jade had considered giving Darren a little bit of her sweetness. Thank God, I didn’t. She wasn’t ready for that yet. Intimacy was huge. It was not a step that she took lightly.
Her eyes fell on Kaeden again and it was hard not to notice that he was feeling some terrible muscle ache. Sleeping on the ground is tearing Mr. White Collar up, Jade thought with a shake of her head.
She thanked God for clarity because there was no way a man like Kaeden Strong could ever be her type.
Kaeden felt like he’d slept on a cement slab. Wincing, he felt sharp muscle spasms radiate from his shoulders to the top of his square buttocks as he sat down on the picnic bench. “Just one more night. One more night,” he promised himself as he reached up to massage his shoulder.
“I’m going to start charging you.”
Kaeden looked over his shoulder at Jade standing beside him holding out a small lotion bottle. “Don’t tell me. This is another one of your grandfather’s home remedies?”
Jade nodded as she sat the bottle on the table. “Better than IcyHot and a bottle of Aleve combined.”
Kaeden picked the bottle up. “Any instructions?” he asked, with humor in his deep voice.
“Just rub it on where it hurts, Kaeden,” she drawled dryly.
He laughed. “Thanks, Jade.”
She gave him a genuine smile. “You’re welcome,” she said before walking away.
“Listen, I think I’m going to cut out of the fishing today,” he announced, rising to his feet.
Kael paused in adding weights to his fishing line to look over at him. “You sure, son?” he asked.
Kaeden nodded. “I’m positive.”
Not even the opportunity to be around Jade all day was going to make him sit by the bank all day waiting on a fish to bite a hook. I’m not getting anywhere with Jade anyway.
Jade frowned. “What are you going to do all day?” she asked, sounding slightly irritated.
“Read,” he answered simply as he lifted his hands to readjust his spectacles.
Jade massaged her temples.
That move didn’t surprise Kaeden one bit. “I’ll be fine,” he assured his father before slowly rising to his feet and pushing the bottle Jade gave him into the back pocket of his jeans. “I might even have Felecia e-mail me some stuff to work on.”
“He’ll be fine,” Kahron said, slipping his shades into place before he picked up his tackle box.
Jade gave him a long look that made him frown and shift his feet in the spot where he stood, before she turned and headed up the small, rocky incline to the trail. “Let’s move it out, boys,” she yelled over her shoulder.
“We’ll be back,” Kael said before he turned and followed Kaleb, Kahron, and Kade onto the trail.
Kaeden watched them until they disappeared down the trail, their forms covered by the overgrowth of trees and bushes. He considered putting on the ointment Jade gave him but knew the spot where he ached was hard for him to reach himself.
He settled into his camp chair glad that they had left the campfire lit to help ward off the insects and spent the next two hours reading his book. But in those two hours he came to a satisfying end of the mystery, and that left him with nothing to do…and he tried some of everything.
He sprayed on more insect repellant.
He tried his best to kill every ant in an anthill with insect spray.
He fixed himself another s’more that tasted more burned than tasty.
He kicked rocks.
He did anything and everything to occupy his time.
Nothing held his interest.
Kaeden was a tech junkie. He loved gadgets. Gadgets that needed electricity or at least Wi-Fi.
He was watching a bird of bright blue color swoop in and out of the tree branches when Jade’s words floated to
the forefront of his memory: There’s some really beautiful and interesting wildflowers just a little bit deeper into the woods going toward the north…
Kaeden shrugged. “Why not?” he told himself, thinking it wouldn’t hurt to try and he could get some really great pictures with his digital camera. “If it’s so far that I can’t see the camp, then I’ll turn around.”
Kaeden pushed aside any reservations he had as he took the small incline up to the trail and then walked across it. There was a noticeable break in the trees with a thin footpath. He forged ahead, pausing when he caught sight of a beautiful waterfall in the distance. He lifted his camera and zoomed in for a shot. It wasn’t very large, but the sight of the crystal-clear water falling over the side was soothing. He shifted a bit from the path and moved toward it, his curiosity more piqued than any apprehension over being in the midst of a wooded area.
Who knew that snuggled among the dense trees was such a beautiful sight? “That would make a nice postcard,” he said aloud to himself, before he stood still and listened to the sound of running water. His state-of-the-art sound machine with the nature sounds couldn’t even compete.
Kaeden allowed himself a few more moments of surprising peace in the outdoors before he turned to make his way back. He frowned. He turned in a full circle. His frown deepened. “What the hell?” he asked, his deep voice sounding out of place among the serenity.
He had no clue where he was. Everything looked alike. “Shit,” he swore, reaching in the front pocket of his jeans for his cell phone. His grip tightened until he was sure he would snap the BlackBerry in half. No signal.
“I should slap my damn self,” he muttered, fighting the urge to fling his BlackBerry and camera into the stream in frustration. “What in the hell was I thinking? Seriously. What was I thinking?”
Taking a deep breath, Kaeden walked a straight line to the edge of the trees, hoping it would lead him back to that footpath. It didn’t.
“My destination is the camp. To hell with those wildflowers.”
After nearly twenty minutes the brush and the trees thickened until he had to use his arms to clear a path before him. He was sweaty and dusty and beyond aggravated. He stopped where he stood and turned, trying to assess whether he should head back the way he came or forge ahead. He turned again, looking for any sign that he was nearing a break in the trees. Suddenly he felt the earth move from underneath him, and Kaeden couldn’t help the holler he released as he dropped down a few feet, hitting the ground hard with an “umph” before he felt every rock, twig, and every other imaginable thing on the ground against his frame as he tried to stop himself from rolling.
He hollered out as his head slammed into something hard, and even as he felt his body continue its decline, he also felt himself slip into darkness.
Jade felt anxious.
She didn’t know why. She couldn’t pinpoint the cause for it. She didn’t like it. She couldn’t deny it.
Jade bit her bottom lip.
Of course it could be nothing, but it could also be something…or someone.
I hate when I feel like this.
Jade’s brows furrowed.
“Something wrong, Jade?”
She looked up at Kahron standing beside her as he dropped the fish he caught into the bucket. “Just a little worried about Kaeden,” she admitted.
Kahron laughed. “Kaeden’s fine. Trust me,” he assured her.
“Has he always hated the outdoors?” she asked.
Kahron smiled broadly. “More like the outdoors didn’t agree with him,” he said, shifting his sunglasses on his face.
Jade’s mouth curled up a bit as she looked up at him. “Kaeden always plays with his glasses just like that,” she told him.
Kahron’s smile broadened. “You noticed that about him, huh?”
Jade shrugged. “I’m very observant about everything. That’s all,” she stressed.
“Yeah, okay,” he said.
“Trust me, your brother’s cute, nice and all of that, but, he is not my type.”
“Soooo…you think he’s cute?”
Jade looked up at him in confusion. “Huh?”
“You said he was cute,” Kahron said frankly.
“Are you a rancher or a lawyer?” she snapped, feeling irritable.
Kahron just chuckled as he walked away to cast his line back into the water with well-practiced ease.
And that chuckle that clearly revealed that Kahron found her amusing irked her some more.
“Kaeden’s not answering his phone.” Kade slipped his cell back in its holster. “I need the lures I left at camp.”
“Those lures ain’t gone help you catching nothing,” Kaleb joked.
Jade jumped to her feet. “I’ll walk back to camp,” she told them, wanting to kill the two birds with one stone: check on Kaeden and get some seriously needed alone time.
“You don’t have to do that, Jade,” Kade told her.
Jade waved her hands. “Not a problem,” she told him as she headed back down the trail.
Me and Kaeden? Humph. How funny is that? He couldn’t even handle all of this if I even thought about giving him some. Probably have a dang on asthma attack.
She would be busy reaching for his dick and he would be reaching for his inhaler. Jade laughed a little at the thought. “Puh-leeze. I’d have his ass grabbing his heart like Fred Sanford.”
Her laughter faded as she reached the edge of the camp and saw no signs of him. “Kaeden,” she called out as she walked down the decline from the trail to his tent. It was empty.
Jade turned around in a circle slowly as she surveyed the campground. “Where could he be?” she asked aloud as she walked down the length of the bank searching for any sign of him.
What if he’s in the midst of one of those “Kaedens” and lying there needing help?
But what if he’s just out exploring?
Jade knew she would feel less concerned if it was any of the men except Kaeden.
Feeling concern rise in her quickly, Jade strode across the camp. She grabbed her first aid kit. She slipped it and a blanket inside a small backpack that she slid onto her back. Just in case, she thought as she moved up the incline to cross the trail. “Kaeden!” she called out as her heart began to beat more furious than war drums.
She eyed the vast wooded area, but most of it was so dense that she saw nothing but varying shades of green. Her eyes lit on the path and she instantly headed for it. “Kaeden!” she called out at the top of her voice until her throat ached.
Her anxious feelings.
Kaeden not answering Kade’s call.
Kaeden not answering her hollers.
Something was wrong.
Where was he?
Chapter 8
Jade placed her hands on her hips, breathing deeply as she forced herself to calm down and think. She circled where she stood but she didn’t see him so she continued along the path, trying to look for any flash of color among the greenery.
She kept calling his name until she was sure she would be hoarse. The sun was beginning to set and she knew she had no choice but to call the park rangers and alert his family.
“Where are you, Kaeden?” she asked aloud, grabbing her cell phone to call Mr. Strong. It rang just once.
“Jade? Where are you two? We’re here at the camp.”
You two? Disappointment weighed her shoulders down and she clutched the phone tighter. “Actually…I’m…I’m out looking for Kaeden,” she admitted uneasily.
The line went quiet.
“When I got back to the camp he wasn’t there, and I hoped he was back by now,” she said, filling the silence.
“You keep looking, and we’re going to spread out here and look too.”
Jade nodded as she fixed her troubled eyes on a squirrel scurrying past. “I think someone should hang around the camp in case he returns or to alert the rangers if we…if we don’t find him soon.”
“We’re on it.”
Jade
slid her phone into the back pocket of her pants and hitched her backpack up higher on her shoulders before she kept on moving through the forest, searching for any sign of Kaeden. The seconds, then minutes, and finally the hour passed. The sun setting wasn’t any help, especially since she’d neglected to bring a flashlight.
Jade was turning to head back when she spotted the last of the sun glinting off the waterfall. She only wished she had time to stop and admire it. She spotted a flash of color down the steep slope. Far in the distance there was just the faintest spot of bright red—the same color of the shirt Kaeden had on that morning.
Without a second thought, Jade carefully worked her way down the rocky and uneven hill, grateful for her hiking boots as she worked to maintain her balance. Her heart slammed into her chest as she made out the outline of Kaeden’s frame partially submerged in the stream.
She rushed over, falling to her knees beside him. She dug in and used all of her strength to drag his body completely onto the bank. His clothes were soaked and clinging to his frame. His glasses were gone from his face and there were several surface scratches marring him. She quickly made sure he was still breathing and then inspected him for any broken bones. She gasped harshly at the gash across his forehead. “Shit,” she swore as she quickly took off the backpack and removed her first aid kit.
“Kaeden,” she called down softly to him as she cleansed the wound carefully. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you behind at camp.”
Jade entwined her fingers with his as she reached for her cell phone with her other hand. She breathed deeply, forcing herself to stay calm. Kaeden needed her.
“No signal. Shit,” she swore again, fighting the urge to fling the cell phone into the stream.
Releasing a heavy breath, she sat back on her heels and looked up at the incline. Definitely easier to get down it than go up it, she thought as she squeezed Kaeden’s hand. She felt a shiver race across his body and her eyes shifted down to him.
Do I leave you and go get help?
Do I stay with you and wait it out?
The sun was going, and as usual for South Carolina during the spring, there was a slight bite to the air without it.
Give Me Fever Page 7
