Monumental Summit

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  And if April had her way about it, the months would continue on and on.

  But today was the day.

  She and Ryan were going to present the lodge and the plans to Bonnie and Duster and Dawn and Madison.

  She could feel her nerves tied up in her stomach and she had had a difficult time even choking down a breakfast bar this morning.

  She gave Cindy at the front desk instructions to show the two couples to the big conference room on the second floor when they arrived. There were computer sketches and interior renderings of every room in the big lodge posted on the walls in there.

  But that was only a tiny part of the presentation she and Ryan had ready.

  She dropped the messages and her purse off in her office and headed to the conference room. She found Ryan there, sitting with his feet up on the big table, staring out the window at the Boise River flowing past.

  To her, he had only become more attractive as the two months had gone by and they had worked closely on the lodge. This was almost over and now maybe that agreement they had made could end and they could take what was between them to the next level.

  Finally.

  She moved over to him and stood behind him, messaging his solid shoulders as she stared out at the beautiful summer morning.

  He sighed and put a hand up on the top of hers. “Have I ever told you how much I enjoy your touch?”

  “You have,” she said, smiling. “And I enjoy yours.”

  He put his feet down and stood and turned to face her, holding her hand.

  As normal, his eyes sent a shock through her and she just stood there, smiling at him and looking into those wonderful eyes that seemed to change color slightly with his mood. Today they were a light green with yellow flecks.

  His hand gently squeezed hers.

  “This is for luck,” he said.

  He pulled her close and kissed her.

  He felt better against her than she had imagined he would, and she had imagined a great deal, especially alone, late at night.

  She just lost herself in his kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him close.

  And kissing back hard.

  No way she wanted this to end.

  He tasted wonderful, like a fresh scent of morning forest on a summer day.

  Finally, he pushed her back, smiling. He was slightly flushed and she could feel her face red and hot as well.

  “Now that’s going to be some damned fine luck,” he said.

  “Don’t you think we need more?” she asked, smiling at him, her arms still around his neck.

  “I believe we could use more,” he said smiling back.

  But before she could pull him in close, the sounds of voices outside the door sent them apart like two high school kids caught kissing in the hallways.

  He smiled at her as she went to her side of the big conference table.

  “We’ll continue that later,” he said, his smile bigger than she had remembered seeing it.

  “Depend on it,” she said, smiling at him as the door opened.

  And suddenly the presentation they were about to do just seemed a lot less important. What she really wanted was to be in Ryan’s arms again.

  Waiting and getting to know each other while they worked together had been a good idea. She knew that.

  But it was time for that waiting to come to a very sudden, and she hoped, intense end.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  July 19, 2015

  THE PRESENTATION to Bonnie and Duster and Dawn and Madison went off without a hitch.

  It was the holographic three-dimensional image of the lodge on the ridgeline that really did it. Ryan had to admit, his computer people and graphics guys had done a fantastic job taking the plans and photos of the area and topographic maps and converting it all so that the ridgeline and the plans for the lodge were rendered in three dimensions over the big conference table.

  The ridge looked exactly as it had looked when they camped there.

  In the old days, they would have used carefully built models. But for this presentation, there would be no need. A three-dimensional hologram projected on the top of the big conference table would be much, much better.

  All four of their guests had gasped when he brought up the image at first. The ridgeline seemed to come up out of the surface of the table.

  The ridgeline stayed there, covered in trees, until slowly a big wooden lodge spread over the ridgeline, its steep shake roof and dormers and wide decks dominating everything.

  The ridge and the lodge filled the entire center of the big conference table, as long as the four of them sitting along one side of the table.

  Ryan found it interesting that he sat where one mountain peak would be and April sat where the Thunder Mountain peak would be in the relationship to the lodge.

  “That’s just flat stunning,” Dawn had said as the lodge appeared.

  Madison just sat there staring at it, his mouth open.

  Duster shook his head and pushed back his brown hat. “I knew I had found the best people for this.”

  To Ryan, that compliment from his old friend felt fantastic.

  From there, he and April took the four of them on a virtual tour of the lodge, first around the outside, letting the lodge rotate, then taking them in the front door.

  Ryan would describe the architecture and locations of things. Then April would take over talking about the furnishings and where they could be found in 1900.

  Making a perfect tag team, he and April took their four guests through the great room with the huge stone fireplace and views in both directions off the ridgeline into the dining area that could hold thirty, with its large stone fireplace and expansive windows and furnishings.

  They showed them the parlor and card room and the kitchen and then down the hall on the main floor to the twenty standard guest rooms on the main floor.

  Then in the virtual tour, he and April walked the four of them up the huge grand staircase that dominated one side of the big main room and to the wide hallway and the four suites upstairs.

  Upstairs, the huge log rafters seemed to dominate in their shining, golden color.

  Each suite had a master bedroom, a huge living room, and a bathroom. The four suites had high ceilings and double-sided stone fireplaces and dormers that looked out over the valleys with seating areas in both. One suite would be reserved only for Bonnie and Duster and one for Dawn and Madison. The other two would be open for guests.

  April worked them through the light fixtures in each room and public areas and how in time they could be converted to electrical easily without a problem. Ryan showed them hidden utility rooms in the basement for future generators and how the building could be retrofitted easily for electrical at some point without damaging anything.

  And he explained how interior plumbing would be set up with a water tank above one part of the building kept warm by the fireplaces from below and gravity fed to the bathrooms and kitchens.

  The guests downstairs would share two bathrooms. There would be another off the kitchen. Each suite upstairs would have a bathroom of its own.

  Then he pulled the presentation back to show only the outside of the lodge. With the image of the big lodge dominating the table, he and April both talked about the time it would take to build.

  Ryan told them that if they got started in the middle of May with all the supplies ready to be brought in and had a large and good crew, it could be built in two summers.

  April worked them through how the different pieces of art, furnishings, carpeting, and so on could be bought, mostly in San Francisco. She said it would also take two years to accumulate everything and have it up on the ridge by the end of the second summer. She said it would take two people shopping and having everything shipped to Boise to hold for the pack trips into the lodge.

  Then Ryan let the image shrink down in size and pull back as the mountain face grew under it until it looked like a person was sitting on the bridge where he and Duster
had sat that day two months before, looking up at the ridgeline.

  The lodge was now clear and dominating Monumental Valley below it.

  “You told me you wanted the lodge to just appear there that day when we sat on that bridge,” Ryan said, smiling at his old friend. “Here you go.”

  It looked so real, Ryan could have sworn he was back on that bridge looking up the hill at the lodge.

  The silence in the room was so intense, Ryan almost felt afraid to breathe.

  On the other side of the table, April was beaming at him.

  Dawn had tears in her eyes and Madison had his mouth open staring up at the lodge.

  Finally Duster pushed back from the table and looked first at Ryan, then at April.

  Then he looked at Bonnie who was just sitting there with the largest smile Ryan could imagine her smiling.

  “We didn’t pay them enough,” Duster said. “We got to fix that.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “It’s perfect,” Dawn said. “So much more than I had ever hoped.”

  “It is perfect,” Madison said, nodding. He looked first at April, then at Ryan. “Thank you both.”

  “There is one more thing instead of payment that you could give us,” Ryan said. He looked at April and mouthed the words, “Trust me.”

  “What’s that?” Duster said, continuing to stare up at the image of the big lodge sitting in the distance on the ridgeline. “Name it.”

  “If we sign agreements to never disclose, could you show us how you go back? Show us the crystal room you four have mentioned?”

  A slight look of panic came over April’s face, but then she nodded.

  Bonnie and Duster both laughed, then Duster took out a ten dollar gold piece that looked like it was from the last century and handed it to her.

  “I bet you would want to see the mine,” she said, smiling as she tucked the gold piece into her blouse pocket.

  “You will put no pressure for us to go back at all if what you have been telling us is true?” Ryan asked.

  “Not a bit,” Bonnie said.

  “We were hoping to show that crystal room to you,” Dawn said. “It is something really special. But it means another trip into the mountains.”

  “I like the sound of another trip into the mountains,” April said.

  Ryan was glad she wasn’t too angry. He had hoped she wouldn’t be. Both of them had come to really trust the four people they were working for.

  Then Ryan turned to Duster. “You bet against me?”

  Duster laughed and shook his head. “Never again.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  July 19, 2015

  AFTER THE PRESENTATION went perfectly, April was stunned that Ryan had asked to see the time-travel crystals the others had been talking about for months.

  But she understood the request and was actually relieved he had made it. She had grown to really like Bonnie and Duster and Dawn and Madison, especially Bonnie. So once past the first reaction to Ryan’s question, she liked the idea.

  One way or another, it would clear the air.

  And she really, really liked the idea of another trip into the mountains. Even a quick one.

  When Bonnie was in town over the last two months, the two of them had talked a lot, often about decorations and their love for mountains as well as big cities.

  And Bonnie had kept April level about the friendship months with Ryan. Bonnie had agreed it was a good idea to hold off and not complicate anything while they were working so tightly together.

  But Bonnie had said at one point, “After the project is over, jump him and don’t come up for air for days.”

  April had said she liked that plan, and now this morning Ryan had started that part of things rolling nicely.

  April had also spent a lot of time with Dawn in her office at the University, since it was only a mile down the river path from the office, often going out for lunch with her when she was in town. She really liked the historian and her solid, down-to-earth thinking and passion for the people of the west.

  And her passion for Madison.

  April had grown to know both of these women. She needed to get this delusion of time travel cleared up or answered, because over two months now of talking with them, a tiny part of her was actually starting to believe time travel was possible, even though she would never really admit that.

  Ryan clicked off the last holographic image of the big lodge and smiled at her down the length of the long table.

  Damn he was getting better looking by the minute if that was possible. She really wanted to kiss him again.

  And soon.

  His smile just kept glowing. He was as happy as she had seen him since meeting him.

  Duster stood and shook Ryan’s hand, then went down and hugged her.

  She then got a hug from the other three as everyone stood around smiling like a bunch of kids who had just completed a school play. She had been in a lot of client meetings after presentations and none of them had ever turned out this well.

  “So you ready to go?” Duster asked after a moment.

  Ryan looked puzzled.

  April felt puzzled and just a little panicked.

  “Go where?” Ryan asked.

  Madison laughed.

  “It is only ten in the morning. We can be in the mine in four hours,” Duster said. “And back here by ten tonight if we want. Or easily tomorrow morning. Lunch on the way is on me.”

  Duster shook his head and waved his hand over the table where the lodge images had been. “Hell, after that, I owe you two a lot more than lunch.”

  “We’ll grab some fresh produce and steaks along the way and I’ll cook dinner in the mine,” Ryan said.

  “Perfect,” Dawn said, kissing him.

  A drive with Ryan up into the mountains sounded really good to her at this point.

  No matter what they might find on the other side.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  July 19, 2015

  APRIL SAT IN THE BACK SEAT of Duster’s big Cadillac SUV and held Ryan’s hand as they headed west out of Boise on the freeway in the direction of Nampa and Caldwell.

  As he had climbed into the back seat, he had kissed her again and whispered, “Great job!”

  She took his hand as they got settled and squeezed it. “You too.”

  And they just stayed like that, holding hands in the backseat of a car like two school kids riding with parents.

  It was interesting to April that she often thought of Bonnie and Duster as much, much older, almost like parents, even though they were only a year or so older than she was. They just seemed far, far older.

  And so did Dawn and Madison in their own ways.

  For a time, the four in front of them talked excitedly about the lodge, asking Ryan or April questions on certain points.

  Then when they got off the freeway just on the other side of Nampa and headed out on the highway toward the Snake River and Nevada beyond, Ryan finally asked, “Where are we heading?”

  “Oh, sorry,” Duster said from up front. “Silver City.”

  “The old ghost town?” Ryan asked.

  April had never heard of it. There was a lot about Idaho she didn’t know. But she wanted to learn. In two months, she felt like Boise was becoming a second home, and if she wasn’t careful, it might become her only home.

  And that thought didn’t bother her at all. As long as it was close to Ryan.

  “You been up there?” Madison asked, turning around a little so he could see Ryan and April’s faces.

  “Never have,” Ryan said.

  “Never heard of it,” April said.

  From the driver’s seat, Duster laughed and Madison smiled. “Then you two are in for a real treat. Silver City and the area around it was one of the largest gold and silver rushes of the Old West.”

  Tell them the history of the place,” Duster said.

  For the next half hour or so, as fantastically beautiful farmland flashed past the two-lane highway
, Madison told them the history of the Silver City area, how it started up in the 1860s and had booms and busts for fifty or more years after that.

  “There are still a lot of ruins up there,” Madison said, “and the town itself has become a tourist attraction in the summer.”

  “And a few of the mines are still running,” Duster said, and Madison nodded.

  At that point they had been on the two-lane highway for about forty-five minutes. There didn’t seem to be any mountains in site as far as April could see.

  Duster pulled the big car into the parking lot of what looked like a very questionable diner. The few buildings along the highway here were no more than a wide spot.

  The sign over the building said nothing more than “Café” and was so weathered, even that could barely be seen.

  She didn’t really want to let go of Ryan’s hand, but she did as they climbed out into the summer heat.

  “No talk about the mine or what we are doing while in here,” Duster said.

  “We own a cattle and horse ranch up the Snake River from here,” Bonnie said to Ryan and April. “We stop here all the time for lunch or breakfast or dinner and the people who run this place think it’s because we’re going to the ranch.”

  “Got it,” Ryan said.

  The smell of the hamburgers and fries hit her as Duster opened the door to the café. Thick, greasy fries, the best kind.

  April suddenly realized just how hungry she really was. She had been enjoying the ride and the history lesson and holding Ryan’s hand so much, she hadn’t even realized she was hungry until now. That one breakfast bar she had choked down hours ago was long since gone.

  “I’m starved. I could eat a horse,” Duster said as he started inside.

  Bonnie shushed him. “Don’t say that, they may serve it to you here.”

  April glanced at Ryan and then laughed. Damn she liked these people. She just hoped that in a few hours they weren’t going to prove themselves to be total crazy nut-balls.