Page 69 of Capture the Moment

Maisie’s heart soared at that remark. It seemed like a clear signal that Frankie had the same longing to stay close to her as she did for him.

Unless ... he was joking. Was he?

Wade felt a growing sense of foreboding after the turncoat missed shooting the bear. Feldmann explained that the problem was a person taking pictures in the flats, and the turncoat couldn’t risk shooting the person. Instead, she fired a warning shot to scare the bear off. After all, Feldmann reminded him, the turncoat was a park ranger.

Wade felt his ears prick, like a dog’s. Something felt off to him.

Taking an arrow from the quiver, Wade fixed his eyes on the butt. Thanks to the many restricted areas of the park—and, on this note, he had to hand it to Feldmann because the turncoat had practically shut the park down—he had found several remote fields for target practice. He was able to concentrate in complete and total solitude. And practice he did. Hours upon hours. Waiting for word from Feldmann’s insider source that the bear had emerged from its den.

The new bow felt foreign in his hands, lacking the familiar weight and balance of Whisper. Working with an economy of motion, Wade pulled back the string into a full draw. With a swift release, the arrow soared through the air, hitting the target with slightly less precision than he was accustomed to. He frowned, dissatisfied with the result.

With each arrow he loosed, he fought a growing frustration as he worked to adjust to the unfamiliar weapon. The arrows hit the target, but without the pinpoint accuracy he had come to expect with Whisper.

After a few more attempts, Wade sighed and lowered the bow. Trying to take down a four-hundred-pound bear with a bow and arrow was a bold and risky move. Practice would eventually improve his proficiency with this new bow, but it would never replace the confidence he had with Whisper.

Could he be losing his edge?

He walked across the field to retrieve his arrows from the butt. Suddenly, he stopped, turned slowly in a circle, listened for ... for what? He wasn’t sure. He just knew he felt nervous, uneasy. He didn’t like the feeling. Not at all.

Sixteen

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

—Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher

Coop kept stealing glances at Kate as they checked their backpacks one more time before locking up the truck at the parking area off Pilgrim Creek Road. He had to smile at the shiny new string of bells hanging off her backpack. He was pleased she’d listened to him after her Willow Flats scare.

“I haven’t been this far north. Are we close to Yellowstone?”

“Very close,” Coop said.

They started up the trail that led from Middle Pilgrim Creek to Wildcat Peak Trail. His heart was racing and he didn’t know if it was because of the task ahead, the altitude, or because he was spending time alone, quite intentionally, with Kate. He did know that he felt stomach-twisting nervous, like he was sixteen again and asking a girl out for the first time in his life.

He really hoped this afternoon might give Kate a chance to get that special photograph she was after. She deserved it, if for no other reason than her resiliency. It impressed him. He’d overheard the daily digs from the other photographers. And it sounded like her own family and jerk-boyfriend had their ownshare of doubts about her abilities. Imagine growing up with undiagnosed dyslexia in a family full of PhDs. Yet she’d found her own path, despite facing obstacles along the way.

What Coop didn’t anticipate was the unexpected connection he felt with Kate, one that seemed to deepen each time they interacted. It reminded him of how he had felt with Emma, long ago. And yet, it was different too. Better. He didn’t think he’d ever meet someone who could make him forget his feelings for Emma.

In a good way, Kate threw him off balance, made him reassess things. When she questioned him about Emma’s role as a principal, it caught him off guard. He’d never really considered it before. The truth was, Emma excelled in her role.

As they headed up the steep rise of the Middle Pilgrim Creek Trail, single file, the rushing creek didn’t allow time for talking but it did for reflecting. Kate seemed lost in her own thoughts too, and he wondered what was running through her mind. He hoped she might be thinking about breaking up with the jerk-boyfriend. He considered him a jerk because—hard to admit but it was true—he reminded Coop of himself, back when he was with Emma. It struck a chord, resonating with Tim’s question about Emma’s sudden change of heart. Had he been blind to the signs, too consumed with planning their future to notice Emma’s feelings shifting beneath the surface?

Getting to know Kate, seeing her situation with the jerk-boyfriend through her perspective, gave him a stark clarity of how he had stifled Emma. Same thing that this guy was doing to Kate. She deserved better.

And Emma had deserved better.

Which meant that he’d been just as selfish and obtuse as Kate’s jerk-boyfriend. He’d been so determined to plot the future that he hadn’t taken into account how Emma’s feelings were changing. And she kept accommodating him until she couldn’t do it anymore.

Coop saw it clearly now. He’d been so focused on his own desires that he hadn’t given her the space to flourish in her own right. Emma was thriving in her role as principal, doing precisely what she was meant to do.

He took a deep breath, as if stung by a bee. Shamed. It was time to truly let go of Emma. To let her off the hook. Yes, she had hurt him deeply. But he had a role in that too. He shared responsibility in the demise of their relationship.

It was as simple and as painful as that.

“Hey, Coop?”

He stopped and turned to see that Kate had fallen far behind. Her face was red, she was puffing from exertion. Argh. He was doing it again! Moving at his own pace, not thinking about someone else.

“Can we take a water break?”

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