Page 44 of Demon Loved
She sure hoped not, though.
Up ahead was one of her favorite spots, a sort of natural shelf that jutted into the creek and was a perfect place to stop and maybe dangle their feet in the water. Although the air was cooler here, the steady uphill climb had warmed her enough that she thought it might be good to peel off her socks and hiking boots and give her a chance to cool down.
When she mentioned the idea to Bill, he seemed just fine with it, so after they reached the spot in question, she stopped and took off her purse backpack, then bent down to unlace her hiking boots and remove them, and finally her socks. He followed suit, and soon they were both sitting on the ledge, their feet dangling in the water. It was quite cold — it always was, even at the height of summer, since the creek was fed by snow melt from the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff — but it was also refreshing, even though she knew she couldn’t sit here like this forever.
“It feels so far away from the rest of the world here,” he said.
“Well, we’re almost a mile off the highway now, so it’s hard to hear much of anything.”
Only the soft whisper of the breeze in the leaves, and the murmur of the creek, and the happy songs of the birds in the trees. Far overhead, a dark shape in the sky might have been a hawk or even an eagle, but it was too high for Bree to be able to tell for sure.
“I like that about this part of the world,” Bill commented. He’d also lifted his head to the sky, as though he’d spotted the hawk as well. “There are plenty of people, but it’s not difficult to find a place where you can be alone with your thoughts.”
She shifted a little on the rock, just enough so she could see him better instead of looking directly at the creek. His expression was thoughtful, but because he still wore his sunglasses, she had a harder time guessing exactly what he might be thinking.
“Yes, I suppose it’s harder to be alone in L.A.”
He didn’t answer at once. Bree thought she saw his jaw tighten, but she wasn’t quite sure what to make of that response.
When he spoke, his words were unexpected.
“It’s always difficult when you don’t want to listen to what those thoughts are trying to tell you.”
She wasn’t sure how to reply to such a remark. As far as she could tell, he was being completely honest with her, so saying something lighthearted didn’t feel right.
“Maybe they were telling you that you needed to get away.”
Now his mouth curved just a little, although she still couldn’t call the expression he wore a smile.
“And I did get away,” he said. “I got away to Jerome…and I found you.”
His voice was quiet, but she couldn’t mistake the intensity of his tone.
At a loss, she sat there, toes still dipping into the cold water, a cardinal somewhere off in the distance singing out its distinctive chip chip chip, followed by a small trill.
She wanted to tell Bill how glad she was that they’d found each other, but even though she had no problem spilling the contents of her thoughts into her songs, her tongue felt somehow tied when it came to saying those sorts of things out loud.
Then he shifted his position just enough so he could reach into the front pocket of his jeans and pull out a small box. “I got you something,” he said.
Everything about her seemed to freeze. Then the rational side of her brain took over, and she realized that wasn’t a ring box he was holding, but one that was much flatter, the kind of thing you might use for a pendant or maybe a pair of earrings.
Her heart began beating again. “You didn’t have to do that.”
“I know,” he said calmly. “But I wanted to.”
And he handed the box to her.
It wasn’t very heavy. Her fingers closed around it, even as her brain registered that this kind of brown recycled paper box was the kind they used at McAllister Mercantile.
Plus probably a million other stores, her brain added, but she had a feeling her first instinct had been correct, if for no other reason than Bill didn’t seem to want to go very far afield unless she was playing chauffeur.
Sitting there and holding it for too long would have been impossibly awkward. So she swallowed and opened the little box.
Lying inside was a silver pendant set with a greenish-blue, heavily veined stone surrounded by a framework of dark blue topaz and small rose-cut diamonds. Bree recognized the piece at once, mostly because she’d been coveting the thing ever since she first saw it in the display case at McAllister Mercantile. It was Angela’s work, and fairly priced for what it was, but she hadn’t been able to justify the cost when she already had plenty of jewelry.
“It’s — it’s beautiful,” she said, and something about Bill’s posture seemed to relax a little.
“You like it? When I saw it earlier today, something about it reminded me of you.”
