Page 59 of Kiss Across the Universe
“Doesn’t look like it.”
“You’ll see.”
She had to be content with that.
They walked for a few more minutes in silence. This time, Kit didn’t pull ahead with his long-legged stride. She seemed to be able to keep up with him. Maybe he was keeping his pace slow enough to match hers, which was shorter despite her own long legs.
“Is this why you became a warden?” she asked him. “Because of views like this?”
“I’ve seen better.”
“You have? Where?”
“The Andes.”
She thought about that. “Isn’t that…I don’t know…disloyal or something? These are theCanadianRocky Mountains.”
“They are,” he agreed easily. “But that doesn’t mean I have a blind spot about them.” He glanced at her. “You could hop over to South America any time you want. Peru has the best of the Andes. Check them out for yourself. Then come and tell me which ones you think are the best.”
“Aren’t they all just…grand?”
“They’re all different. But these…” He waved his hand toward them. “They’re backdrop, when you’re working. You get so you take them for granted. You’re too busy trying to run up a five in three slope after a rabid goat…you tend to not notice the prettiness.”
“Pretty.” She laughed. “That sounds like …I don’t know, it’s like calling the Taj Mahal a domestic residence.”
“You’ve seen the Taj Mahal?”
“Yes.” She waved away a mosquito with her sage branch. “When we were seventeen, Aran and I spent the year playing Global Bingo.” Being able to speak the truth like this was refreshing. Normally she bullshitted about being taken to India on a family vacation.
“Global Bingo…” Kit sounded amused. “You’d jump somewhere, come home and stamp it on a map?”
“That’s right. But if we didn’t go together, or if we got into trouble, then it didn’t count.”
“Trouble?”
She nodded. “The point was to pass as tourists. If anyone asked us for passports, or took too much interest in us and forced us to jump home again, then we weren’t doing it right and that jump was cancelled out.”
“Training yourselves…. Was that Aran’s idea?”
“I wanted to see all the tourist spots. Aran put the polish on it.”
“And youdidn’tget to Peru to see the Andes?”
“It’s not exactly a sexy, well-known destination,” Alannah said defensively. “And I was seventeen. Buckingham Palace was a big deal for me.” She paused. “Wedidget to Chile, to Cabo de Hornos, to see the tip of South America.”
They had taken another dozen steps before Kit said, “How did you win the bingo pot, then?”
“No pot. The point was to stamp as much of the map as possible…and for Mom andFarandAtharto not find out.Farwould have skinned us alive.”
“He still will, if he ever finds out,” Kit replied. “But he won’t hear it from me,” he added quickly.
Alannah shrugged. “Faris mellowing a bit, these days.” She realized she was staring at the jagged peaks once more. “If you don’t work here because of the view and chasing rabid goats irritates you, then whyareyou a park warden?”
For long moments, Kit didn’t answer. Alannah wondered if he intended to ignore the question, for it was direct and nosy. They marched onward, always up-slope, although the slope was not anywhere near five in one, here.
“I earned a B.A. in Environmental Conservation while I was in the Army,” Kit said, startling her, for he had been silent for so long. “Afterwards, when I got out, being a warden seemed…peaceful.”
Alannah nodded. She had no direct military experience, but she’d heard Jesse talking with her guard down, late at night, when there was only family around. “You don’t have to stay clenched and suspicious out here?” she proposed.
