Page 63 of Colton in the Wild
“I’ll check with Lakin to get a time that won’t interfere with anything.”
Her joy seemed to ebb a little. “I know this must have really messed up the scheduling—”
“Everybody at RTA is so glad you’re okay, nobody cares about a little juggling,” he said firmly. “Dad and Uncle Will jumped in, and got almost everything covered. Oh, and when we had to change the Freemont trip, the only thing they wanted to know was if you were going to be all right.”
She smiled, and blinked a couple of times, as if tearing up a little. “They’re sweet.” She swallowed visibly. “You’re sweet, too.”
“Took you long enough,” he said with a wide grin.
“Look who’s talking,” she shot back, and then they were both laughing.
They sat enjoying the quiet. He loved that about her, too, that she had no problem just sitting and soaking it in. The sight of the various creatures, the scents of summer, the lack of human-generated noise, created the essence of this very special place that was in their blood, their bones.
It was a while before she spoke. “Do you have any close neighbors up the hill through the trees?” She was gesturing toward the thick forest just past the small clearing behind the house.
“Nope. Nearest one’s nearly a mile away, and he’s at about the same level, just further west.”
“But you get hikers and climbers going through?”
His brow furrowed. “Not usually. Nothing up here to draw them, not when there are so many other destination-type trails.”
She went silent then, and as he looked at her, she bit the luscious lower lip of hers, making him want to kiss away whatever had her thinking…whatever she was thinking. Then, belatedly, a possible reason for her questions hit him and his mood shifted like an iceberg breaking off a glacier. But he kept his question simple, not wanting to unnecessarily plant an idea that might destroy this mood.
“Why do you ask?”
“I…saw someone up there—” she nodded toward the trees “—when I first came out here. But he—or she, I couldn’t tell—vanished behind that big tree the eagles like to use as a lookout.”
Spence felt a chill as cold as an Alaska winter sweep through him. It took everything he had in him not to snap at her to get inside, out of sight. Instead, he asked casually, “So you didn’t get a look at whoever it was? Maybe it was the guy from what passes for ‘next door’ up here.”
“No,” she said. “It was just a flicker of movement. I could only tell that it was a person, not an animal.”
He tried to rein in his gut reaction. “So it wasn’t Sasquatch, huh?”
She laughed and suddenly sounded relaxed. “No. Not nearly tall enough.”
He held out a hand to her. “Come on. I need to do something.”
She looked puzzled, but took his hand. She didn’t really need it anymore, her leg was cooperating, but he wanted to be sure he got her inside. Once they were in, he closed and locked the door to the deck. When he turned around, Hetty was staring at him and he knew what he’d done had registered. And he saw the moment in her alert green eyes when she understood.
“You think it’s him,” she said.
“I don’t know. But I’m not taking the chance it is.” He walked over to the rack on the wall and took down his Kimber rifle.
“Spence, no!”
He checked the load and grabbed a box of extra rounds from the lower cabinet—for the first time really wishing he’d gone with the .300 Winchester Magnum instead of the standard .308—before he turned around to face her. This was Hetty. He loved her, and he would not lie to her. She wouldn’t tolerate it anyway, and he wasn’t about to risk this new precious thing in his life.
“I need you to stay inside, Hetty. I’m just going to go look around.”
“You can’t go out there alone, what if it is him?” She nearly yelped it.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Like I was?” The difference was that he was on guard now, and armed, but before he could say anything, she was reaching for her jacket. “I’m not some helpless female who can’t—”
“I know you’re not,” he said. “And you’re doing great, better every day, but you’re not to the point where you can deal with creeping around out there without giving yourself away.”
She opened her mouth as if to argue with him. But then she stopped, and he saw the reality, the truth, of what he’d said register. She let out a disgusted sigh. And Spence had the feeling this would not be the last time he’d be glad that reality beat out emotion in her mind. She was special, his Hetty was.
