“A year,” Stone mused. “Unlike him.”
“Because he’s never had to make the moves before.”
“Yeah.” Stone shoved his cell into his pocket. “Who let T.J. go out on a month-long trek so he doesn’t have to deal with the day-to-day shit of the ranch, including our baby brother?”
“You. You don’t like to be gone for long periods of time, and you know it. You like to be in charge, bossing everyone around, making sure we all do your bidding.”
“Now you sound like Annie.”
Nick fell silent at that. He’d been with them since before Wilder Adventures, years before. He’d gone to school with Annie, had been in love with her since day one, and had helped her out with a young Cam. It’d taken a long time to convince Annie to marry him, because like all the Wilders, she tended to work hard at pushing people away, including the best person to ever happen to her. “The divorce sucks.”
A man of few words, Nick just nodded.
“You’d think it would make her happy since it was her idea, but she’s a bigger nightmare than before.” Stone slid Nick a glance. “Can’t you fix that?”
Nick shook his head. “She has a thing for the UPS guy.”
“What?”
“She likes his shorts.”
“Then get a pair of shorts, man.”
“She said I didn’t see her.” Nick shrugged his narrow shoulders. “Hell, I don’t even know what that means.”
“Maybe it’s girl code. Maybe she thinks you don’t love her.”
Nick looked completely befuddled. “How can she think that? I sold my Jeep to buy her a ring. I sold my Skycrane heli when she had that bad turn with her diabetes and got so sick. I sold my life to make her happy, and she says I didn’t see her?”
“So see her.”
“Yeah. Any thoughts on how exactly?”
“No, but she’s cranky as hell, and she’s scaring people. If you don’t start seeing her soon, we’re all going to pay.”
“So you’re saying I have to get my marriage back together for your sake?”
“For the greater good of Wilder Adventures,” Stone said.
“For your sake.”
“Yeah.”
Nick shook his head. “All of you Wilders are crazy.”
“You’re just now figuring that out?”
Recreation in the mountains was decidedly different than in the city, Katie discovered, and much more exciting. She still had trouble sleeping at night, but she managed to get enough hours to refresh her.
Or maybe that was the high-altitude air.
Every morning, she walked from her cabin to the lodge and looked around in awe. It seemed she could breathe deeper here, see farther. The skies were bigger, the landscape was brighter, a landscape that continued to execute mysterious rustles in the bushes, making her nearly jump out of her skin as she hustled to the lodge steps.
Big Foot her ass, but she had a feeling whatever stalked her was hungry. Still, she refused to run off like a scared little bunny. She stood firm and looked at the bush, which went suddenly still. “One of these days,” she told it, “you’re going to show your face.”
Stone came around the side of the lodge, his downhill skis on his shoulder, an amused look on his face. “Are you talking to the manzanita bush?”
“It talked first.”
He laughed and shook his head as he walked by her, up the stairs toward the front door.
“Seriously, what lives in these things anyway?”
“Wolf spiders, raccoons, coyotes…you name it.”
She’d rather not. She turned back and eyed the bush. “Okay, you win this round.” But in defiance, she stood there a moment longer soaking up the clear, crisp air. The mountains were still, the early-morning sun sparkling like glitter over the snow. It was so beyond anything in her experience, and so…absolutely soul-soothing.
That she had the bridge collapse to thank for this experience was an odd thought, but she had it anyway.
Her life was definitely no longer the same old boring routine.
Annie opened the front door and looked at her. “You going to stand there daydreaming all day, or are you going to get in here and eat the best omelet on the planet?”
“Yours?”
“Who else?”
Katie went inside, ate what was easily the best omelet on the planet, and then spent the day organizing trips, running the office, and helping Stone stock and catalog demo gear that many of the big-name sporting companies sent them.
That night, Wilder Adventures hosted overnight guests, and the living room turned into a bar. The fire was set to roaring, Annie put out food, and a local band set up, with Nick strapping on a guitar.
Stone was walking around, mingling with the guests, taking drink orders.
Cam stood behind the bar filling those orders, his long, lean, rangy body moving to the beat of the music as he poured drinks with an ease that told her he’d been bartending a good long time. He had a way with the guests too. There were three women standing in front of the bar, laughing, talking, flirting. When they moved away, other women in the room moved in.
Katie snagged a few hors d’oeuvres, smiled at Nick, who was surprisingly good on the guitar, and got stopped by Stone, who introduced her around, though the whole time her gaze kept drifting back to Cam.
He wore an opened plaid flannel over a blue T-shirt on his broad shoulders, half tucked into his trademark loose jeans, low on his lean hips. She couldn’t see his feet, but she’d bet he had his boots on, unlaced. Simple, typical mountain-man clothing, but nothing was simple or typical about the man.