Reunion Pass: An Eternity Springs novel (15 page)

Lana hurried after him. “Chase? Sweetheart?”

Oh, damn. He still had to deal with her. Halting abruptly, Chase lifted his gaze toward the mountain trail that led to the yurt. “Lana, I need something from you.”

“Anything, darling.”

“I need you to let me be alone.”

“You mean tonight?”

“Tonight. Tomorrow. However long it takes. I’m going up into the mountains. By myself. You can stay here with my parents. You can go home to New York. Whatever you’d rather do. I just need … I’ve got to go. Let my mom or dad know whatever you need. They’ll help. You can always count on them.”

Too bad he couldn’t say the same about himself.

*   *   *

Lori cleaned her hemostat and sent Sage Rafferty a reassuring smile. “That was the last one. We will keep Snowdrop until the anesthesia wears off and make sure she’s doing well, but I don’t expect any ill effects. You can pick her up after lunch.”

Sage pulled her worried gaze off her bichon frise. “Porcupine quills are not a good look on her.”

“I do like her in her little Easter bonnets better,” Lori agreed.

“With Racer being such a live wire and now that Ella is crawling, we’re going to have to rethink our approach to picnics in the woods. Snowdrop has always been such an easy dog. I think my children’s bad habits are rubbing off on her. She’s never before wandered away like she did today. I’ve wondered if she’s testing us just like the kiddos do.”

“Maybe. Sometimes bad behavior in a pet is a demand for attention—just like it is with children. However, I doubt you’ll have to worry about her tangling with a porcupine again. Snowdrop has always been a quick learner.”

“Good. I never want to go through that sort of trauma again. The only good thing I can say about it is that she made an impression on Racer. He won’t try tangling with any porcupines he might run across.”

Lori gently lifted the anesthetized dog and carried her to a crate where she would sleep off the effects of the drug. Lori made notes in Snowdrop’s chart, then put check marks beside services rendered on the clinic’s billing paperwork and handed it to Sage. “I heard Myra come in a few minutes ago. She will check you out.”

“How is she working out?”

“She’s wonderful.” Myra Thomas was a recent Eternity Springs newcomer with fifteen years’ experience in a medical clinic’s billing office. Her desire for part-time work made her a perfect match for Lori’s office needs. “It was my lucky day that she knocked on my door before she tried the medical clinic. They’d have snapped her up, and I’d still be struggling with paperwork.”

After Sage left, Lori vaccinated and chipped Eloise Martin’s new puppy, then filled a prescription for Dale Parker’s cat. She took Brick Callahan’s call, pulled up the pictures he’d e-mailed to her on her tablet, and gave him her honest opinion of the fabrics his designer had recommended for the tree house he was building up at his camp. “It’s too busy, Brick. You want elegance and peacefulness. These fabrics say South Beach on Friday night.”

“Seriously? South Beach?” He sounded horrified at the idea.

“Seriously.”

“Huh.”

While Brick griped about interior designers in one ear, the other picked up the sound of voices in the waiting room. She glanced at her clock. Ten after twelve. She had no appointments until two. Leaning from behind her desk in order to get the angle, she was surprised to see Caitlin Timberlake. Surprised and a little bit wary.

In the eleven days since Chase had come home, he’d not come into town once. Lori didn’t know if that fact concerned anyone who’d seen him up at his parents’ house on the night of his homecoming. All the talk at the chamber of commerce meeting the day before yesterday had centered on how good he’d looked and how he’d appeared to be no worse for wear—except for the big scratch on his neck. Lori wasn’t so sure. There’d been something in his eyes that disturbed her, a distance. A detachment. It was as if his body resided in Colorado, but his heart hadn’t made the trip home.

Only once had life flickered in his eyes. It had been that instant when Lana spoke of yellow, and her and Chase’s gazes had briefly connected. She’d had the sense that in that moment, they both recalled a certain high country picnic.

“Hello? Earth to Lori?” Brick’s voice said in her ear. “You still there?”

“Yeah. Sorry. What did you ask me?”

“Are we still on for Memorial Day weekend?”

Brick had cajoled her into joining him on a trip to the Durango area where he had an appointment with a rancher to look at some trail horses he was considering buying for his camp. “Sure. I can’t leave until after noon. I have appointments in the morning.”

“Not a problem. I have rooms reserved for us at a B and B my mother loves. She said to tell you the truffle eggs are spectacular.”

“Yum. Okay. Pick me up at twelve-thirty.” Lori waved a silent hello to Caitlin, now standing in her office doorway. “I gotta run now. See you Saturday.”

Lori disconnected the call, then asked, “What’s the matter?”

Misery wreathed Caitlin’s face. “Oh, Lori. I’m so worried about Chase.”

Everything within Lori tensed. She realized she’d been anticipating this visit for days. “What’s happened?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing!” Caitlin waved a dramatic hand. “He won’t leave the yurt. He won’t talk to us when we visit. It’s like he’s become this reclusive mountain man who spends all his time sitting beside the creek throwing leaves into the water. Mom and Dad are worried sick, but trying to pretend everything is okay. We all tiptoe around the fact that something is terribly wrong. I’m worried I’m going to go up there one day and find him missing or worse. I never see him without a gun within reach. Not a shotgun or a hunting rifle in case a rabid bear wanders up, either. A handgun. He’s so quiet and sad and … damaged. I even feel sorry for Lana!”

Now that was a first. Caitlin really must be concerned. “He treats her poorly?”

“He doesn’t treat her at all! She’s living at my parents’ house. He won’t let her stay with him at the yurt. When he first came back, I thought he was angry at her, but now … he doesn’t seem to care. About her. About us. About himself. About anything. I don’t know what happened to him over there, but it’s obvious it was bad. I think he has PTSD.”

Lori closed her eyes, hurt for Chase twisting her heart.
Sounds like it’s even worse than I imagined.
“Sounds like he needs to talk to someone.”

“I know. I overheard my parents talking about that this morning. Apparently, Dad has tried to bring the subject up more than once, most recently yesterday. Chase is having none of it. Mom is going to reach out to Sage because, apparently, she has fought her way through PTSD. I don’t know the whole story of that.”

Lori did. Sage had been volunteering with Doctors Without Borders in Africa when terrorists attacked the camp clinic where she worked. It had taken her a long time and a good dose of Eternity Springs to heal from the experience. “That’s a good idea.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Caitlin said. “I don’t think it’s the only one that might help. That’s why I’m here. I think you should try to talk to him.”

“Oh, no.” Lori pushed her desk chair back. “No, no, no. We’ve been down that road before. You’ve been pushing me in that direction for months.”

“Wait a minute. Hear me out.”

“I don’t need to hear you out.”

“He’s in trouble, Lori. The two of you have always had something special between you. I have a feeling that you could cut through his defenses like nobody else.”

“You’re wrong. It’s not my job. It’s not my place. He’s engaged to marry another woman.”

“It’s never gonna happen,” Caitlin said flatly. “She missed her chance with him when she put off the Valentine’s Day wedding.”

“Now, Caitlin.”

“Don’t. You sound like my mom. She told me to stay out of it, too. But I can’t. I won’t. I’m too worried about him. Look, Lana isn’t part of this discussion. I’m not asking you to talk to him as a girlfriend. You guys were friends. That doesn’t have to stop and he needs a friend right now. Be a friend to him. He needs that. He needs you.”

Further protest from Lori was interrupted when Celeste swept into the clinic with a whimpering ball of golden fur in her arms. “Lori, this poor little guy needs your help.”

Chapter Nine

Mac and Ali Timberlake’s yurt sat nestled against a mountain with a spectacular view of Murphy Mountain. Powered by a generator, its amenities included a wood floor, a full kitchen, indoor plumbing complete with a whirlpool bathtub built for two and a walk-in shower, a stone fireplace, and a king-sized bed.

Most nights, Chase slept outside beneath the stars. Though in truth, he did little sleeping. A guilty conscience kept him tossing and turning on a mattress full of the nettles of regret all night long.

He should have listened to his gut. He could have stopped it. He should have stopped it. He was as responsible as Lana.

His gaze drifted toward the boulder where she sat with a pen in her hand and a journal in her lap. After leaving him peacefully alone for the first five days of his time up at the yurt, Lana had shown up on the afternoon of the sixth. She stayed a couple hours, fixed supper for the two of them, then left. The following day, she’d arrived around the same time and stayed just about as long. Having her around hadn’t bothered him enough to take the effort to make her leave. She hadn’t interacted with him much at all. He quickly noted that during the hours of her visit, none of his family popped in. They arrived at other times. One or two quick visits every day.

He was being babysat.

Whatever trips their triggers,
he thought. He didn’t care.

Today Lana sat in a lawn chair writing in a journal. Her fingers flew across the page as she filled it with words. It occurred to him that she wasn’t the same person as before, either. Before the Chizickstan trip, he rarely, if ever, saw her still. That Lana was flash—all motion and energy and intensity—like lightning from a summer thunderstorm. He’d liked that about her. He’d been attracted to it.

Now, the flash was … well … maybe not gone, but definitely muted. Nevertheless, she was not peaceful.

Dear God, right now, he craved peace.

Lana sat not ten feet away from him. Just when she’d started talking to him, he couldn’t say. He hadn’t noticed. However, when she said his mother’s name, it caught his attention.

“… a house in town. It’s a cute cottage with lots of potential. It has good bones. You must know Shannon Garrett? She wasn’t at your homecoming gathering because she’s just had a new baby. Anyway, I met her when I went to lunch at your mother’s restaurant yesterday. She remodeled the darling little red and white house in town called Heartsong Cottage. Do you know the one I’m talking about? It’s so cute. Anyway, she’s not doing that sort of work herself anymore, but she told me she knows all the subs to recommend if we decide to tackle it.”

“What are you talking about?” Chase asked.

Momentary surprise flashed across her face. Obviously, she hadn’t expected a response from him. “Our house in town, darling. We can’t keep living with your parents after we get married, and your mom says the yurt is rented for hunting season. We need to get our own place.”

Chase simply looked at her. Was she seriously talking about living in Eternity Springs? Now?

Whatever. He didn’t have the mental energy to engage in conversation about it. He didn’t have strength to even think about it. After all, the question had been part of the argument that god-awful day, had it not?

“No. I am not going to move to Eternity effing Springs and I am not going to cancel the shoots at Markhor Pass and if you don’t like it, you are welcome to take yourself home to your cozy little mountain burg. I am going to save this show with you or without you!”

The show. Always, the show. What was she doing about the show now? Had anyone mentioned it to him? He couldn’t recall. He certainly hadn’t cared enough to ask.

“I told your mother I want to be part of the wedding planning this time around,” Lana continued. “She says it won’t take too long to put together. We just need to pick a date. I think she and I and your sister are going to make a quick trip to Denver tomorrow and shop for a wedding gown. I’m really excited.”

Noise. It was all babble and noise with a measure of desperation.

“You should go,” he told her.

Lana brightened. “All right. I will!”

Chase frowned. He hadn’t meant she should go to Denver to shop for a wedding dress. He’d meant she should leave here. The yurt. His parents’ house. Colorado, entirely.

Before he’d worked up the words to clarify, she’d scrambled off the boulder and was walking in his direction. She threw her arms around him and pulled his head down to hers for a kiss.

Chase stood as still as Murphy Mountain. It was the first advance of any kind that she’d attempted since he’d failed to return her embrace when she’d arrived at the base during his debriefing. Like then, today he didn’t push her away, but he didn’t respond to her, either. He had nothing inside him to give to Lana or to anyone.

She stepped back, then pasted on a bright smile just shy of sincere. “Your family has been so nice to me. It’s especially nice of your mother to have taken me under her wing. I’m so glad I’ve had this time to get to know everyone better.” Giving a little laugh, she added, “Even Caitlin has warmed up to me.”

A sheen of moisture flooded her eyes and she blinked rapidly. Chase was no more moved by her tears than he had been by her kiss. If anything, the sight of tears only made him colder.

In his mind’s eye, he saw the tracks of tears on David Whitelaw’s face as his knees hit the ground.

“So,” Lana said, her voice crisp and way too perky. “I should probably get back to the house. You mother said she’d teach me to make Bolognese sauce, and I need to make a run to the grocery store. Can I get you anything while I’m in town?”

He shook his head. He wished she would leave. He wanted her to leave. Her voice today had a sharp note to it. Sharp like a knife blade.

“Okay, then. Well. I guess I probably won’t make it up here tomorrow. Ali said we’d leave early.”