A knock sounded on the front door and a moment later, the bell rang. She found a pair of his jeans tossed over the end of the bed and pulled them on, then grabbed her shirt as she passed through the living room. A young man was standing on the opposite side of the door, an envelope in his hand.
“Hi,” he said. “I’m from Dunbar Travel. Are you…” He paused and grinned. “You don’t look like Charlie Templeton.”
“I’m not. But he lives here.”
“All right,” he said. “Sign for these.”
“What are they?” she asked, as she scribbled her name in his receipt book.
“Tickets,” he said. “The itinerary is in the envelope.”
She closed the door behind him, then crossed to the couch and sat down, tucking her feet beneath her. The envelope was open. If he was planning to surprise her with a trip, then she wanted to know so she could arrange her schedule. But there was another possibility-he was planning his escape.
Eve set the envelope down next to her as if it had burned her fingers. But after a minute of staring at it, she couldn’t deny her curiosity any longer. She picked it up and pulled out the contents. “ Denver to Boston,” she murmured. She pulled out a second ticket. “ Boston to London to New Delhi to Katmandu,” she read. “Tickets for one.”
He was due to leave at the end of next week. The flight to London was dated for a week after that. It didn’t matter where he was now or whether he’d be back. In the end, Charlie was leaving the country again.
“YOU’RE HERE EARLY,” Lily said. “Usually you don’t get in before eleven. Not that I’m complaining. I’m glad you finally have a social life.”
“Well, you’ll be disappointed to know that it’s all coming to an end. Charlie is gone.”
“Gone?” Lily frowned. “Where?”
“I don’t know. He just disappeared this morning. Said he’d be back soon. And then, some kid delivered plane tickets to his house. He’s taking off in a week for…where is Katmandu? Morocco?”
“I think it’s in Nepal,” Lily said. “Or maybe Tibet?”
“Even worse,” Eve said with a dry laugh. “That won’t be an overnight trip.” She strode to the sink and washed her hands, then grabbed an apron. A sharp knife and a big bowl of onions was all she really needed to work off her frustration.
Eve grabbed an onion and halved it, then peeled off the skin and began to chop it into tiny, even pieces. “I shouldn’t be upset. I knew this was coming. I’ve been prepared. In fact, I’m glad he’s leaving. It would be silly to invest any more time in a relationship that will never go anywhere.”
Tears filled her eyes. She knew they weren’t from the onions, but at least she had a cover while she gave in to her emotions. “He’ll be back. And then we’ll continue as we left off.”
“But you want him to stay,” Lily said.
“No!”
Lily nodded her head. “Yes.”
“No,” Eve insisted.
Lily gave her a pitying look. “Yes.”
Eve brushed the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand. “Yes,” she finally murmured. “Of course I want him to stay. I have a man in my life and he’s funny and kind and I think he genuinely cares about me. Why wouldn’t I want that to continue?”
“Exactly,” Lily said. “Just admit that you want a future with him. That’s the first step.”
“I admit it,” Eve said. “Oh, God.” She dropped the knife and sank onto a nearby stool. “This is going to end so badly.” She grabbed a towel and wiped her runny nose, then looked at Lily through watery eyes. “I let myself fall in love with him.”
“Not hard to do, considering how gorgeous he is.”
“That’s the point. I don’t really even think about how he looks. He makes me laugh and he points out all my faults. He does things to my body that I never thought were possible. When we’re together, we’re…together. It’s like we can’t exist without touching or kissing or whispering.” Eve took a ragged breath. “I do love him.”
“So, tell him. Give him the choice. Love you or leave you.”
“It’s too soon,” she said. “Nobody falls in love in just over a week.”
“It hasn’t been just a week. It’s been five years.”
“No,” Eve said, shaking her head. But perhaps Lily was right. Maybe this feeling had begun all those years ago and had survived, buried somewhere in a quiet corner of her heart.
Lily stepped to her side. “There’s nothing wrong with honesty,” she said, grabbing the towel and dabbing at Eve’s eyes. “Just tell him how you feel.”
“I’ll sound ridiculous,” Eve said. “How can I feel this much in little more than a week?” She shook her head. “No. No! This is just an overreaction. It’s because of the divorce. I’m making more of this than there really is. I did exactly the same thing with Matt after Charlie left. I made him into some white knight. I’m not going to do that again.”
“All right. Then dump him. Dump Charlie. That will make you feel better, won’t it? Get him out of your life for good. Put this all behind you and move on.”
“I will,” Eve said. “As soon as I figure out where he is. Or when he’s coming back.”
He’d taken all his camping gear. She knew one place where he might be. When they’d gone camping together, he’d mentioned that he’d stayed at that site many times. It was close by and not a difficult hike. Tomorrow, she’d hike up there and tell him how she felt.
And in between now and then, she’d try her very best to figure out how she felt.
CHARLIE WINCED as he removed his hiking boot. It had been a stupid accident, one that was easily preventable had he been paying attention to the trail ahead. But his mind had been occupied with thoughts of Eve.
He’d been out in the woods for a day, hoping that fresh air and solitude would clear his mind and make his decisions easier. One misplaced footstep and he’d gone down, his ankle rolling to the side.
By the time he’d removed his sock, the ankle had already begun to swell. “Not good,” he muttered. His cell phone was back at camp, but he was almost certain he’d get no signal. The only choice he had was to wait, let the swelling go down and walk out.
Charlie wiggled his toes, then tested the motion of his foot. He was pretty certain it wasn’t broken. Balancing himself on a nearby tree, he stood and tried to put weight on it, then hobbled a few feet down the trail and back. He wouldn’t be able to go far, at least not for a day or two. But he had enough food to last a week. Though the river was a complicated trip on one foot, he could easily slide down on his ass and climb up on his knees.
Like any good outdoorsman, Charlie began to formulate a plan. He was only about a hundred yards from his campsite. First, he needed to cut down the swelling. The river would be icy cold from the runoff in the mountains. He’d go soak his ankle, then crawl back up to his campsite before dark. If he elevated it overnight, he might be able to walk out tomorrow.
Charlie searched around in the underbrush for a sturdy stick. He found one dangling from a nearby sapling and pulled down. It wasn’t the best, but it had a nice joint to tuck under his arm. He pulled off his T-shirt and wrapped it around the Y in the branch, then gave it a test. Though it was a bit long, he could take care of that problem with his hatchet.
As he struggled back toward his campsite, he couldn’t help but think about how this little accident had completely taken his mind off Eve.
He’d thought solitude would clear his mind. But instead, he’d spent most of his time thinking about their last trip together, the seduction in the cold night, lying next to the campfire. The feel of her naked body curled up against his. The pleasure of waking up to the sounds of the trees rustling outside and the soft rhythm of her breathing.
He’d planned to spend just one more night in the woods before heading back to Boulder. The day after tomorrow, he was due at the university for another lecture and he had every intention of keeping that appointment. If he couldn’t hike out under his own power, they’d come looking for him. And Eve could guess where he might have gone.
By the time he’d made it down to the river, Charlie’s ankle was throbbing from the pain. He sat down on a boulder, then slid over to the edge of the water, plunging his foot into the rushing current.
“Shit,” he muttered, wincing at the icy cold. He closed his eyes, then waited as long as he could be fore he took his foot out. Though it felt considerably better, it didn’t look much different.
“Charlie!”
He straightened at the sound of his name, looking up along the bank toward the woods. “Yeah?”
“Charlie? Where are you?”
“Eve? I’m down here. At the river.”
A few seconds later, she emerged from the woods, her hair tangled and her face dirty. She stumbled up to his side and threw herself into his arms. “Oh, God. You’re safe. You’re alive.”
He stared at her in disbelief. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I found your daypack on the trail and it was all torn apart. I thought you’d been eaten by a bear. Or a wolf. Or a cougar.” She held his face in her hands. “Are you sure you’re all right? Why did you leave your pack there?”
“I twisted my ankle,” he said, then stopped. “I didn’t leave it behind all that long ago.” He craned his neck to scan the woods. “A bear might have gotten at it. Or a very determined squirrel. Damn it, Eve, you shouldn’t be hiking alone. Never, ever, hike alone.”
“I could have been eaten by a bear?” she said.
“He probably wouldn’t have eaten you.” He shrugged. “Well, not unless you ran into a grizzly. Black bears usually run when they see humans. But-that’s not the point. Never hike alone.”
“You’re hiking alone,” she said.
“I have a little bit of experience in the woods,” he replied. “And look what happened to me.”
She took a ragged breath. “I had to find you. We need to talk.”
“Right now?”
“No, not this minute.” She glanced down at his foot. “What happened? Your ankle is all swollen.”
“I sprained my ankle. I told you. That’s why I left my pack on the trail. Are you all right? Did you hit your head?” She seemed completely flustered, as if her time alone in the woods had unhinged her a bit. This was not the calm and organized Eve he knew and loved.
“It’s a little scary out here all alone,” she said, glancing around. “I wasn’t sure I knew my way. I had my cell phone along, just in case, but-”
“Your cell phone won’t work out here,” he said.
“It worked earlier. I called Lily at the restaurant to tell her about the new blender I ordered and she said…”
“Your phone worked?”
She nodded, then held it out to him. He turned it on, but there was no signal. “It doesn’t work now. How long ago did it work?”
“A half-hour,” she said, glancing at her watch. “I called her at two-thirty. It’s quarter after three now.”
“Two miles,” he murmured. “Maybe three. So, what was so important that you braved the wilds to find me?”
She gave him an odd look, opening her mouth, then snapping it shut. “Nothing,” she finally murmured. “It seemed important at the time, but it’s not. We can talk about it later.” She pointed to his
