Daredevil’s Run

marry a smart and beautiful woman. Everything I know about love and relationships I learned from Linda, I’m not ashamed to say it.”

Alex sat still, suddenly feeling empty…tired. Bewildered. Lost. “So,” she said carefully, “what should I do, Booker T? Do you really think Matt and I could…” She hitched one shoulder and let it trail off.

“I think,” said Booker T, evidently addressing the stones in the walk, “you can if you want to bad enough.” Then he angled a look at her. “From what Samantha and Cory were telling me about what happened up there on the Forks, seems like the two of you can work together just fine when you need to.”

“Yeah…” She tried to smile. Tried to feel better about things. But she was remembering the way Matt had looked at her, with his eyes full of such terrible sadness, and his words: You didn’t need anybody.

Booker T gave her a nudge. “Hey-what’s wrong now?”

“I think-” she tried to laugh, though she’d never felt less like laughing in her life “-it might be too late.”

“Nah,” said Booker T, “it’s never too late. ’Course, you might have to swallow some of that pride of yours first.”

She began in automatic defense. “Me? What about-”

“For Pete’s sake, girl, love, want, need-the words don’t matter. Get your butt in gear and get over there to that motel and say whatever it takes to keep one of the best men I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing from driving out of your life for good. Tell him you need him, if that’s what he needs to hear. You think you can do that?”

Alex drew a breath, nodded and was finally able to laugh, although it felt a little weak and shaky, like some thing newly born. She wiped her cheeks, leaned over and kissed Booker T’s cheek, then got up and started down the walk to her car. Halfway there she began to run.

Her sense of purposeful euphoria lasted until she pulled into the motel parking lot and saw that Matt’s van was gone. Something-panic-clutched at her stomach. She sat with her hands gripping the steering wheel while her heart raced and her thoughts raced faster, going nowhere. Now what? What do I do? Where did he go? Did they leave? Oh God, what now?

Shaking, she parked, got out of the car and went into the office. The girl behind the counter-someone Alex didn’t know, roughly college age-looked up at her and smiled.

“Hi, can I help you?”

“Uh…yeah, the couple with the guy in the wheelchair-I’m not sure of the room numbers-”

“Oh yeah, you just missed them. They checked out about…um…ten minutes ago.”

“Checked out?” She could hear it, it was her voice, but it seemed to come from far, far away.

“Yeah…sorry.” The desk clerk was relentlessly cheery. “They had the rooms reserved until tomorrow, but I guess they decided to leave early. They said something about…um…wanting to avoid the weekend homecoming traffic into L.A. on I-5?”

“Yeah…okay…thanks.” In a daze, Alex walked out of the motel office.

Her heart sank as she saw Eve’s Jeep pull up beside her SUV. Not now, she silently pleaded. I really do not need this right now.

She fought for calm, searched deep inside herself for some shreds of patience. Remembered the sunglasses she’d pushed up onto the top of her head and flipped them down to cover her eyes. Fixed a smile on her face and angled across to the driver’s side of the Jeep as Eve rolled the window down.

“Hey, what are you doing here?”

Eve planted her arm on the windowsill and shrugged that same shoulder in a way that seemed almost defensive. “Thought maybe if you were done with your meeting with Matt…” She nodded toward the row of empty parking spaces beyond their two cars. “Anyway, I see his van’s gone. So…did they leave? Want to go get a beer, maybe a bite to eat?”

Alex felt waves of guilt, tempered with annoyance. She really did like Eve, and also felt sorry for her, since although she got along okay with the other guides, and the customers seemed to like her fine, she didn’t appear to have any close friends. Which was her own fault, Alex thought, for being so damned high maintenance.

“Oh, darn, Eve-I wish I could, but right now I’ve got to…” And she was opening the door of her SUV, clearly in a hurry to be off.

Which was lost on Eve. She got out of her Jeep and came over to Alex’s car, shading her eyes with one hand. “Where are you going? Do you need any help? I can-”

“No, it’s just…I’ve got to catch Matt. They just left.” As she spoke she was climbing behind the wheel, starting the car. And looked up to find Eve’s hands pressed against her window. Her eyes were wide and her lips were moving. Inwardly chafing, Alex rolled the window down. “Eve, what is it? I really need to go.”

“Why? Alex, what are you doing?” Eve was obviously upset, even more so than usual. Her fingers were gripping the windowsill so hard her knuckles were white, as if, Alex thought, she was trying to physically prevent the SUV from moving. What was wrong with the woman? I can’t deal with this now.

“What I should have done a long time ago,” Alex said impatiently, turning to back out of the parking place. “I’m going to tell him I don’t want him to leave. Now-”

Eve’s fingers caught her arm and dug in hard. “You’re not going to take him back! You said-”

“I know what I said, Eve, and I was stupid. Now, please-I’ll explain later. But I really have to go. If I leave right now I might be able to catch up with them before they hit the canyon.” She put the SUV in reverse and began to back up, and Eve’s hand slid away from her arm. Alex put her arm out the window and waved as she called back, “I’ll call you later, Eve-promise!”

As she accelerated out of the parking lot, she glanced in her rearview mirror and saw that Eve was standing where she’d left her, hands down at her sides, curled into fists. Well, hell. Eve was pissed-what else was new? Couldn’t be helped. Right now she had only one thought in mind, and that was to catch Matt before he vanished into the Los Angeles-bound Sunday afternoon traffic.

Matt had one thought in mind as he drove his van west on the divided freeway-type highway that was the first leg of the route down the Kern River Canyon to the San Joaquin Valley: Put as much distance between himself and the Kern River Valley and Alex Penny as he could, and hopefully get home to Los Angeles ahead of the Sunday incoming traffic. He was finding it a little hard to concentrate on his driving, however, due to the fact that his sister-in-law had been giving him an earful since they’d pulled out of the motel parking lot.

“Matthew, do not try and argue this logically,” Sam said for the second or third time. “If you do, you’re an idiot. And why are you smiling? This is not funny.”

A glance in his rearview mirror told Matt he could expect no help from his brother, who’d evidently succumbed to the painkillers the doctors at the hospital had given him, and was asleep in the backseat. Either that or he was playing possum just to keep clear of the fray.

“You calling me Matthew-that’s what I was smiling at,” he said. “You’re the third person to do that-my mom and Alex do, too. Funny, though-only when they’re mad a me.”

“Why do you think Southern women always give their kids two names? One syllable just won’t do it when you need to chew somebody out. You need at least three-what’s your middle name, by the way?”

“None of your business,” said Matt.

“James,” said Cory from the backseat. “It’s Matthew James Callahan.”

“Rat,” Matt muttered.

“Okay,” Sam crowed. “Matthew James, you are an idiot. What’s with this need business? Don’t you know, there’s all kinds of ways to need somebody? ’Course Alex doesn’t need you to support her or take care of her-what woman does? I sure don’t need Pearse to support me-doesn’t mean I don’t need him about like I need my next breath. I need him because I like having him around, and without him I’m not a happy woman. I need him because he knows just where to rub my neck when it’s stiff, and how to make me laugh, and a million other things besides. And I bet you Alex needs you in all kinds of ways she hasn’t even thought of yet.”

“So, go yell at her, then. She’s the one who thinks she’s an island, not me.”

Sam lifted her hands and let them drop into her lap. “Well, I would have, if you hadn’t been in such a hurry to hightail it outa Dodge.”

“Look,” Matt said, using the kind of patient tone he might have employed to explain something to one of his less-than-brilliant students, “I am not the one with the problem here. I know perfectly well how much I need her, but it kind of has to be a two-way street, you know what I mean? When one person