“You could ask for help.”
“I could. But whoever they’d send is competing for the same job as me.”
“Competing.”
“Yes, competing. Like when you and your brothers race like a bunch of idiots down The Face on your dirt bikes to see who can kill themselves-er, get to the bottom first.”
He slid his gaze up to hers in time to catch her mouth twitch and didn’t bother to hide his smile. “Those are controlled test trips to ensure we can make the run safely with a client.”
“Uh huh.”
He kicked out a chair for her and waited until she sat. She thought this trip was no big deal but he disagreed. Vehemently. He’d seen too many causal hikers and campers get into trouble on far less rugged terrain. He and Stone were members of the local Search and Rescue team, and they’d rescued more people than he cared to remember. And there’d been Sam, the one he’d not been able to rescue at all. “When was the last time you were in Desolation?”
She hesitated and he sighed. “Tell me.”
“Years,” she admitted.
“Shit, Harley.”
“But with the maps and the GPS, I can’t really go wrong.”
He could think of a hundred things that could go wrong. Hell, he’d probably seen every possible one of them.
“Look,” she said, sounding irritated. “I realize that those loaded silences of yours probably yield you all the information you could want from a woman, mostly because one look from you and they probably melt, but they don’t work on me.”
He felt the smile curve his mouth. “You think I melt women?”
“It’s September,” she said, ignoring that. “You and I both know there’s no one even out there this time of year except the occasional wild animal. I’m prepared. It’s perfectly safe.”
“Not alone it isn’t.”
“So I’ll scratch you off my short list of supporters.”
He caught her wrist as she surged to her feet. “Harley-”
“I want this Colorado job,” she said quietly, giving nothing away in her expression. “And…”
And she needed the money from it. That was plain as day. He no longer lived hand to mouth but he’d been there, and it sucked. “We’re hiring,” he said. “I wasn’t bullshitting about that.” Wilder Adventures was overwhelmed and overloaded, and they’d been trying to hire for weeks. It wasn’t easy to find qualified people. “You’d be perfect for the guided hikes we offer, and with your photography skills and education, we could even tailor some of them toward wildlife education, stuff like that.”
“If I finish this research project, I’ll have a job.”
“In Colorado.”
“Yeah.”
“You really want to leave here?”
She pulled her wrist from his grip and went to the sink, looking out the window. TJ knew her dad had lost his store, that her mom had a hard time keeping a job, that her sister hadn’t gotten a scholarship, and as the only one working, they needed her, depended on her. Standing, he came up behind her.
Out the window in front of them, for as far as the eye could see, lay the glorious Sierra mountain peaks, blanketed in vibrant fall colors. The lack of concrete was soothing. No sidewalks, no other buildings, no traffic. Nothing but nature. It’d rained earlier, leaving everything fresh and clean and sharp.
“I never get tired of the view,” she murmured, reading his mind.
“Me either. Annie framed that shot you took of Granite Flats. She’s hanging it in the lodge reception room. It’s an amazing shot, Harley.”
“Thanks.”
Taking her hand, accepting the little frisson of awareness that zinged through his body, he tugged her back to the table. “Show me your route.”
“So you know where to find my body?”
He shot her a level look, and she flashed him a smile. He loved her smile, it was wide and warm and rare, and he found himself smiling back helplessly. “Take someone with you.”
“Who? You?”
“Why not?”
“Don’t you have another big trip coming up?”
“I do. A four-week trip across the Canadian Divide in about ten days. But I have time for this. All you have to do is ask.”
She was silent, either too proud to ask, or hell, maybe she really didn’t want his help. He ran his thumb over the pulse point at the base of her wrist and felt it leap. “I’ve spent a lot of time being baffled by your prickliness with me, but not, I don’t think, enough to wonder why. Until now.” He met her gaze. “Why, Harley?”
“I’m prickly with everyone.”
Maybe. But beneath his fingers her pulse had picked up speed. Behind that irritation she wore like a coat, he did affect her, maybe every bit as much as she affected him.
“I’ll ask someone,” she said quietly.
“But not me. You don’t want it to be me.”
“No.”
His lips curved. “Another lie,” he murmured. “You’re racking them up. Your nose is going to start growing.”
She pushed free of him and paced the length of the kitchen, which meant she got about five feet before turning around and smacking right into the hard wall of TJ’s chest. He stood there, filling the kitchen with his larger-than- life presence, making the room seem even smaller than it was.
“Want me to tell you what I think?” he asked.
“Are you going to agree with me about the trip?”
“No.”
“Then no.”
He smiled, laugh lines fanning out from his sharp green eyes. “Still stubborn.”
“And you’re still…” She couldn’t think of an insult. With an annoyed huff, she moved toward the front door and opened it for him. “Thanks for coming. We’ll have to do it again sometime. Buh-bye now.”
TJ smiled, reached over her head, and shut the door. “Let’s do it again now.”
She thunked her head against the wood. She felt him lightly run his fingers down her spine, which caused a sensuous shiver, but when he spoke, the amusement was gone from his voice, replaced by a gut-wrenching gentleness. “Harley, why didn’t you tell me you needed money?”
Oh, God. “I-”
The phone rang, saving her pride, and she leapt for it, then hesitated, standing there in front of the answering machine.
At the third ring, TJ raised a brow. “You going to get that?”
“I’m trying to decide.”
The machine clicked on and Harley’s voice invited the caller to do their thing at the beep, and then her landlord’s voice filled the small apartment.
“Harley Stephens, you’re avoiding me.”
Crap. Harley hit the volume button, but not in time to avoid her landlord’s next line.
“You are ten days late on rent, missy. I need-”
Harley smacked the volume again and again, until the voice could no longer be heard.
Gaping silence.
Her back was still to TJ, so she closed her eyes and wished for a nice big hole to vanish into. “Don’t say it.” Without meeting his gaze, she tried to move around him, but once again his hands came up to hold her in place. She could snap at him or shove him, but the truth was, she liked his touch.
Too much.
