He just kept going.
THE END of their trip was shockingly anticlimatic. Back at the trailhead, Lily called Keith to check in.
“Hey, Lil.” He sounded warm as ever, and happy to hear from her. “So…did you find what you were looking for out there?”
She looked at Jack and Michelle, driving off into the peach-and-gold sunset, happy in their rediscovered passion, secure in the knowledge that they were together for the right reasons-and unable to take their hands off each other. With or without daddy’s money, it didn’t matter; they were going to make it. “I’m thinking I got closer,” she said.
“I’m glad,” Keith said, sounding as though he really meant it. “Want me to book you on some more trips? You up for it?”
She’d been so unsure that she could do this. Her faith in everything had been shaken to the core, but in the end, she’d conquered her own fears, she’d done something right. She’d found her strength. “Yes,” she said. “Book me.”
ROSE DIDN’T dawdle much. She spent a moment putting her gear in order, then blew a kiss to Rock. She’d figured he’d get into his car and drive off into the sunset.
That’s what she wanted him to do, so there wouldn’t be any lengthy good-bye.
She hated good-byes. It was why she never made them.
But he didn’t get into his car, he stepped close and stopped her from getting into the taxi she’d paid to have waiting for her.
“Wait,” he murmured. “Hold up a second.”
Pretending that was just fine, Rose smiled up at him. “One more kiss, sugar? Is that what you’re needing?”
“Truthfully?” Rock rubbed his jaw, his four-day-old growth rasping in the silence. “I’d like more than a kiss.”
Rose raised an eyebrow. “Name it.”
“I’d like a date.”
“A date,” she repeated slowly, the concept utterly alien. She didn’t date men. She inhaled them, then spat them back out and moved on.
He just smiled. “You. Me. A restaurant, dancing, candles, wine, the whole shebang. What do you say?”
“I’d say you don’t have to go to that much trouble, cowboy. You’ve already had me.”
Rock shook his head. “I’m not trying to get laid, Rose.”
“Well, that’s a shame.”
He looked a little exasperated. “I’m trying to get…more.”
Rose blinked. “More. From me.”
Rock lifted her hand and brought her fingers to his mouth. “That’s right.”
“I’m twelve years older than you,” she reminded him.
“That’s my favorite part.”
She eyed him for a long moment, not quite sure why hope suddenly bubbled in her throat, cutting off her air supply. “I offered you a deal no man could refuse. A string-free affair. You’re a fool to want more.”
“Then call me a fool. Say yes, Rose.”
She looked him over good. She saw sincerity and something else, something new…affection. Oh, God, she liked the look of that.
He was waiting patiently, and she found herself lifting a casual shoulder even though she felt anything but casual. “Okay, what the hell.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Yes, it’s a yes. It’s a hell, yes,” she said with a baffled laugh. “I’ll go on a fancy date with you.” She shook her head. “We’re crazy, you know that?”
“Certifiably nuts, the both of us,” Rock agreed, and pulled her close.
AND THEN it was just Lily.
Oh, and Jared.
Only he wasn’t smiling, but looking at her. Through her.
Into her.
“Good-bye,” she said, her heart snagging on the words. “I know you probably won’t believe this, but I’ll never forget you.”
“Lily-”
“Please don’t drag this out,” she whispered, suddenly unable to talk past the lump the size of a river rock stuck in her throat. “We knew each other for four days. The end.”
“Do you believe in chance, Lily?”
“Jared-”
“Do you?”
“Yes. Damn it, you know I do.”
“I came here on a chance, because of a list.” He pulled the folded paper out of his pocket to remind her. “Things happen, Lily. We happened.”
“I didn’t plan on this.”
“And a year ago I thought my life was all planned out, too. Go with the flow, Lily.”
“Jared…”
“Look, life isn’t set, Lily. And you know what? I’m thinking that it isn’t supposed to be. There’s no topo map, and I’m starting to see that’s the amazement of the whole thing. Nothing’s set. You adjust for the things that come up: jobs, adventures. Cancer.” He stepped closer. “Love.”
Oh, God.
He laughed softly, utterly without mirth, and unfolded his list. “But none of that matters when it’s not meant to be.” Reaching into his car, he grabbed a pen, then crossed off One, take a guided trek in the mountains. “There.” He slipped the paper back into his pocket. Looking at her again, he touched her jaw. “Thanks for an unforgettable four days, Lily. I won’t forget you, either.”
And then he got into his car, and without a backwards glance, drove off into the sunset.
She stared at the dust that rose from his tires. She’d gotten what she wanted.
So why didn’t it seem like it?
JARED WENT BACK to work, with some qualms. Once work had been how he defined himself, but he refused to let it come to that ever again. Work was work, not his life.
Knowing that, he was careful to jump back in slowly, forcing himself to leave the office by five o’clock so that he could still have a social life. That his social life consisted mostly of his family was something Candace bitched about, but he held firm. But then, after three weeks, he gave into his assistant’s nagging and went on a blind date.
The woman was lovely and smart and attractive, but not Lily, and he figured it out-he wasn’t ready. Instead he decided to knock something else off his list-a sail through the Greek Islands. He was leaving the following week, and had a shitload of work to do before then.
Candace poked her head into his office. “Hey. Someone’s here to see you.”
He pushed up his glasses and looked at his schedule. No meetings. “Who?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Don’t know, but I’m leaving for lunch.”
He took a glance at the clock on his office wall. “It’s ten o’clock.”
“Yeah, but my stomach says it’s Micky D time. What’s your order? Oh, wait, you’re giving up Micky D to eat more fish.” She grinned. “Sorry, boss. Be back in an hour.”
“An hour?” But she was already gone, and he was talking to himself. He had no idea who was waiting to see him, maybe his mother, or any one of his sisters, all of whom had taken to stopping by at least weekly just to look at him.
It’d been comforting. At first. But ever since he’d gotten back from the Sierras, a truly life-altering event, when they’d taken one look at him and known something had happened to him, it was no longer comforting at all. They wanted to know what was wrong, what had happened to him out there, and he hadn’t been able to talk about it yet, to tell them the truth.
