“Okay. I have an idea. Are you free Sunday morning?”
She shook her head. “I have a shoot scheduled. But Saturday couldwork.” She’d have to get some billing and editing done on Friday in order tojustify some playtime. Even without knowing what they’d be doing, she couldn’tresist the offer to spend a day with Jacqueline. During their relationshipshe’d grown to resent the part of herself that seemed to sit around waiting forJacqueline to have time for her.
“Okay. I’ll pick you up.”
“What are we doing?”
“You’ll see.”
“How will I know how to dress?”
“Wear comfortable shoes. Bring your camera and your longest lens.I’ll take care of everything else.”
“You’re really not going to tell me.”
“Nope.” Jacqueline kissed Casey’s temple, then released her handand rolled onto her side. “Now, go to sleep. I didn’t come over here for you tokeep me up all night.”
*
Casey stepped out of Jacqueline’s car in the lot beside the parkoffice at Bledsoe Creek State Park. She’d been here once before but hadn’trecognized the route until she saw the sign as they turned off the main road.Jacqueline had refused to divulge their destination, even when she’d calledlast night on her drive home from Louisville. She’d been pulled into a meetinglate yesterday in Louisville and had gotten a very late start on her driveback. So she’d phoned and asked Casey to talk for a few minutes to wake her upbehind the wheel.
Now, she suspected Jacqueline hadn’t wanted to tell her wherethey were going for fear Casey might not come along. Though the park was knownfor having several nice trails and lots of wildlife, Casey had avoided it when she’dstarted hiking recently. She hadn’t wanted to resurrect her disastrous firstvisit.
“It’s such a gorgeous day.” Jacqueline rounded the car and openedthe trunk.
Casey pulled her hair through the back of a baseball cap andsettled it on her head. The sun was rising quickly in the sapphire sky, andshe’d need the shade before long.
She tilted her head, looking up at the trees around her. But herattention drifted again to Jacqueline, who provided much more beautifulscenery. Jacqueline wore a long-sleeved thermal shirt and dark jeans thatlooked almost new. In fact, they probably were. She’d always gone from businessto totally casual, skipping almost everything in between. As soon as she gothome from work, she’d strip off her suit and put on sweats and a T-shirt. She’dsaid she spent way too many hours of her day in uncomfortable clothes to do sowhen she didn’t absolutely have to. Today, she’d left her hair unrestrained butpushed a pair of sunglasses up on her head to act as a hair accessory, which Caseyfound unexplainably sexy.
“I know these trails probably aren’t up to your normal workout.”Jacqueline pulled two bottles of water from a cooler and shoved them into herbackpack. She fidgeted with the zipper and didn’t meet Casey’s eyes. Was shenervous about Casey’s reaction to coming here?
“It’s not so much about the exercise as it is clearing my mind.”She decided to keep her answers neutral until she figured out Jacqueline’s planfor choosing this particular place.
Though she’d had a busy week, she’d looked forward to theweekend. Given that she’d shared a bed with Jacqueline Wednesday night, sheexpected to be a bit more conflicted about spending the day with her. The alarmon Jacqueline’s phone woke them both too early Thursday morning, but there’dbeen something comforting about feeling Jacqueline’s weight against her side asshe opened her eyes. Jacqueline had thrown on her clothes from the night beforeand headed home to get ready for her trip. Casey had walked her to the door,and Jacqueline had hugged her and thanked her for putting up with her the nightbefore. Maybe they were both far too good at pretending they weren’t crossingany lines, but the entire exchange had felt civil—perhaps even friendly.
“Sure. But you’re used to more challenging hikes.”
“I’ve been working my way up, yes.” Casey slipped one of herlight sling bags containing her camera over her head and around her body.
“I can tell.” Jacqueline glanced down at Casey’s legs.
“Why here?” If she had any hope of enjoying this day, she mightas well get this conversation out of the way first.
Jacqueline shrugged. “My way of turning back time.”
“What does that mean?”
“Last time we were here, I screwed it up.”
When he was about nine years old, Sean had begged them to takehim camping. One of his friends had gone several times with his father andbragged about what a great time he had. Jacqueline wanted to rent an RV, butCasey had insisted that in order to get an authentic experience they had torough it in a tent. It poured down rain for most of the weekend, and instead ofmaking the best of it, Jacqueline spent two days telling Casey how much bettertheir trip would be if she’d listened to her about the RV. Eventually, Caseygave up on salvaging the trip for Sean, and they’d packed up and left a dayearly.
“I think we find enough to disagree on without rehashing oldarguments, so if that’s what you brought me out here to do—”
“It’s not.” Jacqueline grabbed Casey’s hands. “I remembered therewere trails here. And we didn’t exactly get to explore them last time.”
“I don’t want to do this.” Casey pulled her hands free. She’dforgotten how angry she’d been at Jacqueline after that weekend. She turnedback toward the car, intending to insist Jacqueline take her home.
“Wait.” Jacqueline caught her hand as she tried to spin away.“When the weather didn’t cooperate, I handled things badly. But there was a lotof pressure on that trip, and I couldn’t stand to see you so disappointed.”
“Me? I was worried about Sean. He had a tough beginning. I wastrying to give him everything he’d never had.”
“That’s just it.” Jacqueline stroked her thumb over the back ofCasey’s hand. “You needed it to be perfect. And when it wasn’t, you got mad atme. And, yes, I made you feel bad for not having done things my way in thefirst place. That was wrong. But I got tired of trying to overcompensate forhis crappy biological family.”
“What?”
“Do you know what I remember
