Page 1 of Secrets on the Mountain

1

JUNE

Hart's Gulch Gold Camp.

The sign points to a dirt road veering off to the right.

I follow the well-maintained dirt and gravel road as it leads me into the mountains. Past the fence, through a wide gate with a high sign overhead. There's signage on the side of the road with a rudimentary map etched in wood that shows the location of an office, visitors centers, mess hall, and amphitheater.

A quick glance in the rear-view mirror shows Don in his booster seat behind me, still engrossed in the pack of stickers that the ladies at the museum in town gave him where we stopped for directions.

He slept most of the way up here, and before we stopped in Moonshine Ridge to ask around, he'd started asking questions again. Ones I don't know how to answer. So I'm grateful for the old ladies that gave him the activity packet that's kept him busy for this last leg of our journey.

Please-- I pray silently-- please let Cane be here and let us get this over with quickly.

I wish I hadn't had to bring Donner with me but there was no one I could leave him with for over a week while I made this trip. If Cane doesn't like it, he should have responded to my attorney's attempts to do this without having to track him down in person.

A few buildings come into view and I pull into the lot in front of a wooden sign that says "administration."

"Are we here?" Donner's voice is all excitement at the prospect of exploring something new as he climbs out of the booster seat. Immediately, he's a whirlwind of four-year-old energy, spinning circles in the gravel lot and making what I assume are airplane noises.

Out on the dirt road, a two-tone, classic pick-up barrels past, leaving a cloud of dust billowing behind it before coming to a stop that has it locking up the brakes and skidding several feet along the gravel before making a sharp U-turn back to us.

"Ma'am? You looking for Hayle maybe?"

The man that climbs out of the cab looks so much like Hurricane; my breath catches in my throat before I'm able to answer with a shake of my head.

"Cane," I clarify, "I'm looking for Hurricane."

This man's eyes flicker over me, then onto Donner where they stay even as he arches an eyebrow and shakes his head as if he didn't hear me right.

"Raine." He extends his arm and gives me a cautious smile, eyes still following Don.

"June," I answer, taking his hand for a brief shake. "The ladies at the museum in town said I'd find Cane up here. Do you know where he is?"

My memory scrambles to connect dots. Raine Hart is far from the scrawny kid his brother always spoke about. The man in front of me now isn't built like Cane, but he's far from scrawny and not a kid at all.

There's a gold band on his left hand and when he pulls his phone out of his back pocket, I catch a photo of him with his arms around a blonde woman before he opens an app and starts typing.

"And who are you, big man?" Raine asks as Donner studies the stranger with a look that leaves me unsettled.

"Donner, like thunder." Don does his famous hand gesture for thunder. I don't know where he got that, but I've rarely seen him introduce himself without including it. I guess I'm glad he's proud of his name, I've often wondered if I made a mistake by keeping a family tradition for a family he'd never know.

"Ooh, German. Very cool. Well, my name is Raine, so we kinda go together, I guess."

Raine squats on his haunches to get on eye level with my son. This time, it's me that Raine's eyes keep moving to.

"Cane's in the office," he tells me, his voice switching back to the talking-to-another-adult tone as he gets back to his feet. "You, uh--" his eyes drop down to Don, "want some privacy?"

"Thank you."

I'm so grateful for the implied offer, I can't stop shaking my head. Or maybe I'm just shaking.

"Hey, buddy, you like horses?"

"Yeah! Are there horses here?"

Raine smiles down at Don. "Yup, we got about twelve of them right now, wanna go see 'em?"

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