Page 43 of Protecting Vidalia
When they arrived at the cabin, Vidalia hit him with a sudden question. “Why were you chopping wood last night?” When he didn’t answer right away, she put her hand on his arm. “Was it Hamal?” She asked softly.
He glanced over at her with a rueful smile. “Yeah. Sometimes I just can’t sleep and exercise helps wear me out.”
“Exorcises the demons, huh?”
“Something like that.”
A worry line creased her smooth brow. “Jake, I really hope your efforts to help me aren’t bringing you down. I can’t imagine going what you went through and staying sane. I’m not sure I could recover from witnessing something like that first hand.”
Her earnest words touched him. “Yeah, you can, that’s why you’re having so much difficulty—imagining it I mean.” He palmed the side of her face. “Your empathy makes you vulnerable, which is what makes you so good at what you do. You just need to put some of that determination to help others into helping yourself.”
“I will see someone when I’m done with my vacation, I promise.” She gave him a mock salute.
His eyes narrowed. “I’m going to hold you to that promise, even if I have to spank your little butt all the way to your appointments.”
“Okay, 1870,” she retorted.
He chuckled. “Maybe I am old-fashioned, but I believe in taking care of my girl. And also, I can vouch from experience that you will learn coping skills that will help you, especially if you decide to keep your job. Or even if you don’t and decide to be a nurse.”
“Skills like going out half-naked and chopping wood?” she teased.
He leered at her. “Only if I’m there to watch.”
“I don’t think I have the muscles to do what you were doing,” she replied, laughing. “I wouldn’t look near as pagan in the moonlight as you did. That was awesome.”
“I’m glad you liked what you saw,” he drawled, leaning over and kissing her. She tasted delicious with the flavor of maple syrup clinging to her lips. Finally, he lifted his head and stared down into her bemused expression. “If you keep seducing me like this, we’re never going to get any hiking in today.”
Indignation replaced bemused. “Why...you...you kissedme,” she accused, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.
He grinned unrepentantly. “I just can’t resist you.”
Vidalia blushed and rolled her eyes again. She yanked the truck door open and slid out, marching for the cabin.
Jake chuckled in satisfied amusement. His little onion had so many layers, he was really enjoying each one.
The following Thursday Jake received the call from the Owens that the memorial bench for Dani had been completed at the top of the trailhead for Rangers Pass. They had decided a bench had more meaning because it was a spot people could sit down and contemplate or just enjoy the silence and beauty of the mountain. She and Jake had hiked up there a few times to see how it was developing, but they hadn’t seen the completed memorial.
Rangers Pass was eerie to Vidalia. She’d tried to get past the feeling, but couldn’t help wondering how many people had lost their lives in that ravine in the past. To her it felt haunted. She was somber as she prepared to attend the vigil. Jake said it was an opportunity for closure, but she really wondered if she should go at all.
Ever since Saturday when she and Jake had tentatively decided to be a couple, they had spent almost every waking hour together. They started out in their own beds most nights in her cabin, but sometimes they ended up together in front of the fire-place on the couch if one or the other, or even both were having trouble sleeping.
Oftentimes they would just sit on the bench at Fairy Lake without speaking a word. As if sensing her need to be alone, sometimes Jake would hike on around the lake without her and throw in a fishing rod he usually carried in his pack. She could see him across the water and he would wave occasionally.
Those were the times her thoughts turned to her job—and Dani. Sometimes she would shed some tears. When she no longer wanted her own thoughts for company, she would hike around the lake and meet him. He never caught anything and she suspected he didn’t even have any bait with him, but he fished just the same. He was clearly one of the good guys.
Jake was holding back with her, she knew that. Her feelings were mixed. Some days she wanted him so much she could barely stand it. Other times he wanted her so much he went out and chopped wood. She wasn’t sure what he was waiting for, perhaps some unseen signal she had yet to give off?
Probably.
Down deep she knew she still wasn’t ready for that change of focus from her pain and sorrow to developing a complete relationship. She sighed and stared at herself in the mirror, hoping he was right about attending this vigil.
Bemused, she realized she must have lost more weight than she’d thought. The long-sleeved forest green t-shirt she wore fit her more loosely than it used to. So did her dress jeans. The casual white kerchief she’d knotted around her neck brought out the dark auburn cast of her hair while the shirt enhanced her wide green eyes. Her face was thinner too, making her eyes appear even larger.
When Jake’s handsome face appeared in the mirror behind her, she started. “Oh! I didn’t hear you come in.”
“You look gorgeous,” he stated simply, his eyes roving her face. “You doing okay?”
She nodded. He looked gorgeous too. The lightweight sweater rested easily on defined muscles in his arms and hugged his impressive abs with a silky touch. He hadn’t shaved and that dark shadow on his square jaw was sexy as hell with those smoky eyes and windswept dark hair looking like she’d run her fingers through it. Attraction rippled through her. She turned and rested her hands on his lean hips, then ran her fingers beneath the sweater loving the feel of the warm skin on his back.
