Page 37 of All Roads Lead to You

“It’s nothing,” she said faintly. “A stomach bug, I think.”

He wasn’t sure he believed that. She’d given him the oddest look when she’d come out of the back room and leaned against the doorframe, her face chalk-white. It was almost as if she was…terrified.

People with stomach bugs usually weren’t terrified.

“Beth,” he began again.

“Really, I’m fine.” She turned to him, the biggest, fakest smile he’d ever seen plastered on her pale face. “It’s only a virus.”

He had people waiting for him, and he didn’t have time to stand around arguing with her about how fine or otherwise she was. But he was a caregiver first and foremost and he couldn’t leave it alone.

Sheri had told him she was fine, that he didn’t need to worry, and look how that had turned out. The doctors had told him there would have been nothing he could have done if he’d known about her illness earlier, but he’d never been able to shake the feeling that he could have. That perhaps if he’d noticed Sheri’s symptoms earlier he could have done something that might have made a difference.

“You’re not fine,” he said tersely. “You just fainted and I’m guessing you threw up as well.”

She waved a dismissive hand. “And I feel tons better for having done so.”

He ignored that. “You look exhausted. You should be in bed, getting some rest.”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you.” She turned away, moving over to the counter. “But there’s only a couple of hours before Indigo takes over for the afternoon, and I’m not exactly run off my feet. I’ll be fine.”

This was his cue to accept what she’d said and leave, because she was an adult. She could look after herself. And besides, he had a crowd of people to take over the lake to visit the falls. He didn’t have time to fuss around with her.

“Will you though?” he persisted.

Beth fiddled with one of the displays of preserves stacked neatly on the counter, then looked at him. Her green eyes were very direct and there was no sign of the fear he’d seen in them earlier. “Yes,” she said with great certainty. “And if I feel sick again, I’ll drive home and go straight to bed. Promise.”

Doubt still nagged at him, though since he couldn’t quite pinpoint why, he had no real reason to believe she didn’t just have a virus. In which case he couldn’t really protest about it.

He left her, in the end, with assurances she’d look after herself, but the doubt wouldn’t leave him alone. It dogged him the whole day, sitting in the back of his mind as he took the tourists across the lake to the falls, making him grumpy and foul-tempered by the time he got back.

“What’s up with you?” Chase, who’d come out to meet him and help with any remaining equipment, asked as the last of the tourists got off the boat and Finn finished stowing the life jackets.

Karl—whom he’d started bringing along on trips since the dog loved being out in the bush and was a hit with the tourists—had already leapt from the boat and was wagging his tail hopefully at Chase.

“Nothing,” Finn said, then winced at how short the word sounded.

“Yeah, sure.” The skepticism in his brother’s voice was obvious. “You’re supposed to smile at clients, remember?”

Finn finished with the life jackets, then stepped off the small runabout they used to ferry tourists to and from the Glitter Falls trail across the lake.

Chase was standing on the little jetty watching him, silver gaze narrowed. He dropped an absent hand onto Karl’s head to give him a scratch, but the dog, clearly sensing his half-heartedness, bore it dutifully before trotting off down the jetty after spotting Mystery enjoying a few pets from the tourists and deciding he wanted in on the action.

“This isn’t McDonald’s,” Finn said. “We don’t have to smile constantly and ask people whether they’d like fries with that.”

Chase’s gaze narrowed still further. “You should go see Beth again. That’ll put you in a better mood.”

It was on the tip of his tongue to tell Chase it was Beth who was the problem, but he decided against it. Telling his brother he was concerned about the fact she was sick and that he suspected it wasn’t actually a bug would only lead to more questions. Which in turn would lead to supposition and probably some advice that he hadn’t asked for and didn’t want.

So all he said was “No. It was a one-time thing, remember?”

The tourists were climbing back onto one of the big buses that had brought them here, some coming out of the Rose and a couple from the gallery. A kea had flown in from somewhere, obviously having decided to join the party, and was now perched on top of the bus, flapping its green-feathered wings and screeching at the tourists. Levi was pointing at it and talking to one woman, the late-afternoon sun picking out the gold strands in his tawny hair, and she was laughing.

“You should tell Levi to stop flirting with the tourists,” Finn muttered, mainly to distract Chase from mentioning Beth again. “It’s not professional.”

Instantly his brother’s head whipped around, his gaze zeroing in on Levi and the woman.

Then Indigo came out of the gallery. She took a couple of steps toward the general store, then stopped, her attention also on Levi at the woman.

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