Kate Hoffmann – The Mighty Quinns: Eli (страница 8)

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“TELL ME EVERYTHING you know about bears.”

“Why are you so obsessed with bears?” Lucy asked.

“Because they are an always-present danger up here once the snow melts. If it were winter, I’d be obsessed with hypothermia.”

They walked through the meadow together toward the tree line, their rifles slung over their shoulders, Riley trotting beside them. Eli had decided that if she wouldn’t take advice about cabin building and food foraging, he was going to make damn sure she kept herself safe. And for the next couple of months, the biggest threat in this part of the mountains was the bears.

“I know to carry my gun at all times. I’ve been practicing on the targets almost every day. I know that I’ll probably only have time for one shot and if it’s not good, the bear will probably eat me for dinner. Avoidance is the best strategy.”

“Excellent. Anything else?”

“Keep Riley and all food locked up in the cabin when I’m not around. Hungry bears are dangerous. Mother bears with their cubs are the most dangerous. Black bears are usually afraid of humans, grizzlies are more aggressive.”

“And what if a bear does charge?” he asked.

“With a grizzly, you drop to the ground and curl up and protect your neck and head. Basically play dead. With a black bear, you run or fight back as hard as you can. You make noise, throw rocks, hit him with sticks.”

He nodded. “All right. There’s not much chance you’ll run into a grizzly around here. They range farther north. But I will give you this.” He pulled a can out of his pocket. “Bear pepper spray. A temporarily blinded bear is much better than a wounded bear.” He reached down and clipped it to her jeans. “If you can’t get a shot off or if you just wound him, use the spray and run like hell.”

“Thanks,” she said.

“Just don’t use that on me the next time I try to kiss you,” he teased.

“Are you planning to kiss me again?” she asked.

There was the question, Eli mused. After their first kiss, he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about his next excuse to kiss her again. There was no use trying to ignore the attraction. Now that he knew it was mutual, Eli didn’t see any reason to keep his hands—or his lips—to himself.

It might have been different if it had really been a month since he’d last seen her. But Eli had hiked up to the meadow once a week just to make sure she was all right. At first, he’d tried to convince himself he was just checking on the cabin. Then, he’d convinced himself that the production company should have specified weekly visits and he was correcting their error.

But as he’d sat on the edge of the meadow, hidden by the brush, and saw her work on the cabin or practice her shooting, he realized that he just needed to know that she was safe. Lucy wasn’t like his mother or grandmother. She was a city girl, and he’d glimpsed a vulnerability in her that he couldn’t ignore. He’d witnessed it again and again over the years—amateurs who traveled to remote locations convinced they were prepared, but who ended up sick or injured. Even his father, an experienced climber, had made one mistake and had never come down the mountain. He wouldn’t let that happen to Lucy. It had become his duty to protect her and one he would never shirk.

Last week, Riley had caught his scent and he’d had to run to avoid being discovered. And it was always difficult to walk away. He’d considered just hiking to the cabin and making up some excuse for his presence. But Eli knew better. When it came to Lucy, it was best to follow the rules—or the guidelines.

They walked along a familiar ridgeline, then dropped down to hike a narrow creek bed. It had been years since Eli had explored this part of his grandmother’s world, but the landmarks he’d used were still deeply etched in his memory.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Haven’t you been paying attention?”

“No, I was following you.”

He reached back and grabbed his water bottle, then took a long drink before holding it out to her. “I guess we’re lost then.”

Her eyes went wide. “How could we be lost? I assumed you knew where you were going.” She stared at him for a long moment, then shook her head. “Oh, I get it. This is another lesson from Captain Safety.”

“Maybe you should get out that video camera of yours. This is important stuff.”

She slipped her pack off her shoulder and set it at her feet, then removed the camera. “I’m not going to be able to use this footage,” she said.

“No, but you can watch it when I’m gone.”

Lucy trained the lens on him. “Then take off your shirt,” she teased, focusing on the broad expanse of his chest. “It will make the video much more interesting.”

“I’m serious,” he said.

“So am I,” she countered.

He watched her as she toyed with the camera, his gaze fixed on her lips, his thoughts focused on the last kiss they’d shared. There were more than a few consequences that came along with kissing Lucy again. Especially kissing her for nothing but the pleasure of it.

She’d come to the mountain for some kind of feminist empowerment deal, and the last thing he wanted to do was interfere in her professional or personal goals. Then there was the whole guilt thing. If he ruined her life with romance, she’d blame him for wrecking her project. And he wasn’t usually the relationship type—would she want that from him?

From Eli’s experience, finding a man was like buying a car to some women. There were those who were constantly searching for a fast ride and willing to test-drive anything that got them to sixty the fastest. Then, there were those who took their time and compared features and quality before committing to it. And then there were women, like Annalise and Trudie, who preferred to take cabs.

He got the sense that Lucy was a cab rider, the kind of woman who didn’t need a man to be happy and didn’t waste a lot of time and energy searching. But it really didn’t make a difference. A few kisses now and then didn’t mean they were in a relationship.

He should be happy that she wasn’t demanding more of him. So why did he want to give her everything she’d never ask for?

He glanced over at her. “What are you going to do if you get lost?” he asked.

“How could I get lost? I’m not going to wander around out here by myself. If I can’t see the cabin, then I don’t go there.”

“I used to think that, too. Until I got lost and spent a night out here by myself.”

“What happened?”

“I was spending the summer with my grandmother and we had a fight about something. So I decided to take off, just for a quick walk. But I got turned around. Just like that. One second I knew where I was and the next I didn’t. So my next piece of advice is to always carry a compass. And spend some time studying the landmarks.”

Over the next hour, Eli gave her a lesson in navigating the wilderness. He tried to impress on her the dangers that she faced if she wasn’t careful, but Lucy assured him that she wasn’t planning to take any long walks, no matter what the cause.

By the end of his lesson, she was clearly overloaded with information and had begun to tune him out, just smiling and nodding at everything he told her. He’d have to stop for now. As he steered them through the woods and back to the meadow, he reached out to take her hand, helping her over rough parts of the trail. It was enough just to touch her, to feel that momentary connection when her hand was tucked into his.

When they arrived at the cabin, Eli stayed on the porch while she went inside to make lunch. But to his surprise, she opened the screen door a few moments later and invited him in.

“It’s not against the guidelines anymore for me to come inside?”

“It’s your cabin.”

He hesitated before walking in the front door. Eli was used to the cabin the way his grandmother had left it and he wondered if she’d done anything to alter the interior. But as he stepped inside, he noticed that everything was in its proper place, almost as if Lucy had treated the cabin like a shrine.

“I love this place,” he murmured.

“Me, too. I mean, I know it’s not mine, but I can feel your grandmother’s presence here. And I think she approves. And that’s important to me.”

“Why don’t you sit down and let me make you breakfast for lunch. I’m a pretty decent cook. And I used to make it for Trudie all the time.”

“I don’t have real eggs,” she said. “Just the powdered kind. And powdered milk.”

“That’ll do for pancakes,” he said.

She sat down at the table and watched him for a long moment, then picked up a small video camera and aimed it at him. “So what is it you do with yourself when you’re not trudging up mountains with caramel lattes and making buckwheat pancakes, Eli Montgomery?”

“You’re not really filming me, are you?”

“Yes, I am. But this is for my personal use.”

He chuckled softly. “Then wait a moment.” He reached for the hem of his T-shirt then pulled it up over his head, revealing his naked chest. “How’s that?”

“Fine,” she said. “Flex, please.”

“I don’t really have a regular job,” Eli continued. “I bounce from place to place. The last six months I’ve been in Nicaragua surveying the site for a new canal that a Chinese billionaire hopes to build. Before that, I was on a trekking expedition in Mongolia. I’ve traveled the world by freighter. An opportunity pops up and off I go.”