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Gage leapt up onto a protruding boulder and surveyed the river, before turning to his family and grinning triumphantly.
‘The lunching spot has been reached!’ he told them.
There was a lot of sudden shrugging out of backpacks, and Jordan sank down to sit on hers, pulling out her mobile phone. He pressed his lips together a moment, then prised them apart into a smile.
‘Won’t get any service here, I think, Jordan,’ he said, and swept his arms around at the scenery. ‘We are deep in the wonders of nature here, as you can see.’ The view captured him, and he gazed around – at the river, sparkling in the sun, all mad rushing and tumbling over rocks, and then the trees, tall and strong – how long had they stood here where they’d grown from tiny seeds? Years? Hundreds of years, maybe, some of them. He didn’t know much about trees, but they stretched as far as he could see. Just trees and river and sky. It was actually pretty cool. He searched around for a good word. Magnificent. Yeah, that sounded good enough.
Teddy came and stood beside him, and he grinned down at her. ‘Isn’t it marvellous?’ he asked. ‘Not a single other person in sight. Not a single building. Nothing but Mother Nature.’ He was surprised at how he felt. He’d never considered himself at all the imaginative sort, yet here he was waxing all romantic over nature, for crying out loud. He snorted and gave into the pressure in his chest. ‘Woo-hooo!’ he yelled, flinging his voice out over the stretch of forest, causing a startle of birds. He laughed and hopped down from the rock.
Teddy reached out and snagged his arm. His grin died as he took in her drawn face.
‘Are you sure this is safe?’ she asked.
Not this again. She needed to lighten up a bit. All the girls did, come to think of it. Jordan was pushing buttons on her phone with a desperate look on her face, and Bree, always serious, was gazing around them with a frown on her face. That kid was going to have frown lines etched between her brows before she even reached double digits. Even the stupid yellow dog was sitting on its haunches, looking suspicious. It was a dog, for fuck’s sake. It should be having a ball – there was crap everywhere to smell.
Teddy made a soft noise in her throat and Gage looked back at her. ‘I told you already, there’s nothing to worry about.’ He shook his head. ‘Don’t know why you girls have to worry so damned much. It’s an adventure we’re having. Lighten up!’
She nibbled on her lip, and normally he liked that, it always felt kinda sexy to him, but right now he knew it was because she was worried, and he was sick and tired of her being worried. He put an arm around her shoulder and drew her closer.
‘Listen,’ he whispered, fingers tight on her flesh. ‘Everything’s going to be all right. We’re going to have a great time, you hear?’
Her hair tickled his neck when she gave a tentative nod. He squeezed her shoulders. ‘That’s my girl.’ His arm dropped. ‘How about some lunch, now we’ve worked up an appetite? What do you reckon, guys? Teddy’s made us a splendid lunch.’
He assumed she had, anyway. She’d been in charge of the food; he’d taken care of the gear. He’d been more than a bit dismayed at the sheer amount of gear they needed for just a simple trip, but there it was, he guessed. Tents, sleeping bags, bug spray – lots of that stuff – then food and water. Even travelling light, it added up, and most of it was riding on his back. He’d stuck a bit in Teddy’s pack – brand-new, by the way, just like the one Jordan was carrying, and the twins’. The trip had cost him a pretty penny, come to think of it.
But it was going to be worth it. He was sure of it. Rubbing his hands together, he looked expectantly at his new wife-to-be.
‘I, um, packed everyone’s lunch bags,’ she said, then spoke a bit louder. ‘They should be in the top of your packs; remember, I gave them to you before we left?’
‘I didn’t get one,’ Gage said. ‘I don’t remember you giving me one.’
She smiled at him, and he relaxed a fraction. There was no worry in that smile. ‘I thought I’d carry yours, since your pack was so full.’
‘Could have carried mine too then,’ Jordan grumbled. ‘My pack weighs a ton.’
‘Is that metric or imperial?’ Gage asked, looking at his oldest daughter. She frowned back at him from her perch on a rock. Her lunch bag was on her knees.
‘What?’ she asked.
He shook his head. ‘No grumbling,’ he said, then clapped his hands. ‘New rule, people. No grumbling. We’re all here to enjoy ourselves, have a real adventure.’
Jordan looked like she was going to grumble again, of course, but he eyeballed her, and she pressed her lips together. Good girl. They were going to have a great time.
Teddy was looking around for somewhere to sit. Shrugging out of his jacket, he spread it on the grass and smiled at her. ‘It’s warm here out from under the trees.’
She nodded and sat, dipping a hand into their lunch bag, and pulling out crusty bread rolls filled with meat and lettuce. He took his eagerly and unwrapped the plastic, bit into it. Say what you like about Teddy, but she was handy with food. He almost patted his belly, thinking about how his waistline had expanded since they’d gotten engaged and moved in together. The gym was taking up a lot more of his time these days.
Or it would be, if work wasn’t. But he wasn’t going to think about the business. He was here to solve his problems, not to dwell on them.
A hand on his sleeve. ‘Are you all right, Gage?’
He blinked at his fiancée, then forced a smile onto his lips. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’
Her answering smile faltered and she shook her head. ‘You just looked very serious for a moment. I wish you’d tell me what’s wrong.’
What? What was she talking about? ‘Nothing’s wrong,’ he said. ‘What makes you think something’s wrong?’
She gave a little shake of her head. ‘It’s just that...you’ve been working long hours lately.’ She reached up and stroked his forehead, cheek. ‘And you’ve been looking so careworn.’
Careworn? Was that even a real word? Snatching at her hand, he pressed it to his lips and planted a kiss on her fingers. She was a sweet soul. Very young, but sweet as they come. Just what he needed.
‘Everything’s fine,’ he said.
‘Even things at the office?’ she asked, forgetting that the kids were right there, listening probably.
‘Busy,’ he said. ‘Things at the office are busy. That’s all.’
She looked at him for a moment longer, then her blue eyes dropped to her lap and the half-eaten roll there. He squeezed her fingers, then returned them and picked up his own lunch. All this walking had made him hungry. And they still had a long way to go. Two days it was going to take, to get to Dorado. He wished the twins could walk faster. He wished they could all sprout wings and fly there like birds.
Reaching out, he touched his backpack, feeling the hard edge of the gold pans in there. They were going to get lucky; he could feel it in his bones. He guessed he had a bit of adventuring spirit in him after all. The claim belonged to his wife’s – ex-wife’s – family. Her granddad had struck it rich, named his claim Dorado, after the famed city paved with gold, and Gage knew, just knew, there was still gold to be found there, and he was going to find it, and all his problems would be over.