AIDEN left the Valley Courant without remembering if he’d shaken Norman Schooner’s hand good-bye. He drove along Route 2 for home, his hard work joggling next to him inside the messenger bag, useless to anyone. He rallied for truth. Yet in his profession, he’d come across staunch opposition time after time.
The mainstream media managed to strip everything down to an image. The image must be preserved. For whose or what purpose? How much of an outcry would the public make if their “icons” were destroyed? Norman blamed the public. And the public often blamed the media.
His stomach stirred and his head whirled, and he scarcely noticed passing the Flathead Valley Cancer Center or the United Community Church. The only thing that loomed comforting was Daniel. What would he do without him? He was rational, sensible, and honorable. Traits not only rare to find, but considered liabilities more and more.
Why should Aiden care if Glacier National Park fell into a swamp?
But he did, and that’s what pained him. He cared about many things, none of which he could do much to help. He battled against an army of thugs, often shielded by a gullible public.
And there, again, stood Daniel. Stern, yes, but genuine. A man raised unspoiled by the modern world. Born from a landscape where milking cows by hand soared more paramount than embracing the latest Hollywood trends.
Aiden needed to reach him.
He stopped by the shop. To his disappointment, Phedra told him Daniel had not yet showed. Conrad should have been finished with his radiation by then. Maybe Daniel was still at the house after dropping him off.
With growing concern, Aiden returned to his truck. Had anything gone wrong?
He texted Conrad first. Impatient when Conrad failed to respond, he texted Daniel. “Where r u?” A response came soon after: “At home.”
Aiden drove the canyon-like road, fuming over a sappy world. Pulling into the driveway, he almost wanted to ask Conrad for a cigarette to help ease his nausea. He was surprised to find the house empty. Cold and eerie. He called for Daniel. Where was he when he had texted? His truck was in the driveway, so he must be home. Aiden rechecked his text message to ensure he’d read it correctly. Out back, Ranger was chasing a squirrel up a tree, but Daniel and Conrad were nowhere.
Still angry after his interview, he pulled out his article from the messenger bag and held the fifty-plus pages to the fireplace. Logs were assembled, and he wanted to place the pages under the grate and strike a match to them, followed by a swift destruction of the compact disc and his computer files containing anything concerning Glacier National Park and strip mining.
He vowed to never write another word for as long as he lived.
His arm locked and shook. Shrinking back, his fingers loosened, and he dropped limp into Daniel’s favorite easy chair, the one commandeered by Conrad. Eyes downcast, he sighed.
After a moment fidgeting for strength, he stood and filed away his work at the computer console.
He had no idea what to do with his story, but he couldn’t toss it. Not for anyone.
The fact that his article existed meant some semblance of truth survived somewhere.
Daniel walked into the house, leaving the front door wide open.
“Where were you?” Aiden asked, his voice more irate than he had intended.
“I was at Nick’s.”
Aiden suspected Conrad was there too. Remembering his rage, he raised a fist to the ceiling. “I don’t see how I can continue to be a journalist.”
Daniel cocked his head. “What happened?”
“They rejected my article.”
“Aiden, they didn’t.”
“They did, and for the most asinine reason. And he’s right. I haven’t found any other stories about the threat to Glacier Park.” He turned his face away, ashamed to show Daniel a rare burst of pessimism. “People are such maudlin idiots.” Aiden’s rage shook his limbs, and he inhaled to calm himself. Yet he wanted to unleash more. “You can’t challenge people, or even educate them,” he said. “It’s all about giving them what they want, supporting their views. That’s what the editor told me. What’s the point of it all?”
“Some people prefer lies.”
“But why? It’s one thing knowing everything is a fraud, but to embrace it willingly?” He snapped out of his selfish rant, remembering the ordeal Daniel must have faced carting Conrad to and from his radiation treatment. He allowed his facial muscles to soften. “How did things go with Conrad?” he asked. “Did you have to waste too much time there?”
Daniel’s eyes were blacker, wider, and his mouth drooping, as if he’d been tugging at his beard most of the morning. Aiden started to approach him, but balked from inching closer. “What is it, Daniel? Did something happen to Conrad? Where is he?”
Daniel shook his head. “You no longer have to worry over him.”
“What do you mean? What’s going on? Conrad’s with Nick, right?”
Daniel stared at him, his mouth tightening and eyes unblinking. Aiden’s ire formed into tight fists. “You’ve been acting strangely all week, Daniel Schrock. I’ve had a terrible morning and I demand to know what’s going on.”
Nick walked in behind Daniel. He stopped upon seeing Aiden. “Hi, Aiden. You back already?”
Shaking with confusion, Aiden said, “Why is everyone looking at me like that? Nick, is Conrad with you?”
Nick and Daniel glanced at each other. Something resembling shared guilt passed between them.
Nick stepped past Daniel and entered the great room as far as he could without needing to take off his cowboy boots. “Aiden, Conrad is with me and he’s fine.”
Relieved, Aiden fluttered a chuckle. “Then why is everyone being so mysterious?”
Again Daniel and Nick exchanged wide-eyed looks. Turning to face Aiden, Nick said, “He’s going to stay with me.”
“With you? Overnight?”
“No, Aiden. Longer than overnight,” Nick said. “For a while. We’ve moved his belongings to my house.”
“You what?” Aiden rushed for Conrad’s bedroom. All but one of his bags were gone. The largest of the four, sealed and pitiful, sat waiting beside the made bed. The tabletops were cleaned of pill bottles and clutter. Aiden opened a few of the drawers. Cleared out. He dashed across the hall. The bathroom was vacated of his toiletries.
He marched back to Daniel and Nick. “Did we do something to anger him? I don’t understand. Why would he leave without saying anything to me first?”
Daniel reached out to Aiden, stroked his arm. “We thought it best that Conrad move in with Nick. Nick has more space. Conrad likes it there. He can help Nick care for his ranch and the horses.”
Aiden grew indignant. “Is that why you wanted to drive him to the clinic today, so you could tell him you were tossing him out? And without confiding in me first?”
“That’s not it, Aiden,” Nick said, taking a step closer with a raised hand as if wanting to comfort Aiden also. “It was my idea that Conrad stay with me. I insisted. A last-minute decision, you might say, one that has everyone, well, most everyone, happy.”
Aiden slackened. He looked deep into Nick’s gray eyes. They sparkled with a new potency he’d never seen or recognized before. Nick, clearly pleased to have Conrad staying with him, seemed to glow. In an instant, everything made sense.
“You really didn’t have to be secretive about everything, Nick. I would have understood you and Conrad wanting to live together.” Aiden nodded and smiled, hoping Nick accepted his tacit form of congratulations. Yet he held back from expressing too much happiness. Some men and their privacy, Aiden mused. They seemed inseparable.
Two paintbrush flush marks broke out on Nick’s cheeks and he looked to the carpet. “I’m glad you feel that way, Aiden.”
Daniel cleared his throat. “I’ll help you with that larger suitcase, Nick.” Without taking off his boots, Daniel beelined across the carpet and disappeared into Conrad’s room. Aiden and Nick stood silent, grinning at each other like fools. A few seconds later, Daniel lugged the suitcase to the front door. He stopped and glanced at Aiden. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”
Aiden obeyed, despite wanting to see Conrad and to express his best wishes. Imagine! Nick and Conrad finding love, and while Conrad suffered from a major illness.
With the house empty, a sudden rush of lonesomeness enveloped Aiden. He would miss Conrad, he realized. Even if he did live a mere fifty yards across the road. Why hadn’t they thought of Conrad moving in with Nick before? Of course! Perfect solution for everyone. Especially Nick, whose sole everyday companions were his horses and an elusive cat.
And to think Conrad and Nick had fallen in love, directly under their noses.
Chuckling off the bewilderment, he headed for the master bathroom. He again looked inside Conrad’s old bedroom. It stood empty and cold. Filled with what had become a familiar scent.
… IN HIS shoes….
Daniel wanted to keep Conrad’s secret. Not for his or Conrad’s welfare, but for Aiden’s. Daniel loved Aiden for how he sought and embraced the truth. In this case, the truth would only harm him. There was no reason he could imagine that might benefit Aiden if he knew about Conrad’s scam.
Originally, he wanted Conrad to concoct another lie: tell Aiden the Flathead Valley Cancer Center doctors had run additional tests and discovered he was in remission and could return to Washington, DC, Michigan, or wherever he came from. Conrad would have no choice but to comply in exchange for Daniel remaining silent about his dirty secret.
Then Nick insisted Conrad move in with him.
“For how long?” Daniel had asked while they raked the mustangs’ boxes the Sunday afternoon before Daniel drove Conrad to the clinic.
Nick shook his head. “Perhaps indefinitely.”
“You sure about this, Nick?”
Nick eyed him. “Sure as I’ve ever been about anything.”
And the more Daniel pondered Nick’s plan, the more he accepted it as a reasonable alternative.
Conrad nearly collapsed with relief when Nick came for him after he and Daniel returned from the clinic. He packed willingly and swiftly, with Nick’s help. “Don’t tell Aiden why I’m leaving,” he begged over and over while tossing soap and toothpaste and underwear into his bags. “Please, don’t either of you tell him the truth.”
“I was right about Nick, wasn’t I?” Aiden said with a grin when Daniel entered the house after he carted Conrad’s heavy suitcase across the road. “He’s gay, and he has the hots for Conrad.”
Pulling off his boots, Daniel mirrored his beaming face. Aiden had let Ranger in, and the hound sniffed around Daniel’s feet. He stroked his furry head. “How about we go for an overnighter into the mountains? We can take the fishing rods.”
“You mean now? It’s the start of a workweek. What about the shop?”
“I’ll call Phedra to close for the rest of the day and tomorrow. I have most of my work caught up. You deserve a break after your trials with the newspaper and Conrad. We both do.”
“But out of the blue? Don’t we have to plan?”
“Nature’s glory is in our backyard now. Remember, we don’t need to plan.”
“Can we go to Black Lake and take Ranger?”
“For sure, let’s take Ranger.”
Ranger seemed to understand their conversation, and his tail wagged with increasing might, threatening to topple everything in sight.
With Ranger assisting by barking and stretching, Daniel pulled their gear from the third bedroom and made sure they had ample supplies. He enjoyed the planning almost as much as the actual trips. Realizing they were low on butane and they had run out of freeze-dried food, he told Aiden he wanted to run to the small sporting-goods store in Rose Crossing’s village center while Aiden packed to save them time.
He quickly picked what he needed at the store and, on his way home, spotted a roadside flower stand near the intersection. He pulled over and the cheery elderly vendor greeted him with yellow teeth. At first, Daniel was unsure. Then he grinned, remembering the last time he’d bought flowers for Aiden.
By midafternoon, they were trekking up one of their favorite trails, a short eight-mile hike across the spine of the Swan Mountains, to a rustic campsite in the Jewel Basin near Black Lake. Aiden had one of the white daisies in his front pocket from the bouquet Daniel bought him. Back home, Aiden had placed the rest in a crystal vase set in the middle of the dining table. Despite their trying day, he seemed happier than Daniel could remember, and he had no intention of disrupting Aiden’s glowing mood.
Tethered to Aiden, Ranger sniffed at every creepy crawler and his tail wagged nonstop. He went into high alert, stiffening his tail and raising his snout, when they hiked through a narrow passage of dense hemlocks, where anything might emerge behind the numerous shadows. Daniel felt better that Ranger walked close by Aiden.
Aiden talked often about Nick and Conrad, expressing his enthusiasm for them. Happy that two lonely souls discovered companionship in one another. Not unlike him and Daniel, Aiden reminded him. Daniel swallowed his guilt for knowing more about their neighbor and Conrad than Aiden.
They followed the slender trail through another thick grove before it deposited them into a dell with a magnificent view of the Basin. Dotted with sparkling lakes, the Basin reminded Daniel of pastoral paintings he’d seen in museums. They hiked among melting snowfields and lavender lupine that nudged above the moist duff. Ahead, Black Lake glistened under a yellow sun.
After they set up the tent at the secluded campsite, they carried their fishing gear one hundred yards to the lake. Snug in their woolen sweaters, they stood along the pebble beach and skipped the flat rocks over the water’s smooth surface that reflected the surrounding mountains with mirrorlike magic.
Fish snapped, so Daniel and Aiden prepped their fishing rods. With the lines in place, they attached dough balls to their hooks and cast into the water, hoping the numerous trout in the lake would be lured by their powerful sense of smell. The marker buoys bobbed on the water’s surface and above them osprey circled and barked. They sat shoulder to shoulder and waited for action.
Ranger explored the shoreline while their fishing lines flexed with sharp and sudden flashes of sunlight in the silent afternoon. He soon found his Daddy and Poppy more interesting than the colorful moths that sunbathed on the pebbles. He lay beside them, basking in the soft breezes flowing off the mountains and Aiden’s hand that rested on his side. Daniel gazed across the water. He and Aiden appeared to be the last two people on earth.
It was a similar setting where Daniel confessed to Aiden his love and renounced his association with everything he knew, including his farm and family. His bygone fiancée once stated she saw it coming. She must have recognized that she was a ruse for him, like his first wife, Esther.
Daniel used deceit to find acceptance and love. He married, conceived a baby, would have fulfilled the sham until the day of his death if not for the tornado that took his family. But he had not wised up. He proposed to another maydel a short year later. He used all of them just so that he might find a way to escape from himself and find a place among his community to fit in. He employed deception. Twice. With Esther and Tara. A kind of trickery Daniel found revolting in Conrad, a fellow reject from his family.
Nick insisted Daniel understand him. Kicking and screaming, Daniel at last came to a painful realization.
Haven’t you been in his shoes before?
Daniel was no different than Conrad Barringer.
He also grasped the significance of what he and Aiden had surmounted before they could learn to trust each other. From those first difficult months back in Illinois when suspicion gleamed in their eyes to when they met by chance in Glacier National Park one year later.
From everything taught to Daniel as a boy growing up in a strict Amish household, trust could only come from honesty.
At that moment he chose to embrace truth. Aiden was his truth.
The hike over the Swan Range while he gulped down his guilt for knowing more than Aiden solidified perhaps what he understood all along. Aiden would accept nothing other than openness, and Daniel would be unable to give him anything less.
He laid aside his fishing pole and, with a surge of love he had never experienced before—perhaps stronger than when he held his baby son for the first time—draped an arm around Aiden’s sun-warmed shoulders.
“Aiden,” he said softly, tinkering with the daisy cutting in Aiden’s shirt pocket. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
The bright blue sky highlighted Aiden’s curly, raven-black hair with strings of gold. He glanced up at him. “I thought something has been weighing on your mind, Daniel. What is it?”
“I’m going to tell you the truth about a few things you should probably know about.”
“The truth, Daniel?”
Daniel pulled him closer. “Yes, Aiden. The truth.”