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Kathy burst into my office a couple days after Luka and I had talked. “You got a bur under your saddle or what?” she asked.
I turned. She stood in the doorway, arms akimbo.
I’d never seen her like this. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I’m talking about Luka,” she answered.
“What about him?”
“He came to me yesterday afternoon and asked if I’d take him on the McGregor hike one more time, now that it’s almost time for him to leave. He said he wanted to make it to the top, to prove to himself that he could do it. I said sure, you and I’d be happy to take him. That you and I and he could do the hike together. He said, and I quote,” she leaned in toward me. “‘I don’t think Olivia wants anything to do with me.’ What is this all about?”
I froze for a moment, then stepped around my desk and sat down. “Have a seat.”
She sat across from me.
“Beside Luka telling me he’d been incarcerated,” I said, “he said he’d been engaged to a woman, but she’s gone now. He said and I quote, ‘it didn’t end well.’ Where is Luka’s fiancée? How did she disappear? Kathy, Luka has scars on his back, as if someone were fighting him.”
Kathy shook her head. “Your imagination has run wild.”
“Is it so unreasonable? Why did he run away from Croatia, since he’s this hotshot athlete? Why was he arrested and thrown into prison?”
“Because he was in a war. Did you pay attention to the news when it was going on?”
My face heated up and I glanced away from her icy blue eyes. “Some. I remember Clinton managing some agreement in Eastern Europe. I was busy.” God, how lame did that sound? But I had been beyond busy, between working at the tech company, where we counted the years in dog years—every one year working there equaled working seven years of a normal job. Then there was Bill #2’s abandonment and my own personal crises. Who had time to watch the news?
“Then let me enlighten you,” Kathy continued. “Like the United States, a bunch of republics made up Yugoslavia, the same way we have states. After the president, or should I say communist dictator, died, everything eventually fell apart. The different republics started declaring independence then the shit hit the fan and they were in an out-and-out civil war. President Clinton is the one who brokered a peace agreement. Olivia, this happened only five years ago, a couple of years before you came here.”
I felt duly chastised. “I guess I didn’t pay attention to the details.”
Kathy shook her head.
“I’m sorry, but I worked all the time,” I added lamely.
“Okay, I get it. But now you know a little bit more about why Luka doesn’t act like other men you might have known. I think you’ve hurt his feelings.”
“Hurt his feelings? What happened to his fiancée?”
Kathy looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. She took a deep breath. “Why don’t you ask him? Luka and I are hiking McGregor Friday. Ingrid and Greta are leaving Thursday and schools are already back in session, so we have the lowest guest count we’ve had since May. We’re meeting in the parking lot at six in the morning. If you want to come along, be there. If not...” She shook her head, turned her back on me and waved a hand at me as if she had just written me off. Then she stomped out the door.
I had three days to decide if I would go on the hike.
On Wednesday morning, I sought out West in the parking lot where he was about to drive some guests down to the landing. I asked him to come see me when he returned.
When he entered my office three hours later, I grabbed my coat off the hook. “Let’s take a walk,” I said.
“Sure,” he looked at me with a curious expression. “Where to?”
“Let’s just walk.”
We headed through the pasture to the horse corral where Ingrid and Ryder were busy saddling up horses. We gave them a brief wave and “Good morning” but didn’t stop. We continued on the trail but veered off toward the road.
I glanced at West, who kept peeking at me. He finally broke the silence. “You can’t fire me, Olivia. My dad owns the place.”
I almost smiled. “Ha ha,” I deadpanned. “I have an awkward question.”
He leaned in and whispered. “No, we can’t get married. I’m really sorry but I have to go back to college soon and a wedding just won’t fit into my schedule.”
“You are a cutup this morning.”
“Because you may not have noticed, but you’ve had a dark cloud hanging over you for days now. Is it about to rain?”
We emerged out of the forest onto the Stehekin Valley Road and headed north toward the mountains. A crisp breeze rushed down the road. I was grateful to be walking side by side so I couldn’t look West square in the face.
“I need to know. Can I trust Luka? Is there anything in his past, about his fiancée, about being in prison, that casts any doubt in your mind about him.”
West was having none of it. He stopped. Took me gently by the shoulders and turned me to face him. He leaned down, searched my face. “You can trust Luka,” he said. “Why would you doubt it?”
I was about to incriminate myself with the next question. “Have you seen the scars on his back?”
“I have. Apparently, you have, too.” A small smile played on his face. I could tell he wanted to tease me but decided this may not be the moment for that.
“Where did he get those scars? And what happened to his fiancée?”
His smile evaporated. “He never, ever talks about his fiancée. But I do know from another boater that he got the scars when he was tortured in prison. Those are cuts from a knife. Fortunately, a very sharp and clean knife. It never got infected. Which is more than you could say for some of his mates.”
Tortured? Carved with a knife? I was shocked into silence. We turned away from one another and walked.
“He’s the victim of war,” West said. “Just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s a good guy, Olivia. I’ve seen him at races. I’ve seen how he treats people. There’s not a mean bone in his body.”
“Thank you,” I said at last. “That helps.”
West could have said a lot of things at that juncture, but he graciously said, “You’re welcome.”
