Two

A short trek from the road where the bus dropped them off led Carly and her group to the state line bordering Massachusetts and Vermont, the beginning of the southern boundary of the trail. In the hazy sunlight, under a covering of beech trees, the group assembled. With walking sticks in hand, they toted backpacks and looked like the serious hikers they would need to become. Carly studied the other six in the group, a man and his daughter, a newlywed couple, and Jill and her husband, Ted. Ted’s friend hadn’t shown up, which made Carly breathe a sigh of relief.

A rugged wooden sign with painted yellow letters marked their welcome onto the Long Trail, calling it “A Footpath in the Wilderness.” Instructions underneath offered helpful information on the painted blazes marking the path—white for the main trail, blue for side trails. Below that came information on the Green Mountain Club, the organization that had created the trail decades ago. Carly took a picture of the sign with her camera, thinking she would want to supply photos for the guidebook she planned to write.

Ted Lizacek, Jill’s husband and leader of their motley group of seven, stood with his hands on his hips and eyed them with all the aplomb of a drill sergeant mustering his troops. His stint in the army had had lasting effects, apparent in the rigid set of his jaw and shoulders and in his no-nonsense demeanor. “I hope everyone here has spent the past weeks conditioning for this hike. The trail starts out easy but gets rougher as the days progress. A good thing, too. It’ll strengthen those leg muscles and get you sluggards into physical, mental, and emotional shape. Once we hit the north end toward Canada, the hike becomes more difficult. The terrain gets treacherous and will involve a lot of climbing, sometimes requiring hands as well as feet. The path is always rugged. It’s not for the faint of heart.”

Across from Carly, a pretty blond teen with thick glasses that magnified sky blue eyes shot an anxious glance toward her father, a man of similar coloring. He gave her a reassuring wink, but his smile seemed faint.

“What a way to rally the troops, luv.” Jill put her hand to Ted’s back. “If you don’t curb your welcoming speech, it might turn into an address of farewell. This isn’t like when we traveled into the outback. At least we’ll reach shelters on this trail, and signs are posted so we can’t get lost.”

Carly heard a deep, quiet chuckle behind her and looked over her shoulder, startled. A pair of blue-gray eyes in a bronzed, masculine face caught and held her attention. The owner of the eyes looked in her direction, and she turned her head back around so fast she almost gave herself whiplash. She pressed her hand to the burn zipping along her neck. Great. The last thing she needed was a muscle spasm. She wondered where he’d come from; she hadn’t seen him on the bus.

“It’s important that everyone understands the difficulties we’ll come up against,” Ted countered.

“Which is why we gave out detailed information weeks ago, and I’m sure everyone has read their brochures by now,” Jill mollified.

“All right, maybe I went a little overboard.”

“A little overboard?” Carly heard the man behind her mutter in amused disbelief. “Try more like taking a bungee jump off a high cliff.” She felt her lips twitch but kept her focus on their hiking leaders.

Ted straightened, evidently having heard his heckler. His gaze speared the man behind Carly. “Well, well, well. You got something to say, slacker? Come out from hiding and speak up so everyone can hear.”

Like an unruly child facing a stern instructor, the man stepped out from behind Carly, and she got her first good look at him. Slim and well toned, he wore a blue plaid shirt with the sleeves ripped off over a long-sleeved gray flannel shirt and blue jeans. Sandy brown hair hung shaggy and windswept to his nape, feathering in soft waves in a long sweep over his forehead and angling in shorter waves at the sides. He stood several inches taller than her five foot six. Realizing she stared, she shifted her attention to Ted, who crossed his arms across his barrel chest.

“What have you got to say for yourself, boy?” Ted addressed the man as if he were years younger, though Carly thought they appeared near the same age.

“Well, now,” the stranger spoke with unhurried ease, “I thought I’d signed up for a pleasure hike along the Long Trail, not a grueling, thirty-day workout at Ted Lizacek’s Boot Camp.”

Uncomfortable silence filtered through the group. All Carly could hear was the wind rustling the leaves and the sounds of other hikers in the distance as they readied for their departure.

Ted’s eyebrows shot up. “Something wrong with that idea?”

“Maybe not for a PC game or for one of those so-called reality shows. As for real life, I think I’ll just stick to enjoying this hike—minus the drills, Sarge.”

Ted glared at the unflappable man seconds longer before bursting into laughter and slapping his heckler on the back. The mock tension broke as they smiled at one another. Carly shook her head, realizing their little joke.

“Nate, man, it’s good to see you! When did you sneak in? Everybody, Nate here is my old hiking buddy. We section-hiked this trail for the first time together when we were juniors in high school.”

“And you were just as overbearing then as you are now,” Nate said good-naturedly.

“Yeah, but you wouldn’t recognize me any other way,” Ted joked back. “I want you to meet the group. Jill, you know.”

“G’day, Nate,” she said, giving him a hug. “Good to see you again.”

“And this is Kim and her dad, Frank Melby,” he addressed the teenager and the man beside her.

Nate shook the man’s hand and gave the teen a smile and nod. Carly noted his even, white teeth made the smile swoonable, which would explain Kim’s pink face.

Swoonable? Man, I’ve been out of a job too long. I’m getting rusty in my vocabulary. Maybe I should create a dictionary of ridiculous adjectives and try to sell that. Before she could break from the thought, Nate moved to stand in front of her, his steady, blue-gray eyes making contact with hers. She drew a swift breath, which she quickly related to embarrassment at just connecting Nate to her crazy new word for the day.

“Nate, this is Carly Alden,” Jill said, an undertone of exuberance that hinted of matchmaking, evident where it had been absent in previous introductions. Carly shot Jill a warning glance, then looked back to Nate.

“It’s nice to meet you,” she said in a noncommittal manner.

His smile edged up a notch at the corners, suggesting he also heard the undertones and they amused him. “Likewise.”

She pulled her hand from his warm grasp and averted her gaze to the next available face. It turned out to be Jill’s, and her traitorous friend had the audacity to wink.

Ted and Jill continued down the line with introductions, with Nate between them. Needing time alone to sort out her thoughts and knowing Ted intended to start the hike soon, Carly took the opportunity to sign the register.

Maybe coming on this hike had been a mistake, but she had to avoid any chance of running into Jake again. He wasn’t the type to tolerate waiting for long; nor was he the type to accept rejection. He pushed the buttons and expected everyone to hop when he said hop. Given that he was CEO of his own company, his attitude wasn’t much of a surprise.

Her mind switched to Nate, and she observed him without his noticing. He laughed at something Frank said, and turned to Bart, the other guy on the hike. She’d heard only good things from Jill about Nate for the past two weeks without really learning anything personal about the man. That alone made her skeptical. She wondered if she was the only one in the group who found it odd that Ted or Jill hadn’t introduced Nate by his last name. Maybe because the three were friends, they missed the fact others wouldn’t know it. Not that she cared one way or the other. The less she had to do with the male species, the better, and at the first opportunity, she would stress that fact to Jill. As for Nate, the absence of his last name aided Carly’s desire to keep him at arm’s length.

After more than an hour on the bus, her muscles felt cramped, and knowing their supercharged drill sergeant was eager to get started on the twelve-mile hike to the first shelter, Carly set down her backpack and stretched her legs with slow, easy lunges. Her body was well toned thanks to daily aerobics, and she’d spent the past weeks walking every morning and evening, increasing her mileage each time to prepare for what promised to be a grueling but stimulating month.

“Hi!”

Carly turned to see Kim smile as she approached. In her gray sweatshirt bearing the name of a well-known pop group emblazoned in pink across its middle, and with the remnants of baby fat pleasantly rounding pink cheeks, the girl looked thirteen or fourteen.

“Hi.” Carly straightened from her stretch.

“Can you believe this day finally got here?” Kim’s bright features matched her eager words. “I thought it would never happen. I’ve been putting red Xs on my calendar forever!”

“I take it you’re just a tad excited?” Carly joked.

“Well, yeah!” Kim laughed. “I mean, this has been like a dream of mine ever since I was little and heard how my grandparents hiked the trail when they were young. I read that not everyone makes it. Since the trail first opened in 1930, only about twenty-six hundred hikers have made it to Canada—at least I think that’s how many.” Kim pulled her eyebrows together. “Anyway, whatever, a lot dropped out along the way because they just didn’t have the strength and endurance needed. But I’m going to make it—me and my dad.”

Carly smiled. “I’ll bet you are, Kim, and I’ll be rooting for you all the way.”

“Hey, thanks. You, too! Well, I guess I’ll talk to you later. I know Mr. Lizacek wants to go soon.” With a slight wave, Kim returned to the group.

Carly liked the exuberant teen. So far, everyone seemed like they would make good companions for an extended hike. They hadn’t started preaching to her the moment they saw her, as she had half-suspected they might, and she’d found common ground with a couple of them. The newlyweds, Bart and Sierra, shared her lifelong love of historical Native American culture and art, and they’d conversed during the bus ride. Carly and Jill were good friends, despite differences in their beliefs, or rather Carly’s lack of one. And though she and Ted never talked much, he always treated her with respect.

She looked over the group, her attention going to the newcomer. With a start, she noticed Nate looking at her. She thought she read a sort of watchful amusement in his eyes but realized, from a distance of at least thirty feet, it was impossible to tell.

She broke eye contact. Well, at least most of her group seemed like they would make good companions. Uneasy, she turned her back to Nate and continued her warm-up lunges, her defensive nature waving warning flags inside her mind.

❧

Four miles into the trail, Nate began to relax. The stress from the upcoming court case and his family situation eased away the deeper he forged into the endless tunnel of greenery. A mix of abundant hardwoods, towering evergreens, and copious overgrowth that spanned the entire length of Vermont, the thick forest traveled along the spine of the Green Mountains.

He took deep breaths of the bracing air, rich with the earthy aroma. An earlier rain sharpened the scent. Today’s hike wasn’t strenuous, but Nate knew he wasn’t in the same shape as he’d been the last time he and Ted had hiked this trail. Not that he was out of shape, but riding his tour-guide cart around on his last job hadn’t been physically challenging.

Carly, who ambled ahead about ten feet behind Frank, suddenly stopped and aimed the camera hanging around her neck toward one of many trees. Nate knew that Ted wanted to reach Congdon Shelter and get situated before dark. They were behind schedule, and this had been the third time Carly had stopped to aim her digital. Nate came up beside her.

He looked in the direction she aimed, at the tree on which a ring-eyed furry observer perched. “You might not want to use all your shots our first day out. You’ll see plenty of raccoons and much better scenery farther up the trail.”

She lowered her camera. Her night-dark eyes seemed to glimmer with contained steam. “Maybe, but I won’t see that particular raccoon again.” She raised her camera and compressed the shutter.

O-kay. Nate studied Carly, not sure what to make of her. By her body language—the haughty tilt to her chin and the straight set to her shoulders—he sensed her hostility but didn’t understand the reason for it. He’d tried to be nice to everyone, but she seemed to want no part of his company. Not that he looked forward to anything other than friendship these upcoming weeks.

Her sleek hair was almost coal-black, and she had pulled it high into a ponytail that brushed the center of her shoulder blades. Her khaki shirt set off the olive tones in her smooth skin, complementing her exotic beauty, whether Latina or Native American, he wasn’t sure. Incredibly full lips that rimmed a large mouth above a more delicate chin with high cheekbones did nothing to detract from the appealing picture.

“Yes?” Clearly miffed, she turned to catch him staring. “Was there something else?”

Maybe her exotic blood originated from the Arctic, what with the frost he was getting.

He decided to shrug off her attitude. “We should catch up to the others. It looks as if we’re going to get more rain before this day is through, and that’ll slow us down.”

“Don’t let me stop you.” She pushed a button on her digital camera to view her shot.

“Well, see, that presents a problem.” He knew she wouldn’t like what he had to say, and he respected her obvious independent nature. But he also knew this was the church group’s first time on this particular trail, and they were unfamiliar with what to expect.

“Really?” She regarded him with a sort of lofty disdain as if he were a black fly she’d like to swat away.

“Yes. I told Ted I’d help out when he first invited me to come along, and he asked if I would take up the rear during our hikes.”

“Okay?” she inquired impatiently, waiting for him to elaborate.

“Well, if I leave you behind, that pretty much takes away my designated spot.”

“In other words, don’t be a slacker?”

He couldn’t help but grin. “I wouldn’t put it in Ted’s words, but that’s the gist of it.”

“Okay, fine, whatever.” She shut off her camera.

“We just want to keep everyone together and don’t want anyone lagging too far behind. They have those white blazes to mark the trail, but it’s still possible to get lost.”

“No problem. I understand.” Her terse words showed her irritation, but she began walking.

It didn’t take a woodpecker drilling the info into his head for Nate to figure out he wasn’t welcome company to Carly, but if he stayed behind her and walked any slower, he would be taking baby steps. Still, the need to walk single file impressed itself upon him, so he moved in closer, hoping to speed her up a little. She shot him a glare that stifled anything further he might have said.

Withholding a sigh, he dropped back a few feet. The trail had been aptly named—this was going to be one long hike.