The hike was a little more difficult the second time around that day, but the company was better. Thandie had waited in the barn as long as she could for the last straggler who had yet to check in, but there was only so much distracting she could do to keep the guests entertained and not focused on the delay.
She had passed out the hats, the canteens full of fresh water, and the walking sticks, and showed the guests the trail route on the map. But alas, they had to go. Even Buzz joined the hike, which made Thandie glad.
Standing near the top of the hill with the overlook just ahead was the ideal spot to keep an eye on the guests that had gone up. Margret, having taken the lead with two of the other couples in tow, took photos and selfies. The trio of sixty-somethings had not joined the activity, as she had suspected after their interaction during the check-in announcements.
Down below, at the old dock, she could make out Buzz and his daughter pointing out into the emptied lake. Though the view was nice from the dock, the scenery from where she stood lit her imagination on fire. With the wide flower-filled plain, yellows and whites dancing in the sun, and bright red tufts of long grasses swaying in the breeze, she could see all the ways it called to be tamed and nurtured. The natural garden was a stunning backdrop for photos or even painting. An artist retreat would be a big hit, she thought.
From the corner of her vision, the guests at the perch gathered their packs and walking sticks. She checked downhill to see if any newly arrived guests were joining them on the hike. But no one new was visible. They weren’t in a hurry, and she wanted the guests to not feel rushed through their experience. They had six full days of adventures to make it through. Pacing the events was a top priority.
“You ready to head back down?” Thandie asked. “Watch your step. The ground here is really dry and loose.”
The man whom she had assumed wouldn’t enjoy this activity based on his preference sheet and the particular line that told walking was okay if he had to, sported the widest smile of the group. “What a nice little hike,” he said and shook her hand when he approached.
Thandie now knew him to be Brent, the one who had arrived with the overly perky redhead, Daisy. She appeared from behind him as though conjured by the mere thought of her, and she rested her chin on Brent’s shoulder.
“What’s the story with all the docks, though? Was this some sort of lake or something?” Daisy asked.
Thandie was glad that America had gotten her up to speed on the history of the area. She answered confidently, “You got it right, Daisy. This used to be a lake, and the section over there”—she pointed at the retreat area and the small town just over the hill in the distance—“that’s Christmas Cove. Though it used to be its own town, the Cove is now part of Elizabethtown, which is where you came in today.”
“That’s where we came in, too, on the train,” the shorter woman, Anne, said.
The small group gathered and listened intently to her explanation. “When the dam blew out downstream of here, wildflowers and grasses took over the fertile lakebed,” Thandie said as she looked at the scenery. “A beautiful accident, don’t you think?”
“Quite right,” Margret said.
“I just love a good British accent,” Daisy said. “What part of the ol’ isles are you from, anyway?”
“Oh, dear. We don’t call it the isles. I hail from Lincolnshire. Best plum loaf in the world and the prettiest flowers you’ll find anywhere. Though this is a lovely view, don’t misunderstand me.”
“I would never,” Thandie jested.
“I hear a bit of an accent in you as well. Let me guess. Boer by way of the Midwest?” Margret asked.
Shocked at the woman’s accuracy, Thandie smiled. “That’s incredible, though I’m not whole Boer. My mother came from a Dutch plantation family that had been on that land for a century or more, but she fell in love and married my father, who is a native South African. She was disowned by my grandparents, and he had nothing more to offer my mother there. So, they moved to America before I was born. And the rest is history, they say.” They began the descent back to the retreat. “How did you do that, anyway?”
“I have a knack for languages and dialects. It’s a hobby, really. Plus, I view a lot of foreign tele on my various travels.”
“She’s a nosy nelly, that’s what she is,” her friend, Anne, said with a distinctly American accent.
“My parents never talked about it more than that, and they settled in Iowa. Farming was something they were both good at, so it was a natural occupation.”
“Hence the Midwest influence,” Margret added.
The other man piped in. “What about me? Can you tell where I’m from?” his eyebrows pulsed upwards on his wrinkled forehead.
“Florida. Central,” Margret said without missing a beat.
“Well, I’ll be!” he said. “That’s a talent like none other. I’m William.” He shook her hand.
“Margret,” she said. “And this is my best friend, Anne. Pleasure to meet you.”
The small group walked ahead while continuing their conversation. Thandie made good use of the high vantage point and took her phone from her cross-body bag. She snapped a few shots of the wildflowers and flipped the camera around for a selfie or two. Picking her best angle, she messaged a photo to JB, who would appreciate the tiny update.
As she zipped her bag, the phone buzzed and vibrated. Glad to have a signal for once, she looked. Only, it wasn’t a message back from JB that had buzzed, it was a voicemail. From Davis.
Her heart pounded in her chest. She sucked in breath and held it while she decided what to do. Until yesterday, he hadn’t so much as called her, texted her, or anything. Not even a random midnight drop in her DMs for months. She was fairly certain that she had said everything she needed to say to him before hanging up on him in the car. So, what could he possibly need now?
Turning off her phone, she put it away in her bag. She had waited months to know what had spooked him out of their wedding, and now he could wait on her to listen to his silly message. With her walking stick in hand, she began down the hill only to stop in her tracks a few steps later and dig her phone back out from the bag.
Patience wasn’t her strongest trait. She scrambled to get the thing out, but her eyes shifted from her bag to a man on a bike barreling down the path right in her direction. The front tire looked to have come off the rim and was flapping back and forth on the frame.
“Stop, stop,” she yelled, though the man had likely tried that already.
“Get out of the way. Whoa, WHOA!” he shouted as he skidded toward her on the narrow trail.
Hitting an exposed root, he tumbled off the bike and took her legs out from under her as he went one way, and the bike flew the other. He took hold of her with his arms wrapped around her body and protected her as they rolled to a stop at the level area several feet down from where the incursion had begun.
“Are you alright?” he said and cradled her head in his hand.
His body was half on top of her, with the majority of his weight on the ground. As he picked some grass and a twig out of her hair, his blue eyes twinkled and reflected the cornflower blue sky back at her. She swallowed hard at her body’s reaction to this stranger. As he continued to inspect her for injuries, she lay there in shock, but noticed his soft grin and concerned pinch of his brow.
Thandie sat up. “I think I’m okay. But are you?” She looked him over and flicked some dirt from his shoulder.
“I am so sorry.” He stood and reached down for her hand. “Mortified doesn’t cover it.”
“It’s not your fault. The bicycle tire did you wrong,” Thandie joked and faced the man. Her hand rested in his, and his fingers wrapped around to the back of her wrist. “Oh, my gosh. You’re bleeding. Let me help you.”
“You have a survival kit or something?” he joked, though embarrassment was evident in his eyeroll.
Turning his hand over, blood beaded up and dripped from a cut on his forearm. Without even thinking, she dug in her bag for the first aid kit. It was small, but held bandages, antibiotic ointment, and alcohol wipes. She took the wipe packet in her teeth and tore the paper open. With her free hand, she took the soaked pad and lingered over the wound. “This is going to sting.”
“Just do it,” he said and looked away.
Thandie cleaned the cut, with only a single breath sucked in through the man’s teeth. Using her teeth again, she opened the ointment packet and spread the clear goo over the cut. “Almost done,” she said. “You can look, you know.”
His eyes were closed tightly, and he shook his head back and forth like a little boy.
“There, there,” she said as she blew cold air on the exposed skin in order to dry it before sticking the bandage in place. “All done. You can open your eyes now.”
He turned his face back in her direction and released the breath that she wondered if he had been holding that whole time. She stifled a giggle and cleaned up the mess.
“Thank you for this,” he said with all sincerity.
“You’re very welcome. Just doing my job,” Thandie said. She shoved the trash inside a small plastic baggy and placed it back in her bag. “Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.” Panic seized her chest, and she began searching the ground near where they had come to a stop.
“What is it?” he said and looked with her. “What exactly are we looking for?”
“My phone,” she said. “It was in my hand when you crashed into me. I need it.”
“It’s only a phone, you can get another,” he said. “I’ll replace it if that’s alright with you?”
“No,” she screamed too firmly. “You don’t understand. I need to find it now.” Urgency cracked her voice, and she scanned the hillside up to where they first collided.
“I’m sure it’s not far. Let’s search in a grid,” he suggested logically. “That way we won’t miss it.”
Organized, she thought. They each took a side of the trail and walked up the hill in step with one another. She never wanted to listen to a voicemail more than she did at that very moment. Whatever Davis had to say, she wanted to know. She had a fiery need to know. Even if all he said was that she was the worst. Not knowing was crueler than whatever he had to say to her, and her imagination was already running away with the narrative.
“What’s so important?” the man asked. “Oh, wait. I think I see it over there.”
Thandie followed the line of his pointed finger straight to a muddy puddle a yard off the trail. The phone stuck halfway out of the mud and the screen blinked on and off as though it was shorting out.
“Fantastic,” she said and pushed some brush aside.
The phone was sopping wet with gritty mud and was making some sort of noise that reminded her of a coyote’s cry. She flung the muck from the screen and wiped the rest on her pants leg, but the device came away muddier than before she had attempted cleaning it. That was the moment when she realized she was covered head to toe in the same mud.
Looking at the man, she saw that he was covered too, and the absurdity of the situation overtook her sensibilities. Laughing was all that remained to do. She pointed at the man and, seeing the mud all over himself too, joined her revelry.
“Aren’t we a pair!” he chuckled.
“Come on, I know somewhere we can get cleaned up.” She pointed down the trail. “Where were you heading anyway?”
“The Foundry Retreat,” he said and picked up the broken bicycle from the side of the trail. “Do you know it?”
She realized the blue bike looked just like the one she had back at camp. “Are you one of the guests there?”
“Sure am,” he said. “I’m Grant. I figure we should be introduced since I about killed you, and you tended to my booboo.”
“Thandie,” she said as they took it easy down the slick slope.
In her mind, she ran through the preference sheets and guest info that she remembered from the binder. Grant was the last guest who hadn’t checked in yet when the hike began.
“Are you staying at the resort too?” he asked.
She nodded but something stopped her from saying more.
“I’m checking the place out this week,” he said. “It’s new, you know?”
Could this be the spy sent by the investor? Her money was on Brent and Daisy at the moment, but she couldn’t rule out a guy, alone, at a wellness retreat. Although, it was almost too obvious to be believable.
“It seems nice so far,” she said. “Don’t you think?”
He took her hand for a moment and helped her down a steep section where more roots had been exposed from erosion. Apparently, she hadn’t taken that close a look when scouting it out in the first place. Between the roots and loose gravel cover, the plant species invading the worn path, and the afternoon sun beating down on them, she noted that the hike should be saved for a morning or a cloudy day instead.
“I’ll have to give my opinion about the bike maintenance,” he joked. “I’m sure the owner wouldn’t want to be sued for something like this. I wonder if they have liability?”
“I’m sure you can overlook this one. I mean, just think if the tire hadn’t blown, you wouldn’t have run me over. Maybe I should find out if you have liability?” She raised an eyebrow at him, and he chuckled.
“Right!” he said and flexed his fingers around her hand. “I’ll let this one slide.”
His unintentional pun made her snort. Thandie covered her mouth with the back of her hand that was holding the walking stick.
“Watch out with that thing,” he said. The sudden jerk to cover her mouth caused the stick to swing upward towards his chin and nearly slice his face.
She dropped the hiking stick. “We are quite a pair, as you pointed out.”
They laughed and joked all the way back to the barn where a cross-looking Leo stood at the doors waiting for them. Waiting for her.
“Mr. Goldie, I see you found our activities director on the trail,” Leo said.
Grant dragged the broken bike to the covered bicycle parking area and let it fall in a heap beside the neatly parked others. “The bike broke,” Grant said.
Thandie stood in front of him. “You knew who I was the whole time?”
He shrugged and turned his attention back to Leo. “Leo told me to find you. I was to ride up the hill and spot a woman wearing a baseball cap, tan cargo pants, and a white top. I couldn’t miss you. And I didn’t!” He chuckled. “Great hike though. I look forward to the next activity.” Grant flicked some mud from his shirt. “After I get cleaned up.”
Thandie buried her head in her hands, shaking it, as his footsteps scuffed the ground walking away from her.
“Director?” Leo said and motioned for her to follow him around the side of the barn.
“I’m so sorry, Leo. His bike failed and he ran me over. We ended up in the mud and I had no idea he was a guest. He got a cut on his arm, and other than being filthy, we are both ok.”
“I know this is your first day, but we have to do better than this since we don’t know which one of them is here on behalf of the investor.”
“Oh,” she said and bit her grinning lip. “I know.”
“You do? How?”
“It’s them.” She pointed over her shoulder. “Brent and Daisy. He was very interested in the lake and asked a bunch of questions.”
“Are you certain?” Leo said and kicked the gravel beneath his feet.
“Pretty sure, but I can find out.”
“No. I mean, you can’t ask. But what you can do is give them, all of them, your full attention. Show them the best we have to offer,” Leo said. “Do you think you can do that? If you’re correct, that makes it all the more real.”
“I will do my job. Well.”
Leo took a calming breath and centered on her gaze. “We got this, right?”
“Yes. I’m not worried,” she assured and high-fived Leo.
“That makes one of us. Anyway, are you alright? You look worse for wear.”
“I’m fine.” She took her phone from her pocket. “But this didn’t fare too well.”
Leo took the phone. “It’s not like we get a good signal in these parts anyway. I can take a look if you’d like.”
“Please do. I’m going to go get cleaned up,” Thandie said and turned. “Supper’s in an hour.”