The first time a bear walked through his camp was when it all really clicked. He saw how insignificant he was. How meaningless all the partying and girl chasing.
Jack had turned Eddie’s world around. At the time, his brother had been building his business, and when Eddie graduated from high school, Jack gave him a job. A reason to get out of bed and comb his hair in the morning.
People credited both of them for their success—and sure, Eddie worked hard—but it’d been Jack’s vision that’d made it happen.
He thought of his latest trip. Those kids might’ve been born in the shadow of the Sierras, but many of them had never been out of the Reno city limits, and this latest batch, like Eddie so many years ago, had just experienced their first bear encounter.
They’d hiked out to Mount Tallac, not an easy day, and were
taking a break before turning back around when a black bear ambled by. The guy didn’t pose a threat, but as Eddie could attest, there was nothing like the sight of one’s first bear to forget your troubles. Meth-cooking moms, dads doing hard time—it all tended to fade to the background.
One would’ve thought that, after a weekend like that, he’d have been dead to the world when he finally hit his own mattress last night. But he couldn’t get Laura out of his mind. She pissed him off. She was cold and prickly and uptight, capable of thinking only of her own ambitions.
But she also riled him up in a way that made him want to pull that hot body close to his. She was sexy and sassy and smart, but she was vulnerable, too, and that right there was the crux of it. In her eyes, he’d seen flickers of the emotion—the sadness even—that she kept bottled up, under tight control. He guessed something or someone had hurt her badly, and though her vulnerability was something she kept hidden, he knew she had her demons, secreted way down deep.
He longed to touch her…to finally, really touch her. To shoulder her burdens for a little while. To watch her let go and forget herself, with one of those knockout smiles lighting up her face, her greatest ambition only to melt into him.
He often caught her eyes on him. He longed to see the spark in those eyes transform, for the switch to flick from cold wariness into something white-hot. Something that forgot about arguments and bottom lines…something that didn’t think at all. He’d seen it once, by the creek.
Maybe that was the trick—to get her away from the world she knew so well. Get her away from things she thought she could control. He wanted to show her how to lose control. That losing control could be good.
The way she responded to his touch, he knew she had it in her. She’d relaxed into him, warmed to him. But then it was like she remembered she wasn’t supposed to show her tender side, like she was afraid of it.
And he knew it wasn’t just him. She kept herself strung tight, looking ready to shatter before she’d let anyone in.
It was good to see that she and Sorrow had reconciled. He was glad Laura had someone to turn to. But still, he sensed she was lonely. If she weren’t, she wouldn’t have that thing in her eyes he spotted sometimes—that look of fear, that flicker of sadness.
He longed to hold her and kiss her till she forgot about the things that didn’t matter. Kiss her till she shut the hell up about ten-million-dollar watershed bonds. Till she kissed him back, caving to the desire he’d seen glimmer in her eyes on that day by the creek.
Would she ever let it happen? He rapped his razor against the dash to clean it out, thinking probably not.
It was sad, really. If she wouldn’t look twice at him, he wished she’d at least let go with somebody.
And it sounded like she’d been with someone for a while. When that annoying History Network guy mentioned her fiancé, Eddie wasn’t sure what’d been more of a shock—that she’d been engaged or the jealousy that clenched his gut to hear it.
But she was back home in Sierra Falls and still alone. It seemed to him like she was afraid to let anyone in. She was terrified to fail. Terrified that someone might see she couldn’t do it alone.
There was more to that girl than she let on, he knew it. Even as a teenager, there’d been something in her eyes that had reminded him of a cat, cornered and hissing, not because she posed any sort of threat, but because she was overwhelmed by her own feelings of fear and uncertainty.
Why a smart, gorgeous woman like her would ever feel uncertain was beyond him. Eddie had never made it to college—with bills to pay and a business to run, he didn’t see how it’d ever happen. But Laura, she was A-list. The full package. She’d put herself through school, a real self-made woman. Hot, successful, whip smart.
So why no boyfriend? Clearly it was her own choice. If she put herself on the market, she’d be snapped up in a second.
He couldn’t figure out what was between her and that hipster film guy. Was that what Laura was attracted to? Guys with tight jeans and hair gel? Hair gel, for God’s sake. Eddie wouldn’t be caught dead slicking a ton of crap into his hair. And then there were those bracelets—the guy had a wrist full of them. He hoped his brothers would just shoot him if he ever bought himself bracelets.
Laura had made it clear that when she looked at him, all she saw was country boy. They’d known each other for years, yet she clung to her judgments of him, refusing to see who he really was. He might not have a college degree, but he read, and he worked hard, and he had his Reno kids, but did she notice any of that? No, all Laura saw was a big pickup truck. But hell, he worked construction, took his campers off-roading, drove in the snow—he didn’t know what she’d have him drive instead. Sometimes he just wanted to pin her up against the side of that truck and kiss her till she saw him for the man he really was.
He slammed the glove box shut, decided. Maybe she’d never let go of whatever it was that had her strung tight, but he could at least do what he could to prove he wasn’t a bad guy.
He needed this gig. Jessup Brothers needed this gig. As much as he hated being public enemy number one in her eyes, he couldn’t back out. He owed it to his brother.
For Eddie, with no family to support, it wasn’t so much about the money. He’d built his cabin himself and owned it outright. Hell, lately all his spare cash went to the Reno kids, for gear like kid-sized sleeping bags and hiking boots for feet that seemed to grow overnight. But Jack had a family and needed the income. What’s more, with his only son just off to boot camp, his brother needed the work, too—the preoccupation that came with such a big job.
They may have needed the gig, but still, it didn’t mean he couldn’t do it right.
He snatched his cell from atop the seat. He owed his brother, but he owed something to himself, too: to listen to his gut. And right now, doing the job as it was spec’d in the plans didn’t feel right. Something was fishy. He’d run the job and get the paycheck, but he’d be responsible about it. Laura had been right—he owed it to Sierra Falls to do no less than that.
“Hunter, hey,” he said in a sure voice. There’d be no more Yes, sir, Mister Fox for him. He checked the clock on the dash, suddenly worried he’d called too early, but there was no need for concern. The Fairview exec sounded as crisp and clear as if he were already on his second pot of coffee.