“Ow!”
Nikki jumped from her grasp instantly and darted into the undergrowth before Daisy could call the dog back. Then Jericho was at her side in an instant, grabbing hold of the shoulder of her red sweater and pulling her to her feet in one smooth motion.
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she muttered, more embarrassed than hurt. She brushed pine needles, dirt and who knew what else off the front of her sweater and the knees of her jeans. “I was watching the sky, and—Nikki honey, come back here!”
“Keep your eyes on where you’re going, all right?”
“I will, it was just pretty and—Nikki!”
The dog barked from somewhere nearby and Jericho muttered a curse.
“I scared her when I fell,” Daisy said in defense of her dog. “I think I tripped on a rock or something.”
“You sure you’re all right?”
“I’m fine. Just humiliated.” The little dog raced toward her then and hopped on its hind legs as if doing a celebrational dance. “There you are, sweet girl! You scared Mommy running off like that.”
“Mommy?”
“She’s all mine,” Daisy said with a grin as she bent down to attach a bright-red leash to the chest halter the little dog wore.
“Right.” Jericho shook his head. “Can we go now?”
“Sure.” She was determined to be upbeat and positive through this entire experience. She’d earn her place on this mountain if it killed her. “I’m sure I can walk another ten miles no problem. We’ve already come about that far, right?”
He raised one eyebrow. “We’ve gone about two miles so far.”
“Really? Well, that’s disappointing,” she said, silently acknowledging the aching burn in her thighs and calves. “It really seemed longer.”
“You’re telling me,” Jericho muttered, then started walking again. Daisy fell into step behind him, keeping one eye on the trail and the other eye on Nikki.
Though being at that altitude made talking, climbing and breathing all at the same time a little difficult, Daisy struggled on.
“I looked you up, you know, before I came here,” she called out.
“Is that right?”
She frowned when he kept walking without so much as a glance at her. He couldn’t have let her know any more clearly that he wasn’t interested in what she was saying. But that didn’t silence her.
“Well, not just you, but this place. The mountain itself. Did you know that grizzly bears used to live here?” Just saying that aloud had her checking the tree line warily even though she knew the animal was mostly extinct in California now.
“Yep,” he said, “I knew.”
“And,” she added, “did you know that King Mountain is the largest piece of acreage bordered on wilderness area that’s still in private hands?”
“Knew that, too.”
She frowned and chewed at her bottom lip. Of course he knew, it was his land after all, but he could at least pretend to be polite about listening. “I saw a waterfall, too, on one of the maps I looked at. Are we going to see that on this trip?”
“Might.”
Aggravating man, she thought as her temper began to simmer. He was deliberately not talking to her. Probably trying to make her be quiet by his lack of response. Clearly, he didn’t know her very well. Her mother used to say that Daisy could talk to a stump. Which, she mused, she actually was doing.
“I still can’t believe you own your own mountain,” she said, shaking her head, as if trying to wrap her mind around it. “I mean, did you know your name is on actual maps? King Mountain.”
“Yeah,” he muttered, “I know. Did you know that you shouldn’t talk so much on the trail?”
“Really? Why?”
He turned and glared at her over his shoulder. “There are wild animals out here. You might want to pay attention to your surroundings.”
“But you’re here.”
“Yeah, I am …”
“What kind of wild animals?” she asked after a moment’s pause in which she thoroughly scanned the surrounding tree line for any sign of slavering beasts hidden in the shrubbery. “There aren’t grizzlies, I know, but …”
“There are still black bears. And brown bears,” he said. “Not to mention coyotes, the occasional wolf and oh, yeah, mountain lions.”
“Seriously?”
“Thought you researched the mountain.”
“I did but—” Nowhere had she read about mountain lions. How had she not considered that?
“Still glad you brought that dog?” he asked.
Visions of Nikki being carried off by God knew what flew through Daisy’s mind and she reined in the dog’s leash as she hurried her steps to close the distance between her and Jericho. He might be surly, but he knew what he was doing out here and she was pretty sure he wouldn’t let her or Nikki get eaten.
“More glad now than before,” she told him when she was no more than an arm’s reach from him. “She’s better off with me. Where I can make sure she stays safe.”
“And who’s making sure you’re safe?” he asked, shooting her a sidelong glance.
“That would be you,” she told him, giving him a bright smile.
“I’m not here to help, you know,” he said. “It’s my job to be with you on this trail. But I’m here to see how you handle yourself out here. I’m the observer. The taskmaster.”
“I know that, but—” They came around a sharp bend in the trail and Daisy stopped dead, conversation forgotten. “That’s just gorgeous,” she whispered, the words sliding from her on a breathy sigh.
She felt him come up right beside her. Felt the heat of him reaching out for her, felt the sizzle of awareness that ricocheted through her in response. But she didn’t take her gaze off the picture in front of her.
A clearing. Knee-high grasses, spotted with deep-red wildflowers. And moving through it with a sort of balletic grace was a deer. As if it weren’t quite real, the animal stepped through splotches of sunshine and dipped its great head to nibble at the grass. Caught in the moment, Daisy reached out, took Jericho’s hand in hers and squeezed it, almost reassuring herself that she was really there. Really seeing something so beautiful and wild and perfect.
His long fingers wrapped around hers and he held on for a breathless moment and the two of them were linked—suspended in time.
Then Nikki barked and the deer lifted its massive head, looked directly at them, then bolted in the opposite direction.
As if the dog had spooked more than just the deer, Jericho dropped Daisy’s hand and said brusquely, “We should get moving.”
Her heart was pounding, thundering in her chest until she felt as if every breath was a battle. Her skin was still humming, as though his skin was still pressed to hers. The heat of his touch slipped inside her and Daisy folded her fingers into a fist, futilely trying to hold on to the sensation. When she could trust her voice, she asked, “Are we really going ten more miles?”
“No. Just a couple more before we make camp.”
Though she was grateful, the thought of even two more miles made Daisy