There was some laughter, and Gray noticed Beau smile. It was exactly the way he remembered it, lighting up her blue eyes.
‘Each of you will be issued with a standard first aid kit. When you receive it, you need to check it. Make sure it’s all there. That’s your responsibility. Then we’re going to buddy up. The buddy system works well. It ensures that no one on this adventure goes anywhere in the park alone and that there is always someone watching your back.’
The likelihood of Gray being paired up with Beau was remote. And he certainly wasn’t sure if it was something he wanted. But he caught her glancing in his general direction and wondered if she’d thought the same thing. Probably.
Mack continued. ‘Today we’re going to be hiking twelve miles across some rough terrain to reach the first scenario, where we will be dealing with soft tissue injuries. These are some of the most common injuries we see as rangers, here or at the medical centres, and we need to know what to do when we have nothing to clean a wound or any useful sterile equipment. Now, one final thing before we buddy up... We will not be alone in this park. There are wild animals that we’re all going to have to learn to respect and get along with or stay out of their way. I’m sure you all know we’ve got wolves and grizzlies here. But there are also black bears, moose, bobcats and elk, and the one animal that injures visitors more than bears...the American bison.’
He looked around the room, his face serious.
‘You see one of those bad boys...’ he pointed at a poster on the wall behind him ‘...with his tail lifted, then you know he’s going to charge. Keep your distance from the herds. Stay safe.’
Gray nodded. It wasn’t just bison he’d have to watch out for, but Beau, too. She didn’t have horns to gore him with, but she certainly looked at him as if she wanted him dead.
She was angry with him, and for good reason. He had walked away from their wedding and it had been one of the hardest things he’d ever done. Knowing that she would be left with the fallout from his decision. Knowing that he was walking away from the one woman who’d loved him utterly and completely.
But life had been difficult for him back then, and there was a lot that Beau didn’t know. All she’d seen—all he’d allowed her to see—was the happy-go-lucky, carefree Gray. The cheeky Scot. But the man she’d fallen in love with hadn’t existed. Not really. It had been a front to hide the horrible atmosphere at his home, the problems within his own family: his father’s drinking, his mother’s depression, the constant fights...
Gray’s parents had hated each other. Resented each other. His mother had been trapped by duty with a man she detested. With a man who had suffered a tragic paralysing accident on the actual day she’d decided to pack her bags and leave him.
Being in the same house as them had been torture, watching and listening as they had systematically torn each other apart. Each of them trapped by marriage. An institution that Gray had vowed to himself never to get involved with.
‘Love fades, Gray. Once that honeymoon period is over, then you see your partner’s true colours.’
He could hear his mother’s bitter words even now.
So why had he ruined it all by proposing to Beau? He hadn’t wanted to get married—ever! And yet being with Beau had made him so happy.
The day he’d proposed they’d been laughing, dancing in each other’s arms up close. Her love for him had been beaming from her face, her sapphire eyes sparkling with joy, and he’d wanted... He’d wanted that moment to last for ever. The words had just come out.
Will you marry me?
‘We’ve got one hour before we’re due to depart, so take this time to check your pack, check your first aid kit, use the bathrooms, freshen up—whatever you need to do before we set off. Let’s meet back here at one o’clock precisely, people.’
Mack headed out of the room and a general hubbub began as people began to talk and check their bags and equipment.
Gray had already checked his bag three times. Once before he’d set off from Edinburgh, a second time when he’d arrived in America and a third time when he’d first arrived at the park. He knew everything was as it needed to be. There was nothing missing. Nothing more he needed to do.
Technically, he could relax—and, to be quite frank, he needed a bit of breathing space. He headed outside to the porch of the ranger station and sucked in a lungful of clean air before he settled himself down on a bench and took in the sights.
It was definitely beautiful here. There was a calmness, a tranquillity that you just didn’t find inside a hospital. Hospitals were clean, clinical environments that ran to a clock, to procedure, to rules and regulations. As busy as a beehive, with people coming and going, visitors and patients, operations and clinics.
But here...here there was peace. And quiet. And—
The door swung open with a creak and suddenly she was there. Alone. Before him. Those ice-blue eyes of hers were staring down at him. Cold. Unfeeling.
He got to his feet, his mouth suddenly dry.
‘I think it’s time I made some rules about the next week.’ She crossed her arms, waiting for his response.
‘Beau, I—’
‘First of all,’ she interrupted, holding up her hand for silence, ‘I think we should agree not to speak to each other. I appreciate that circumstance may not always allow that, so if you do speak to me, then I’d prefer it was only about the course. Nothing else. Nothing personal.’
‘But I need to—’
‘Second of all...you are to tell no one here what happened. I will not become the subject of idle gossip. And thirdly...when this is over, you will not contact me, you will not call. You will maintain the silence you’ve been so expert at keeping for the last eleven years. Do you understand?’
He did understand. All too keenly. She wanted nothing to do with him. Which was fair enough. Except that he felt that now she was here, right in front of him, this week might be his chance to explain everything. Forget a pathetic phone call or a scrappy little email. That had never been his style. He had seven days in which to lower her walls, get her to accept his white flag of truce and ask her to listen to him.
But he didn’t want to become the subject of gossip, either. He didn’t want to fight with her. Nor did he want to share so much that she found out about his injury. But time would tell. They had a few days to cool down. They’d get to talk. At some point.
‘I do.’
Her lip curled. ‘You see? That wasn’t too hard to say, was it?’
Then she pointed her finger at him, and he couldn’t help but notice that her hand was trembling.
‘Stay out of my way, okay? I want nothing to do with you. Ever.’
He nodded, accepting her rules for the time being, hoping an opportunity would present itself to allow a little bending of them.
They would have to talk eventually.
* * *
Beau checked her first aid kit against the checklist—gloves, triangular arm bandage, two gauze pads, sticking plaster, tape, antiseptic wipes, small scissors, one small saline wash, a safety pin. Not much for a medical emergency, but she guessed that was part of the challenge. The other part of the challenge for her was going to be a mental one.
Ignore