Chapter One
Present Day
“I hear you’re interested in learning a bit more about our countryside?”
Leah Thomas looked up from the box of papers she was going through. Glancing across the room to locate the librarian and anyone else browsing the aisles, she sized up the man in front of her.
Tall, slender, dark hair and dark good looks with a slightly Cajun accent, he leaned casually against the card file cabinet, his arms and sneakered feet crossed.
“You’re Laura’s brother,” Leah commented, placing him from church. Laura Walker McCade had come to Hill Creek, Texas, a few years before, intent on finding this missing brother, only to end up having amnesia and nearly being killed. It had taken Zach’s help and Laura’s need to know to finally locate Mark, who had been hiding out from a local drug ring. Mark had actually been helping the FBI, if the rumors were true.
Leah shivered with memory.
“That’s me, chérie,” he drawled and Leah well knew he was saying dear in that Cajun French of his. She’d heard all about the cowboy who spoke French. She could point him out as well. Any single female—and a few married ones—could.
“My sister sent me over here to talk with you,” he continued. “She’s busy with her new baby son and stepdaughter and couldn’t take you up on your idea but thought I’d be ideal for the job.”
Dressed in dark blue jeans and a light-blue button-down shirt, this man looked as if he could handle anything. Broad shoulders, lean hips, a cocky smile. But…
“You work for Sheriff Mitch McCade,” she murmured.
“I am the official photographer and basically work for him. It’s more of a contractual type thing,” Mark Walker corrected. “Is that a problem?”
Dropping the papers back into the box, she shook her head. “I don’t—of course not.”
She smoothed the light pink, granny-style dress she wore and then shoved her blond hair back behind her ear. Knowing her nervous conduct wasn’t lost on this man she winced inwardly. Still, she couldn’t help her reactions. “I really just need to learn how to do some photography for a class I’m going to be leading into the wilderness later this summer break. That, and I need to find a few good camping spots. I suppose I could do that on my own, Mr. Walker, since Laura isn’t available. I mean, I did ask her months ago.”
Mark pushed away from the catalogue file he leaned against and removed the toothpick from his mouth.
Leah couldn’t help but tense.
“Really now, Ms. Thomas, I don’t mind at all. I know you’re a favorite of the kids over there at school. And believe me, with all of Freckles McCade’s family out where I live, I have a feeling this would be a much needed break from the noise.”
Leah relaxed hearing him mention Dr. Julian McCade’s wife, Susan, and her brothers and sisters, who lived out on an old farm with them. “That’s right. Sherri mentioned you live out there in a converted bunkhouse.”
“Freckles’s sister? Yeah. She would mention that.” Grinning a sardonic grin he strolled over and lowered himself to one of the four chairs that were set around the table where Leah’s research box sat. “So, why don’t you tell me a little bit about what you’d like to learn?”
Leah hesitated. She didn’t care overly much for the police but as long as Laura and Mark had been in town she’d learned they were good citizens and nice people—at least on the outside. Even if they were good people, she still had to worry about letting something slip or being recognized. But this program meant so much to her.
Sitting at a right angle to him, she resigned herself to talking with this man. “We are having a tri-county special session for the exceptional children in the area. I’ve managed to get a small grant that will partially pay for thirteen handicapped children to go on a nature expedition. It’s to enrich their learning experiences and social interaction.”
Mark nodded, slipping the toothpick back in his mouth. “I heard something about this. Jon mentioned it in the pulpit the other day,” he said, referring to their pastor, Jon Ferguson.
“Yes. He did. Pastor Ferguson has been instrumental in getting the word out about the summer opportunity for these handicapped children.”
“So what exactly do you need?” Mark asked now.
“Well,” Leah began. If there was one thing that could overcome her wariness toward others, it was the discussion of children. Not six weeks after her husband’s death she lost her own child in a miscarriage. She still grieved over the loss of her unborn child and her husband. The children that she taught almost filled that empty spot that had never completely healed. No matter how she cried out to God over her loss there was still a part of her that grieved, one little area where she had hidden the past.
She had a feeling she’d never stop grieving her child’s loss or her husband’s death until the chapter of her former life closed.
But solving the past would never happen. She wouldn’t and couldn’t let it happen. She was safe here, living again. She threw herself into helping these kids here at Hill Creek to take her mind off that emptiness, refusing to trust any person completely except her children. Smiling now as she talked about “her” children, she said, “The places I am going to take them have to be mapped out before I get final approval. I already have the adult supervisors and equipment. The only other paraphernalia I need are simply the things the state of Texas wants for publicity and such.”
“So you want…?” Mark asked.
“I want a guide to help me map out a safe route for a two-night stay in the desert. I want the guide to teach me how to use a camera and help me take some photographs of the area for this mission. And I’m willing to pay.”
Mark Walker studied the petite blonde before him. Though Leah may have acted as if she needed time to place him, he hadn’t required a moment to identify who she was. His first day in church he’d noticed her.
She was gentle, so very feminine, quiet—how could he not notice her? The way she shied away from Mitch and his sister, Laura, made the sheriff keep an eye on her.
She reminded him of an injured wren that needed protecting. Whether Leah knew it or not, half the town watched out for her. He knew Mitch certainly did. Mitch had actually thought of marrying this woman at one time when he’d been looking for someone to settle down with. Of course, Mitch had almost married every woman in town so that didn’t really count.
He was glad when Suzi had snagged Mitch. The man had been totally blind to the fact Suzi loved him.
Leah would have never done for Mitch. She was high maintenance, he’d bet anything. Looking at the wide blue eyes now as she stared up at him, Mark would wager the woman wouldn’t know how to get on a bus and travel to the next town without help.
Not that she was ignorant, just…helpless.
Exactly the type of woman Mark didn’t want. He didn’t want someone who would pin him down, nor did he want someone who would hem him in. He was free of his past life, of his father’s wishes that he be a police officer. Of his sister’s mothering. He wanted to do what he wanted to do—although he still wasn’t sure what that was.
But it would be what he wanted to do. And this job that the young woman had just mentioned certainly sounded right up his alley. A slight tug of conscience reminded him of his job as deputy but he evaded it, concentrating instead on his favorite hobby—photography and exploration of the surrounding area.
He