“Just try a bite,” Amanda encouraged.
“Fine, if it will make you happy.” Emily nibbled on the edge of the flaky biscuit and was immediately overwhelmed by its luscious texture. She took a real bite. Sweet, fluffy dough met tart berry in a delectable combination. Her stomach lurched painfully and then growled in anticipation of more. She took another bite and this time she savored it.
“That’s really good. I feel like I haven’t eaten in days.”
“You haffen’t” came the muffled reply as Amanda’s mouth was now also stuffed full of scone.
“What?” Emily answered. “I had that candy bar, let’s see, when was it? Yesterday morning? I guess it has been a while.”
Amanda shook her head and swallowed. “Nope, that was the day before yesterday. You’ve been asleep since Friday.”
“What?”
“Today is Sunday. You were out of it all day yesterday.”
Emily stared down at the scone in her hands and reeled over the fact that she’d lost almost two whole days out of her life and hadn’t even realized it. She thought hard for a moment. The last thing she remembered was a meeting with a Mr. James. She’d had a terrible headache, and she’d been really hot and...and he’d seemed angry with her—the memory of his deep voice reverberating in her brain made her cringe—and then she’d...
“I wouldn’t eat all of that if I were you,” that same voice suddenly called from the doorway. Emily shot a startled glance at Bering James as he strode into the room. She definitely remembered that voice. His hair was too long and rather unkempt, she thought, but he looked and smelled freshly showered, Emily decided as a few more steps delivered him right beside her bed. Her body tingled in memory of...what? Possibilities sent a shiver skittering uncomfortably across her skin.
It was just his close proximity making her feel overheated and self-conscious, she decided, pulling the sheet up to her chin. Bering ran one hand over his mouth and it looked to Emily as if he was smothering a chuckle. What was funny, she wondered irritably, and what in the world was he doing here?
“Your stomach might tell you it wants all of that,” he said, gesturing at the scone in her hands. “But if you eat that much, it might turn around and change its mind on you. It’s awfully rich.” He smiled at her, and Emily had the distinct feeling that he was going to reach out and touch her. But he didn’t.
“I’m glad to see you’re finally awake, Ms. Hollings. How are you feeling?”
“I, uh, I’m fine, I guess, Mr. James. Thank you so much for stopping by. If you want to talk to Amanda here, she can reschedule our meeting. I really have to apologize. I’m afraid I don’t remember most of our first one.”
“Emily,” Amanda began, “Bering hasn’t—”
“It’s okay, Amanda,” he said, cutting her off. “I would be happy to reschedule—but later. The doctor is going to be in to see you again in a few minutes. But first, here you go. Drink this.” He reached into a pouch on the side of the backpack he had slung over his shoulder and removed a plastic bottle filled with a thick liquid. He inserted a straw and placed it in her hands.
Emily held it up—it looked like a smoothie. She hadn’t had a smoothie in so long that the mere thought of it caused her mouth to water. But she had to ask, “It’s pink—please don’t tell me it’s some kind of liquefied salmon drink?”
“What?” Bering said with a surprised chuckle. “No, it’s peach.”
She took a sip from the straw and the taste of fresh peaches drenched her taste buds. “Mmm, oh, my goodness,” she said with a groan. “This is even better than the scone. It’s the best thing I’ve tasted since I’ve been here. Where did you get it? Because I know there is nothing even resembling a proper juice place in this town.”
Bering grinned at her. “I made it. And my mom made the scones, and I’ll be sure to tell her that you think my smoothie is better than her scones. The smoothie is very healthy. So drink it, and I’ll see you later.” With that he turned, his long strides carrying him swiftly from the room.
Emily gaped toward the door and then gaped at Amanda. “Amanda, what the...?”
Amanda patted her mouth with a napkin and Emily was struck with the notion that she was swallowing a chuckle, too.
Several minutes later, she decided that that was exactly what she’d been doing, as had Bering James. As Amanda filled her in on the details of the past couple days, she knew it wasn’t the richness of the scone that had her feeling nauseated. She pulled the cool sheet up to cover her now-flaming face.
Amanda seemed to be enjoying her mortification, however, and continued torturing her with more details.
“Okay, okay, I get it,” she finally said, lowering the sheet enough to reveal her eyes. “I had some kind of psychotic break. I just haven’t been hungry since we’ve been here. All this seafood...” Emily scrunched up her face distastefully. Then she lowered her voice to a whisper and said, “I’ve got to get out of here, Amanda.”
“The doctor said he’s going to release you today. But you have to take it easy, get some rest and eat something. You need to get your strength back. You’ve got your first presentation in two days, but the town-council vote isn’t until the twenty-third, so that still gives us over a month to prepare.”
A month suddenly loomed before her like a giant and hulking mountain, and just the thought of trying to scale it was exhausting. She wished she could curl up and rest somewhere for a while, somewhere warm and preferably for the rest of her life.
“No, no, I mean I’ve got to get out of this place, this backwoods...frozen...wasteland.” Emily felt her lashes thicken with moisture. “I want to go home.” A single tear broke loose and trickled slowly down her cheek. “I hate it here, Amanda.”
“Emily, listen to me. You can’t quit now. We can do this. We can. We’ve faced worse. Remember that weird town in Northern California that everyone said was impossible? We did it, remember? And what about that ranching community in Texas? We had death threats there, but we won them over. Oh, and who could forget that little Molotov cocktail thrown through our window in Oklahoma? They almost burned down our house. Come on, Em, this place is going to be a cakewalk compared to some of the jobs we’ve been on.”
Amanda took a deep breath and continued, “I know you’ve been struggling and I know you haven’t wanted to talk about it, but I think you need to hear this. You need to be successful on this job, Em. It wasn’t right that Franklin promoted Jeremy over you, but you did the right thing by breaking up with him. The guy is a leech. He would never have gotten the job if it wasn’t for you, and now you need to show Franklin what a colossal mistake he has made. This is your opportunity to prove how valuable you are to this company. Without Jeremy here stealing your thunder, Franklin will have no choice but to see it. So, we’re going to do this, in your kick-butt efficient and effective Emily Hollings manner—just not at the expense of your health.”
Emily snuffled into a tissue and then wiped her eyes. Amanda was right. This was what she did—no one did this job as well as she did. She really didn’t know what it was about this place that had her so out of sorts. It was just so cold and isolated and wild and...intimidating. Kind of like Bering James, she decided. Yep, the man personified the place. She was suddenly struck by an image of him hovered over her and holding her hand. Oh, no...
“Amanda, was Bering James here at the hospital earlier?”
Amanda leaned forward and lowered her voice conspiratorially. “He stayed here the entire time. I mean, he barely left your side until this morning. You came to really early and the doctor said you were going to be okay, so he went home to take a shower, and apparently whip up a little peach power drink, and hightailed it back here. He was gone for maybe an hour, tops.”
Emily’s