“What if I get lost?”
“Hey, partner—we can’t get lost. This is my back yard.”
“Back yard!” Johnny laughed hysterically. “You’re so funny, Carson.”
He blinked. “No one in the world has ever said that to me before.”
“Sometimes you really are,” Tracy concurred. “As my son has found out, it’s a very appealing side of you.”
Carson felt an adrenalin rush. Is that what you think too, Tracy?
“Mom? How come you guys keep talking?”
He heard her clear her throat. “Because we’re waiting for you to get going.” She darted Carson an amused glance.
“Oh.”
With less trouble than he’d demonstrated earlier, Johnny turned the palomino around and headed into the forest. The three of them were on the move once more, this time with Tracy at Carson’s side. But after they got into the thick of the pines, the trail became less discernible in spots. Carson pulled alongside Johnny. His mother stayed right behind them.
“Seen any bad guys yet?”
“No, but I’m keeping a lookout.”
“Got your mustang handy?”
“It’s in my pocket. How far is the lake?”
“We wind up the slope for two more miles.”
“What’s it called?”
“I call it Secret Lake.”
“Who else knows about it?”
“Only my best friends.”
“You mean Ross and Buck?”
“That’s right. And a few others. It’s my favorite place. I can’t let just anybody come up here. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a secret.”
Johnny looked over at him with those serious dark eyes. “Thanks for bringing me. I’m having the funnest time of my whole life.”
It was the second time Tracy’s son had expressed the very sentiment she felt. She had to admit she was enjoying this trip a lot more than she’d anticipated. But along with this newfound excitement, her guilt was increasing.
Strictly speaking, it wasn’t the guilt some war widows experienced, making them cling to the memory of their husbands. The love she and Tony shared would always be in her heart. They’d talked about the possibility of his dying, and she’d promised him she would move on if—heaven forbid—something happened to him. Since that horrible day, she’d been doing her best to make a full life for herself and Johnny.
This was a different kind of guilt, because she didn’t feel guilty about enjoying Carson’s company. To be honest, she was attracted to him. Very attracted.
Her biggest fear was that he’d already sensed it. Last night he’d sounded relieved after they’d had their talk. As he’d explained, when he and his friends had put their plan into action, they’d done it purely to brighten up the lives of a few families affected by the war.
Neither Carson nor his friends wanted or expected some love-starved woman with a child to come on to them because she’d lost her husband. The thought had to have crossed his mind when they’d first met at the airport.
According to Carson, the three men had been bachelors when they’d joined the Marines. And they were still living that lifestyle outside of this special project that was bringing so much joy to Johnny’s life. Since Tracy couldn’t help what they were thinking, there was no point in being embarrassed. What she needed to do was be friends with all of them, the way she was with Tony’s brothers. That was going to be especially hard when she was around Carson, but she could do it. And she would!
“Mom—there’s the lake!”
Johnny’s exultant cry jolted her back to the moment. They’d moved on ahead of her. “Good for you for finding it! Does it look like Lake Erie with lots of barges and a lighthouse?” she teased.
“Heck, no. It’s little, with pine trees all around it.”
She smiled. “Can you see any fish?”
“Can you?” she heard him ask Carson. Oh, Johnny. Her son was so predictable.
“See all those dark things moving around?”
“Yeah.”
“The lake is full of rainbow trout.”
“I don’t see their rainbows.”
“You will when you catch one.” Carson was ever the patient teacher. “We’ll cook it for your dinner tonight.”
“Won’t there be anything else to eat?” was her son’s forlorn reply.
Carson’s laughter warmed new places inside her. “We’ve got lots of stuff.”
“That’s good.”
Tracy drew closer to them.
“Hey—I can see some tents and a table! Someone else is camping here.” He didn’t sound happy about that.
Carson laughed again. “Yup. That someone is you, partner. Those tents have already been set up for us.”
“Whoa!”
“Maybe you’d like to sleep in that three-man tent with Sam and Rachel.”
“Oh, yeah. I forgot they were coming. Where will you sleep?”
“Right next to you guys in my tent.”
“What about my mom?”
“There’s a tent for her and one for the Harrises. The one on the end is for Buck.”
“But there are six tents.”
“Yup. The extra one is where we keep the food and all the supplies we’ll need. After we take care of the horses, we’ll fix ourselves some lunch.”
“Goody.”
Their entertaining conversation was music to Tracy’s ears. She finally broke through the heavy cover of pines to discover a small body of deep green water bathed by the sun. “This place looks enchanted.”
While Carson put out some hay and water for the horses, he slanted her a hooded look. “It is.”
She felt a shiver run through her. They’d already dismounted and he’d removed the saddles and bags.
“Come over here, Mom. I’ll tie your reins to this tree the way Carson showed me.”
“Such wonderful service deserves a kiss.” She got down off her horse and planted one on her son’s cheek.
“The latrine is around the other side in the trees, away from the camping area,” he informed her.
Latrine. Since their arrival in Jackson, Johnny’s vocabulary must have increased by a couple of hundred words at least. He was becoming a veritable fount of knowledge.
“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind.” Without being asked, Tracy picked up their bags. “I’ll take these.”
“Put mine in the big tent.”
“Didn’t you forget to say something?”
“Oh, yeah. Please. I forgot.”
“I know, but it’s so much nicer when you remember.”
Carson’s eyes smiled at her before she started walking along the tree-lined shore toward the tents pitched some distance away. She undid the tie on the screen