Just Try Me... Read online

  “Come in,” he called, and splashed her.

  It didn’t take much to convince her.

  Or Rose.

  Jared climbed out of the water, leaving the two happy couples engaged in a water fight. Standing on the shore, his back to Lily, he shook the water from his head like a shaggy dog, then pulled off his shirt.

  Lily stared at the sleek muscles in his back and was nearly overcome by the urge to put her hands on him. And not just to jump his long, lean, wet bones either, although there was a good amount of that urge, as well, but also something far deeper.

  She just wanted to be close, as close as possible: talking, laughing, hiking, naked or clothed…

  It pissed her off.

  Stalking over to him, she stood at his side and put her hands on her hips, staring into the water where the others were still playing with wild abandon. “I’d like to know what you meant by throwing that L-word around.”

  He turned his head and looked at her, and damn if behind the hurt and frustration, he wasn’t laughing at her. “L-word?”

  “Yes.”

  “There are a lot of L-words out there,” he said. “Maybe you should be a little bit more specific.”

  “You know exactly which L-word I’m talking about.”

  Arching an eyebrow, he looked down at her with that smile on his lips, the one that wasn’t quite real because it didn’t reach his eyes.

  “Love,” she reminded him. “You said you love me.”

  “And this thrilled the hell out of you.”

  “Love doesn’t fit into my life, and you know it.” She felt thrown, seriously thrown. Why hadn’t he gotten pissed off and run screaming from her? Why was he still standing here talking to her, looking at her in a way that made breathing all but a forgotten art?

  “Why not?” he asked very quietly. “Why don’t you, for once and all, come right out and tell me why love doesn’t fit into your life.”

  “Well, because…” He was looking at her patiently, waiting for logic, when she had absolutely none. “Crap,” she said brilliantly, and crossed her arms over her chest.

  He just looked at her, his disappointment palpable. “It’s okay,” he finally said. “I understand.”

  And he dove back into the water, nothing but a ripple in the water as he vanished beneath the surface.

  But she had a feeling that going back to civilization in just a few more hours, that seeing him off to his world and her to hers would leave a far bigger ripple on her surface, for a good long time.

  “Damn it,” she whispered again, but there was no one to hear. She packed up and began to put out the fire, but Michelle got stung by a bee, which freaked her out, and Rock said he’d handle the fire while Lily doctored her wound.

  So Lily had her back to the pit, head bent over Michelle’s stung leg, when Rose screamed. She whipped around in time to see the fire flare up hot and fast, and Rock fall backwards to his butt in the dirt.

  And everything within Lily began to relive her nightmares. “That wasn’t water,” Rose cried to Rock. “It was the leftover whiskey!”

  Lily began running toward the fire, but Rock reached for the second water jug, and tossed that on the flames.

  And they burst into a roar and raced toward the sky.

  “That was more whiskey!” Rose screamed, and covered her ears, as if standing there on the edge of a now out-of-control campfire with her hands over her ears was somehow going to produce a miracle and shut the fire down.

  Lily skidded to a halt, transported back in time to waking up surrounded by flames licking at her legs, her arms, and, in a mindless panic, backing herself right off the edge of a cliff.

  She’d made a mistake then, a bad one…and remembering it, she blinked, forced her mind on the here and now as she rushed forward to push Rose back. In her peripheral vision she could see Jared running towards her, but she didn’t need saving, not this time. “Stay back,” she yelled to Rock, who’d come up to his knees. Grabbing her folding shovel out of her pack, she began tossing dirt onto the fire, working hard and fast on the stubborn flames until they reluctantly subsided.

  At her sides now were Jared and Rock, doing what they could to kick more dirt into the pit, none of them giving up until the flames had been controlled and subdued.

  “My God,” Michelle finally said as they sagged back, dirty and sweaty. “That could have gone all bad.” She looked at Lily with admiration. “Man, you’re good.”

  Lily swiped her drenched forehead and let out a laugh.

  “I’m sorry,” Rock said, sounding shaken. “God, I nearly started a forest fire.”

  “Accidents happen,” Jared said, and looked at Lily.

  Yeah. Yeah, they did. And people either learned and grew, or they didn’t.

  She’d like to think she’d done the learning-and-growing thing. “It’s okay,” she said, knowing it was true. They were okay, she was okay. She smiled at Jared, wondering if he could see it all over her face.

  But though he smiled back, it didn’t quite reach his eyes, and whatever he read in her face, he turned away.

  Yeah, maybe she hadn’t made a mistake with the fire this time, but there were still some areas in which her mistakes hadn’t quite been rectified.

  “Do you miss firefighting?” Rose asked.

  “I did.” She glanced at Jared’s back. “But now? I’m good doing this.”

  Jared walked away, and her heart fell to her toes. “Really good,” she whispered, but he didn’t stop.

  He just kept going.

  THE END of their trip was shockingly anticlimatic. Back at the trailhead, Lily called Keith to check in.

  “Hey, Lil.” He sounded warm as ever, and happy to hear from her. “So…did you find what you were looking for out there?”

  She looked at Jack and Michelle, driving off into the peach-and-gold sunset, happy in their rediscovered passion, secure in the knowledge that they were together for the right reasons—and unable to take their hands off each other. With or without daddy’s money, it didn’t matter; they were going to make it. “I’m thinking I got closer,” she said.

  “I’m glad,” Keith said, sounding as though he really meant it. “Want me to book you on some more trips? You up for it?”

  She’d been so unsure that she could do this. Her faith in everything had been shaken to the core, but in the end, she’d conquered her own fears, she’d done something right. She’d found her strength. “Yes,” she said. “Book me.”

  ROSE DIDN’T dawdle much. She spent a moment putting her gear in order, then blew a kiss to Rock. She’d figured he’d get into his car and drive off into the sunset.

  That’s what she wanted him to do, so there wouldn’t be any lengthy good-bye.

  She hated good-byes. It was why she never made them.

  But he didn’t get into his car, he stepped close and stopped her from getting into the taxi she’d paid to have waiting for her.

  “Wait,” he murmured. “Hold up a second.”

  Pretending that was just fine, Rose smiled up at him. “One more kiss, sugar? Is that what you’re needing?”

  “Truthfully?” Rock rubbed his jaw, his four-day-old growth rasping in the silence. “I’d like more than a kiss.”

  Rose raised an eyebrow. “Name it.”

  “I’d like a date.”

  “A date,” she repeated slowly, the concept utterly alien. She didn’t date men. She inhaled them, then spat them back out and moved on.

  He just smiled. “You. Me. A restaurant, dancing, candles, wine, the whole shebang. What do you say?”

  “I’d say you don’t have to go to that much trouble, cowboy. You’ve already had me.”

  Rock shook his head. “I’m not trying to get laid, Rose.”

  “Well, that’s a shame.”

  He looked a little exasperated. “I’m trying to get…more.”

  Rose blinked. “More. From me.”

  Rock lifted her hand and brought her fingers to his mouth. “That’s r