He’d been waiting for just such a day.

He made a quick call to Sorrow, and was surprised when she answered groggily. Usually she was the first up and at ’em. He smiled to himself—it was none of his business, but still, he hoped it was the sheriff who’d made her so sleepy that morning. The girl deserved to find happiness.

“No problem,” she said, when he asked for a personal day. In fact, she sounded downright excited about it, and he’d suspected she would. Any excuse to get into that kitchen, cooking up an exotic breakfast confection sure to aggravate her father.

Anxious to surprise Marlene before she headed out for the day, he worked fast, making a picnic out of whatever basics he had on hand. Assembling a fruit salad, deviled eggs, bread, cheeses, juice, a thermos of coffee. Tossing it all in his pack.

On his way out the door, he cast a longing look at his Harley. It might’ve been spring, but a woman like Marlene wasn’t ready for the bike. Yet.

She answered the door, and it took his breath away. She was such an elegant lady, always pulled together, her clothes and hair just-so. But this morning, she wore jeans and a no-frills sweater, in a red that made her cheeks glow.

“Tom.” She was shocked to see him. “What are you doing here? Is something the matter?”

“Yes, something’s the matter.” He knew what grief was like. Though Marlene still had her aunts, the routine she’d had with her mom would be hardwired into her. She’d be hopping up throughout the day, thinking it time to dress her mother, or feed her, or help with the bathroom, and maybe she’d make it all the way across the room before remembering that Emerald was no longer there to need her help. Marlene’s days would feel long and empty for some time to come, and he’d help her avoid that emptiness if he could. He held out his hand. “You need to come with me.”

She touched a hand to her cheek. “I need to finish putting on my face.”

“Your face sure looks on to me. Prettier than this spring morning.” He was certain he gaped at the sight—he couldn’t peel his eyes from her, and if she didn’t hear the truth in his words, then she was plum deaf. He repeated earnestly, “Come with me, Marlene.”

“I’ll get my coat.” She nodded gravely, grabbing her jacket and purse from a rack by the door and joining him on the porch.

She’d jumped into action, and Tom forced himself to keep a straight face. She really was going with him.

Her hands fumbled with her keys, and he gently took them from her hands, locking the door for her. “Where are Ruby and Pearl?”

She widened her eyes, and it made her appear shell-shocked. “Shopping,” she exclaimed. “They took the old pickup all the way to Silver City. There aren’t even any sales right now.”

“Good for them.” He opened the car door for her.

“What’s the emergency?” she asked once he’d gotten in. “It’s not the lodge, is it?”

“Nope.” He pulled out of her driveway, headed for Route 88.

“Where are you taking me?”

“The falls,” he said.

“There’s an emergency at the falls?”

“No, ma’am.” He pulled his eyes from the road for long enough to savor her wide-eyed confusion. “There’s a picnic at the falls.”

“A picnic?”

“Our picnic.” He gestured to the pack thrown onto the backseat. “It’s supposed to hit midfifties today. I thought we’d take a brisk walk out to the falls. We can sit on the rocks—they get nice and warm in the sun.”

“We’re hiking out to the falls?” She still sounded flummoxed, and it was endearing. “I don’t have the right shoes for that.”

“I’ve got snowshoes in the back,” he said with a straight face, “but I don’t think it’ll come to that.”

“Snowshoes?”

He laughed. “Marlene. I saw your shoes. They’ll do just fine. I was out that way last week. The old fire road is clear, and the trail to the falls is pretty chewed up and dried out by now. Shouldn’t give you any trouble. It’s a short walk anyway.”

The fire road was a longer walk—about two miles—but the day was glorious. Even though there hadn’t been snow in days, thick blankets of it clung to the pine boughs, shrouding them in heavy silence. Once on the trail and in the trees, glimmering patches of ice and shards of sunlight made the land seem frozen in time.

They caught their first glimpse of the falls, and Marlene’s breath caught. “It’s magnificent.”

She’d whispered, and the reverence and awe in her voice made his chest swell. He’d brought her here.

Her pace slowed as she took it all in. The water was flowing again after the long winter, but patches of ice still clung in shadows along the edges, an iridescent white blue. “It’s like a fairy tale.”

He took her hand. “Then come on, princess. Time for your feast.”

The fresh air made their appetites boundless, and Marlene was devouring the countryside with her eyes as ravenously as she was eating her brunch. “I’ve never been here in the winter,” she said finally.

He put down his fork, his interest only in her. The sunlight dappled through the trees onto her cheek, and her expression of awe made her seem twenty years younger. “It’s my favorite time to come,” he told her.

She took a bite of fruit salad and shook her head, staring at him as she chewed.

He raised a wary brow. “What is it?”

“Yet another surprise from you, Tom Sullivan.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re not generally the biggest talker.”

“I’m more a man of action,” he said firmly.

She made a startled oh sound that gratified the man in him. He asked, “Is it the action part that surprises you?” He heard the huskiness in his voice and saw an answering flush on her cheeks. She seemed so uncertain, all he wanted was to wrap her in his arms and take care of things for a while.

“No,” she said slowly. “It’s that…just when I think I know you, you open your mouth and say the darndest thing.”

“How’s this, then?” He took her hand. “Marlene Kidd Jessup, once the weather warms up, I’m bringing you here on my bike.”

She coughed as she swallowed. “Oh goodness. I could never ride a motorcycle.”

“Why not?”

“Why not,” she repeated, considering it. She opened her mouth, hesitated, then shut it again. “Well, I don’t know why not, precisely.”

“You can be your own woman, Marlene. Heed your own heart.” He was thinking of her mother’s last words, and he knew Marlene must’ve been thinking the same.

“I don’t even know how I’d go about that,” she said quietly.

“I could help you. We could figure it out together.”

“Could we?” She sighed. “Sometimes I wonder if it’s not over for me. I’m not sure how it happened or when, but I woke up one day and I was old. And now all I have in me is to mind my aunts, nag my grown children, and wait for the years to pass.”

“Seems to me, your aunts do a damned fine job of minding themselves.”

“Seems that way, doesn’t it?” A grudging half smile spread across her face. “So there it is: my kids are done with me, my mother is gone, and not even my aunts need me, not really.”

“Then you best get living for your own self.” He wanted to touch her, to comfort her with his body. But there’d be time enough for that. He’d let her do some more grieving. Let her come to her own conclusions, get back on her own two feet. And then one day soon, he’d take Marlene, and they’d take off together.

“You’re right.” Her eyes brightened, clearer and more vivid than he’d ever seen them. “And you’re on, Tom Sullivan. When the weather clears, we’re getting on that bike of yours.”

Thirty-six

“I am so sorry.” Sorrow shepherded the couple out the door, doing her best to carry their suitcases with numbed fingers. Waking up to screaming tended to do that to a girl—dump adrenaline in her veins, leaving behind chilled and deadened limbs. “We’ll refund your stay, of course.”

“You bet you will,” the woman said, looking as pinched as her buttoned-up collar.

Her husband angrily snatched back their roller bags, shoving them in the trunk of their car. “One doesn’t expect to encounter wildlife on one’s research trip.”

Sorrow began to say, “We generally don’t get bears” but the slamming car doors cut her off.

She stomped into the kitchen, muttering, “Newsflash, Professor. One does generally encounter wildlife in the damned mountains.”

Her mom was standing at the sink where she’d been watching the proceedings from the window. “Good Lord in heaven, that woman has a scream to wake the dead.”

Sorrow leaned against the counter and blew out a sigh. “I guess all their copious research didn’t uncover how to handle a simple encounter with a black bear.”

“Sit down, honey.” Her mom led her to the table. “Your hands are shaking.”

She shook them out. “I’m fine. I need to call Scott.” Marlene’s second oldest boy was their local park ranger. If there was a bear foraging through the trash cans of Sierra Falls, Scott Jessup needed to know about it.

She got up to pace, staring out the window as she called. She’d thought she’d fixed the stupid bear box, but it was swinging wide open again this morning, trash exploded everywhere—a veritable bear buffet. Someone must’ve tampered with it. There was no other explanation. Someone tampered with her bear box, knowing it’d summon every bear within sniffing radius. They were lucky there hadn’t been a whole gaggle of them to surprise their lodgers.

“Scott’s on his way,” she told her mom as she put down the phone. “What do you call a group of bears? Like, there’s a gaggle of geese, a murder of crows, and a what of bears?”