one once. It was tuna casserole.” She grimaced.
Jericho laughed. “It’s an acquired taste. Actually, I brought some with me on this trip, just in case. So if you want to—”
“No, thanks,” she said, reaching out to give her chowder a stir.
The scent of the soup filled the air and Jericho could admit at least to himself that he was relieved she’d brought along provisions for tonight. What she’d packed looked a hell of a lot better than the MREs.
“You were with him when he died, weren’t you?”
The question was so softly asked, posed with such hesitation, the sound of the river nearly drowned it out. But Jericho heard her and also caught the worried expression on her face, as if she were half afraid to hear his answer.
He was stepping onto dangerous ground here. Might as well have been a minefield. Not enough information and she’d still be thirsty for more. Too much information and her dreams would be haunted. No information at all and she’d rag on him until he gave her something.
Again, he kept it simple. “Yeah, I was.”
“He wasn’t…in pain, was he?”
If he had been, Jericho wouldn’t have told her, but as it stood, he could be honest about this at least. “No, he wasn’t. He talked about you. Asked me to help you out if you ever needed it.”
“My little brother trying to protect me,” she mused and looked at him. The trail of a single tear coursed down her cheek like a drop of silver sliding over porcelain.
“That’s what brothers do,” he said, thinking of his own brothers. Jefferson, Justice and Jesse. He hadn’t seen much of them since he’d come home.
By choice, really. He’d wanted, needed, the solitude of the mountain and his brothers had respected that. Of course, he thought with an inward smile, his sisters-in-law were less understanding and had managed to drag him off the mountain for a few family things.
And on those rare occasions, he had been struck by a surprising jolt of envy that had shamed him some. Hell, he was glad for his brothers. They were all happy, doing what they loved doing—raising families. Jericho had decided as a kid he wasn’t interested in living his life in the traditional manner. But seeing his brothers with their families always left him feeling a little like the outsider.
“You have three brothers, don’t you?”
“Yeah,” he said, jolting from his thoughts.
“Are you close?”
“Used to be,” he admitted. “Still are, really, but we grew up, we each chose a different path and we all got busy building lives. Jefferson lives in Ireland now, so no, we don’t see much of each other anymore.”
“That’s a shame,” she said, spooning chowder into two bowls and handing him one. “Family is important. It’s the only important thing.”
Which made him remember that now that she’d lost her brother, Daisy had no family. Though he didn’t see much of his, he couldn’t really imagine life without them, either.
In the firelight, Daisy looked lovely, delicate, with her soft hair falling over her shoulders, reflections of the flames dancing in her wide, brown eyes. She ate her soup and thought her thoughts and couldn’t possibly have known that just looking at her was making him…want.
Which just naturally brought to mind Sam’s warnings before they’d left the lodge that morning. Maybe the older man was right. Maybe Jericho was just being twitchy and not being fair to her.
But, hell, it was his mountain.
Who said he had to be fair?
* * *
Jericho watched Daisy maneuver her way carefully across a rope bridge in the early morning light and found himself silently rooting for her. She was a surprise in many ways. Not only did she have spine, she seemed inherently incapable of quitting. She wasn’t afraid to try something—take a risk—if it meant getting herself closer to her goal.
Plus her incessant good humor was starting to rub off on him. Hard to maintain a stern demeanor when you were faced down by a brilliant smile every time you turned around. Yeah, she wasn’t what he’d expected at all. And though his original opinion that she didn’t belong on the mountain still held, he had to give her credit for a hell of a lot more than he would have guessed.
Frowning, he watched her take small steps and then slide her hands along the top rope of the bridge. He’d had several obstacle-course projects made and installed before he’d opened the camp. This was one of his personal favorites.
A single, heavy rope was the base of the bridge with more ropes angling up from the base in a V. Stretched between two tall pines, the bridge was only four feet off the ground, so anyone falling wasn’t going to die. Though the bruises gathered would be a painful reminder of failure. He’d seen plenty of men topple off that bridge, cursing their own clumsiness and ineptitude, but Daisy was making it. Sure, she was taking twice as long as most people to complete the course, but careful didn’t mean failure.
The wind lifted her long ponytail and snapped it like a flag. Her jeans were dirty and her hands were curled so tightly around the guide rail ropes that her knuckles were white. But she was doing it.
He stood below her, watching every step and wanting her to succeed.
“Why does it have to sway so much?” she demanded, not risking a look at him but keeping her gaze fixed, just as he’d told her to, on her final goal. “It’s a rope,” he reminded her, “bound to sway.”
“I don’t understand how this is a survival thing,” she muttered, scooting her clenched fists farther along the guide ropes. Her feet slid forward another inch or two.
“If you have to get to the other side of a river fast, you’d understand.”
“Be faster to swim,” she pointed out and gave him a fleeting grin.
“You’re doing fine. Pay attention to where you’re putting your feet. One in front of the other.”
“I know,” she said, swallowing hard. “Good thing you made me change out of my boots before we left the lodge. Never would have done this in them.”
He smiled to himself and kept pace with her. The dog at the end of the leash he held barked and pranced and in general made a racket as it tried, futilely, to reach Daisy. “How can you concentrate with this dog shooting off its mouth?”
“I’m used to it. Nikki’s very chatty,” she admitted and one of her feet slipped off the rope. She gasped but caught herself before she could fall. “Whoa, boy. That was close.”
“It was.” And he didn’t want to think about the feeling that had jolted through him with her misstep. He’d watched dozens, hundreds of people walk this rope bridge and never once before had he had a vested interest in how they managed it.
Lots of them had taken tumbles, too, and it hadn’t bothered him a bit. Yet damned if he wanted Daisy falling.
Shaking his
