don’t. I borrowed these from Kelly.”
“From Kelly?” Sierra had been so focused on grilling him yesterday he was surprised she even remembered the waitress.
“Actually, I traded my heels for her boots—temporarily.”
Had there been some silent communication between the two women he hadn’t picked up on? “When did all this happen?”
“After you left last night. She and I had a long talk.” Her smile was closer to a smirk. “She told me all about you.”
He tried to think of any embarrassing stories Kelly might have shared with Sierra. Unfortunately the list was long. He could be absentminded when he was planning an expedition, and more than once he’d forgotten about a date they’d arranged, or she’d had to pay for a meal because he’d accidentally left his wallet at home. He always paid her back, but still—those stories didn’t make him look good.
They’d dated off and on for a couple of months, but his long absences had gradually cooled their ardor. Last he’d heard, she was seeing a real-estate tycoon from Telluride.
“I’ve got everything we need in my Jeep, so let’s go.” A few minutes later, they were headed out of town. Indy sat in the backseat, ears flapping in the breeze.
“You really did mean it when you said the dog goes everywhere with you,” Sierra said.
“Yep. You never know when a dog will come in handy.” And as much as he usually enjoyed his own company, it was good to have someone to come home to after a long trip.
“An interesting philosophy,” she said, writing in her notebook.
“Are you going to write down everything I say today?” he asked.
“That’s sort of the idea behind an interview.” She looked amused.
“I was hoping we could get to know each other a little first. Off-the-record.”
She studied him a moment. “Do I make you uncomfortable?”
“I don’t like talking about myself.”
“But you agreed to this interview. From what I understand, it was your idea.”
So much for his brilliant ideas. “I thought talking to Victor’s daughter might be easier than talking to someone who had no connection to the story.” He glanced at her. “And I figured I owed you.”
“Owed me?”
“It’s my fault you’re having to go through your father’s death all over again, after twelve years.”
“You don’t owe me anything,” she said. “But if it’ll make you more comfortable, I’ll save most of my questions for later. I’m happy to spend the morning gathering a little background.”
The background stuff was exactly what he didn’t want to talk about, but he’d humor her. “You’re allowed to have fun while you work,” he said. “Tourists come here and pay big money for the kind of tour I’m giving you today.”
A smile flirted with her lips. “I’ll remember that.”
Just outside of Ouray, the highway began to climb up a series of switchbacks. Through the trees, they glimpsed steep valleys and soaring peaks. “You don’t get views like this in Manhattan,” Paul said.
“No.” Gripping the seat with both hands, she glanced at the drop-off on her right side. Approximately three feet from the Jeep’s tires, the pavement fell away to nothing. “Aren’t you taking these curves a little fast?” she asked.
“Don’t worry. I could drive this stretch of highway blindfolded. It’s really only dangerous in winter. This time of year it’s a lot of fun.”
“What’s fun about taking chances?” She peered at the drop-off again. “Just because you’re familiar with a situation doesn’t make it less dangerous.”
“But you can’t let a little risk keep you from doing what you want to do.” He downshifted to take a steeper grade. “I don’t take foolish chances, but I want to really live.” Having come face-to-face with death made him value life all the more. Every time he made it back from that precipice safely, he was more aware of every heartbeat and every breath.
“I think a person can live a very fulfilling life without ever risking death,” she said.
“Some people probably can,” he said. “Guess I’m not one of them.”
Near the top of Red Mountain Pass, he turned the Jeep off the highway onto a narrow gravel road that wound uphill through stands of aspen already beginning to turn gold. Even in August the air up here hinted at fall, the breeze cool on Paul’s bare skin. He breathed deeply the aroma of purple asters that bloomed in profusion along the road.
“This road once led to the old Tomboy Mine,” he explained. “It was used to transport ore into Telluride.”
“So mountains aren’t the only things that interest you,” she said. “You know the history of the area, too.”
“History is interesting,” he said. “It’s everywhere you look around here. So many reminders of the past are out in the open—old buildings, mine trams, ore carts. People walked away from some of the old settlements and mines over a hundred years ago and left everything behind. Stuff survives a long time in the thin mountain air.”
They passed the remains of mining buildings, the wood weathered to silver-gray, orange-yellow mine tailings spilling down the hillsides. “Whenever I drive this road, I try to imagine what it must have been like for those miners, with their wagonloads of ore, negotiating these same curves,” he said. “They didn’t have the benefits of four-wheel drive and power brakes.”
“They must have been pretty desperate to make a living, to work such a dangerous job in such remote and wild surroundings.”
“I prefer to think of them as brave adventurers who relished the freedom of life on their own terms.”
They stopped at a stream crossing and a bull elk raised his head to watch them. The gurgling of the water sounded over the low rumble of the Jeep’s engine. Other than an occasional burst of birdsong and Indy’s enthusiastic panting from the backseat, there was no other sound. “We haven’t seen any other cars in a while now,” Sierra said.
“Traffic’s pretty light today. Come back Saturday and you’ll see bumper-to-bumper Jeeps sometimes. Four-wheel-drive clubs from all over the world come here to run these trails.”
“I guess a lot of people like to get back to nature in a powerful, gas-guzzling machine.”
He laughed. “I knew there was a sense of humor somewhere under that veneer of cool sophistication.”
“Are you saying I’m a snob?”
“You have snob potential, but I don’t think you really are.” A woman who’d trade her fancy high heels for a waitress’s hiking boots could never be called a snob.
“I can’t decide if
