she said in parting.
“All right, I’ll do that,” he said, smiling.
Mina felt his eyes on her as she left, but she didn’t turn back around. That would have encouraged him further.
* * *
Mina was kept busy around the lodge the rest of the day. She did a little bit of everything, filling in when an employee failed to show up for work, doing minor repair jobs, even helping out in the kitchen.
She glimpsed Jake a couple of times during the course of the day. Once she spotted May Crowe, the young Cherokee woman who worked at the front desk, flirting outrageously with him. Jake had looked up and seen Mina, and given her a friendly wave as she passed through the lobby with a cart full of clean linen.
She’d seen him once more, in the dining room when she was helping to serve the meals. He was eating alone with his laptop open on the table. Many of the guests were either texting, talking on their cell phones or, like Jake, working on their computers while enjoying a meal.
Mina sighed as she headed back to the kitchen after serving a couple from Charleston, South Carolina, who were celebrating their fortieth wedding anniversary. Everyone was in their own world.
* * *
Jake surreptitiously watched Mina out of the corner of his eye. He wondered what he’d said to make her run away from him this morning. Admitted that he was lonely and he’d recognized the same thing in her? Had he been too presumptuous?
He’d enjoyed the sirloin steak, baked potato and garden vegetables, and now he was checking his emails. He would much rather be somewhere with Ms. Gaines. In his profession it was sometimes hard to maintain personal relationships. He could be on assignment for months, during which he would not be in contact with a significant other. Not many women would put up with that kind of life.
He had been lucky once. Her name was Jamesa, but everybody called her Jami. They were married fresh out of college. She was a brilliant attorney, and it was his intention to work his way up to Special Agent in Charge in the DEA. They wanted children but agreed to wait five years before starting a family. He regretted that decision today, because they never made it to their fifth anniversary. Jami was killed in a car accident in their fourth year. It was Christmastime, and she was driving up to New York to be with her family. He was going to join her later. The police report said she was driving across the Brooklyn Bridge when she had to brake suddenly, hit an ice patch and spun out of control.
After Jami’s death, Jake’s only salvation had been work. He’d asked for the toughest assignments. He’d gotten his first undercover operation and helped bring down a Colombian drug lord. The Betts case was his second time undercover. But now, after more than five years without Jami, he was seriously craving a real life again. He wanted to be in love and go home to the same woman every night. He wanted the happiness that adoring someone more than life itself brought. Was he lonely? Damn right, he was lonely as hell.
That night he sat on the porch of the cabin where he was staying and looked up at the night sky. Out here, where there were no streetlights, it seemed the sky was somehow bigger than in the city. Tonight the velvety black canopy was graced by a huge yellow moon. Next to its illumination the stars faded into the background. The temperature had dropped a good ten degrees since sundown, and he felt the bite but was too transfixed by the sky to worry about a jacket.
“Had a nice day?” Mina asked as she strolled up. Earlier he’d seen her going into a cabin that sat several yards behind his and figured she must live there.
“One of the best days I’ve had in a long time,” he told her truthfully. He rose and offered her his hand as she climbed the steps to the porch.
His nostrils flared at the feminine scent of her skin. She smelled freshly showered, and a faint, clean flowery aroma wafted from her. This was also the first time he’d ever seen her in a dress. She had killer legs.
After she was seated in the chair beside his, she took a deep breath and said, “I’ve been thinking about what you said about both of us being lonely, and I think I ought to tell you, just so you’ll know—yes, I’m lonely. But it’s because I’m mourning someone. I was engaged to him when he was killed in action three years ago. Since then I haven’t dated anyone and, frankly, I think I’ve forgotten how the process works.”
For a moment or two, Jake was too stunned that she would open up to him like this to say anything. His heart went out to her. He felt her pain because he’d been exactly where she was. In some ways, he was still there. He didn’t think he would ever stop mourning the loss of Jami. But after five years he had learned to compartmentalize. Jami resided in a corner of his heart reserved only for her. And getting on with day-to-day living took precedence, because it was how he survived. He knew Jami wouldn’t want him to fall apart because she was gone. She would want him to get as much out of life as he possibly could.
He reached out and grasped Mina’s hand in his. “I know we’ve just met, Mina, but the dramatic way we met makes me feel as if we’re already friends. Do you know what I mean?”
Mina smiled at him. “As if we’ve gotten the preliminaries out of the way,” she said softly.
Jake was nodding his agreement. “Yes, so maybe you would feel comfortable enough to tell me about the man you loved.”
* * *
Mina took a deep breath and exhaled, then for the next twenty minutes she told him all about Keith and how they had complemented each other. She could be a hothead. He was a thinker, so cool, calm and collected that his attitude had rubbed off on her, making her a better soldier and a better person.
“You said I must have been on the fast track to have made captain so young,” she said softly. “You were right. My dad’s an ex-army general, and my goal was to become a general someday.
“But after Keith died I lost my ambition. And when your ambition’s gone, what’s the point? I felt as though I was just going through the motions. So I didn’t reenlist when my time was up.”
“How’d you end up here?” Jake asked.
She told him how she’d spent some time back home in Raleigh with her parents and her sisters. She had four sisters. One of them was presently working in Africa. All of them were accomplished women with great careers. She was the odd one out, with no real direction. Her grandfather had suggested she come up here and give running the lodge a try. He had no one to leave the place to when he died, and she had no immediate plans for the future.
“I gave it a try and I liked it,” Mina said now with a note of humor in her voice. “I’ve always been an active person, and this life suits me.”
Jake inhaled and exhaled. The clean mountain air was invigorating. “I can see what you mean. This is the life.”
Mina laughed softly. “I’m glad you like it. You know you could be in a luxurious suite at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort. They have over eleven hundred rooms, plus a casino and a world-class entertainment center where top country music artists perform every weekend...”
Jake leaned over and kissed her in midsentence. He let her lead him, waiting for permission to deepen the kiss. He would have been satisfied with just the taste of her lips on his tongue. After a moment, Mina sighed softly and gave herself to him. Her hand came up to caress his cheek and she leaned into him. Jake marveled at how sweet she tasted and how well the two of them anticipated each other’s
