CHAPTER ELEVEN
The next day, Cole and Holly grabbed breakfast on their way to work. After swapping vehicles, Holly drove them to a crowded parking lot and shut off the engine.
“We take turns hiking up to the falls,” she said. “I’m not asking for special treatment ’cause you’re here.”
“You think I can’t hike a few miles?” he said. “Just because I live in the city doesn’t mean I’m incapable of a walk in the woods.”
“Actually, it’s barely a mile,” Holly said. “Great-grandmas and little kids do it, so I’m sure you’ll be fine. How do your feet feel? Do you need moleskin?”
Cole had no idea what moleskin was or what it had to do with his feet. On the off chance it was literally putting the skin of a mole on his body, which sounded disgusting, he passed. “I’m fine.”
“I wish we had more time for you to break in those boots.”
“I’m fine ,” he repeated.
“Suit yourself.”
They got out, and Holly radioed that they were hiking the trail to the falls.
“So, what’s the purpose of this?” Cole asked as they started up the well-beaten path.
“A lot of people visit the park just for the falls. We like to have a presence. You know, to answer questions and help if needed. We also check the trail for maintenance issues and signs of animals that shouldn’t be here.”
“How do you do that?”
“Look for poop.”
“You live in a different world than I do,” Cole muttered.
“Hey, check it out.” Holly had veered off the trail a few feet to investigate something and returned with a closed fist. She opened her hand to reveal a small rock. “Look what I found.”
“A pointed rock?” He failed to see the big deal.
“It’s an arrowhead. Some say they bring good luck. Here, you take it,” she said, holding it out to him.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” She thought he needed luck to hack it in the woods?
“Nothing. I’m trying to be nice.” She plopped a fist on her hip. “Give you a gift.”
“Oh.” He reached for the rock, and she laid it in his hand. Upon further examination, it did look pretty cool. And if it brought luck, all the better. He put it in one of his many pockets. “Thanks.”
By the time they got to the falls and were halfway back down the trail, they’d been stopped by several groups of hikers with questions. Could they eat a certain type of berry? Where was the best place to see an eagle? What kind of fish lived in the river?
Holly answered patiently, even though she probably heard the same inquires a thousand times a day. She was professional and knowledgeable, and he actually learned a few things on the way up. She wrapped a sprained ankle, put a Band-Aid on someone’s scratch, and gave moleskin—a tan patch of something fuzzy—to a man complaining of blisters.
“Is that really skin from a mole?” he asked.
“No,” she said. “How are your feet? Any rubbing or pain anywhere?”
“Why are you so obsessed with my feet? You one of those foot fetish weirdos?”
She rolled her eyes. “Those are brand new boots. Breaking them in will take some time, which we don’t have. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up with blisters.”
“I’m fine,” he huffed. Something rustled off to their left. “What was that?”
She stopped and listened, so he did too. A faint whimpering noise came from the sticker bushes that lined the trail.
“Oh, please don’t be what I think this is,” Holly said, and Cole immediately tensed. If Holly didn’t want to deal with it, it must be bad. The rustling came closer, and just as Cole was about to draw his weapon and prepare for battle, a small black ball of fur popped out of the bramble.
It was a bear cub. Cole jumped back. “Um. You know I don’t know anything about bears, but I have heard the term ‘momma bear.’ Should we panic?”
“Actually, yes,” Holly said. “Don’t go near it.”
The cub started toward Cole, and he danced to get away from it. “Shoo, dude. Go away. Go find your mom.” It seemed intent on getting close to him. “I don’t have any food on me. What does he want?”
“Maybe something happened to his momma, and he wants to go home with you. Be my new daddy,” she said in a mock falsetto.
“Not funny!” Cole said, still backing away. “He is pretty cute though.”
Holly had pulled out her phone and called someone. “Any reports of an abandoned cub near the falls trail?” she asked. After a pause, she continued. “I’ll shoo it off, but we should check the area to make sure Mom’s okay. All right. Yes. I’ll need some help to clear the trail.”
“So?”
“Dispatch is gonna call the wildlife guys. If Mom doesn’t show up in the next hour or so, they’ll trap the cub and try to find it a new one.”
“A new mom? Can they do that?”
“He’s young enough. It might work.”
They shooed the cub back into the brush and spent the next thirty minutes making people take a wide berth around the area. Someone had closed the trail entrance, but everyone coming down had to be dealt with.
Just as Cole started to relax, a much louder crashing noise sounded off to their left. Holly stiffened, grabbed his arm, and put a finger to her lips.
They’d kept loose tabs on the cub. He was wandering in circles a few yards from the trail. Holly pointed, and Cole looked up to see a terrifyingly large bear barreling straight at them.
“Holly?” he whispered.
“Stay still,” she said. “She’s just coming for her baby.”
Everything in his body said to run. He had to fight the urge to grab Holly’s hand and take off, her safety pamphlet be damned. Momma bear stopped, grumbled at the cub, and swatted it to get it moving. The little bear let out a squawk.
“Did she just spank him?” he whispered.
“Looked like it, didn’t it?” Holly chuckled. “He deserved a good whack for running off. She was probably worried sick.”
Mom and baby lumbered off in the opposite direction without a backward glance. Cole rushed out a breath. “And people say the city is a jungle.”
Holly radioed dispatch to update them. They would give the bears a twenty-minute head start and then reopen the trail. Holly and Cole headed back to the parking lot.
“I don’t know if you’re brave or crazy, Bennett. I would’ve run for the hills. Literally.”
“What’d I say about running from bears?”
“Don’t. But easier said than done.”
She looked at her watch. “I’m starving. Let’s get lunch.”
“Yeah, I might need a new pair of pants too.”
She laughed, and the sound made him smile.
That night after work, they stopped by Holly’s house—nothing new there—grabbed some hoagie sandwiches from a deli, and returned to Jen’s. Lady ran out from behind the barn and greeted them as though she hadn’t seen them in months.
“This is the best part about having a dog,” Holly said, bending to pet Lady. “They’re always so excited to see you.”
When it was his turn for inspection, Cole scratched Lady between the ears while she sniffed him up and down. “I haven’t had one since I was a kid,” he said. “Gotta say, I do kinda miss it. You’re a good girl, aren’t you, Lady?”
When he looked up, Holly was smiling at him. And damn if his heart didn’t swell a little.
After dinner, he plopped onto a soft chair and unlaced his boots. His feet had been killing him since the hike, and he had a bad feeling about what he would find under his socks. Gingerly, he padded to the bathroom and removed them. He sat on the edge of the tub, pulled up his pant legs, and ran water over his feet, hoping the pain would magically wash away.
Holly had gone outside to feed Lady. When she returned, Cole was back on the couch, staring at his bare feet. Which were covered with quarter-sized blisters.
“Cole!” Holly said.
“Is it that bad?”
“Yes! I asked you a million times. Why didn’t you tell me?”
He shrugged. “Thought I could take it.”
“If you would have told me at the first hint, we could’ve put some moleskin on it and prevented all…that.” She waved a hand toward his feet.
“I didn’t want to complain.”
She huffed out a sigh. “Wait here.” A second later, she returned with a red plastic first aid kit and sat on the ottoman next to him.
“I already washed ’em,” he said. “I was waiting for you to ask about Band-Aids. I can do it.”
“Just hold still.” She quickly and gently applied ointment and bandages to the blisters. “I told you those boots needed breaking in.”
“It’s not as if we did a twenty-five-mile trek. To me, following you around at work was breaking them in.”
“Hm. Still, you should have said something.”
And look like a wuss? No way. “Just tell me they’re broken in.”
“Doubt it. And you’re going to be hurtin’ tomorrow.”
She wasn’t wrong. The next day, he stayed in the car as much as possible, but by the afternoon felt so cooped up, he had to get out. Holly was assisting a family with two little boys who’d gotten into poison ivy.
As he walked over, one of the kids pointed at Cole. “Why’s him limpin’, Mommy?”
Cole ignored Holly’s snicker. And returned to the car.
“So, what are we doing tomorrow?” Cole asked. They’d switched out cars and were heading back to Jen’s.
“Oh, the Fourth of July is a big deal around here. My friends and I do the same thing every year. Parade, lake, BBQ, pie, fireworks, more pie…We’ve got the whole day planned.” She looked over from the driver’s seat and winked.
“What about security? It’s hard to do risk assessment for large crowds.”
“Hadn’t given that much thought,” she admitted. “Just keep an eye out I guess?”
“That’s hardly foolproof.”
“I’m open to suggestions. As long as they don’t cramp my day.”
“And as long as you get pie?”
“Stand by, smarty pants. The Sugar Shack’s apple pie will make you cry it’s so good.”
He chuckled and shook his head. This woman. What an enigma. She’d been through a lot—a broken engagement, witnessing a murder, her life threatened, her house torn apart, being saddled with a grumpy bodyguard—but held herself together remarkably well.
Working with her the last few days, he’d come to respect her tenacity. And it was refreshing to hang around a woman who ate what she wanted and said what she thought. It wasn’t that New York women held their tongues. Not by a long shot. It was just that being assertive and brash came off differently than confident and honest, which was how he saw Holly.
He checked himself. Becoming complacent was dangerous. Daydreaming about what those legs looked like in shorts could get her killed. Paycheck or not, his job was to protect her. And to do that, he had to put away any burgeoning friendly feelings and stay vigilant.