More Than One Night

“Oh God. What’s wrong? Tell me.”

“You can dial back on the panic mode. The comm system has some bugs in it. You might want to look into that.”

“Not again. I’ve called twice and every time they fix it, it goes down again. Is that it?”

“And I was just going to suggest you have a rescue plan in place.”

She chewed on her lower lip. “Working on one. For the Sheriff. He wants me to get it to him soon.”

“How soon?”

“Tomorrow morning?”

He winced. “Okay, I can help. Let me look over what you have. It should be fairly simple.”

“Or I could ask Ryan for an extension. Again.” She blew out a breath. “I can tell you right now he won’t like it.”

“Your brother, Ryan? He’s the Sheriff?”

“I’m sorry, did I not mention that?”

“You didn’t. What does he think about all this?” He waved to the expanse of the hilltop and the land around them. There had to be a good two hundred acres or more here. A large man-made lake with a dock and an array of boats and kayaks. The land was mostly undeveloped other than the park and he had to wonder how difficult it must have been to get both the funding and the approval on a project this size.

“He’s supportive.” She folded her arms across her generous rack, which he had to admit was further emphasized by the rather snug fit of that shirt. He was beginning to love their new company tees. “Okay, see. That’s one more thing you now know about me. Your turn.”

He didn’t like this. It was a clear manipulation and he’d never been into these types of games with women. She was prying, and he knew it. He also realized she wouldn’t give up. Someone who’d taken on a challenge of this magnitude didn’t give up easily.

Using his equally strong manipulation skills, he ignored her. “We should talk about what you have for a plan so far. Let me see what you’ve got.”

“You’d do that?”

“I would.”

“This isn’t just your attempt to make us more than a one-hit wonder?” She held up finger quotes.

“Nah. I’m all business right now.”

She grinned, but he wasn’t sure it was certainty he saw in her green eyes or concern. “Drop by after you guys knock off. I’m sure I’ll still be in the office.”

She apparently spent too much time at work. Probably not healthy, but at the moment it would benefit him.

* * *

After the workday ended, the guys were headed down the hill and toward town and a bar called the Silver Saddle. He begged off joining them, as he was always more clearheaded without a drink. Instead, he hit the shower and changed. The light was still on in the office trailer, so he knocked once and let himself in. And found Jill doing jumping jacks.

This was not helpful to his all-business approach. She had her back to the door, turning slowly in a circle, and apparently hadn’t heard him come in. The earbuds, probably. But the way she was going, she’d turn in his direction any second now.

“It’s raining men!” she sang out.

He smiled as she bounced in the direction of the door and tried hard to appear... Wet.

“It’s...oh.” She stopped and pulled earbuds out. “Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about.” He bit back a chuckle.

“It’s just that I’ve been working so hard lately to get everything ready for grand opening that I never get to the gym anymore. Every hour or so I try to remember to take a break and do some jumping jacks.”

“Get the blood pumping.”

“That’s right.” Breathing hard, she walked back to her desk.

“On the other hand, there’s a lot you could do right outside the trailer door.” He pointed.

“Yes, and I’ll get to it. This is just easier right now. Convenient. But I can’t wait to try the zip line.”

“Looks like some good engineering went into it.”

“It cost us enough.” She opened up her laptop and pushed papers aside. “I’ve got the search and rescue plan in here. I had some help from a couple of firefighters from the rescue squad and I did some research of my own. I’ll just print it out for you.”

“No need. I’ll read from here.” He sidled up behind her, kneeling to see just over her shoulder. And smell her hair. Coconut.

She shot up suddenly. “Here, you sit.”

He took her seat, gratified he made her nervous. “You just continue with your jacks. Give me fifty.”

“Uh, no thanks. I’m okay for the next hour.” She stood behind him, looking over his shoulder. “And don’t think I forgot you haven’t told me your one thing yet.”

“Oh yeah. That.”

“You thought you distracted me, but you now know two things about me that you didn’t before. I have a brother who was in the service and he’s the Sheriff. I know you like dogs, which, BTW, is not big news. Everyone likes dogs! Now it’s your turn.”

“True enough,” he said, perusing her plan. “I like cats, too, and that one isn’t as common.”

She let out an exasperated sigh, which sounded like a cross between a groan and a moan. Again, not helpful to this all-business attitude he was trying to keep with her.

“That doesn’t count! Look, I know you’re from the Bay Area. It’s the one thing I knew about you that night.”

“Yeah?” He didn’t like where this was headed. If she didn’t stop pushing, maybe this job wouldn’t work out.

“Is your family in the Bay Area?”

He turned to look up at her. “I don’t talk to my parents anymore. It would be stupid as hell to put them on your damn form. And that’s your one thing. It’s big enough that it should take me through tomorrow, too.”

Shockingly, she seemed to agree, nodding quietly.

“Do you trust me?” he asked now. “Because you should.”

“You know I do. I realize you could have taken advantage of me that night, but you didn’t.”

“No more than you took advantage of me.”

“Yes, but you know. You’re a guy.”

“I’m aware of that, thanks.”

“Anyway, I feel like we both took advantage of the situation.”

“Equal opportunity advantage.”

“Right.”

An hour later, thank God, she’d quieted down and sat on the edge of the cot, reading from her Kindle. She looked up at him. “Are you almost done?”

“Almost. Just needed to dot some i’s.”

Liar. He’d pretty much revamped the entire plan to be much more in line with serious search and rescue. What she’d had was serviceable but did not account for all possibilities. Might as well plan for everything.

A few more minutes later, he stretched and leaned back in the chair, satisfied. “Okay. Done.”

No answer. She was asleep on the cot, clutching her Kindle.

Just the sight of her lying there, a lock of her hair covering one of her eyes, caused a strong pull of lust to flicker through him. He should get out of here. Nights in particular he didn’t feel human, and watching her sleep wasn’t helping. This felt like a moment when he should do something. Something helpful. What did a civilian do in a situation like this? He needed to remember how to be normal again. Should he wake her up so she could drive home? Let her sleep? Pretty sure he shouldn’t touch her. He didn’t have the right.

He took the Kindle from her death grip and set it on the desk. Drew the covers up to her neck, managing not to touch her. She didn’t move but continued to sleep like a rock. Her face, normally so animated and open, was now relaxed and strangely vulnerable.

And he couldn’t stop looking at her.

He’d never watched her sleep and felt a little voyeuristic doing that now. Like he had intruded on her private personal space. Not that she wasn’t trying hard to intrude into his private world. But she wasn’t going to get an all-access pass into his personal life. He couldn’t allow that. She was his boss now and nothing more. He shouldn’t want anything more.

“One-hit wonder.”

She could be right about that. Sure would make his job here easier. He couldn’t take care of anyone else when he could barely take care of himself. He hadn’t managed to get rid of the nightmares, had he? Waking up in a cold sweat had become the norm. And while the memory of her had been enough to get him through some rough nights in the past, her proximity now wasn’t doing the same. Instead of comforting him, she was making him itchy and wary of what he wanted. What he didn’t deserve and shouldn’t have.

Making sure her trailer door was locked and secure, he made his way next door to his trailer. Alone.

Chapter Five

“This coffee tastes like death! You know how picky I am about my coffee. Can’t you do any better than this?” Jill pushed the foam cup of black sludge across Ryan’s desk.

He had been hunched over her search and rescue plan for the past few minutes, reading. “Shh, woman. You don’t want to anger her.”

She followed his gaze to his deputy admin, Renata Dooley, a woman one did not mess with. She was German, and at six feet tall the largest woman Jill had ever known. She took shit from no one and she’d worked for the Sheriff’s office for approximately forever.

“She makes the coffee?” Jill whispered. “It’s horrible.”

“Yeah, well, that’s not her job.” Ryan tapped the paper in front of him. “Did you put this plan together?”

“Yes, um, why?”

“It’s just so...detailed. You thought of everything.”

“I had a little help.”

Sam, frankly, had kicked ass on this plan. This morning when she’d woken on the office cot yet again, drool dried on her cheek, she had a blanket covering her that she didn’t remember putting there. Her Kindle not on the floor where it usually landed, but placed carefully on her desk. And the plan on her desk, complete and perfect.

“Yeah?”

“One of my guys is a former Marine. He’s very detail-oriented.”

Ryan didn’t know the half of it.

“A Marine?” He winced. “Christ, Jill. All of these men were checked out by the agency, right? References, backgrounds, everything?”

“Yes, Ryan.” She’d been over this with him before.

Her big brother had always been over-the-top protective. Not entirely his fault. Their parents had put in long hours on the job and even if he was only four years older, Ryan had practically raised her.

He set the papers down. “This is good. I’m satisfied. I’m sure the city council will be, too.”

“What do they have to do with it?”

“They want me to bring it to the next meeting.”

She knew well that Ryan hated the politics of being Sheriff, but he’d accepted the nomination because he cared about the town of Fortune.

“Boy, they just can’t stay out of my business, can they?”

“You should have expected this. Small-town growth restrictions,” Ryan said.

“But this is going to be so special for our town. No one in the Bay Area has anything like this park.”

“Exactly. It’s going to bring a lot of traffic our way. And you know how the city council feels about traffic.”

Holy wow, did she know. She regularly got an earful. “It’s also going to bring in sales tax dollars. And anyway, they don’t seem to mind the traffic when it’s a new housing development.”

“You’ll get no argument from me. I personally can’t wait to try out the zip line or go wakeboarding. First, I need some time off.”

“Speaking of time off, do you know if Mom or Dad are going to make the grand opening?”

“They haven’t told you?”

“No.”

Ryan rubbed his forehead. “Dad’s speaking at a medical conference next month. The opportunity came up and he and Mom are going to make a trip of it. Paris.”

“Oh.”

“I can’t believe they didn’t tell you yet.”

“Well, it’s Paris. I probably wouldn’t come to my grand opening, either. No big deal.” She stood.

“It is a big deal.”

“Not really. It’s not like I’ve written an academic paper.” Or won the Medal of Honor.

“You know I’ll be there. I wouldn’t miss it.”

She grinned. “And you’ll bring a date?”

“Stop busting my chops. You know I have no time to date.”

“Make time.”

“Look who’s talking. You haven’t had a date in what? Three years?”

Don’t remind me. “Yes, but I’m not the one depriving some child-to-be of your dimples.”

“For the love of God, not you, too. It’s enough that Mom’s on my case about settling down.”

“Speaking as your little sister, who wants to be an aunt someday, I just want you to be happy.”

“And speaking as your big brother, who doesn’t mind waiting to be an uncle, I just want you to be safe.”

“Oh, I will be.”

She bussed her brother’s cheek and was out the door.

Back in the safety and quiet of her sedan, Jill took her cell phone out and dialed her mother. Always best to get the unpleasantness out of the way fast. Unlike Mom, Jill had learned the hard way that there was no point in avoiding their difficult relationship.

“Hi, honey,” Mom answered on the third ring. “I’ve been meaning to—”

“I just heard you can’t attend the grand opening because of Paris.”

“Your father was invited to lecture at a medical conference.”

“Mom, I told you guys about this months ago.”

“I know, and I’m so sorry to miss your...your...”

“Grand opening.”

Jill sighed. She was used to it by now. Mom, a brilliant woman, had some kind of hiccup in her brain synapses when it came to Jill’s so-called “hobbies.”

“I really am so sorry to miss it. It sounds like such fun.”

Fun. Not hard work that kept her in the office so late she’d actually taken to sleeping there. “Yeah, fun, but also we’re doing something here. Building something. Providing work to veterans and creating a business that’s going to benefit the entire town, too.”

“You have such a big heart.”

Now Mom made it sound like charity, which it wasn’t. Not in a million years would she take pity on veterans. She needed them and they needed her.

“Okay. Have fun in Paris. And tell Dad congrats on the invitation.”

She hung up and tossed the phone on the passenger seat. When her parents had first heard about her plans, they’d freaked.

“Extreme sports? Are you out of your mind?”

No amount of assurance from her that she wasn’t going to be the one participating in the more dangerous extreme sports seemed to help. She wanted to. Little interested her more than an athlete’s ability to push beyond their physical boundaries. To move past what one would expect the human body capable of. She enjoyed cycling and hikes, though she’d been too busy to get outdoors for some time. An irony she did not miss. Feet away from some great outdoor activities and with no time for them.

When she got back to the ridge, she noticed the guys off in the distance, stacking the rock climbing equipment. Ropes and pulleys. Sam always seemed to be in charge, even if they were all technically on the same level. She knew from their personnel records that at thirty he was only slightly older than the other men. But according to the agency, Sam was leadership material and should be treated as such.

She walked closer to the men, enjoying the view. Big brawny men hard at work. It wasn’t true, as Zoey and Carly often teased, that she’d started this business so she could hang out with good-looking and physically active men. Just a perk. She whipped out her phone camera and took a few photos of the men before they’d noticed her. But it wasn’t long before they did notice, and Julian was the first to preen and pose for the camera.

“Get my good side,” he said turning to his left and squeezing a bicep.

“You don’t have one,” Sam said.

“Seriously, guys. I want some good photos of you to put on the Facebook page. This is better if you go about your business and ignore me.”

That worked for a few minutes and she got some great shots of Sam climbing the rock with Julian belaying him. She zoomed in for a shot of Sam as he turned and smiled at nothing in particular as he neared the top of the rock. God, he was gorgeous. She studied the photo of him smiling, the sun glinting off his golden-brown hair.

In the end, she had to force herself to quit all the drooling and get back to some of her chores. First, she took an invigorating walk along the property, reminding herself of all she’d done here. Much as she would have appreciated her parents being at the grand opening, this at least insured that should something fail, they wouldn’t have to see her fall flat on her face.

But they were not going to fail here. Yes, that’s right. Fake it till you make it, Jill Davis. Believe it. Kick ass. Every day is a new day to win. She had that particular affirmation stuck to her laptop so she’d see it every morning.

A few minutes later, she somehow found herself at the zip line again, staring into the canyon below. She sucked in a breath and took a step back. Then another.

It wasn’t heights she was technically afraid of, but the falling part tripped her up every time. This zip line had been made by some of the best engineers in the valley with top-notch equipment. But try telling that to her parents. They’d just ask her whether she thought it was wise to take such chances with her health. Even though she’d been healthy now for years.

Definitely, without a doubt, she was going to go across the canyon on that zip line. She couldn’t wait.

“You know you want it. You want it bad.”

Sam’s voice, from just behind her. Deep and sexy. Their chemistry and connection made the air snap and crackle between them. It was addictive. She turned to remind him that, despite what she felt, they were never—not very probably, anyway—going to happen again.

He was looking past her, nodding in the direction of the zip line. Oh yeah. That.

She wanted that, too.

“I do. I just haven’t had the time.”

“Uh-huh.” He didn’t seem convinced, oddly enough. “I’ll take you. Nothing to be afraid of.”

“Did I say I was afraid?” She went hand on hip.

He shook his head as though deciding it wasn’t worth arguing about. “Someone needs to go to the hardware store.”

“What do we need?”

“Rope. There are some rocky areas we should cordon off for safety reasons.”

“Right. Okay, I’ll go.” She headed back to her trailer to get the keys.

When she returned, Sam sat in the front driver’s side seat of her sedan.

“Hey,” she said, opening the already unlocked door. “What are you doing?”

He held out his hand. “Driving.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Hand me the keys. I drive faster than you do.”

“How do you figure?”

He quirked a brow. “I drive faster than most people. No offense.”

Aha! One more thing she knew about him, and she hadn’t pried it out of him. He drove fast. Probably had a bunch of speeding tickets. Reluctantly, but figuring she was ahead of the game, she handed him her keys.

“I can get the rope for you.”

“Didn’t want you to come back with the wrong kind.”

She made her way to the passenger seat, fuming a little bit but not wanting to argue with him, and shut the door. “How many different types of ropes can there be?”

“The things I could teach you.” He started up the car.

So he was this kind of guy. The kind that thought he could make the best decisions on everything from what he should have for dinner to what she should have for dinner. She wouldn’t have guessed this about him. Good. This was a huge turnoff. She needed him to behave like this and before long she’d hate him so much there would no longer be any romantic tension between them.

“Okay, you drive. You pick the rope.”

He peeled down the hill and she grabbed hold of the handle bar. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d done that. Sam must be an adrenaline junkie about everything. She could be an adrenaline junkie, too, if she wanted to be.

“Did I mention my brother is the Sheriff?”

He didn’t say a word but gave her a sideways glance as they rolled down the hill. The minute they pulled out onto the highway, he slowed some, riding the speed limit to the edge but never going over it. He drove them through town in the right direction, apparently already knowing the location of the only hardware store in town, Mack’s.

Jill broke the silence. “About this speed issue.”

“Who said it’s an issue?”

Oh brother. “Got many speeding tickets?”

“Define ‘many.’ I had a few.” He rolled down the window. “Just realized I gave you something else you didn’t know about me.”

Damn! He didn’t miss much, did he? “I could have guessed that about you.”

“But you didn’t.” He gazed at her from underneath his eyelashes. “I need something from you now.”

She let out a breath and considered how honest she could be. “I didn’t drive until I was eighteen.”

“Yeah?” He seemed genuinely curious. “Why?”

Should she tell him her parents were so overprotective they wouldn’t allow her to get her license until then? They’d done a statistical analysis and found that fatal accidents dropped at age seventeen and then significantly at age eighteen.

And while she’d excelled at knocking down every one of their objections and worries, she couldn’t argue with their stupid statistics in black and white. They hadn’t budged on this issue no matter how hard she’d tried.

“That was one thing.” Two could play this game.

He scowled, appearing slightly irritated that she wasn’t going to run her mouth off. “Fair enough.”

A few minutes later, he’d parked and led her to the rope section of the store. And holy cannoli, he was right. She stared in shock at the display. There were as many types of ropes as there were types of bras. With bras, you had your strapless, underwire, lace, satin, demi cup and push-up—her favorite.

When it came to rope, it appeared there was nylon, polypropylene, manila, parachute, Kevlar, bungee shock, three-strand combo, combo...

“When did this all get so complicated?” She was beginning to think maybe he hadn’t considered her a total idiot for doubting she could pick the right kind of rope.

“Different ropes for different jobs,” he said as he grabbed several of a certain type. “For instance, if you’re going to tie someone up you need one kind of rope, if you—”

“Excuse me?”

“You need the right type.”

“No, back up to the part where you tie someone up.”

He simply stared at her.

“Okay, never...never mind.”

“That’s probably best.” He grinned.

Oh boy.

After she’d paid for the purchase of three different kinds of rope with her business card, Sam offered her the keys. “Sorry. I get a little pushy sometimes.”

“That’s okay,” she said reflexively even though it hadn’t been. “At least you apologized.”

“You’re not used to apologies?”

“Let’s say it’s not the norm.” She started up the car. “I dated men who weren’t into apologizing. Because mainly, according to them, they were never wrong.”

He snorted. “Sounds like you dated the wrong kind of men.”

She was close to asking him if there was a right kind of man, but decided it was a subject best not approached by a boss with her employee and one-night stand. She’d started to redefine her perfect man recently, and while Sam had the looks going for him, and he excelled at the physical part, he didn’t have much else on her list. Sure, it was an evolving list and as Carly continually reminded her, she’d likely never get everything on it.

“Gotta ask you,” Sam said. “The guys and I were all wondering. Why an extreme adventures park?”

“Well, it was either that or a B and B.”

While that wasn’t exactly true, it was the simplest answer to give him. The real answer was far more complicated. It partly involved her desire to help veterans find work and feel needed again, and Sam might take that the wrong way. She drove toward the ridge, taking it much slower than Sam had to make a point. Or maybe to spend a little more time with him and possibly get in another nugget about him. Either way.