Chapter 6
Laird
Sunday was my day off, but I was on call in case something went wrong. Jackson and I were the only two tour guides with ATVs, so it was up to us to head out and find the people who were injured or needed help when they were stuck.
I spent the time lounging in my cabin. Fiona was on my mind, the woman who had waltzed into my life and given me a night to remember. And just like that, she had waltzed out of it again. I’d had one-night stands before, but it had been different with Fiona. Intense, luscious, amazing. And even though she hadn’t been anything more than a quick fuck – two quick fucks, in fact – I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I didn’t know what it was.
The thoughts of her were all raunchy, naked bodies colliding and orgasms I could still feel at my core, so I didn’t mind at all that she was on my mind.
My walkie-talkie went off and I grabbed it.
“We have a hiker down, over,” Jackson said.
“Can you give me a location? Over.”
Jackson gave me a rough idea where it was.
“I’m on it, over,” I said and hooked the walkie-talkie onto my belt. These damn clients didn’t know what they were doing half the time. Lately, we’d been getting about as many injuries as clients, and I was getting tired of having to pick them out of ditches or untangle them from roots. Fiona had been the smallest injury I’d had in months.
What if it was Fiona again? I wouldn’t mind seeing her again. But I knew it wouldn’t be her. It couldn’t be. The coincidence would be too great.
I climbed onto the four-wheeler and started the engine. I headed in the direction Jackson had explained to me. I followed the trail I knew Charlie took with the clients and looked for signs. But where Fiona had had a friend wait with her, no one hung around the area Jackson had explained to me. I switched off the four-wheeler and walked the trail, looking for any sign of struggle. I found tracks a short distance up the trail and discovered my invalid in a ditch.
“Hello?” I called, making my way down. It was a man wearing a bright green jacket, and it was only thanks to that jacket I had seen him at all.
“I’m down here,” he called. I was grateful the guy was conscious. If he were out cold, it would have made things infinitely harder.
“I’m on my way,” I said, picking out the safest way down. The ground was loose and twice when I put my foot down, it gave way and rained down on the invalid. I could see why he had ended up down there.
When I reached him, I knew right away his leg was broken. It sat at an angle no one’s leg would naturally be, and his face was twisted in a horrible mask of pain.
“We’re going to get out of this together,” I said, already taking my walkie-talkie out. I radioed for an ambulance before I helped him up. We made it out of the ditch and onto the four-wheeler without a hitch. I was lucky the guy wasn’t the type to panic. It got harder when they were losing their shit. When I was sure he was secure, I started the four-wheeler and we headed back down the mountain toward the lodge. It wasn’t a long trip – he hadn’t made it far up the mountain before he’d fallen.
The ambulance waited for us when we arrived, and the paramedics took over, stabilizing the leg and taking care of him. I shook his hand. Instead of heading back to the cabin, I decided to pop into the bar at the lodge instead. I could do with a drink after the last two days I’d had, and considering that Fiona stayed at the lodge, I wouldn’t hate bumping into her.
Which was a ridiculous thing to be thinking about. She wasn’t anyone special. She was a girl I had fucked. I had a few of those on my list, and I hadn’t given a shit about the others.
The bar wasn’t very full with it being a Sunday, and I walked to the bar and sat down. Hilda – a cute blonde with blue eyes and lips that were permanently pouted – shimmied to me with a smile.
“What will it be, honey?” she asked.
Hilda and I had fucked a couple of times. We had an arrangement, and it worked. We had both agreed we would never be more, but sometimes companionship was welcome.
“Whiskey, please. You know how I like it.”
“Oh, I do,” she said and winked at me. I laughed, and she turned to find a bottle of her best whiskey, the kind she only kept around for VIP clients and for me because I had special privileges with her. She put the glass down in front of me with ice and poured three fingers of whiskey for me.
“Rough weekend?” she asked.
I nodded, thinking about Fiona again. “About as rough as it gets.”
“Jackson said there were a lot of injuries.”
“I don’t know why they can’t seem to climb a damn hill anymore,” I said and sipped my whiskey.
We made small talk for a while, commenting on the quirky customers she had served and what I had seen. Since we dealt with people, we always had funny stories to share. There were all kinds of people that came to the lodge.
“What’s on your mind?” Hilda asked after a while.
“Who says anything is on my mind?”
“We may not be dating, honey, but I can tell when you’re lost in thought.”
I shrugged. Hilda wasn’t a bad listener when it came down to it. “I don’t know. I have a woman on my mind that I can’t seem to shake. How am I supposed to handle that?”
Hilda laughed as if what I had said was funny. She shook her head.
“Oh, Laird. You men are all the same. You seem to think that sex and love aren’t connected.”
“They aren’t,” I said. “Look at us.”
She shrugged. “It doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes, someone just wiggles their way in there, you know?”
“You sound like you’re talking from experience.”
Hilda shrugged and glanced toward a man sitting at the end of the bar with a bottle of scotch in front of him. He winked at her and Hilda blushed. I had never seen her like this. I was starting to get the picture.
“I’m glad you found someone,” Hilda said to me.
“I didn’t find someone. I was just asking.”
“For a friend?” Hilda chuckled. “That’s another thing men seem to do; deny your feelings for someone. I say go for it. If she’s stuck in your head, there’s a reason.”
I threw back the last of my whiskey and stood, putting cash on the bar for my drink.
“Thanks, Hilda,” I said. “You’re a star.”
Hilda smiled at me. “Anytime, honey. You need something you know where to find me.”
She took my empty glass and wiped the bar where I had sat before she turned away from me. Maybe it was time for me to head back to the cabin. It would be better for me if I did some manual labor. Maybe that would help me forget.
I had wood to chop and a cabin to clean out. The lodge cleaning staff didn’t trek halfway up the mountain so the few of us that lived up there were on our own.
Maybe it would be a good idea to do some laundry, too. I usually washed my sheets once a week, and they had been done on Wednesday. But if I washed them again and got rid of the scent of Fiona, maybe I would stop thinking about her.
That was it. It was her perfume that was all over my pillows that kept her in my mind. It couldn’t be anything else. As soon as I washed my sheets, everything would go back to normal. She would be like any other client that stayed at the lodge for a short while.
A client I happened to have fucked.