Chapter 2
Julie stepped out of the airport doors and took a deep breath of the California air, which was almost as polluted as New York, but with a tinge of the sea. Sighing she headed for the parking lot and the new truck that was parked there, the first brand new vehicle she’d ever owned, just one of the many perks of working in Coldwater Canyon. She’d tried to refuse, but it was explained to her that she’d need a truck as well as a snow mobile, a four-wheeler, and a horse.
It all seemed like a bit much to her, but the Canyon was an isolated place when you got right down to it, with no major roads or maintenance of the roads that were there. She’d done her research, knew what she was getting into, but the idea of a new truck took some getting used to. Most of the vehicles she drove were just pieces of junk that she got cheaply for the summer then ditched when she went back to the city for school in the winter. As a scholarship student, she couldn’t afford the luxury of a car in the city, between parking costs and gas it would have taken most of her spending money to keep a car, so she’d done like most New Yorkers and used public transportation.
People laughed at her cars, but she’d enjoyed keeping them running, finding the problem and fixing it was always satisfying. She named each one as if they were her pets and babied it for the summer then passed it on to someone else in the fall, but now she was suddenly the owner of a new truck complete with four-wheel drive and all the bells and whistles anyone could want. She thought again of her mentor, Helen would have loved the idea of driving a truck around the mountains, would have thrown it into four-wheel drive and headed straight up the side of a mountain.
When she got to the parking space and saw the truck, she stood shocked at the huge vehicle, wondering how she was ever going to get through L.A. traffic. But as she did with any obstacle in her life, she squared her shoulders and hit the key fob to unlock the door, pleased when the truck gave a cute little beep to tell her it was unlocked. She climbed inside and sank back in the leather seat and took a deep breath thinking that she could get used to this.
Navigating through L.A. wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be and before long she left the sprawling city behind and drove into the countryside. She drove for hours, amazed at how different the landscape was from her home in the East, but falling in love with the farms, orchards, and wineries she passed. As she drove, the road climbed in elevation as the land changed again, becoming heavily wooded as she entered the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
When she reached the little town where she was supposed to turn off the main road, she stopped to get something to eat, charmed by the quaint Main Street and a little café that reminded her of a summer long ago when she’d lost her heart to a handsome man. She hadn’t thought about Sam Burdock for many years, well if she was completely honest with herself, she had but not like she had been since she landed in L.A.
Now that she was in his home territory, the mountains he so loved, sitting at a table in a café that reminded her so much of the one they spend so much time at that summer, she couldn’t help but think about him. They’d come so close that summer to making a huge mistake, only her drive to attain her dreams had stopped her from blinding following him across the country. What they’d shared that summer had been so wonderful, so unexpected that she’d almost given up everything she’d worked so hard for.
When she’d refused to follow him, he’d become a man she didn’t recognize, like a spoiled child who hadn’t gotten his way. He’d said some awful things to her, and although she’d long ago forgiven him for that, she knew that they’d come close to ruining both their lives, shattering their dreams in the process. They’d just been too young, too sure of themselves, too immature to see that what they had wasn’t love, or at least not the kind of love that would survive all the trials of life.
But in all the years since then, she’d never been able to find a man who stirred as Sam had, one touch of his hand on her arm had been all it had taken to stir her desire back then. Thoughts of the nights they’d shared that summer, the little tent with their sleeping bags zipped together still made her smile and blush and she wished she could find that kind of passion with someone again. Embarrassed at where her thoughts had been leading, she concentrated on the food in front of her, pining over an old romance would get her nowhere.
When she left the restaurant, full of old fashioned diner food, she felt better, ready to face the next leg of her journey and the rest of her life. There were moose in Coldwater Canyon waiting for her to discover their secrets, it was the chance of a lifetime and she wasn’t going to let regrets from the past muddy the waters of what she might be able to accomplish in the canyon. Love would find her someday, she just had to be patient.
Sam was speeding up the rough road that led to Coldwater Canyon sure that he was going to be late, he’d slept through his alarm and long into the morning. After a sleepless night, tossing and turning worrying first about seeing Juliette then about whether to find his brothers and tell them everything, he’d fallen asleep just as the sun was rising. Then when he’d walked out of his room, it was to find a tire so flat there was no hope of saving it, three hours and several hundred dollars later, he’d finally gotten on the road to the canyon.
Distracted by his thoughts, he almost missed seeing the truck in front of him going impossibly slow. He slowed down just enough to slide around the truck, beeped his horn and sped on, giving the other driver a wave over his shoulder. It might have been a little rude, but he didn’t have time for manners, he was due at the science lab at the top of the canyon in less than ten minutes and he hated to be late.
Julie was so distracted by the forest around her that she didn’t see the truck come rushing up behind her until it was suddenly in the window next to her. The horn beeping made her jump and grab the wheel tighter, looking down she saw that she’d only been going 10 miles an hour, a safe speed on this rough road by her estimation. The truck was far in front of her in only seconds, but before it had sped off the driver had waved over his shoulder, as if that could excuse his recklessness.
That wave brought back memories of another wave just like it years ago, and for a moment she was convinced that it was Sam in that truck, but she knew that was impossible. Last thing she’d heard he was in Colorado working with the Forest Service to track the moose population that had been moving across the state over the last ten years. She knew this because they had both applied for the position but Sam had gotten it, she’d been devastated back then, but now she knew that it had all been for the best. If she’d been in Colorado, she’d have missed the chance to work in Coldwater Canyon.
By the time she pulled up to the brand-new research facility that had been built last year, Julie was ready to put on her hiking boots and go looking for moose. But she was also looking forward to seeing where she’d be working for the next two years, and it wouldn’t hurt to get unpacked and settled in before heading out. She had to keep reminding herself that she had years not months to complete her research, with a promised extension of her contract if her results were good, more than enough time to find and study the new moose population of Coldwater Canyon.
When she got out of the truck and walked around to the front door of the building, she saw the truck that had passed her on the road earlier. Wondering who it might belong to, she opened the door and stepped into the building, immediately forgetting about the truck when she saw the lab with its banks of computers and monitors. Here she’d be able to track the tagged animals in real time, knowing their exact location and physical status with a touch of a button. And there was enough lab equipment that most of the DNA testing could be done here instead of in some lab miles away.
It was a researcher’s dream come true, complete with her own office and an assistant to help her, a graduate student, but it was help none the less. The lab seemed to be deserted, but then she heard voices down the hall and followed them down the long hallway that led away from the lab. All the doors along the hallway were open revealing spacious, comfortable offices, with not only desks, but couches and small kitchens. She followed the voices all the way down the hallway to a set of double doors which opened to reveal a lounge area, a full kitchen, and a door marked showers.
There was a group of people standing around a table looking at a map, but when she walked further into the room, they all turned to look at her. Almost immediately a beautiful African American woman separated herself from the group and greeted her. “I’m Marissa and you must be Julie. We’re so excited you’re here. We’ve just been going over the map of where the moose have been sighted this year, of course right now they’re up in the high country, haven’t been spotted for weeks. But that’s why you’re here.”
Julie let herself be dragged over to the table, her excitement already building. “I’m dying to get out there and find them,” she admitted, then looked at the men gathered around the table.
When a pair of haunting familiar green eyes met hers across the table, she nearly hit her knees, then quickly recovered and looked away. Heart hammering in her chest, she didn’t hear a word Marissa was saying, instead she was trying to come to grips with the fact that Sam was standing right across from her. It was like she’d conjured him from her imagination except that he looked better than she remembered him, more handsome, more a man than a boy.
“Juliette.” He almost whispered her name into the silence that had suddenly fallen over the table when they all saw the look on her face.
“Sam,” she managed to squeak. A dozen different questions swirling around in her mind, but she only voiced one. “What are you doing here?”
There was another long silence in the room before Marissa jumped in. “I thought you knew that Sam was going to be your partner.” Then looked to the other men in the room. “You were supposed to have gotten an email about it a few weeks ago.”
“I didn’t… I mean….” Julie was speechless, her mind still racing with what this might mean for the project.
Sam wanted to curse whatever mistake had left Juliette in the dark about him being a part of this project, clearly, she wasn’t pleased to see him there and if he’d been in her shoes he’d feel the same way. He’d had weeks to come to terms with seeing her and working with her again, she’d been blindsided. The smartest course for him seemed to be silence so he waited, and Marissa rushed to fill the silence.
“These mountains are dangerous, we always intended for it to be a team of researchers so they could watch out for each other. I’m sorry that wasn’t clear, is it going to be a problem?”
Julie turned to Marissa and quickly said, “No, I’ve worked with Sam before, we’ll be fine.” Then gave them all a smile so fake anyone could see that she was still upset.
Marissa, still unsure what the problem was, but determined to get to the bottom of it, suggested, “I think it’s time we showed Sam and Julie where they’ll be living for the next two years. I’ll take Julie.” Then she pulled Julie from the room, down the hallway, and out the front door.
When they got outside, Marissa pointed to Julie’s truck and then at a barn behind the building. “You can park your truck there, there’s no road to the cabins, just a trail.” Then walked over to a small shed and opened the door. “Have you ever driven one of these?”
Julie loved four-wheelers, unlike horses, they didn’t bite or try to throw you off. “Sure, we used them a lot on some of the other projects I’ve worked on.”
“Good, then this will count as your lesson for the insurance,” Marissa said, then pointed to a brand-new machine. “That’s yours.”
Julie couldn’t hide her excitement, forgetting about Sam, and jumping in. “Lead the way,” she said, spotting a trailer in the back of the shed that she could use to move her things.
As they rode, Marissa explained the trail system in the canyon. “The research building is the last building on the new road, we really had no choice but to put it in so we’d have access to the east side of the canyon. It’s kind of isolated up there so we put the cabins lower in the canyon so you’d have neighbors.”
It wasn’t long before they reached a clearing by a little stream and two cabins, each a mirror image of the other. Built of wood they looked like they belonged there, had in fact been there for a long time. “Oh, they’re lovely, just perfect,” Julie said, pulling up between them.
Marissa pulled up next to her and gestured to the cabin on the right. “That one is yours. It’s not fancy but you’ll be comfortable.”
Julie jumped off the four-wheeler and ran up the steps, not caring what Marissa thought. This was her first real home in years, not some crummy apartment in the city, not the succession of rental homes she’d lived in as a child, her own home. When she got inside, it was exactly as she’d imagined it from the description. A small entryway led to directly into a cozy living room with a fireplace, the kitchen was just off the living room, then there was a hallway leading back to the bedroom.
“Do you like it as much as I think you do?” Marissa asked, coming in the door.
“It’s wonderful. You have no idea the kinds of places I’ve been forced to live in over the last few years,” Julie said, laughing and shuttering.
“Well, you’ll have to watch out for mice and ants,” Marissa warned.
“That’s much better than rats and cockroaches.”
Marissa laughed, then said, “Okay, you win that one.”
After Julie had gone back to check out the bedroom and bathroom, she joined Marissa on the porch. “It’s a great little place,” she said, sitting down next to Marissa.
“Julie, there’s something I want to ask you, maybe it’s none of my business but you had a pretty strong reaction when you saw Sam. I didn’t know you two knew each other,” Marissa said carefully, knowing that she was prying but doing it anyway.
“We worked together for a summer right after we both got our undergraduate degree,” Julie said, hoping that would be enough.
“Oh, okay. I just thought… I mean the way you reacted… But if that’s all then you won’t mind that he’s going to be your neighbor.” Marissa was seldom at a loss for words, but suddenly found herself tongue tied.
Julie looked at the other cabin and her heart sank, Sam living next door meant that she’d never be able to get away from him, in the field or at home they’d always be only a few feet away from each other. She tried to hide her feelings behind a smile, but Marissa saw right through it.
“Look, I’m really sorry all this got so screwed up, if I’d known that you didn’t like him I would have made different choices. Has he… I mean men…”
“No,” Julie rushed to assure her, then decided the best course was just to be honest about their history, trying to hide it wouldn’t work, it would come out eventually. “Sam and I were involved eight years ago when we worked together for the summer, but it’s old news, I was just surprised to see him here today.”
Julie’s words only confirmed what Marissa had thought since she’d seen the look on Julie’s face, what she didn’t know was how Sam felt. It was clear to her that Julie still cared about Sam, if Sam still cared about Julie, she’d have a romance on her hands, if not she might have a mess. But she’d done enough prying for one day, anymore and she’d seem pushy so she dropped the subject and showed Julie around the cabin.
By the time Marissa left, Julie was feeling much steadier, and more optimistic. Working with Sam wouldn’t be that bad, living next to him might be hard, but if she didn’t look out the windows in the kitchen it would be like she was here by herself. She’d do whatever was necessary to make it work, this was her dream, the one she’d given Sam up for all those years ago. The only problem was that while a part of her had been shocked to see him standing there today, another part had been thrilled, that little part far in the back of her mind that had always wondered if they might have made it.
Sam put off going to the cabin he’d been assigned as long as he could, not sure what he would do if he came face to face with Juliette. Seeing her that afternoon had driven home the fact that no matter what had driven them apart, he still cared about her, was still wildly attracted to her. Had in fact been tempted to walk around the table, take her in his arms and tell her that, but instead he’d only said her name like an idiot.
She was still just as beautiful as he remembered, even with her hair pulled back and stuffed into a baseball cap, she stirred something inside him. When she’d looked at him with those brown eyes of hers, it reminded him of all the other times those eyes had looked at him, not with the hurt and confusion that had been in them today, but with the passion they shared. After she’d left the room with Marissa, he’d simply said, “We have a history.” And the conversation had moved on.
But now as he approached the cabins, he wished that he’d confided in someone. He had no idea how to approach Julie, should he apologize for what he’d said all those years ago or simply act like they were old friends untied after a long separation. Either way, if they were going to work together they had to get past what had happened so long ago. Throwing caution to the wind, he marched up onto Juliette’s porch and knocked on her door.
It took her far longer than it should have for her to come to the door, and when she finally did, she only opened it a crack. But when she saw it was him, she opened it all the way. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were home,” she said, her voice a little shaky when she spoke.
Sam could see how nervous Juliette was, and understood, because he was just as nervous. “Can we talk for a minute?” he asked, pointing to the rocking chairs on her porch.
“I guess that would be a good idea,” she said, coming out of the house.
After they were both seated there was a long awkward silence, neither sure what to say, finally Sam couldn’t stand it any longer and blurted out, “You look good.” Then laughed nervously. “I’m sorry, that probably wasn’t the right thing to say.”
Julie’s heart leapt when she heard his words, but she managed not to show it. “It’s okay, you could have said much worse. I mean we’ve both changed,” she said, lacing her fingers together in her lap so Sam wouldn’t see how much her hands were shaking. Julie knew that over the last eight years she’d changed, her figure had gone from that of a slim young girl to that of a woman, and although she wasn’t fat, she had become quite curvy.
Sam looked at her, his eyes roaming over her body, making her hot. Then he said, “Your just as beautiful now as you were then, maybe more so.” He paused as if he wanted to say more, then added. “I’m sorry you didn’t know I was going to be here. That must have been quite a shock.”
“I thought you were in Colorado,” Julie said, then wished she hadn’t.
Sam didn’t miss the fact that she’d known where he was supposed to be, but then he remembered that she’d wanted that job as well. “Be thankful they didn’t hire you, it was a mess. A bunch of amateurs running around the forest with no idea what they were doing. The project folded after only a few months.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, it sounded like an exciting opportunity,” Julie said, and meant it. “But that means that our study will be the first.”
“That fact didn’t escape me,” Sam said with a chuckle, glad that Juliette was just as competitive as she always was.
There was another long silence but this time Julie broke it. “I know we have some stuff in our past that might make this a little awkward at first, but I don’t see any reason why we can’t get past it, be friends,” she said, proud that she’d gotten through it without her voice breaking.
“Juliette…” Sam started, but she interrupted him.
“I go by Julie now,” she said, not adding that since the day he’d left her standing in the road she’d never let anyone call her Juliette again.
Sam looked at her for a second, then continued. “I have to apologize for the way I behaved that day, I said some things I shouldn’t have.”
“Sam, that was a long time ago, we’re both different people than we were then. Let’s just start fresh and try to forget about the past,” Julie said so reasonably that Sam knew that any chance he might have had at rekindling their love was long gone.
With a sigh, he said, “I guess that would be for the best.”