Font Size:  

“Such as?”

He shrugged and reached for an apple, polishing it on the tail of his shirt. “Such as knowing for sure that the dioxin belonged to him and that he had it placed in the creek himself; that it wasn’t the accident of a careless hand who worked for him. There’s still a chance that Caleb told one of his hands to get rid of the herbicide and the guy thought the best place to store it would be to bury it in the creekbed.”

“You don’t believe that.”

“Nope. I think it’s pretty obvious Johnson isn’t on the up-and-up. I just don’t know why he dragged me in to it.”

They ate in silence and slowly the black cloud that had settled over Dani disappeared. The late afternoon sun was warm as it filtered through the branches of the pear tree to dapple the ground in bright splotches of light. The late summer air was fresh and clean and a few leaves had already turned yellow with the promise of autumn.

Finished with his lunch, Chase stretched out on his back and clasped his hands under his head to stare through the leafy branches to the sky. “Come here,” he suggested.

“I am here.”

“No, over here,” he said, patting the blanket beside him.

“I want you right here.”

“Any particular reason?”

“Quite a few, actually. But the most important is that I’m going to be gone for a few days.”

“Gone?” she repeated, her head jerking up. The thought that he wouldn’t be near hit her full force.

“I’ll be back. Promise. There’s just a couple of loose ends I have to tie up back in Boise.”

“No one else can handle them?”

He sighed and shook his head. “Apparently not.”

“Don’t you have a supervisor or vice-president or something.”

“Nope. I tried that once. A man by the name of Eric Conway worked with me.” Chase scowled at the thought of Eric’s betrayal. Personally and professionally Eric had managed to cut him to the bone. “We were best friends until he decided to form his own company, take all my staff and techniques and hightail it.”

“Oh.”

“Since then I haven’t trusted anyone to do some of the work. So, I’ve got to go home for a couple of days.”

“Just as long as you come back,” she whispered, hiding the disappointment that tugged at her heart. She put the remains of the lunch into the saddlebags and sat next to him, her hands folded over her knees, her eyes mere slits as she squinted west toward the mountains. Tendrils of hair escaped unnoticed from the braid she wore down her back.

Chase reached upward and brushed one of the locks of honey-brown hair away from her face. The caress of his fingers against her cheek made her tremble.

“Until I met you, I’d never wanted a woman to spend the rest of my life with me.”

“Have you changed your mind?” She looked down at him, saw the twinkle in his eye and felt his fingers against her back as he tried to unwrap the band that held the single plait of hair in place.

“Nope.”

“How can you be so sure of yourself ?” she asked.

“Maybe because I haven’t experienced a bad marriage.” He pulled the band from her hair and watched in fascination as the tight braid loosened.

“Toss your head,” he said.

“Oh, Chase, honestly—”

“Come on.”

She laughed and shook her hair free. In glinting, sun-brightened highlights, it fell past her shoulders to her waist in soft tangled waves.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
Articles you may like