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Shyla, on the other hand, had been a teenage kid for whom social media was the new world. She had cultivated her father’s profiles, uploaded several times a day, and developed an enormous following.
Thus, her job as his PA was born and the life she knew today.
“You know what I discovered when I finally returned to the Himalayas?” her father asked, pulling Shyla out of her reverie. “I realized that I was finally able to lay your mother to rest.”
Shyla squeezed his hand. Her mother’s body had never been recovered from the mountain which took her life. Something that had haunted her father for a long time.
“As I looked upon K2, it occurred to me that she was in the very place where she would have wanted to be buried. Something I never would have been able to provide, under normal circumstances.”
It was true, she realized. Her mother had been all about the mountains. Possibly even more so than her father in those early days. Even her own name, Shyla, meant ‘daughter of the mountain’ in the original Hindi it was derived from.
“But I guess what I’m trying to say is that sometimes you need to confront your demons in order to free yourself from them. Go back. Revisit the location and look at it with different eyes. Put it into perspective.”
He gave her a small smile. “Often you’ll find that what you’ve built up in your head appears completely different on a day unconnected with the experience.”
Shyla knew he was talking about the accident, but she couldn’t help wondering if the same might not be true in regard to the Fortney brothers. Had she built them into some impossible dream inside her head? Could it be some psychological aberration, something similar to Stockholm syndrome which made her feel like she was lost without them?
Hell, maybe her father was right, and she was just misinterpreting things and the way she was feeling really was linked to the knowledge that she might have died - would have died - if it hadn’t been for Lazarus, Jericho, and Dante, and she was just projecting all this other stuff onto them due to some weird sense of gratitude.
Shyla smiled at her father, the first genuine smile she’d felt in weeks. “I’ll bear that in mind, Dad. You may have a point.”
“You know I’m always available if you need someone to go with you,” he said as he climbed to his feet.
Shyla nodded. “I do know, thank you. But if I do this, I think it’s going to be something I’ll have to face by myself.”
An idea took root in her brain until she was convinced it was the right thing to do. It seemed like a good plan.
She contacted the mountain ranger station about replacing the items before she could change her mind. An obligation meant she wouldn’t be able to back out.
“I’m glad to hear you’ve recovered Ms. Digby,” the guy on the end of the phone responded. “But please be assured that Lazarus Fortney has already taken care of all the replacements necessary. They’re due to be delivered at the end of this week, in fact, so there’s absolutely no reason to worry.”
“I see, thank you,” Shyla responded. She hung up and stared at the phone. It wasn’t quite the response she wanted, even though she had fully expected that Lazarus and his brothers would take care of it. She wanted to do something herself, she realized. Add things that went beyond simply what they had used. Items that would add to what was already there and make things a little easier for the next person who needed shelter.
With the kind of anticipation she hadn’t felt since she’d left the mountain, she started making her own list.
It only took two calls.
A second one to the ranger station to ascertain whether she could add her items to the helicopter trip Lazarus had arranged. And the other to the general store in that locality asking if a personal shopper could assemble her requirements and deliver them.
She finalized the transaction over the phone, but realized it just wasn’t enough when she was done.
That was when Shyla decided, for certain, to go back to the cabin and see if her dad was right. She’d built everything up in her mind. Surely if she returned and was faced with the unmitigated reality she could put these fantasies to rest, once and for all, and move forward with her life. She could check that everything had been delivered and replaced at the same time.
Yes! That was exactly what she should do.
* * *
Lazarus satin the conference room of their studio, with his brothers, sorting out the final details for an upcoming shoot and trying to get to grips with the clerical side of their job, which all of them detested.
They should really consider hiring someone.
The ringing of the telephone was a welcome distraction from the chore of invoicing, maintaining their social media accounts, and chasing payments.
“Shyla Digby?” he replied in answer to the query from the mountain ranger center at the location where they’d rescued her. He didn’t acknowledge it, but he was well aware of the way both Dante and Jeri’s heads popped up in response to her name.
“I see. Of course, that’s not a problem, and no, I don’t expect her to share the cost of the helicopter. It’s making the trip regardless.”
Lazarus thanked the man and set the landline handset back on the receiver.
