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16
“It’s really coming along,”Kat said, approaching Sterling from behind. He was standing in the doorway of the room they’d been working on earlier, deep in thought, and she’d made sure her footsteps had thudded on the wooden floor so he could hear her approach. She hadn’t wanted to startle him.
“I can’t believe you’re renovating this whole place yourself,” he said. “Finishing the east wing must have taken a long time.”
“Yes and no.”
He turned to face her fully, and raised an eyebrow, nonverbally asking for an explanation.
“It was hard going, and keep in mind I hadn’t done anything like this before, but I didn’t have guests or a business when I bought Sanctuary. I didn’t know anyone in town and I had nothing but time on my hands, so it went faster than you might imagine.”
She was glossing over the details, but he didn’t need to know how angry she’d been at the world, or how she’d been unable to sleep and hammered through the nights. Or how she’d worked herself to exhaustion and fallen asleep on the floor, waking hours later, stiff and sore, only to drag herself to the toilet and throw up. She’d been lonely, confused, and belligerent to anyone brave enough to talk to her. Thank God for the persistently nosy people of Haven Bay who hadn’t let her sequester herself in a crumbling building forever. She owed them all, and she always paid her debts.
“Why did you come here?” he asked. “If you didn’t know anyone, and had no background in hospitality, why open a lodge?”
She looked away. “The answers to those questions are more complicated than you might think. The thing is, I never intended to open this place as accommodation. It just kind of happened. All I was looking for was a purpose. Something to fill my time and get me out of my head.”
“Sounds like you were in a bad place.”
She nodded. “Sanctuary was my escape. Hence its name.”
“I always thought it an odd choice.”
“Not when you know the back story. I’m heading up to the waterfall now. Would you like to come for a walk?”
He peered out the window at the darkening sky. “Is it far?”
“About twenty minutes or so. There’s a trail behind Tione’s cabin. It’s still relatively warm outside and it’ll stay light for a while yet.” Not that being in the forest at nightfall bothered her. She found it oddly comforting. There was no one around who needed her attention, and nothing to do but listen to the rustle of the nocturnal creatures and wonder, once again, how she’d ended up here. The waterfall was her favorite place to sit and think. For some reason, she wanted to share it with him.
“You’re on. I’ll just get a jersey and sneakers.”
Her heart pitter-pattered happily, and she tried to squash the excitement rising within her. This wasn’t a date. It didn’tmean anything, except that he was starting to open himself to new experiences.
“I’ll meet you in the foyer,” she told him.
While he went to his room, she fetched her jacket from behind the front counter and leaned against the wall to wait. In the garden, Tione spotted her, and lifted a hand. She did the same, but he didn’t come over. The dogs would be waiting for their dinner, and the little darlings dictated his life.
Sterling stepped into the room, tugging a black jersey into place—one that hugged his chest in all the right places. “I’m ready.”
“Great.” Kat ignored the breathy quality of her voice, stopped ogling him, and opened the garden door. “Come on then, it’s not getting any earlier.”
She led him through the winding garden, explaining how it had been added to gradually over the past three years, which was why it sprawled with no apparent pattern. They passed Tione’s cabin, and she checked furtively to make sure he hadn’t seen them. No reason to give him anything to get his Calvin Kleins in a twist over.
She paced backward up the sloping lawn as they neared the edge of the forest so she could face him. “It’s a bit steep,” she said. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“I figured as much. The forest is on the side of a hill.”
She couldn’t make out his expression, but she thought he might have rolled his eyes. Smart-ass. Her lips quirked. He had a sense of humor, however dry it may be.
The trail weaving between the trees and native shrubs was perhaps three feet wide, but in good condition because she used it regularly and did routine maintenance. They hiked up the incline in silence. The scar tissue on her ankle pulled tight at times, but she was nearly immune to the twinges of pain by now. They were like an old, unwelcome friend. She listened to the sound of Sterling’s breathing. She’d expected it to grow ragged after a while, but he continued to exhale slowly and evenly. Whatever exercise he did in his other life, it kept him in shape.
Before long, the trail reached a flat ledge on the side of the hill and wound along it. She dropped back to walk behind Sterling, shaking her head at his questioning look. She wanted him to get an unimpeded view of the waterfall when he rounded the final bend. It was a breathtaking sight.
She knew the exact moment he saw it. He froze, his jaw dropped, and his face tilted up. She understood. The waterfall was somewhere between twenty and thirty meters high, a white ribbon rushing over the edge of a cliff and splashing into a spherical pool at the bottom. The cliff face itself was gray and craggy, starkly beautiful, but the growth fringing it was lush emerald green, almost ethereal, like something out of a fairy tale.
“I don’t…” He didn’t finish the sentence, taking a few steps toward the pool. Then he turned to her and she could have sworn his eyes were glittering with unshed tears.
Okay, so maybe that was her imagination taking a flight of fancy.
