Angel's Rest(118)
After Celeste left, Sage wrapped her gift for Nic and Gabe in plain brown paper and fished a red marker from her junk drawer in order to draw hearts as decoration. When the memory of a homemade valentine that had giraffes sporting heart-shaped spots drifted through her mind, she sucked in a breath.
“Stupid dream,” she muttered, then gritted her teeth as the pain washed over her. Following a dream, invariably the memories hung around like a hangover. Not all memories were bad, but the good ones seemed to be buried beneath the mountain of ugliness she’d brought home from Africa.
Sage set down the marker and walked to her kitchen window, where she gazed out across Hummingbird Lake toward Eternity Springs. Taking in that view went further to rid herself of that “hangover” than ingesting any aspirin or painkiller ever could.
“Forget the nightmare,” she murmured. “The sadness ends now.”
Well, at least for today. Today was going to be a wonderful day. This was Nic’s real wedding day and the culmination of Celeste’s Angel Plan for the economic survival of Eternity Springs. It was a day for celebration—not one for nightmares and heartbreaking memories—and it was time she headed for the church.
As she retrieved her car keys from her bedside table, she stared longingly at her pillow and added aloud, “A day for celebration, and maybe a nap.”
A hand slapped Colt Rafferty’s ass and jolted him out of his dream. It had been a good dream, too. Warm sun and a sugar-sand beach. A beer in his hand. Half-naked women jumping to catch a Frisbee, jiggling. Loved that jiggling.
“Roust your butt out of bed, boy. The trout are calling our names.”
Colt growled into his pillow and bit back the caustic words he would have spoken to any other man on earth. This man, however, was his father.
He cocked open one eye and groaned. “It’s still dark.”
“Of course it’s still dark,” Ben Rafferty said. “Have you forgotten how to fish? We need to be at the water at dawn.”
Colt’s flight out of Washington yesterday had been delayed by weather. It had been midnight before he’d made it to Eternity Springs, almost two before he’d hit the sack. What he needed was sleep. “Angel Creek is right outside.”
“I fished the creek yesterday while I was waiting for you to get here. If I’d known you’d be so late arriving, I’d have gone up toward Gunnison and tried my hand at the Taylor River. I’ve been itching to fish there for years. We don’t have time for that today, though, so I’m thinking we should fish Hummingbird Lake this morning. It’s only ten minutes from here, and with the grand opening kicking off at noon, this will be a busy place this morning. Fishing should be done in peace and quiet.” Then, in a quieter tone, he added, “We only have today together, son. I don’t want to miss a minute of it.”
At that, Colt rolled out of bed.
Twenty minutes later they stood along the bank of Hummingbird Lake and made their first cast of the morning. With it, Colt felt the warm, gentle blanket of peace surround him. His dad must have experienced a similar sensation, because he sighed and said, “This comes close to being a religious experience.”
“Yep. And I’ve been away from church for too long.”
Ben Rafferty glanced at him. “How long has it been since you’ve visited Eternity Springs?”
“Four years. Haven’t been back since I took the job in D.C.”
His father shook his head. “That’s a crying shame, son.”
Colt had to agree. Colorado always had been special to him. His family had vacationed in Eternity Springs every year when he was a kid, and he’d loved everything about the town. He’d started working summers up here his last two years in high school and continued that all the way through college and even grad school. His mom always said that the reason he stayed in academics as long as he had was because he wasn’t willing to give up his summers in the mountains.
“I wish this trip could be longer,” he admitted. “If my appointment next week was for anything other than testifying before Congress, I’d skip it.”
“That’s a difficult class to cut.” Ben Rafferty, high school science teacher, nodded sagely.
“It’s a dog and pony show, is what it is. A pain in the ass.” After a teaching stint at Georgia Tech, Colt had taken his PhD in chemical engineering to the CSB, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, where he investigated industrial explosions. He loved the work—solving the puzzle of what had happened in an incident and why and determining how to avoid a similar accident in the future—but he hated the hoops he and his team had to go through to get anything changed. They could write wonderful reports about their findings, but unless that led to change, what good did they do? “Let’s not talk about work anymore. It’ll spoil my appetite for my fish. I’m here today, and I intend to take full advantage of it. A little dose of Eternity Springs is better than nothing.”