My One and Only(34)

“I never stopped loving you, Harper,” he said gently.

Oh, God. My heart stopped. The bear wouldn’t need to kill me, because those words…they just mowed me down. It’s official. He’d say that only if death were imminent. His face…not a bad last thing to see. My breath caught. “Okay,” I whispered.

A second or two passed. Nick pulled back slightly. “That’s it?”

“What?”

“‘Okay’? That’s all you have to say? We’re about to be mauled, I tell you I love you and all you—”

“Oh, good, it’s leaving,” I said.

Sure enough, the bear…the bear was shambling away, back down the trail. It seemed—dare I say it?—bored.

Nick stared after it. His arms fell away from me. We watched the bear’s large backside sway as it walked away—very calmly—down the horse trail, the distance between us stretching farther…twenty yards, twenty-five, thirty. And then it was gone. We waited. Nothing happened. We waited some more. A long line of drilling came from an unseen woodpecker. Bob dropped his head to the forest floor and began to nibble at some moss. Satan sighed.

“Well,” Nick said, sounding almost surprised. “No harm done, then.”

Delayed fear now put in an appearance, and my arms and legs began to shake. “Should we wait a minute?” I asked.

“I say we should get the hell out of here,” Nick answered. He looked at me, swallowed. “You okay?”

I nodded, looking around. No more bears—not that I could see, anyway. “I’m fine.” I forced myself to look back at my ex-husband. For a long, heart-rolling moment, we just stared at each other.

He came back for you.

“Thank you, Nick.” Then I leaned over and kissed his cheek “Thanks.”

His face flushed, and he looked away. “Whatever. Couldn’t keep hating you if you were tragically killed.”

I smiled. “I thought you never stopped loving me.”

“You can only really hate the ones you love.”

“That’s beautiful. Does Hallmark have a line for that?”

He gave me a look. “Stunted.”

He came back for you. He risked his life for you. My ex-husband put himself between a grizzly bear and my person. He could say whatever he wanted. It just wouldn’t be cool to use those words for any purpose whatsoever.

“Thanks again,” I said.

“We’d better catch up to the others,” Nick said, not looking at me, and without further ado, he nudged Satan back onto the path. Bob followed, back to his leaf-snatching ways, his earlier terror (and cowardice) apparently forgotten.

For a while, we just rode, side by side, not talking. Clearly the others weren’t concerned…my guess was we were a half hour behind them. For now it was just us, and the squeak of the saddles, the noise of the horses, the constant birdsong and the big sky above us.

“So Emily seems nice,” I said.

“She is,” he said. “Very nice girl.”

“You guys dating?”

“Nope.”

I glanced at him, but he was staring ahead. “I think she’s got a crush on the boss.” No answer. “You dating anyone these days?”

“Not at the moment.” He deigned to glance at me. “So. Dennis. An interesting choice for you, Harpy. Not completely unexpected, of course.”

“Why is that?” I asked. “Because he’s a tall, brawny firefighter? I am a woman, you know.”

“So they say. No, it’s just interesting that you picked someone like…that.”

“Like what? Tell me, Nick, since you’re an expert on Dennis, having known him for less than a day,” I said coolly.

“Happy so long as he’s fed and doesn’t think too much. Scratch his itchy spot, and he’s yours forever.” He gave me a mocking look.

I didn’t answer. Nick was wrong, of course. I’d scratched Den’s itchy spot, but I still wasn’t engaged. Not that I’d reveal anything to Nick. The saddle leather squeaked. A rabbit ran across the path, and Nick and I both jumped, then pretended we didn’t. “We’ve been together almost three years,” I said mildly, stretching my time with Dennis just a bit. “Same amount of time you and I were together.”

“I’m well aware of how long we were together.”

“And maybe I love him.”

“Sure,” he said, clearly unimpressed. “What number is Dennis?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, I just imagine a lot of bodies in your rearview mirror, Harpy.”

Ooh. “Actually, he’s my first serious relationship since you, darling first husband.”

“Took you that long to get over me?”

Actually, yes. “Hardly,” I said. “I’m just pointing out that you like to make assumptions about me so I’ll fit into your world view.”

He sliced a razor blade of a look my way. “Why don’t you just say what’s on your mind, Harper?”

I jerked Bob’s head away from a cluster of bright yellow aspen leaves that jutted out into the path. “You script things a certain way, that’s all,” I said calmly. “When we were married, you were the dedicated young architect who’s heartbroken to find that his commitment-phobic wife was, by your definition, at least, unfaithful. Details and facts are irrelevant—your opinion is the only one that matters. Nick, the noble wounded. Harper, the icy bitch.”