Redwood Bend (Virgin River #18)(28)

“Hmm. Listen, remember what we’ve always talked about…change can be good. What feels like a disaster can be your new opportunity. That’s how you got into flying in the first place—crisis pushed you. Stay positive. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

“It’s probably the train,” he muttered.

She laughed at him. “Sometimes you’re older than I am. Call me tomorrow. I want to talk to you and if you don’t call me, I’ll send out a search party. Or, I’ll just fly to Montana and camp out until you get there.”

“I’ll call,” he said, somewhat surprised that the offer of an easy way out hadn’t come.

“Incidentally, I’m fine,” she said curtly.

He moaned. He could be such a self-absorbed ass**le. “I’m sorry, Gran. I’ve had so much on my mind. Are you really? Fine?”

“Never better, Dylan. Talk to you tomorrow.”

She disconnected.

He sat on top of that hill for a long time, staring out at the ocean. It was a while before he accepted the only conclusion he could have come to. He wasn’t going to be able to sleep at night unless he saw her one more time. He had to keep his word and say a proper goodbye to Katie. And if he was going to do that, he was going to make it memorable.

Seven

Conner had taken the boys to the river to try a little fishing on Sunday, leaving Katie to sit on the front porch with Leslie and a couple of glasses of iced tea. “You can talk about it if you want to,” Leslie said.

“Oh, it was just a little crush,” she said. “I’ll get over it.”

“You’re so quiet,” Leslie said. “It must have been more than a little crush. At least a medium-size crush.”

Katie shrugged. “I first laid eyes on him just over two weeks ago, so no more than medium. For sure,” she said. But she didn’t sound convincing even to herself. “It’s all a fantasy, Leslie. There wasn’t anything real about it. But you want to know what bothers me? It’s so silly—I asked him to say goodbye before leaving the area. He said he would, but I guess he didn’t.”

“Damn, I wish I’d been paying attention when we were all in the bar! I can’t figure out which one he was.”

One corner of Katie’s mouth lifted. “He was the cute, dark-haired one with the outstanding butt.”

“I’m having an even harder time now,” Leslie said. “Since Conner came into my life, I haven’t noticed any other outstanding butts. Tell me the first thing that happened to make you think you had a little crush…”

“The second I saw him I couldn’t breathe for a minute, like a full minute. Then when I saw him at Jack’s it made me feel all tickly inside, but it was just one of those things. Seeing a cute, sexy guy and thinking, wow. I didn’t expect to ever see him again, but his friends all left, he stayed behind, he found the cabin and we talked. We went on a few bike rides. More talking. He kissed me. But boy…”

“He stayed? He found you? He kissed you?”

“Uh-huh. It kind of started when he happened to be in town one day when I picked up the boys from summer program and he took us to McDonald’s for dinner. Nothing much happened, except the boys were a little wilder than usual. And…well…” Her voice trailed off.

“And? Well? That’s when he kissed you?”

“No, not in front of the boys. One day when I dropped the boys off at summer program, he took me out on his bike—all day. He bought breakfast and lunch, drove us all over the place on some of the craziest roads—God, was that fun! I hadn’t been on a motorcycle in a long time. We did that again and again. I hadn’t held on to a cute, dangerous guy for several hours in such a long time. Charlie might’ve been my last cute, dangerous guy.”

“No kidding?” Leslie asked. “In over five years?”

“Pathetic, huh? I’ve been out on some dates, but no bells.”

“We don’t know that it’s all over already. He might find your little cabin again.”

“That’s probably not a great idea,” Katie said. “See, he’s thirty-five, has never married, likes to play the field, has no intention of ever settling down, likes kids fine but doesn’t want any, and— Okay, the bottom line here is—he’s ready Freddy and I am not a one-night stand. So I hope he’s gone. I do. Because I don’t know if I can say no to him again.”

Leslie sat up straighter. “Again? Did you leave out some parts here? Because a few bike rides, hamburgers and chitchat is all real nice, but…”

“We made out like a couple of teenagers on prom night. I nearly got nailed in broad daylight on a hilltop. It was awesome. And I’m not sure if I’m glad I held off or if I totally regret it.”

“Wow!” Leslie said. She fanned her face. “That’s what you left out. And that was it? He said goodbye and went back to wherever he came from and you’ll never see him again?”

“Sort of. But you know what? I had some fun, I have to remember that. He’s fun. Why are the bad boys always the fun ones, huh? I made him laugh even when he was trying to be serious, so he had fun, too. I have to remember that it was a good experience, didn’t get out of hand and it was about time there was a little something going on with a guy. But the hard part is that there was no goodbye. No closure. The one thing I didn’t want to be was completely forgettable.”