The Runaway Bridesmaid

“I’m so glad you stopped,” the woman said as she pressed a palm to her heart. “I wasn’t sure if what people said about strangers was true.”

“Depends on what you’ve heard people say.”

She studied his face for a moment, her expression pensive. She must have decided he was okay then, because she dropped her hand. “Guess that’s true.”

Another half second, then she chuckled. “There’s not much up here, is there?”

Trevor gazed around at the scenery. They were standing in a canyon a few dozen miles east of Rocky Mountain National Park. Massive rocks towered to the sky on their left. A brook flowed by thirty feet down on their right. The spruce and pines were especially fragrant this time of year, making the earth smell clean.

He loved this area. He’d grown up exploring this wilderness. The woman’s idea of not much was a far cry from his.

Apparently, she’d understood his thoughtful perusal of the land, because she opened her eyes wide and said, “Oh, it’s beautiful out here. I meant there isn’t much civilization. I was hunting for landmarks, but I kept seeing that rock wall on one side and the river on the other. I’m trying to find Longmont. Do you know it?”

Oh. So she was lost, not stranded. Great, he’d give her directions and get on his way. “I traveled through there a few minutes ago, which means you’re headed away from it. Turn around, and you’ll see a sign fairly soon. Take a left toward town. Then you can’t miss it.”

She frowned. “I’m not so sure. I must be lousy at directions. I stopped a half hour ago to ask at a convenience store, and look what happened. Would you mind showing me on my map?”

That would mean he wouldn’t get to the lodge as early as he’d hoped. But the woman acted so…innocent. He’d feel like a brute if he got home tonight and heard a news story about some female traveler who’d run into bad luck.

“Sure.” As soon as he’d said it, the wind whirled down the canyon and picked up the bottom of that skirt again. “Maybe we’d better do this in your car,” he added.

She frowned. Perhaps she was reconsidering the wisdom of trusting a stranger. Atta girl.

“I meant that you could sit in your car with the map, and I could stand outside and point out the way. I wouldn’t want your map to blow off down the road.”

“I figured that was what you meant,” she said. “But I have a little girl napping in my car. We might wake her.”

She had a child in the car? Trevor was oddly disappointed to hear it, but even more glad he’d stopped.

The woman bit her bottom lip, her brows lowering. “I could take the map to your car,” she said after a moment.

“That’d work.”

The woman teetered in her shoes as she crossed the gravel. She opened her car door, and Trevor tried not to watch those legs as she leaned in to grab the map. Gently she closed her car door again, then went around to the Jeep’s passenger side.

She wanted to get in?

Man, she was gullible. Trevor considered giving the woman a safe-travel lecture, but instead simply opened his door and slid into the driver’s seat.

“I can’t believe Angie conked out this early in the day,” the woman said after they’d closed themselves inside. “We had a long drive yesterday, and she resisted my wake-up call this morning.”

Trevor studied the woman’s face again, wondering if she could be sleeping through the reports of kidnappings, molestations and robberies that dominated the news every day. He could think of several things this woman had done wrong this morning. She’d left her little girl alone in an unlocked car, for one.

Maybe she was from some quiet little burg where nothing bad ever happened. “Where’re you coming from?” he asked.

“Augusta, Kansas, about twenty miles east of Wichita.” She shrugged. “It’s a small town, but it was in the news last year when a good portion of the town flooded. The president declared our county a national-disaster area.”

A national disaster sounded bad enough.

“Were you and your husband affected?” he asked.

“I’m not married.” Briefly she lifted her ringless hand. “But yes, my house was damaged. I had to move out for a few months, until my family and I finished repairs.”

Not married. That explained some of it. Most husbands would have coached this reckless optimist about highway safety.

Ignoring the twitch in his libido at the new knowledge of her single status, Trevor took the map from the woman to study it.

Single or not, she was merely traveling through.

“You are so considerate to help me,” she said. “Roger told me I should stay home. He actually said I was too naive to travel alone. I told him to bug off.”

This Roger sounded sharp. Trevor knew he had no business asking, but he was curious. “Who’s Roger?”

The woman appeared to be startled by the question.

“Roger’s my, uh, neighbor. And Angie’s father.” She nodded. “He lives down the road a couple of miles. Anyway, Angie’s mother remarried recently, which surprised everyone since she’d known the guy all of a month. She’d taken time off to spend the summer with her kids, and suddenly that plan changed. Angie was heartbroken, so of course I brought her with me.”

Trevor knew that story. Too many people had kids and discovered later that it would take eighteen years to raise them. After murmuring his agreement that bringing the child was the right thing to do, he started detailing the best return route to Longmont.

“I truly appreciate this,” she said as she took her map from him moments later.

“It was nothing.”

“You’re a gentleman. Thanks.” She reached across the seat to pat his shoulder. But the touch was too soft. Trevor’s body responded as if it were a caress.

She must have felt that zing of attraction, too. She stared at the point of contact, then frowned and snatched back her hand.

Trevor met her gaze as an awareness flowed between them. He’d noticed her, sure enough.

Legs. Eyes. Warmth.

Now he knew she’d noticed him, too.

He tensed, willing away his body’s immediate and senseless response. It’d been a while, and she was sexy.

And a complete stranger, headed down the road in the opposite direction. Their paths had crossed for a few minutes. That was all. He hid his crazy regret behind a grin. “No problem.”

He was already too late to worry about the time, so Trevor decided to maintain his gallant image. He jumped out of the Jeep to run around and open her door for her. “Have fun in Longmont, doing whatever,” he said as she stepped onto the gravel shoulder.

“Thanks. And you have—” she gazed up the highway with a thoughtful frown, then refocused on him and shrugged “—a good life, I guess.”

Trevor watched to make sure she got in her car and turned around, then started his Jeep and drove away to do exactly as she’d suggested.

Less than ten minutes later, he sped up the drive that led to the Burch ranch. Although Sam’s parents had run a small-scale cattle operation here when he was growing up, their more enterprising son had added the lodge and guest cabins soon after taking over.

For the past three years Trevor had used part of his summer hiatus to come up here and direct a summer wilderness experience for teenage boys. He loved it, even if the precamp organization was a chore.

As he parked in front of the main lodge, he was pleased to see the front door open. That had to be Sam inside. Darla should be returning from Greeley this morning, after spending several days with her sick mother.