Out of the Depths

“I’m not hard to get along with. All I want is to be left alone. I thought you’d figured that out. Isn’t that why you offered me a free cabin? To get my sister off the hook and give me some privacy.”

“That was part of the reason.”

He huffed. “You don’t think I bought that crazy story about vandalism, do you?”

“It’s not a crazy story. It’s true. I’ve had six new canoes ruined already.” She absently kneaded the back of her neck as they drove farther from the heart of Serenity. “I get a headache every time I start to think about it.”

“Headaches? Hah!”

The irony and contempt coloring his otherwise simple exclamation made Trudy Lynn stare. Cody was shaking his head and peering out the window as if he could see something terrible hidden in the darkness. Something invisible to her.

She was about to ask him if the bumpy road was bothering his leg when he shivered, then said quietly, “If you think a few wrecked canoes can give you a headache, you ought to try killing somebody, like I did, and see how much it hurts.”

Trudy Lynn didn’t know how to respond to his startling confession so she said nothing. Chances were, Cody was referring to an accidental death. She wasn’t going to press him about it. Not yet. There would be plenty of time to assess the root cause of his depression after they became friends. And they would be friends, she decided. Even if she had to beat him over the head with tough love and kill him with kindness!

That thought made her want to smile. She would have surrendered to the urge if she hadn’t been worried about giving Cody the wrong impression. The last thing the poor guy needed was to think she was laughing at his plight.

The most entertaining element of their situation was her own reactions to everything about him. It had been a long time since anyone had flustered her enough to bring out her klutzy side, nor had she been this personally interested in any man for ages. She wasn’t a prude. She was simply fed up with exaggerated male egos, thanks mainly to her recent disappointment in the one person she’d thought she could trust to be faithful. Ned’s disloyalty had taken her completely by surprise. Thus, she no longer trusted her instincts the way she used to.

Cody had been staring at her ever since he’d dropped his bombshell. “Well? Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“About what?” Trudy Lynn huffed. “If you think I’m going to stick my nose into something that’s none of my business, you have another think coming.” One eyebrow arched and she gave him a cursory glance. “However, if you want to tell me what happened, I’ll be happy to listen.”

“Never mind.”

“Okay.” She shrugged and concentrated on the curving road ahead.

“You really aren’t curious? I mean, suppose I’m dangerous?”

That brought a soft chuckle. “If I thought you were, I wouldn’t be here with you.”

Cody agreed. “If I had my choice, I wouldn’t be here with me, either.”

“That might be a little hard to accomplish.”

“No lie.” He was slowly shaking his head. “You know, as many times as I’ve gone over that day in my mind, I still haven’t figured out what I could have done to avert the accident.”

“Maybe it was meant to be.” Trudy Lynn saw his fists clench, so she elaborated. “What I mean is, maybe there wasn’t anything that could have been done, at least not on your part. Most disasters are the result of a combination of errors. You can’t hold yourself totally responsible.”

Cody snorted in disgust. “Maybe not, but the dead man’s relatives sure blame me plenty.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Have they been giving you a lot of grief?”

“Not as much as they’ve said they’re going to give me. I’ve been warned I’ll be sued. And so will the tour company I used to work for.”

“What did happen, exactly?”

He gave her a swift, telling glance. “I thought you weren’t interested.”

“Hey, I never said that. I just told you I wasn’t going to pry. You’re the one who kept talking about it.”

“True. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to get your take on it. You are in sort of the same business.”

Trudy Lynn listened patiently, stifling any urge to interrupt his story by asking for details. By the time he was through, she’d heard enough to clarify the main points and make sensible comments.

“Surely, your clients signed a waiver of responsibility. Even I require that, and my trips aren’t nearly as hazardous as whitewater rafting.”

“Of course they did. The victim signed one just like everybody else. Only he lied about his age. He was big enough to be every bit as old as he claimed.”

“But he wasn’t eighteen?”

“Bingo. Just seventeen.”

“Do you have a lawyer?”

“If I need one. I’m still hoping his family will cool off and not file suit.” He unconsciously rubbed the knotted muscles in his thigh as he spoke. “I did all I could. If my knee hadn’t snapped when he flipped me onto those rocks, I might have been able to save him.”

“You did your best, in spite of being hurt, right?”

“Of course.”

“Well, then…” Trudy Lynn shrugged. “What more do you want from yourself?”

The look of disdain Cody shot at her was a clear rebuke. Trudy Lynn took her hands off the wheel long enough to hold them up in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, okay. No more unsolicited advice. But I’m right, and you know it.”

“Do you always have to have the last word?”

She laughed softly. “I try to.”

Fireflies were blinking a pale, luminescent green welcome when Trudy Lynn pulled through the double gates of her Spring River Campground. Thanks to the lateness of the hour and scarcity of overnight campers this early in the season, the place was unusually quiet.

The dirt drive meandered in a lazy, back-and-forth pattern toward the flats beside the river. “I’ll put you in a cabin near the canoe storage to give you a better view of the area where we’ve had most of our trouble,” she told Cody.

“You were serious?”

“Very. I really do need someone to watch for vandals.” She smiled over at him. “And, yes, I actually do have that problem, in spite of your doubts.”

“Okay by me. Sailor and I will be delighted to stand guard. Figuratively speaking, in my case.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Trudy Lynn said.

Pulling up in front of a darkened cabin she killed the engine, set the parking brake and climbed out. Sailor had been patient till they’d stopped. Now, he was straining at the safety tether that held him in place in the truck bed.

“Just a minute, boy. Settle down,” she said, pausing to give him a pat and ruffle his ears. “Daddy first. Then you.”

She circled in time to meet Cody face-to-face as he braced himself on his crutches and slid off the seat. “I could have helped you do that,” she said.

“I may be crippled but I’m not helpless,” he replied stiffly.