Chapter 2

“Hey!” he called.

“Jim? What are you doing here?”

“Running,” he puffed as he flew past. He disappeared around a bend in the trail.

She caught up to him a half hour later, sitting on a rock in the shade. “Hello again.”

He raised a half-empty water bottle in salute. “Surprised to see you here.”

“Are you? Shelly didn’t put you up to this?”

“Shelly?”

“My so-called friend who gave you my number.”

“Oh, brunette, vodka gimlet. No, I use this trail a lot if the weather’s nice. It’s two miles from the parking lot to here. I run, die on this rock for a while, and walk back down. I’m not following you. When you didn’t text me back I got the hint.”

She sat on a rock nearby and opened her own bottle of water from her day pack.

He chuckled. “Okay. Forgive the corny line. Do you come here often?”

“A bartender can do better than that.”

He wiped the last of the sweat from his brow. “If I had a dollar for every cheesy pick-up line I’ve heard guys try, I could own these hills.”

She grinned. “To answer your question, no, I normally walk in the park or on the path near the river, but it’s too warm to be in town.”

“That’s why I like this trail. It feels ten degrees cooler in the hills. I’d build a cabin up here if I could. Just sit on the porch and write.”

“Why do you tend bar in a downtown cocktail lounge?”

“Not many customers in the woods,” he chuckled. “I live in town. I walk to work if the weather’s decent. When I have enough time off I go camping or hiking. It’s enough for now. When my book starts paying me real money, I might look for a place in the country.”

“You’re serious about this writing thing.”

“More serious than some of the publishers who’ve read parts of my manuscript, apparently. That’s why I’ll be mixing drinks this week, Tuesday through Saturday, like always.”

“I wouldn’t have the patience to write a book,” she said.

“Patience is easy when you enjoy what pays the bills. I like my job. Don’t want to do it the rest of my life, but it’s fun. I meet nice people.”

“You meet girls.”

“I’ve had girlfriends who hung out while I was working, but I don’t pick up girls at the bar.”

“Why did you send me those texts?”

“Ha! Busted! First time for everything. Shelly told me a little bit about that Sid character. Said you’ve been sitting home moping ever since.”

Her voice was cold. “Do you blame me?”

“Not at all. She told me to ask you out, but that seemed too forward.”

“I don’t want a rebound fuck, if that’s what you’re hoping for.”

“I wasn’t offering one.”

“Oh.”

“What I was offering was coffee. There’s a great shop not far from the bar.”

“Well, now I’m embarrassed,” Kay mumbled.

He climbed off his rock, huge smile on his face, and stood in front of her. “Let’s try this again. Hi. I’m Jim Preston, bartender and would-be novelist. I’m out here sweating, not expecting to see a soul. Who are you?”

“Kay Mueller. Assistant to the Assistant to the Junior Vice President of Useless Meetings. I type stupid emails while the big-wigs talk about golf or whatever.”

“Sounds rewarding.”

“Very. Sid kinda screwed that up for me, too. I was offered a better job in another division, but I couldn’t move away since we were getting married.”

“That stinks,” Jim said.

“It’s okay, really. I didn’t want to move. My family and friends are here.”

“I don’t see you with a friend like Shelly. She’s more of a party girl than you, isn’t she?”

“We were roommates freshman year in college. Random pairing, but we clicked. I was her conscience and study buddy. She taught me how to drink.”

“You’ve been friends ever since?”

“We’re very close. She was supposed to be my maid of honor. Now she thinks she has to find me another guy.”

“You’ll find one when you’re ready. Your license said you’re twenty-three. You’re pretty, and you have a job that I assume pays the bills. Live for today, and prepare for tomorrow. There’s no big rush, is there?”

“The plan was I’d be married at twenty-three and pregnant at twenty-five. We had it all mapped out. We were going to take a cruise for our second anniversary and try to start a family in a romantic stateroom on the high seas.”

“Sounds nice, but apparently Sid wasn’t the right guy.”

“He was the one who pushed the relationship along. Things moved fast with him. He swept me off my feet. We got serious, he proposed, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. He was everything I wanted.”

“Except faithful.”

“Yeah.”

Jim walked out into the sun and studied the sky. “How much farther did you plan to walk?”

“Don’t know. Why?”

“It’s going to rain, probably in less than two hours.”

She joined him and looked at the clouds herself. “I wonder if it’ll wait that long. Guess I should head back.”

“May I come along? No funny stuff,” he said.

“I guess.”

They walked back to the area where he passed her on the way up the hill.

“Um, Jim, I’m going to venture off the trail for a moment.”

“Why?”

She blushed. “I shouldn’t have had a second mug of coffee before I came out here today.”

“Oh,” he laughed. “I’ll stand guard.”

She picked her way down a slope through the underbrush until the top of his head disappeared, then looked for a likely spot on the steep, loamy ground. She found a tree to brace her back against and pulled down her shorts and panties. Bits of dead wood provided some footing and balance in the loose soil. When she felt secure, she forced herself to go in hopes of not dripping. Successful, she started to get up. The downed branch she had propped one foot against was too rotted to hold her.