Chapter 10

Riley checked her email and then frowned. She'd checked it at least three or four times more often this morning than usual. Nothing had changed, though. What she now thought of as his "old" messages were all still there, unanswered. He'd kept trying to get her to talk to him, but she'd resisted.

Part of that was because she didn't want to start out a conversation already mad. And last night, she'd still been mad. How could a man be that dense? She had offered him something that made her feel vulnerable, and it had flown right past him, ignored. She'd felt rejected.

But a troubled night's sleep had cooled her temper, and brought a bit of perspective back to her thoughts. Bob wasn't the kind of man who would simply ignore what she'd said. She couldn't claim to know him well, but she knew him well enough to know he was a sweet guy, without the kind of ego that made a lot of men difficult to abide.

It didn't take her long to arrive at the same conclusion he had ... that he hadn't taken her offer seriously because he thought it was made in jest ... or that she was simply teasing him.

She knew she had teased him, and that it was on purpose. That's because it made her feel so delicious when he responded to her verbal foreplay. He obviously liked it. He obviously liked her. And she knew she liked him too. There had actually been something going on that she felt was genuine affection for each other. She hadn't given it much credence, initially, because he was so far away, and because it was a foregone conclusion they'd never meet.

But that didn't make what they felt for each other any less real.

She groaned. She should have answered him, instead of just presenting a blank, granite wall to his attempts to re-establish contact.

And now he had stopped trying.

On impulse, she picked up her phone and started to call him. He wasn't at work. She knew that much. So it couldn't hurt to call, right?

It went to voicemail after three rings. She tried again, and the same thing happened. She wasn't prepared to leave a message. She didn't know what to say.

Sighing, she put the phone down and went back to working on her current project.

Bob felt like he'd been here before, as he drove past the Pikes Peak Cog Railway Terminal, on Ruxton Avenue. He'd examined this road half a dozen times, just looking to see what was around Riley, and what a trip to the market might take her past. He knew the cabin wasn't far, now. He wondered if he should pull off an try calling her again and then realized he'd never turned his phone back on after turning it off on the plane.

Rather than try to find a place to pull over, and then waiting for the phone to boot up, he just drove on.

His heart was already thumping in his chest, and his palms were sweating on the steering wheel.

Riley decided she didn't need a jacket after all, and left the cabin to walk up to Bessie's to get Curtis. Normally, Bessie would keep him until three or four, while Riley worked, but today Bessie had a doctor's appointment. Bessie was one of the things Riley was thankful for. She was very flexible. It was Riley's considered opinion that Bessie didn't watch Curtis for the money. She did it because she was lonely, and thought of Curtis as her grandchild. Riley didn't want to think of Bessie as her "mother." She had too many negative feelings towards her own mother.

She had decided to walk. It was only half a mile or so, and she hadn't been getting as much exercise lately as she should have. She had, in fact, decided that she and Curtis would go for a hike before supper. The aspens had already turned to blazing gold. There wasn't much color other than that, unless you counted the conifers, but green just didn't seem all that special.

Still, it seemed like it was thousands of times more beautiful than Texas in the fall.

Bessie and Curtis were on the porch, waiting for her. Curtis had a piece of paper in his hand, and Riley knew it would be another picture. Bessie had observed great potential talent in him, and encouraged him to develop it.

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!" yelled Curtis, as he bounded down the steps and ran to crash into her, hugging her hips.

"I'd stay and chat, but I want to get there early," said Bessie.

"Go," said Riley, and examined the drawing her son offered up proudly.

"See you tomorrow," said Bessie.

"Indeed, you will," said Riley. They waved vaguely at each other as Bessie went to her car.

"Are you hungry?" she asked Curtis.

"No. We had lunch," said the boy. "We had pigs in a blanket!"

"Yum!" said Riley. "You want to go for a hike?"

"Yay!"

"Well let's go," she said. "I have to change into my hiking boots. You're going to have to walk more, you know. You're getting too big for little old me to carry very far."

"I know," said Curtis, seriously. "Bessie calls me her little man. I'm almost a man, Mommy."

Riley laughed, and said "Don't grow up too fast."

Then she took his hand and started back down Ruxton Avenue toward their house.

Bob pulled in next to her Chevy Malibu. He sat, while a cloud of dust drifted over the car, and let the breeze carry it off so he wouldn't have to breathe it in as he got out. He reached for the flowers, and started thinking of what to say when she opened the door.

He got out and brushed imaginary dust off his pants. He'd brought the bomber jacket, but he didn't know whether to put it on or not. He didn't actually need it. Not right now, anyway. It would probably cool off later.

In the end, he laid the flowers on the roof of the car and put on the jacket. He felt less vulnerable that way. He knew it was stupid, but he was very nervous, and anything that might make him less so was probably a good idea.

He retrieved the flowers and started for the door.

There was one step up to a rough board porch, with an overhang that covered most of it. The door was shaded by the overhang, but the glass in the door still reflected the light, and he couldn't see through it. He knew if he put his hands against it, with his face against them, he would be able to see inside, but he wasn't about to do that. That would be the up-close-and-personal version of what he had done to her with the satellite.

He took a deep breath, held the flowers in front of him, like a shield, and knocked.

Nothing happened.

He waited for what seemed like forever, and knocked again.

Still nothing. No sound came from inside, and nothing appeared at the glass in the door.

He wondered if she could see him, and had simply decided not to answer the door.

He knocked a third time, more forcefully. He couldn't come this far for nothing.

His shoulders slumped, and the hand holding the flowers sagged downwards.

He didn't know what to do, now.

"Riley?" he called. "Are you there?"

"Where should we go on our hike?" Riley asked Curtis, as they walked, hand in hand down the dusty road.

"The woods!" chirped the boy.

"Okay, then," she laughed. How simple things could be, sometimes.

They walked around the last curve before their house, and Riley saw the additional car parked beside her own.

"What's that?" she asked, aloud, to no one in particular.

"What's what?" asked Curtis.

"We have a visitor, it seems," said Riley.

"A visitor?"

"There's a car at our house," said Riley.

"I see it!" said Curtis. "Who is it, Mommy?"

"I don't know," said his mother.

Nobody had ever come to visit them before. The UPS man just stopped in the road in front of the house. She couldn't imagine who it was. There had never been any salesmen who came clear up here. She shaded her eyes with her hand, and saw the form of someone standing at her front door. It was a man, but that was all she could tell.

"Let's go find out," she said.

Bob had come to the conclusion that she wasn't home. He'd done that by finally breaking down and looking through the glass of the door, as he had earlier decided not to do. He'd seen the computer where Riley no doubt did her work, and a chair and couch. He could see part way into what was probably her kitchen, and a door that most likely led to a bedroom, but that was all.

He'd turned around, trying to decide if he should leave, or wait in the car. Who knew where she could be. Her car was here, so she had to be somewhere relatively close. He knew she hiked in the woods around here. Maybe that was where she was.

He stepped down off the porch and looked around. He saw the woman and child walking toward him, and instinctively knew it was her.

He stood, waiting. It was all he could think of to do.

Riley saw the man leave the front of the house, as if he was returning to his car. There was a splash of bright color near his right hand, which was hanging by his side. Her mind instantly thought, "Flowers?" but she dismissed that idea. Who would appear at her door with flowers?