Tempting the New Boss(39)
“Yes. And, ah, most of the time in the summers. The facilities were there anyway. They didn’t mind the extra tuition for boarding in the summer, too. I liked it better during those months actually.”
“Of course you did. No school.”
“No other kids.”
He bent to pick up a sturdy branch on the side of the trail and held it out to her. “Walking stick?”
She took it. “Sure. Thanks. So where did Marcia fit in? You said she was a friend of your mom’s?”
“Friend might be an overstatement. Marcia lived next door to my mother and, ah, tolerated her, I guess you’d say. Which in my mother’s case, made Marcia about her best friend.”
She shook her head, concentrating on coordinating her movements with the walking stick. “It’s so hard to think of someone like you having a mother like that.”
“Someone like me? You mean rich?”
“No. I mean sweet.”
He stopped dead in his tracks, and she was several strides ahead before she noticed. She looked back.
“What? You are sweet. I know some guys take that as a personal insult, but I didn’t mean it like that.”
He started up again. “I’m not insulted. I’m, ah, flattered I guess. Nobody’s ever called me sweet.”
She teased, “Not even Marcia?”
“More like a pain in the ass most of the time.”
“She cares for you. I can tell.”
He shrugged. “I guess she does.”
“And you care for her, too, don’t you?”
“I hired her, didn’t I?”
“Mason!”
He smiled and they walked along in silence for a while.
As the sun rose to the left of them, Mason diligent in ensuring that they stayed north with the help of the compass, the optimistic sense of the morning faded for Camilla. They walked farther and farther and still met no hikers, heard nothing from Boyd or Ray, and were still nowhere.
“They have to know we’re missing by now,” she said as they walked side by side, noting yet again how Mason kept perfect pace with her, always keeping up when she felt bursts of speed that qualified, despite her oversized boots, as trots, and then miraculously slowing when she felt depleted. Letting her set the pace.
“If we don’t run into something,” he assured her, “someone will be along, or else they’ll send someone after us.”
“Who will?”
“Marcia probably. Or the pilots if they get somewhere first. Don’t worry. Are you tired? Do you want to stop to rest?”
The suggestion had her increasing her speed.
“Guess not.” He smiled, adjusting his own, right beside her.
“I don’t understand why we can’t get them on this.” She waved the walkie-talkie in frustration. “They can’t be fifty miles away from us already.”
“They might be if they traveled through the night.”
A flush of guilt felt hotter on her face than the potent rays of the sun.
Glancing at her sideways, he laughed.
“It’s not funny. I feel horrible.”
“Why?”
“Because by now my parents must have heard, and they’ll be frantic.”
He took her hand and circled her palm with his thumb. “It’ll be okay. Think how happy they’ll be when they know you’re fine.”
“They’ll kill me!”
He stopped. “What?”
She tugged him along. “It’s just an expression. You know, how parents, or your mom I guess for you, get so worried that when they find out it’s okay, their first reaction is sometimes to get mad at you? They hug you and then when they find out you had a flat tire on a date, or claim you did, they start in with ‘you could have been lying in a ditch somewhere?’”
“No.”
“Well, ultimately they go back to hugging you, but the longer they had to worry about you being in a ditch, the longer you have to listen to them about it before they get back to the hugging.”
“You weren’t on a date. You were in a plane crash. You’d think they’d understand.”
His tight tone made her defend them. “They will. Don’t get me wrong. I just feel bad about causing all this trouble. No, that’s not right. It hurts me to think of them hurting right now.”
He shook his head, not saying anything, and she brought up the elephant in the room again. “I know you don’t get along with your mom, but surely Marcia will tell her you’re missing and she’ll be worrying.”
“I sincerely doubt that.”
“That Marcia will tell her or that she’ll worry?”
“Both.”
“Hmmm.” The woman sounded like a real bitch. She kept her observations to herself, though, her mind wandering back to her own parents. The air was warmer now, the sun full strength and glinting off the turning leaves, an occasional gold and red peeking out from the relentless green.