As she rose to wash the dishes, she said, “I want a Caesar salad tonight. Grilled chicken. I can make it.”
“Or I can, whichever. Getting away from fats isn’t exactly working the way I intended.”
It was her turn to laugh. “I’ll never turn down bacon for breakfast. Or lunch or dinner. But you pay for a month’s gym membership for me if we keep on doing this.”
She was relieved to see him smile.
“I think that touring the resort today is going to burn off all that bacon and then some,” he answered. “We’ll be making like mountain goats in the cold.”
“There is that.” She wondered how cold it was that day, then decided it didn’t matter. Since winter had deepened in Wyoming, the temperatures seemed to have become irrelevant. There was cold and colder, and no thermometer was going to change her perception of that.
“Are you from a warm climate?” he asked.
“Depends on which part of my life you want to talk about. Most recently I was in Virginia. Not exactly the Mediterranean.”
“But not as cold as here.”
“Not usually. I’ll get used to it.” Just the way she’d gotten used to most things. Adaptation was necessary for a soldier.
“You’ve probably seen a lot of the world.”
“Travel, you mean? I’ve been all over, but most of what I saw were military bases.”
“No time for tourism?”
She hesitated, then decided the question was simply friendly. She guessed her guard was still high after that encounter in the bedroom. Being friendly wouldn’t kill her. Might even smooth troubled waters. “Most of the time when I went overseas I was on an assignment, an investigation, and I needed to deal with that. It was just a temporary duty, and it didn’t give me time for sightseeing.”
“That’s a shame.” But then he let go of questions about her past and mentioned his own. “I’m pretty much familiar with this state and Colorado. I used to like to spend a lot of time up at Glacier National Park in Montana, though. Camping and hiking. Not so much anymore.”
“What happened?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Every time I went back, more of the glaciers had disappeared. Hardly any left now. I got to feeling like I was watching an old friend die.”
She could understand that and felt a burst of sympathy for him. “I’m sorry.”
“Well, cold as this winter is becoming, maybe some will start growing back.” Then he snorted a laugh. “Yeah, right.”
She didn’t know what to say, but she liked what he’d revealed about himself. A guy who cared about nature. She wasn’t exactly used to that. “So did you give up hiking and camping?”
“Hell, no. I just go places where I can’t see the changes.” He glanced at the clock. “Better get ready. We’re supposed to meet Masters in half an hour.”
It didn’t take her long to pull on her hiking boots and her parka. She chose her ski mask but rolled it up so that it didn’t cover her face. Cade did the same.
But the instant she stepped outside, the cold nearly stole her breath. “My God,” she gasped. And they were going to walk around a mountain resort today?