Intimate Portraits (10 page)

Laney was more prosaic. “We
are
in the mountains, remember. This stuff happens. How about a cup of coffee for
us insiders?”

“Another of the benefits of being
an early riser.” Rennie squeezed his sister. “Fresh coffee and picturesque
visitors, girls. Who could ask for more? Does it get any better than this?”

“It gets lots better,” Laney said
smugly. “It takes more than deer and coffee to make my day perfect.”

Rennie winked at Autumn. “What a
shrew you’ve become. And today your anniversary, too. For two years you’ve been
saying marriage is bliss and now you say you’re unhappy.”

“I didn’t say that. I merely said
deer and coffee aren’t everything.”

“Two years.” At the table, he sat
down gingerly on a wooden chair as if making sure it would support his weight. “You’re
an old married woman, Laney. And you and Norma both said you weren’t going to
get married until you were at least forty.”

“That was before I met John,
smartass. I saw at once that I’d better grab him before somebody else did.”
Laney, who despite her tartness exuded a lazy well-being markedly unlike her
usual frenetic energy, got two cups, filled them full of hot coffee, and put cream
and sugar into one. “I made a wise decision.”

“No cream or sugar for me,” Rennie
said.

“Fix your own. This is for John.”

Rennie’s jaw dropped. “Dios mio. Waiting
on him hand and foot. And this is the same girl who thought feminists needed to
be more aggressive?”

His sister stuck out her tongue. “We
all grow up. Besides, John deserves a cup of coffee in bed. He’s had a hard
week.” She tried but couldn’t maintain her straight face. “Not to mention night.
He worked extra hard in bed.”

Rennie put his hands over his
ears. “I'm shocked. You’ve got two unmarried people here, sister. Please don’t
confide your and John’s sexual activities to them.”

Laney smirked as she started back
to the bedroom. “You’re jealous because you don’t have anybody to bring you
coffee in bed.” She stuck out her tongue.

“I could have coffee in bed if I
wanted it,” Rennie called after her indignantly. “Every day, I could have it.”

“I don’t think dogs can be
trained to fetch coffee without spilling it,” Laney threw back over her
shoulder as she sashayed toward the downstairs bedroom and John.

Rennie chuckled and shook his
head. “Sisters.” Taking his coffee to the front windows, he stood sipping and
looking out, his lean figure a dark silhouette against the bright light. Dressed
in jeans and flannel shirt, he fit the rough surroundings.

Autumn commented on it.

He stuck out a boot. “I figured if
we were going to do that fifty-mile hike Laney’s planned for us, I’d better be
appropriately attired.”

“Five miles. Not fifty. But still
a pretty good walk. Can we make it that far?”

“Easy-peasy.” He reconsidered. “According
to Laney.”

Autumn sat at the table and drank
her coffee and tried not to watch him. If Jane was gone, she could be more
aggressive.

No, she couldn’t. The thought of ending
up with his pity kept her silent. She couldn’t go through that again. Better to
write him off, let him go.

After breakfast, Victoria begged off
the hike. She had a weak ankle that walking irritated, but she’d be happy to
drive the others over to Anna Ruby Falls where the trail began.

Autumn cheered up.

After Victoria dropped them off at
the pavilion, they fed trout in the burbling creek before climbing up the
concrete walk to the waterfall and the wooded trail circling back to the cabin.

Autumn, Nikon slung around her neck,
took a break at the end of the steep ascent. Twin cascades, falling from
several hundred feet above, parted before re-merging in the lively creek below.
Mist from its waters rose, wrapping her in its icy clasp. The air smelled fresh,
like water and moss and pines.

She ought to swap lenses, use the
one that could stop motion, get the water as it fell.

Before she could dig in her case,
a shadow fell over her shoulder. Over the falls’ roar, she hadn’t heard Rennie
come up.

He spoke first. “I didn’t realize
how much I missed this, how much I needed it. There’s a trout, there under that
rock. See it?” He pointed past her shoulder at the stream below.

She followed his finger. The fish
lurked beneath one of several large boulders protecting a tranquil pool from
the rough waters. “Big, isn’t he?”

“He’d feed our whole group.” The
fine lines in Rennie’s face had smoothed out. He seemed different. Happy.

“So what didn’t you realized you’d
missed?” she asked.

He flicked that smiling glance at
her. “You know.”

Understanding flooded. “Home. That’s
what you mean, isn’t it?”

“I think so. Georgia’s home to
me, and I love it. Jane would never have been happy here.”

The casual mention emboldened
Autumn. “Do you miss her?”

He didn’t answer right away. When
he did, he looked at her, his grin widening as if he was pleasantly surprised
at seeing her still there. “No. Yesterday, I would have said yes, a little. But
today… This is the first time I’ve thought of her, and it’s like I’m thinking
of someone I barely knew instead of someone I planned to share my life with. Isn’t
that strange?”

His eyes were melting chocolate. Their
noses were bare inches apart. She thought for one wild, hopeful moment he meant
to kiss her and leaned in. His breath brushed her, warm and benedictory as,
instead of kissing her, he put out a hand and used careful fingertips to trace
her face, from forehead to cheekbone to chin.

“Autumn, Autumn, how you’ve
changed. I came back expecting you to be the same, but you’ve grown up and I’m
a little lost. Maybe it’s true. Maybe you can’t go home again.”

“No, it isn’t true,” she said
fiercely. “You can. Home may not be what you remembered, but it’s still here, Rennie,
and the people who love you are still here. All of us.”

His hand outlining her lips
hesitated. Her vehemence had caught him by surprise. Why hadn’t she kept her
mouth shut?

“I suppose you’re right,” he said.
“For sure, the people I love most are here.”

“You folks ready?” John’s jovial
call summoned them. “We’ve got a long way to go before we get back.”

Autumn jumped. How embarrassing,
to be caught leaning forward, begging to be kissed like a stupid kid.

Rennie’s hand withdrew, but his
eyes didn’t change, didn’t move from her face. “No, home isn’t what I
remembered. But you’re right, it’s still home. And I’m happy to be back.”

“Good,” she said softly.

As they climbed the steps toward
the trail, he began whistling beneath his breath, a tuneless sound that
accompanied them as they entered the worn forest path.

Why hadn’t she told him she was
glad he was home? Why hadn’t she told him how much she’d missed him?

Because she had no courage. Because
she was afraid of another compassionate rebuff she couldn’t handle. Not again.

But he’d been the one to touch
her face.

Trunks of tall naked oaks and
silver birches and red maples shot upward with myriad deciduous trees to erect
a living wall that closed the hikers off from civilization. They made their way
through the woods like Cherokees of old, skirting copious stands of evergreen
laurel and rhododendron threatening to reach out and cover the trail, and
clambering over rocks and logs that occasionally barred the path.

The terrain wasn’t rough but by
noon, when they reached the end of the trail inside Unicoi State Park, they all
felt the effects. Plodding toward their cabin single file, conversation and
jokes long since abandoned, Laney took the lead, with Autumn second. Rennie and
John lagged in the rear.

When Autumn looked back, she
caught them exchanging furtive words. She stopped beside a pine and waited.

“—don’t want it spoiled,” she
heard John say. “So you’ve got to promise not to tell her. If you slip up—”

“Don’t worry.” Rennie was
reassuring. “I’ll see to it.”

What were they planning? “See to
what?”

Two guilty faces swung toward
her.

“The breakfast dishes,” John said
blandly. “We left them soaking, remember?”

She didn’t bother to hide her
incredulity. “I wonder what you two are up to.”

Their grins were smug and
uninformative.

Okay, she wouldn’t intrude on
whatever it was they were planning, but she hoped it didn’t have to do with
pairing Victoria off with Rennie. Analyzing that almost-kiss at the falls had set
her imagination whirling.

If she hadn’t been so surprised,
she could have said something, done something. If she hadn’t worried about what
he would have thought, she could have moved against him, brushed his lips with
hers, tested his reactions and gone from there.

Maybe there would be another
opportunity. If she was cautious and very determined and very persistent, maybe
there might yet be a chance.

I’m not ugly. Men do look at me. Fran’s
been flirting with me for weeks. Why shouldn’t Rennie? If I can show a little
spirit, he might. What will it hurt if he turns me down?

Duh. Her pride. And any hope of
getting him, too.

****

Sam Bogatti, about to check out
of his motel, made one last phone call, got the information he needed, and
ended the conversation. “Thanks for the directions. When I get to Helen, I’m
sure I can find your restaurant.”

After he hung up, he stuffed a
stick of gum into his mouth and looked at the note taken from the studio.

What did that seven beside the
restaurant name and telephone number mean? Seven people? Or did she have a
reservation there for seven o’clock?

He yawned, stretched, got up off
the unmade bed, and picked up his bag. One last sweep of the room and bath ensured
he’d got everything.

Seven people or seven o’clock.
What the shit did it matter? He’d be there early and hang out till he found
her. With luck, he could do a clean job and get away with no one the wiser.

But first he had to get to Helen.
The woman at the restaurant said three hours from Atlanta, but the GPS said two
hours and twenty minutes from here.

Time to get it over with and start
home.

****

Rennie’s sense of well-being from
the hike dissolved as soon as they returned to the cabin. Three other people,
including Francisco and Norma Degardovera, waited.

Norma had brought her boyfriend,
too, though he wasn’t the cause of Rennie’s discontent. Paul Talliafierro, he
decided after a discreet examination of the banker who was his sister’s latest
conquest, might have more staying power than her other men. His freckled face and
square shoulders held a no-nonsense air far removed from her usual flings.

While Rennie liked Paul’s
self-deprecating humor, he couldn’t tell whether Norma liked it, too. She was as
noncommittal as ever.

But Norma and her affairs weren’t
his problem.

His brother was the one who got
under Rennie’s skin. Ignoring Rennie’s jaundiced eye, Francisco jumped up from
his seat near Victoria and grabbed Autumn, hugging and kissing her in a most
unbrotherly fashion.

The Degardoveras were a
demonstrative family, accustomed to open displays of affection. But Francisco
was lavishing way too much on Autumn. And in spite of her protestation that she
and Fran were friends, Autumn didn’t seem to mind.

She ought to. She’d had enough
front row experience with Francisco and women.

Keeping one eye on his younger
brother, Rennie made small talk with Paul. “So Georgia’s about to get a
Hispanic governor. What does the banking industry think about it?”

Paul, ignoring Norma’s squeals
from across the room where she was bombarding her sister and Victoria with some
tale about the trip up to Helen, shrugged. “We’re like all the other voters. Though
it looks like Huertole’s got a good platform.”

“Business oriented, is he?”

Like Rennie and Francisco, Paul
was a tall man, but his body, unlike the lanky frames of the Degardoveras, was solid.
A fighter’s body. Rennie’s question evoked a shrug. “Looks that way on the
surface. One thing’s sure, he’s got the backers.”

“Money’s what it takes,” Rennie
agreed as a burst of merriment came from where his sisters and Victoria had
clustered around Francisco and Autumn. He wondered what his brother was saying
to make them giggle.

“Speaking of which, I heard a
rumor yesterday.” Paul addressed John, who was offering him a cup of steaming
cider. “An ugly rumor. Connecting Huertole with South American drug cartels.”

John’s round face puckered. “So
they’re starting to sling the dirt already. That’s what it is, Paul. A rumor. His
parents came here from Colombia, so sure, he has relatives there. But Gus is
squeaky clean, believe me.”