A Rare Breed (9 page)

He dumped a couple of packets of sugar into the oatmeal and started to eat directly from the pan. "Coffee isn't enough breakfast for me when I'm climbing around these rocks."

Brit's eyes widened with interest. "Are you going to the cliff dwellings today?"

"Yep. That's where I work. It's the real reason I'm down here, remember." He walked away and sat on a stump.

Brit poured herself more coffee and followed him. As she walked across camp, she could feel her thick, warm socks getting wet from the damp earth. "Jake, I know you aren't here to entertain or to rescue us, and we've taken up a lot of your time already. But I would really love to go with you to the ruins."

"You would?" He gave her a glance, then continued eating.

"Oh yes! You even said I could go sometime."

"I did?"

"Yes, I think you did. Or you were about to when we were interrupted. I would hate to miss something like that while I'm down here."

He looked steadily at her for a moment, his dark eyes reflecting his distant heritage. She thought that, perhaps, some Native American relative of his had lived in a camp like this, minus the tent and modern equipment, of course.

"Well, okay," he relented finally. "But you can't go without shoes. There's no way you could hike out there."

She looked down at her muddy socks. They were impossible. "Maybe I could borrow some boots."

"Whose? Mine?"

She nodded, then shrugged.

He looked directly at her, made eye contact and laughed. Jake actually threw his head back and laughed. Brit smiled uneasily. "What's so funny?"

"My boots are size eleven." He shook his head, still chuckling. "You really want to go, don't you?"

"Yes." Brit knew she was appearing overanxious, but there was no other way to let him know how she felt.

"Okay, tell you what. Soon as I have a chance, I’ll fix those moccasins for you. They'll fit and be better for climbing." He finished eating and headed back to the supplies.

Once again, Brit followed. "Okay. Great. That'll be wonderful."

He washed the pan he'd used for the oatmeal and turned it upside down on the box of utensils, leaving it to dry in the sun. "Fix whatever you want to eat today," he offered as he finished loading a backpack with tools and a camera and small note pad. "Have a good day, Brit. See you later." He seemed too busy to look at her and started away as he spoke.

Brit felt desperate for his attention. "Jake?"

He paused, finally, and looked back over his shoulder at her.

"I'm . . . uh," she halted and stared down at the empty coffee mug in her hands. "Michael and I aren't ... we argued a lot because we aren't making it."

"Michael?"

"My ex, uh boyfriend," she explained quickly.

Jake turned to face her. He hooked his thumbs into his jeans' pockets and rocked back on his heels. "Why are you telling me this, Brit?"

She raised her chin and gazed directly into his dark eyes. "I want you to know, that's all."

"To know what?" he challenged.

"To know that there's no one in the way, if you're interested." Brit couldn't believe she was saying this, but now was not the time to stop. "I mean, no one on my side. Maybe on yours."

He took a step toward her and the rope looped to his belt rustled against his thigh. "No, no one in the way on my side, if you're interested."

"Not even the one who gave you the bear fetish? A Zuni girl, perhaps?"

"An old Zuni grandmother and very good friend."

"Oh." She flashed him a smile. "That clears up some things."

"I suppose."

"Well ... are you? Are you interested?" When he didn't answer right away, she thought she'd made the biggest mistake of her life. She felt exposed and stupid. And she wanted to turn and run away as fast as she could.

Slowly Jake nodded and a sly grin spread across his lean face. "Sure. Could be, now that the Michael issue is cleared up. Are you interested?"

She stomped one foot and nearly slid in the mud. "Dammit, Jake! That's why I told you, if you can't figure it out."

He pressed his lips together to hide a smile. "I think I would have, in time. But it's nice to know."

"It is?"

He nodded, and a small grin broke his usual stern expression. "Sure. I’ll be in before dark and well work on those moccasins together. See you."

"Okay." She smiled happily and watched him turn to go. The backpack seemed small on his broad back and the loop of rope flopped against his thigh with every step. She admired the self-assured way he strode across the rocks and the masculine amble of his gait. Caught in his spell, she was unable to turn away from the sight of him until he disappeared down the path and be-hind a sandstone boulder.

Brit replayed their crazy cryptic conversation in her mind periodically during the next hours, and it gave her strength to face another day with the Romeros. Things would be better when Jake returned, she repeatedly told herself.

Brit spent a great deal of the morning inspecting the changes in the landscape around the campsite after the violent storm. "Mother Nature" was definitely in charge of the canyon. Not only was the small pup tent gone, but rocks had been rearranged, evidence of the powerful forces of this wilderness. Around the camp, there were small piles or lines of stones made by streams rushing down the canyon walls.

There were remarkable changes at the river. Several of the boulders damming the water into the shallow pool where Brit had bathed yesterday had shifted or been moved entirely, so that the pool was no longer a separate entity from the river. Most amazing, though, was the water level. What was once a peaceful pool and shallow stream had doubled in size and now raged with remarkable speed and strength. Little whitecaps decorated the ripples.

It must have been nearly noon when Rudi and Yolanda emerged from the tent and began poking around the campsite. Brit ignored them and stayed away as long as she could. Facing Yolanda after yesterday's yelling match was the last thing she wanted to do. But, eventually, she decided she must. And she had to do the thing she most despised. Apologize.

Brit approached Yolanda stiffly. "We need to talk, Yolanda."

The always-confident TV star looked uncomfortable. "I have nothing to say to you."

"Maybe not, but I have something to say to you. Believe me, this is hard to do, but I feel it's necessary. We have a ways to go together, and it would be a shame to spend it like this."

"I thought it was pretty peaceful without us talking at all today to mess things up."

"You're right. And it'll be peaceful again soon," Brit promised and took
a deep breath be
fore she launched into her mini-speech. "Look, I'm sorry about the argument, Yolanda. I guess

I was in a bad mood. Like you, I was worried about Frank and upset about our own hopeless situation. Still, I shouldn't have yelled at you yesterday, and I'm sorry."

Yolanda stared at Brit a moment, then smiled slightly. "I did my share of yelling, too." Her dark eyes softened. "I like somebody who can apologize, Brit. That takes some guts."

"Hardly. I just had to do something about it."

"Believe it or not, this whole thing has me pretty upset, too. I know I'm hard to get along with; Rudi lets me know that all the time. So for others, outsiders like you, it's especially tough. You don't know or understand me. I'm temperamental. That's just the way I am."

"That's no excuse. What if I told you that's the way I am, too?"

Yolanda shrugged. "I guess we'd have some problems, huh?"

"You expect people to make exceptions for you because of who you are. But down here, everybody's the same. We're all in a bind until we're rescued."

Yolanda looked contrite and sat down on a rock. "I remember being sort of demanding when I was a little girl back in San Antonio. Even then, I wanted attention. Craved it. My papa would say that in our family of eight there was no room for one to be special. We all had to pitch in together. And we did. I didn't like it, but I did what was necessary. So, you see, I can." She grinned sheepishly. "I just haven't done it in a long time."

"Hey, I know you're accustomed to things being better back in Hollywood," Brit conceded. "You're used to having your way. This is hard for you, I know. But my life is better and easier, back home, too. That doesn't change the hard fact that here we are. Stuck together."

Yolanda toyed with a wet leaf that she picked from the rock. With a little chuckle, she suggested, "I'll bet I could write a doozie of a routine about this. About us and our arguments and our generally rotten situation down here."

Brit laughed lightly. "I'm sure you could."

"So, babe," Rudi broke in. "Do it. Go ahead and write it. That would be great."

Yolanda looked from Brit to Rudi, then back to Brit. A new gleam lit her brown eyes. "You wouldn't get offended if I made jokes about this? I mean, it hasn't always been funny. We've been in a dangerous situation. Still, it could be hilarious."

"We wouldn't mind at all," Brit said honestly. "I think we might enjoy a laugh or two at our-selves. We haven't done much of that lately, either."

"That was how I got attention in our family. We were very poor, and I made jokes about it. We laughed, and it was better." Yolanda's smile revealed a hint of the little girl who laughed her
way out of poverty. "If I could get my hands on some paper, I would do it."

"I'm sure Jake has a spare notebook he'd share." Brit motioned toward the large tent. "Plus he has that laptop computer. Maybe he'll let you use it."

"Okay. I'll ask him. I'm glad we had this little talk, Brit." Spontaneously, Yolanda gave her a quick hug. "I feel better,"

"Me, too,” Brit said and hugged her back.

“Now, what's for lunch? Rudi and I are starved."

Rudi responded as he sorted through the box of food Jake had left out for them. "There's oat-meal or canned tuna."

"Uggh! Come on, Rudi. Let's find something more appetizing." She motioned for him to fol
low her into the tent where they could go through more supply boxes.

Brit laughed, knowing that they wouldn't find anything more exciting than a jar of crunchy peanut butter or packaged noodles.

Feeling a sense of relief after her conversation with Yolanda, Brit climbed back up into the little cave that had been her shelter from the rain with Jake. Actually it wasn't such a bad place to curl up with a book. There were some warm memories associated with the place, like when Jake had snuggled close to her. She brought a soda and some peanut butter crackers to nibble and her only book.

Brit was always surprised at how the chill of the early morning melted into extreme heat by midday. She removed Jake's long-sleeved shirt and rolled it up for a pillow. Then she slipped Jake's baggy jeans and mud-coated socks off, and wearing only his tee shirt, stretched out her legs, and wiggled her bare toes in the sun. Ahh, she thought as she settled back. This is much cooler.

She had tucked Gran Bonnie's book into her purse with plans to reread it on the flight to L.A. Fortunately the old book had survived the crash, which made it more special than ever. Soon Brit was transported back to another era. A young woman named Bonnie was trying to resist, but helplessly falling in love with a handsome Indian named Knife Wing. So engrossed was she in Bonnie's life that she didn't notice when Jake returned to camp.

Unable to concentrate on the petroglyph handprints or chipped flint artifacts he found in the Indian ruins, Jake quit work early. He could only think of creating a pair of moccasins for Brit and how it would feel shaping the leather to her slender, bare feet.

When he entered camp, the place appeared deserted. But it didn't take him long to find his trio of charges. He could hear Rudi and Yolanda talking and laughing down by the river. And he spotted Brit tucked away, high in the little cave. He smiled to himself and grabbed what he would need for the moccasins from the tent.

Brit looked up, startled, when his boot scraped a stone. The expression on her face was absolutely peaceful, almost as if she were mesmerized or possibly asleep. Her delicate, doll-like features were relaxed, seemingly on the verge of smiling, but not quite. Her blond hair was rum-pled after a couple of days of being tossed about and combed with only her fingers. It was, to him, quite sexy that way. Admittedly, he was intrigued with her. She was the most appealing woman he'd met in a long time. And, with her bare legs stretched out beneath his tee shirt, her appeal was definitely sexy.

"Hi." He tried to sound casual as he climbed up beside her. But the sight of her knotted his stomach and he felt slightly nervous and tight. "Can I join you up here in the eagle's nest?"

She smiled softly, and he wanted to touch that gentle face. "Sure. The eagles have flown, and it's just me."

"Did I wake you?"

"No, I was reading." She checked her left wrist out of habit, then grinned at herself. "My watch broke in the crash, but aren't you off work early?"

He leaned against the sandstone wall which arched above them. "That's one of the bennies' of this job. No time cards to punch."