Jenny Cussler's Last Stand (10 page)

“Well, alone at last,” Kate said as she walked up the hill toward Jenny. “I thought he’d never let you out of his sight.”

Jenny’s dazed eyes finally focused on Kate, who came to stand beside her.

“Well?” Kate said as she crossed her arms and waited expectantly.

Jenny threw her a quick look, but Kate kept her gaze on the community area. Jenny followed her eyes.

“Well, what?”

“Is there anything I should know?”

Jenny dropped her pretense. She elbowed Kate playfully in the side.

“No. In fact, I’m not sure he’s even speaking to me.”

“A lover’s spat already?” Kate’s grin was infectious, but Jenny just didn’t feel like smiling any more that evening.

“No, not a lover’s spat!” She crossed her own arms. “I think I keep saying the wrong thing, you know? Offending him. He seems kind of sensitive.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, just like...I said I could never live in such a close-knit community.” Jenny shrugged and turned to Kate. “That doesn’t exactly sound right, does it?”

“Well, it does sound kind of harsh.”

“Judgmental?”

Kate nodded. “A little. Though I agree with you. I don’t think I could live in such a small area either...where everybody seems to either know everybody else or be related to them.”

Jenny pointed a finger. “That’s what I mean! That’s how I feel.”

“Yeah, well, you can tell me that, but I doubt if Clint wants to hear it. This is his home. He’s probably very proud of it.”

Jenny nodded mournfully. “Yes, I think he is.” She dragged in a breath of air and exhaled it slowly. “I’ll have to apologize...if I get the chance.”

“Oh, you will. He can’t keep his eyes off you. I’ve been watching you guys.”

Jenny’s heart leapt, but she demurred. “Oh, don’t be silly. Really, Kate!” She linked her arm in Kate’s and pulled her down the hill toward the community area. “Well, I guess it’s too early for me to climb into the van and go to sleep, so come on down to the fire and keep me company.”

“Sounds good. Let’s go see what that doll, Steve, is doing.”

At the sight of the handsome hiker sitting by the fire talking to one the tribal elders, Jenny pulled up short and told Kate what had happened at the entrance to the sweat lodges.

“So, what do you think?”

Kate shook her head and shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m sure Steve didn’t mean to get you in trouble. Look at that blond hair of his! Don’t you just want to run your fingers through it?” Kate gazed at Steve with a mock sigh.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake, woman. Snap out of it! You’re boy crazy,” Jenny said. She allowed Kate to propel her forward, and they passed through the crowded picnic benches and approached the fire, now burning vigorously with the recent addition of fresh logs. Kate pulled Jenny over to a large boulder next to Steve and forced her down onto it while taking a seat on a large rough-hewn log on Jenny’s right. Jenny averted her face from Steve and favored the scheming woman with a narrow-eyed expression of mock displeasure. Kate grinned innocently and turned to survey the rest of the campers with wide-eyed interest.

A bright red-and-purple-streaked sky above the tips of the evergreens to the west indicated the sun had set, and Jenny’s bare arms chilled at the subsequent drop in temperature. Thankful that Steve was immersed in conversation with the little lady to his left, Jenny rested her elbows on her knees and leaned toward the fire to gather warmth.

“Are you cold?”

Jenny turned to the unexpected voice next to her. Steve was removing his dark blue windbreaker.

“Do you want my jacket?”

“No, I’m fine, thanks.”

“I should have warned you it gets cool at night up here on the mountain.” Before she could protest, Steve draped the light windbreaker around her shoulders.

Jenny threw a sideways glance toward Kate, who watched the exchange with smirking interest. Kate seemed to have had the foresight to don a jacket over her sweatshirt before coming to dinner.

“Thanks,” Jenny said. She peeked past Steve, but his elderly companion now talked to a woman to her left.

“Listen,” Steve began. “I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to embarrass you or put you in a bad spot.” Earnest blue eyes regarded her with remorse.

“I know you didn’t, Steve. I’m okay.” She snuck a quick look at Kate, who seemed to have returned to watching others around the campfire, but Jenny had her doubts. “There’s a lot to learn up here.”

“Yeah, it’s different. But I love it. I love all their customs.” He leaned in toward Jenny and lowered his voice. “I was going to go to the sweat, but Auntie Sis caught me for a conversation, so now I think I’m too late.”

“Really? Is there such a thing as too late? What happens up there?” Imitating him, Jenny lowered her voice and leaned in.

“Oh, it’s really neat! The men will put hot rocks from a fire...like this one...into a center pit inside the lodges. Everyone sheds their worldly possessions—their clothes—and climbs into the small lodge. Those little lodges can hold up to eight people, I think.”

“You’re kidding!” Jenny remembered the size of the structures, no bigger than oversized pup tents.

“Really!” Steve grinned. “None of this “don’t touch me” stuff in there. Men are jammed up against each other in the tiny lodges...stark staring nude.”

Jenny shook her head and shuddered. “Sounds cozy.”

“Wait! Then the flap of the lodge is closed as tightly as possible to prevent any light from coming in. The leader of the family, one of the Native American men, will pour hot barley water on the rocks, creating a thick steam and intense heat—like a sauna—so hot, it’s almost unbearable. It’s pitch dark in there. You can’t see anything except the glow of the rocks. The darkness seems to intensify the heat.”

Jenny’s eyes widened, and she swung her head to look at Kate, who no longer pretended not to listen. The shocked expression on Kate’s face mirrored Jenny’s own thoughts.

“And then the leader will begin to tell a story, or pray, or sing.” Steve took a deep breath and straightened. He stretched his arms over his head for a moment and exhaled loudly.

“Are you serious?” Kate leaned forward to ask.

“As a heart attack. Sweating is a spiritual exercise, a way of communing with one’s higher power through intense heat, darkness, and lack of worldly goods. It’s wonderful,” Steve breathed with a broad grin. “I’m sorry I missed it tonight. That’s okay, though. They have one early in the morning. I’ll make it to that one.”

“I’m not sure if I want to do that. It sounds...well...frightening.” Jenny chewed on the corner of her lip. Would there be still one more thing that she could not participate in?

Steve’s thick blond eyebrows shot up, and he grabbed Jenny’s left hand.

“Oh, no, I didn’t mean to frighten you. It
is
intense, but in a wonderful way. You’ll see. You have to try it...at least once.” He let go of Jenny’s hand.

Jenny turned doubtful eyes to Kate, who ducked her head in mock dismay.

“I’m going to try it. We’ll be all right. Lots of people have come back from camp alive.” Kate’s grin was irrepressible, and Jenny responded with a chuckle.

“So, what’s going on tonight, Steve?”

Jenny turned to find Celia standing behind them. She pointedly eyed the large boulder Jenny sat on, and Jenny obligingly slid over.

“Thanks,” Celia replied in a smooth voice. She turned away from Jenny toward Steve, effectively blocking his face from Jenny’s view.

“Not too much, Celia. It’s nice to be back, isn’t it?”

Jenny could only hear Steve’s voice, and she turned to Kate with an amused expression. Kate rolled her eyes and blatantly stared at Celia’s back while she conversed with Steve. Jenny shook her head and stared into the crackling fire, wondering if she should get up and move or stay put. She opted to eavesdrop...if one could call it that.

“Yes, it is,” Celia said in a dreamy voice. “I missed it so much after we left last year.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. Me, too. Excuse me, Celia, this is Jenny and Kate. They’re from Boise, Idaho.” Steve peered around the blonde and grinned broadly.

Celia turned her head a fraction and nodded vaguely in their general vicinity.

“Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” Kate replied around a fake yawn. Jenny put her hand over her mouth to force back a laugh at Kate’s antics.

“Have you seen Clint?” Celia apparently had decided Jenny could be of some use after all. She turned her face just a little farther and eyed the two Boise women with deadpan powder-blue eyes.

Jenny pressed her lips together in a desperate attempt to hold back a grin.

“Ummm...I think he went up to the sweat,” Steve offered. “I saw him go by a while ago.”

Celia sniffed and turned back toward Steve.

“Oh, that’s right. He goes to the sweat every night and every morning. He leads one of them, doesn’t he?”

Jenny cocked her head for new information on what was fast becoming the most interesting subject she could think of. Clint.

“Yes, he does. Runs one of the hottest sweats up there. Brutal!” Steve leaned forward just a smidge to favor Jenny and Kate with a grin and a charming wink which sufficed to take the edge off his words.

“I heard.” Celia preened. “That’s what people said last year. They said he can sing wonderfully, too. I never got to hear him, though.”

“Yup, he bangs a mean drum, too. Remember?”

Celia sighed. “I do,” she said as she raised a long, slim, white hand to her throat.

Jenny met Kate’s eyes. Kate waggled her eyebrows suggestively in Jenny’s direction. Jenny squinted narrowly and returned her gaze to the fire. He sang? He danced? He led a sweat? Facilitated a group? Beat drums? Was the man the quintessential Native American? A poster boy for all that was Indian? Could she possibly have developed a crush on a man who was so different from her in every possible way?

She turned to survey Celia, or more aptly Celia’s back, once again. It seemed likely that any infatuation Jenny had over Clint could never match the enduring obsession Celia had about the tall, dark, and handsome man.

Suddenly restless, Jenny jumped up.

“Well, I think I’d better take a shower before bed.”

Steve glanced at his watch. “It’s early yet.” He took the jacket that Jenny handed him, allowing his hand to cover hers. Jenny felt his touch, pleasantly warm, and she pulled back quickly. She dropped her eyes from his searching gaze.

“I know,” she said, “but we got up very early this morning, and I’m beat. Thanks for your jacket, Steve. Good night, all.” She turned away hastily to forestall any insincere words from Celia.

Kate rose with her, stifling a yawn that looked real this time. “Yup, me, too. Gotta go. See you all tomorrow.”

She linked her arm in Jenny’s, and off they wandered toward the cabin.

“Wow, kiddo. You sure have your hands full with that Clint. He sounds like some kind of man!” Even in the darkness, Jenny saw the flash of Kate’s teeth.

Jenny nudged her with an elbow. “
I
don’t have my hands full. I have no intention of starting some sort of weird flirtation up here where the air is thin and I can’t think straight.” She ran a confused hand across her brow. “Besides, Celia seems...um...deeply invested in pursuing him. I can’t imagine that I would compare favorably with her tall, golden-haired self.”

“Oh, please.” Kate snorted. “Give me a break. She’s a ditz. Any man in his right mind would choose you over her. Steve included. He’s got a thing for you, as well, I notice. Why are you hogging all the good men?”

Jenny laughed away her embarrassment at Kate’s words and quickened her step as they neared the cabin. “Come on, married girl. I’ll race you to the shower, so you can wash those men right out of your hair.”

Kate guffawed in an unladylike way, and the two women burst through the doors of the cabin with a case of the giggles. Amidst continuing peals of uncontrollable laughter, they grabbed extra clothes and toiletries and headed back outside into the darkness to find their way to the shower house.

“Did you bring a flashlight?” Kate asked as her laughter subsided. “I can’t see a thing out here.”

Jenny wiped her streaming eyes, wondering what on earth she’d been laughing about for the past five minutes as she shook her head.

“No, I didn’t even think about it.” She peered at the dark ground and stepped carefully.

Neither the fading orange lights of the cabin nor the faint yellow bulbs on the outside of the shower house illuminated the areas in between.

“Are you ladies in the dark?”

Chapter Eight

Jenny swung around to the sound of Clint’s deep voice. He approached from behind them with a flashlight in his hand. She could barely see his face in the dark.

“Clint,” she gasped involuntarily.

“You really should carry a flashlight around here at night. As you can tell, it’s hard to see out here unless there’s a full moon.” Jenny instinctively looked up, but she could not immediately see the moon through the tall evergreens surrounding the camp.

“Well, now that you’re here, Clint, you can light our way to the bathroom. You don’t mind, do you?” The irrepressible Kate tucked up next to Clint and his flashlight.

“Not at all, ladies. I was going that way myself. Watch your step. The ground is uneven.” Clint moved off and Kate and Jenny followed him closely. As they neared the shower house, the building’s dim outside lights provided enough illumination to allow Clint to turn off his flashlight. He climbed the wooden steps to the deck that ran between the two separate sections, the men’s facilities at the right of the U-shaped building and the women’s just at the top of the stairs.

Jenny paused at the foot of the steps and stared openly at Clint’s back. He’d draped a light-colored towel around his neck and over his hair, which appeared to be wet. A dark T-shirt over broad shoulders and thick, dark sweatpants did little to hide the leanness of his body. He looked different somehow...relaxed. She knew he must have just come back from the sweat.