Mending Places (26 page)

“Hi,” she said to Micah.

“How’s it going?”

It was his typical greeting, and she knew by now he didn’t expect a
response. She reached under the counter for the register paper and began replacing the empty roll. She glanced at Micah. What was he doing? It only took a few moments to see how many were going on each trip. It was almost as if he were stalling, wanting to be there for some reason.

She harrumphed silently. Not a chance of that. He’d done nothing but avoid her since their kiss. One week ago today, she noted.

Micah cleared his throat, but a quick look at him showed his eyes were still fastened on the sign-up sheets.

“Did you want something?” she asked.

He glanced at her, then looked back at the papers as if studying them intensely. “No.” He flipped the page, and Hanna noticed the corner of the pages quivering in his hands. “I just—well, I …” He cleared his throat again. “I’m going canoeing on Thursday. Want to come along?”

Hesitant joy bubbled within her. Unless she was fooled by his tricky semantics, she had to believe he was asking her out on a date. She waited for him to look at her, but he studied the page as if her answer were written there. Sudden suspicion smothered her elation. Why was he asking her out? He’d been avoiding her for weeks, especially the past week.

“Why?”

His eyebrows popped. “Why?”

“Yes, why are you suddenly interested in spending time with me?”

Color mottled his cheeks as he flipped through the pages in his hand.

It didn’t take a genius to see he was embarrassed. Should she have put him on the spot that way? After all, she’d made her interest very clear over the past several weeks. He probably thought she’d jump at the chance. She longed to do so, but her impish, curious side wanted him to say it. She wanted him to admit he was asking her on a date and not making a casual, last-minute invitation as his words had suggested.

She watched him squirm and felt a prick of guilt. But just as she was about to accept his invitation, his chin jerked upward and hardened, drawing attention to the square planes of his jaw line.

He dropped the papers on the desktop and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Fine. You want honesty, fine. I’ve had a change of heart. I want to get to know you better. I want to—to date you.”

Except for the brief hesitation, he sounded adamant and confident. Her heart hammered inside her chest like a bass drum, vibrating through her body with rhythmic booms. She watched his cheeks redden despite his bold declaration. A wave of excitement rushed through her veins. He’d always been abrupt, but she hadn’t expected such a direct statement. Suddenly it was she who was speechless.

His brow hiked up. “Cat got your tongue?” His voice rumbled through the air, bringing a pleasant sensation to her ears.

She loved his deep voice. Loved the way his jaw always sported a five o’clock shadow. Loved the way he was looking at her right now. An unbidden smile formed on her face. “I’m just a little surprised by your change of heart.” A lot surprised, she corrected silently.

He leaned on the counter, placing his forearms against it and clasping his hands. The movement brought him within inches of her.

Micah allowed his gaze to roam freely over Hanna’s face. Her green eyes had flecks of gold in the center that sparkled when she was happy, such as now. That he’d shocked her with his invitation had been obvious. And he hadn’t missed the fact that she had yet to answer.

It had taken him all day to get up his nerve. And trying to arrange it so he appeared casual had proven to be almost impossible. He’d asked out more women than he could count, but that had been years ago. And the purpose of his dates then had been altogether different. Maybe that’s why his hands trembled like an old woman’s.

Hanna wet her lips, drawing his attention to her mouth. “Well.” He watched her lips form the words. “I guess it would be silly to turn you down, seeing as how I’ve hunted you like a hound dog for weeks.” Her lips tipped into a smile.

He met her gaze. “We can do something else if you’d rather.” He felt magnetically drawn to her. His eyes couldn’t seem to look away from hers.

“I like canoeing. I haven’t gone in years, except for that little trip crossing String Lake.”

She looked at his lips, and desire singed every nerve in his body. He couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe.

The phone rang, shattering the moment. Hanna picked up the receiver, her eyes still trained on his. “Higher Grounds, may I help you?” The words, spoken in breathy distraction, brought a smile to his lips.

From her side of the conversation, it was clearly a prospective guest with lots of questions. He backed away from the counter and lifted a hand in a wave. His last view of her before he left was of her wiggling her fingers and smiling in return.

Hanna dragged her paddle through the water as the canoe shifted away from the shore. She could hardly believe Thursday was here at last. The past three days had trudged by. Micah had been away on trips most of the time, and she’d looked forward to spending a whole day alone with him. She’d packed a cooler for the occasion, and Mrs. Eddlestein had included a big lunch for them, as well as snacks and soft drinks to last the day.

After trying on three different outfits and bemoaning her meager selection, she’d decided on a pair of khaki shorts and olive T-shirt over her swimsuit. After grabbing a bite to eat, they’d gone to the rental store, then put in at Pacific Creek Landing.

Now, as the canoe sluiced through the water of Snake River, she became conscious of the silence that had settled around them. No other boaters were in sight, though they’d likely run into groups along the way.

“I’m surprised you’re not tired of canoeing,” Hanna said to break the silence.

“Because I canoe on the Mount Moran trip?”

“Yeah, I wouldn’t think it’s something you’d want to do on your day off.”

“You can’t really compare the Snake River to String Lake.”

Hanna heard the sarcasm in his voice. “Are you saying String Lake bores you?” she teased.

“Let’s just say I like the challenge of Snake River.”

Hanna turned and tossed him a smile. “Well, this is a first for me, so I guess I’m getting initiated.”

“Yeah, well, just don’t initiate us both with a good dunking.”

Hanna tipped her chin. “I’m not a novice, you know. I think I can manage to stay dry.” She paused pointedly. “If I have a decent stern pad-dler behind me.”

Micah let the comment go, and soon they were talking about Hanna and her family. Before she knew it, she’d rattled on for the better part of an hour, pausing only to concentrate when they’d gone through rapids.

She was curious about his family. What had happened to his mom and dad that he’d ended up in the foster care system? She wanted to know; yet, she didn’t feel they knew each other well enough to ask.

She’d just finished talking about her sisters when she thought of a neutral question for him. “What about you? Were you born in Jackson?”

She felt the pause, not only in conversation, but in the steady drifting of the canoe as he pulled his paddle from the water. “No.”

She took his brevity as a hint that he didn’t want to discuss himself and led the conversation on to where they attended high school. She shared that she’d been involved in student government and volleyball, but he’d said nothing except that he’d attended Kemmerer High School, about an hour south of Jackson.

“I’ll bet you had a lot of boyfriends in high school,” he said.

The comment surprised her. Not only because he rarely asked questions, but also because he thought she might have a lot of experience with the opposite sex. “I had a few, but nothing serious.”

“What about in college?”

“I dated one guy. We were fairly serious.”

“What happened?”

She shuddered when she thought of the times he’d tried to touch her. She thought of all the times she’d tried to endure it for Jess’s sake, so he wouldn’t feel rejected. But she didn’t want to tell Micah about that.

“When Grandpop died, Gram needed help so … I dropped out of college and came here. I was majoring in business anyway, so it was right up my alley. Besides, I’d always loved the lodge. I spent a lot of time there as a kid.”

The sun was high in the sky when they found a good spot to eat, and they paddled the canoe to shore. She wanted to ask him about relationships he’d had, but his comments from the previous week kept her quiet. He’d made it sound like he’d been physically involved with many women, and she didn’t even want to think about that. From what she understood, he hadn’t been a Christian then.

That brought up another question, and once they’d settled on the blanket with their food and said grace, she voiced it. “Tell me how you became a Christian.”

She was startled when Micah choked on the bite of sandwich. He took a drink from his Mountain Dew, hacking a few more times before managing to swallow his food and gain his composure.

“Was it something I said?” she teased.

He looked at her, then away, and Hanna wondered if she hadn’t stumbled upon something. What if he wasn’t a Christian at all? Her heart tripped at the thought. True, he prayed and read the Bible, but what if he didn’t have a real relationship with God?

“What?” she forced herself to ask. She had to know, and the sooner the better, if he wasn’t a Christian at all.

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” He picked at a potato chip, then tossed it back on his plate. “I guess I should just get this out of the way.”

Her mind raced with one ridiculous thought after another as she watched him intently.

“I became a Christian while I was in jail.”

Jail?
She worked to keep her expression neutral. Her thoughts spun.

He continued. “I was a pretty rough kid. Had a few scrapes with the law.” He shook his head. “I’m not sure how Jim and Jan put up with me. Anyway, when I turned eighteen, I took off. Thought I was better off on my own, making my own decisions.”

Hanna wondered again why he’d been placed in a foster home and what effect that situation had on his troubled youth.

“I got a job at a gas station and did all right. But before long I got caught swiping some motorcycle parts from a repair shop. I was convicted of petty theft, but the judge was easy on me and I just got probation.”

He looked away from her frequently as he spoke but always came back to study her intently, as if trying to read her. She wondered what he saw. Surprise maybe, but she hoped he saw the caring and empathy that filled her heart.

“I knew I’d gotten off easily and thought I was hot stuff. I made some friends—if you could call them that—at the gas station I worked at. We did some stupid stuff, but we didn’t get caught.”

Hanna saw the regret in his eyes and wanted to tell him it was okay, that God had forgiven him, and she did, too, but he seemed determined to finish.

“One night we decided to hold up a gas station. We were cocky, figured we’d never get caught, but someone had gotten the license of the car, and they tracked us. I got sentenced to eighteen months in jail.”

When Micah looked at her, she allowed a smile of empathy to form on her lips.

“I was pretty rotten. Looking back now, I can see all the hatred I had in me, but at the time it just seemed like everyone was out to get me. No one knew I was in jail. I had no family to tell, and my friends were in jail too. I hated it. I despised being cooped up. I wound up in lots of fights.”

Hanna thought of all the times she’d seen him jogging and knew he must’ve felt claustrophobic in jail. “I guess you didn’t get paroled.”

He gave a self-deprecating laugh. “You could say that.” He took a long sip of his pop. “But after I’d been in jail awhile, a prison-ministry team came to visit the inmates.” He smiled. “Imagine my surprise when Jim came to see me as part of the team.”

“Your foster father?”

He nodded. “And if you think I was shocked, you should’ve seen his face. I’ll never forget the disappointment in his eyes when he saw me there. He looked so old.” Micah looked at Hanna, and she saw the weariness in his eyes. “It was the first time I really believed he cared. During the years I’d lived there, I thought he was just trying to control me. I thought he and Jan were like all the other foster parents I had, that they just wanted the government money.”