The apartment manager had given him a sympathetic look. "She moved out two days ago."
"Valerie? In apartment four? She wasn't going anywhere."
The lady threw up her hands. "I know. She broke her lease and didn't even care. She said it would be taken care of."
Panic stabbed Tyson in the heart. "Did she leave a forwarding address? Say anything?"
The lady shook her head. "Nothing. And I hate to make this harder, but I get the feeling that she didn't want to be found."
His next stop had been at the bank, where he found out that Valerie had resigned and no longer worked for them. Since she'd been at the Denver branch for several weeks, no one at the Manitou Springs branch had a clue why she'd quit. One of the tellers that had been good friends with Valerie caught him as he walked outside.
"I haven't been able to get ahold of Val to find out what's going on."
"That makes two of us," he'd told her.
No goodbye, no explanation, no nothing. Valerie had gone from happy fiancée to gone. For weeks, and then months, afterwards, he had searched for her. The police said there was no case because leaving town without notice wasn't a crime, nor was it a missing person's report. Tyson had finally gotten one detective to look into it, and he came back and told him to let it go. Some people just didn't want to be found.
And Valerie had been one of those.
The day she left raced through his mind. For so long he had wanted answers. And now suddenly, years later, he just might get them, but it wasn't going to be easy. And the reservation was for two. Seeing her alone was going to be hard enough. Seeing her with someone else was going to be devastating. The entire wound that had finally scabbed over and scarred because of her actions had just been ripped off like a sticky band-aid.
"Whoa, boy."
He brought Legacy to a stop when he reached his favorite ridge that overlooked the valley. It was his go-to place, always had been, when his emotions were in turmoil. He'd be a rich man if he had a dollar for every minute he had spent just staring off at the horizon.
He climbed up onto the boulder that he had almost worn a built-in chair into while Legacy grazed nearby. It was early summer, and the fog hung low in the valley as it waited for the heat from the sun to burn it off. The tips of the mountain glowed in the sunlight and not for the first time, he wished he had the gift of painting.
The thought made him think of Valerie, as always. She had always been more artistic, and while she never actually captured the view on canvas, at least she had tried. This had been their favorite spot together, too. Their first kiss. The first time they made love. He hadn't even remembered that until now. Or maybe he had subconsciously and that was why he always came back here.
This ledge had heard the first time they said I love you when they were old enough to actually put feelings behind it.
"I love you." He'd said the words before, but this time they were different. More important and mature.
"I love you, too, Ty," she had whispered back before he kissed her again.
"I think we should get married up here, right here on this cliff."
"Are you proposing?" Valerie had laughed, but she still had that hopeful look in her eyes.
"We're eighteen. Not yet. But when the time comes, I'll bring you right here and do it."
She had made him promise. "I won't wait forever."
He kissed her slow and passionately. "I think you will."
It had only taken him two years to propose, right there in that very spot, and Valerie had planned the entire wedding within twenty-four hours. It had just never happened.
Tyson sat there and stared at the valley, and it wasn't long before he heard the whoosh of wings behind him. He knew his mother would send one of his brothers up to check on him. A second later, Logan walked around the boulder.
"You okay?"
"You flew up here just to ask me that?"
Logan climbed up and sat next to him. "Not the first time I've come up here after you." He gazed at the valley. "It's pretty."
"Pretty? That's the best you've got? It's insulting. This is what you call absolutely beautiful."
They sat quietly for a minute before Logan glanced at him. "You going to answer my question?"
