Since the tables were full they got two drinks, a bottle of water, and three breakfast burritos to go and headed back out to the parking lot and their Tundras. Kyle unwrapped one of the burritos for Camo and poured the water into a bowl.
“Don’t get too used to this, Buddy,” he said. The dog just inhaled his food.
As they ate and sipped hot chocolate and coffee, Arden gave him the quiet and the space to take in his surroundings. Kyle admired the red sandstone cliffs dusted with snow. In the traffic-free quiet he could hear rushing water somewhere close by. The wind was cold and bracing but it was the purest air he’d ever breathed.
Wow. This felt good, really good. They weren’t arguing, there was no stress between them. Maybe just for one day, one blue-sky morning, he could pretend that they weren’t fighting over the dog.Godhe almost, almost thoughtI could pretend she’s mine. He pushed that one down quickly. Why pretend, why dream, when all it was going to do was hurt when it came to an end?
“It’s not LA, is it?” she teased.
“Affirmative. I am not in LA anymore.” He glanced down at her. “You ever been to LA?”
“No. But I was in San Diego once.”
That made sense. That’s where the SEALs trained. She’d probably been to her brother’s graduation ceremony from BUD/s. Maybe Ellie thought Kyle was on the teams with Sean and that he’d met Arden out there. She did catch on pretty quick that he was military. Everything was clicking into place.
Arden balled up the foil from her burrito. “Come on. I’ll show you the St. Vrain.”
“St. Vrain?”
“The river. Lyons is in the crook of the north and south branches of the St. Vrain River. The bridge is only about half a block up, and then we can hit the main drag. Come on.” She smiled as she walked backwards away from him. Who was he not to follow a golden-haired goddess?
The river was as spectacular as she’d promised. The banks were frozen ice sculptures that turned the red sandstone under them to rose. The river roared and surged in the middle.
“In the summer, my brother and I used to rent these giant innertubes and go tubing down the St. Vrain. You had to wait until the water was high from mountain glacier runoff, or you’d hit your ass on every single rock. I remember one year Sean said the water was still too shallow so he stayed on the bank. He told me not to try it, but I just rolled my eyes. I didn’t account for a growth spurt that made me sink just that much lower and I came out one solid bruise. My butt looked like an old banana skin. I couldn’t sit down for a week.”
Kyle smirked down at her. “Poor you.”
“Yeah, poor me. My brother teased the hell out of me. I think the St. Vrain river’s the only thing he misses about Colorado.”
Her hand was right there. They’d taken their gloves off to eat and never put them back on. The back of his hand brushed hers. She didn’t move away. He moved to grab her hand just as her eyes went wide. She pointed across the river and whispered, “See them? Coming through the trees to the water.”
He thought they were deer at first, but if these were deer, they’d be disqualified from sports for steroid-usage.
“What…they’re massive.”
“Elk,” Arden said. “They’re a bit of a nuisance.”
“They’re a bit of awesome.”
She slipped her hand into his as the three elk stepped gingerly over the ice and bent to drink from the stream.Beauty before me, beauty beside me. He squeezed her hand and she squeezed back and Kyle thought he could get quite used to Colorado under the right circumstances.
Then Camo barked, breaking the spell. The elk dashed back into the trees, and Arden dropped his hand as if she were surprised to find she was holding it.
“We’d better get those cameras,” she mumbled.
“And make that report.”
Arden started back toward Main. “I just don’t know if that’s necessary. The extra cameras are enough.”
“Dammit, Arden!” His voice startled her and he immediately regretted it. He’d made her jump, just like he’d made clients jump during bodyguard simulations back at Watchdog. Jump, and worse. They didn’t understand that his objective was always to keep them safe.Always. But it was enough to keep Lachlan from assigning him to bodyguard duty, though he did promote Kyle to chief dog handler.
“Arden,” he tried again, softer, calmer. “I just want you to be safe. If he tries something, I want it on record that Rick is already harassing you.”
“And if it wasn’t him? If it was just me being careless, combined with someone who checked on their horse without telling me, then I look like a fool.” She shook her head. “I look like a woman who’s afraid of her own shadow. Who can’t handle a little problem on her own.” She was walking faster now—the sidewalks had been shoveled, ice melt and gravel scattered across them so that it was easy to get around.
“No, what you look like is responsible. I’m not going to let some asshole intimidate you.”
“It’s not your problem.”
