Her words faded and she looked guiltily up at him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have lied to you. Are you angry with—”
He stilled her with a soft, slow kiss. “Hell, no. I’m touched that you cared so much. But you’re wrong. It wasn’t Gabby. It wasyou, Kenzie.”
“You mean that?”
He thought of what the Lama had said to him and couldn’t help but smile. “The night before I left the monastery, the Lama told me that, if I hadn’t found my truth there in all that time, then I needed to move on. He was right.Youare my truth, Kenzie. You’re my truth and my peace.”
Conrad took her mouth with his, kissing her deeper this time, holding her close, her arms sliding around his neck.
The music ended, and still, they stood together kissing, oblivious to everyone around them, unaware of the quiet laughter and smiles.
Up on stage, the lead singer for the Mugbugs took the mic. “This next one is for the couple making out in the middle of the dance floor. Hit it!”
In the next instant, the band broke intoFooled Around and Fell in Love.
But Conrad and Kenzie stayed as they were, lost in each other.
Epilogue
July 28
Kenzie’s alarmwent off at five a.m. She turned it off, sat up, found Harrison already dressed and feeding the dogs. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”
Conrad looked over his shoulder at her, clearly amused. “You promised to have a good attitude, remember?”
“Right.” She hopped naked out of bed. “Let’s do this.”
He chuckled. “That’s better.”
Climbing fourteeners was not on her bucket list. She’d climbed Mt. Evans but hadn’t enjoyed it. Still, climbing was Harrison’s passion. He had asked her to climb Mt. Sneffels with him, and it seemed only right to try.
They’d brought Gizmo and Gabby, who was now ten months old and almost as big as Gizmo. She would be taking her SAR exam next month and loved being in the outdoors. But they’d had to leave little Prince at the kennel. It had broken Kenzie’s heart to leave him behind, but Harrison had insisted there was no way a little Cavalier King Charles spaniel could handle Mt. Sneffels.
Kenzie had brought Prince home just before Christmas after Mari had smacked him on the nose right in front of her during a lesson. She’d decided then that Mari lying to her children would be on Mari’s conscience, but her leaving the poor puppy to be abused would be on hers. Kenzie hadn’t regretted it. There wasn’t a sweeter dog in the entire world.
She, Harrison, and the two big dogs had driven over the Continental Divide and stayed in a hotel in the mountain town of Ouray. They’d had a picnic and gone wading in the Uncompahgre River before heading to their hotel.
Yesterday had been the fun part of this trip. Today was about pain.
Harrison checked his backpack while she dressed and filled their water bottles—four each for herself and Harrison and four each for the dogs. They ate a breakfast of coffee, toast, boiled eggs, and fruit in their room and grabbed the packed lunches they’d had room service prepare last night. Then it was time to hit the road.
Ouray was beautiful, a tiny town nestled in a narrow valley surrounded by steep mountains. It was less than an hour’s drive to the trailhead, which sat just above timberline. They parked, climbed out, got the dogs, then shouldered their packs.
Okay, so Kenzie was carrying a small daypack with trail mix, dog treats, and water. Harrison was the one with the heavy backpack. He had filled it with all kinds of gear they wouldn’t need to help him prepare for the big expedition.
He was training again.
His climbing bug had come back the moment ski season ended, and he’d been negotiating with his sponsors about trying for the Khumbu Triple Crown—alone. No man in history had done that.
It had been Bruce’s big dream to climb Nuptse, Everest, and Lhotse in one expedition, and Harrison hadn’t been able to let that idea go. It wasn’t about ego or achievement this time, but honoring the life and legacy of his best friend.
A part of Kenzie had wanted to rage at him when he’d brought it up with her. What was she supposed to do while he was gone—sit by the phone and wait to find out that he’d fallen or frozen to death or been buried alive in an avalanche? But she had kept her fears and her tears to herself.
She’d known he would want to climb again once his heart had healed. He’d talked about writing a book or opening a store that sold climbing gear, but that just wasn’t Harrison. She loved him for the man he was. She couldn’t take his dreams from him—even when they scared her to death.
More than that, he needed a kind of closure that therapy couldn’t give him, the kind he could only get up there where he and Bruce had spent so much time together. She couldn’t get in the way of his finding peace, even at the expense of her own.
They leashed the dogs and headed for the trailhead. The trail itself was just a skinny path that wound its way upward through talus and dark, jagged rock.
