“Yeah.” His life would have been shorter—and a lot simpler—if it hadn’t, but he couldn’t think about that. Not now. “What else is going on?”
“The Team helped rescue a woman who’d been attacked by a couple of escaped cons. Remember Winona’s wolf, Shota? He found her. Chaska married her.”
Conrad stared open-mouthed. “Belcourt is married now, too?”
“That’s what I said.” Megs sipped hertongbathrough the straw. “Naomi, his wife, is Lakota, too. She’s an artist. She opened a gift store on Main Street. It’s a nice place—lots of beautiful things. She and Chaska are starting a summer camp for kids from the reservation. They’ll bring them to Scarlet for a couple of weeks, read Lakota stories and history for literacy, and do outdoor adventure stuff to boost their confidence. A lot of the Team wants to be involved.”
“Huh.” Chaska had never seemed like the paternal type to Conrad, but what the hell did he know? “What did Rain and Joe name their baby?”
This was going to be good.
“Angel.”
All things considered, that was a disappointingly ordinary name for Rain. After all, she’d named her first daughter, who was now in her early twenties, Lark.
“How about Hawke and Vicki’s son?”
“They named him Caden after an ancestor of Eric’s who was murdered by Joe’s great-great-great-grandfather, Silas Moffat.”
“I never heard that story.”
“Neither had most of us. Moffat Street was named in honor of Silas, remember? Right before I left, the Town Council voted to rename it in honor of Joe instead.”
“Moffat Street became … Moffat Street?” Conrad couldn’t help but laugh.
Only in Scarlet.
Megs shared other news with him, mostly about the Team, telling him about some of the high-profile rescues they’d done over the past year. “We’ve had a good year for fundraising, but I need my lead alpinist.”
He’d known she’d get back to this sooner rather than later. “I’m done with climbing. Even if I come back, I’m off the Team.”
“Fine. Leave the Team if you want. Just quit hiding and come home.”
His anger flashed hot. “I’mnothiding.”
“Right. You’re just hanging out in one of the most inaccessible places on the planet for the fun of it.”
Conrad drew a deep breath, unwilling to shatter the small amount of peace he’d found by yelling at someone he respected. “I don’t want to deal with the media shit storm. I don’t want reporters ambushing me and asking for details. I don’t want every person I meet to ask me what happened like you just did.”
“People are going to ask questions. Ignore them. As for the media, no one but Mitch knows I’m here. There won’t be any media—not when we arrive, at any rate. Of course, someone could always mistake you for the Yeti and call the tabloids.”
Conrad glared at her, rubbed his beard. “I’m notthathairy.”
Megs arched an eyebrow in challenge, then let it go. “There are people in Scarlet who love you, Conrad—or who at least miss you.”
For some reason, Kenzie popped into his mind again. “I’ll think about it.”
“Think fast. We leave the day after tomorrow.”
* * *
Conrad satin the small room he rented from the monks, a row of butter lamps flickering against the saffron-colored walls. He’d tried meditating, but he couldn’t let go. A part of him wanted to go home, to return to his old life, to see Hawke and Taylor and Kenzie and the other Team members, but it would never be the same.
Bruce had been his best climbing buddy, the man who’d tackled the Seven Summits with him, who’d fought his way up K2 beside him, who’d climbed Ama Dablam with him for the hell of it after their last Everest expedition. He was gone, leaving his wife and two sons without a husband and father.
God, how Conrad missed him.
Luka and Felix had been in their late twenties—so young to die. Their mother and father had lost both sons in an instant. Conrad had called them from Base Camp to give them the news along with his condolences, their mother’s cries shattering what had been left of Conrad’s heart. He had promised to watch over them.
