Mariah Stewart - Coming Home

“You just said you had four people with you.”

“It’s not the same as having someone to share the really good moments with, Ness. It wasn’t like having you with me.” He reached for her hand and pulled her to him slowly. “I missed you. I started missing you as soon as I left. I was sitting in the plane, waiting for it to take off, wishing we’d have some kind of mechanical failure so that my flight wouldn’t take off until the next day, so I could come back here for just one more night.” He smiled. “A three-nighter, I guess that would have been.”

She looked up at him, barely able to believe what she was hearing.

“I took my group out on the trail, and I came back home and I wondered what I was doing there when everything that made me smile was here in St. Dennis. So I had to take the chance, come back, and see if you missed me, too.”

“You could have called.” She smiled. “I would have told you.”

“The service up there isn’t dependable.” He pulled her closer. “And besides, if we were on the phone, I wouldn’t be able to do this…”

He kissed her mouth and her chin and then he kissed her mouth again.

“I missed you, too,” she told him. “I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see you again.”

“Look, I don’t know what this is between us. I just know that it’s been good enough that I’m not ready to see it end. I don’t know that I ever will be. I want to come back and see how it works out. That is, if you feel the same way, if you’re willing to see where it goes.”

She nodded. “More than willing. But what about your business?”

“I have several trips already lined up for the summer. July, August, even into September, are big hiking and camping months out there. I can continue to do that. I’ll just fly back and forth. It isn’t that big a deal to me. I flew all over the country when I was with the Bureau. This is actually less travel than that was.”

“But your house…”

“I’ve been giving a lot of thought to that. The renovations that Missy began are finished, and that was my goal-to finish what she started. While I was home I ran into a neighbor who was telling me that his son and daughter-in-law were looking for a property to use as a camp to teach riding to kids with special needs. I’m going to meet with them before I take my next trail group out, which will be in about two weeks. If they like the facilities, they can rent from me or buy it outright, but I think that would be the best use of the property.”

“Well, you know I have to ask: What about the money you found in the bookcase?”

“I’m having more of a problem with that,” he admitted. “I’m going to have to talk to my old boss. Is it legally mine? As Missy’s husband, I’m assuming it is. But if it was gained by illegal means, what then?”

“Are you serious?” She raised an eyebrow. “You’re seriously going to ask someone at the FBI if you can keep it?”

“Here’s the thing. I don’t want it.” He raised a hand when she started to speak. “Yeah, I know it’s a lot of money. But it’s blood money, as far as I’m concerned. It’s money my brother paid my wife to keep silent about the fact that she knew he killed my cousin Dylan. It’s money that eventually led Luther Blue to kill her.”

“When you put it in those terms…” She weighed what he’d said. “Still, it’s almost half a million dollars.”

“Enough to fund that camp for kids with special needs,” he said. “Enough to start a foundation that would keep it running for a while. At least it would go to some good use.”

She nodded. “Why don’t you skip the part where you talk to the FBI about it? What would they do with it? Let it sit in a box somewhere? Buy information with it?”

Grady laughed. “I feel I can trust John Mancini to steer me in the right direction.” He ran his hands up her arms. “So, you think you could fit in a little shopping this afternoon?”

Vanessa frowned. “Shopping? What do you need to shop for?”

“Not for me, for you.” He glanced down at her feet even while he kissed her neck. “I’m guessing a size, what, seven and a half? Eight?”

“We’re going to shop for shoes?” Her eyebrows rose.

“Not shoes,” he corrected her. “Hiking boots…”

They were, she suspected, the ugliest things she’d ever had on her feet, but she was okay with them, because they meant that she and Grady would be spending the entire day together. It meant that he wanted to share something with her that was important to him.

She still could barely believe he’d come back. She’d pinched herself twenty times between yesterday afternoon and this morning, when he woke her at four-after a very few hours of sleep-and made her eat a real breakfast before they left the house.

“Tell me again where we’re going?” she asked sleepily as they walked to his rented Jeep.

“Bull Run Mountain in Virginia,” he told her. “I heard it was a nice hike. We’ll start with a short walk, an easy walk, so you can see if you like it.”

“I like to walk. I walk up to Charles Street and back every day,” she reminded him. “And I don’t have to wear ugly shoes to do it.”

He laughed. “You’ll be very happy to have those ‘ugly shoes’ when you start up the mountain.”

“I don’t know why I couldn’t have worn my running shoes.” She got into the passenger seat and closed the door.

“Because you’re not running. You’re hiking. And you’d have been wise to wear them around the house last night to get your feet accustomed to them.”

“We didn’t do much walking around the house last night. As a matter of fact, as I recall, we almost didn’t have dinner.”

“Good point.”

“So you were saying that you read somewhere that this is a nice hike.” She settled into the seat and closed her eyes. “What constitutes a ‘nice’ hike?”

“It’s supposed to have some interesting trails. Most of the trails are relatively easy. The Battle of Thoroughfare Gap was fought there during the Civil War.”

“Who won?” she asked.

“I believe the Confederates won that round.”

“How far is it?”

“Maybe another hour, hour and a half from here.”

“No, I meant, how long is the hike?”

“Oh, you mean, how long are the trails, start to finish?”

She nodded.

“Not long at all. I think I read that the main loop is only about four and a half miles. But there are other sights to see off the main loop. If you took all those trails, too, it runs about seven miles, I think.”

“Seven miles? In one day?” She wrinkled her nose and Grady laughed again.

“We don’t have to do all seven,” he assured her. “We don’t even have to do the entire four. We can just walk until you feel tired, but I did hear that there are spectacular views from the top of the ridge.”

“Don’t tell me how far it is from the car to there, okay? We’ll let it be a surprise.” She wiggled her toes inside her new hiking boots and hoped they’d feel as comfortable when they finished as they did right at that moment.

No such luck.

The parking lot was at the end of a road, and the trail picked up to the right and across some old railroad tracks. There was a kiosk with some liability waivers to sign and some trail maps. They signed the forms and Grady studied the map, then turned to Vanessa and asked, “Ready?”

“Sure.” She looked around the area, which was nicely wooded and smelled fresh and green and didn’t appear to be too bad.

They walked along the trail through peaceful woodlands. At one point, Grady stopped and said, “There’s an old cemetery off that way. How about we check it out? Or would you rather do that on the way back?”