Carla Neggers: Night’s Landing

They climbed back down to the trail. Sarah held his hand tightly in hers. “Nate-where-”

“Way out on the ridge.” He’d understood her question. She wanted to know where his parents had died. “Carine took up nature photography partly as a way to make her peace with our parents’ death. Her photographs of the mountains tell her whole story. Antonia went into healing. I went into catching bad guys. Get them off the street before they can hurt anyone else, themselves, the people who care about them.”

“It’s beautiful up here,” Sarah said.

“It can be deadly.”

“I’m glad I came. I’ve fallen in love with you in a very short time, and I can see now that part of the reason for it is here. Part of you is here.”

“Part of me is about to freeze off.” He winked at her. “Carine has a log cabin she uses as a studio a short walk from the trailhead. She’s got her husband with her for a few days-she won’t be using it. We can have a candlelit dinner there.”

Sarah nodded. “It sounds perfect. I’ll get to meet her?”

“Oh, yeah. If I don’t bring you by, she’ll sneak in on us.” He lifted her backpack off her shoulder and slipped it over his, adjusting the straps, not looking at her. “Don’t think I’m going repressed Yankee on you and ignoring that part about you falling in love with me.”

“Well-”

He didn’t let her go on. “Gus always said I’d fall like a rock for someone one of these days and I’d never see it coming.” He looked at her now, his expression as soft, as tender, as she’d ever seen. “He was right.”

“He’ll love that, won’t he?” She grinned at him. “About this log cabin. Does it have a fireplace?”

“Better yet, Miss Sarah. It has a bed.”

A gust of wind pushed at her back, as if propelling her down the ridge, and Nate laughed-really laughed-and showed her his shortcut.

Carla Neggers lives in rural Vermont with her husband and their two children. Since completing her first novel at the age of twenty-four, she has written over forty books and has appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists.