Julie Ortolon: Almost Perfect

"Who said anything about the family?" Maddy frowned at her. "You could go on your own."

"No, if I'm going to do it, I'll kill two birds with one stone. Conquer the lift… and annihilate my brother on the slopes. Preferably in front of my father."

"A noble cause." Maddy laughed.

"You, on the other hand, are going to go to Santa Fe, have hot sex with your old flame, and jump-start your art career. Agreed?"

Maddy laughed. "Are you making sex part of the bet?"

"No…"-Christine grinned-"But we expect a full report. And photographic proof that Joe is as hot-looking as you claim."

Amy snorted into her cappuccino, then had to wipe froth from her nose.

Maddy mulled it over. "I just have to get one gallery to take on a piece of my work, correct?"

"Correct," Christine said.

"Can it be on consignment?"

Christine looked to Amy, who nodded. "Okay, on consignment. Is it a deal?"

Maddy took a deep breath. "I know I'm going to regret this-"

"I'll take that as a yes." Christine held up her coffee. "So here's to us, and facing down fear. May this be the start of a perfect life for all of us."

Maddy's stomach did a somersault as their three cups clinked. "For all of us."

Never let your past limit your future.

– How to Have a Perfect Life

Maddy wondered about Jane's advice as she tossed the book into her suitcase and headed for Santa Fe. Was it possible to leave the past behind? With every mile that flew by, she felt more and more as if she were seventeen again and racing off to meet the boy her overbearing, police officer father had forbidden her to see. Her body tingled every time she remembered how Joe used to sweep her into his arms and kiss her as if his life depended on getting her naked as quickly as possible.

They'd been crazy-mad in love in that way teenagers often were, without a practical thought in their heads about the future.

Until Joe had been arrested along with some friends for stealing a car. Then the future had crashed down on both of them.

Colonel Fraser had used every contact he had to get the charges against Joe dismissed-since he'd been an unwitting participant-and have Joe accepted into the Army. To everyone's surprise, and the Frasers' immense relief, Joe really took to the Army and informed Maddy he didn't want a short stint. The day he proposed, he proudly announced he'd been accepted into Ranger School and planned to make the Army his career. He thought she would share his enthusiasm, but her dreams of becoming an independent woman and a world-famous artist did not include getting married right out of high school the way her mother had, then putting aside all sense of self to be the perfect little homemaker. Of course, at the time, she hadn't known that the words "wife" and "slave" were not synonymous.

Memories of how it all had ended made her grimace many times during the drive from Austin to Santa Fe. The scene had been bitter and ugly, and Joe had looked at her with such shock, it was clear he'd felt completely betrayed.

But that had been a lifetime ago. Surely he was over it by now. As a mature adult, he had to see in retrospect that she'd made the right choice. For both of them. She'd been entirely too immature and would have made a terrible wife for anyone. Especially a soldier who would have to deploy at a moment's notice for covert operations that could last for months.

Yes, she'd made the right choice.

And Joe would be long over the rejection by now.

Maddy repeated that reassurance like a mantra as she passed a sign that told her Camp Enchantment was just ahead. She glanced through the trees on her left. The road had been following a river through several miles of untamed countryside, as she climbed from the desert into the mountains, but now there was a collection of buildings on the opposite bank.

Her stomach fluttered with the realization that she'd be seeing Joe face-to-face in just a few minutes. As camp director, he'd be on hand to greet her and the other coordinators who were arriving as an advance guard to get the camp ready for the counselors and campers. Weeks had passed since she'd built up the courage to call Mama Fraser and accept the job. If Joe had any objection to seeing her again, he'd had plenty of time to tell her not to come.

She tried for the thousandth time to imagine how their first meeting would go…

He would greet her with a smile and ask how she'd been as each of them surreptitiously took stock of how the other had changed. He'd been a tall, wiry teenager when she'd seen him last, with dark good looks that spoke of some portion of Native American blood. What portion was anyone's guess, since he barely remembered his birth mother and hadn't known his father at all.

She tried to picture him slightly heavier, with the muscles he'd no doubt acquired in the Rangers going soft now that he was out and his jet-black hair beginning to recede. They would laugh-a little awkwardly perhaps-as they remembered how greedy they'd once been for each other. He would politely tell her she looked good, even though she'd gained a few pounds and collected her first faint wrinkles around the eyes. Personally, she didn't mind the weight or the wrinkles. Aging was just part of living, and it beat the heck out of the alternative: dying young, as Nigel had.

A wave of grief threatened to engulf her, so she straightened her shoulders to shake it off. A part of her would cherish Nigel forever, but the time had come for her to move forward with her life.

Up ahead, a little red sports car turned onto the drive for the camp. One of the other coordinators, she supposed, as she followed the car over a rustic wooden bridge. On the opposite side of the river, an elderly man stepped out of a guardhouse. After peeking through the windshield, he waved the sports car through the open gate, then motioned for Maddy to stop. Rolling down her window, she gave him her name.

A broad smile broke over his craggy face. "Ah yes, the new A and C lady. Mrs. Fraser told me to expect you. You just follow Sandy on up to the office. I'll tell Mama you're here." Leaving the window down so the breeze ruffled her hair, Maddy followed the other car along the drive until it pulled into a gravel parking lot before a long, one-story adobe building. Two college-age girls were standing in the lot chatting, one a tall black girl, the other a plucky-looking brunette. They let out a squeal when a perky blonde stepped out of the sports car.

Maddy watched, amused, as the girls raced over to greet the newcomer with arms wide. Just before they all collided, they bent forward at the hips for a hug that allowed no part of their bodies to touch below the shoulders. It was a ritual that surely dated back to the dawn of time. If cavegirls had gone to summer camp, Maddy was certain they would have greeted each other with exactly the same squeal, run, hug.

I When the girls headed inside, Maddy stepped out I of her own car and inhaled a breath of pine-scented air so dry it stole the moisture from her lungs. The brilliant sunlight stung her eyes as she stared at the office.

Joe was in there. She was sure of it.

Eagerness and fear warred in her stomach, making it ache. She bolstered her courage with thoughts of Amy and Christine and headed for the open doorway. Just before she reached it, she heard Joe's voice-and stopped dead.

"Welcome, ladies. I see you've returned for another summer at Camp Enchantment."

"You say that like you're surprised," one of the girls said.

"Not in the least." Joe laughed, a deep, rich sound that sent Maddy tumbling back in time. God, how she'd loved his laugh. Her secret challenge had been to coax a laugh or two out of him whenever they were alone. "Sandy, I have no doubt you'll die of old age right here leading a fireside sing-along."