Michelle Celmer - Out of Sight

“We’re taking a nature hike,” she said as he walked up and fell in step beside her. He was tall and fit and the way he moved was almost hypnotizing. She would have gone as far as to say he was graceful had he not been so glaringly masculine. She’d never known a man who displayed so much confidence with such a complete lack of arrogance.

“Shouldn’t you be in group therapy?”

Will shrugged and made a face. “Therapy isn’t really my thing.”

Interesting attitude considering he was at a retreat that specialized in therapeutic counseling. “Maybe it’s none of my business, but if you don’t want therapy, what are you doing here?”

He thought about that for a minute. “I’m not sure, really. I just knew I needed some time to work things through, to make some changes in my life. This seemed like the right place to do it—where I’m with people who understand what I’m going through.”

Well, she gave him points for honesty. “You should really consider it,” she said. “The therapy, I mean. It’s probably not what you would expect.”

“I’ll think about it,” he said.

They reached the clearing where her group would take their first rest. Overturned logs and tree stumps served as seats. “Okay, everyone, fifteen-minute break. I’d like you to take out your journals and write at least one page.”

“What do we have to write about?” one of the younger girls asked.

“Anything you’d like. It could be a page about something you saw in the woods that interested you or something you’re feeling. Anything at all.” It didn’t really matter what they wrote. Their journals were a warm-up exercise to get the kids loosened up and ready for their group therapy sessions later that afternoon.

The kids dropped their backpacks to fish out their journals, and Abi turned to Will. “You don’t have to wait.”

“I don’t mind.” He set his pack on the ground and sat on an overturned log.

Okay.

Whether she wanted his company or not, it didn’t look as if she had much choice now, not without causing a scene and possibly insulting or embarrassing him in front of the kids. Besides, what could be the harm in a little friendly conversation?

“Keeps to himself, doesn’t he?” Will asked.

She followed the direction of his gaze and saw Eric standing alone, leaning against a tree away from the group. He hadn’t taken out his journal and was instead whacking at the underbrush with a stick, his usual bored expression on his face.

Rather than insist, she let him be. Forcing him would only make matters worse.

She sat beside Will on the log. “I haven’t figured out how to approach him yet. I know there’s a way in, I just have to find it.”

Will leaned back and stretched his legs out in front of him. They were long and muscular and covered with crisp dark hair. She’d never been particularly attracted to men’s legs before, but she found her eyes drawn to his and even had a difficult time looking away. What was it about him that fascinated her so?

“He’s a problem kid?” Will asked.

Though she tried not to discuss one guest with another, she was grateful for the neutral topic. And being male, Will might have an idea how she could get through to a teenage boy. “The opposite, in fact. His parents are concerned because he’s become unusually introverted. They sent him here to pull him out of his shell.”

“Sent him here? I thought it was supposed to be family therapy.”

“It is usually.”

“Let me guess—the parents don’t have time.”

“Something like that.”

He shook his head. “That’s too bad.”

“Miss Abi!” Noah appeared in front of them, hopping from one foot to the other, clutching the front of his shorts. “I gotta pee bad.”

Add drama queen to his personality quirks. All he had to do was ask.

“That’s the cool thing about being a boy. Outdoor plumbing.” She nodded toward the dense forest on either side of the clearing. “You’ve got a couple hundred trees to choose from.”

He glanced around, a worried look on his face. “I don’t want to go out there alone.”

“Would you like me to come with you?”

His expression went from worried to horrified. “Yuck! You’re a girl.”

“Would you like Mr. Bishop to take you?”

He looked Will over in the blatant, honest way that kids did, then shook his head. “He’s a stranger.”

“Hmm,” she looked around, wondering how to solve this problem, then got an idea. “What if one of the older boys took you? Would that be okay?”

Noah considered that for a minute, then nodded.

“How about Eric?

“Yeah, okay.”

Perfect. Just the way in she needed. “Eric,” she called, “can I see you for a minute?”

His expression one of sheer disinterest, Eric tossed down his stick, shoved both hands in the pockets of his shorts and ambled over to them. Though he was only seventeen, he stood close to six feet tall. His sun-streaked brown hair was on the long side, and he brushed it aside with a jerk of his head when it fell into his eyes. “Yeah?”

He was trying so hard to not look lost and lonely, it broke her heart.

“Noah here needs to relieve himself, but he’s uncomfortable with the idea of a girl or a stranger taking him,” she explained. “Could you please take him far enough into the woods so he has some privacy?”

He shrugged as if it didn’t matter either way to him. “Sure. Come on, kid.”

He headed into the woods and Noah trailed behind him. Abi could hear him jabbering away. Maybe he would get Eric talking.

“That was good,” Will said.

Abi turned back to him and smiled. “Like I said, the moment would present itself. I just had to be patient.”

“You’re really good with the kids.”

“I love my job. Although, if you had told me four years ago that I would be doing this, I’d have said you were nuts.”

“Why is that?”

“Let’s just say I wasn’t into kids back then.”

“A lot of things can change in four years,” he agreed, a sad, almost wistful look in his eyes.

“Is that when it happened?”

He turned to her. “What happened?”

“The car accident.”

“Yeah, four years ago.” Four years next month, in fact. The anniversary of Ryan’s death. In an odd way it felt as if Will’s life had been on hold since then, as though he were just biding his time, waiting until Vince was brought to justice. He was so close now he could feel the heavy hand of justice by his side, waiting for him to succeed. And he would get that justice, no matter the consequences.

“How did you end up working here?” he asked her.

“Fate.” She looked over at him, and though she smiled, he could see the guarded look in her eyes. She was hiding something, and he had a pretty good idea it had to do with her boss.

After talking with many of the other staff members, he’d concluded that not many seemed to know much about their elusive employer, and the few who did weren’t inclined to discuss her.

He was all the more convinced that Abi was the key, his ticket to meeting Maureen. But it wasn’t going to be a simple operation. There was something about her, something in her eyes he identified with—a connection he felt—and he was pretty certain the feeling was mutual. But he was also aware that his presence made her uneasy, as if she wasn’t quite sure what to make of him. That was okay, because he wasn’t sure what to make of her either—what he found so attractive about a woman so plain and unassuming. His wives might have been clingy and dependant, but they were both physically beautiful.

Today Abi wore her hair in a ponytail, her face once again scrubbed clean—he’d never once seen her wear makeup. Her clothes were on the baggy side, as if she were self-conscious about her body and deliberately tried to hide her figure. As far as he could see, she wasn’t overweight. In fact, she was so slight in stature, he was surprised by the muscle tone in her legs. He was guessing that she’d done a fair amount of hiking to develop calves like that.