Bring It On (23 page)

She smiled up at him. “When did you get so smart?”

He laughed, bumping his shoulder against hers. “Almost two weeks ago, when an amazing woman walked away from me and I realized I’d almost screwed up several lives because I was a coward, too scared to break free from my family’s expections.”

“You’ve changed,” she said. And definitely for the better. This Wyn, the one who was wise and insightful and understanding, was a far cry from the distant, charming man she’d been set to marry. Not that she was any more attracted to him. But this Wyn, she thought, might make a great friend.

“That’s what happens when you get dropped into chaos and baptized by fire. You slipped off to a secluded island. I had to deal not only with my parents, but your mother, aunt and Mitzi, too.”

Part of her wanted to grin. “I think I would have liked to see that.”

“I assure you, it wasn’t pretty. And I’m still paying for what I did, but that’s okay.”

“Oh, before I forget.” Lena pulled out of Wyn’s embrace and disappeared into her bedroom to retrieve the ring she’d placed in her jewelry box for safekeeping. The large diamond flashed as the light hit it, but it was the plain band sitting next to it that held her attention.

Walking back into the living room, she held the engagement ring out to Wyn. “Just promise me you won’t rush into things and give it to Mitzi the minute you see her.” She thought about her words, about everything Wyn had just said and the slow progression of their own relationship. “Wait. Scratch that. Maybe you
should
give it to her right away.”

Wyn held out his hands, not to take what she offered, but to tell her to stop. “No, Lena, that’s yours. Sell it. Keep it. I don’t care. It’s the least I owe you.”

“You don’t owe me anything, Wyn.” Reaching for his hand, she turned it over, dropped the ring into his palm and curled his fingers around it. Giving him back the ring was the right thing to do. Not because it was expensive. Not because it mattered to either of them. But because it
didn’t
matter and never really had. It was a symbol of the mistake they’d almost made, and keeping it around just felt wrong.

He looked up at her with a mixed expression of guilt and hope and something she hadn’t seen in a long time but never realized was missing—happiness.

“I hope you can be happy, Lena.”

Wyn left after she promised to give his father a call in a few days, once she’d thought about his offer to freelance. If nothing else, she might do it until she found a new job.

Wyn was gone, but his words still lingered in her head.

Was she being a coward? Was she allowing fear to rule her decisions and keep her from really living?

There was certainly no hiding the devastation she was feeling. No, she wasn’t wallowing in her bed, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t heartbroken and upset.

She was definitely afraid. Afraid to put herself out there, to admit that she loved Colt, only to find out that he didn’t feel the same. Or that they couldn’t make their lives mesh. Or that he wanted something different from the future than she did.

How quickly he had dropped everything to rush off to Peru. It scared her, his ability to pull up stakes at a moment’s notice. But a tiny part of her also envied him those adventures.

She had to admit that there were a few good things about her childhood, although she often had a hard time remembering them. She’d seen so many amazing things. She hadn’t just taken history, she’d learned about all the ancient sites in person. There were memories, good ones, of sharing laughter and happy times with her mother. It was just that they’d been overshadowed by the helplessness, fear and uncertainty of the bad times.

But could she continue to let those bad memories and unwanted lessons dictate her future?

How did she know for sure that she and Colt couldn’t make it work? She hadn’t given them the chance to try.

Hell, if Wyn and Mitzi could make it work, anyone could.

That left only one thing for her to do.

Go to Peru.

COLT LET HIS EYES WANDER the dark jungle surrounding the camp. Off to the right, several of the team huddled around a campfire joking, laughing and drinking bad coffee. Normally, he’d have been right there with them enjoying the rugged parts of the job that forced him to rely on his own skills and instincts.

Not tonight. Actually, not since he’d gotten there. All he’d thought about was Lena.

How she’d turned him down. How he’d walked away.

He’d thought long and hard about what had been different between them on the island. Was it that she’d been free? Was it the romantic, sensual atmosphere of the place?

Colt didn’t think so.

“I’m an idiot,” he said to no one in particular.

High up in a tree, a monkey chattered back at him. Colt strained to make out the features of the animal in the dark, but could only see the barest outline. The leaves rustled as the monkey crept closer. It was almost eerie, the way the animal stared at him, as if it expected an explanation.

For some reason, Colt responded. “I was scared. Everyone gets scared,” he defended, as if the monkey could understand. He, the guy who fearlessly jumped into any new adventure, had been scared of practical, grounded Lena. Scared to take a risk and find out that she didn’t love him the way he loved her. Scared to have her and lose her.

Although that had happened anyway.

And now it was worse, because he didn’t even have their friendship anymore.

The night he’d gotten the call that his parents’ helicopter had gone down in a forest in North Carolina, he’d been devastated. Until then, the only person he’d ever lost was his grandmother and it hadn’t been a shock. But that phone call…it had floored him. He hadn’t known what to do. What to think. Where to turn.

But Lena had been there. She was the first person he’d called, and she’d rushed over. He’d relied so heavily on her for emotional and moral support. And that had scared him even more. Somewhere in the haze of grief and anger that had followed, he’d convinced himself that it was better to be alone than to risk feeling the pain of losing someone he loved again.

It was easy to push everyone in his life away. Lena, his brother, sister-in-law and niece, none of them could come with him as he directed his career to far off places. Yes, part of him relished the adventure that fueled some innate need. But he could have found that elsewhere. He could have gone to L.A. or New York and found work in a more traditional setting.

But working on documentaries allowed him to slip away into the world and get lost in his art.

And he’d thought he was happy and satisfied—until Lena’s life exploded in front of him. He’d been there for her—there was no question that he would be. He’d have walked to the ends of the earth if she needed him.

That kiss. That stupid, wonderful, innocent kiss had changed everything. From that moment on, his curiosity about what being with Lena might be like had become impossible to ignore. There was no more pretending or trying to shunt his desire and awareness of her away.

He loved her, had always loved her, even if he hadn’t been able to admit it to himself. He’d been scared of loving her only to lose her. But he’d lost her anyway because he was an idiot and hadn’t told her the truth, the reason he wanted her with him.

When he’d asked her to go to Peru, he hadn’t told her the thought of living without her made him crazy. And when she’d said no, what had he done?

Used his work once more to escape from the pain. The only problem was that it had followed him, sharper than ever now that she wasn’t there.

He should have told her he loved her.

The monkey began to rattle the branch that it perched on, as if upset it was being ignored. “What am I doing here?” Colt asked it. The little creature, its white face materializing out of the darkness as it leaned down, cocked its head to the side and stared at Colt as if it’d finally figured out the million-dollar question…and was still waiting for him to clue in to the answer.

He shouldn’t be here. He should be with Lena. The realization was crystal clear. The monkey opened its mouth, chattering some syllables only it understood. Colt almost reached toward it but at the last minute noticed the gleaming sharp teeth in its open mouth. Instead, he backed away slowly.

Raking his gear up into a pile as quickly as possible, he began assembling what he’d need to get back out to the nearest village.

“What are you doing?” one of the camera crew asked, breaking away from the pack of people.

“I have to go home.”

“Now? Colt, we’re just getting started. We need you here. Desmond is not going to like this.”

Colt glanced up at the group of people who’d stopped talking and were now all staring at him, a tight circle that looked almost as dangerous as the monkey he’d left behind.

“We’re doing fine. I’ll be back in a few days. A week at the most. You know the schedule. Continue to shoot the footage that we talked about and I’ll go over it when I get back.”

Thirty minutes after talking to the monkey, Colt was headed out of the Peruvian jungle and home to Lena. He had no idea what was going to happen…but it was about damn time that he found out.

15

WYN WAS RIGHT. When Lena chose to go after something, she did it with a vengeance.

Twenty-four hours following her decision to go, she was winging her way to Peru. As it turned out, she’d needed to get up to date on her vaccinations. Her doctor had even given her a rabies shot, since she thought Lena would probably end up in remote locations.

And she was right. It had taken her several hours to get in touch with Desmond. The man was difficult to track down. But he’d been happy to tell her what village Colt’s team had traveled out of when she’d explained the situation.

Unfortunately, she’d arrived too late in the day and had been forced to rent a room for the night. None of the villagers she’d spoken to had been willing to make the trek into the jungle so close to dark.

Lena was frustrated. She’d come all this way only to be stopped by someone else’s fear, but she couldn’t really blame them. She knew firsthand that the jungle was a dangerous place after dark.

Her room left something to be desired. It was clean, although in serious need of a facelift. However, the woman who ran the place had bent over backwards to make sure she felt at home. Probably because Lena was currently the only guest.

Although she had to admit that there was something nice about sitting in a cane rocker on the screened-in front porch. The tiny village bustled with activity as the residents ended their work for the day and disappeared into their own houses. As she watched, the open-air market closed up for the night. The colorful awnings that had protected the wares were rolled up and stored for morning.

The heat might have been unbearable except for the lazy rotation of a fan high above her. The thick manila envelope lay in her lap. Packing for the trip, she’d found the photographs she’d left unopened in the bottom of her suitcase. She hadn’t stopped to look at them until she got on the plane.

Her hand rested softly over the envelope, warming the paper beneath her palm. She’d been…surprised by what she’d seen. If she’d needed any more proof that she was making the right decision, it had been captured in the photographs Colt had worked so hard to keep private.

She could understand his insistence now, and appreciated his forethought. They were intimate, personal, and she had no desire to share them with the world.

Stars began to appear in the sky above her, brighter than anything she’d ever seen.

Far down the main path, a figure appeared, materializing out of the lush green brush that bordered the village. For some reason she watched, drawn to the man long before she could clearly see him.

It was obvious he wasn’t local. He was taller than most of the native people she’d met and walked with a purposeful stride that seemed foreign here.

He was halfway past when she bolted up out of her chair.

“Colt,” she breathed.

The screen door slapped, springing backward as she rushed through it.

Again she said his name, only this time yelling it. “Colt!”

He stopped, the sudden shuffle of his feet kicking up a cloud of dust around his ankles. He stared at her as she ran toward him, his eyes wide with surprise.