Mr. Wrong (6 page)

She felt
simultaneously guilty and betrayed. “I always just thought we were safe together, like you were a brother to me.”

His face brewed even more anger.
He stepped away from her, breathing hard. “Crap. Just crap.”

Sara
couldn’t look at him, her heart pounded into her ears. How could she not have seen this?

Carey
yanked a branch from a tree and yelped out, sucking his finger to his mouth. Ouch. Something bit me.”

Sara
didn’t make a move to help. She was frozen. Frozen by all the things she’d missed. She could see his finger had started to swell.

Beau and Michelle came striding up the path.
Michelle was breathing heavily and put her head down when they stopped next to Carey.

Beau looked at
Sara and then back to Carey. “What’s up?”

Carey
grimaced at Beau and lifted his finger in the air at him. “I think something bit me.”

Beau examined his
finger. “Yeah. It looks that way.”

He looked at Sara expectantly.
“I’m not taking any chances getting some strange disease. I’m heading back.”

Sara
looked away feeling justified in ignoring him.

Michelle gave Beau a forlorn look
and frowned. “I’ll go with him. These new shoes are killing me. Who knew this hike would be so much work?”

Beau shrugged.
“I’ll stay with Sara.”

Michelle purred next to him and threw
Sara an eye roll. “Okay, if you think you can live without me.”

Sara
recognized his infomercial smile.

He stepped toward her.
“I guess if I have to.”

Carey
took off down the trail. “C’mon, Michelle. Keep up.”

Sara
watched him go. She should probably follow him. But all those lines between friendship and something else were too blurred. She swiftly started up the trail.

Beau
caught up to her. “What’s your problem, Fairbanks?”

She ignored him.
The terrain turned to big boulders. She threw herself at the boulder.

Beau followed
. He didn’t try to talk to her.

They climbed like
this—run to the next boulder, throw your body on it, and climb.

“I can do this all day, Sara.”

She stopped and heaved in a breath. “What, Mr. Hennings? Are you talking to me?”

Beau waited next to her. His eyes twinkled, like he knew a joke no one else knew.
“Nothing like a good mountain to climb to make you feel like a man, right?”

Sara
needed someone to fight with after Carey’s accusations. “I’m surprised you could pull yourself away from Ms. Lycra. I feel embarrassed for all women because of the way a few choose to dress.”

Beau laughed.
“You’re jealous of her.”

Sara
fixed a glare at him. “She is totally your type.”

Beau’s
smile widened. “And what do you know about types, Ms. Fairbanks? It seems you’ve just been going for numbers.” He pushed past her and started up the next boulder. “Oh, wait, do you really want to talk about your bad mood? Your NOT boyfriend that just found out he really never had a chance with you. Don’t take your guilt out on me.”

Anger burned
through her chest. She pulled herself up the next boulder.

He stood right next to her.
His arms were crossed, and he wore what Sara recognized as the smile he only used on her to mock her.

“I hate you.”
She knew it wasn’t true—but it felt good to say to him.

“
Pshh—yeah. I’m sure you do. It’s hard when people call you on your crap.”

Sara pulled off her backpack and
took one of the water bottles out of her bag. She popped it open and guzzled it back. How dare he? She moved to the other side of the boulder and looked out across the rocky landscape. Ignoring him was her only defense.

Beau
moved beside her, and she smelled his faint cologne—something spicy and tropical. “You can’t stand the fact that all this time you’ve been dating guys that were, let’s see, what did you call Carey? Safe? Yeah, that’s right. In your mind none of them had a chance. None of them held a candle to this imaginary man you’ve created in your mind that you think Jonathon is. And, what you really can’t stand is that you’re attracted to me. You have been since I saved you—yes saved you.”

Sara staggered back into the rock wall behind her.
She had not expected this. “What?”

Beau
reached for her arm and held her upright.

Would he try to kiss her?

Chapter
10

Beau stared into her eyes, and Sara noticed the tiny scar above his right eyebrow. He released her arm and bent to pick up her backpack. “Can I have a bottle of water?” His voice had turned quiet.

Sara
closed her eyes, swallowed hard, working to get herself calmed down. “Uhh—sure.” Her mind whirled. What was happening? She moved to the front of the boulder. Cautiously, she sat and hung her legs down the side of the boulder. Maybe she was going crazy. Jonathon would be coming home soon. She had to quit thinking about the way Beau looked or smelled or anything he was saying.

Beau sat down next to her.
“You’d be a good hiking buddy, you’re prepared.” He lifted the water into the air.

She shrugged and sighed
. “I don’t hate you. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Sara
thought of the anger on Carey’s face before he’d ran down the hill. Had she really led him on? Sadness washed over her.

Beau look
ed out across the rock formations. He leaned back on his hands. “Are you okay?”

Sara
didn’t want to talk about it, but the guilt was consuming her. “I guess I should be more careful of the way I act. I really don’t mean to hurt people, but—it seems like that’s what I’ve been doing lately.” Her dad’s face flashed through her mind. She glanced at Beau. “I didn’t realize Carey liked me like that.”

Beau let out a long breath. “I actually believe you, Sara.”

She laughed.

“What?”

“Nothing.” She laughed again.

“What?”

She shook her head all the laughter faded inside of her. “I was just remembering the first time I met you.”

He didn’t respond.

She hated that. Hated that she even said that. She tried to change the subject. “I—I your class is . . . well, it’s not awful.”

He smiled.
“Thanks.”

Sara
gazed at the dark clouds forming above them. “Why did you leave Larame?”

Beau looked thoughtful
, but he stood. “I just felt a raindrop; we better start back.”

Sara
stood, too. She put on her backpack and tightened it down. One thing that people took seriously in Wyoming was the weather. “Yeah, we better go fast.”

Beau gestured in front of him.
“Ladies first.”

Sara
crouched low and gripped the boulder as she edged down. Her foot slipped as she came down. Pain ripped through her ankle. She slammed down on her back.

Beau
quickly slipped down the boulder and knelt beside her.

“Dang it!”

A serious look swept his features. “Are you all right?”

Sara rolled onto her side
and pulled off her backpack. “My stupid ankle, I’ve sprained it regularly since junior high basketball. I’ll just put a wrap on it, and we’ll go.”

Beau
took the pack out of her hands rummaged through her supplies. He pounded an emergency ice pack into the rock and then pressed it to her ankle. Expertly, he wrapped it with an ace bandage.

“You’ve done this before?”

He tucked the end of the bandage into the main part. “All peace core volunteers get a lot of training in first aid. And they need it.”

He
stood and reached out to help her stand. “I hate to do this, but we have to keep going.”

Sara
took his hand. “Yeah, we do.”

Beau went down in front of her and then helped her slide down.
It was tedious, but they got about half-way down from where they started, when it started to hail.

The hail stung her skin like pellets hitting a tin roof.
“This is ridiculous.”

Beau pointed in front of her.
“There—huddle into that ledge.”

Sara
crawled over to the ledge.

Beau
squeezed in beside her.

Sara
tried to keep a space between them. “I don’t want to huddle.”

He frowned at her
and pulled a poncho out of her backpack. “You’re huddling.”

Beau draped it over the
ir legs and put his arm around her, pulling her into him. He nodded to the poncho. “Are you always this prepared?”

Sara tried to focus on the hail and not on the warmth of his closeness. Or the cologne that smelled really good.
“What?”

He pointed to the pack.
“Do you always bring this pack with you?”

“
It’s ranch life. My dad taught courses in CPR and First Aid. He made sure we all had training.” At the thought of her dad she felt her heart ache.

“Oh, that’s right, t
he three older brothers.” Beau said it nonchalantly.

Sara
frowned. “What?”

Beau shrugged.
She could see his breaths coming out in puffs with the drop in temperature. “I remember you talking about hating to be saved because of your overprotective brothers.”

Sara
was confused, trying to remember telling him that.

Searching her eyes, he smiled.
“It’s okay, you were out of sorts that day. Of course, it was the day you lost the love of your life.” His tone was overly dramatic.

She jabbed him
in the ribs with her elbow.

Beau let out a half chuckle. “What?”

She thought, again, about that day. Wow, how she must have looked. So helpless.

He poked her in the side.
“Oh c’mon it’s kinda funny. You should have seen yourself that day. Boy, you were lovesick for sure.” He paused, surprising her by brushing a hair out of her face. “Nothing like today. No, I would say that Carey was all alone in his crush on you.”

Her heart thumped faster
, and she didn’t like the way he was looking at her or the fact she’d noticed his wet hair. Rolling her eyes, she looked away. “Whatever.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes.
Sara couldn’t stop herself from shivering. The hail let up for a little bit, but the rain intensified. Lightning pulsed through the sky, and the clouds covered the moon.

Sara
tried to quit thinking about the way his hair had been longer when she’d first met him. “When were you in the Peace Corp?”

“Oh.”
His features settled into a sad look. “Umm, a few years ago.” He pulled away from her but kept his arm on her shoulders. “How’s the ankle?” He touched the wrap lightly.

Sara
realized their noses were almost touching. She turned away quickly, feeling her heart beating faster. “I just hate the dark.”

Beau leaned closer.
“What?”

“Nothing—
I just hate the dark, that’s all.”

“It’s not that dark, yet.”

The initial warming from huddling started to wear off, and she felt her body shivering.

“It’s going to be.”

Beau scooted closer and patted her arm. “Bear Lake.”

“What?”

He sighed. “When I was 12 my family went to Bear Lake.”

“Okay.”

“Anyways, I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom
, and it felt like I turned around three times, and I couldn’t find our tent. It was this kind of dark. And I remember how terrified I was as I kept walking and walking and all the trees looked the same.”

“What happened?”

“I fell of
f a cliff and died.”

Un
willingly, she laughed.

Beau
laughed, too. “No, I yelled for my dad, and he wasn’t more than 15 feet away.” He was quiet for a minute. “It’s been a long time since I thought of that.”

“Sounds like
a crazy trip.”

“It’s amazing how something can be right in front of you, but you can’t see it because your view is so bl
ocked.” He looked at her lips.

“
What?”

He looked away.
“Nothing.”