LITMIR.BIZ

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no. You’re an artist. Why, do you get asked a lot?”

      “It annoyed my ex-boyfriend. Somehow that little black dress I tried to keep in the closet for important occasions always managed to get messed up like everything else. I joke that the paint jumps out of the tubes at me. Maybe I’m just sloppy.”

      “Well, I’ve painted some. Not oil painting but other kinds. The funny thing about paint is that it seems to go everywhere, and you don’t notice it on your elbow, or the sole of your shoe, or wherever, until you’ve messed up something else.”

      She flashed him a grin. “You do understand.”

      “Yup.”

      “If I catch it soon enough, sometimes I can get it out. But too often the pigment is a permanent stain anyway.” She shook her head. “I look for cheap clothes because I know that before long they’re going to be painting clothes.”

      “That’s hardly a crime.”

      “Well, it feels grungy when you look like you just stepped out of a recruiting manual.”

      He laughed. “Only because I picked up my stuff from the dry cleaner yesterday. Besides, I have to meet certain job standards. It’s not always easy when I’m out in the woods for days on end.”

      “I wouldn’t think so. Life was easier in some ways when we wore cammies.”

      “Not if you were getting them splattered with paint, too.”

      He made her laugh, and he did it so easily. She liked this man. She felt a sort of bond with him already, probably because they shared some background, but bond aside, she just liked him. He seemed to have a naturally upbeat nature, and if she had a choice, that’s how she wanted to be, too.

      He finally got the cereal and a quart of milk from the truck and a couple cheap plastic bowls and metal spoons from the cupboard. The silence felt companionable as they ate and then washed up, this time in cold water.

      “Let’s get you back to town,” he said as he rolled up the sleeping bags. “On the way I want to talk to you about the wisdom of coming back into Buddy’s vicinity to paint.”

      “I thought I’d given you my opinion.”

      “That doesn’t mean I won’t press mine again.”

      “Not a quitter, huh?”

      “No more than you.”

      “Dang marines,” she said, but not seriously. That just drew another laugh from him.

      Sky was an appealing woman, and he liked what he’d seen of her personality so far. It troubled him, what had happened to her yesterday, for her sake. He couldn’t imagine what it must be like to believe you had left all that bad stuff behind only to have it rear up without warning while sitting in a perfectly safe place on a warm, sunny day. That had to leave her feeling insecure.

      So he could understand why she didn’t want to give ground to Buddy and his outsized paranoia. It would mean giving up something else, and of course she didn’t want to do that. She wanted to face things and get on with life.

      And she was probably wondering if Buddy had been the cause of her slip at all. Two days later must make it seem unlikely to her.

      He damned the fact that he spent so much time alone. It made him a dull conversationalist. He wasn’t one to just make conversation anymore. Maybe he never had been, but days spent alone in the company of the forest, days during which his only human contact might be radioing in to headquarters, had an effect. For the first time he wondered if it was a bad one.

      With Sky sitting on the bench seat beside him as he drove back toward town, he felt the silence like a weight. Ordinarily he found silence to be a great companion, but now he felt it like a failing. She must be uneasy inside herself, but he couldn’t think of a thing to say to distract her or just amuse her.

      Damn.

      She was the one who spoke first, though. “Just how edgy has this Buddy got you?”

      “Edgy enough that I’m not going to ignore him for a while.”

      “Is that really reason for me not to paint there again? You said you warned him to leave me alone.”

      “You and anyone else rightfully on public lands. But he already knew that.”

      “And that’s part of what’s worrying you.”

      “Yes,” he admitted. He glanced at her as they drove along the dirt road, and felt the punch of attraction again. Easy, boy, he told himself. The woman’s fragile. Maybe not too fragile, but after yesterday he couldn’t count on it. Not that her possible fragility seemed like a problem, except that he didn’t want to hurt her in some way with a misstep.

      Sky didn’t answer as they rounded a bend and gravel crunched beneath the tires. When she spoke at last, it was revealing. “I have to do it, Craig. I’m not sure that’s what set me off yesterday. If it was, it was one heck of a delayed reaction. But I need to know I can face things.”

      She needed to know it wasn’t going to happen again anytime soon. He could understand that easily. He’d watched Mark, his brother, fight the same battle and never win, not ultimately. He wanted Sky to regain the security that had been shattered yesterday.

      So okay, he thought, he’d have to keep a close eye on her without hovering. From a distance so she didn’t feel as if he didn’t trust her. Damn, how was he supposed to do that? Well, he had plenty of reason to be poking around in the vicinity of Buddy’s place, looking for any blocked streams. He’d already given Buddy a heads-up on that, so theoretically there shouldn’t be a problem. It would be a way to assure Sky that he was working, not hovering.

      So that’s the way it would be. Relieved that he’d settled that, he drove right past the headquarters building and on toward town. “You’re staying at the motel?”

      “Yes,” she answered.

      “Great place.” His tone was a tad sarcastic, unusual for him. Probably a sign that he was getting wound up about things.

      “It’s not so bad. I’ve been in worse.” Then she laughed quietly. “But your cabin was nicer.”

      He managed a chuckle in response, but the difficulty of producing it was another warning. Okay, so his isolation was about to be disturbed in a couple of ways. His days of communing with the woods were going to be disrupted, thank you very much, Buddy.

      He stifled a sigh for fear Sky might misinterpret it.

      “Okay,” he said. “I said I’d give you a radio. Keep it with you all the time, especially when you’re in the forest. I want you to promise me that if anything feels even the least bit wrong you’ll radio me.”

      “I can do that.” She paused. “You are at REDCON Three.”

      “I’m rapidly getting there.”

      “Because of me?”

      Yeah, because of her. She threw another factor into the Buddy equation, and he was already unhappy with that. “It’s Buddy,” he said, which was at least partially true. “He’s acting out of character. I’m not going to be entirely easy until I know what’s happening over there.”

      “I can help with that.”

      He almost jammed on the brakes. “Sky, stay out of it. Nobody knows the dimensions of the problem, or if there’s a real threat. Nobody. It’s not your responsibility. Don’t get in the middle.”

      “I’m not going to turn tail. I’m not going to do anything except paint and pay attention. But you’re sadly mistaken if you think I’d leave a comrade to face this alone.”

      When had he become a comrade? Well, of course, when he’d told her he had been a marine. That was going to complicate matters, because he knew that code too well. There’d

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