Jessie looked once more to the sky, thinking you could tell a lot from a person's eyes. Warm, friendly blue eyes. She went back to her walk, wondering if she would ever see those eyes again.
Chris watched the steam rise from her coffee cup and contemplated telling Roger that Jessie Stone was back. But it really wasn't any of her business. Jessie obviously didn't want anyone to know or she wouldn't be using an alias, so Chris kept quiet.
"What are you going to eat?" Roger asked, breaking into her thoughts.
"I think I'll just have toast this morning."
"She eats like a bird," he told Margaret, who was waiting patiently for their orders. "Let me have the pork chop with scrambled eggs. Extra hash browns. We know McKenna will be stealing off my plate."
Chris ignored him and sipped from her coffee.
"Awful quiet this morning," he commented.
"Just tired, I guess."
"Hmmm. By the way, Matt has a crush on you," he said.
"I know."
"What are you going to do about it?" he asked.
"Nothing."
"Nothing?"
"He must know I'm gay. What else can I do?"
"Might have been easier to tell him you've got some guy back at Yosemite," Roger suggested.
"Nope. I'm not going to hide, Roger. You know me better than that."
"Yeah. But Mart's a good guy. I hate to see him following you around like a puppy dog."
"He does not. Bobby follows me around like a puppy dog."
Roger laughed. "Yeah. Bobby's got a bad case of hero worship."
"But, I really like Matt, you know. I wish we could be friends and not worry about all that other bullshit."
"Speaking of," Roger said, nodding toward the door.
Matt walked to their table, his long hair tied in the familiar pony-tail.
"Morning McKenna, Roger."
"Hey, Matt," Chris said. "What's going on?"
"Roger's got us assigned to the South Rim today."
"Horses?" she asked as she glared at Roger.
Roger smiled sweetly at her. "Got two different groups of backpackers out there. Fifteen total. They're taking the trail up from Tahoe. They should be in our area today or tomorrow, so I thought we'd keep a lookout. They left Tahoe on Saturday."
"You know those backpackers don't want us baby-sitting them, Roger," she said, already hating the idea.
"A lot could have happened between Saturday and now, McKenna. Besides, it's not like we're swamped up here and can't take the time."
"You could have told me this yesterday," she complained. "Now I've got to go back and get my pack."
"If I'd told you this yesterday, then I would have had to listen to you complain for two damn days."
"It'll be fun, McKenna. We'll get to camp out. I'll meet you at the stables." Matt left them with a wave and Chris again glared at Roger.
"Thanks a lot," she said dryly.
"I didn't want Matt out alone that far and Robert is... well Robert's allergic to horses or something," Roger explained.
"Robert Hatcher is about as worthless as they come, Roger. Matt works his butt off around here and Hatcher sits on his ass acting all important-like in the office, ordering the maintenance guys around like he's the boss. And Matt's been here three goddamn years longer. Hell, I do more around here than Hatcher and I'm SAR."
"Calm down, McKenna. Hell, I know he's worthless, you think I'm blind."
"Then why does he get away with it?" she demanded.
"It's just politics, McKenna. His daddy is some big shot in Washington and his grandfather was some big shot with the department back in his day and that's just the way it goes. Besides, Hatcher moves around a lot. Every couple of years, he requests a transfer, so I figure we'll make it as unpleasant as possible for him and he'll move on and then we can get someone else. Maybe get Bobby hired on."
"Well that's the best news I've heard. Bobby is much more than a volunteer around here."
"Yes, I know. And we take advantage of his willingness to help but that's partly his fault, too."
Chris stood and fished a couple bills out of her pocket, pausing long enough to steal a mouthful of hash browns from Roger's plate.
"Gotta keep up my strength." Then she winked. "See you later. I'll radio when we hook up with the hikers."
"Yeah. And McKenna, I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate everything you do. I warned you your SAR duties would be limited and I'd have you helping out all over the place."
"Roger, I love the quiet here. I wouldn't trade it for Yosemite even if you had me cleaning bathrooms."
"Well, as long as we still have a budget for maintenance, I'll keep you out of the bathrooms. Now get going. Don't keep Matt waiting."
Chris drove back to her cabin to get her pack. She always kept it loaded and ready to go, just in case. She added a couple more freeze-dried dinners and filled the water bottles. Anytime she went out on the South Rim Trail, she packed enough for several nights. Rummaging in the fridge, she found an apple that was salvageable and some cheese. She grabbed a package of crackers. It would have to do.
"Sorry, fella, but you're on your own," she said to Dillon. She filled his food bowl up and scratched under his chin for a second. "Don't eat it all the first day."
Ten minutes later, she was saddling her horse while Matt checked the charge on their radios.
Jessie sat on her porch that evening, listening for the owls. She had not heard the piano music since that first night and she wondered why. As she filled her wineglass again, she thought of Annie. She had been putting it off, she knew. It was the reason she had come here in the first place, to see Annie. Not to hike the trails and meet new people and pretend she was on vacation. She knew Dr. Davies was right. If she was to ever find peace in her life, she would have to talk it out with Annie, get some things off her chest, find the closure to that chapter of her life and attempt to make a life of her own after all these years. Dr. Davies had said she could call if she needed. At the time, it sounded like a great idea and something to fall back on should things get rough. But she felt fine, really. Even the prospect of seeing Annie was not nearly as frightening as it had been. Maybe she would stop seeing Dr. Davies. Maybe she would feel like a whole new person when this was all over with.
She looked to the sky, still pleasantly surprised to be able to see the stars. It had been too many years of searching for them from her apartment balcony for the stars to be familiar to her now. As her eyes scanned the sky, she thought of McKenna and wondered where she lived. And with whom. She unexpectedly thought of her father then, remembering all the evenings he would be called away to look for a lost hiker, the days before search and rescue. She would beg him to let her go along, but he always made her stay, saying one lost hiker was enough. Of course, she knew the trails better than he did.
McKenna? Why did the woman intrigue her so? Perhaps because she had so blatantly ignored Jessie's attempts at seduction. Few women said no. In fact, Jessie couldn't remember the last. Well, she had never been one to pass up a challenge.
Chris and Matt sat around the campfire eating their instant dinners and drinking coffee. Their horses were tied nearby and their tents glowed in the dim light, a backdrop for their shadows that danced in the red embers each time the wind blew.