Thankfully, the rest of Base Camp Road was plowed and salted. The usually blacktopped roads took on a milky white color from the liquid salt solution sprayed on the road overnight. Equally well plowed was Route 302. The Presidential was a mile down the road. It was now or never. I cleared my throat. My hands shook on the steering wheel.
“You don’t have to worry about me telling anyone about the bear thing. My lips are sealed.” Tanner didn’t bother to turn from the window.
“That’s not what I was going to say, but you answered my question anyway.” My heart shriveled in my chest. A man who’d had the time of his life with a new lover would ask to see him again. Obviously, I was one and done where Tanner was concerned. Shit, what the hell was wrong with me? It wasn’t like me to get upset over something as fleeting as a one-night stand.
I kept my eyes on the road as I flipped on the left blinker to turn down the driveway leading to the massive hotel. I saw Tanner move his head to look at me, but I kept my eyes forward.
The hotel’s red roofs were visible even after the nearly three feet of snow we’d gotten. Made of metal and heated to boot, the roofs stayed clear of snow and dangerous icicles and ice dams. The sight of the bright red against the snowy mountains was gorgeous, but I couldn’t have cared less. I pulled up to the front portico, which thankfully had been shoveled out and salted. “Here we are,” I said, trying to add cheer to my voice.
Tanner turned and looked at me. His features were blank. “Thanks for saving me.” He held out a hand to shake.
I took it, grudgingly. Shit, I’d never had a one-night stand shake my hand before. I pulled one of my business cards from the console in front of the gear shift. “If you need anything…” I had no idea how to finish my sentence, so I didn’t bother.
Tanner took the card and hopped out of the truck. I watched, numb, as he limped up the stairs to the front lobby of the hotel and disappeared inside. He never once looked back.
“Well, that’s that.” I sighed and shifted the truck into drive. Tanner wasn’t the only one who was an expert on not looking back. In the four years since I’d left Alaska, I hadn’t made one call, written one email, or looked up even one person on social media.
If I could get over losing my friends and family and being banished from my ancestral lands and my birthright, I could handle a cold fish of a one-night stand. I’d survive. I was sure of it.
9
Tanner
Each breath I took from the time I got into Kodi’s truck until I walked through the lobby doors of the Presidential Hotel felt like my lungs were filled with broken glass. Even worse, none of my friends were in the lobby to meet me. I’d texted them when I was in the truck to tell them I was on my way back, but no one was here.
I deserved it. I’d abandoned my friends, and now they were returning the favor. I couldn’t help remembering the angry look in Kodi’s dark eyes when Cabot had started yelling at me about being lost. Unless I missed my guess, he’d been ready to go off on my friend, who himself had been MIA the entire first night we’d been at the hotel.
Too tired and sore to attempt the grand staircase, I took the elevator to my room. Nothing had changed. I don’t know why I thought it would have been different. I’d seen a lot of those true crime shows about missing people, and their loved ones always rifled through their things looking for some random clue that would lead them to the missing person.
A quiet knock on my room door pulled me out of my head. Looking through the peephole, I saw it was my friends. “Hey, guys.” I opened the door wide to let them in.
“Jesus, Tan!” Wells pulled me in for a tight hug. The others wrapped their arms around the two of us. “I was scared to death when we couldn’t find you. I remembered you said you were going for a walk, and that’s the information I gave the police.” He pulled back and led me to the sofa across the room.
I leaned my weight on him as we walked. My ankle was aching. “Thanks.”
Cabot grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. He twisted off the cap and handed it to me. “What happened?” He took the empty seat next to me on the couch.
The real question was how much of the real story to tell them. I’d promised Kodi his secret was safe with me, and it was. I trusted my friends implicitly, but I would keep that part of the story to myself. “I took a hike up the Adams Trail. It’s the easiest one.” I shrugged. In my mind’s eye, I could see the pretty river with the boulders and hear the way the fallen leaves crunched under my boots. “I reached the top of the trail and realized it had been snowing.” Heat rose in my cheeks. “I’d been kind of lost in my head, and the snow didn’t really register until it started obscuring the trail. I knew I needed to get back as soon as I could, but not being able to see the path meant I had to go slower.”
“Why didn’t you call or text us for help?” Archer asked.
All three of my friends, who were looking at me like they were about to burst into tears, abandoned me yesterday. One for a big dick and the other two for booze. I bit my tongue on what I really wanted to say. “I tried to text you, but I had no signal. Maybe from the weather, but I assumed it was because I was so far away from civilization.” I shrugged. It’s not like it mattered now. “I started making my way carefully down the trail, but I slipped and fell. A tree stopped my descent and I passed out.”
“What are you saying?” Archer looked back and forth between Wells and Cabot.
“If the man from Fish and Game hadn’t found me, I would have frozen to death under three feet of snow.” As long as I lived, I’d never forget the terror of that realization.
Their mouths hung open.
“What did you think happened to me? That I was out fucking some park ranger while you all worried about me?” Technically, that’s exactly what I was doing, but I wasn’t about to tell them that.
“How did he find you?” Cabot asked, still wearing a stunned look.
“He had the lucky square in the grid search. Kodi dragged me back to his cabin which borders the hotel’s property. I woke up on his sofa after dark.” My heart pinched as my mind replayed our night together.
“What’s that look?” Cabot asked. “You all saw that, didn’t you?”
“You fell for him a little bit, didn’t you?” Archer asked.
I shrugged. I hadn’t fallen for him a little bit. I’d fallen a lot. “I don’t know.” It wasn’t like it mattered anyway. I was never going to see him again.
“Don’t give me that bullshit.” Cabot wrapped an arm around me, giving me a squeeze. “You like him.”
I sighed. It was no use lying to my friends. “Yes, I like him.” It was all I was willing to say on the matter.
“So, then, what’s the problem?” Wells blurted out. His eyes widened a second later. “He didn’t like you.” It wasn’t a question.
“No!” Kodi liked me. Of course he did. Well, he liked sucking my dick well enough. “I think he liked me. He gave me his card and seemed bummed to be dropping me off at the hotel.” It felt better saying it aloud, but even with as good as it felt, my coming clean with the guys didn’t help matters.