Valerie Hansen - Out of the Depths

“You don’t have to pretend you’re invincible when you’re around me,” she told him after they were underway. “I’m not your sister or your father. If your leg hurts, I expect you to say so. I want to know what you’re thinking.”

“No, you don’t. You may think you do, but you don’t.”

“Try me.”

“Not in a million years, lady.”

“I’m only trying to help. Why do you insist on being so difficult?”

“I’m not hard to get along with. All I want is to be left alone. I thought you’d figured that out. Isn’t that why you offered me a free cabin? To get my sister off the hook and give me some privacy.”

“That was part of the reason.”

He huffed. “You don’t think I bought that crazy story about vandalism, do you?”

“It’s not a crazy story. It’s true. I’ve had six new canoes ruined already.” She absently kneaded the back of her neck as they drove farther from the heart of Serenity. “I get a headache every time I start to think about it.”

“Headaches? Hah!”

The irony and contempt coloring his otherwise simple exclamation made Trudy Lynn stare. Cody was shaking his head and peering out the window as if he could see something terrible hidden in the darkness. Something invisible to her.

She was about to ask him if the bumpy road was bothering his leg when he shivered, then said quietly, “If you think a few wrecked canoes can give you a headache, you ought to try killing somebody, like I did, and see how much it hurts.”

Trudy Lynn didn’t know how to respond to his startling confession so she said nothing. Chances were, Cody was referring to an accidental death. She wasn’t going to press him about it. Not yet. There would be plenty of time to assess the root cause of his depression after they became friends. And they would be friends, she decided. Even if she had to beat him over the head with tough love and kill him with kindness!

That thought made her want to smile. She would have surrendered to the urge if she hadn’t been worried about giving Cody the wrong impression. The last thing the poor guy needed was to think she was laughing at his plight.

The most entertaining element of their situation was her own reactions to everything about him. It had been a long time since anyone had flustered her enough to bring out her klutzy side, nor had she been this personally interested in any man for ages. She wasn’t a prude. She was simply fed up with exaggerated male egos, thanks mainly to her recent disappointment in the one person she’d thought she could trust to be faithful. Ned’s disloyalty had taken her completely by surprise. Thus, she no longer trusted her instincts the way she used to.

Cody had been staring at her ever since he’d dropped his bombshell. “Well? Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“About what?” Trudy Lynn huffed. “If you think I’m going to stick my nose into something that’s none of my business, you have another think coming.” One eyebrow arched and she gave him a cursory glance. “However, if you want to tell me what happened, I’ll be happy to listen.”

“Never mind.”

“Okay.” She shrugged and concentrated on the curving road ahead.

“You really aren’t curious? I mean, suppose I’m dangerous?”

That brought a soft chuckle. “If I thought you were, I wouldn’t be here with you.”

Cody agreed. “If I had my choice, I wouldn’t be here with me, either.”

“That might be a little hard to accomplish.”

“No lie.” He was slowly shaking his head. “You know, as many times as I’ve gone over that day in my mind, I still haven’t figured out what I could have done to avert the accident.”

“Maybe it was meant to be.” Trudy Lynn saw his fists clench, so she elaborated. “What I mean is, maybe there wasn’t anything that could have been done, at least not on your part. Most disasters are the result of a combination of errors. You can’t hold yourself totally responsible.”

Cody snorted in disgust. “Maybe not, but the dead man’s relatives sure blame me plenty.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Have they been giving you a lot of grief?”

“Not as much as they’ve said they’re going to give me. I’ve been warned I’ll be sued. And so will the tour company I used to work for.”

“What did happen, exactly?”

He gave her a swift, telling glance. “I thought you weren’t interested.”

“Hey, I never said that. I just told you I wasn’t going to pry. You’re the one who kept talking about it.”

“True. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to get your take on it. You are in sort of the same business.”

Trudy Lynn listened patiently, stifling any urge to interrupt his story by asking for details. By the time he was through, she’d heard enough to clarify the main points and make sensible comments.

“Surely, your clients signed a waiver of responsibility. Even I require that, and my trips aren’t nearly as hazardous as whitewater rafting.”

“Of course they did. The victim signed one just like everybody else. Only he lied about his age. He was big enough to be every bit as old as he claimed.”

“But he wasn’t eighteen?”

“Bingo. Just seventeen.”

“Do you have a lawyer?”

“If I need one. I’m still hoping his family will cool off and not file suit.” He unconsciously rubbed the knotted muscles in his thigh as he spoke. “I did all I could. If my knee hadn’t snapped when he flipped me onto those rocks, I might have been able to save him.”

“You did your best, in spite of being hurt, right?”

“Of course.”

“Well, then…” Trudy Lynn shrugged. “What more do you want from yourself?”

The look of disdain Cody shot at her was a clear rebuke. Trudy Lynn took her hands off the wheel long enough to hold them up in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, okay. No more unsolicited advice. But I’m right, and you know it.”

“Do you always have to have the last word?”

She laughed softly. “I try to.”

Fireflies were blinking a pale, luminescent green welcome when Trudy Lynn pulled through the double gates of her Spring River Campground. Thanks to the lateness of the hour and scarcity of overnight campers this early in the season, the place was unusually quiet.

The dirt drive meandered in a lazy, back-and-forth pattern toward the flats beside the river. “I’ll put you in a cabin near the canoe storage to give you a better view of the area where we’ve had most of our trouble,” she told Cody.

“You were serious?”

“Very. I really do need someone to watch for vandals.” She smiled over at him. “And, yes, I actually do have that problem, in spite of your doubts.”

“Okay by me. Sailor and I will be delighted to stand guard. Figuratively speaking, in my case.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Trudy Lynn said.

Pulling up in front of a darkened cabin she killed the engine, set the parking brake and climbed out. Sailor had been patient till they’d stopped. Now, he was straining at the safety tether that held him in place in the truck bed.

“Just a minute, boy. Settle down,” she said, pausing to give him a pat and ruffle his ears. “Daddy first. Then you.”

She circled in time to meet Cody face-to-face as he braced himself on his crutches and slid off the seat. “I could have helped you do that,” she said.

“I may be crippled but I’m not helpless,” he replied stiffly.

“Good. Then I suppose you can get your own bags?” Her eyebrows arched.

“Gladly.” Cody groped behind the front seat and pulled out both his canvas duffel-type bags, letting them drop to the ground at his feet.

Trudy Lynn reached for one of them. He stopped her with an outstretched hand. “I said, I can handle it.”

“I know what you said. But this is my camp and you’re my guest. I’m not pampering you. I’d offer to help carry anybody’s bags, whether they were able to or not.”

“That’s nice. Tell you what. Why don’t you let Sailor loose before he goes nuts? He gets really agitated if he thinks I’m going to wander off and leave him.”

“I can see that.” Trudy Lynn ordered the Newfoundland to sit before she unfastened the tether and lowered the tailgate. His exuberance in scrambling out almost bowled her over.

The dog had made two galloping circuits of the pickup and had come to a stop at Cody’s feet before Trudy Lynn rejoined him. “Looks like he’s happy now.”

“It doesn’t take much to please Sailor. Food, water and my company. They definitely are a family breed, just not suited to my sister’s fancy new carpet and furniture.”

“Well, we fixed that.”

She was about to reach for his bags again when Cody waved her off. “Wait. Watch this.” He pointed to the strap of the largest one. “Sailor. Bring it.”

The enormous dog took the handle in his mouth gently, as if it were as fragile as a kitten, and, with his bushy tail waving, proudly bore it along while his master headed for the cabin.

“What about the other one?” Trudy Lynn asked.

“He’ll go get that, too.”

She hurried ahead to open the door and flip on the lights. Any worries she’d had that Sailor might get excited and knock his master down were dispelled when she noted how cautiously the lumbering dog proceeded. When the first bag was safely delivered, Cody sent him back for the second.

“Wow. I’m impressed,” Trudy Lynn said. “How did you teach him that?”

“I can’t take credit. He was a natural. From the time he was a pup he carried things around. Loved my socks. I used to leave them on the floor just so he’d have something to pick up and bring to me.”

“A furry valet?”

“Something like that. He added more to the mess than he cleaned up, but his heart was in the right place so I encouraged him.” Cody’s smile widened as Sailor returned with the second bag, mission accomplished, and placed it at his feet. “It would have been a lot nicer if he hadn’t drooled, though.”

“So what? You were going to wash the socks anyway.”

“Right.” He surveyed the one-room cabin approvingly. “Looks cozy. Any special instructions?”

“Not that I can think of. If I’d known anyone was going to be staying here I’d have made up the bed ahead of time.” She was already moving across the room. “It’ll only take me a second.”

“Don’t bother.”

Trudy Lynn sent him a grin over her shoulder as she whipped the plaid bedspread aside, unfurled a clean sheet and bent to her task. “Why? Does your dog make beds, too?”

“Not yet, but I’m working on it.”

“Should be an interesting trick. Especially if you can teach him to stop slobbering while he works.”

Cody made a face. “Yeah. There is that problem.”

“This cabin has its own private bathroom,” Trudy Lynn explained while smoothing out the last wrinkle in the bedding. “Towels are in the cabinet over there. So are more clean sheets if you decide Sailor needs to practice his tucking skills.”

“Thanks. I think I’ll wait on that till we get home.”

“In that case, I’ll say good-night and leave you in peace.”

She was almost to the door when Cody said, “Thank you.”

There was so much true relief in his tone she turned and smiled. “You’re quite welcome. Both of you. I’ll get Sailor’s food and dishes out of the back of the truck before I go. Sleep as late as you want in the morning. When you’re up and about, I’ll introduce you to my staff. There aren’t many of us. Will and I stay overnight. The rest come to work when I need them.”