Courting Katarina Read online

  Just hearing those words made everything crystal clear. Though he hadn’t given it too much thought, he had to admit, he hadn’t totally ruled out a relationship with Katarina. Reason had told him that she was his little sister’s age, and he had quickly dispelled the comparison. But her father? It was a bit much.

  No use hoping there could ever be something between them. They were at two opposite stages in their lives. She was young and energetic, ready to experience life to its fullest. He, on the other hand, had seen the best the world had to offer and longed to settle down, find someone to share his life, maybe even start a family.

  Her father? He groaned silently.

  Katarina pulled onto the highway without another word.

  He needed a distraction. Why hadn’t he thought to look on the rack for the latest John Grisham novel? “If you’d like me to drive, just let me know. Otherwise, I’ll try not to bother you.”

  Alex wiped sweat from his brow and instantly remembered the friends and responsibilities he’d left behind. They were probably off to a fire somewhere by now.

  His mind was no longer on the lovely woman next to him, but stuck on the current drought. As much as he tried to forget, the career he’d put on hold haunted him. There was no way he could douse the guilt that gnawed at his gut. His mother’s call to help Kevin had come right before the doctor’s appointment that would have cleared him to return to fighting fires.

  Why did he try to kid himself? He knew his leg was ready, but he was far from it. Despite the accident, jumping out of a DC-3 didn’t bother him, but what would be waiting for him when he hit the ground did. He tried to forget memories of the two friends who wouldn’t be with him this year. He should have been there that day. Why had his best friend failed to see the severity of the fire, leaving a young widow and baby behind?

  Fires were unpredictable by nature. That was one of the first concepts he’d learned. Yet it hadn’t stopped him from jumping into the middle of a blazing forest for the past eight years. Now, suddenly, it seemed unimportant. He knew better, but for some reason, it just wasn’t enough.

  Kevin had mentioned needing help running his expanding company. They had tried it once before. And he’d been the one to walk away, leaving Kevin to find his own way. Alex had wanted adventure, and if the truth be known, he didn’t care about the element of danger the job involved.

  He glanced at Katarina. What are you trying to tell me, God? Just when I think I know the plan, I hit a smoke screen.

  And the current smoke screen had a name. Sweet, optimistic-to-a-fault, yet deeply hurting… Katarina.

  Alex recalled the day he and Adam had made that ridiculously childish pact. In eight years he hadn’t been as tempted to break it as he had in the past four days.

  This is ludicrous, he thought. There’s no such thing as love at first sight.

  Chapter Eight

  Katarina closed her window and fanned herself with her pocket calendar at the third construction zone. What should have been a five-hour drive had taken nearly seven, and they weren’t even close to Montana yet. She started the engine and turned the fan to high.

  “What are you doing?”

  He watched her turn the vents toward her.

  “What does it look like? I can’t stand this dusty hot air any longer. Just a few minutes.” He started to repeat his warning about the car overheating when she lifted her finger to her mouth to shush him. “If we hit one more construction zone, I’m going to scream.”

  Alex didn’t say another word.

  Not even when it took another ten minutes for traffic to move through the road construction. Not even when the temperature warning light came on. Not even when it meant sitting in the unbearable heat for an hour before Alex could go near the radiator. They’d barely pulled into the restaurant in Casper before the temperature gauge began rising again. By mutual consent they agreed to look for a place to stay for the night. They called all the motels listed in the phone directory, disappointed to find no vacancies for a hundred miles.

  She was exhausted. “I wish we could get out of this heat.”

  “Be careful what you ask for—you just might get it.”

  Before leaving town, they stopped for gasoline. Katarina started filling the tank with fuel and Alex opened the hood.

  “What’s wrong now?”

  “I want to check all the fluid levels.” A few minutes later, he headed into the convenience store.

  Katarina scrubbed the bugs from the windshield while she waited. In addition to paying for the gas, Alex emerged with another gallon of water, engine coolant, oil, windshield washer fluid and a small Styrofoam cooler.

  “What’s that? Heavens, we just ate half the restaurant. And I had the oil changed before we left.”

  “Then I wouldn’t bother going back to the same place again. I’m afraid they took you, big time. Either that, or your car goes through fluids faster than I do,” he grumbled. “I hope this takes care of everything. I bought a couple of sandwiches in case we need a snack.” Alex set the cooler in the back seat. “The clerk confirmed that construction report. He suggested we cut across through Yellowstone. What do you think? There shouldn’t be any traffic this time of night.” He proceeded to add the oil and fill the radiator as they talked.

  Katarina rested her hip against the car and crossed her arms. “It sounds so isolated, but I can’t take another delay, either. I’ll do whatever you think is best.”

  Alex touched her forehead with the back of his hand. “You aren’t feverish. Maybe it’s heat exhaustion.”

  She gave him a playful pout.

  “So, what’s up?” He closed the hood, then smiled.

  She looked at him again, this time less upset that she’d let him come. If she’d been alone, she’d still be stuck on the interstate, waiting in an endless line of traffic. “I think it’s your turn to drive. I haven’t a clue where we’re going.”

  “Aha, I knew the other shoe was about to fall.” He looked at his watch. “Even if we stop to rest somewhere along the way, we should make it to my place by tomorrow evening, and you’ll have another day to get to Spokane. Might even have a chance to show off the sights. You ever been to Yellowstone?”

  “No.” She had to admit, the scenery part sounded nice. She’d had it with traffic jams, exhaust, heat and the dry, dusty, barren plains.

  “You’re sure you’re not going to change your mind? I realize it is a woman’s prerogative. I don’t want to take over or anything.”

  She crawled into the passenger seat and clicked her seat belt for emphasis. “She’s all yours. Do you need the map?”

  Alex laughed. He pushed the seat back and slipped behind the steering wheel. “Where do you think we are, the Old West? They don’t use trees as landmarks anymore.”

  “Could have fooled me.”

  A few miles down the road, the teasing lilt of Katarina’s voice broke the silence. “So, devoted bachelor, tell me about this pact you and your baby brother have.”

  “We don’t need to go there, Miss Practically Engaged. So what does this mean, anyway? How does one get to be ‘practically engaged’?”

  Katarina let out a theatrical sigh. “Well, I’m certainly not going to tell you if you’re not going to tell me about the pact.”

  “Fine with me.” He turned to look out the window. Alex reached into the back seat and pulled out a cassette. “Hope you don’t mind—thought it might beat livestock reports and static.” He pushed the tape into the player and adjusted the volume. “There wasn’t much to choose from. I at least recognized this name.”

  Faith Hill began her lively concert. A while later, she noticed Alex rub his leg just above the knee. Being cramped up in the car certainly hadn’t been easy on it.

  Katarina saw lights ahead. “I think we’d better find someplace to stay the night, Alex. We both need to stretch out and get a good night’s sleep.”

  He rubbed his leg again, then asked her to get him a cold soda from the cooler. He chugged
half of it before saying a word. “We’re almost to Thermopolis. We can see if there’s a couple of rooms there. If not… I have to be honest, the chances of finding anything are slim before we’re in the park.”

  Alex should have warned her that they’d need reservations. Motel rooms were in short supply in this part of the country. He yawned. An hour later, their last hope diminished, he headed north.

  It was apparent that if he wanted to bridge that gap between him and Katarina, he was going to have to take the first step. “You going to sleep, or are you willing to take a chance on getting to know one another? I’m afraid we have plenty of time to burn.”

  Katarina giggled. “Cute.”

  “It’s about time you appreciated my humor. So, what do you say—I’ll tell you my story, and you tell me yours. If nothing else, it will help make the trip go faster.”

  She looked at him skeptically. Finally she agreed. “May as well jump right in. You lead.”

  Alex turned on his brights and set the cruise control. It felt good to laugh with her. “I think I’ll let you win, before I go up in smoke.”

  “Ooh, you’re on fire now.”

  He groaned. “I think that proves we’re exhausted. Adam and I made ‘our pact,’ as you call it, after Emily broke the engagement. Our dad—”

  “Wait just a minute. After Emily broke the engagement? Kevin refused to go with her so she could attend medical school.”

  “That’s not the whole story, but they’re together again, remember? There’s no use arguing the point now.”

  “But arguing with you is such fun.” She smiled.

  He glanced at her in disbelief, keeping one eye on the road. “Is that what this has been all about?”

  “What can you say—when you’re hot, you’re hot.”

  Alex cleared his throat, hoping to put out the fire that was about to blow up in both of their faces. “Maybe we’d both be better off if you went to sleep.”

  She giggled. “I’m sorry. Go ahead with your story.”

  “As I was saying, six months after they broke up, our dad died, we closed down Dad’s business, Mom went through a bad spell trying to handle everything, then Liz and her husband lost their six-month-old daughter in a fire. It does things to you, experiencing that much loss in such a short time.”

  Katarina touched his arm. “I’m sorry, Alex. That must have been very difficult.”

  Her hand felt like a feather. Soft, delicate and reassuring.

  “That’s been a long time now.” Her voice faltered. “Haven’t you ever heard the saying, ‘Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all’? Don’t you want to get married some day?”

  “I’ll plead the fifth on that last one.” He glanced at Katarina, wondering how many men she’d loved and lost. “You actually believe the first one?”

  “I guess I do. I wouldn’t be thinking of getting married if I didn’t.” She turned around in the seat to dig for her stitching and turned the map light on. “Does the light bother you?”

  “No, it’s fine.”

  From under the seat she brought a box of disposable washcloths and wiped her hands before taking the fabric from the basket. “Until Ron and I do get married, I want to see the country and enjoy myself. There isn’t much time before we’ll settle down and have children. I don’t want to wait until I’m an old maid to start a family, either.”

  “By all means, you’d better hurry and lasso that boyfriend of yours, then.”

  “And what is that supposed to mean?”

  He was beginning to sound and feel like some jealous old man. “You make it sound like some business merger instead of love.”

  “We’ve been dating nearly two years.”

  “So why aren’t you married, then?” he challenged.

  Katarina looked at him with those bright blue eyes wide and a defensive smile on her lips. “If you must know, he’s going to ask me on August fifteenth, our second anniversary.”

  “Now, that sounds romantic. Why wait, if you’re so much in love? Or are you?”

  “Would I date someone for that long and not love him?” she demanded, her voice quivering.

  “And two years proves you’re in love? You are a dreamer, Katarina.” She didn’t reply. “I’m sorry, but how long you date has nothing to do with the success of a marriage. I’ve known couples who have been together for years whose marriages fell apart. And couples who by some miracle know immediately that they’re right for one another—who are there for one another through thick and thin, good times and bad. That’s love.”

  “Ron sends me flowers every Friday.”

  “A real Boy Scout, huh? Sounds like an accountant with an efficient secretary.” Alex slowed to round a curve.

  “You ought to talk—you won’t even commit to a relationship. You’d rather stick to some childish pact with your brother.”

  He hesitated, assessing her for a moment. “The life of a smokejumper isn’t easy on relationships. I haven’t committed myself because I refuse to leave a wife to worry and raise the kids alone. If I found someone I’m crazy enough about to marry, I couldn’t leave her six months out of the year. When I find her, she’s going to be my first priority, not some job.”

  There was a long silence. “Then maybe you should find someone who likes adventure and traveling, and let her go with you. There are plenty of people who take their family with them on a job. Look at actors and singers.”

  There was more to it than the traveling, but he couldn’t begin to explain that to a dreamer like Katarina. He’d said far more than he should have already. He pressed the accelerator and hoped she’d let the subject die.

  “Don’t you have some wonderful advice for me?”

  He heard a glint of amusement in her voice, saw a hint of a smile on her face. “Yeah, your fiancé is a fool for letting you out of his sight.”

  Katarina couldn’t work. She put the doll clothes away and pretended to doze, bewildered by Alex’s remarks. Why was he so upset with her? They’d listened to both sides of that tape at least five times. If she heard one more song about a brokenhearted cowboy she’d walk back home. She wondered what in the world kept bringing on the arguments between them. The romantic in her said only one reason made sense. But that was impossible. They’d known each other only a week. Besides, she was practically engaged to someone else. She couldn’t be falling in love with Alex.

  Katarina tucked her feet up onto the seat and leaned her head against the door. The music faded away and she felt the pressure of the day slip into the comfort of silence….

  …Some sixth sense brought her fully awake.

  “Hang on!” Alex’s hand pressed her against the seat.

  The car slid off the road and rolled to its side, to the top, then over again. Her sewing basket hit her in the head. The totes and cooler tumbled in the back end as if they were in a clothes dryer. Finally they came to a sudden stop. A terrible clanging forced him to turn the car off.

  “Katarina, you okay?”

  “What happened?”

  “I swerved to miss a deer and hit a boulder in the road. Are you hurt?” He flicked the lights on.

  She shook her head. “I hit my head on something, but I think I’m okay. Are you? Okay, I mean.”

  “I’m fine. We need to get out of here. Grab your things, quick. Don’t forget the cell phone.”

  The headlights glared into the abyss. Alex opened the back end and pulled everything out. “Move things farther away from the car. Gas is leaking.” When they were through, he pointed a flashlight toward the road. “If this is the detour, I’d hate to see what the highway looks like. I’ve four-wheeled on better.”

  “There was more road construction?”

  He nodded.

  Katarina headed back to the car, muttering.

  “Katarina? Did you forget something?”

  He watched in silence as she walked a wide circle and looked at her car. Weeds stuck out from the back doors. The top looked like an ac
cordion, the front end like a mountain range. One headlight was gone.

  Alex walked toward her, his movements stiff and awkward. “Katarina, I’m so sorry.”

  She could tell from the tone of Alex’s voice that he didn’t need any help in feeling rotten and she sniffed back her tears.

  Looking at the fingernail moon still high in the sky, she realized they hadn’t made as much progress as she’d hoped. She struggled to keep her frustration at bay. She didn’t need to lash out at him, she repeated to herself. It could have happened to anyone.

  “I just need to walk.”

  Alex took hold of her arm as she continued up the road. He turned on the flashlight, scanning their path.

  “Katarina, stop!” He pulled her roughly to him in an unyielding embrace.

  Struggling against him, she turned her head to see why he’d done so. Just ahead the road was washed away, leaving a six-foot drop.

  Katarina gasped. “We…we…would have driven in there, Alex.”

  “Thank God. Thank God for that deer,” he whispered, his breath hot against her ear.

  She rested her head against Alex’s chest and felt his heart pounding. A tumble of confusing thoughts and emotions assailed her. Her trembling limbs clung to him. “This must have been the road that was closed. Someone moved the detour sign.”

  Alex’s rough hands rubbed her arms and held her securely. “Oh, Katarina.”

  She loved the sweet sound of him saying her name. Blood pounded in her brain and her knees trembled. She closed her eyes, blinking back tears.

  Silently they both backed away and walked toward the car. Each time she picked up her pace, he did so also. What’s happening here? Get hold of yourself, Kat. “We should call the state patrol,” she said, her voice choked with emotion. “Where are we?” She found her phone on a tote and turned it on.