River’s End

muffled curse. Olivia took a swig from her canteen as they climbed. The light sweat she’d worked up felt good; it felt healthy. Her muscles were limber, her mind clear. And, she admitted, she was enjoying the company. She’d chosen this trail, one that skirted up the canyon, because other hikers rarely chose to negotiate it. Long switchbacks leading to steep terrain discouraged many. But she considered it one of the most beautiful and appreciated the solitude. They moved through the lush forest, thick with green, climbing up and down ridges, along a bluff that afforded views of the river that ran silver and smooth. Wildlife was plentiful here where the majestic elk wandered and raccoon waddled to wash.
    “I have dreams about this.” Noah spoke half to himself as he stopped, just to look.
    “About hiking?”
    “No, about being here.” He tried to catch hold of them, the fragments and slippery pieces of subconscious. “Green and thick, with the sound of water running by. And... I’m looking for you.” His gaze snapped to hers, held with that sudden intensity that always rocked her. “Olivia. I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”
    When he stepped forward, she felt her heart flutter wildly. “We have a long way to go.”
    “I don’t think so.” Gently, he laid his hands on her shoulders, slid them down to cuff her wrists. “Come here a minute.”
    “I don’t—”
    “Want kissing on the trail,” he finished. “Too bad.” He dipped his head, brushed his lips over hers once. Then again. “You’re shaking.”
    “I am not.” Her bones had gone too soft to tremble.
    “Maybe it’s me. Either way, it looks like this time I finally found you.”
    She was afraid he was right.
    She drew away and, too unsteady to speak, continued up the trail. The first wet crossing was over a wide stream where the water ran clear and fast. A log bridge spanned it, and dotting the banks were clumps of wild foxglove with deep pink bells and a scatter of columbine with its bicolored trumpets. The scenery took a dramatic turn, from the deep, dank green of the river basin to the stunning old-growth forest where light speared down in shafts and pools. And the ancient trees grew straight as soldiers, tall as giants, their tops whispering sealike in the wind that couldn’t reach the forest floor.
    Through their branches he could see the dark wings of an eagle picked out against the vivid blue of the summer sky.
    Here among the ferns and mosses were bits and splashes of white, the frilly tips of fringecups, the bloodred veins of wood sorrel against its snowy petals, the tiny cups of tiarella.
    Fairy flowers, Noah thought, hiding in the shade or dancing near the fitful stream. Saying nothing, he dragged off his pack.
    “I take that to mean you want a break.”
    “I just want to be here for a while. It’s a great spot.”
    “Then you don’t want a sandwich.”
    His brows went up. “Who says?”
    Even as she reached up to release her pack, he was behind her, lifting it off. She figured it was fifty percent courtesy, fifty percent greed for the food she had packed inside. Since she could appreciate both, she unzipped the compartment that held sandwiches and vegetable sticks.
    He was right about the spot. It was a great one in which to sit and relax, to let the body rest and recharge. Water in the thin stream chugged over rocks and sparkled in the narrow beams of sunlight filtering through the canopy. The scent of pine sharpened the air. Ferns fanned over the bank, lushly green. A duet of wood thrush darted by with barely a sound, and deeper in the woods came the cackling call of a raven.
    “How often do you get out here?” Noah asked her when only crumbs remained.
    “I take groups out four or five times a year anyway.”
    “I didn’t mean a working deal. How often do you get out here like this, to sit and do nothing for a while?”
    “Not in a while.” She breathed deep, leaning back on her elbows and closing her eyes. “Not in too long a while.”
    She looked relaxed, he noted. As if at last her thoughts were quiet. He had only to shift to lay his hand over hers, to lay his lips over hers.
    Gently, so sweetly her heart sighed even as she opened her eyes to study him. “You’re starting to worry me a little, Noah. Tell me, what are you after?”
    “I think I’ve been pretty up-front about that. And I wonder why it surprises both of us that through all this, maybe right from the beginning of all this,