Wordlessly, Cliff skirted around the bed until he stood on the other side. The duvet lifted and she instantly felt the change in heat as he slipped under the covers. Alexis started to consider that this maybe wasn’t the best decision she’d made. How was she ever going to get to sleep now with this beautiful man lying beside her with intricate tattoos on his arms and chest that she wanted to trace with her tongue? Yes, this was definitely the worst decision she’d ever made.
“Go to sleep,” he growled, his arms on top of the covers and folded against his chest.
With a gentle smile, Alexis turned her head until it once again was facing the ceiling and
closed her eyes. “Good night, Cliff. Sweet dreams.”
It was early when Alexis woke the next morning. Not quite bright enough for sunlight, but just light enough that she could make out the empty bed next to her. Even though she conned Cliff into sleeping in the bed with her during the night, she slept the rest of the night wonderfully. Maybe the notion that he was there to protect her helped put her mind at ease.
Gingerly slipping out of bed, Alexis was surprised to find a pair of crutches resting against the nightstand. She didn’t recall them being there the night before, but maybe that was why Cliff was out of bed.
Regardless of her desire to inspect everything in the room, Alexis gripped the crutches, placed them under her arms, and began to maneuver through the house. In the living room, she stopped suddenly.
How did she miss this yesterday?
Her only thought was that she was too out of it to recognize the image in the picture. There were several scattered across the wall, all of varying places in Carson that Alexis recognized. But she knew those fingers anywhere. That day she had gone for a run on this path surrounding Cliff’s cabin, she stopped to catch her breath and had gently run her fingers over the top of the wheat stalks. For this image to be so crisp and clear would mean that the photographer had been very close to her body.
When Cliff pulled into the cabin’s drive yesterday, Alexis’ tried not to let on how much she adored this place. She had been hoping that if she ever retired from her duties that she could escape here away from everyone. This would be the place Alexis would lay down roots. Now, she realized that Cliff felt the same.
Inspecting each of the portraits on the wall, Alexis’ eyes traveled toward the mantle above the fireplace. The space was pretty bare, only sparsely decorated with a few odds and ends, but lying face down was a small picture. Lifting the image, a cheerful woman smiled back at her. Alexis found herself returning the gesture. Her pale blonde hair flew around her face on a breeze and the hem of her dress did the same around her tanned legs. She was beautiful, but strangely, Alexis felt not an ounce of jealousy. Whoever this woman was, Cliff had carried this picture close with him. The edges of the photograph were worn, the font itself scraped and tattered. Alexis couldn’t help but think that this picture held more than just a memory for Cliff.
Feeling like she had invaded his privacy, Alexis placed the picture back exactly how she found it and then hobbled around the couch toward the kitchen. She was surprised to find it empty as well. Considering the nature of the photos in the room, Alexis took a chance to check outside the cabin.
It took some skill to open and hold the door ajar while gripping the crutches, but she managed. Standing on the front porch, she glanced around the open field, the same one as the picture, but couldn’t locate Cliff. Alexis thought back to her time running along the path and remembered access to a lake behind the cabin.
Gritting her teeth, Alexis teetered down the steps then slowly made her way toward a narrow opening in the tree line. She followed the trail for a while until the cabin was no longer in view behind her and for a moment, Alexis worried that she would be unable to make it back. Her weakness grew with each step and her vision clouded with white.
Leaning against a large tree, Alexis took a minute to rest, thankful when her vision returned. And though she was not at full strength, she felt ten times better after the break. She just hoped that she was getting close because it would take her an hour to make it back up the small hill.
Finally, an opening broke through the forest and the lake came into view. At first, Alexis didn’t see Cliff, but turning her attention to the left, she found a lone dock perched over the water and a man sitting on the edge – looking just as lost as she felt.
Chapter Four
Cliff tried his hardest to bite back a smile. For a woman that was known to her colleagues as stealth and light on her feet, Cliff heard her approach almost ten minutes before she made herself known. But he’d never tell her that fact. Of course, if he did, she’d most likely blame the crutches.
When he first heard her footsteps, he wasn’t sure if he was elated or irritated that she had discovered his hiding spot. The path to the lake wasn’t discernible to the naked eye, but now that she’s here, he felt – content. As if he had been expecting her all along. And maybe he was.
When he woke this morning after the best sleep he could remember, his body had been turned toward Alexis. She slept with a smile on her lips and Cliff prayed that he had been the one to put it there. He wanted to be the reason for all of her smiles. But just as the happy thought had planted its seed in his heart, the ugliness of who he was reared its nasty head. She didn’t know him, didn’t know anything about him except what the government would allow. If she ever found out about the coldness swirling through his veins, she would be disgusted.
Before morning light, he left the bed as abruptly as he had entered it, venturing outside to the place that brought him peace. Except he had forgotten his camera at his shop and felt naked standing in the open field even though he was fully clothed. The call of the water had beckoned him forward and he had been sitting in the same spot since dawn broke.
The dock had been the first thing he constructed for the property. His desire to be one with nature compelled him to take the time to sit amongst the vast space. The hard work paid off and whenever Cliff felt lost in himself, he sits in this same spot, a reminder of how inconsequential his problems were to the world.
“I was wondering where you were,” she said as the thud of her crutches echoed on the wooden dock.
Cliff held out a hand and assisted Alexis in sitting on the planks, bearing most of her weight on his one hold. She giggled as she swiped her bare feet in the cool lake water, Cliff forgot that she had no shoes here, but he could listen to her laugh all day.
“Normally I come out here to clear my head,” he explained.
Turning her head toward him, she prompted, “But. . .”
“But today, I’m preparing for my house to be filled to the brim with the Connelly family.”
“Seems like such a burden to have people that care about you.”
Her remark surprised him and he pulled his attention away from her. “I just don’t like to be around a lot of people.”
“Well, then you picked the wrong group of friends. I knew the day that I met them that they considered friends like family.”