Jake's Biggest Risk (Those Hollister Boys) (13 page)

Yet even as the thought formed, Brendan frowned. It was unlikely he’d ever get along with Barbi Paulson, but she obviously wasn’t a bad sort. Otherwise Hannah wouldn’t be friends with her. He should have realized that before.

And exactly what
was
“a woman like her” anyhow?

He’d grown up in a world where Clothes Make the Man was a motto taken to an extreme degree. Proper dressing was expected of everyone in the Townsend social circle. But nice clothes could hide some really nasty dirt, as he’d learned all too well during the summers he’d worked as an intern at the family firm.

So when it got right down to it, Barbi’s colorful clothes didn’t automatically say
anything
about what sort of person she might be. Maybe they were her armor, the same way his suits were for him.

But if that was the case, what was she protecting herself from?

* * *

B
ARBI
CALLED
H
ANNAH
late in the afternoon to see if she should still come for a tutoring session that evening.

“Of course,” Hannah assured her. “How did things go with Brendan? We talked for a minute after I got back, but he didn’t say much. I think he’s feeling pretty sorry for himself.”

“With this bug, I can’t blame him.”

“It was really nice of you to go shopping for him.”

“Not really. Remember, Jake was paying me.” But Barbi squirmed because the pay hadn’t included doing Brendan’s laundry or tidying the condo, and she’d done it anyway. What else could you do when a guy was as sick as that?

“Be sure to collect when you get here. That guy throws money around as if it’s so much tissue paper.”

“It must be nice to be rich.”

Hannah laughed. “I suppose. I’ll see you later. Bring an appetite. I’m making a pot of soup.”

“You don’t need to feed me.”

“I know I don’t need to—I want to.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Barbi hung up and thought about what she’d said about being rich. It
would
be nice, but she’d settle for a place that didn’t have Victor Paulson living there. Once upon a time she’d loved her father, but after over twenty years of dealing with his boozing and violence and self-pity, there wasn’t much love left.

Maybe that made her a terrible person. People were supposed to love their parents. And she couldn’t tell anyone how she felt; they probably wouldn’t understand. Or maybe in a weird way she was protecting Vic, so nobody would know exactly how bad he’d become.

* * *

“M
OMMY
,
WHY
COULDN
’
T
I
go with you and Jake today?”

Hannah hung up the phone after talking to Barbi and looked down at her son. “Because you were sick a couple of days ago, and I need to be sure you’re well. Besides, you get the wiggles and Jake needs to concentrate. Maybe you can go with us later in the summer.” As much as Hannah wanted to include her son in the trips, now that she’d seen the way Jake worked, she wasn’t sure it was a good idea.

“I’d be good. I like Jake.”

“I know you do, but you can’t go with us all the time anyway. Sometimes we’ll be traveling too far, or hiking too much, so you’ll need to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s. They like seeing you, too. You also have day camp for a couple of weeks with all your friends. And then there’s vacation Bible school at the church.”

Danny sighed, looking torn. “Gosh, I’m busy.”

She hid a grin. “Yes, you are. I’m going to fix chicken-and-rice soup for dinner now. Does that sound good?”

“Uh-huh, I’m tired of applesauce.”

“I’ll bet you are.”

Humming to herself, Hannah put the soup together. She had two committee meetings in the morning. And she would clean Huckleberry Lodge in the afternoon.

Then on Wednesday she planned to take Jake down to Mount St. Helens and see what he made of it. The volcanic action of the Cascades wasn’t always pretty, but it was part of life in the mountains. Of course, knowing Jake, he’d probably witnessed an
erupting
volcano up close and personal. But surely it would still be interesting for him to see the remains of Mount St. Helens and the way the land had begun to repair itself.

Jake had certainly seemed intrigued with the dogwood blossoms, or at least by the light surrounding them. It was doubtful that he could have faked that level of interest for several hours. Undoubtedly the photos would be brilliant, but she questioned whether he had captured what she loved about the trees in bloom, their white bracts heralding spring and summer. And maybe nobody could, because the way she saw them was filtered through years of memories.

She stepped too quickly away from the stove and felt a twinge from her twisted ankle. It was uncomfortable, but she’d gone for strenuous hikes on much worse. The hardest part was not being able to jump in the hot tub over at Huckleberry Lodge.

* * *

W
HEN
J
AKE
WOKE
up it was after eight in the evening. He’d practically collapsed after getting into Huckleberry Lodge, and that was following a long sleep in the Jeep while Hannah drove. But at least he’d managed to hike two miles and work for several hours without falling flat on his face.

He rolled over on the sunroom couch, raised himself up on his elbows and looked out the open window. Barbi’s car was there, and he saw both women on the deck outside Silver Cottage, talking with a stack of books between them on the patio table. But while he could hear almost everything discussed by Hannah’s front door and in the compound between the two buildings, only whispers of sound came from the deck. The acoustics were different there, perhaps because it faced the lake.

Interesting. They were out there two or three times a week, always with books and talking intently. He considered going over to pay Barbi for her shopping and trip to Brendan’s home, but she knew he was good for it and he didn’t want to intrude.

Jake stretched and decided to go looking for dinner. Hannah had fed him a big lunch, but that had been hours ago and he was hungry again.

Yet as his gaze settled on his knapsack, Jake forgot about food. Some of the old excitement had come back to him while he was photographing the dogwood flowers. It hadn’t been quite the same as before the plane crash, but it was something, and he’d relished feeling more like himself again.

Yet also not entirely like himself. He’d been concerned about Hannah’s feelings in an unfamiliar way. He never got involved in people’s lives, even to a small degree, but when he’d seen that odd look on her face when she learned about Brendan being ill...

Jake shook his head, deciding he was crazy. Making the arrangements for groceries was akin to offering assistance to a village while on his travels. His photography came first, but only a heartless jerk would refuse to pitch in when there was a damaging storm or earthquake. It didn’t mean he was getting involved with Hannah.

He fired up his computer and got the SD cards from the cameras. The photographs appeared on the screen and he began evaluating them with a critical eye. Nothing unique, he decided, but a few captured that sense of a shimmering jewel hanging in the middle of a forest.

Jewel
.

Jake snorted. The last thing he needed was to adopt Hannah’s flights of fancy. He accepted nature for what it was—sometimes hard and cruel, sometimes stunningly beautiful, but all very real. Not that he hadn’t encountered mystical and religious beliefs in the cultures he’d been exposed to over the years, but any immortality he might have would come from his photographs.

Yet even as he thought about it, Jake once again clicked on his Arctic folder and looked at the pictures of Gordon. He’d liked Gordon. Though they hadn’t known each other for more than a few weeks, he still recalled his conversations with the old bush pilot and the way he could recite limericks and Robert Service’s poems by the hour. And the hint of humor when he’d listened to Toby complain...

Jake frowned. Gordon’s humor, however subtle, had been missing the day of the crash. Could
that
have been an indication of his approaching heart attack? It was possible there had been other signs as well...signs that were missed. Did that mean one of them should have noticed and insisted they stay in the village that day?

Someone like him, as the leader of the project?

Frustrated, Jake got up and yanked open the refrigerator. Maybe he should just get rid of the shots of Gordon, but the pilot’s family might enjoy having the photographs. And he couldn’t make crappy memories go away by pushing the delete key.

Jake’s good mood crumbled.

Hell, one day of fair photography did
not
mean he’d gotten back on the right track.

CHAPTER TEN

“Y
OU
’
RE
GOING
TO
Mount St. Helens with the photographer?” Hannah’s father asked on Tuesday evening. “Don’t you think that’s a lot for one day?”

Hannah’s mother had invited her and Danny over for dinner, and she was sitting next to her dad as he repaired a leaky utility sink in the garage.

“I’m just giving Jake Hollister a taste of the Cascades. How much he bites off is up to him.”

Daniel Nolan chuckled. “I take it he still annoys you?”

“Sometimes.” Yet she shifted uncomfortably, remembering the warmth she’d felt when Jake had kissed her cheek.
Platonically,
no less. “We had a decent outing yesterday, without any major debates, but when I went to clean at the lodge this afternoon, he was in a foul mood again. I think the hike on Monday may have been too much for him. He isn’t the type to admit he was in pain, so he acted like a churlish bear.”

“Watch it—that’s your mother’s description of me on a bad day.”

“You couldn’t come close to this guy. At least he didn’t upset Danny. They got to talking and Jake loosened up enough to tell him about the life cycle of the emperor penguin—apparently when he was nineteen he spent a winter in Antarctica taking pictures of them. I gotta tell you, his stories are a long way from
Happy Feet
.”

“Say, that’s a cute film.”

“Aren’t you the one who swore he’d never watch a cartoon?”

“That’s before I had a grandson.”

“You and Mom are alike.” Hannah handed him a pipe wrench. “Why do the rules change for grandchildren?”

“They just do. Like Aunt Elkie used to say, ‘load ’em up with sugar and send ’em home.’”

“She did that, didn’t she?”

“Like clockwork.”

Hannah smiled with the memories. Her great-aunt and uncle had taken the place of the grandparents she’d never known, and they’d spoiled her shamelessly. Funny how things could turn out—her dad had been raised in foster homes and her mom’s parents had drowned in India when she was sixteen. Carrie had been sent to live with Elkie and Larry, falling instantly in love with a handsome local high school student named Daniel Nolan.

Her parents’ story was probably why Hannah had so fiercely believed she and Collin would have a lifetime together. Carrie and Daniel were proof that sometimes teenagers
did
fall in love forever.

“I guess I can forgive you and Mom for indulging my son,” Hannah said, taking a damaged piece of pipe from her father and giving him the replacement length.

Her dad could fix anything. He had the biggest contracting business in Mahalaton Lake, a business that he’d started at the same time he had set up shop as an architect. It had made sense in such a small town, and he liked being sure the best materials and workmanship were going into his building designs. Personally Hannah thought he’d done it out of self-preservation—being inside an office so many hours a day would have driven him crazy.

“Wait until you’re a grandmother,” he advised. “You’ll love it.”

“I love being a mom, too. I just hope I’m not making too many mistakes. After all, I’m the only one Danny can blame them on right now,” she tried to say lightly.

“Mistakes are normal. Refusing to fix them isn’t. I’ve had to replace a lot of floor joists and subflooring because people ignored a small leak in their toilet.”

“Yeah, but what if you don’t know there’s a leak?”

Her father finished tightening the pipe and sat up. “What’s bothering you, sweetheart?”

“Oh...I don’t know.” Hannah rubbed the back of her neck. She was worried about Danny hearing too many of Jake’s tales, yet going overboard trying to stop it could cause problems, too. “Jake’s exciting stories are causing sleep issues for Danny. They aren’t serious yet, but they’re also making him think more about his own father. He imagines that Steven is having the same kind of adventures and wants to go on them, too.”

“And you’re afraid that when Jake leaves, Danny will be upset, just like when Steven pops in and out.”

“Yes.”

“Hmm. Have you heard from Steven lately?”

“Not since that visit last fall.” Her ex had buzzed in without warning, given Danny a video game and left before his son could get the box open. He hadn’t been in the house for ten minutes. If he wasn’t willing to be a father, even part-time, why couldn’t he simply stay away? It wasn’t fair to put Danny through such an emotional roller coaster.

Daniel wiped his hands and got up. “Your ex-husband is an ass, but we already knew that.”

Hannah nodded. “
We
know it, but Danny loves him. Then he starts thinking he’s done something wrong and that’s why Steven doesn’t come very often.”

“He just loves the idea of having a father like his friends,” Daniel said firmly. “How can you love someone you’ve only seen a few times in your entire life?”

“I don’t know, I just don’t want him getting hurt worse, and I
don’t
want him turning out like Steven.”

“Neither do we, sweetie. We’ll just have to keep doing our best. Come on, let’s go inside. I bet your mother has a cherry cobbler in the oven, and smelling cobbler while it’s baking is half the pleasure of eating it.”

Some of Hannah’s tension eased, and she followed her dad into the house. The days were gone when he could make her problems go away just by being her daddy, but it still made her feel better to talk to him.

* * *

T
HE
NEXT
MORNING
Jake watched Hannah as she drove the connecting roads to Mount St. Helens. After dropping Danny and Badger at her parents’ home she’d grown silent and barely looked at him. Obviously she was still unhappy about his behavior the day before.

“All right,” he said finally. “I wasn’t in the best mood yesterday. I apologize.”

“Yeah, well, a sidewinder would have been more pleasant to deal with.”

“Uh...sidewinder?” Jake asked cautiously. It sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place the name. “I don’t know that particular term.”

She shook her head. “It isn’t a
term,
it’s a poisonous snake. You must not have watched very many old Westerns when you were growing up. No wonder you don’t know anything about the culture in your own country.”

“We’ve been over this before,” Jake protested. “My mother grew up in the U.S. She taught me.”

“Okay, let’s give you a quiz and see how you do. What if I say something like, ‘I’m releasing the flying monkeys.’ What do you think of?”

“Well, in the first place there are no flying monkeys. There are some that
appear
to—”

Hannah made an exasperated sound. “It’s a reference to
The Wizard of Oz
and the Wicked Witch of the West. Not an actual movie quote, but the flying monkeys are a big part of the movie.”

“Oh.” Jake had the feeling Hannah was going to beat him hands down in this game.

“Okay, next. ‘Rosebud,’” she said in a low, tortured voice.

“You want flowers?”

“
Citizen Kane,
with Orson Welles. It’s a movie supposedly based on William Randolph Hearst’s rise to power in the newspaper business.”

“Hey, I’ve heard of both movies.”

“But you don’t know them. Next one. ‘This is what I call a timely interruption.’ Uh...never mind, that’s from
Captain Blood
and might be too obscure for most people. I know it because my great-aunt loved Errol Flynn and pirate movies.”

Hannah was looking much more relaxed and Jake decided to sit back and enjoy himself. “Give me a quote that isn’t so hard.”

“‘We’ll always have Paris’?”

“Not a clue.”

“
Casablanca
. That one is full of classic dialogue like, ‘Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.’” She was impersonating someone again, and while it sounded familiar, he was still clueless, until all at once it dawned on him.

“Humphrey Bogart,” Jake said triumphantly. “I saw
Key Largo
a long time ago. Bogie and Bacall, right? Lauren Bacall has the sexiest voice. Nobody will ever match her.”

“Thank you from all the women of the world,” Hannah returned drily. “We love having standards we can’t possibly live up to.”

He grinned. “You started this.”

“I suppose. There’s a huge movie collection at the lodge. You haven’t watched any of it?”

“Television isn’t my thing. I don’t even have one at my studio in Costa Rica. Before I go out on a location I download a stack of nonfiction books on my eReader. Along with my work, that keeps me pretty busy. And most of the places I’ve lived don’t have television or movie theaters anyway.”

“eReader? How do you recharge the battery?” Hannah asked curiously.

“With a handy little solar charger.”

“Oh. Well, I approve of reading, but movies are one way to educate yourself about U.S. culture. You should watch some of the old classics...starting with
Casablanca
. I can make a basic list if you want, and I’m sure you can find recommendations on the internet. It’s amazing how many things we say or read that have their roots in Hollywood.”

Jake wondered how Hannah would react if he suggested she come over for a movie night.

Hannah turned the Jeep into a service station. “We’d better fill up.”

“Sure.” He took out his credit card and was looking at the instructions on the electronic pay station when Hannah pointed.

“Swipe your card that way through the slot, then follow the instructions on the screen. It’ll probably ask for a billing zip code, so if you don’t know it, you’ll have to go inside and pay.”

As they filled the tank, Jake noticed a fresh lattes sign in the window of the small store attached to the service station.

“Now,
there’s
something I’ve noticed everywhere in this state...lattes and espresso. Washingtonians are obsessed with coffee, particularly in Seattle.”

Hannah’s eyes gleamed. “Yeah, let’s get a cup.”

“Let’s say I watch the films you recommend,” Jake said when they’d gotten their coffee and were back on the road. Hannah was sipping a mocha latte and he’d gotten a plain-Jane espresso—so called because he hadn’t wanted sugar or special flavorings added. “Won’t I sound as stuffy as your boyfriend if I start quoting old movies?”

Hannah’s face looked strained again. “Uh...I wouldn’t start quoting anything unless you’re sure of the context, but wouldn’t it be nice to understand some of them? You’re right, though. We should add modern stuff—a few Pixar films, two or three kung fu flicks, the Harry Potter movies and
Sex in the City
.”

Jake grinned. “Sex in the city? If that’s the only place to have sex in this country, I’m going to be very disappointed.”

“
Sex in the City
was a cable television series. There are still pop references to it, though it ended years ago.”

“Good to know.” Jake had enjoyed the game, but his head was starting to reel.

It was dawning on him that while he’d enjoyed a uniquely varied education as a child, he might have missed one or two things. It wasn’t just movies or television programming—it was everything, such as fund-raisers and festivals. It was even gas pumps where you could pay your bill without talking to anyone.

All told, he probably hadn’t spent more than a day or two at a time in the States in his entire life. And those visits had been rare. How did you catch up on thirty-four years of subtle meanings and references? Not that he needed to, Jake reminded himself hastily. His body was going to heal, and he’d return to doing the work he loved, in places where he loved to do it. And he could have spent his convalescence in Costa Rica or someplace else—it was just because of Matt and Andy that he’d ended up in Washington.

Nevertheless, he
did
feel out of step. It had never seemed to matter anywhere else in the world—he’d traveled to dozens of countries and knew he couldn’t expect to understand that many places in depth. On the other hand, he hadn’t realized how little he understood the country he’d always claimed as his own.

* * *

H
ANNAH
HADN
’
T
EXPECTED
to enjoy the drive, considering the mood Jake had been in the previous day, but at the moment it wasn’t turning out badly...even though his reminder about Brendan had dropped her stomach for a minute.

“Let’s talk about Mount St. Helens,” Jake suggested. “I’ve read about it in one of the books at the lodge. From what I understand, there was a minor eruption in 1980 that took off part of the peak and raised the level of the lake.”

“It wasn’t minor to the victims who died or their families,” Hannah told him, trying not to be offended—there wasn’t any point, Jake operated on a different plane than most people.

“Of course not,” he agreed hastily.

“The eruption was fairly small from a geologic perspective, which is what the book must have meant,” she acknowledged. “I mean, compared to the ancient self-destruction of Mazama that created Crater Lake in Oregon, Mount St. Helens was just a blip. But even so, it leveled thousands of acres of forest and took off more than thirteen hundred feet of the mountain.”

“That would have been something to see.”

“You mean photograph, don’t you?”

“That’s what I am—a photographer.”

“Yeah, but can’t you be
more
than that? I can’t imagine the heartache of watching the eruption and knowing people were dying. No offense, but it seems as if you only see the world through your camera lens.”

From the corner of her eye she saw Jake frown, though he didn’t respond.

Hannah turned onto forest road 99, explaining that 110,000 acres had been set aside as the Mount St. Helen’s National Monument; the land itself was the monument. There was only limited access by car—roads skirted the area without crossing it. They were going to Windy Ridge on the northeast side, but they could return another day if he wanted to see one of the visitor centers or the Johnston Ridge Observatory.

“Some of the downed trees outside the monument have been salvaged for lumber. Then the area was replanted with seedlings,” Hannah told him after they’d both been silent for a long while. “But inside the monument, nature is being allowed to take its course. Essentially the entire site is a laboratory where they’re studying how nature restores itself.”