3

      “YELLOWSTONE! Yellowstone National Park? But we don’t have to go through the park to get to Jackson Hole. That’s south. We want to go east.” Daniel pinched the bridge of his nose in an effort to stem the pain of his headache.

      “And eventually we will. I just want to take a little detour. You certainly don’t want to miss Yellowstone, do you? Elk, bear, caribou, Old Faithful! It would be a travesty to be this close and not visit.” It made perfect sense to Baily. She was a traveler by nature. She needed to accumulate new sights and experiences to keep her senses fed. And the first time she’d driven across country Nick had been in charge. He didn’t allow for detours. This was a perfect opportunity.

      “Did I mention that my sister’s life was at stake? I don’t have time for detours.”

      “Maybe it’s about time that we talked about your sister. It would help if I knew exactly what kind of danger she was in. I can’t imagine that her life is truly in jeopardy or else you would have found a way to overcome your fear of flying.”

      Daniel, with his severe features, intense hazel eyes, and broad shoulders, didn’t look like a man who feared much. It was hard to reconcile the man who overwhelmed the space inside her small car as someone who had fears like other normal people.

      Sighing, Daniel patiently explained. “I told you, I’m not afraid to fly.”

      “Yeah, yeah, I know. You don’t fly.” Baily attempted not to roll her eyes. She didn’t succeed, which was fortunate because when she did succeed it always made her dizzy.

      “That’s right. Like you, I made a promise, and I don’t intend to break it.” His voice changed somehow, and immediately Baily knew that she had touched a vulnerable spot inside the man.

      “Who made you promise not to fly?” An important person in his life, that much Baily surmised. It made her wonder how many other important people were in this man’s life. She would bet her life savings there weren’t many. Although considering that her life savings was the sum of eight hundred dollars, it wasn’t much of a bet.

      It was an area of his life he didn’t think he wanted to share. He’d known this woman less than a day. She didn’t have the right to know about his personal problems. He should probably tell her to go to hell. Then he remembered how vulnerable she’d looked when she told him about her purported fiancé. It had taken both trust and hope on her part that he would tread softly on her feelings. Would she do the same?

      More than likely. She had a quality about her. “My sister made me promise not to fly. My parents were killed in a plane crash many years ago. And it was our misfortune to be there when it happened.”

      Tears burned Baily’s eyes, appearing so quickly they stunned her. “I’m so sorry. How old were you?”

      “I was seventeen, but Sarah was only ten. Obviously, she took it harder.”

      It wasn’t so obvious to Baily. She bit her tongue, but she couldn’t stop herself from silently wondering why Daniel shouldn’t be just as hurt by the loss of his parents.

      “She’s been fragile, even frightened, ever since,” Daniel continued. “The next year I went to college. That first Christmas I planned to fly home, but Sarah made me promise that I wouldn’t. Then she made me promise that I would never fly…ever. It was probably wrong of me to indulge her, but if you had heard her voice trembling on the other end of the phone. She was so scared I wanted to make that fear disappear.”

      “Surely she’s overcome that fear or at least would understand if you flew occasionally. You live across the country for Pete’s sake. How do you ever get home?” Baily thought about how difficult it was for her to be separated from her family for so long. Even the plane trip was long and arduous. If she didn’t have the option of flight open to her, she never would have made it home for Christmas and other family occasions.

      Not easily, and not often, Daniel wanted to answer. It was just as well, too. Home only brought with it uncomfortable memories of a time long gone. Those memories and the sense of loss they brought with them were what had goaded him into leaving in the first place. That first year he had taken a summer job in Alaska, cutting wood, and seen the need to standardize the cutting and replanting process. After college, a software company recruited him, and he’d honed his skills until he was ready to venture out on his own with software designed to track the lumber business. In the ten years since he’d lived in Seattle he’d made it home only once a year, every year. Both he and Sarah accepted the fact that neither one of them would step foot on a plane again.

      “Sarah hasn’t overcome her fear and I don’t want her driving by herself. I get home about once a year. Sometimes I drive, other times I take the train. Either way I’m not home as often as I would like. But my business is in the northwest, so there’s nothing I can do about that.”

      It was odd that even after living in Seattle for more than ten years, he still considered Philadelphia his home despite his intentional neglect. Daniel thought about the implications of that statement. When would Seattle be home?

      Since it was evident that this wasn’t his yearly trip home, Baily was still left with questions concerning his sister. “You said Sarah’s life was at stake. She’s not sick, is she?” If that were the case Baily would be willing to drive twenty-four hours a day if necessary to reach her. A sister shouldn’t be sick and without her family to comfort her.

      Baily remembered breaking her ankle in a game of tag football with some of her larger students. She’d been laid up in her apartment all by herself. Friends had come to help and visit, but it wasn’t the same. No one stayed with her. No one commiserated with her when her ankle itched so bad that she wanted to scream. No one brought her ice cream with extra chocolate syrup on top. That hurt more than the ankle.

      “She’s not sick.” For that he should be grateful, he supposed.

      Baily waited, but no other answer was forthcoming.

      “Well, is she in danger?”

      Daniel thought about that. He doubted that Pierce was the violent type. Sarah was most likely physically safe. It was Pierce who was about to suffer some serious pain in the near future, as soon as Daniel got his hands on the wretched fake. “No, Sarah’s not in danger.”

      Again, Baily waited. “Is she about to be run down by a heard of buffalo, uprooted from a ranch in Montana and transplanted to a farm in Pennsylvania, that somehow got loose in the city of Philadelphia and is now on a tragic course headed directly for her?” Baily smiled mischievously thinking he might laugh.

      He didn’t. “No, that isn’t the problem, either.”

      Frankly, Baily was out of options.

      “She’s