Seven Nights With Her Ex. Louisa Heaton
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grinned. ‘I’d stick to water, if I were you.’
‘How do you know all this?’
‘I’m a cardiologist. I’ve operated on a fair few people who’ve ended up in the ER because of too many energy drinks.’
Rick began to pale. ‘Wow. You think something’s good for you...’
‘Sorry to be a party pooper.’
‘Nah, you’re all right.’ Rick tipped the flask upside down and emptied the juice out onto the ground. ‘Doesn’t make sense to carry the extra weight, does it?’
Gray looked up at Beau and considered all the extra emotional weight he was carrying. ‘It doesn’t. It doesn’t help you at all.’
* * *
They’d been walking for a steady hour, and by Beau’s reckoning—not that she knew much about these things—they’d walked about three miles into the park, all of it uphill. Her calf muscles burned and she was beginning to feel sore spots within her new hiking boots. She hoped she wasn’t getting blisters.
The hillside had produced a plateau, a wide expanse of grasslands, and eventually they’d passed through a grove of lodgepole pine trees—tall and slender, the bark looking almost white from a distance, but grey up close.
Mack stopped them as they got near. ‘You’ll see a lot of these throughout the park. They’re a fire-dependent species, and the seeds you can see, once fallen, provide a natural foraging source for grizzlies as we pass into fall. So you see this tree, then you look for the bear that goes with it. Luckily there isn’t one here today.’
He smiled as everyone looked at each other and laughed nervously.
‘But this is one example of always needing to be prepared. If you’re walking in a new area, know the ecology, the flora and fauna—it can help you stay safe. Today there’s no reason not to know. The Internet can tell you in an instant. There are books. Read. Research. It could save your life. Medically, indigenous tribes have used the lodgepole pine for many ailments—they steam the pine needles and bark to help with lung issues, and they also use it for bronchitis, fever and even stomach ache treatments. You can make a pitch from the pines and use it as a plaster for infections, burns and sores.’
Beau looked up at the canopy of the tall tree and was amazed. Working in a hospital, with the technology and advancement that came in the present day, it was easy to forget that all medicine originated from the use of plants, trees, shrubs and flowers. But it was important and not to be forgotten. She got out her compact camera from her pack and took a picture.
Mack walked them on and the plateau soon began to dip down towards a narrow rocky stream. The sound of running water was refreshing in the day’s heat and Mack encouraged them all to take in some liquid refreshment and eat a small snack.
Beau perched on a large stone and nibbled on a flapjack she’d brought, avoiding Gray’s glance and hoping he would stay away from her for a while longer.
Irritatingly, he sat down opposite her.
‘How are you enjoying this so far?’ he asked in his lilting Scottish burr.
‘It’s wonderful. Especially when I don’t have to look at you.’
He glanced down at the ground. ‘There’s no need to attack me all the time, Beau. I feel bad enough as it is.’
‘Good.’
He let out a heavy sigh, looking out across the stream bordered by rocks and grassy banks. ‘I suppose you want me to go away?’
She didn’t look at him. ‘Or just be quiet. Either would do.’
He pulled some trail mix from his pack and offered it to her. ‘Nuts?’
She glanced at him to see if he was making fun of her or being insulting. ‘No. Thank you.’
‘You know you’re stuck with me, hen?’
She put away her flapjack, annoyance written all over her face, and refastened the buckles on her backpack. ‘I’m not a hen.’
‘Sorry, lass.’
She stood up and heaved the pack onto her back. ‘Wow. An apology. You do know how to make them, then?’
Gray looked up at her, squinting in the sun. ‘Aye.’
‘And...?’
‘And what?’
‘Where’s my real apology? The one you should have made eleven years ago?’
He cocked his head to one side and pulled his sunglasses down over his eyes. ‘I’m saving it.’
‘Saving it? For what?’
He looked about them before getting to his feet and leaning in towards her, so that his face was up close to hers. It was unnerving, having him this close. Those moss-green eyes staring deeply into her soul and searching. His breath upon her cheek.
‘For when you’re actually ready to listen. There’s no point in me trying to explain whilst you’re like this.’
‘I’m not sure it’s important, anyhow. Too little and too late.’
‘And that proves my point.’
He walked away to sit down somewhere else.
Beau began to breathe again. Their brief conversation had unsettled her. Again. Plainly the way she was reacting to him was not working. Open hostility towards Gray was like water bouncing off an umbrella. It made no difference to him at all. He quite clearly was not going to apologise to her unless she got herself together.
Irritating man!
Most irritating because she was stuck with him for a week!
She had to be realistic. They were here. Together. And, worst of all, they were buddied up together. She knew from the itinerary for the trip that there would be paired activities where they would have to work with each other away from the main group. Orienteer themselves to another part of the park. Which meant time alone.
They had to start working together. Whether she liked it or not.
She turned to look for him and saw him standing with Mack, chatting. Beau headed over and plastered a charming smile onto her face. ‘Excuse me, Mack, could I have a quick word with my buddy here?’
‘Absolutely. Glad you’re here, Gray.’ He slapped Gray on the arm before walking away.
Gray looked at her curiously. ‘Yes?’
‘You’re right. We need to be working together for this next week and, as buddies, we need to be strengthening our working relationship. I’m not prepared to fail this course, and with that in mind I’m willing to put our past to one side in the spirit of cooperation and...peace. What do you say?’
She saw him consider her outstretched hand. Saw the question in his solitary raised eyebrow, saw the amiable smile upon his face before he reached out and took her hand.
A charge shot up her arm as her hand tingled in his. The strange yet all too familiar feel of his hand on hers was electrifying and thrilling. Her instinct was to let go. To gasp for oxygen. To rub her palm against her khaki trousers to make it feel normal again. But she did none of these things because her gaze had locked with his and she’d stopped breathing anyway.
Who needs oxygen?
Gray’s leaf-green eyes bored into hers with both an intensity and a challenge, and Beau felt as if she’d been pulled back through time to when they’d first met on a hospital rotation.
They’d been so young, it seemed. All the students had been fresh-faced and eager to learn, eager to start their journeys. The girls smartly dressed, professional. The boys in shirts and ties as yet unwrinkled and sweat-free.
She’d noticed him instantly. The gleam