Yes, things were going as well as could be expected. As long as Kieran didn’t let himself become aware of Alexandra sitting beside him in the claustrophobic confines of the truck—of her sweet scent and steady breathing; of the delicate lines of her profile and the lithe curves beneath her shirt and jeans; of the way his heart betrayed him when she met his glance.
As long as he didn’t relive how it felt when she’d been in his arms. As long as he didn’t imagine.
As long as he remembered he was only a responsibility to her, a duty to be performed, and no more.
He hunched his shoulders and stared northwest again. He’d asked Alexandra to stop here, at this little town in. Saskatchewan. It was the place he’d seen on the map—name that had pulled up a memory. Falkirk. But now the were there, on the outskirts, and he saw nothing to spar more memories.
I was here once, he thought. Something happened here. That certainty, and a woman’s face, was all that remained. They’d lost valuable time and taken a risk because he’d acted on a scrap of memory.
Theirs was the only vehicle at the isolated gas station flat, snowbound land stretched from horizon to horizon The convenience store was empty except for the clerk, who was restocking shelves.
They were still safe, for the moment…
“Kieran Holt? Is it you?”
The familiar, hesitant voice was clearly audible in the lonely silence. Kieran froze, staring toward the store.
A woman stood just outside the door. Her hand rested on the shoulders of a child swathed in an oversized coat. She was petite, with short brown hair and dark eyes in a pinched, wary face that still showed traces of a worn edged beauty. A too-thin jacket hung above black leggings and white rhinestoned cowboy boots.
Kieran exhaled as she began to walk toward him, the child close to her side. “Kieran, it is you. Oh, God—”
“Lori?”
Without warning the woman broke into a sprint, pulling the boy behind her. She hurled herself against Kieran, smelling of some musky perfume mingled with the scents of perspiration and cigarette smoke.
Kieran put his arms around her instinctively. And as he held her, he began to know her. The face that looked up at him was the one of his vague memories: pretty and thin, her brown eyes edged with dark lines and blue powder, her lips painted with fading color that made her generous mouth a slash of red against pale skin.
She pulled back. “You do remember me, Kieran?” And before he could reply she pulled his head down and kissed him full on the mouth with a desperate ferocity that startled him.
When she let him go he was able to speak.
“Lori,” he said slowly. “Lori Carstens.”
She smiled. “I never thought I’d see you again. After you ran—” She lowered her head and rubbed her hand over her eyes, further streaking the dark edging around them. “I was never sure what had happened to you. But you’re all right.” She looked up. “You’re all right!”
After you ran, she said. Ran from whom, or what? From this town in the middle of nowhere? But this was what had compelled him to come to this place. This woman. He was certain of it. Kieran struggled to bring the memories clear.
“You haven’t changed, Lori,” he said.
Lori brushed at her ragged bangs and pulled the little boy close to her side again. The child regarded Kieran with eyes as dark as his mother’s. “Six years,” she said. “Six years since we were together.”
“Six years,” he repeated. Together. He and this woman.
The lines around her mouth—lines he hadn’t noticed before—grew deeper as she frowned. With one hand she reached inside her ragged jacket and pulled out a cigarette pack. It was empty. She cursed under her breath, crumpled it into a ball and tossed it onto the pavement. Her face crumpled with it.
“Oh, Kieran. It’s been so long.” Her laugh was hoarse and hopeless. “I wish like hell I’d taken your advice and gone with you. Things would have been a lot different. They could have been so good.” She caressed her little boy’s hair with quick, nervous strokes. “Hardly a day went by that I didn’t think of you, wonder what happened to you. I didn’t ever expect to see you in this town again after…”