The Wonder of You (22 page)

And as they arched over the lake and flew south, she made out Seth’s crew, just topping the ridge over Rose Lake.

By the time she dug out her phone, the rescuers had descended out of service.

Of the handful of people Roark would not want to see paddling through the low-hanging mist as an early twilight cast shadows
over the lake, top of the list would be Seth Turnquist, local hero, rescuer extraordinaire.

Roark stood onshore, pausing from rallying the scouts, who, behind him, took down the tarp, doused the fire, and packed up the supplies in the remaining ponchos, turning them into plastic, lumpy knapsacks. The chill of the day had begun to find his bones right about the time Amelia vanished into the clouds with Jake Goldstein and a good chunk of Roark’s monthly allowance. But he hadn’t quite known how to persuade Jake to jump into his plane in a lightning storm except through a generous financial motivator.

No one had to know, either, because Roark paid for that too
 
—Jake’s silence.

But someone would find out, judging by the darkening look on Seth’s face as he drew closer and spied Roark standing in the drizzle. Roark lifted a hand to the four men, in two canoes with EMT supplies piled in the middles.

Seth wore a sensible bright-orange rain poncho and paddled a fiberglass canoe with wooden paddles
 
—safe passage in a lightning storm.

Roark caught Seth’s canoe as it came to shore, softening the bump against the rocks, then holding it while Seth and his partner climbed out. Seth reached for the medical kit.

“No need. They flew out of here over a half hour ago.”

Seth’s mouth tightened. “The floatplane.”

Roark nodded.

“She should have mentioned that when she called me.”

She called him. Not EMS, but
Seth
. He tried not to let that rattle him. “She didn’t know.”

Seth frowned at that as the other canoe bumped up. Roark guided it to shore, held it as the crew climbed out. He recognized
a couple men from the Cutaway Creek rescue
 
—a guy named Joe and the pastor, Dan.

Dan pulled his slicker on over his head. “What happened?”

“The scout leader had what seems to be an AMI. His heart stopped, I revived him, but he was in serious condition when he left.”

“You called in Jake, then?” Dan said.

“And Seb Brewster came along.”

Dan nodded. “Let’s get these boys home so they can check on their leader.”

Seth stood considering Roark, who had started to shiver. Then he reached into his pack and pulled out a thermal shirt, contained in a plastic bag. “I brought an extra.” He tossed it to Roark, then marched past him, heading up to help the Boy Scouts.

The sky stopped weeping as they loaded the youngsters and crossed the lake, Roark managing to at least stay caught up to the scouts and the second EMT canoe. Seth’s canoe had streamed out ahead, maybe moving under its own fury.

Twilight fell around them like a sheet as they cut across Bearskin, then portaged through the murky forest into Hungry Jack. By the time Roark loaded up the canoes and followed Seth’s EMT truck from the forest, his jeans had dried, his legs chafing, his body sore.

Seth continued south into Deep Haven, while Roark turned onto the resort driveway. Behind him, the Boy Scouts had fallen quiet, some of them sleeping.

Darek stood in the lot as Roark pulled up, dirty, tired, and solemn. “Amelia called us from the hospital. Mike’s stable, but you probably saved his life. Don’t you answer your cell?”

Roark dug it out of his pocket. Dead. “Sorry, mate.”

Darek blew out a breath, clamped him on the shoulder.

“You did good, 007.” This from Jensen, who came out of the lodge toward them. “You had us all worried. Darek was just gathering the troops to head into the thicket and flush you out.”

Darek had begun to unload the supplies, handing the tied ponchos to the Boy Scouts. “Leave them in the outfitter’s shed, then go into the lodge. Mrs. Christiansen has supper for you.”

A few cries of approval. Skinny
 
—aka Colin
 
—came up to Roark. “Thanks, man,” he said. “You’re not so bad.” He held out his fist, and it took Roark only a second to figure it out. He bumped it.

Colin grinned and went inside.

“I think I’m headed to the hospital,” Roark started.

“Not until you have some food,” Darek said. He was climbing into the truck. “I’ll move the canoes and unhook the trailer. You get inside and change clothes.”

Roark hadn’t realized that he’d begun to shiver again.

“You’re a little taller than Owen, but I think Mrs. C. can dig up some clothes,” Jensen said, directing him toward the house.

“Owen. He’s the one just older than Amelia, right? The one who is missing?”

“Let’s say he’s trying to find himself. And don’t bring him up in front of the family,” Jensen said, opening the lodge door. “I found a castaway!”

Amelia’s family greeted him like he might belong, Ingrid coming up to him with a smile and an unexpected hug. Grace turned from where she was dishing up spaghetti to hungry Boy Scouts to say, “Hey there, Bond.”

“Bond?”

“I told them about your nickname,” Claire said from her perch on the sofa.

“Someone best dash upstairs and find some trousers for this one,” Jensen said.

“Please cease with the vile accent. My ears are bleeding,” Roark said to Jensen’s back.

“Jensen, dig around the boys’ room and get him some trousers. And a jumper! He’s positively trembling!” Ingrid said with her own shameful accent.

Roark cringed, and Grace laughed as Jensen headed upstairs.

Ivy came down the stairs. “Okay, the baby’s asleep,” she said. “What did I miss?”

“Roark saved the Boy Scouts,” Claire said. “And we’re indoctrinating him into the American inability to speak in an accent that sounds remotely like British.”

“Speak for yourself, darling,” Darek said as he came into the house.

Claire laughed, and Roark managed a smile. He took the plate Grace offered him filled with spaghetti. “How’s Mike?”

“They’re keeping him overnight, and tomorrow they’ll take him to Duluth. They might have to put in a stent, see if they can open the arteries. His family’s driving up from the Cities right now.”

“And Amelia? How’s her arm?”

Silence.

“She did mention that she hurt her arm . . .”

Ingrid put down her plate. Shook her head.

“Oh. Of course not.” Roark took a bite of spaghetti, then another, trying to finish it off.

“What do you mean?” Darek said.

“You know. She doesn’t like to worry you all. She thinks you hover too much
 
—”

“Hover?”

Uh-oh. “Or perhaps simply
 
—”

“No, they hover,” Claire said. “It’s like the family motto: Protect Amelia.”

“That’s not true,” Grace said. “We just don’t want her to repeat our mistakes.”

“I’d definitely call it hovering,” said Ivy, who poured a glass of milk and carried it toward the den, calling over her shoulder. “What else would you call the great fort-in-the-wood fiasco?”

“Hey now, that was just
 
—” Darek started.

“Hovering,” Ingrid said, raising an eyebrow. She handed Roark a glass of milk. “Amelia was seven. She made a fort in the woods down by the lake
 
—a cute little shelter
 
—and was so proud of it. She hauled her sleeping bag out there and asked her father and me if she could sleep there. We could see the shelter from the house, and John figured at the height of summer, if she had Butter with her
 
—”

“Butter was our dog. She passed away this winter,” Grace said.

“Right. We figured Butter would keep her safe. Besides, we honestly thought she wouldn’t last much past dark.”

“No one asked me, however, what I thought,” Darek said. “Amelia is a Christiansen. She’s stubborn.”

“She gets it from her big brother,” Ingrid said.

“Hardly, Mom. I think you and Dad are a lethal combination.” Grace pulled a pan of brownies from the oven.

“Exactly,” Darek said. “So it’s about ten o’clock, and I know she’s out there, and it’s eating at me. I was sixteen, and I couldn’t believe Mom and Dad were letting this happen. So I grabbed my sleeping back and snuck outside, setting up about twenty-five feet away from her.”

“Except he made so much racket, Casper woke up and decided
he’d tag along. When they got out there, they found Eden wrapped in a blanket on the dock,” Ingrid said.

“With me,” Grace added. “Eden thought Mom was nuts, so she rousted me out of my warm bed and made us sit on the dock, watching the shelter.”

“Owen woke up around midnight, saw that we were gone, and came looking. He saw Casper’s sleeping bag in the moonlight, thought he might be missing a party. He came outside and tripped over me,” Darek said.

“Which sounded like waking a bear from a sound slumber.” Grace began to plate the brownies. “Darek howled, which woke up Eden and me.”

“So John and I wake to this terrible howling and then shouting, and we race downstairs thinking something horrible has happened to Amelia.”

“They get outside and find Casper, Owen, and Darek all in a wrestling match, not sure who they’re really fighting,” Jensen said, coming downstairs holding a pair of track pants and a sweatshirt. “The screams are echoing across the lake to our cabin
 
—”

“And my grandparents’ cabin,” Claire said. “They get up, along with everyone else on the west end of the lake, thinking that someone is dying, and my grandma calls the police.”

Roark set his finished plate on the counter, smiling.

“Meanwhile, John pulls the boys apart. Grace and Eden are completely freaked out, and in their panic, Grace falls in the lake,” Ingrid said.

“Totally Eden’s fault. She was running to Amelia’s shelter, didn’t see me, and body slammed me out of the way.”

“So now we have Grace in the lake, a couple of the boys
bleeding, and the police heading up to the resort. Not to mention that we’ve woken our guests.”

“It was chaos,” Darek said. “But in all of it, no one had seen Amelia.”

Silence fell, and they looked at Roark, Darek grinning, Grace shaking her head, Ingrid chuckling.

All at once, Roark got it. “She was already asleep inside.”

Claire nodded. “She’d gone inside to bed, asleep in the den long before Darek stumbled out to save her.”

“And that is how the Christiansens
don’t
hover,” Jensen said. “Leave no man unscathed.”

Grace made a face, turned away.

“So we hover a little. Amelia’s the youngest,” Darek said.

“And extremely capable,” Roark said. “You should have seen her today. She is so at home in the woods
 
—knew exactly what to do.”

“But you’re the one who got Jake Goldstein to fly in. Slick move,” Darek said.

Yeah, well, it didn’t take a hero to dole out cash. Roark finished off his milk. “I’m headed to the hospital to check on Amelia.”

It was Darek’s expression that stopped him.

“What?”

“Well, it’s just that . . . Amelia called, and Seth’s there. He’s bringing her home.”

Roark opened his mouth in a round, silent O. He sighed, reaching for the sweatshirt Jensen had brought him and pulling it on over his soggy, borrowed thermal shirt. “Maybe I shouldn’t be here when they get back.”

“Stay,” Ingrid said. “I’m sure Amelia would like to see you.”

Even so, he probably couldn’t bear seeing her hug Seth. Thank
Seth. After all, when she needed someone,
really
needed rescue, beyond what bottle of wine to order or what f-stop to use, she’d called her trusty lumberjack, Seth.

What did he expect? Seth had grown up in these woods like Amelia. Had built a lifetime of trust with Amelia, was so embedded in Amelia’s life that her instincts simply took over.

And Roark couldn’t compete with that, could he?

He sank onto a stool, trying to ignore the stares of the curious Boy Scouts at the kitchen table. What an arrogant, desperate fool he was to think he might compete with Seth, with this world.

He clung to a future that he could never have, one where Amelia left Deep Haven to live in Brussels, maybe even travel the world with him.

Ethan was right. He was completely off his trolley.

“Are you okay? You look a little pale there, 007,” Jensen said.

“I think I’m just hearing Amelia for the first time,” he said. “She keeps telling me that we’re from two different worlds. I’m realizing now that maybe she’s right. She belongs here.”

And he didn’t. He didn’t say it, but the reality seemed to march into the room, sit down in front of him.

Claire, his new guidance counselor, seemed undaunted. “So can you. You just have to be willing to . . . well, stay.”

He glanced at her, and she raised an eyebrow, completely understanding that
stay
meant a whole new set of rules.

A whole new life.

But maybe that’s exactly what he needed. A restart, instead of dragging around his past, dodging divine retribution.

He glanced at Jensen for reinforcement and found him nodding. And then, to his surprise, Darek added, “No one is kicking you out of Deep Haven.”