She snapped the book shut, sat up, and started putting her sneakers back on. "I would love to go on a walk with you, as long as you're willing to protect me from any snakes or wild creatures we might happen to run into. I so am not a Girl Scout."

He nodded. "I think I can manage that."

"Oh, and it would be really nice if you'd just relax around me, instead of being so serious and formal all the time. Especially out here." Standing, she approached him, her gaze turning a soft shade of green as she searched his expression. "And just so you know, I really miss the old Joel. You know, that fun, irresistible guy who took me to a coffee shop for our first date and used to flirt and tease. I know he's in there somewhere, and it would be nice if you could try and coax him back out, maybe just a little bit?"

He exhaled a deep breath and scrubbed a hand along the slight stubble on his jaw, forcing himself to relax and just enjoy being with her. He could at least manage that. "Okay. I'll do my best."

"Great." A sweet, enthusiastic grin lit up her entire face. "Can we take one of the trails along the creek?"

"Sure."

They left the cabin and headed toward a dirt path located near the flowing stream. All around them were a profusion of wildflowers, large trees, and foliage giving way to beautiful autumn colors. A cool, light breeze blew, and in the distance Joel could see clouds moving in, but there was still enough daylight left for them to kill a good hour or two outdoors.

As they strolled along the winding trail, he pointed out the poison oak fringing the edge of the trail so she didn't come into contact with the toxic plant. And luckily for Lora, the only wildlife they happened upon were a few twittering birds nestled in the tree branches overhead, and a raccoon ambling his way across their path. The furry animal stopped to look at them with beady eyes as they approached, then hustled off into the brush, which made Lora laugh.

A good half an hour passed, filled with easy, companionable conversation before they reached an open clearing with ragged rock formations and a clear view of the creek. They headed in that direction, and came to a stop at the edge of the stream, where the water was shallow and slow moving.

Ever since Joel had spoken with Mia on the phone, he'd been meaning to bring up the gallery opening event with Lora and figured this was as good a time as any. "I've been wanting to ask you something," he said casually.

She glanced at him and tipped her head curiously. "Sure. What's up?"

He couldn't help but notice that her skin was flushed as a result of their hike, and her hair was tousled around her face from the breeze-reminding him too much of the sensual, disheveled way she looked after sex. He swallowed hard, looked away, and rerouted his thoughts back to the more mundane.

"My sister, Mia, is having a gallery opening this coming weekend and I'd like to know if you'd come with me." He squatted down, picked up a small, smooth rock, and ran his thumb over the flat surface. "I don't know if this situation with Zach will be over by then, so I wanted to be sure you wouldn't mind going."

"I'd love to go with you." She lowered herself down to his level and dipped the tips of her fingers into the clear, cold water. "She does the stained glass designs, right?"

"Yep. Except her designs have a bit of a twist to them." He wanted to make sure Lora knew that right up front, so she wouldn't be shocked when she realized how risqué some of Mia's designs actually were. "She creates these beautiful designs that seem ordinary at first glance, but when you look a little deeper, the design actually transforms into something else entirely."

"Such as?"

He pitched the small rock in his hand out into the creek and watched as it skipped three times along the surface before sinking. "Well, she made this gorgeous stained glass pattern of a peacock, and the colors were absolutely striking. But the longer you look at the original design, the more your eyes start focusing in on another image within the picture, usually of a couple in an intimate or erotic embrace."

She grinned in amazement. "How clever."

He agreed, and was incredibly proud of his sister and her accomplishments. "The concept is very remarkable, and she did well enough selling her pieces on consignment that she was able to open up her own gallery."

"I'm definitely intrigued, and I can't wait to see her designs." Cupping her hand, she brought a drink of the creek's fresh, clean water up to her lips to quench her thirst. After a few long sips, she glanced at him, her gaze turning inquisitive. "You and your sister… you're close, aren't you?"

He picked up another stone and weighed it in the palm of his hand. "What makes you say that?"

She stood back up, dried her damp palms down the front of her jeans, and shrugged. "It's the way you talk about her. There's a certain affection in your voice when you mention her name. It's enough to make me think you two have a special brother-sister kind of relationship."

And one she apparently envied, he thought, hearing the wistful emotion in her soft voice. "I think out of all my siblings, Mia and I relate to each other the best. We have similar personalities, so we understand one another pretty well."

"You're so lucky to have that connection with her." Smiling, she brushed back the strands of hair tickling her cheek from the breeze. "You mentioned that your mother passed away when you were a kid. What happened?"

He tossed the stone out onto the water with a snap of his wrist, giving it just the right spin for it to bounce five times before dropping to the bottom of the stream. His first instinct was to brush off her too-personal question, or attempt to change the topic of conversation, but something stopped him from doing either.

He couldn't remember ever talking to anyone about that part of his life-when his mother had died and the aftermath of that loss. Not with his family, and never with any of the women who'd tried to get him to open up about that part of his past, and that usually happened when they felt the end to their affair was near. He knew it was their way of trying to establish an emotional bond between them, yet it always had the opposite effect and made him feel stifled, and that only made it that much easier for him to break up with them.

But he knew that wasn't Lora's intent at all. She'd suffered similarly with the death of her parents, and he knew her well enough now to realize her question was based more on that mutual experience than any attempt to manipulate his emotions. Her interest was as real and genuine as she was, and that made it easy for him to tell her what she wanted to know. For the first time he wanted to open up to someone, and that was because it was her.

"My mother died in a car accident when she was visiting her sister in Florida," he said, and straightened to his full height. "It was a strange thing, actually, because one day she was leaving to go on a short vacation, and then we never saw her again. It was almost like she just never came back."

"I'm so sorry. That couldn't have been easy," she said softly. "But at least you had the love and support of the rest of your family to get you through that rough time in your life."

Which she'd never had. No, this amazing woman had taken on most of the burden of her parents' deaths, and then had gone on to raise her brother on her own. Alone. Without any help from anyone.

"Like with you, everything changed dramatically after my mother passed away," he said, thinking back to that difficult time. "My father was devastated, of course, and my sister, who was only five at the time, had a hard time adjusting to the fact that her mother was never coming back. My two older brothers, Scott and Alex, did their best to handle a lot of the family responsibilities, and their main focus was Mia, and making sure she was taken care of while my father was at work."

"And what about you, Joel?"

He wasn't certain what she was getting at, and he didn't want to assume anything. "What about me?"

"It sounds like everybody in your family was busy taking care of everyone and everything else." Her comment was insightful and incredibly intuitive. "Where did that leave you?"

"As the odd man out?" he said automatically, and even though his voice was tinged with a teasing quality, too late he realized just how much he'd revealed.

Her gaze met and held his, delving past those tough, guarded layers of his. "Yeah, I think it did," she said gently, and without an ounce of humor to indicate she was joking, too.

He inhaled a deep breath until he felt his lungs burn. How in the hell did this woman see past the surface and understand him so well?

"And, I also think that's a good part of the reason why you try and keep everyone around you at an emotional distance," she said, adding to her psychoanalysis. "You felt disconnected from the family, didn't you? Like you didn't have a purpose like your dad and older brothers did."

She wasn't even close enough to physically touch him, yet he felt as though she'd reached deep down into his soul and released years' worth of personal anguish. With anyone else, he would have told them they were over-thinking things, but he found that he couldn't deny the truth, not with Lora.

"Yeah, I guess I did feel that way." He stared across the creek at nothing in particular, then shifted his gaze to the dark gray clouds heading their way. "So, while my brothers were busy being responsible and dependable and trying to take care of Mia, who became quite rebellious after my mother's death, I did my own thing. Eventually both Scott and Alex went to work for my father's tile company, and when I graduated from high school and realized that there wasn't a place for me in the family business, I decided to join the Marines."