"There's not much. Pretty boring, really," Chris said.

"Compared to mine?" Jessie laughed.

"Especially yours."

"Tell me," Jessie encouraged.

"Life story in a nutshell, huh? Shouldn't take long," Chris said. She drank a long swallow from her draft beer and motioned to Martha for another round. She should really go home and get some rest, but the thought of going home to her empty cabin with only Dillon for company wasn't appealing. What was appealing was the woman sitting next to her. Despite her vow a few months ago that if she ever saw Jessie Stone again, it would be too soon, she found herself drawn to her once again. And this time, when Jessie's thigh pressed against her own, she didn't pull away.

"I grew up in Wyoming with one older sister," Chris began. "My parents stayed together until after I was in college. Twenty-four years of marriage down the drain."

"What happened?"

"They just didn't love each other anymore, I guess. I knew it in high school and I don't know why they waited so long to end it, but they did. Dad remarried and now lives in Chicago."

"Do you see him?"

"No. His wife doesn't approve of my lifestyle so I'm not exactly welcome there. We talk a couple of times a year, though."

"And your mother and sister? Where are they?" Jessie asked.

"Mom lives here in California... San Diego, with her current beau. She's fifty-four and he's thirty, if that tells you anything about her taste in men."

"Her current beau?"

"Well, they've been divorced, what... twelve years and I'd say he's about the fifth live-in." Chris thought about her mother, who was trying so hard to make up for all the lost years while she was married. Chris sometimes got the feeling that her mother blamed her for them staying together as long as they did. "Then there's Susan, my dear sister. I haven't talked to her since I was twenty-three."

Jessie grimaced. "Your lifestyle again?"

"Oh, yeah. Now that was a fun time. I was working at Yellowstone, my first summer there as a full-timer and she came to visit. She's two years older, by the way. Anyway, she came in a little earlier than expected and walked in on me and Kathy." At Jessie's shocked expression, Chris raised her hand and smiled. "No, not in bed," she said and laughed. "We were in the living room and I was kissing her goodbye." Chris lowered her voice and leaned closer. "It wasn't exactly a peck on the cheek, either."

Jessie laughed, enjoying Chris's story. "Go on."

"Well, you'd have to know Susan to appreciate this. She was Miss Goody Two-Shoes growing up. She never did a thing wrong, made good grades, never drank alcohol or dared touch a cigarette. Nothing. Straight as they come. I, on the other hand, never followed my parents' rules, and I wasn't afraid to party," she said and laughed again. It had been years since she'd told anyone this story. "Susan screamed when she saw us and clutched her chest in a mock heart attack, all the time her eyes were about to bug out of her head. She was so ashamed of me, she said." Chris leaned her elbows on the table and looked at Jessie. "Actually, I was surprised she even knew what was going on."

"So she left and you haven't spoken since?" Jessie guessed.

"Oh, she didn't leave until the next day, after she told me how humiliated she was and disgusted and all those other wonderful words she threw at me. But I was young and really didn't give a damn what she thought. I told her to mind her own fucking business. Of course, she didn't. She left and immediately called Mom and Dad and they actually came together to talk some sense into me. It was all so dreadful, them wondering where they had gone wrong and all that. But we've gotten past that over the years, I think. But we're not close. And Susan, well, she never got over it. I haven't talked to her since. She's married to a minister and has two kids and I doubt they even know they have an Aunt Chris."

"That's sad, McKenna. Does she see your parents?"

"She sees my father. I think she's embarrassed by Mom, though. She doesn't quite fit into Susan's perfect little world."

"And how often do you see your mother?"

"I see her maybe once a year. She's fine with it now. Probably because I've never brought a woman with me, I don't know. But she's got her own life. When I talk to Dad, he pretends I have no personal life and I pretend he doesn't have a wife who hates me."

"So, what about this Kathy?" Jessie asked with a grin.

"She was just a summer fling. She went back to college, and I never saw her again," Chris said with a wave of her hand.

"Do you make a habit of summer flings?" Jessie asked lightly.

Chris met her eyes and teasingly raised an eyebrow. "When I was younger, stuck at Yellowstone, summer flings were quite appealing."

"And now?"

Chris drank from her beer before answering. "And now I'm getting too old for summer flings," she said.

They paused when Martha brought them fresh beers.

"Run you a tab, McKenna? Don't you have to work tomorrow?"

"Thanks for keeping me in line, Martha. I guess this will be it, then."

"Maybe Roger's right," Jessie said when Martha left them.

"No, I think she just likes picking on me," Chris said.

"Well, you are quite fun to pick on," Jessie teased.

"I am, huh?"

Jessie rubbed the frost on the side of her mug with her thumb, so glad she had come looking for Chris tonight. If nothing else, she might be able to salvage a friendship. And that would be something new for her.

"Chris, I want to thank you for everything you've done. Seriously," she said.

"Seriously?"

"I told Annie today that if I'd never met you, I doubted that I would have ever found the courage to see her."

"I think you would have, Jessie. Because, deep down, you really wanted to."

"I wonder if I would have even remembered everything if you'd not been here to push me, Chris. And I really don't think I would have gone to see Annie," Jessie said, knowing it was true. "So, thank you," she said quietly. "You were there when I needed you."

"Please don't say you're talking about that night up on Ridge Trail," Chris said softly, unable to meet her eyes.

Jessie leaned closer, trying to catch Chris's eyes. "Will you never forgive me for that?"

Chris allowed her eyes to be captured by Jessie's dark ones. She'd had too many beers, she knew, because she was having a hard time remembering that night on the ledge, remembering how humiliated she felt. And it was nice to just sit and talk. She really didn't want to remember it anymore.

"Should I forgive you?" she finally asked.

"Yes. You gave me what I needed that night," Jessie whispered. "I don't ever want it to be like that again."

Chris felt her breath catch and she was unable to pull her eyes from Jessie's. She wasn't immune to her, she knew. The thigh that pressed firmly against her own had not moved, and she did not want to break the contact. But tonight was not the night to take this any farther.

"I'm glad you came here tonight," Chris said.

"Me, too."

"But it's time I got going. Dillon is probably starving."

"Okay, McKenna. Let me get your beer, at least."

Chris was going to decline, but Jessie had already pulled out her money. "Okay. I guess famous writers make a little more than search and rescue folks, huh?"

Jessie laughed. "Maybe a little."

They walked out into the cold night air, die snow crunching beneath their boots and their breath frosty in front of their faces. Jessie looked up into the night sky, watching the stars twinkling overhead.

"I have missed this sight," she said. "There are no stars in the city, you know."

"No?"

"Nope. Not a one," she said quietly.

Jessie leaned against the post railing and Chris watched her. She had the face of an angel. Beautiful wasn't quite the word to describe her and Chris felt the familiar pounding of her heart whenever she allowed her thoughts to move in this direction. It was as if in slow motion Jessie turned her head and effortlessly captured Chris's eyes.

"Thanks for the beer. And the company," Chris added.

"It was my pleasure," Jessie said. She pushed off of the post and walked close to Chris, stopping only inches away. "And thank you," she whispered, moving closer, touching her lips lightly to Chris's.

Chris didn't pull away and she sighed when Jessie left her after only a brief touch. She wanted so much more than that. She stood there long after Jessie's taillights had faded, the flame still flickering inside her.


Chapter Thirty-one

Jessie had just come outside and closed the cabin door when a car drove up. Mary Ruth Henniger climbed out gracefully and walked over to her.

"Mary Ruth, how are you today?" Jessie asked pleasantly.

"Very good, thank you."

She had a folded piece of paper in her hand and Jessie raised her eyebrows questioningly.

"What brings you out?" she asked.

"Well, I just had the strangest phone call. Annie Stone, who hasn't called me in all the years she's lived out here, rang me up to give a message to her daughter. She insisted Jessie Stone was staying at one of my cabins. She described you and I told her you weren't Jessie Stone. Why, Jessie Stone hasn't been here since her daddy died. But she insisted I give you a message."

Jessie laughed nervously, wondering how to tell this kind woman that she had been using an alias.

"Actually, I am Jessie Stone. I'm sorry."

"Well, I'll be," Mary Ruth murmured. "You've cut your beautiful long hair off. No wonder."