They stepped over fallen trees and around overgrown brush as they moved steadily uphill. Zach felt his heart rate shoot up, even though their pace slowed. He was ashamed to say that his legs started to burn with the strain of Karen’s pace.

When Beacon’s pond, which was more lake than pond, opened before them, Karen finally stopped. Zach wanted to sing.

“Wow.” Karen gazed over the majestic pond and quiet landscape.

Zach leaned forward and caught his breath. “Don’t think anyone gets up here anymore.”

He diverted his gaze from her br**sts as they pushed against her shirt with each deep breath she took.

“It’s beautiful.” She paused. “And quiet.”

“No crazy aunts to be found.”

Karen glared at him. “Mention her again and I’m going for another five miles…uphill.”

Zach lifted his hands in surrender. “Did I say something?”

She moved closer to the oversize pond and sat on a fallen log. He parked himself beside her and picked up a handful of rocks from the forest floor. He tossed one into the water and watched the ripples flow from the center of impact. After a few pebbles made it to the water, Karen picked up her own and joined him.

She grunted with a particularly forceful throw and Zach decided it was time for a diversion. Whatever weighed on her mind was getting worse and not better.

“When we were kids,” he started, “my friends and I would sneak up here to fish.”

After a couple more tossed pebbles, she asked. “Why did you have to sneak?”

“Old man Beacon didn’t like kids in his pond. He’d stock it every few years but wanted the bounty all to himself.”

“Seems like a long way to walk for an old guy.”

“That’s what we’d thought until he came at us with a shotgun.”

Karen’s horrified expression made him laugh.

“He’d fire a round in the air and we’d shit ourselves getting away. I’d lay money on finding all our old fishing poles in his barn.”

“The burned-down barn?”

Zach tossed another rock. “You heard about that?”

“Judy’s my history teacher for Hilton.”

Zach wanted to ask what Mike had told her about the town, but mentioning the man who drove her on her aimless walk would rank up there with bringing up crazy Aunt Belle.

“After Beacon died, a few of my friends and I came up here and toasted the old man.”

“Toasted the man who came at you with a shotgun? I’m surprised he didn’t get arrested.”

“He was harmless. Probably laughed when he collected our fishing poles and the buckets of fish we’d caught.” He scratched the stubble of his beard. “Come to think about it, we were never run off until after we’d spent half the day here and had a crap-load of fish.”

Karen smiled now, and the effect on her face was this side of magical. “Sneaky bastard.”

“Smart.”

“Too bad he’s not around for that affair.”

Zach laughed at that.

This time when Karen laughed, her smile grew and she winced. She brought her fingertips to her lips and that’s when he noticed the swelling.

He couldn’t stop his hand from reaching toward her and touching. She lowered her eyes and didn’t look at him as his thumb lightly swept over her lips.

His heart rate sped up again, only now it was with a strong desire to lay a fist into his brother’s face.

“He should never have kissed you like that.”

Karen easily backed away from his hand but kept silent.

Although Karen didn’t seem like a woman who would put up with abuse, Zach had to ask. “Has he done that before?”

She shook her head. “No. And he won’t be given a chance to do it again.” Her words were bitter and full of anger.

What does that mean? It killed him not to ask.

Karen changed the subject. “Did you ever bring girls up here and give Beacon something interesting to watch?”

“Oh, no…Hilton’s inspiration point is up by my family’s cabin.”

She stood and grabbed a handful of rocks. Leaning over, she attempted to skip a rock over the flat surface of the water only to see it fall into the pond without a bounce.

“Isn’t the cabin several miles away?” The next rock she skipped bounced once.

“Far enough away to not get caught.”

“Is there such a place in this town?” The next three rocks dropped into the water.

Zach stood up behind her. He took her hand in his and slowly guided her in the right motion to skip the rock. “It’s in the wrist.”

He demonstrated and skipped it four times before it gave up and fell in.

Karen tried again, failed. Zach placed one hand on her shoulder, the other on her arm. Her next attempt skipped the rock three times.

He kept a hand on her shoulder, unable to move away as she skipped a few more.

She straightened her spine and he expected her to move away. Instead, she leaned back into his arms and sighed.

He held her and they both stared out over the water in silence.

Zach looked down when her hand reached up to caress his arm. The simple touch spoke volumes.

He placed his lips next to her head and indulged in the peachy smell of her hair. He closed his eyes and savored the moment.

“If I turned around right now,” she whispered, “I’d want you to kiss me.”

Zach forgot to breathe. His arms tightened around her as he soaked her in. Her honesty humbled him. “I’d want to taste you, too.”

Instead of acting, they stood there and enjoyed their embrace.

When Karen moved away, Zach let her.

Chapter Twelve

The house was quiet when Zach walked her up to the steps.

“Looks like everyone is still at the park.”

“Sunday dinners go well into the night,” Zach explained.

The walk back from Beacon’s pond wasn’t nearly as intense as walking toward it. Karen and Zach had come to a strange understanding. The attraction was there, but neither of them planned to act on it. Yet she knew, without a doubt, that if she needed him, he’d be there. She wanted to cry when she realized that Michael used to be that for her.

Her hike to Beacon’s pond reminded her of a different time in her life. Where the murky waters of reality darkened her life and made her question everything. If Michael hadn’t been a friend to her, she would have used every means necessary to bring him to his knees for what he’d pulled at the park. But because she knew, on a deeper level than most, that he acted out of fear, she allowed him his indiscretion. Not that he wouldn’t pay for his abuse, he would. But she didn’t feel he needed to give up everything.