Now, he wished he’d woken up. Spent those last few minutes with his dad...
They hadn’t known something was wrong until their father’s boss called the house looking for him two days later. He hadn’t shown up for work the morning he’d left.
And he’d never come home.
Where he’d gone and why—all remained a mystery.
Still, Reed searched for a ghost, reviewing the Search and Rescue Board site every day, hoping that one day his father’s name would pop up on the list. Found. Safe was too much to hope for by now, but something to give them all closure was what he was really searching for.
He stretched his legs out under the desk and laced his fingers behind his head, staring at the computer screen. Then, leaning forward, he typed Erika’s name into the search engine and waited for the information to load.
Pictures of her in her lab coat appeared among articles about the new clinical trials she’d mentioned were starting in a few weeks. He read quickly, growing more and more impressed with each word. A new antirejection drug they were testing that would be as effective as the ones currently on the market, yet wouldn’t do as much damage to the patient’s immune system.
Her mother had died from a failed kidney transplant, so it didn’t take a genius to figure out the motivation behind this particular research.
He leaned closer to the screen and studied the picture of her, obviously taken just after graduating med school. She was smiling, but the upturned lips couldn’t hide the absence of happiness he saw reflecting in her mesmerizing dark eyes.
She looked beautiful, but cold. Not at all like the woman he’d caught tiny glimpses of in the last few days. Relaxed, confident, open and happy. The doctor in this picture looked nothing like the one in the too-tight ski suit, commanding the situation and not afraid to get her hands dirty.
“So, who are you really, Erika Sheraton?”
Just the fact that he wanted to find out should be enough to make him stay away.
CHAPTER NINE
“CASSIE, WHAT IS THIS?” Erika asked, picking up a green plastic tube that had fallen out of her friend’s overstuffed backpack as they descended the back stairs the next morning.
Cassie turned. “Oh, that’s a Shewee. Thanks,” she said. Taking it and opening a side pocket, she tucked it inside.
“A She-what?” Erika shivered as a blast of morning mountain air blew her hair into her face. Struggling under the weight of Cassie’s thick sleeping bag and tent, she stopped near the Snow Trek van.
“It’s a portable toilet. That tube will help me pee into the bowl without having to go outside of the tent at night or remove all my warm clothing on hikes.”
Erika wrinkled her nose. “Gross.”
“You wouldn’t say that if you were out in the middle of nowhere, cold at night and your bladder was about to explode.”
“That’s the thing—I would never be in that situation. I can’t believe all this outdoors stuff is your idea of fun,” she mumbled as she readjusted the weight of the heavy camping gear in her arms. How her tiny friend was going to carry all of this into the mountains, trudging through deep snow up her knees, Erika had no idea. The last-minute corporate booking for the excursion had been disappointing. She’d been hoping to have more girls’ nights, but now Cassie would be away for several days.