But as she fingered the top of her planner, no distraction lay within its pages. The facts and figures blurred and her mind wandered. Just as they had in her bed the last few weeks, her thoughts tossed and turned without logical sequence. The memories of times with Nick were just disjointed images; she couldn’t delve below the surface of vague to the depth of specific.

How could he have been living within hours of her, saving trees, land and animals without her knowledge of his existence? How could she not have felt or known or heard of him? Was this how buried she’d become in her own life, in the whitewashed preservation of her own existence, in the life she’d built, brick by board, friend by friend—that she hadn’t seen or known Nick was near? But she’d buried all thoughts of Nick Lowry, so that she hadn’t even known him when she saw him—until he spoke.

She leaned her head back on the bench and took a deep breath. Nick would like meeting the island project group.

Nick had once told her the land possessed a power that very few people were aware of; that it had the strength to create and bring to it what it needed. She’d nodded and believed and still did. Maybe it was not her that Nick was here for, but the land itself.

Someone touched her shoulder.

Her eyes snapped open as her head jerked up, and she knocked the back of her skull against the marble—an electric flash of pain shot down her neck. “Ow.”

Nick laughed, then sat down next to her. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.” He rubbed the back of her neck and she allowed this, stunned again by his overpowering beauty.

“You’re early,” she said. “Did they give you a hard time at the front desk?”

“Nope. Told me exactly where you were.”

“Well, the OWP sure is excited to meet you. Seems you have quite the reputation.”

“Oh, well, what type of reputation would that be?”

“I hadn’t realized that you’d been around for quite a while, that you’d been”—she laughed—“saving things.”

“Well, now you know.”

“Not really. What exactly do you do?”

“Ah, what I do! I work for Sullivan Timber, advise them on land use—on the impact to the habitat and ecosystem, on the best way to develop the land without harming it more than they would otherwise.”

“Oh.”

“Not what you wanted to hear?”

“No. No, not at all. I just thought you’d wanted to do more research and education. I didn’t realize you worked with corporations.”

“Not impressed with the job?” He poked at her arm.

“That’s not what I meant. I just—”