So she went another half mile and then sat on a rock, taking in the view. If she’d been geared up, she’d have had several choices from here—the rest of the hike—another two miles up a near vertical. Or free-climbing down to the river.

She’d done both many times, a long, long time ago.

But it was the cliff that drew her. She walked to the edge and looked down.

A staggering three-hundred-sixty-degree vista of sharp, jagged mountain peaks and the blanket of green forestland that covered them, lined with rivers and tributaries, as far as the eye could see. This wasn’t the exact spot where Ashley had died. That was up about a mile farther. But the view was the same, and in fact from here she could see the face where Ashley had climbed and then fallen to her death.

Lily stared across the chasm at it. She didn’t know what she’d expected to find. A neatly wrapped box of forgiveness? Her sister’s ghost?

She got nothing as she looked at the heart-stopping drop-off from the cliff to the winding river far below, nothing at all but the silent dare.

Climb me. …

“Next time,” she told it.

Chapter 17

After two straight days on a fire out on Eagle Flats, Aidan staggered out of the station when his shift was over, blinking at the bright morning sun.

He turned on his phone and found the usual myriad of messages, including one from a pissed-off Lenny who’d gone to court to fight his DUI to no avail. Aidan texted him back that his job would be waiting for him, no worries there. But Lenny texted back with a “whatever” and had Aidan shaking his head.

He couldn’t give any energy to that right now.

Someone honked, and he turned to see Gray waiting at the curb in one of the utility vehicles that belonged to the resort.

Aidan ambled over to him, and Gray rolled down the window. “Kenna had to borrow your truck for a fucking interview, so I’m your ride.”

“You need to figure out what she can do for the resort, man,” Aidan said. “And quick.”

“Yeah. But when I ask what she wants to do, she just shrugs. I don’t have a lot of year-round positions open for a pissed-off-at-the-world twenty-four-year-old.”

Yeah. Aidan knew this. He tossed his duffel bag in the back and slid into the shotgun position before laying his head back.

“Coffee’s for you,” Gray said, nodding to the steaming to-go cup in the console.

Aidan reached for it, sipped, and looked at Gray, eyes narrowed. “Sugar and milk?”

“Isn’t that how you like it?”

“Yeah, but since when do you care how I like it?”

Gray didn’t answer, just pulled away from the curb. Shit. Aidan set the cup down. “What’s up?”

“Who says something’s up?” Gray asked casually as he whipped a U-turn.