Pathways (9780307822208) by Lisa T. Bergren Read Free Book Online

and rose, offering her a hand. “Come on. We better get back to the cabin to radio in a report on those guys.”
    Bryn tried to swallow, her mouth dry. She made herself smile, covering her disappointment.
What is it about this guy? He is so different! Why didn’t he kiss me?
“Yeah. Better pick up Ben’s nets too on the way,” she said.
    They slowly descended back to the river and divvied up the four fish for dinner. “I don’t think they’ll come this way again,” he said, staring at her as if he wanted to say more. “Think they were from over the pass. Probably landed on a lake over there and hiked across, is my guess.”
    “Okay,” she said, pushing a rock with her toe in an effort to find something to do with herself. “I had fun today, Eli. The fishing … Even our surveillance trip, up until they fired at us.”
    He grinned at her. “Me too. See you tomorrow?”
    “I hope so. Let me know what the people in town say about the poachers.”
    “I will.” He reached up then and tenderly ran two fingers down her jawbone, his eyes staring into hers. Abruptly he dropped his hand, turned, and walked away, heading to his side of the lake.
    Nothing like a thousand yards of Alaskan water between us to cool things down
, she thought, turning to head home. He obviously wanted to touch her, kiss her. What held him back? Where was the key to unlock the mystery of Eli Pierce?

    When Eli took off in his plane a few days later, Bryn fought the loneliness as well as the admission that she was actually missing him. And when he was back at Summit, taking her up to the ridge to photograph the Dall’s sheep, hiking, flying a couple times, Bryn knew that the spark she had felt the first time she saw him coming down from his cabin was growing into a billowing flame. The way he looked at her so tenderly, the way she felt when he was near, the way he tentatively reached for her hand—usually with the excuse to help her past a difficult area on a trail, but then he’d keep his grasp firm long past any real threat of slipping—it all left an imprint on her memory as clearly as a photo placed in a treasured album.
    The thought of him made a warmth grow in her belly and spread up to her face. If he would only kiss her! Then she’d know that he felt more for her than simply friendship, respect, platonic love. Every guy she had dated had been eager to kiss her, trying to maneuver her into position at the first chance. But Eli … he’d had plenty of opportunities and each time had pulled away. What was his deal?
    She dug her paddle into the water beside the canoe, on this day gliding to the north end to visit Benjamin White. Bryn, eager for Peter to give him another chance, had talked her father into going with her. Ben had brought home two black bear cubs the last time he was out on a job, and today Peter and Bryn would get to see them.
    Ben came out onto his deck as the canoe crunched over the rounded pebbles of his beach. Often the waves blew from the south end of Summit Lake, ending on Ben’s shore and working the rocks into gently rounded gravel, the kind people would put in the bottom of a fish tank in colors of a winter sky: gray and silver and black and white. Even now the waves lapped over the beach in a soothing wash and swoosh that reminded Bryn of the ocean on a mild day.
    “Greetings, neighbors,” Ben called, walking down to them. “Come to meet my new babies?”
    “If we can,” Bryn said. She stepped out of the canoe and accepted his warm, steadying hand.
    “Sure, sure, come ahead.”
    Bryn turned to watch her father and Ben exchange awkward greetings. After shaking, Peter shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced over at Bryn with an I’m-doing-this-for-you look. Ben turned away first, to lead them up the stairs and inside the snug little house. It was a welcome treat to enter his home, which had gas for the stove and a generator for lighting and emergency heat. He kept it very neat and orderly. She