Page 10 of When the Silence Breaks

He arched a brow. “Tell me you’ve never been stuck in the mud without telling me.”

“Funny. If you recall, I wasn’t exactlystuckin the mud.”

“True enough. I shouldn’t have made a joke about it. As for why I have the winch, I take the truck to secluded places. Outhere, it’s either the winch or call someone if I get stuck.” He shrugged and offered a tenuous smile to soften his next words. “I answered your question. You answer mine. What are you really doing here?”

His mother could be ridiculously persuasive, and he wouldn’t fault Sarah for being unable to resist. But he suspected she had an ulterior motive. He could have it all wrong, but he wasn’t one to play games.

“Well, that’s a little rude, don’t you think?” she asked. “Do you have any idea how your mother kind of pushes her will on people?”

“Do I ever. But there’s more to the story where you’re concerned, Sarah Ellison. So don’t waste your time or mine.”You want something. What is it?

“You get right to the point, don’t you?”

He’d better drive her home before his mother got any ideas. She was trying to fix him up with Sarah. It wouldn’t be the first time matchmaking Dinah Goodwin interfered in his personal life.

“Where are you staying?” he asked.

“Oh, uh, you can just drop me off downtown. I want to grab something I can eat for breakfast at that small grocery store.”

“Sure.” He glanced her way. Had she noticed he used her favorite word?

He steered out of the neighborhood, hoping she’d want to fill the silence and give him information.

“Look, I need your help. I came to Mercy Ridge to hire an experienced mountain wilderness guide.”

“This time of year, it’s not a proverbial stroll through the park. The weather is changing, and in the higher elevations it’ll be snowing soon if it’s not already.” He was already trying to talk a client out of it before he’d even gotten the full story.

“Isn’t guiding hikers your business?”

“Good Adventures offers guided hikes in the summer. Kayaking. River rapids. That kind of thing.”

“Come on. You do more than that. You offer wilderness survival training.”

“For a specific clientele during a certain time of year.”

“What does it matter the clientele if a person is willing to pay?”

“That season has closed.”

“Look, I want to hire you to guide me.”

“I’m personally not guiding people, but we have several other guides. You can stop in tomorrow during business hours and get signed up. I’m surprised you didn’t do that when you were there today.”

“I wanted to talk to you, to hireyouspecifically. You weren’t in, and then some guy named Dean, your competition, showed up, and so I decided to leave and come back later. Then your mom coerced me to dinner.”

“Again, we have other guides.”

“I don’t know them,” she said. “I personally knowyourskills. You showed me that today. I’d like to hire you, if you’d consider taking me just this once.”

He gave an incredulous chuckle. “You’re not here for a simple guided tour for a travel magazine or to get close to nature.”

“You don’t know that.”

True, but he had a strong suspicion, and he didn’t like where that suspicious thought took him. He might as well put that thought out there. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those treasure hunters.”

“What? Of course not.”

But she had a look in her eyes—she was definitely after ... something. So, yeah, a treasure hunter.