Free Glow by Beth Kery Page B

clearing.
    â€œThen what, may I ask, are the sheriff of Morgantown, the CEO of Durand, and one of my managers doing standing in the woods with one of my counselors? It must be something important. I hope Alice isn’t in any kind of trouble.”
    â€œNo, of course not. It’s nothing to worry about,” Dylan said evenly. “Jim came to see me at the office. He said he’d heard reports of extensive storm damage in the woods nearby.”
    â€œA couple trees fell onto electrical wires, causing some outages,” Jim added, playing along with Dylan’s slight of hand admirably. “Thought we’d better come out and have a look.”
    â€œSo . . .
you
came out to the camp woods to check?” Kehoe asked Dylan incredulously, his tone making it clear he found the idea of the CEO of Durand Enterprises checking on possible downed trees in the woods ridiculous.
    â€œDo you have a problem with that?”
    A shiver rippled beneath Alice’s skin. Dylan’s tone was quiet, but chilling. In combination with the palpable ice in his stare, she was surprised Kehoe wasn’t frozen to the spot.
    â€œOf course not,” Kehoe assured quickly.
    After a pointed pause, Dylan spoke. “I checked the camp schedule and knew the kids were in the woods today, so I wanted to be sure everything was safe. We saw Sal up at the lodge and he said he’d show us the way to where all the activity was.”
    â€œThank you for the concern,” Kehoe backpedaled. “I’ve been in the woods all morning, and I haven’t seen any storm damage. Have you, Alice?”
    â€œNo, I’d already told them,” Alice said. She swallowed thickly when the four men’s attention transferred to her. She shifted on her feet awkwardly, wishing that the forest floor would swallow her whole. “I better get going to meet up with my kids for lunch,” she said, pointing in a vague direction in the forest.
    Her gaze landed on Dylan before she turned. His handsomeface was frozen into a steely mask, but his eyes shouted all sorts of messages at her.
    Just as she entered the woods, she heard Sebastian Kehoe speak in an annoyed tone to Rigo: “I’d like a word before you go, Sal.”
    *   *   *
    ALICE arrived at the distant platform only to discover the Gold Team counselor and some managers had taken her hungry kids to lunch along with a bunch of others. After another five minutes of walking quickly but aimlessly in the woods, she still hadn’t blown off enough steam to calm down very much.
    â€œAlice, wait up!”
    The call tore through her chaotic thoughts, bringing her to a halt on the forest path. She spun. Despite her frayed emotional state, she gave a small smile when she saw the man jogging up to her. Thad wore a pair of long khaki cargo shorts and a gray T-shirt that showed off his athletic build and toned body. Just beneath the short sleeve she saw a portion of his tattoo on a bulging bicep: a shark slicing through blue water. Thad loved anything associated with the water: boating, diving, swimming.
    Over the past two weeks at camp, his skin color had deepened to a golden bronze. His dark blond hair was attractively mussed and there was a burnished scruff on his jaw. He looked good to Alice, and not just because Thad was good-looking. There was something normal and reassuring about his appearance at that moment.
    He came to a halt on the path just feet away from her.
    â€œYou okay?” he asked, eyeing her with a bemused smile.
    â€œFine.”
    â€œYou’re sure beating the path to get somewhere in a hurry. I called out to you a half-dozen times before you stopped.”
    â€œOh . . . sorry,” Alice mumbled, thinking about how she’d been stomping through the woods. “I was just thinking about things.”
    Thad’s eyebrows rose expectantly. He exhaled when she didn’t elaborate, but didn’t seem