That’s when he got his first good look at the woman and realized he’d been wrong about her being a careless tourist. Boone recognized despair and desperation. He’d seen it in witnesses. He’d seen it in the courtroom. He’d seen it in his own wife’s expression.
He saw it now in this woman’s big luminous violet eyes. Despair, desperation, and brittle hopelessness.
This was no careless hiker.
This woman was a jumper.
Chapter Three
As the motorcycle approached, Hannah stepped back from the edge of the cliff, took a seat atop the stone wall, and tried to look like a regular tourist. With any luck, the rider would blast on past.
As to be expected, she had no luck. The motorcycle pulled off the road and into the Lover’s Leap parking area.
Suddenly, Hannah became aware of her isolation. This was the first vehicle she’d seen on this road this morning. Nonchalantly, she shifted her legs back over the wall, rose, and reached for the backpack she’d left lying on the ground. Experience had taught her to keep her gun accessible. Harming herself was one thing. Someone else doing harm was another matter entirely.
The motorcycle was a Ducati, the figure a man. He wore faded jeans, scuffed cowboy boots, and a black leather jacket. Hannah unzipped her backpack and slipped her hand inside as he climbed off the bike and removed his helmet. He was tall, well over six feet, and model-handsome. Dark hair, chiseled cheekbones, a nose with a small bump that suggested a break at some point. Intense silver-gray eyes paused on her briefly before sliding on toward the view of the valley below.
He didn’t look like a killer. Neither had Andrew.
Hannah gripped her 9mm.
The guy only murmured and nodded her way as he strode past her to step over the wall the way she had a few minutes earlier. Whoa. Hope this guy didn’t have the same idea she had. Hey, I got here first.
She watched him move toward the edge without hesitation. Nervous, she called out, “Mister? Aren’t you getting a little close to the edge?”
He ignored her. Hannah tried again. “Hello! Mister? Please don’t go any closer to the edge.”
He finally looked around. He stood directly between Hannah and the drop-off. “I’m sorry. Are you talking to me?”
“Well, yes. It’s just the two of us here.”
“Oh.” He glanced around, then gave her a sheepish smile. “Sorry. I’m preoccupied.”
“Would you please step away from the edge? You’re scaring me.” He was maybe two of his long-legged steps away from a fall. “You’re not planning to jump, are you?”
“Jump?” His brows arched in surprise. “Why would you think that? Do I look suicidal?”
“I don’t know. Does suicidal have a look?”
His silver-gray eyes pinned her. “Sometimes, yes, it does.”
Whoa. Hannah blinked. He sounded like he spoke from experience.
“The trouble is that many times, it’s hard as hell to spot,” he continued. “That’s a sad thing, because the destruction that suicide leaves in its wake for families and friends is horrific and immense. I don’t care how bad things are, suicide is not a solution. It’s never a solution.”
“Not everybody has a family.” Hannah felt compelled to defend herself.
“Doesn’t matter. Suicides touch people they never know. Believe me. I have some experience with this.”
Bingo. Hannah frowned in disgust. “So if you’re not trying to kill yourself, then you must be stupid.”
“Excuse me?”
“Why else are you standing so close to the diving board?”
“What diving board?”
She let go of her gun and felt around inside her backpack for the tourist map. She pulled it out and waved it toward his face. Suddenly, he grinned, and the force of it had Hannah swaying backward. This guy wasn’t just run-of-the-mill handsome. He was hot. The kind of guy that stopped you in your tracks hot. Mesmerizing eyes that glimmered with both intelligence and sincere gentleness that gave her chest a tight tug. She hadn’t noticed a man as a man in a million years, but she couldn’t help but notice this one.
“You have my map,” he said, striding toward her.
Her gaze landed on his ringless left hand for a millisecond. “Your map?”
“Well, the chamber’s map. The Eternity Springs Chamber of Commerce had it produced. I’m president this year.” He stuck out his hand. “Boone McBride. Welcome to Eternity Springs.”
She accepted his handshake. “Hannah Dupree.”
“Nice to meet you, Ms. Dupree. Mind if I ask where you picked up the map?” She told him, and he nodded. “The state’s official welcome centers are awesome. If I can answer any questions you have about Eternity Springs or the area, don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you.”
He stepped back toward the edge, then glanced at her over his shoulder and gave his head a jerk. “Come look. This is the best view you’ll find. You can see the entire valley and all of the lake from here. As long as you’re not careless, it’s plenty safe to stand here.”
She hesitated. He absolutely could be a murderer ready to take advantage of the isolation to push her off the mountain. Just because he’s drop-dead gorgeous doesn’t mean that he can’t be a serial killer. Ted Bundy, anyone?
Nevertheless, she stepped up beside him. He pointed south.
Hannah’s breath caught. Sunlight glittered like diamonds on the surface of a sapphire lake shaped like a kidney bean and snuggled at the southern end of the valley. “Hummingbird Lake. The name rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? It’s pretty.”
“It’s my happy place,” Boone observed.
“The lake?”
“The lake, the town, the whole area. I have a friend who refers to it as a little piece of heaven in the Colorado Rockies. I can’t argue with her. When I came here five years ago, I was beaten and battered and close to being broken. Eternity Springs healed me.”
He sat cross-legged and gestured for her to join him. Again, Hannah hesitated. Again, she acquiesced to his request. She wasn’t certain why. She did not strike up conversations with strangers. Beyond placing an order with a server in a restaurant or the minimal exchange with the reception desk clerk when she checked into a hotel, she did not have conversations, period.
Maybe that was exactly why she sat down beside him. Maybe part of Hannah yearned to have some contact with another human after being so solitary for so long.
“So what brings you up to Lover’s Leap so early on a summer morning?” he asked. “Did you come up to watch the sunrise?”
She parsed her words. “I was here for the sunrise from here this morning.”
“This is one of the best spots around to watch the sun come up. For sunsets, I’ll recommend a porch rocker at Cavanaugh House.”
“Where is that?”
He pointed toward the town. “There. On the far side of the creek. The big yellow mansion snuggled up against the mountain. See?”
Hannah believed he pointed toward a large Victorian house on the far side of the creek that ran through town. “I noticed that on your map. I thought it was called something else, though.”