Denali Dreams by Ronie Kendig, Kimberley Woodhouse Page A

another chance to hurt her. But in her periphery, she saw him pivot and stomp out of the building.
Keep walking, David. Nobody needs your attitude.
She’d come to Denali to make peace so she could move on after her father’s death.
    “Okay, if you’ll head with me out front, we’ll do the equipment check,” Ranger Knox said as he tromped toward the entrance.
    As they stepped into the heavily clouded morning, a commotion sprang up to their left. Heading down the steps, Jolie saw David arguing with an older man.
    “I’m fine,” David with a snarl.
    “If you don’t want me to bench you, let me examine it.”
    David huffed, his jaw muscle popping under the tension. Finally, he yanked up his black thermal sleeve, up over the elbow, and tucked it above his bicep.
    “With muscles like that, I think I might need his services,” Nikki said under her breath.
    A large red spot around his elbow stilled her.
    “Whoa,” Nikki said. “Looks like he got whacked.”
    “Yeah, by a side-view mirror.”
    Nikki gasped. “He’s the one Derrick hit coming up here.”
    “He hit
me
,” Derrick said with a snicker as he and Aidan Sheppard bumped fists. “Not my fault he stepped into the road without looking.”
    Compunction pulled Jolie toward David. If they’d hurt him …
    She had tried to get Derrick to stop, but he’d argued they were already late and would lose their registration and right to climb. Then he went on about how the guy should’ve been paying attention. That David wasn’t laid out in the road gave Derrick’s conscience a carte blanche from guilt.
    “How’d this happen again?”
    “Big black Escalade.”
    The man, apparently the ranger doctor, glanced toward Derrick’s vehicle. “You and rich people.”
    David snorted and nodded, looking around. “Tell me about it.” His gaze rammed into hers.
    Fire bolted through her stomach. At first she couldn’t move. Which was insane. She met with dignitaries, presidents, princes … But David Whiteeagle? Where was the barf bag? “Hey, um, I …” She pointed to his arm. “Derrick should’ve stopped. We tried to make him.”
    David’s jaw muscle rippled again as his lips pulled taut.
    “I’m sorry.” Her stomach squirmed under his narrowed gaze.
    He jerked around with a hiss and yanked his arm free. “Hey!”
    Touches of gray at the doc’s temples matched the snow-blotted front lawn. “The bone is bruised, but I don’t think it’s broken. You’d need an X-ray to be sure.”
    “It’s not broken. I’m fine.” David yanked the sleeve down. “I have an equipment check to do.”

    David brushed past the girl who wasn’t a girl anymore. He remembered the sixteen-year-old version, the petulant partier who’d ended up in the news more often than climbers summitted. Even then, drop-dead gorgeous. But now—she could wipe a guy’s good sense from his head.
    That was, if she hadn’t been born a Decoteau. If she wasn’t the sister of the man who’d killed Mariah. No way would he give her an inch of anything.
    “You haven’t changed much.”
    Her words drew him up short. “Excuse me?”
    Jaw jutted, she folded her arms over her raspberry-colored North Face jacket. “We apologized. But you held it over my dad like a boulder.” She stretched her arms out wide. “It was an accident, or don’t you know what that is?”
    David’s pulse pounded. He stepped closer. “Accidents happen when people aren’t prepared.”
    Her eyes enlivened. “And they happen when experienced climbers
are
prepared. It’s the whole point—nobody’s at fault.”
    “All he had to do—”
    “He did everything he could. It was an avalanche!” Her eyebrows winged up. “How can you blame that on my brother? What, did he have power over the wind and snow?”
    “No, but if he was so experienced—”
    “Don’t make accusations you can’t back up.”
    “Oh, I’ll back them up all right.”
    “Hey.
Hey!
” Ranger Logan Knox wedged in between them, palms on