Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126823 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Once she’d assured herself her home had remained secure and the bag with the feathers was untouched, she decided she needed a better place to keep them. She should have given them to Raine. If Shabina’s house was searched or someone broke in, the feathers could be found easily, even though her home was enormous, and she had a safe room. Two of them. That had been at Rainier’s insistence.
Rainier. She’d finally admitted to two of her friends her feelings for the man. Sooner or later, they were going to give their honest opinion on what they thought about that. They’d most likely talk it over with Vienna, Zahra and Harlow. They were that close. She’d known when she’d disclosed how she felt that they’d talk it over, but it was time. She wanted the truth out in the open. She couldn’t give them everything, but she wanted to share more of herself with them, as much as she could. And she didn’t want them to continue to think of Rainier as an ogre.
Driving time from Knightly to Sunrise Lake was about an hour. From Sunrise to Yosemite was another hour. She didn’t stop at the resort as she normally would have. Stella would have tried to persuade her to stay in one of the cabins and go up in the early morning, but she wanted to have her campsite set up for the night and the dogs settled. She’d decided she needed to sort herself out. She hadn’t slept for more than an hour or two in a couple of nights, and she’d had nightmares. She hoped being outside under the stars would lull her into a peaceful sleep.
She loved the Sierra. On her days off, she took the dogs, rain or shine, and spent her time hiking every obscure trail she could find looking for birds. There the forest had its own music if one listened. The wind played through the needles and leaves of the varieties of trees and foliage creating various notes. Some sounded mournful, others joyful. There was always something new to discover.
For Shabina, the Sierra felt like a magical, uplifting place each time she walked through it. Light streamed through the canopy overhead if she was in thick forest. Birds flitted from tree branch to tree branch, calling out to one another and singing. Squirrels were busy gathering food to store for the winter. There was the ever-present skitter of lizards, deer mice, rodents and snakes through the leaves, mushrooms and debris on the forest floor.
The fresh scent of the outdoors felt cleansing to her. This was the place she came to reset. Recharge. She found a semblance of peace in the beauty of the vistas and gorges. The meadows, with an abundance of wildflowers, ever changing with the seasons and elevations, were as inspiring and gave her just as much balance as the wild of the forest.
She had three favorite campsites, all far from the ones popular with the public. They weren’t well-known and were off the beaten path. She set up her tent and took the dogs for a short run along a narrow path she was familiar with that looped back around to her campsite. When she returned, to her astonishment, Zahra’s SUV was parked down from hers, and she was just arriving with her backpack and tent strapped to her back. The Dobermans rushed to her side, eager to greet her.
Zahra looked grumpy, which, on her, translated to adorable.
“Zahra, what are you doing here? You despise camping. I didn’t know you had time off. What did you do with Misty?” Shabina couldn’t believe her eyes.
The last person she’d expected to see was Zahra Metcalf. The woman would rather cut off her fingernails than camp—and she loved her perfectly manicured fingernails.
“Don’t even talk to me,” Zahra said as she shook out her small tent and placed it a few feet from Shabina’s. “We aren’t friends right now.” She stuck her nose in the air. “I’m not certain we can ever be friends again.”
“But what are you doing here?”
“You do realize there is a perfectly good spa at Sunrise Lake with cabins and decent beds. Right this very minute we could be getting a massage in the lap of luxury, eating a five-star meal, but what are we doing? Camping in dirt. Eating insects. Shivering with cold. Looking out for bears.” Zahra looked suspiciously around her into the trees. “There are bears here, aren’t there?”
“All the food goes into the bear containers,” Shabina assured. “If they were to come around, which they won’t because the dogs are here, we would be safe.”
Malik and Sharif both pushed their heads against Zahra’s thighs, nearly knocking her over. It was all Shabina could do not to burst out laughing, but at the same time, tears burned behind her eyes. Zahra looked indignant and truly annoyed. Only one thing would have induced Zahra to find someone to watch her new puppy and go out into a cold night to go camping—her friendship with Shabina. No matter her posturing, she had dropped everything to support her friend.