ALMOST HEAVEN

Chapter 23

Wednesdays were Clyde's day off, so Laurel tried to be as quiet as possible in the mornings as she got ready for work. She would put her work clothes in the bathroom the night before, take a quick shower, get dressed and head out to the kitchen, hopefully without waking Clyde up.

The Wednesday morning following their discussion about Jason Briggs, Laurel walked out of the bathroom to find that Clyde was already up. Laurel headed to the kitchen and found Clyde at the stove making her breakfast.

"Oh, love, what are you doing up? You should be sleeping," Laurel said as she slipped her arms around his waist. She hugged him and laid her head on his back for a minute.

"I can go back to sleep, angel. I just wanted to get up with you today. I know that Jason is going to be at the park today and I thought you might be a little nervous. I just wanted to let you know that if you need me, you better text me. And keep away from the guy." Clyde laid down the spatula and turned around to kiss Laurel.

"Don't worry, Clyde. I'm going to be careful. Bob said he would make sure that Jason and I would be far apart in the park. And all my worry might be for nothing."

"So you are worried?" Clyde asked softly. "I hate that, Laurel, I just hate that. I bet Bob wouldn't complain if I came in to work with you today."

Laurel started to laugh. "That's not going to happen, believe me. I will be fine. It's all right. Now don't dry my scrambled eggs out, Clyde Logan."

Pam and Laurel headed back to the barn at lunchtime to drop off the work truck. Pam had invited Laurel over to her house for lunch. Pam lived in the park and her home was close to the barn. When they pulled up to the barn, there was several of the rangers standing there. Laurel could see that Bob was out there. And so was Jason.

"Shit, is that the guy?" Pam asked.

"Yep, that's him."

"You going to be all right?"

"Yep. Let's just get out there and see how's this is going to go."

They got out of the truck and headed over to the group by the shed.

"Oh, here they come," Bob said loudly. "Jason, this is Pam, she lives here in the park and I believe you already know Laurel." He wanted Jason to know he knew about what happened.

Jason glanced over at Laurel and Pam and then watched them walk over. "Hi, Pam, nice to meet you. Jason Briggs," he said as he shook her hand. Then he turned to Laurel. "Hey, Laurel, nice to see you again." He reached out and shook Laurel's hand as well. He then his back to them and then spoke to the group already assembled in front of him. "I met Laurel when I worked on a project last year at Shenandoah. Any of you been up there? It's beautiful." He then began to talk about the bald eagle project that was going on in Shenandoah. He never gave Laurel a second look.

Bob watched both the interaction and listened to Jason talk about Shenandoah. He thought that for one brief moment when Laurel got out of the truck, he had seen an expression of pain cross Jason's face. 'Strange,' he thought. 'He's acting like he barely knows Laurel. He turned his back on her like he barely knew her. Maybe he just wants her to know he's over her. Or maybe he just doesn't want her to see that he isn't.'

Laurel and Pam made small talk with some of the other rangers and then walked over to Pam's house for lunch.

"What do you think?" Pam asked Laurel.

"If Jason acts like he did right now, I'm fine with that."

"He deliberately turned his back on you. That seemed strange."