The Replacement. Anne Duquette Marie

name is Missy!”

      “She’s done great work over the years. You both have. But marriage means we should put each other first.”

      “Then you should respect my wishes. I don’t want to leave Missy alone when she’s sick.”

      Eric had been disappointed, but agreed to postpone their honeymoon for the time being. “I can wait for the honeymoon, as long as the wedding is still on,” Eric said. He closed the door to her room with the easy maturity that would soon earn the twenty-six-year-old rescuer his promotion to head ranger.

      Twenty-one-year-old Lindsey had sighed with relief and considered herself lucky to have such a great guy in her life. But right now her dog needed her. She fixed Missy a special dinner with the vet’s new pills mashed and mixed in. Then they curled up in bed for the night, the woodstove blazing with heat for the invalid. Missy burrowed her nose against Lindsey, while Lindsey encircled the shaggy neck with her arm, her hand resting on Missy’s golden head.

      Late that night, before the sun rose on her wedding eve, Missy’s brave heart quietly, painlessly stopped. Even in death, the nose that had saved so many lives remained snuggled under Lindsey’s loving hand.

      Lindsey’s fellow rangers gave Missy an official funeral in the beauty of Yosemite that dog and handler had served so faithfully, and loved so well. Her family, in town for the wedding, attended. Pet and kennel owners themselves, they understood Lindsey’s pain. Eric had seemed understanding himself, until later when they all gathered at a local hotel for what was to have been the prewedding dinner.

      “Are we all set for the ceremony tomorrow?” he asked.

      Lindsey shook her head, tears starting again. “I can’t, Eric.”

      He grew very still, as did the whole roomful of family and friends, including other rangers. “I think we should postpone the wedding,” she whispered.

      “You mean…cancel.” His voice hadn’t sounded like her lover’s at all.

      “No, reschedule,” she insisted. “I just need a day or two and then everything can go on as planned. I’m so sorry, Eric…everyone. I just can’t…” Her voice broke. “I hope you understand.”

      He had, at first. He’d been comforting, loving and compassionate—until that evening when Naomi, who had never approved of Lindsey for her beloved twin, had used her influence with Eric.

      That influence was considerable.

      Lindsey had overheard the end of one argument. “For God’s sake, Eric, Lindsey knows what our work schedules are like! Yours and mine and hers. She’s a park ranger! She also knows this park is booked two years in advance. Not to mention plane reservations and rental car reservations and the tight planning it required to get everyone flown in. This is going to throw everything into one big mess. Believe me, twin, Lindsey doesn’t want you to delay the wedding, she wants to cancel it. She’s scared. Her dog’s death is a perfect excuse to call it off. She’s been dragging her feet all the way to the altar.”

      Eric had used those same arguments later that evening in private.

      “But…you said you were okay about this,” a shocked Lindsey had said. “It’s only for a day or two.”

      “I thought it over, and I’m not.”

      “You mean your sister thought it over, and she’s not,” Lindsey had accused him. “You always take her side over mine! Dammit, Eric, I warned you about this. She’s never liked me. She’ll never like anyone who takes you away from her, and if she has to lie to keep you, she will!”

      “You’re wrong.”

      “I’m not! First thing she did after her husband died was come running back to you! Both your parents are alive, yet suddenly she has to be a park ranger herself.”

      “She’s right about one thing. You have been dragging your feet about this wedding,” Eric accused.

      “Damn right, but not because of you…because of this very thing! Naomi’s acting like our marriage is her business, and you two are a package deal. Well, I want to marry you, not your sister!”

      “So now my family isn’t good enough for you?”

      “I am not trying to call off the wedding. Naomi’s the one trying to end our plans. Why can’t you see that? Marriage is supposed to be based on trust between two people—not three! Who do you believe more, her or me? Choose!”

      Eric’s eyes narrowed. “Is this an ultimatum?”

      “It’s the simple truth,” Lindsey stated. “Naomi sees me as competition for you, and she’s jealous as hell. She doesn’t know me, or care to know me. All I want to do is say goodbye to my dog and not bring that sadness to our wedding. Or to the honeymoon, either. We can still go, now that Missy’s…” She swallowed hard. “You should take my word, not Naomi’s. And if you think she’s an expert on me, then you’re a fool! I’m rescheduling our wedding for the day after tomorrow.”

      “Don’t bother. The wedding’s off,” Eric had said. He stood up so abruptly the chair behind him tipped and crashed to the floor. Those were the last words Lindsey ever heard from him, then or in the four years that followed.

      Yosemite Valley

       Replacement day one, the present

      THE SHEER FACE of Half Dome, Yosemite’s massive rock of granite, reflected the sun’s light downward to the valley. There it bounced against the brightness of the snow and reflected upward again, illuminating everything with brilliant clarity. Lindsey stopped in the snow to adjust her sunglasses and take a breather. She slid her pack off her shoulders absorbing in the beauty of the area.

      Already she’d covered more than half the distance toward the rangers’ winter lodgings. Her flight yesterday had landed smoothly, she’d been met as promised by Jack Hunter—been outfitted in gear, including a radio, and put up in a local motel in Lee Vining for the night. Early this morning, Jack had delivered her via truck and then snowmobile to Yosemite’s rear entrance from the Tuolumne River side. Amid the glittering snow of the high country, Lindsey said goodbye to her superior, and from there skied off toward her old workplace.

      I never realized how much I’ve missed this, she thought to herself. And missed Eric. To Lindsey, Eric and Yosemite were forever linked in her heart. It made her travel easier and faster than she would have supposed possible. Once she made it to the top of the pass, she took another minute to rest.

      Lindsey reached for a trail bar and her thermos of hot chocolate. Since she’d refused to accept and train a new rescue dog after Missy’s death, she’d traded the canine handler spot in Yosemite for the warmer parks in Southern California; it was where she was originally from and where her family still lived. She’d quickly found a new position with the park system, thanks to her surfing and diving skills, and went back to helping her parents around the kennels in her spare time. Being around Eric had been out of the question four years ago. He wouldn’t even see her to take back his ring. She hadn’t wanted to return it, but felt obligated to do so. She’d left it with the former head ranger; Eric hadn’t been awarded that spot until a year after she’d left.

      Now she’d come back to Yosemite—Eric’s home—again. A sad smile crossed her face. With hindsight, she realized she and Eric had more problems than just the death of a dog or the jealousy of a twin. Eric led with his head, she led with her heart, and neither seemed to find any middle ground except in bed. They were young then. Too young, perhaps. They should’ve talked things out—would have talked things out if Naomi had stayed out of it.

      Both of them were close to their siblings. If their situations had been reversed and Kate or Lara had suggested that Eric wasn’t good for her, she would’ve taken their words very seriously, indeed. But she wouldn’t have called off the wedding—that much she knew.

      Lindsey stuffed her once-short blond hair back under her thick woolen hat. Not having to contend