by Cara Colter
Lancaster turned his back to them and spread his arms wide. It was obvious what he planned to do. The bravest—or the most reckless—of Mountain Bend boys sometimes jumped from that high outreach, but no one ever dived from it.
Like Ward, Lancaster seemed to be a man 100 percent positive of his own strength and his place in the world. He launched himself, backward, soaring up before starting to fall back toward the pool. He twisted in the air, arms tucked in close, legs straight, before slicing cleanly into the water. Moments later, he surfaced, shaking water droplets from his hair, laughing.
“He could have been killed,” Sophie said, furious.
“Ah, that man could dive into a cup of water,” Ward reassured her. “Where we come from we cut our teeth on this. In fact, I think I’ll join him.”
Soon, Ward was on the same perch Lancaster had been on earlier. Maddie suddenly understood Sophie’s frightened fury. She had lived here all her life and never seen anyone dive into the pools like this. She, herself, had never even taken the terrifying jump from that place.
Ward turned his back to them, showing them the perfect curve of his spine, the broadness at the top of it and the slenderness at the bottom. He stood on his tiptoes and his calf muscles rippled.
Maddie wanted to object, too.
But the beauty of what unfolded stopped her. He launched himself backward, somersaulting one complete time before cutting cleanly into the water.
The men dived and dived and dived, each outdoing the other’s previous dive.
Maddie was entranced, and she was pretty sure, despite all the shrieking, Sophie was as entranced as she was.
She felt as if they were doing the age-old dance—men showing women their strength and prowess, impressing them with it, making some hunger burn like a flame in their bellies. It had been a long time since she had been involved in this particular dance, and never really in this way. The men’s strength was raw and easy, magnificent to behold.
Still, Maddie recognized her fascination was deeper than appreciation of the male form. It was with the boldness of it, the freedom and the faith one had to feel to throw themselves into the air like that, to trust the water would catch them.
Finally, as the light leached from the sky, the men stopped diving. They came and toweled off, laughter and power shimmering in the air around them.
“Can you teach me how to do that?” Maddie asked, when the men joined them. She was envious with how alive they seemed. She wanted, in that moment, as much as she had ever wanted anything, to taste the power and joy that shimmered in the air around them.
Don’t be afraid to be bold.
But both men appeared very uncomfortable with her boldness. They regarded her silently.
“What?” Maddie demanded.
“It’s too dangerous,” Lancaster said.
“I’m afraid time has run out, anyway. Look at the light.” Ward couldn’t hide his relief, and Maddie couldn’t help but feel he was protecting her, which made her feel quite nice, instead of properly outraged.
Besides, he was right. It was too dark now.
And maybe she was just a little relieved, too. What she had asked was scary. And besides, she already felt way too much attraction to Ward. Inviting further interaction might be more dangerous than the diving.
They sat on the blanket they had brought and ate the picnic that had been packed. It was nearly dark by the time they were done. The tension over her request dissipated, and Maddie and Ward talked lightly of the different interpretations of the sport of football, the worst food they had ever eaten and the best, their favorite music and movies. Sophie sulked silently as Lancaster sat slightly apart from them, aloof.
The night air was getting chilly, and Maddie was relieved that Sophie wasn’t nearly as sophisticated as she wanted everybody to believe, not as desperate to get Lancaster’s attention as Maddie had been concerned about. Like Maddie, she ducked behind a shrub to change back into dry clothes.
As they prepared to leave the grotto, Lancaster put himself in the lead.
“I should probably go first,” Maddie said, “I know the way better.”
Ward laughed, low in his throat.
“Women don’t dive? Or lead the way?” Maddie asked, genuinely annoyed now. Somehow, after the light conversation earlier, the prickliness felt much safer.
“Humor me,” Lancaster said, as if this was not even open to discussion. “I’ll try not to lead you off any cliffs.”
“I do not need two big strong guys to lead me through the woods!” Maddie said. “I grew up in these mountains.”
“What if we meet a bear?” Lancaster asked her.
“How would you be better able to handle that than me?” Maddie challenged.
“I’m capable of tearing out his throat with my bare hands. Are you?”
For a moment they were all silent.
Maddie watched as Lancaster’s eyes flicked to Ward. She remembered what Kettle had said, that he thought Lancaster was a close protection specialist. And hadn’t Sophie noticed something, too? He thinks he’s the lifeguard. And at supper, sitting apart from them, not engaging with them. She tried to think. Had he been watchful?
Something shivered along Maddie’s awareness. These men really were not who they said they were.
What did they say they’re doing here? Kettle had asked.
Maddie gave herself a little shake and acquiesced to Lancaster’s desire to be in the lead. None of it mattered. Tomorrow her life would be back to normal. Normal had become a highly overrated experience. There was no need to read deep dark secrets into this. The men obviously came from a more traditional culture. There was no sense trying to fix that, or change it, in this one-off encounter with them.
In the darkness, she could see Ward watching her. He smiled and when she stumbled over a root on the dark path and nearly fell, he reached for her hand and steadied her.
Just as well, then, she wasn’t in the lead. She could feel the quiet strength in him. His ingrained instinct to protect her. Maybe a man’s traditional need to lead and protect wasn’t such a bad thing! Maddie took a deep breath and squeezed Ward’s hand and then let it go before it felt too nice to hold it.
Still, she recognized, once again, she was being way too serious, and she didn’t want to spoil what remained of this experience.
Even in the dark, they both recognized the branch of the tree where they had hung their worries. They paused and looked at the branch, and then at each other.
Without saying a word, they both moved by it, and the laughter blossomed naturally between them.
“I do not see anything funny,” Sophie said, obviously in a very poor humor indeed.
They finally stumbled through the darkness to the car. Ward drove down the tricky mountain road in the dark, and asked directions to Maddie’s house. He stopped in front.
“Is this one of the original miner’s cottages you talked about earlier?”
She nodded, flattered that he listened so carefully, and she turned and looked at her house through his eyes. Her home was tiny, but adorable, with its yellow painted front porch and shutters and its deep mauve siding. Flower boxes bloomed cheerfully under the windows. The houses on either side of it were not quite so well loved. One had a For Sale sign that had been hanging so long one of its hooks had rotted away, and it hung crookedly.
“I live just down the street. I’ll get out here, too,” Sophie said. Lancaster got out and opened her door for her. She tossed her hair and marched by him with her nose in the air. He raised a brow at Maddie and shrugged.
Ward stood looking down at Maddie. Her heart began to pound. Did he feel the same as her? That there would only be one magical way that would be suitable to end such a magical day?
He took a step back from her.
She took a step back from him.
“Will you
be at the concert?” he asked, finally, breaking the silence between them.
“I don’t have a ticket.” She didn’t want to admit that she had refused a free ticket from Sophie, whose cousin had supplied her with several. The other tickets had been priced right out of her range. She had realized she had become the person who always said no instead of yes. She had said no to a free concert ticket to the Ritz, preferring to stay in the safety of her home, with her book and her bath, where she controlled everything, where nothing surprising ever happened.
“I’ll find you a ticket,” he said. “Please come with me.”
“I have to think about it,” Maddie stammered. Yes, she did. She had to think. She had to think carefully. She had such a powerful attraction to this man. Why torment herself, getting in deeper, when it could not go anywhere?
Not that she wanted things to go anywhere! She had learned her lessons!
“I wouldn’t go to the concert with you if you were the last man on earth,” Sophie shouted over her shoulder at Lancaster.
“I hate to break it to you, lass, but you weren’t asked,” Lancaster called after her.
“Sparks,” Ward noted, his eyes unrelenting on her own turned-up face.
“Fire danger high,” Maddie returned huskily.
And then they stared at each other. Because it seemed as if they could be talking about Sophie and Lancaster.
But they both knew they weren’t.
Which was all the more reason to say no.
She willed herself to say no. She had to say no. What was going to happen after the concert when he left for good? She would have had this little taste of excitement, that little tingle of anticipation, that tiny expectation of something out of the ordinary happening. And when that was gone? Wouldn’t life seem like it was without light? Without meaning? Without hope?
Had her life become like that? And if it had, wasn’t it up to her to fix it? Wasn’t that the whole lesson of Derek? You are responsible for your own life. Your own happiness. Do not count on other people. Particularly handsome, charming, make-you-weak-in-the-knees people.
Say no! It was going to be worse if she allowed their lives to tangle for yet one more day. So the sensible answer to his invitation was no. The only answer.
But she could not say it.
Why not, just this once, allow life to surprise her? Why not see where it all went? If it went nowhere at all, she would have had a great night at an outdoor concert. Surely, that had to be preferable to sitting at home?
“If you find a ticket,” she said.
But she would probably find herself sitting at home, regardless. The tickets had been sold out for weeks. He wasn’t going to find one. Or was he? He looked like the kind of man who pulled the impossible out of thin air routinely.
Ward grinned at her, as if he had a ticket already!
CHAPTER SEVEN
MADDIE HAD THOUGHT Ward would show up at the Black Kettle sometime during the day, at least to tell her they had not been successful in getting the ticket. But he did not. She was aware that, despite the fact she had been telling herself all day it was better if she didn’t go, as each hour passed she was more disappointed.
Not that there was much time for any kind of introspection: the Black Kettle was absolutely packed all day long.
Then just before closing, an envelope was delivered to her by a courier. A courier in Mountain Bend! It held a single ticket to the concert, and a note.
I’ll pick you up. Eight o’clock.
Just before Ward arrived to pick her up, Maddie had an attack of nerves so bad, she thought she wouldn’t be able to go to the concert. He was leaving, for heaven’s sake. This was not going anywhere. He didn’t even live in the same country.
Her head knew all of that. But when she touched the pendant on her neck, Maddie was intensely aware her heart was singing a different tune. Her heart was telling her she had not felt so alive, ever.
Not even the initial excitement of New York had made her feel like this. Not Derek. Not the thought of starting her own baking business. Nothing.
She realized part of her had been shut down since the second blow to her life: her mother leaving her, just as her father had. But no, that wasn’t it. Not precisely. After the death of her mother, there had been a wild time when she was grief stricken, looking for release from all that pain, looking for love...
Pregnant. She had a pregnancy scare by some beautiful boy who had made her heart do exactly what Ward was doing to it now. That boy hadn’t even known her name.
She remembered those terrifying days of being so alone with the shame and guilt and remorse, playing out her whole frightening future as a single mom, wondering how she could live with the disappointment of everyone who expected her to be the sensible one.
It had turned out to be a false alarm. But she had never really trusted herself since then, as if she, and she alone, knew there was a wild girl inside of her who simply could not be trusted when a certain man looked at her a certain way.
Derek had not been that man. Had she chosen him precisely because he did not make her lose that precious control? Had he sensed something in her holding back? Was that why he had turned to her friend?
But Ward made her feel that way: on fire with life, reckless.
If he had given her a cell phone number, she would call him now and plead illness. But he had not.
Maddie went and looked at herself in the mirror. She had deliberately chosen an outfit that was conservative, not in any way sexy. She wore jeans, and a T-shirt; she had put a casual blazer over the top because spring nights in the mountains were notoriously cool.
It was an outfit that said she was a decent girl who did not chase strange men around hot pools. An outfit that said, I know you’re leaving, I don’t have to impress you. I won’t do anything I’ll regret.
But despite the conservative, if contrived, I don’t care look, she saw something in her eyes that made her a different woman than she had been yesterday morning.
Really, she looked as though she had been kissed! If she looked like this after an innocent afternoon of chasing around the pools, what was she going to look like—be like—when he did kiss her?
Was he going to kiss her?
Of course he was going to kiss her! She had seen it in his eyes as surely as she was feeling it stirring in her own soul. Passion. Hunger. And then he was going to leave, she reminded herself. He might even promise to stay in touch, but he wouldn’t. They lived in different worlds.
In other words, she had nothing to lose. She didn’t have to care what kind of impression she made on him. She didn’t have to be the sensible one. It was a one-night thing.
In light of her dawning realization of complete freedom, the outfit suddenly felt all wrong. Feeling emboldened, Maddie went and changed clothes.
She had a dress that she had always worn over tights. It was a sleeveless shimmering aquamarine with a band of embroidery embellishing the deep V of the neck. It was extremely short, but wearing it as a dress instead of a top made her feel fun and flirty and bold and daring.
“I have great legs!” she told herself, twirling in front of the mirror. She burst out laughing and hugged herself. How long since she had felt exhilaration like this?
She was the wallflower who had been unexpectedly invited to the prom, and she wanted to make the most of her moment. She was ready to be seen differently. She felt young and excited. She felt as if—for the first time in a long time, or maybe even the first time ever—she wanted to be memorable. She wanted to be sexy.
Ward was going to leave. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t be a brand-new person! In fact, it gave her the complete liberty to be a brand-new person!
The doorbell rang. Maddie’s confidence fled.
Don’t answer it, she begged herself. But that other part of her ran her fingers through her curls,
so they sprang even more wildly about her head, and that other part of her put a dab of lip gloss on, and that other part of her sprayed perfume in the air and then walked through it.
She touched the pendant, hoping for some sensible advice. Instead, she remembered how wildly her father had loved her mother, how impetuously. Her father used to sing to her mother, his arms wrapped around her waist, his chin resting on her shoulder.
Good grief! She was going to a concert! Maddie went and opened the door.
We should have picked up those worries, she thought. Worries kept people sensible.
The way Ward looked did not make her feel sensible. He was wearing dark glasses, which he removed to look at her. Whiskers had darkened his face; his eyes were as navy blue as midnight. He wore jeans, the dark denim creased and very navy blue, like his eyes. They clung to the large muscles of his thighs. He had on a button-down casual shirt and a leather jacket. He was wearing a dark fedora, which one in a million men might be able pull off. He was that one man. He looked like he could model for the cover of GQ!
Despite her effort at being conservative, his gaze took her in and was loaded with a subtle male appreciation that left her feeling breathless.
Charmingly, he handed her the cutest little posy of wildflowers and she buried her nose in it, so he wouldn’t see what was in her eyes, which was sure to be longing. For his strength, and his closeness, and his lips, and the scrape of those whiskers across the tender skin of her face.
He was a stranger. She didn’t think it would be a good idea to let this newfound sense of liberty get out of hand.
Her eyes drifted over Ward’s shoulder, and she saw Lancaster waited at the vehicle. Lancaster, she thought with relief. Chaperone.
But then, for a chaperoned lady, she had the wildest thought. We’re going to kiss good-night. When he brings me home, should I invite him in for a hot chocolate? A glass of wine? Could that be misinterpreted? Could she trust herself, in the privacy of her own home, not to want to taste him, touch him?
