Josh gave her a look of concern. “Are you okay? Ollie can wait a minute or two, until I get you settled.”
“I’m f-f-fine,” she assured him, though she was quite certain the chatter of her teeth said otherwise. “Go take care of your h-horse.”
“I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.”
She nodded and with the dog leading the way, she went toward that warmth.
His house was beautiful, with comfortable-looking furniture, muted colors and Western decor that seemed just right.
“Where’s the laundry room?” she asked Toby. She could swear the chocolate-colored dog cocked his head toward a hallway where she could hear a low hum.
“Thank you,” she said. The dog followed her as she limped in that direction, ignoring the ache in her leg, and opened a solid wood door. It was indeed a laundry room, warm and steamy and fragrant.
She opened the dryer and found it loaded with dark green towels nearing the end of their dry cycle. She pulled two out and used one to drape over her shoulders and the other to dry off the dog so he didn’t continue to drip on the floor.
A little more searching unearthed a pair of baggy sweats folded on the counter of the laundry room as well as a frayed hoodie that read “Camping. It’s In Tents” with the logo of his sporting goods store.
She scooped them up. “Powder room?” she asked the dog, hoping for further guidance.
This time, Toby merely gave her a quizzical look. Apparently she was on her own for that one. She opened a few doors until she found a bathroom decorated in sage greens and browns.
Leaving the dog in the hallway, she closed the powder room door and quickly changed out of her wet things and into her borrowed finery. Oh, if her mother could see her now, Gemma thought with a slightly hysterical laugh as she looked down at the baggy sweats and the disreputable hoodie.
After hanging her clothes to dry on the shower rod, she opened the bathroom door. Still no sign of her host but the dog was waiting by the door.
She smiled and petted his fur, already mostly dry.
She followed the irresistible lure of the fire crackling in the other room. The living room had vaulted ceilings and massive windows. She could see the lights of Haven Point sparkling below and imagined the view would be spectacular in the daylight.
As she sat by the fire, the stress of the past hour seemed to catch up with her. She closed her eyes, her head sagging against the cushion of the chair, so very grateful to be safe and warm and alive.
CHAPTER TWO
JOSH MADE HIS way back to the house through the driving snow that made it difficult to see more than a few feet ahead of him. At least the lights of his house glowed a welcome through the storm.
He had lived in this area of Idaho his entire life except for the years he played college baseball in California but the intensity of fall and spring storms could still take him by surprise, especially when they seemed to come out of nowhere.
Kind of like his unexpected visitor. And not just today but six weeks earlier, when she showed up one day in Haven Point with her big green eyes. He had known who she was at once and had almost blurted it out but caught himself when his cousin Katrina had introduced her as the new hotshot programmer working for Bowie, Kat’s husband.
He had been so astonished to see Gemma here in Haven Point, straight out of his memories and his imagination, that he hadn’t known what to say. He had a feeling he had been a jerk that day at Kat’s barbecue, fumbling over his words, staring at her too long, saying all the wrong things.
Whatever he’d done, they seemed to have gotten off on the wrong foot. While Gemma had been warm and approachable to everyone else in town, she seemed to turn standoffish and painfully polite around him whenever they encountered each other.
Josh had no idea how to get past the prickly barrier she had erected between them. He only knew she was rapidly becoming an obsession with him, which wasn’t at all anything he had ever experienced.
Josh knew he had a reputation, not completely unearned, as a guy who shied away from anything serious.
He had always figured he had plenty of time to decide what he needed and wanted out of a relationship. His two older brothers each had married young, right out of high school in one case and college in the other, and both were now divorced and entangled in ugly custody fights.
Josh had decided he needed to grow up first and figure out the best kind of man he could be before he found that someone special.
And then Gemma Summerhill had moved to Haven Point and shook his entire world.
It was ridiculous. He had spoken with her exactly three times at various social occasions in Haven Point. Four now, he supposed, counting the past half hour. None of those encounters seemed to have done anything to soften her sharp edges around him.
He never struggled to talk with women. Ever. He was usually completely comfortable with them.
So why did she leave him so tongue-tied? She was smart, for one thing. Bowie Callahan, Katrina’s husband, had mentioned at that first meeting that Gemma had genius-level tech skills and that he and Aidan felt extraordinarily lucky to have her on their team.
More than that, Josh knew the truth, the secret she had apparently decided not to share with the rest of Haven Point. Keeping it was becoming increasingly difficult.
Maybe today, the first chance he had to talk to her alone, might offer him an opportunity to clear the air between them and start over.
With that spark of optimism, he walked into his house. He took off his coat and Stetson, listening for some sign of her. All he heard was Toby snoring.
Concern flared and Josh wanted to kick himself. He was an idiot. She had fainted for a few seconds earlier. He had been so busy worrying about getting her warm and safe through the storm that he hadn’t remembered that until now.
He should have made she sure she was settled before worrying about Ollie. His horse could have handled standing out in the snow for a few minutes. What if she’d passed out again and hurt herself?
As soon as he had the thought, a reassuring calm quickly followed. If that were the case, if she had fainted again or were in trouble, Toby would be whining or pacing to raise the alarm.
Still, Josh hurried through the house and stopped dead when he reached the fireplace where he saw the fire had burned down to embers and needed a log.
Toby was curled up on the floor, keeping a watchful eye on a blanket-covered figure asleep on the sofa.
She looked fragile, delicate, skin almost burnished translucent in the fire’s glow. Everything he knew about Gemma Summerhill told him that was an illusion. She wasn’t fragile or delicate. She had been through a terrible ordeal and had the scars to prove it.
He wanted to stand there all evening, drinking in the sight of her, but that was a little too stalker-ish for him. Not wanting to startle her too much, he cleared his throat quietly.
“Gemma? Miss Summerhill?”
She stirred a little but didn’t awaken. He was torn between his instinct to let her continue sleeping and his conviction that she wouldn’t be happy with him if he did.
Now that he knew she was safe, he could give her a few more moments while he changed out of his wet clothing and made a few phone calls, he decided.
Those few moments turned into twenty by the time he returned to check on her. By then, he had stoked the fire in the great room and the two ground-floor bedrooms in case the power went out, made a couple of phone calls to find out the status of the mudslide cleanup areas and pulled a ready-to-heat minestrone soup out of his freezer.
They wouldn’t starve, at least. He had a freezer filled with meals, both from the gourmet service he used and from relatives and friends who were always bringing him a plate of this or that.
He and Gemma had enough provisions to spend the entire winter hunkered down here in the mountains while the weather howled outsid
e.
The idea was far more appealing than it should have been.
Toby rose and padded to his side. The dog’s movement seemed to pierce her subconscious, waking her where his voice hadn’t been enough. He watched her eyes flutter a little then open the rest of the way.
“Oh,” she said, her cheeks turning rosy. “I think I must have fallen asleep.”
“I believe you did.” He was enamored with her accent and wasn’t ashamed to admit it to himself.
“I’m so sorry.” As she stretched a little, the blanket fell down, revealing that she wore his favorite hoodie and a pair of his sweats. She reached down to pet Toby and he tried not to be jealous of his dog.
“What time is it?” she asked. “Have they cleared the debris so that I can drive home?”
“No. I’m sorry. I’ve just been on the phone with a friend who works for the county road crew and he says they won’t be able to make any headway on the slide until morning. Apparently another rockslide is blocking the road between Haven Point and Shelter Springs, which has to take priority because of the volume of traffic that uses that road and the proximity to the hospital.”
She looked stricken. “Oh dear. Is there another way I can go home tonight? Surely there’s another road off the mountain.”
He pointed out the window. “The storm is still going strong. We’ve got six inches of snow. By morning we could have a foot. I’m afraid we’re not going anywhere tonight.”
“I can’t possibly stay here.”
She didn’t need to sound so aghast at the very idea.
“I’m sorry, Miss Summerhill, but I’m afraid you don’t have a choice. It’s not the end of the world. I’ve got plenty of food, even if we were stuck here for several days.”
“We won’t be, will we?”
Maybe if they were here longer, he could figure out how to talk to her without stumbling over his words. It was unlikely, unfortunately.
“My buddy promised they’ll be able to move the slide away by noon tomorrow.”
“I’m supposed to work tomorrow. I’ll have to let Bowie Callahan know I won’t be able to make it to the office.”
He could put her mind at ease about that, at least. “I already called to tell him about the slide. He offered to send a helicopter for you as soon as the weather breaks.”
She looked momentarily hopeful, then shook her head. “That’s kind of him but unnecessary. I can take a day away from work. I suppose the research and development department won’t fall apart without me.”
“From everything I’ve heard, you’ve already made yourself indispensable.”
She looked astonished and pleased. “I don’t know about that.”
“Bowie has nothing but good to say.”
“That’s lovely to hear. Working for Caine Tech is the best job I’ve ever had.”
“Are you hungry? I’m heating some soup.”
She sat up and pushed the blanket away. He tried not to stare as she revealed a little sliver of skin below the hoodie. “I am a little hungry. How can I help?”
Heating soup in a microwave didn’t really take a committee but he sensed she needed something to keep her mind of her situation. “Would you mind setting the table?”
“Not at all.” Limping a little, she followed him into the kitchen, which was now redolent with the creamy tomato smells from the soup. He pointed to the cabinet with the dishes and they worked together for a few moments while Toby watched from the sidelines, ever hopeful that Josh would drop a morsel of food on the ground.
He ladled soup into bowls and sliced some French bread he’d bought at the grocery store in town earlier that day.
“This looks delicious,” she said. “Did you make it?”
“I wish I could say yes. I can cook but usually don’t have time. I have a personal chef service in Shelter Springs that supplies me with several meals a month for my freezer that I can cook on the fly.”
“What a good idea,” she exclaimed. She tasted the soup and gave an appreciative nod. “That’s delicious. A really good flavor. You’ll have to give me their number. I enjoy cooking but find I’m so tired at the end of the day after working that I usually choose something easy that I don’t have to think about. Sometimes I cook on the weekends and then eat leftovers all week.”
“I’ve done the same but weekends are often the times I visit my stores.”
“You have more than one?”
“Six,” he said. The number still astonished him. “And we’re hoping to expand into Utah and Wyoming within the next few years.”
“That’s impressive.”
“My goal is to make the outdoors more accessible to everybody. Quality equipment, a wide selection and competitive pricing. That’s our business model.”
“It must be working for you.”
He was immensely proud of how much Bailey Outfitters had grown over the past five years, since he had taken a small sporting goods shop and expanded it into multiple locations with a strong vision and loyal customers.
He could talk all night about it but he was far more interested in Gemma Summerhill. “So. What brings you to Haven Point?”
“I had a job offer for my dream company. I couldn’t say no.”
“Is that all there is to it? You’re not escaping a bad relationship or running from the law in England?”
She laughed. “Neither of those things. Though what would you do if I said otherwise?”
“If it was the second part, I would probably ask if you were dangerous.”
“No, except perhaps when I have a laptop in front of me.”
He smiled. “I’d better lock mine down, then, so I don’t take any chances.”
“You’re safe with me,” she said. “I’ve only used my skills for good since I was a teenager.”
“That’s a relief,” he said. He liked the implication that she might have been a bit wild in her youth. Okay, he liked everything about her.
“As for fleeing a bad relationship,” he went on, “I would probably say that anyone stupid enough to let you go deserves the loss.”
As soon as the words were out, he wished he hadn’t said them. She stared at him, for several seconds, eyes wide.
There he went, saying the wrong thing again. What was it about her?
“If you weren’t running from a relationship or the law, what other reason compelled you to take a job in a little town in Idaho? Was working for Caine Tech really that compelling?”
She appeared to give his question serious thought. “No one really compelling reason, I suppose, but a hundred little ones. I had a good job in London. I had good friends there, my family, and was on track for several big promotions over the next few years. And then one morning I woke up and realized I dreaded waking up in the morning and facing my day. I wanted something else but I wasn’t even sure what that was.”
She set down her spoon. “That very day I received an email from Aidan Caine. A few weeks earlier, we had met at a conference and he had asked for my card. I assumed he was only being polite, but apparently he had been researching some of the projects I’d worked on. Out of nowhere, really, he emailed me asking if I would consider taking a temporary job here in Idaho heading up a new project in the research and development department.”
“Wow. You must be amazing at your job, if Aidan would make that kind of ask on a short acquaintance. He’s known as a discerning kind of guy.”
She looked flattered. “It was certainly unexpected. I turned him down.”
“You what?”
“Yes. Quite firmly. I told him I would only consider if he would make the offer permanent.”
Oh, he liked her. Gemma Summerhill was a complicated, intriguing woman who fascinated him more than any woman he could remember. He wanted the storm to go on forever so he might have the chance to learn everything about
her.
“Would you like more soup or bread?” he asked.
“No. Thank you. What about you? Have you always wanted to do what you’re doing now?”
He smiled a little ruefully. “Not even close. When I was young, I wanted to be a professional baseball player, probably like most other boys my age. I was a pitcher. At one point, I had a ninety-mile-per-hour fastball.”
“I’ll admit I’m not that familiar with the sport but that sounds impressive.” She rose and carried her bowl to the sink.
For the next few moments, they worked together to clear the table.
“I played college ball,” he told her as he loaded the dishwasher. “In the last game of my university career, a couple of pro talent scouts came down to take a look at me. I was pitching a shutout and had batted a double and a triple. In the top of the ninth, I was sliding into home and had a bad hit with the catcher and injured my shoulder.”
“Oh no!” she exclaimed.
“Yeah. It was a catastrophic injury. My big pro ball career was over before it ever began. After two surgeries, I tried to work back to the level I’d been before but something had changed. I just didn’t have it anymore and was quite sure I never would again. I knew I needed a plan B so came back and went to work for the local sporting goods store in Shelter Springs, which happened to be owned by an uncle. A year later, he asked if I wanted to buy him out. Two years after that, Bailey Outfitters expanded and we opened five more shops throughout the region. And here we are.”
“And still growing.”
He had big dreams, yes. Right now, all of them seemed to involve the woman in his kitchen.
He wanted to kiss her. She was standing only a few feet away. It wouldn’t take anything to take a step toward her, grab her hand and tug her into his arms.
And what a disaster that would be. He sensed she was nervous enough about having to stay overnight in an isolated mountain cabin with a man she didn’t know.
The power flickered suddenly, once, twice, then went out.
She gasped a little as the room was plunged into darkness except for the glow from the fire in the great room. He saw Toby rise from his favorite spot on the kitchen rug and head to her side. Gemma reached a hand down to pet the dog, a gesture he sensed was more for her own comfort than for the dog.
Summer at Lake Haven Page 26
