Coming Home: Family Bonds Four

by Aarsen, Carolyne

  “You said that before.”

  “Which is why I’m taking you out to dinner tonight. To bribe you to take my side.” He spoke the words lightly, trying to inject a more humorous tone, but deep down a part of him wondered what Larissa would do if he and her father couldn’t agree.

  “You didn’t need to do that.” She spoke the words quietly but with assurance. “For the first time since I took over the inn I feel like I’m working with someone who has direction and a plan for the inn. The inn means so much to me and I really want to see it return to the days when it was making money. I know it can. It’s been hard to...well, to portray that to my father and get him on board with my ideas. I’m so glad you are as enthusiastic about the inn as I am.”

  Her sincerity and muted passion resurrected a sense of guilt. His initial purpose for the success of the inn had been different than hers.

  As he held her sincere gaze he recognized that over the past couple of weeks his priorities had shifted. Yes, he still wanted the inn to succeed, but if he really delved into his motivation for that he knew he would find different reasons.

  The main one being the woman sitting across the table from him. When he started working with her he had been determined to protect himself by keeping her at arm’s length.

  However, in the past few weeks, that had not only been more difficult, it had begun to matter less. Especially once he found out about the misinformation her father had fed her. A lie that had kept her away from him.

  He suppressed a burst of anger at what Jack had done to them. The years they had wasted.

  He couldn’t indulge in that now. For now he was with Larissa and for the first time in years, he felt a measure of peace and belonging. He dared allow himself to think about a future that extended beyond the next paycheck. The next job.

  And in the muted light of the restaurant as he looked into Larissa’s eyes, he wondered if she might be part of that future.

  “I want the inn to succeed,” he said quietly, pushing his unfinished food aside. He wasn’t hungry after all. “And I’m sure with enough work and dedication, it will.”

  Larissa’s smile reinforced his opinion.

  “So what do you think we need to do yet before Pete comes?” she asked, bringing the conversation back to business.

  “Get the rooms ready. I’m excited to see everything come together, the spreads, the pillows with the colors we’ve painted the rooms.”

  “I understand you got Scrap Happy to move their mini-scrapbooking and card-making conference from The Pines here.”

  “They’re still a tentative. I think Renee is waiting to see if Pete books with us before she makes her decision.”

  Garret hardly dared to think Pete might not book. Though he and Larissa had a fun and successful shopping trip, the reality was they were rapidly reaching the end of the operating loan. If Pete said no—

  He stopped that thought. Didn’t dare even let it enter the edges of his mind.

  “He’ll do it,” Larissa said quietly. “I know he will.” She squeezed his hand and he returned her smile. “I’m praying he will.”

  “Then the poor guy doesn’t have much of a chance does he?” Garret returned.

  “Hopefully not,” Larissa said.

  Their conversation moved to the other changes they wanted to make. They talked about the grounds. About the roof. Boring, mundane stuff at one time, but for the first time in his life, Garret felt as if he was a part of something important. Not a business, but a calling.

  And working with Larissa was making that even more important to him.

  Eleven

  Larissa laid her head back on the seat of Garret’s car. The hum of the tires on the road and the heat inside the car created a lethargy she had a hard time shaking off. It was too dark to see the details of the mountains but there was enough light in the sky yet to see their silhouette.

  Though she had lived her entire life in the shadow of the mountains, she never tired of seeing them in the changing light and in the changing seasons.

  She rolled her head to look at Garret, his face in profile as he watched the road ahead. She recognized the man she had been in love with in the set of his jaw and the slope of his forehead. His thick hair seemed as untamed as ever.

  Her heart did a slow flip as he turned his head.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked, his voice gentle.

  She wasn’t ready to reveal her true thoughts, so she reverted to the surface emotions. “I’m glad we spent some time together away from the inn and away from everyone else.”

  Garret’s slow smile gave her heart another flip and when he reached over and stroked her cheek, her heart went into overdrive.

  “I’m glad too,” he said quietly, then reached over and, just like he used to, twined his fingers through hers and let their joined hands rest on his knee.

  A bridge between past and present, Larissa thought.

  Things had changed between them. The tension between them had shifted and been replaced by a sense of waiting for something else to happen.

  Garret gazed up through the windshield at the mountains ahead.

  “What are you looking for?” Larissa asked.

  “The Shadow Woman.”

  “But you can only see her when the sun shines on the mountain at a certain time of the day. It’s too dark now.”

  “It’s an old habit. Whenever my brother and I would come to town with Nana and Papa, Tanner and I had a contest to see who would see her first.”

  “Who won?”

  “Whoever managed to be sitting in the front of the truck.” Garret shot her a quick grin. “That was usually me.”

  “My mother said there was a story behind the shadow.”

  “I’m not exactly sure. Me and my cousins always thought it was Nukinu, our Sarcee great-great-grandmother on my grandfather’s side of the family, waiting for her lost love to return, but my nana always said Nukinu wasn’t the kind of person to wait around.”

  “My mom has talked about Nukinu and a legend of some gold nuggets. What was that story about?”

  “Apparently our great-great-grandmother was a native woman whose father had traded with a Kootenai for gold nuggets. He gave them to Nukinu, telling her to never tell anybody else about them. He had seen what gold fever did to their people, and to the white people who came seeking it. And then one day, August Bond, my great-great-grandfather came to the valley. He was looking for gold but fell in love with Nukinu. However, when she showed him the gold nuggets her father had given her, the gold fever came back. So he left her and went looking. Then one day he was trudging through the wet bush, hungry, following yet another creek up the mountain and looked down into the valley. He realized how stupid it was to go looking for something that was elusive and wouldn’t satisfy. So he packed up his shovel and came back down the mountain looking for Nukinu. He asked her forgiveness and then he asked her to marry him.” Garret smiled at the story.

  “What happened to the gold nuggets?”

  “They were put into a bracelet which was passed down to the family, until my grandfather gave the bracelet to my nana. After her heart attack, she had the bracelet made up into five necklaces. When each of us kids came back, she gave us each a necklace and a Bible. The necklace was to show us where we had come from, and the Bible was to show us where we are going.” Garret released a short laugh. “I seemed to always know where I came from. I just didn’t always know where I was going.”

  “What do you mean?” Larissa asked. She had an idea but at the same time she wanted to hear his take on what had kept him going all these years.

  Garret was quiet a moment, his fingers tightening around hers, his eyes watching the road as it wound along the edge of the mountain.

  “I often thought I was like August Bond. I never told you this before, but I think you need to know. I was always determined to work for your father’s mill. I was still an angry young man who wanted to find a way to get back at Jack for what I perceived was
an injustice when he fired my mother.”

  He stopped there, glancing at her, then away.

  “And then,” she prompted the tiniest chill entering her heart.

  “Then I met you and I thought I had found the perfect way to get even.”

  The chill grew and she tried to pull her hand away, but Garret wouldn’t let her.

  “But I made a huge mistake,” he said, holding tightly to her hand. “I fell for you. My plans blew away like sawdust in the wind.” He looked her way. “It all changed when I met you. My focus, my plans. All the things I wanted to do. They all changed the first time I saw you standing just past the edger.”

  Larissa clearly remembered the jolt of attraction she felt when she saw him. The sudden feeling that everything in her world had shifted. “I know what you mean,” she said quietly.

  “After...I left Rockyview, I reverted back to that guy. The one who would show them. I wasn’t coming back until I could show everyone what a success I’d made of myself.” He shot another look her way. “But while I was gone I never felt complete. I had wandered away from all the things my grandparents had instilled in me. I wandered away from my faith and lost my way.”

  “And now?”

  Garret drew in a long, slow breath. “I keep saying the reason I came back to Rockyview was my grandmother. But I think, deep down inside, the real reason I came back was you.”

  The hum of the tires and the faint tick of his keys against the steering column were the only noises in the silence following his declaration.

  His words seeped into her soul, filling places bereft from his leaving. She wanted to hold on to each word, each nuance in his voice, and store them away to analyze later.

  “I’m glad you’re back,” she said quietly.

  Garret’s expression grew serious and then to her surprise, he slowed the car down, its headlights sweeping across the pavement as he steered into one of the many lookout points along this highway.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked sitting up as he parked the car and then, turned it off.

  He kept his eyes ahead, and then he got out of the car. Curious about what was going on, she followed him.

  He leaned against the hood of the car, the air picking up a coolness from the water rushing below them.

  In the half-light she caught the glint of Hidden Creek tumbling over the rocks, an endless flow of water that would pass through the property of the inn before flowing into Rockyview, close to the center of town.

  “You know, it’s kind of interesting that both my brother and I now own property along this creek, but in different places,” Garret said, his hands resting on the hood of the car behind him. “I never thought that would happen.”

  Larissa said nothing, letting him determine where this conversation was going. She wasn’t sure what was happening, but for now she was willing to see where it went.

  Then Garret turned to her and cupped her face in his hand, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do. “I never thought that this would happen either,” he added, his fingers cool on her heated cheeks.

  It felt right. It felt good.

  Larissa shut off her second thoughts. Shut off her doubts and, turning, pressed her lips against Garret’s hand.

  “Where are we going?” Garret’s question was a quiet whisper as he slipped his other hand around her waist, pulling her close.

  “If you don’t know, I can’t tell you,” Larissa joked, trying to find an equilibrium in the emotions that had been in flux all evening.

  “I feel as if we’re coming full circle,” Garret said, his hand slipping down her face, cradling her neck.

  “Is that a good thing?”

  Garret’s eyes, glinting in the growing dusk, seemed to pierce hers. “I don’t know.”

  His answer wasn’t encouraging and yet, as she looked into his eyes as she felt his hands around her waist, she felt a sense of rightness so strong, so real, she couldn’t stop her own hands from slipping up his chest and clasping his neck.

  It was like a dance they both knew the steps to. A rhythm she could never find with anyone else.

  And when he bent his head to kiss her and she raised her lips to his, it was as if she was coming home after a long, arduous journey.

  When their lips met it was with a sense of anticipation mingled with a deeper sense; this was exactly where they needed to be. After all this time and all Garret’s journeys around the world, right now they were both in precisely the right place.

  * * *

  “This looks really good.” Pete stood in one of the bedrooms, his expression revealing more than his deadpan voice did.

  Garret had to agree. Even though he, Larissa, Hailey, and Alanna had worked well into last night making up beds, hanging up pictures and putting finishing touches on the rooms and the hallway, the final transformation still surprised him.

  “So what’s your decision?” Garret asked, stifling his impatience with Pete. This was the fifth room they’d shown him.

  “The carpet in the hallway still needs replacing,” Pete said, tapping his pen against his lips. “You might want to look at some new light fixtures as well.”

  Garret sensed Pete was stalling. Maybe trying to get a better deal, but Garret wasn’t budging.

  So he said nothing.

  Pete pulled out his phone and took another picture then turned back to Garret. “So the price you quoted is still in place?”

  Garret nodded, crossing his arms over his chest letting his body language speak louder than his words.

  “And we’ll be able to book this entire block of rooms?” Pete asked.

  “That’s what we agreed on,” Larissa put in, coming to stand beside Garret.

  He caught a hint of her perfume as she lifted her arm to tuck her hair behind her ear. Her tiny gold earrings glinted in the light and with a start, Garret recognized them as a pair he had given her when they were dating. Promise earrings he had called them. A cheap imitation of all he wanted to give her and Larissa still had them.

  He was surprised how good that made him feel, and how good she could make him feel. Since he had kissed her, he was constantly aware of her presence. Constantly looking for her, waiting for her, watching for her.

  Each time they met as they got the rooms ready she would give him a shy smile. He would let his hand trail across her shoulder, down her back. Steal a kiss when he had a chance.

  “So, we’re not negotiating here?” Pete asked. “I got a pretty good price from the hotel in Highlands I was dealing with.”

  The numbers in the bank account made Garret hold his tongue. They were too deep into the operating loan to give anyone any deals. If he gave Pete a deal he’d have to give Renee from Scrap Happy a deal. The inn had to succeed on its own revenue. And if it couldn’t...

  Garret’s thoughts slipped to the money he had tied up in investments. Why not use that to pay the loan the inn was struggling to pay?

  What about your own plans for that money? Can you give up on that?

  But that money had lost much of its value in the last drop in the market. If he pulled it out now he would lose way too much.

  As the questions lingered, Larissa glanced up at him, her eyes meeting his, her mouth easing up in a smile of encouragement. As he held her gaze other questions rose up, overshadowing the first.

  Why not put it all into this inn? Why not build a future here? With Larissa and the place she loves so much?

  “Okay, I guess we’ll do our conference here,” Pete said, cutting off Garret’s questions.

  Larissa’s hands flew to her mouth as she stifled a squeak of joy.

  The tension holding Garret’s shoulders melted away and he pulled Larissa close in an impulsive one-armed hug. “Excellent,” he said, exhaling his concern. “You won’t be sorry, Pete.”

  “I hope not,” Pete said, one eyebrow rising as he looked at Larissa tucked up against Garret’s side.

  Garret didn’t respond to the unspoken question in Pete’s g
aze, nor did he release Larissa. Instead he reached out his free hand to shake Pete’s. “Thanks for your business. We’ll be in touch,” he said.

  “Of course.” Then Pete gave Larissa a wistful smile just as his phone rang. He held it up. “I need to take this call. I’ll let myself out.”

  Garret felt he should accompany him, but Pete was already out the door, talking quickly in a subdued tone.

  As soon as Pete was out of earshot, Garret turned to Larissa, caught her waist and swung her around. “We did it,” he said, when he set her down, his grin almost splitting his face, surprised himself at the elation he felt at this victory. “We got Pete’s conference.”

  Larissa pressed one hand to her chest, the other still clasping Garret’s shoulder. “I thought for a moment he would change his mind,” she said, her voice breathless. “I was trying not to be nervous so I just prayed. Hard.”

  Garret grinned down at her and then, bending over, pressed his lips to hers in a quick kiss of celebration. “You’ve been amazing through this all. It wouldn’t have happened without all your work and organization.”

  Her smile lit up his heart.

  “We did this together,” she said. “You and me.”

  “I like the sound of that,” he said, brushing another quick kiss over her lips as her words settled into his heart.

  You and me.

  Just like it should be.

  He gave her a quick hug. “So, I guess we got work to do.”

  “I like the sound of that too.” She trailed her fingers over his cheek. “You know what I liked the best about this?” she said her voice growing quiet as she rested her hand on his shoulder.

  “Tell me,” he encouraged.

  “This was the first time, since I started managing the inn, that I’ve worked with someone who cares about it as much as I do.” Her smile grew wistful. “I’m so glad you bought this inn. But I’m even happier that we’re together...that we’ve been able to work together,” she amended, a faint blush staining her cheeks.

  Garret smiled at her obvious discomfort. “Are we together?” he asked, a teasing note entering his voice.