by Holly Rayner
She spoke quickly now, her embarrassment overwhelmed by the unexpected trip down memory lane.
“I made them a while back. It must be three or four years now…not sure how this little guy survived. My sister lives in Seattle and I sent her off with these when she was visiting a few years back.” She smiled at the memory. “I made her promise to put them in the visitor center.”
The man—Kehlan—gently held out his hand. It wasn’t a demanding gesture. A man like that didn’t demand. He could only expect, and the world would arrange itself around those expectations, Paige suspected.
And, as though she were compelled by whatever invisible force had granted him this power, she handed it over.
“Well, you can tell your sister you know she keeps her word. I found this at the visitor center, right where it belonged.”
And just like that, she was stuck staring at his face. Between her rush to look at the brochure and his leaning in to retrieve it, she had wound up far nearer to him than she had been before.
“Heaven on earth…” She turned the words over idly in her mouth while she stared at his too-close face. “I guess some days it does feel that way.”
He cocked his head, a playful smile gracing the corners of his lips.
“And on the other days…?”
Was he flirting? Previously he’d absolutely melted her without even seeming to mean to. This time, it seemed like he meant it. Did he?
A man like that…flirting might just be how he walks through the world. It might be second nature to him to flatter and destroy girls like me, leaving them awestruck in his wake.
Still, she tried to match his flirtatious tone. What else was there to do today?
“Other days, it’s still pretty good. Maybe only a little better than everywhere else, rather than a lot.”
Was it intentional, the way he looked away and smiled, as though he were charmed by her? Was that play, or was that genuine? Did she even care at this point? Whether he was flirting with any kind of purpose or just doing it out of habit, this was still the most interesting thing to happen to her in months. And they’d barely spoken a handful of sentences to each other.
“Well, then. It looks like I came to the right place.”
Without asking if he wanted one, Paige found herself pouring him a cup of coffee and sliding it across the bar towards him. He caught it with casual ease.
“That you did. And here I am, holding out on you.”
That got a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, are you? How so?”
She looked at him coyly.
“You asked me what’s good to do around here, and I still haven’t answered.”
Who was she? This was not the practiced, carefully planned Paige she had been since Dylan was born, nor was this the overwhelmed, overawed small-town girl she had been when she walked back to give Alvin his order. But it felt like if he was going to flirt with her, then she should definitely flirt back. And as soon as she started down that path, she couldn’t help but find that she liked it. And the further she went, the harder it was to turn back.
But that was all right. She was probably only stuck in this feedback loop because none of this mattered, she reasoned. He would take her recommendations, leave the diner, and she’d never see him again. At the end of the day, he was still just a tourist passing through. It was just the weirdness of the day and the striking attractiveness of his features that had brought out this side of her. She may as well have something fun to remember when she was sitting at home tonight, missing her son.
Kehlan seemed to feel the same, for he leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands, forming a kind of tent over his steaming, un-asked-for cup of coffee.
“I have to admit I’m not used to women holding out on me. Can’t say I like it much.”
“Oh, no?” she asked, trying not to get distracted by the definition of the muscles she could see beneath his thin button-down shirt. Had he moved his arms like that on purpose? She had to wonder.
“Well then, I’d better not keep you waiting any longer. Wouldn’t want you to think this town is anything less than advertised. You should know this isn’t a popular time of year here because we’re right between seasons. It’s getting too warm for snow sports, but you might just be able to ski. Just need to watch out for patches of thawed ground, or you’ll take a tumble. Gotta say, with a face like yours, I wouldn’t take the risk.”
Seriously, where was this coming from? She’d never said anything that over the top in her life. She felt like she was somehow channeling some version of the old-timey movie character Alvin affected from time to time, only Kehlan wasn’t in on the joke. In fact, he was so not in on the joke that he somehow seemed to like it, as he smiled down at his cup of coffee.
“Well then, I’d better not ask you to come with me,” he said. “I’m fine to risk myself, but I wouldn’t risk any part of all this.”
At the word “this”, he looked her up and down, and again, Paige felt herself blushing. She’d been a waitress at the Coffee Cup for eight years now, and in all that time, she’d had countless advances from many a tourist. Most were opportunists, trying to have a little extra fun on their vacations, and she was never, ever interested in being anyone’s little bit of vacation fun. Absolutely none of those countless advances had ever set everything inside her on fire the way this man’s casual glance at her body did.
And just like that, there was a spell hanging in the air between them. Paige wasn’t sure if she had woven it or if he had, or if the two of them had somehow created it together. But she was sure that it was intoxicating, and that she could have stood there in its thrall forever.
Except that nearly as soon as she had the thought, the spell was shattered. A loud, startling clatter of pots, pans and who knew what else from the kitchen interrupted them. Paige straightened up, realizing as she did that she had been hunched down over the bar, leaning toward Kehlan.
“Alvin?” she called out, her heart already racing, hoping for a quick response and some joke about how clumsy he was. How old was Alvin now? He had to be in his seventies. She didn’t worry about him, usually. Not the way she should.
When no reassurance immediately answered her worried call, she immediately made a bee-line for the kitchen, barely registering that Kehlan was following close behind her.
When she made her way through the door separating the kitchen from the dining room, she gasped. There, on the kitchen floor, was everything that Paige had been afraid of. Alvin’s face was twisted in a painful grimace, and his shaking hands were clutching at his chest.
She rushed forward towards him, but instead felt a pair of strong arms on her shoulders gently guiding her to one side.
“Let me,” the softly accented voice said, all deep and certain and surreally calm in the circumstances.
She watched as Kehlan deftly knelt by Alvin’s side. He knew what he was doing, that much was immediately clear, and it was almost hypnotic to watch him. If the circumstance weren’t so dire, Paige imagined she would have a hard time tearing her eyes away from him long enough to call an ambulance.
As she gave the operator the details—a familiar voice, someone she was almost certain she’d gone to school with—she watched Kehlan work. It was sexy, yes. But she had a feeling pretty much everything this man did was hopelessly attractive. More than that, though, it was impressive. He had a frown on his face, but it seemed to be concentration rather than unfriendliness. She couldn’t hear quite what he was saying to Alvin, or make out if Alvin was able to make any real response, but she was certain that, whatever the outcome might be, Alvin was lucky that this man had happened to come into town today.
It seemed to take an eternity for the ambulance to get there, and to Paige, it might well have been. For all she loved about this town, she hated the fact that the hospital was so far away, especially when so many of the permanent residents here were getting on a bit in age. By the time they finally arrived, Paige’s knees hurt from kneeling on the f
loor next to Alvin, and her body felt stiff as she straightened up.
“I don’t think it’s a heart attack,” she heard Kehlan tell one of the paramedics.
Together, she and Kehlan watched them load up a very frightened Alvin, who was still clutching at his chest, and obviously in a state.
“His wife is going to meet him at the hospital,” Paige told one of the paramedics, though she wasn’t sure that was information they needed. If Alvin was absorbing any information from the world around him, he’d already have heard the call and would know. But there was no way to be completely sure how aware he was. Kehlan seemed the only one capable of getting or keeping his attention.
When the ambulance was gone, Paige found herself standing under a different kind of spell entirely.
“It’s a horrible feeling,” she said, after a moment. “I just wish there was something I could have done.”
She felt Kehlan’s hand on her arm.
“You did everything you should have done. It’s always horrible. Especially when it’s someone you care about.”
There was a sadness in his voice, and it prompted a wave of curiosity in Paige. She wanted to ask him but all of a sudden, as it had before, the spell was broken; the serious moment had passed, and there they were, just two strangers thrown together in front of a diner.
“Unlucky day for you to come,” she said. “It’s not usually like this. Obviously.”
Kehlan gave her a gentle smile.
“Seems like a pretty lucky day to me. My father would say it was a good deal more than luck.”
“You’re a doctor, then?” she asked, and he responded with mock surprise.
“What gave me away?”
She chuckled, even though it wasn’t all that funny. But the nerves of the situation were all sort of shaking their way out of her, and she felt jangly and uncertain. Again, Kehlan’s hand was on her arm.
“He’s going to be all right. If it is what I think it is, then he’s going to make a quick recovery. These things can be scary, but that doesn’t make them life-threatening, you understand?”
Paige nodded, trying to let the words take hold.
“And now,” Kehlan said, drawing back from her, and standing up straighter even than he had been before, “I find myself here, without a meal and in need of a tour guide. And you look like you’re in need of a distraction, and are the only one around here I see who might be able to tell me where to get something to eat.”
Even as the obvious answer leapt into her mind, Paige almost blushed when she remembered their flirtatious conversation. Before Alvin had fallen, she had been so bold and forward. But with all they had quite unexpectedly been through, they’d been thrust into something much more real, and Paige found herself suffering from a little bit of emotional whiplash.
Kehlan must have noticed, because a look of concern crossed his impossibly perfect face.
“Have I said something wrong?” he asked.
She wasn’t sure if she wanted him to touch her arm again or not. That is, she definitely wanted him to, but the way her insides reacted to his touch felt a little extreme, and she was having a hard time figuring out what she wanted.
Dylan felt so far away. The perfectly planned, perfectly controllable first date that she had planned for this evening seemed so far away. Even the normal, boring, every-day kind of afternoon that she had assumed she would have seemed so far away.
All there was was this man, standing in front of her like a big unknown variable. The ‘x’ in the equation. Who even was the woman who would randomly go off with a handsome stranger on an unknown adventure? Particularly when that handsome stranger would almost certainly disappear the moment he learned that she had a son.
As she stared at the gorgeous look of curiosity and concentration on Kehlan’s face, she had her answer: she was. She was absolutely that woman.
Chapter 6
Kehlan
Kehlan couldn’t help but imagine what his father would have said in this situation, had he still been alive. The way the canceled trip and the brochure had led him to meet this girl, so beautiful and so charmingly sincere, was surely something beyond coincidence. His father would probably even go a step further and insinuate that his conversation with his mother, which had prevented him from returning to Al-Derra immediately, was all part of some cosmic pull.
But Kehlan didn’t believe in all of that. All Kehlan knew was that when he stood in front of Paige, it was hard to think about anything but her. Her chocolate brown hair and large, round eyes to match, coupled with the softness of her body and the grace of her movements had a way of drawing in his attention and not letting it go. And he knew that right now, being in close proximity to a woman who seemed to be an inherently good distraction was a fantastic idea.
Even if that distraction intended to lead him up a mountain that she herself had told him was dangerous less than an hour before.
“I was exaggerating earlier,” she said, although he didn’t think he’d given her any reason to think he needed to be reassured. “Sure, it’s dangerous if you hit a melted patch, but it’s not like those are hard to see. I mean, the difference between snow and dirt is hard to miss. Have you ever skied before?”
In times like this, Kehlan was glad for his well-practiced poker face.
“Once or twice.”
“Okay,” she said, visibly relieved. “The best place to eat near Stockton that isn’t the Coffee Cup is part-way down the mountain. You can only get there by ski. They should still be open, though I imagine they aren’t much busier than we’ve been all morning. It’s great food once we can get there, though. Second-best lunch in town.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“And would you say yours was the best if you didn’t work at the Coffee Cup?”
She laughed. He liked to watch her laugh. He’d always had a talent for making women laugh, ever since he could remember. But to Kehlan, it felt as though he was only just now discovering the benefits.
“We can take my car, since I know where we’re going,” she said, walking out. Then, amusingly, he saw her stop sharply. “Or, I guess we could take that.”
Kehlan grinned.
“I figured if I was going to drive out into the country, I might as well enjoy the drive. And I’ve never actually gotten around to trying one of these out.”
In the past, he’d often used his wealth to impress women he found attractive. But with her, it was different. He wasn’t embarrassed by his wealth, exactly, but he was very aware of how it might affect how she saw him. He’d spent plenty of time telling himself that he didn’t have to prove himself to anyone—not to any of the people who assumed that he was just playing at being a doctor, or to anyone else. But here, now, he felt he did need to prove himself, somehow.
“Well, I imagine you’ll enjoy the drive up the mountain in that.”
Kehlan laughed.
“And you will, too. Jump in and I’ll show you.”
He stopped himself from laughing as she got in gingerly.
“It’s just a rental. You don’t need to be so careful.”
“Might as well be a golden carriage to me,” he heard her mumble under her breath, and he winced inwardly.
Still, even if the car intimidated her more than he would have liked, he felt confident that she would at least enjoy riding in it as much as he enjoyed driving it.
And by the looks of it, he was right. She missed a few turns, even though she’d lived here her whole life, and he was pretty sure that getting caught up in the speed and the smoothness of the ride was the reason why. Though, he had to admit that he hoped the company had something to do with it as well.
When they got to the ski resort, the place was a ghost town. The man at the lift ticket station seemed surprised to see them, as he jolted up at the sound of the door chime, scattering his business-card-castle into a pile of cardstock in disarray on the counter. But once he’d recovered from his surprise, and his obvious dismay at the demise of his creati
on, he did confirm that, yes, the restaurant on the slopes was open. Technically. But he also made sure that they knew that the conditions on the slopes could be treacherous this time of year.
“Just so you’re sure you know what you’re getting into,” he said, as he handed over the skis. And though Kehlan felt completely capable of handling the mountain in front of him, in a larger sense, he wondered if he was completely prepared for what he was getting into with the woman he’d be skiing next to.
Again, he thought of what his father would say. Unintentionally evocative questions. A dangerous journey together. Meddling fates.
Still, if Kehlan could try to set aside the distraction of the woman he was with and his surprising need to impress her, it felt good to get out on the slopes again. No one had exaggerated that conditions this time of year were far from ideal, and Kehlan felt all the expertise gained from countless hours skiing in during his school years come into play. It was refreshing to stretch those metaphorical muscles again, after a day that had been marred by conflict, disappointment and surprise.
It also helped that he could feel Paige’s eyes on him. He liked knowing she was watching him—to know she saw his body moving deftly on the slopes. Was it too much for him to imagine that she was thinking the same kinds of thoughts when he was ahead of her as he thought when their positions were reversed? He could only hope.
He was hungry, though, and they had a mission, so he followed Paige directly down the slopes along the shortest path to the restaurant part-way down the mountain. They got there in less than half an hour, and wasted no time in getting inside and choosing a table among the many that were available.
It was hard not to get too caught up in watching Paige strip out of her snow gear down to her normal clothes. There was something seductive about the motions, even though she was all business about it and chatted in a friendly manner with the hostess, whom she apparently knew, while she did it. He wondered if she realized that, or if she was as unknowing of her own charms in this way as she had seemed to be at the Coffee Cup.
