by Lexi Eddings
“See,” she said, pointing eastward. “The lake is just over there.”
Michael frowned in that direction. “What’s all that stuff down by the shoreline?”
“Don’t you remember? The Rotary Club always does a corn maze for Halloween,” Heather said. “Only it’s more like hay bales with dried corn stalks strapped to them. It’s how they raise money for their Christmas projects—you know, the toy drive and extra goodies for the community food pantry.”
Michael’s mouth lifted in a smile tinged with mischief.
“Oh, yeah. I remember helping Dad and the rest of the Rotarians build it one year. Skyler was in on it, too. He and I hollowed out a secret passage from one section of the maze to another, so we could hide from Wally Mushrush and his gang.”
“Really? I don’t remember him being a bully.”
“He wasn’t to the girls. But he got his growth spurt early, and he made sure all the guys knew it. He was a big kid with a tough mouth. Anyway, he and his toadies had been taking our lunch money pretty regular that year. Wally had double-dog dared us to meet him in the maze. Guess he figured it would be a good place to show us once and for all who was boss.”
“And you naturally had to go.”
“Like a moth to flame, but a moth with a plan.” Michael leaned his elbows on the rail. “I knew I couldn’t take him in a fist fight, especially not with his gang jumping in, too. So Skyler and me made ghillie suits out of corn shucks. We hid in our secret passage and jumped out at Mushrush from behind the stalks. We scared him so bad.” Michael chuckled at the memory. “The poor kid screamed like a girl. He even peed his pants.”
“Good times,” Heather said sarcastically.
“I was a boy and boys find that kind of thing hilarious. Sue me. But the plan worked and I didn’t have to give him a black eye to prove my point. Wally never took another nickel from me or anybody else.”
“And now he goes by Wallace instead of Wally. He works with Danny Scott as a deputy sheriff.”
“No kidding? Guess I scared him straight.”
“Guess you did.”
Silence stretched between them, but Heather didn’t mind. There was no tension in the quiet. No sucking need to fill it with anything. It was satisfying just to stand beside Michael, to rest her head on his shoulder and feel her breathing fall into rhythm with his. They could simply be together. It was enough.
Almost.
If only he’d kiss me, he’d have so many checks on the good side of the ledger, I’d never even notice anything on the bad.
“Look,” she whispered, not wanting to disturb the silence. Still, the lake was so beautiful she had to say something. “See the way the moonlight makes a jagged silver line across the water.”
“Why, Nurse Walker, I didn’t know you were a poet.”
“Burns is a poet. Whitman is a poet. I am so not a poet.”
“What do I know? It sounded pretty. Besides, I always did better in subjects that involved something besides words.”
The intensity of his gaze plucked at something deep inside her. She felt herself falling into his eyes. She’d wanted him to kiss her, but she was afraid he might and she’d lose herself in him. And if she did, would she ever be able to find her way out?
“Well, I guess I’d better go in,” she said, edging toward her door.
“In a minute.” He stopped her with a hand on her forearm.
Then he made her wish a reality. Very slowly, he cupped her cheeks. Michael bent his head, and his lips found hers.
In her dreams, a perfect good-night kiss was a mint-flavored treat in the pool of yellow light at her door. But that’s only where this one started.
Michael’s mouth was warm on hers, and the kiss began so gently, it was as if he feared she’d break. Then the kiss took a deeper turn, and he carried her to a dark, hot place she hadn’t suspected was inside her.
His jacket slipped off her shoulders, but neither of them seemed willing to break off the kiss to pick it up. But at the same time, Heather realized they were pretty exposed out on the long deck she shared with all her neighbors.
I can’t kiss him like this in front of God and everybody.
Of course, there was no everybody. And God could surely still see them if they were inside her apartment, but she’d feel better if He were the only one who could.
Her hand found the key in her pocket, and she fumbled with the door. Even when she shakily pulled away from Michael long enough to unlock it, he pressed baby kisses along her nape. She was back in his arms as they pushed through the open doorway, weaving in a drunken waltz though neither of them was the least buzzed from that wine at dinner.
He kicked the door closed behind them without stopping their kiss. Then he walked her backward to the nearest wall until her spine was flush against it. His body felt wonderful against hers, all strong and hard, but protective at the same time.
She’d always thought a kiss would tell her everything she needed to know about a guy. Michael’s kiss said he was tender. And tough. That he knew how to give and how to take. He seemed to know what she needed before she did, and he was there to shower her with it. There was balance in his kiss. A solid comfort that made her want to trust him with everything, and that hint of danger that made a bad boy so irresistible.
She was so wrapped up in him, she didn’t hear the insistent rapping on her door. It opened with a long creaking sound.
“Heather, what are you doing there in the dark?” a snuffly voice said. The lights flickered on. “Oh! I thought you were alone. I can come back later.”
Heather came up for air, peered over Mike’s shoulder, and saw Lacy framed in the doorway. Mike turned.
“Hey, sis. You don’t believe in knocking?”
“I did knock. A lot.” Her nose was red, a sure sign she’d been crying. Lacy was a pretty girl, but she wasn’t a pretty crier. Unshed tears made her eyes overbright as her face crumpled. “I’m sorry I bothered you.”
“What? No. You’re no bother.”
“If we’re taking a vote here . . .” Michael began.
Heather silenced him with a look. “Come on in, Lacy. What’s wrong?”
“I think Jake and I may have . . .” She sighed so deeply, she must have drawn it clear from her toes. “Well, I don’t think there’s going to be a wedding.”
Heather blinked in surprise. Lacy and Jake were the most solid couple she knew. “Of course there’ll be a wedding. Whatever’s wrong, you’ll work it out. I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding.”
Lacy didn’t look convinced. “Oh, no. I understand him perfectly.”
She came in and plopped down on one of the bar stools at Heather’s counter. Then Lacy’s chin quivered as she folded her arms on the soapstone. She buried her face in them, sobbing as if the world were ending.
“Go find Jake and convince him to apologize,” Heather whispered to Mike, pulling him toward the door.
“But what if it’s not his fault?”
“Trust me. Even if he didn’t do anything wrong, he probably still needs to apologize.”
“Words for a guy to live by,” Michael murmured. “Do you want me to bring him back here?”
“No. She’s too upset. Let’s let things simmer down,” Heather said, “but by tomorrow we need to get those two back together.”
“What do you know? Our first maid of honor/best man mission. And here I thought it was only going to be about the shower and the bachelor party.” He pulled her close. “I liked the direction things were heading before Lacy turned up.”
“Me too. Rain check?”
“Oh, yeah.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “But I gotta tell you I’m getting pretty tired of not catching a break.”
“Giving up?”
“Fighting Marmots never say die.”
She giggled. “Well, then, who knows? You may catch that break next time.”
“OK. You. Me. The corn maze?”
There were plenty of quiet romantic spots hidd
en among the twists and turns. “As long as no corn shuck ghillie suits are involved.”
“Done.” He gave her a quick kiss. It was delicious with promise. Then he disappeared through the door. Most women would say he looked awfully good walking away. Heather thought he’d look even better if he was walking toward her, but Lacy needed her just then.
She sighed and turned back to her friend.
“OK, Lace. What’s up? Spill.”
Lacy lifted her head and sniffed. “Jake is being a pigheaded jerk.”
“No doubt. I hear there’s a lot of that going around in the male population.” Heather pulled a tissue from the dispenser on the counter and handed it to Lacy.
She blew her nose hard. “He won’t even consider my side.”
“Your side about what?”
“About me taking that job in Cambridge.”
Heather couldn’t have been more surprised if Lacy had said she wanted to flap her arms and fly to the moon. “But I thought you didn’t want to move back East.”
“Well, no, I don’t. I love it here, but the job’s in Cambridge.” She balled the tissue in her fist. “And, oh, Heather, it’s my dream job. I’d have complete artistic autonomy, no reporting to the partners before I implement a design. That’s how much they trust me. And they must really want me, too, because every time I turn them down, they up the ante. You won’t believe what they offered me.”
Heather’s jaw dropped when Lacy named an astronomical figure. It had been a big deal when Lacy found an unknown Erté a few months ago. The discovery had sent shock waves through the design and art world and sealed Lacy’s reputation as a first-class tastemaker. But Heather had no idea a design firm would have such deep pockets.
“I’m a rainmaker, they say. Just my name on the company letterhead will bring in high-end clients,” Lacy explained. “But I can’t ride the Erté find forever. If I don’t follow it up with some first-rate work that gets noticed by the right people, it might as well not have happened.”
Lacy’s work won awards and had been featured in tons of glossy design spreads. She had a unique way of fusing Old World architectural elements with industrial kitsch. But as she often told Heather, a designer was only as good as her last project.
“And you’d have to work in the Boston area?”
Lacy shrugged. “At some level, every artistic field is about networking. It’s hard to meet the type of client that needs my services in Coldwater Cove.”
“OK, I get that.” Heather’s chest constricted. In the few months Lacy had been home, they’d become so tight, Lacy had started to fill up the empty spot Jessica had left in Heather’s heart. It hurt to think she might lose her best friend, too, but she couldn’t dwell on that. Lacy obviously needed her support. However much it cost her. “What would Jake do back East?”
“Whatever he wanted to do. I’d be making enough that he wouldn’t even have to take a job if he didn’t want to.”
Jake was the most industrious guy Heather knew. Even with a prosthetic leg, he could work most men under the table. “Bet that idea went over like a lead balloon.”
“Why? Because the man’s supposed to be the breadwinner?”
“No, of course not. But Jake’s justifiably proud of the Green Apple and it’s not like he can pack it up and take it with him.” She didn’t add that any man, not just a wounded warrior, wouldn’t like the passenger seat much. Jake was a driver. He’d never be satisfied with being a kept man. “You may have given him the idea that you think what he does isn’t important.”
“I don’t think that.”
“But you want him to abandon everything he’s worked for since he came home from Afghanistan.”
“What about everything I worked for? I studied with a passion to get where I was before.... oh, I don’t want to go into all that junk again.” Lacy waved away the sorry mess of how she’d lost her once-successful design studio in Boston when her partner embezzled from their clients. “But I so miss being able to be creative, Heather. It’s like part of my soul is shut off without it.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about being creative. I can’t operate a glue gun without burning all ten fingers.” Heather put the kettle on. This was shaping up to be a full pot discussion. “But I thought you were OK with not being a designer anymore. Didn’t you tell Jake you wanted to stay in Coldwater Cove?”
“Yes, but that was before I got a taste of working with light and space and color again.”
Heather cocked her head at Lacy in puzzlement.
“Michael has leased all of the Ouachita Inn—and I mean all of it, bunkhouses, barns, everything—and I’ve been helping him redesign and make over the space into a creative working campus—sort of a mini-Google.”
“Why is he doing that?”
“He wants to be around while Mom is going through chemo and he’s well off enough to be able to bring a large portion of his office here. His development team is coming in next week.”
“Mike’s planning on staying in Coldwater?” If she’d had a heart monitor on, it would have been beeping like crazy. “For good?”
“I don’t know about for good, but his company will definitely have a local presence for the foreseeable future. He took out a multiyear lease on the ranch. Maybe he’s thinking about using it as a corporate retreat after Mom is doing better.” Lacy shrugged.
“It’ll take five years of clean mammograms before we can use the word ‘cure’ with your mom,” Heather said cautiously as she put tea bags into the kettle to steep. Was Michael planning to stay that long?
“Anyway, the fact that Michael is stepping up for Mom has let me do some rethinking about things. And getting to do design work has made me feel . . . like I’m myself again.” Lacy knotted her fingers before her. “After months of pecking away at the Gazette in the same job I did when I was in high school, it feels so good to be playing with textures and fabrics and letting my imagination soar. It’s like I was handcuffed before and now I’m free.”
“But do you want to be free of Jake?”
Lacy’s eyes welled. “No. I love him with all my heart. But why should I have to choose? Why can’t I have Jake and a job that feeds my soul?”
“In a perfect world you could, but the world is far from perfect. What will you do?”
“I don’t know. This thing in Cambridge is a limited-time deal. The contract with the design firm is for two years, renewable if both parties agree. But if I pass on it now, it’s gone for good.”
“Men are sort of like that, too, I hear. Do you think Jake will wait while you’re back East?”
“I don’t know. What would you do if you had to give up nursing to be with the man you love?”
That struck a nerve. Healing people was what Heather was born to do. She drew her friend into a tight hug.
Definitely a full teapot of a problem.
She hoped Mike would have better luck with Jake.
Chapter 23
Be careful before you say “I do,” son,
because I’m here to tell you, you surely will.
—Grandma “Tina-Louise” Bugtussle to
Junior before he and Darlene tied the knot
Mike pounded on the back door of the Green Apple until Jake came down the stairs to glower at him through the screen.
“Heard you had a rough night.” Michael hoisted a cold six-pack as a peace offering and Jake waved him in. Michael followed him up the stairs to Jake’s place above the grill. For the first time, he was aware of Jake’s titanium leg because he climbed up with such labored steps.
Jake’s shaggy little dog, Speedbump, met them at the top of the stairs and circled nervously. The mop with feet was clearly picking up on his master’s mood.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Jake said.
“Good. I don’t want to listen.” He popped the top off one of the longnecks and handed it to Jake. “Let’s just drink.”
“Roger that.”
Jake tipped back the bottle and down
ed half of it before he came up for air. “Why is it women think they have to change a man?”
OK. Turns out we are talking. “Don’t know. Do you?”
“Yeah. It’s most likely because we need changing.” Jake sank onto the leather sectional. A football game played across the big screen on the wall, but the sound was muted. “If you repeat that to your sister, I’ll knock you into next week.”
“Hey. I’m the best man. That means I’m on your side. Bros before . . .” He stopped himself as he settled on the opposite end of the sectional. He couldn’t say “hos.” This was his sister he was talking about. His favorite sister to boot. He finished the thought with “Twinkle Toes.”
“Huh?”
“Twinkle Toes. I used to call Lacy that back when we were kids and she was taking dance lessons. She sucked at it, by the way.”
“If she did, it’s one of the few things. She’s really pretty incredible at everything she does.”
“Glad to hear you say so.” They knocked longnecks in a silent toast to a woman they both loved.
“I’m the luckiest man on the planet to have her. I’d do anything for her, you know.”
“I do.” Mike nodded.
“I’d take a bullet for her in a flat minute.”
“Of course you would.” Michael found himself thinking about Heather. He couldn’t come up with anything he wouldn’t do for her either. Did that mean he loved her?
“But Lacy’s asking too much this time.”
“Got that right,” Mike said to be agreeable, then wondered what it was he was agreeing to. “Maybe you want to catch me up on what she’s asking?”
Jake explained about Lacy’s job offer. “She wants me to give up everything—my family, my friends, the grill, everything I have. It’s too much, right?”
“If you think it is, it must be.” Michael wondered if he could give up MoreCommas for Heather. If she’d ever expect him to. No, it wouldn’t come to that. Just like he dealt with Wally Mushrush without full-blown fisticuffs, he’d find a work-around. He was already trying to figure out how to spend the lion’s share of his time in Coldwater Cove. With teams rotating out from the Big Apple, he’d be able to stick around in town until his mother was done with her cancer treatments at least. After that, he hoped to find the sweet spot between telecommuting to the New York office and flying back there only when his physical presence was absolutely essential.
