Take me with you.
Mason's eyes came back into focus and he realized his father was watching him.
"I wondered what seeing her would do to you," his dad said.
Mason let out a breath of a laugh, uncomfortable with his dad's insight. Yes, seeing Utah made him want to get to know her all over again. Too much.
"That girl's had enough heartache in her life," his dad said, still reading him. "You don't need to be adding to it by starting something you can't finish."
Mason said nothing. He was on leave until the end of summer. It was more time than he wanted to take, but his commander hadn't given him a choice. According to him, Mason needed a mental break after his last mission. Going back to West Africa and killing off every terrorist he could find would be enough of a break for him. But avenging his teammates would have to wait. Could he stay away from Utah until then? Just the sight of her gave him doubt. Memories of her filled him with more than he knew what to do with.
He'd be a real ass if he starting something with Utah, but did that mean they couldn't be friends? Could he keep it at that? Everything in him yearned to talk to her. Be with her. What if that led to more?
"Mason Briggs. Is that really you?" Mason turned to see Korena Screws approach. Her dad owned Screws Garage. She was another girl who'd gotten him into fights as a teenager. With a name like Screws, it was inevitable.
"Korena."
She threw her arms around him for a hug. "God is it good to see you again." She leaned back and beside him his dad smiled. "Where've you been?"
Mason looked down into chocolate brown eyes that smiled along with her wide mouth. Her hair was shorter and she was heavier, but she was still attractive.
"The Army," he answered.
Her gaze traveled down his body as she eased out of his arms. "No wonder you're so fit."
"How's life been treating you?" he asked.
"I got married. I am now Korena Hamilton."
"Thank God. The last thing I need is a fist fight while I'm here."
She laughed and that's when Mason noticed Utah and Roanne had arrived. Andy left his side and approached them. Mason watched them stop with his greeting, but it was Utah he couldn't keep his gaze from going to.
"She's really made a mess of her life," Korena said. "Who would have thought?"
Mason looked at her. "You believe it?"
"What's not to believe? An old man left her millions. She was living with him."
"Yeah, but do you really think she slept with him?" And fooled him into signing a new will?
"They were married."
It was nothing short of what he'd already thought. Mason shifted his gaze to Utah, unable to picture her that way, maybe not wanting to.
"After her dad was sent to prison things changed for her," Korena said. "Life got too hard, I guess."
Mason grunted in response, still torn and wondering why it affected him so much.
###
Across wooden tables where people sat and stood under the shade of pine trees, Utah watched Mason talk to Korena in the center of it all. She could tell by the body language of Korena's mouth and eyes she was filling his ears with a load of crap. She wondered if he'd believe the rumors. It annoyed her to discover she cared. Figures. What Mason Briggs thought mattered. Anyone else in town she could handle, but him...he had played too big of a role in her youth, and had been the first of many disappointments.
"It was a nice ceremony, Utah," Andy said.
She forced her head to turn, covering her unease. "Thanks, Andy."
He seemed nervous about her and Mason meeting again after so long. In a cowboy hat and jeans, he was a handsome man. He'd tried his best to keep his son clear of her back then, given their age difference--three years was a lot at sixteen--and the fact that he knew his son would be leaving.
"I wanted to tell you Mason was in town, but I didn't get the chance," he said.
"Did he take some time to stay with you?" she asked, feeling like it was a stupid question.
Andy nodded. "Has the summer off."
The summer...
"Just got here last night," Andy said.
"You must be thrilled to see him." Maybe she'd be better off going back to Denver.
Andy smiled, but it was a meager one. "Yeah, he can't get away much in his line of work. It'll be nice to have him."
"Is there a reason he's taking so much time off?"
"Didn't really say." His brow crowded above his nose. "Just told me he was taking a leave."
Why did she get the impression there was something Andy wasn't telling her? And why would Mason want to spend so much time in Timberline? The Mason she knew hated this town.
"You sure you're going to be all right staying at your mom's place so soon after her funeral?" Andy asked, changing the subject.
"I offered a room at my place but she turned that down, too," Roanne put in.
Roanne had her hands full with her grandmother, but that wasn't the reason Utah had declined her offer. "I need to go through her things and decide what to do with the house."
"You going to sell it?" Andy asked.
"I'm not sure." She gazed off over the heads of the gathering at the hill where the gravestones jutted up from the earth. Her gut reaction was not to sell.
It's what her mother would have wanted. Her mother wanted her to live in Timberline. One of the last things she'd sent her was an ad showing some land for sale here.
To build a golf course.
"Here you go, honey." Megan butted between Utah and Andy and handed Utah a glass of lemonade. "Burl's lemonade works magic at times like these. Your mother thought so."
"Thanks." Utah took the glass from the petite woman with boyish brown hair and hazel eyes and braced herself for a subtle grilling. Lulu and Melva joined the circle. Andy shifted his weight from one foot to the other, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck. He couldn't have been more obvious if he tried. Surrounded by women, three gossiping hens and the girl his son had deflowered, he wasn't comfortable.
"It's a blessing you have that inheritance to help you along at a time like this," Melva said.
Here they go, Utah thought, and didn't respond. So much for giving it a rest for her mother's funeral.
"He must have been a special man," Lulu added.
"Meant a lot to you, too," Megan finished.
"Don't be rude, Megan," Roanne said.
"I'm just saying...."
"Excuse me." Utah backed away, sending a silent apology to Andy and Roanne before turning away.
"Call when you're ready for that dinner," Andy raised his voice.
Utah looked over her shoulder and waved, seeing Megan take in that little bit of information. She could almost hear the woman calculating what it would mean if Utah had dinner with Mason's father. Maybe instead of starting things up again with Mason, she'd have an affair with his father, since she clearly preferred older men....
There was a time when Utah would have tried to set the woman straight with the truth. But she learned the hard way how to recognize the ones who wouldn't know the truth if it smacked them upside the head, so she'd stopped trying. Better to keep her confessions to herself and let them think what they wanted. The hurt would go away eventually. And she'd be damned if she'd let anyone bring her down. Never again.
Utah wandered through the crowd, acknowledging people on the way. She put the glass of lemonade Megan had given her on a table and stopped under the branches of an old tree. Burl's BBQ was the last structure on the road that led to the highway. There were two ways into Timberline, one at the end of this road, and another heading west out of town on Main Street. Leaning against the trunk, she faced the long stretch of road that vanished into a thick forest of trees.
"I remember this tree."
Jumping at the voice that was so close, she straightened to see Mason moving around the trunk. He stopped in front of her, handing her a glass of lemonade. She glanced at the table and saw the one Megan had given her
still there.
He grinned like he knew he was caught. Did he think Burl's lemonade was better coming from him? She'd never admit it was.
"You would remember this tree." She took the glass. It was the first time he'd kissed her. Her first kiss as a teenager. A peck on the lips. Nothing serious. Nothing close to what followed after that.
"You were wearing overall shorts that day," Mason said.
"I'm surprised you remember."
"I remember a lot about you."
She searched his face, only to discover he meant it. Could have fooled me, she wanted to say, but kept quiet.
"I was always defending you against boys," he said.
"They picked on me." She wished she could stop thinking about that kiss. How could such an innocent thing pack such a punch?
He chuckled. "You picked on them. You didn't like it here."
"It took me a while to get used to it." For the charm to work its way into her.
Only Mason knew how much her parents' divorce and the move with her mother to Timberline had affected her. It made her feel inferior, like she didn't fit in, like there must be something wrong with her. Her mother didn't have a lot of money back then. They lived close to the trailer park. Kids gave her a hard time, but she fought back and fought hard. Mason had seen through those defenses. He'd shown her what she was worth.
It hurt remembering that. He was the first and last good thing that happened to her. And in the end, he'd also turned out to be another bad memory.
His memories must be a lot different. The way he looked at her now, his reminiscence appealed to him. Hers never did.
"It took me years to forget you," he shocked her by saying.
"You couldn't wait to get out of this town."
"It was always my plan to leave. I didn't plan on things going as far as they did with us. That made leaving hard."
Her heart did a funny flip. Why was he telling her this now? "But you did leave. And you did forget me."
"You were only sixteen."
His hesitation confirmed he had. That hurt, too. Men were good at hurting her. She wished she could figure out how she kept letting that happen. Why couldn't she meet a nice man and spend a nice, long and loving life with him? What was it about her?
"Yes, I was young and stupid, wasn't I?"
"What was stupid? You and I? We were just kids."
She almost told him she hadn't seen it that way. He was her first love. She'd fallen in love with her husband, but he'd turned out to be a big mistake. She'd had a few other relationships but they hadn't worked out. When they began to get too close, she always found a way to leave. Marriage wasn't for her. Not unless she was in control and love didn't complicate anything. She had no luck with love. That was why Arthur worked so well. She'd loved him but not as a real husband. She loved him because he'd made her feel safe.
"Why did you marry that old man?" he asked.
She began to step around him, but he put his hand on a limb above her head and leaned forward. She backed against the trunk again to keep some distance between them.
"Why don't you ask Megan."
"I'm asking you."
"Didn't your dad tell you?" It annoyed her that he wondered if the rumors were true. Besides, her reasons for marrying Arthur were deeply personal.
He didn't respond, seeming torn over whether to believe her and drawn in by the past. That was something to be wary of. Mason wanting to reunite was a dangerous thing.
"I better go mingle." She pushed off the tree.
"Are you angry with me for leaving the way I did?" He didn't move out of the way to let her escape.
She leaned back against the tree again, wary of his purpose I asking, but appeased that he had. It meant he cared. It meant he'd thought about her. "I was. Not anymore. I'm a grown woman, Mason. Why would I still be angry?"
"You seem angry."
"I'm not angry with you." She was worried she wouldn't be able to trust herself alone with him. In public, either. Here she was, at the tree where he'd kissed her the first time, remembering, and wondering what it would be like if he kissed her again.
"I didn't want to leave you." His declaration made her go still. "You have no idea how hard that was."
Utah turned her head aside. How many nights had she cried herself to sleep wondering that very thing? She stopped the flutter of pleasure his confession gave her now and looked up at him again. "It was a long time ago."
"I remember everything like it was yesterday."
"Mason..." What was he thinking?
Or was he thinking at all? He was swept away with memory. Except there was something in his eyes, a loneliness. No, a sliver of an open window to an injured soul, soothed with thoughts of them all those years ago. It touched a place in her that she couldn't barricade. What had happened to him in the years he'd been away? What had he seen? What had he experienced?
"Don't you remember?" he asked.
How could he even ask? She'd never forget.
He searched into her eyes and must have gotten his answer. With his free hand, he ran his fingers down her cheek. "You leaned against this tree just like you are now."
Utah couldn't move. Her brain warned her to stop this but she couldn't. Was he reaching out to her, or did he have real feelings that were suddenly stirring to life?
He was so caught up in her, in the memory of that first kiss, that it entranced her. She was powerless to curiosity. More. Him. What lurked behind those eyes she loved, still to this day.
"I had to kiss you." He leaned closer, sending her pulse flying.
"Mason?" Surely he wasn't going to-
His lips touched hers, revisiting the past. She stared at him while sparks ignited, relentless and tearing. He pulled back, but only a little, hunger emanating from a grown man instead of a boy.
No, no. She couldn't allow this to happen again. He was back a day and already he'd kissed her! And exactly the same as back then, he was leaving at the end of summer.
Anger doused her passion. "What's changed between then and now?"
He moved back. "You're a woman now. Not a sixteen-year-old girl who hasn't finished school yet."
"No, I mean what's changed about you? How you feel about Timberline?"
He moved back a little more with her meaning.
"Are you going to stay this time?" she asked, and a deep, buried part of her hoped she was wrong.
She got her answer without him having to breathe a word. It was there in his eyes, that trapped look. A circus tiger pacing his cage, waiting for the moment when he'd escape and be free once again. Utah planted her hands on him and pushed him. He stepped back.
Did he think he could charge back home and seduce her for another summer? She didn't even try to control her temper. She tossed lemonade at him from her glass. It splashed all over his face and upper torso.
Without moving to wipe his face, he blinked his eyes and cocked his head, scowling at her with lemonade dripping from his hair and chin.
"I'm not that sixteen-year-old girl anymore." She jabbed him with her forefinger. "Remember that while you're here this summer."
Marching back toward the crowd, she spotted Megan watching...right along with the rest of Timberline.
CHAPTER TWO
"He looks really good." Roanne stared out the window of Nell's Deli.
Utah sucked a good draught of her diet coke and refrained from doing the same. Mason had just stepped out of his dad's truck on his way to the sheriff's office across the street. It was the first time she'd seen him since her mother's funeral two weeks ago. Zeroed in on him, she drank in the way he moved, his lean body, his hair, so familiar, and yet not. She wasn't prepared for the detonation of emotions that assailed her now. She wished Roanne hadn't pointed him out.
"You have to admit, he has a great ass," her friend said. "Does Charlie have that nice of an ass?"
Utah was grateful for the giant distraction. "Charlie Simpson?"
Sitting across from her at a two-seated
table, Roanne turned from the window with a sheepish grimace. "I meant to tell you but everything was so bad for you. I felt guilty for being so happy when you were so miserable."
"Tell me what? Are you seeing Charlie?"
Roanne smiled. "We're getting married."
"Moosehead Tavern Charlie?"
A blush spread over Roanne's cheeks. Roanne never got embarrassed.
"How did that happen? I didn't know you were attracted to him." Charlie had been around all their lives. He took over the Moosehead Tavern when his dad got older and wanted to retire. It was the oldest bar in Timberline, which wasn't really saying much. All the buildings were old in the town center.
"It happened over a long period of time." She sipped her drink from a straw.
"I'd say."
As a child, Charlie wore coke-bottle glasses and was skinnier than most the girls in school, which explained Roanne's blush.
"He looks way different now," Roanne said. "Works out at Karl's Gym. Takes really good care of himself. Doesn't drink like his dad. And he's so sweet." Her smile beamed her infatuation.
"Wow." She'd kept in touch with her friend over the years, so the news came as a big shock.
"I started going to the bar for a drink every once in a while. You know, take the edge off the stress of taking care of Grandma. That gets hard sometimes."
"I can understand that." Roanne frequently complained her grandmother trapped her here. She talked of escaping sometimes. Utah wondered what her life would have been like had she been able to move away.
"I got to talking to Charlie one night," Roanne continued. "Then I kept going there and we talked more. The martinis changed to sodas. Pretty soon he asked if I would go out to breakfast with him. He works nights so dinner with him is rare. We spent two hours at breakfast." Roanne laughed, slapping her hand on the table beside her drink and giving Utah no doubt of how wonderful the breakfast had been. "We met for breakfast every week. Then one Sunday he called and asked if I'd like to have dinner with him. He took the night off. Dinner led to a long talk at his place and the next thing I knew I woke up at his house."
"Wow," Utah said again, having a hard time picturing her best friend hooking up with a kid from town. If it wasn't for her grandmother, she'd have surely left Timberline a long time ago.
This Time in Timberline Page 2
