I don’t even want kids, she reminded herself. Looking at Pat’s tall, lean body and listening to the warmth in his entrancing voice, the vow didn’t feel so strong or solid. “Maybe” hovered in the back of her mind like smoke in the valley on a cold, still day. Maybe, with a man like Pat…. No, not a man like him. She’d want Pat. With him, she could see herself in the role of wife and mother, though she was damned if she’d ever play the happy-little-housewife for any man. Bryce had wanted that of her, but she could never be something so unnatural and untrue to herself. Her ex-fiancé was all the more a fool if he’d honestly believed he could turn her in to that. She’d majored in industrial arts, for God’s sake.
“Beth, can I steal Nick’s muscles for a minute or ten?” she asked, forcefully redirecting her thoughts. “Pat could use the help bringing tables up from the basement. He’s not used to this altitude, after all.”
“Hey!” Pat retorted. “I just got here. Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll keep up with even Luke.”
“Go ahead and take him,” Beth said, laughter in her voice. “Better watch yourself, Pat. Aeli’s a hellion.”
“I think I can manage.”
Aeli was about to tell him just what he could manage, but Nick beat her to it.
“Then you probably haven’t met the real Aelissm Davis yet.”
“Thanks, Nick,” she said flatly.
“Take it as a compliment, Aeli, as I meant it. You’d keep a man on his toes, make life a never-ending adventure. Just like Beth does for me.”
“Fine. C’mon, then, gents. Let’s get this done. I don’t think it’s wise to make the mob that is Northstar wait too long.”
As Pat and Nick hefted the second eight-foot, folding banquet table, Pat inquired why they were bringing them all up when there was a dining room full of much nicer tables just above them.
“Where do you expect people to eat?” Aelissm replied. “On the floor? We may be behind the rest of the country, Mr. O’Neil, but we’re not that far behind.”
The men laughed and she trudged up the stairs ahead of them with some folding chairs. She was greeted at the top by her grandmother and grandfather. Setting the chairs down, she embraced them both and asked how their flight and drive back were.
“Long,” Marge replied. “The interstate between Bozeman and Butte was terrible.”
“It wasn’t much better until just outside of Devyn,” Roger added.
“We probably won’t make it up to the cabin tonight,” Marge said, looking around. “Tell me, where is this Patrick O’Neil your Uncle Bill sent over?”
“Trying to come up the stairs with a table,” Aelissm heard Pat grunt.
Laughing, Aelissm stepped out of the way so her workhorses could get by. They set it up beside the other against the east wall of the dining room before coming over to greet Aelissm’s grandparents.
“Nick, Beth told me Aeli put you to work,” Roger remarked. He extended his hand to Pat. “Roger and Marge Davis. Aelissm’s grandparents.”
“Glad to finally meet you. Aelissm’s told me some very fun stories about you.” Pat shook the offered hand.
“How’re you liking Montana so far?” Marge asked.
“It’s great. I tell you, I haven’t felt this good in… months.”
Aelissm noticed the hesitation in his voice. From what little she knew, he probably hadn’t felt this good in three years. Her grandparents, however, moved on without so much as a pause to consider the distance in her guest’s eyes. They launched into a lengthy description of all there was to see and do in the Northstar Valley. By the time her grandfather was finished, he had enlisted Pat to help him work on the shed for his Model-T as soon as it warmed up a bit. She doubted it would be the only project Pat would end up helping with. She thought about intervening and rescuing Pat, but decided an afternoon with her grandfather would probably be good for him. Aelissm excused herself and ventured back down to the basement to grab some more chairs.
In another quarter-hour, June and Luke arrived with the pies. Aelissm stationed June beside the dessert table to stand guard over them and sent Luke into the kitchen for her serving knives. A short while later, the people of Northstar were streaming through the double glass doors of the inn’s dining room and the eight tables Nick and Pat had set up were soon laden with a widely varied, deliciously scented fair. Relaxed chatter filled the room and children’s shouts and laughter drifted up from the game room in the basement. As she surveyed the scene from the door to the kitchen, Aelissm knew she was home, where she should have been all along.
“That’s a good song!” Aaron Hammond cheered. “Hey, Aelissm! Turn it up!”
With a smile, she did as he asked. Several members of Northstar’s younger generations stood to dance while their parents and grandparents watched, shaking their heads in bewildered amusement.
“Can we let them at the pies yet?” June asked, walking over to join Aeli beside the kitchen door.
“I suppose so. Pat’s already in to them. Hey! Pat!” Aeli barked. “Oh, it’s hopeless! He’s as bad as they are.”
“At least he helped make them.” June laughed. “He does seem to fit in well here, doesn’t he?”
“Mmm. Grandpa already has him volunteered to work on the shed.”
She watched him, spellbound. He worked his way through the room, greeting people and introducing himself to the people of Northstar—who were, by tradition, politely standoffish to outsiders—as if he were a valley native. His smile was quick and engaging and the way he concentrated attentively on each person he addressed had even stubborn Old Matt Carlyle chatting freely.
“He’s quite easy on the eyes, isn’t he?”
Aelissm glanced at June, surprised by the surge of possessiveness she felt. It slipped away just as quickly as it had come when she saw that her friend wasn’t looking at Pat. June’s steady blue gaze held hers, probing deep into Aelissm’s innermost thoughts in a way only June had ever been able.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look at a man like that,” she said after a moment. “Be careful.”
“Why?” Aeli asked, curious. June was an insightful woman, very adept at gauging people and she wondered if her friend saw something dangerous about Pat. The thought made her shiver. “He’s not Bryce.”
“No, he’s not.”
June started to add something else, but instead only shook her head and smiled reassurance. Aelissm tried to read her friend’s thoughts, looking for some clue as to what June saw in Pat. She glanced at him to find him making his way back across the room toward her, an inviting grin on his face. When he held out a hand, she cocked her head, realizing that a slower song was now playing on the radio, one that had even the old married couples on their feet and swaying. She saw Beth and Nick in the corner of her eye, and each of the Hammond twins similarly engaged with other young Northstar women.
“Dance with me?” Pat asked.
There was a tremble in her knees as she laid her hand in his. “I wouldn’t want you to be the only man here without a partner,” she replied. The softness of her voice belied the teasing edge of her words.
Aelissm was acutely aware of the strong hand resting on her waist and the quiet grace of the man who led her so steadily in the slow, rocking dance. God, he was tall, she thought, staring up into eyes that were such a captivating blue-flecked hazel. She’d never before believed those passages in books or scenes in movies, about the rest of the world falling away, leaving only the man and woman and the moment, but the faces of her neighbors blurred into oblivion and all she could hear was the music.
Nervously, she looked at June, who watched them from the bar with Luke perched on the stool beside her. There was a matching grin on both their faces that went far deeper than the amusement they took from Aelissm’s predicament and Aeli realized that Luke’s place in the valley had just taken the first step to becoming legally permanent.
“Welcome home, Luke,” she murmured.
She glanced up at Pat, who als
o gazed at June and Luke with a smile of happiness for them on his face, and again she felt that unfamiliar warmth spread through her. June was right. Pat really did fit in well here and it wasn’t just that he could work a crowd. He genuinely cared about the people, even though he’d only just met them.
She rested her head against Pat’s chest, noting with a smile that the beat of the song perfectly matched the beat of his heart. Why did everything have to feel so perfect? It would all just fall apart when he had to leave. His career, his life was in Washington. The dull ache of loss coursed through her even as she stood wrapped in his embrace. She thought she understood now what June hadn’t said and knew her friend was right in telling her to be careful. Pat was dangerous, she thought, but not in the way Bryce had been. He was dangerous because he’d already woven himself into her heart and she stood to lose more than she ever had with her late fiancé if she got in too deep.
* * *
“What are all these cars for?” Adam wondered as he drove past the Bedspread Inn. “There can’t be more’n a hundred people up here.”
The looped driveway of the inn, which had been vacant but for four cars the other day when he’d driven up this way, was lined now with vehicles all the way out to the main road. Most were trucks and all had local plates, he noted. Something was going on. He pulled off the road into the short driveway of the Northstar Volunteer Fire Department, which was a glorified garage that might have parked a couple of smaller fire trucks, if such a thing existed in this remote valley. He pulled his recently purchased truck up beside the building, out of sight from the inn. Aelissm wouldn’t know the vehicle, but Adam didn’t want to chance her getting suspicious. He’d even checked into the hotel in Devyn under a false name and paid cash. The forty-some-mile drive up here was a pain, but seeing Aelissm again after six months was worth it. She’d better be there this time. He didn’t want to have wasted another night without seeing her. The last time, someone else had been working and he’d since learned that she’d had class down in Devyn. He’d probably passed her going one way or the other.
Yanking on his coat, he stepped out into the night. Damn it was cold here. He walked the quarter mile to the inn, careful to stay out of sight as he snuck around to the back door of the dining room, where he’d stood the other night. It was a potluck, he decided, glancing at the multitude of home-cooked dishes.
What a happy little picture, he thought, sneering. Aelissm was out of her mind if she really enjoyed this life. There was nothing here but snow and a bunch of cows and a room full of country bumpkins. Irritation flared when he spotted June Montana sitting at the bar beside a young boy. Of course she’d be here. He recalled Aeli saying that June had come out here and stayed, even after college, that she’d built a cabin on Aelissm’s family’s land. He’d met her a couple of times in Washington, when she’d returned to visit her family and Aelissm, and after his initial, fleeting attraction to her, he’d come to realize he didn’t stand a chance with her. Bryce had mentioned feeling the same, but she’d seen right through him. At the thought of his friend, guilt stabbed him, icy and vicious. Adam shrugged. Bryce shouldn’t have hurt Aelissm like that.
Adam’s annoyance only grew when he saw his beloved Aeli. The sight of her stunning body and that rich golden hair should have thrilled him, and it did, but she dancing with a tall man with dark auburn hair who looked a little familiar. He couldn’t recall where he’d seen the man before, but it was something he was not at all pleased to see. When the man glanced out the window, Adam rolled against the wall. A few moments later, he chanced a peek inside and exhaled in a white haze. The man hadn’t seen him, but he’d have to be more careful.
Again cursing the snow, he turned and trudged back to his truck. He wanted to stay longer, to watch her, but he restrained himself. She’d be his soon enough and he could watch her all he wanted. Until then, he needed to be cautious. Aelissm was too easy to spook these days and he didn’t want her to run off again. It had taken him far too long to find her this time and he knew that if he scared her away this time, he’d never find her. And that was intolerable. His life would be worthless without her.
Chapter Five
A WEEK AFTER THE POTLUCK, Pat was standing in the same spot in the dining room of the Bedspread Inn where he and Aelissm had danced. He felt the softness of her body tucked against him as if she had only just left and he saw the expression of contentment and comfort on her face with fascinating clarity. At the moment, however, Aelissm’s expression was not one of happiness but of mild irritation. She put her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow at him.
“Are you even listening to me?” she asked. “This was your idea, remember? Don’t think I won’t fire you for not doing the job you are getting paid for.”
“Which job would that be?” he inquired playfully.
She scowled. “The one I can fire you from.”
The resentment in her voice amused him more than it annoyed. He didn’t blame her for not wanting someone hanging around, waiting for something to happen, for some clue as to what Winters was up to. In the past week, the man hadn’t called and there had been no other sign of him. Pat didn’t like it much more than she did, though he was thoroughly enjoying himself here in Northstar. The fresh air and the friendly people had already done wonders for his state of mind and he was eagerly awaiting his first hike up to one of the many alpine lakes Aelissm continually talked about.
“You’re doing it again,” Aelissm muttered.
“I know. I’m sorry.” He smiled. “I was just thinking that the only way to reconnect with yourself is in a place like this.”
Aelissm’s expression softened considerably. She was smiling, but it was so faint, so internally poignant, that he almost missed it. People like her—himself included in that group—could survive well enough in a city, but they’d be living a half-life, never fully happy or at peace. People like them needed the solitude of near-wilderness and the reliability of small-town friendship to be complete.
Pat cocked his head to the side and studied Aelissm as she moved away to greet a customer. He’d never been able to group himself like that with Sara. She was a city girl through to her board-straight core, always the glittering socialite to the point that, when waking up beside her, he’d wondered if her hair was ever out of place. She’d had the perfect grooming and sharpness of her breed and, ignoring the side of her Pat was still unwilling to admit he’d known, he’d always felt inferior. Waking up in Aelissm’s cozy cabin, he’d known a freedom that Sara’s shadow had never allowed him. With Aelissm, he wasn’t constantly checking his every move, wondering if he’d be judged and found lacking. Aelissm took him for who he was, expected nothing, and seemed content with what she saw. He felt incredibly liberated by that.
He drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. At this moment in time, he was grateful to Winters for his silence. The longer Pat stayed, the better chance he had to finally move past Sara. If one week had already given him this much perspective, what would a month do for him? Or two? Six? A year? He tried to fight the smile, but it spread across his face despite his sternest efforts. Making this area his home was a very appealing idea. But he couldn’t. His career, his family and what few friends he had were in Washington.
Aelissm strolled back. “Okay, I need you to bring up some soda from the basement and refill the fridge. Can you handle that?”
“I hope so,” Pat replied, chuckling. “But I won’t make any promises.”
Aelissm wrote out a list for him and shoved it in his hand. He descended into the basement and headed directly toward the stack of twelve-packs, but in the short time it took him to reach them, he’d forgotten what Aelissm wanted. It was a good thing she’d given him a list, because he was so distracted by the beautifully honest woman that nothing she told him stayed in his brain for long. He didn’t want to think about learning a job he probably wouldn’t be at in three months; he wanted to think about Aelissm… and not in terms of her protection.
&nbs
p; “You’re not ready, Pat,” he told himself. “Since history has shown you’re not so smart about women.”
“Apparently not, if you can’t even bring me a few boxes of soda.”
Her voice startled him, but he didn’t turn around. “I’m working on it, Aelissm. Just trying to decide if I can carry all six boxes you requested in one trip.”
“You’re a big man,” she remarked. “I’m sure you can handle it. Just don’t drop them.”
Pat rolled his eyes.
“One of these days, you’re going to have to tell me what happened.”
Without another word, Aelissm grabbed two cases of beer, one called Moose Drool and the other Trout Slayer, and started back upstairs. Pat didn’t have to ask to know what she meant. Three years was a long time, so he should have been able to talk about it, but he still hadn’t come to terms with his doomed relationship. Whether it was embarrassment or fear, he wasn’t sure, but something stopped him from discussing it. Even Bill didn’t know the whole story, though he knew most of it. He’d been the one to press charges.
Shaking his head, he a box of soda under each arm, slid the fingers on both hands into the carrying slots of the other four boxes and started back up the stairs praying the flimsy cardboard would hold. When he reached the top, he couldn’t see Aelissm, but he heard her talking to someone. The conversation was a little one-sided, and he guessed she must be on the phone. She laughed and made a teasing comment about the other person’s age. Pat smiled. It was good to hear her laugh, something she’d been doing more of the last few days. Winters’ silence was having the same effect on Aelissm as it was on Pat; she was relaxing a bit. June had made the same observation last night, when they’d all gathered together at her place to watch movies.
“Unk, you worry too much. It’s not healthy, I tell you, for a man your age to stress so much over nothing,” Aelissm was saying. “Yes, Unk! I’m not lying. He is doing better. It’s taking him a while to get used to the altitude, though. I think I’m going to drag him up to Baldy Lake soon, even if we have to take snowshoes.” She laughed again. “Yeah, that’s the lake we took you up to last summer. It wasn’t too bad, was it?”
Mountain Angel (Northstar Angels, Book One) Page 7
