She peeked out from the kitchen, glanced at Pat and smiled. “Hey, if you want to talk to him, he’s finally upstairs. Hang on. Pat, it’s Uncle Bill.”
Pat took the cordless from Aelissm. “Hiya, boss.”
“Hi, Pat. Sounds like my niece is giving you a workout.”
“Oh, not too bad. She keeps promising to take me up to one of those lakes, but she’s still saying there’s too much snow. Can’t be much more than there is at the cabin.”
“Trust Aeli. She knows that valley.” Bill cleared his throat. “I hadn’t heard from you in a few days, so I thought I’d better call. How’s everything going? Any word on Adam?”
“Nothing. I’ve been getting to know the locals, explained what Winters is like, showed people his picture. No one has seen him.”
“That’s good. Maybe Aelissm was right. Maybe he can’t find her there. It is rather remote, after all.”
Pat smiled. “It is that. I tell you, Bill, I had my doubts, but now that I’ve been here a little while…. It’s incredible. The air is so clean and have you seen the stars? I’ve never seen so many.”
Bill chuckled. “I told you a spell in Northstar might do you some good, didn’t I? Listen, Pat. I have some bad news.”
“I don’t like bad news,” Pat replied. “But what is it?”
Bill didn’t answer for a long while. Pat didn’t like his boss’s hesitation in the least and dread settled in the pit of his stomach.
“Bill…. Just spill it.”
“Sara’s been sniffing around, looking for you. I haven’t talked to her but… Redford did.”
Pat balled his hand into a fist. Even the mention of her name was enough to send him back to a world he’d much rather stayed behind him. “I hope he told the bitch to—”
“He told her she was not welcome in the station unless it involved official police business and if she was looking for you, she could go to hell. Exactly what I would have told her. Look, Pat, I don’t want you to worry about Sara. I sent you on vacation for a reason. I want you to keep your mind on having a good time and keeping my niece safe.”
Pat glanced at Aelissm and found her watching him quizzically. “Is that all, Bill?”
“Yeah, that’s it. Get some rest, Pat. You’ve more than earned it and I know you need it. Tell Aeli I love her.”
“Will do. I’ll call you as soon as I hear something, if not sooner. Have a good one, Bill.”
“Same to you.”
Pat pulled the phone away from his ear and pushed the call-end button before he turned to Aelissm. She still wore that same, questioning expression.
“What?” he finally asked.
“Who were you talking about?” Aelissm responded.
Pat shifted his weight. Her eyes were determined and after the jolt he’d received from Bill’s news, he was just as determined not to talk about it. He turned his back to her, but she sidled around him, put her hands on his chest and shoved him against the wall. It made him shudder. She must have noticed because she backed away, her green eyes soft with concern.
“What did she do to you, Pat?” Aeli asked after a moment. Her voice was quiet, enticing him to trust her. He wanted to, but at the moment, he couldn’t trust anyone with his secrets. He hadn’t been able to since he’d been stupid enough to ask Sara to marry him. Even if he could have summoned the courage to allay Aeli’s concerns, he couldn’t speak around the lump in his throat.
Aelissm persisted. “You don’t strike me as the kind of man to call a woman a bitch without a damned good reason. If you don’t tell me, I’ll get it out of Uncle Bill. Did she hurt you that badly when she left?”
“She didn’t leave. I did.”
He expected her to be shocked, but she wasn’t, only confused. Then he realized that he wanted to tell her about Sara, about the day when he’d finally had enough. The innocence shimmering just below the surface of Aeli’s eyes, beneath the film of knowledge, stopped him. She had her own worries and troubled past. There was no need to bury that innocence any deeper with his problems. He shook his head and smiled, doing his best to communicate to her that he didn’t want her to worry about him. It was nice, though, to know she cared enough to ask. And it helped ease the heartache a bit.
“Bill gave me the impression that she was the one who left.”
“He does that so people don’t ask.” He blew a breath out. “I’ll tell you someday, but I can’t yet.”
“How much does he know?”
“Most of it.”
Aelissm nodded. “I understand. So, let’s get back to work, shall we? I’ll make you into a waiter yet, if it kills me.”
“It might. It just might.”
* * *
Pat was a better waiter than he thought, though Aeli could tell he hadn’t had much experience. Still, he wanted something to do besides sit around the cabin while she worked and she needed the extra help at the inn. He had volunteered to work for her tonight, while she taught her class in Devyn, but she’d declined. She had a girl who always worked the nights when she had class. Besides, there was some work around the cabin that needed to be done.
“Ms. Davis? Can we leave early tonight?” one of her students asked.
She lifted the welding mask and paused for a moment to admire her handiwork. The weld was as smooth as she could hope for, which was a good thing, since it was on the side of the wrought iron poster frame that would be facing outward and she didn’t like having to spend a lot of time grinding down sloppy welds. Finally, she turned the welder off and faced her student. “No, Mr. Daniels, I don’t think we can. You still haven’t passably twisted a piece iron yet, which means you can’t move on to making your section of the wrought-iron banister, which, I might add, you were supposed to have started last week.”
“Ah, c’mon, Ms. Davis. I’m trying.”
“Try harder. You’re talented, Bobby, I know you are, but you’re lazy. It wouldn’t kill you to come in a couple extra hours a week, while Dr. Barth is in here. He’d let you work in here.”
“Yeah, but—”
“That’s your problem, Bobby. ‘But’ this and ‘but’ that. If you spent as much time working as you do making excuses, you’d be ahead, not behind.”
“Sounds like something I say to some of my students.”
Aelissm nearly sighed with relief at the sound of June’s voice.
“Hi, Ms. Montana,” the boy said. “Ms. Davis won’t let us go home early.”
“I agree with her.”
Muttering to himself, the student trudged off toward his friends. Aelissm shook her head in despair. “I’m half tempted to take that lump of metal he was working on last week and beat him over the head with it. Are your students so obstinate?”
“If not worse,” June replied. “Of course, then you have assholes like Jake Sterling who make kids like Bobby Daniels look like saintly geniuses.”
Aelissm turned to her friend with a brow raised. “I take it your date didn’t go well.” When June shook her head and scowled, Aelissm added, “I wondered why you were here.”
“I need a ride home. There was no way I was getting back in Jake’s truck. You know, I knew there was something about him that I didn’t like….”
June kept any further comments to herself as another of Aelissm’s students made his way over. In beautiful contrast to Bobby Daniels’ work, this boy’s wrought iron was fine enough to accent the bedroom set the Industrial Tech club was building for the rodeo team’s banquet. Aelissm beamed with pride and told the student—who had already finished the project his friend was still working up to—that he could leave early.
“Ah, Ms. Davis!” Bobby Daniels moaned.
“Don’t ‘ah, Ms. Davis’ me, Bobby. Put some effort into it and you could turn out pieces every bit as nice as Evan’s.”
True to her word, Aelissm kept the students who were behind her deadlines until the very end of class. At ten o’clock, she finally let them go, smirking as several muttered their unhappiness as they st
epped out into the unseasonably warm evening. June, who had been sitting unobtrusively in Aeli’s office since she’d arrived nearly an hour and a half ago, came to stand beside Aelissm in the shop door. Her expression was no less sour and Aeli thought it might even be darker.
“It must have been a really bad date,” Aeli remarked.
“You have no idea. You know that girl I told you about, the one who’s been having trouble at home with her sister? She saw me in the restaurant and asked if I could help her after school a couple days this week. Jake started yelling at her, then at me for ignoring him.”
“What an ass.”
“Why’d I agree to tonight, anyhow?”
Aelissm shrugged. “I don’t know. Jake seems nice enough.”
June snarled. “What a wasted night.”
“If Jake was that pissed, he needs to get over himself. C’mon June. You have two jobs and a foster son who needs a lot of attention. If Jake’s too insecure to understand that, it’s his loss.” Aelissm offered her a smile. “Hey, how’s the adoption coming?”
June beamed. “Good. Bill’s working on it, too, so it shouldn’t take long at all.”
He’d better be helping, since it was his idea for you to take Luke. It was without any heat that she recalled how the boy had come to live with June. Her uncle had done the right thing and not just by Luke. June had found a new joy in life these past eight months. The two of them were as perfect a mother-son pair as could be imagined.
“So,” Aelissm said finally. “Shall we head home?”
June nodded.
By the time they got back to the valley, it would be eleven and by the time they finally reached the cabins, it would probably be midnight because they had to stop in at Aelissm’s grandparents’ to pick up Luke. With a twist of her lips, Aelissm thought June was probably more irritable tonight because this was the first time she’d gone out without Luke. When she’d dated Pete Landers, Jake’s half-brother and another of the valley ranch hands, the boy had always been invited along.
The night air was pleasant on Aelissm’s face. Spring was finally gaining some ground against winter, she decided. There wouldn’t be too many more snows or frigid days. With a sigh, Aelissm admitted that she was ready for the warmer months, since it had been a surprisingly cold, wet winter, starting just after she’d arrived in Northstar back in September. She was every bit as anxious to go hiking as Pat, perhaps more so. Puttering around the cabins only did so much for working off steam; it was all too familiar. The mountain trails at least provided the distraction of something different, despite the fact that she’d hiked them all numerous times.
As Aelissm pulled out of Devyn, the conversation shifted kindly to past adventures; snowball fights up at the lakes in July, digging for crystals at Crystal Park, riding dirt bikes and four wheelers all over the mountain, and lazy afternoons spent at the Ramshorn alternately sunbathing and diving back into the hot waters to escape the pesky horseflies that would gladly take a chunk out of the unwary. They had so many wonderful memories, she and June, and not just from the valley. They’d spent most of their lives together in Western Washington, safely across Puget Sound from Seattle on the quiet Kitsap Peninsula. They’d spent countless summer days as children sprinting through sun-warmed tide pools on a vast stretch of sand spit or building forts in the cool shade of the dense forest just out her parents’ back door. She could no longer recall it, but the day Uncle Bill had introduced her to his friend Dan Blue’s step-daughter was probably the best of her life. It was at least the luckiest. How many people her age could say they’d known their best friend for nineteen years?
She selected a CD her brother had burned for her for a summer trip to the cabin just before she and June started college in Devyn. Turning up the volume, they sang along, just as they had on the long drive from Washington. All those sweet, precious memories swirled around her, swinging vividly from the notes of the music.
The drive home was a release. For a while, she forgot all her worries and it was just her and June, as they had always been, and by the time Aelissm pulled into her grandparents’ driveway, her mood was better than it had been in over a year. No, probably longer. Looking back, she understood that she hadn’t truly been herself for the duration of her relationship with Bryce. She had been happy enough, but for the whole of her time in Seattle, she’s been someone other than Aelissm Davis. The city lifestyle—and Bryce’s upper class roots—had never suited her, and though she had muddled through well enough, she’d secretly cursed and bemoaned it all.
Adam had been the only friend of Bryce’s that she’d connected with. She’d been able to talk to him in a way she hadn’t with Bryce because, born and raised on the high end of society, her fiancé couldn’t fathom the poorer side of middle class that Aelissm had known growing up. Aelissm didn’t doubt Adam had felt nearly as out of place as she did, but he had also run from where he’d come from. He wanted what Bryce had. She didn’t.
“Whatever you’re thinking about, stop,” June said as she unhooked her seat belt. “We’re having a good time, so don’t ruin it.”
“Yes, mother,” Aelissm retorted.
“That’s much better.”
Grandma Davis greeted them on the porch. Luke came out right behind her and ran to June.
“He was worried you were so late,” Marge commented.
“I’m sorry, sweetie,” June told him. She leaned down and kissed the top of his head.
“It’s okay,” he murmured.
Aelissm’s smile saddened. June was probably the best thing that had ever happened to Luke and the boy clung to her as if she would evaporate if he let go.
“How was your date?” Marge asked June.
“Horrible. I’m glad Aelissm had class tonight.”
“That’s too bad. Speaking of class, how was it, Aeli?”
“Other than the couple of kids I want to strangle, about the same as usual. Some of the projects are really coming along.”
“Well, that makes it worth it, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Aeli admitted. “I suppose it does.”
“Pat stopped down for a while to help Roger with the shed. He’s a very nice young man.” Grandma Davis paused as if she expected Aelissm to say something, then continued. “Well, come on in. I have your mail. June, I have yours, too.”
“Thanks, Grandma,” June replied. Luke was still glued to her side.
They followed Marge into the trailer. Roger was snoring lightly in his favorite chair, for which Aelissm was grateful. She loved her grandfather dearly, but tonight, all she wanted was to pick up her mail, get up to her cabin and head straight for bed, something that would be much delayed if he was awake.
“Here we are. June, these are yours. And here you go, Aeli. There’s a letter in there with no return address. It’s post-marked from Seattle.”
The warmth drained from her body, chased away by waves of cold fear. Despite her concentration, her hand shook as she took the thin stack of mail from her grandmother.
“It could be from one of you friends over there,” Grandma Davis said.
Aelissm shuddered. She forced her eyes from the non-descript envelope to her grandmother’s concerned face, then smiled. “It could be.”
She saw June’s sharp glance from the corner of her eye and winced.
“We’d better get Luke home before he falls asleep,” June asserted.
“All right. You girls have a good night. And Luke, we’ll be looking forward to reading your science report.”
“Okay,” Luke replied with a yawn. “Good night, Grandma Davis.”
“’Night, Grandma,” June added and gave Marge a hug. “Thanks for watching Luke for me.”
“Always a pleasure. I’m so glad he’ll soon be a part of the family. He already is, but soon it’ll be official. Aeli, tell Pat hello for us.”
“Will do.” Aeli stepped in to embrace her grandmother, ignoring the inflexion in Marge’s voice that added, it’d be nice if he was part of the f
amily, too. “’Night, Grandma.”
She herded June and Luke out to her truck. She felt her grandmother’s worried eyes on her the entire way and when she turned to open the driver’s side door, Marge was still standing on the front porch, watching.
“You lied to her,” June remarked as soon as they’d climbed into the cab and shut the doors.
“Of course I did,” Aeli replied, waving farewell to her grandmother. “I don’t have any friends in Seattle. Never did. Only Bryce’s.”
“The letter is from Adam.”
“Yup.”
“Which means he now has your phone number and your mailing address.”
“Yup.”
Aelissm rested her forearm against the window. She couldn’t rationalize it at the moment, couldn’t figure how he’d found out. The Seattle postmark meant little to her. Adam knew what town she lived in and, small as it was, Northstar was on a few maps. Her hands shook despite her death-grip on the steering wheel. How long would it be until Adam found her physical address? And why wouldn’t he? He was a determined man.
Aelissm was grateful that her cabin was so hard to find. Even if Adam somehow managed to learn its address, he’d still have to find it… and Wellman Creek Road wasn’t marked. The knowledge didn’t settle her fears as much as it perhaps should have. Knowing Pat would be there helped more… until an image flashed in her mind of him spasming on the floor, fighting for life as Adam’s hands tightened around his throat. Nausea bubbled in her stomach and she swallowed hard. Adam had attacked his best friend for her without a second thought. What would he do to the man who stood between him and his prize?
Aelissm suddenly realized she’d reached the gate to the cabins and that June and Luke had been silent. Glancing over at them, she saw that Luke had fallen asleep with his head on his foster mother’s shoulder, but June was staring out the window, lost in her own tormenting thoughts.
Mountain Angel (Northstar Angels, Book One) Page 8
