Mountain Angel (Northstar Angels, Book One)

by Suzie O'Connell

  A silver truck with the Royal R brand emblazoned on the door in golden yellow pulled into the inn’s driveway and he instantly recognized Jim Robinson behind the wheel and his wife Jessie sitting in the passenger seat. He waved as they pulled up.

  “Evening, Pat,” Jim said.

  “Jim, Jessie. How are you both this lovely evening?”

  “Good,” Jessie replied. “And you?”

  “Good.”

  “Aelissm making you work tonight?”

  “Yup,” he replied. “She has finals tonight.”

  “Ah, that’s right. I remember her saying something about it.”

  “You seem to be in a very good mood,” Jessie observed. “So I take it that means Aeli is over being crabby.”

  “I’d say so,” Pat replied, wondering if his face was as red as it felt. “It wasn’t easy on her, learning Winters has been in Devyn so long.”

  “I imagine not. The poor dear.” Jessie smiled. “But she has you to keep her company.”

  Pat nodded. “For a while there, I don’t think she wanted me for company.”

  “Nonsense. You were there, so you were just the easiest target.”

  Pat shifted his weight from one foot to the other, more than a little uncomfortable with the conversation. Jessie must have sensed it, because she quickly moved on, asking what the dinner special was. Relieved, Pat led them inside to a table and got back to work.

  A little while later, when the owners of the Royal R were well into their meal, Pat leaned against the bar and studied the room. Beneath the dark-stained beams with the brands of the local ranches burned into the wood and painted in teal, the residents of the Northstar Valley enjoyed their meals and each other’s company. He’d long ago given up bothering to seat anyone from the valley because they rarely stayed at their own table anyhow. Only visitors to the valley remained where he sat them. Aelissm understood her neighbors without thought. More times than he could now recall, he’d watched her glide through them with natural grace and charm, stopping to chat with them all. It was simply who they were. Who she was. And he loved that about her.

  A young woman, a daughter of one of the valley’s smaller ranches, got up to chase her toddler across the dining room. The child squealed gleefully and the adults in the room laughed indulgently. It was so easy to picture Aelissm chasing her own errant child through the maze of tables, both aided and hindered by her neighbors. The image brought with it a strong yearning that caught him entirely off-guard and a realization that made his heart skitter.

  We didn’t use anything last night.

  It was a testament to how caught up in the moment he’d been and how out of practice he was that he hadn’t even hesitated to consider protection. What if Aelissm got pregnant?

  “Oh, God,” he whispered, horror-stricken.

  “Pat? Are you all right?” Jessie Robinson asked.

  “I’m fine,” he managed to say. “I just thought of something. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  He headed toward the kitchen door, grabbing the cordless phone as he went. With trembling fingers, he dialed June’s number. As the phone rang and rang, he prayed she was home. There hadn’t been any school for the high school today, but she’d worked at the Ramshorn until six. She might not have made it all the way back up to her cabin yet.

  “C’mon, June, please be home. Please, please be—”

  “Hello?”

  “June! Thank God you’re home!”

  “Pat? What’s wrong?”

  All at once, he realized he didn’t have a clue what he wanted to ask her, or how to ask it. She knew what had happened last night. Even if it hadn’t been written all over his and Aelissm’s faces and spelled out in a trail of downy pillow feathers, she was smart enough to figure it out with far more subtle clues. His heart raced, pounding painfully against his ribs. He took a deep breath to calm himself, but it didn’t help.

  “Pat? Is everything all right?”

  “I don’t know yet.” He tried to swallow the lump in his throat. “We didn’t use any protection last night,” he finally blurted. Once it was out, he found it much easier to breathe.

  For a moment, June didn’t answer. Pat waited for her to speak, his pulse beating erratically. He tried to slow his thoughts and organize them into a rational pattern. All those mind-numbing sex-ed classes from high school popped into his head. It only takes once. Did the possibility of fatherhood frighten him or thrill him?

  “If you’re worried about Aelissm getting pregnant, don’t,” June said. “She’s been on the pill since shortly after Bryce’s death. With all the stress… things weren’t exactly reliable.”

  Relief washed through him, laden with disappointment.

  “How is it that I can be relieved and heart-broken at the same time?” he asked before he could stop himself.

  He could just see June’s eyebrows rise in surprise, then knit together in deep thought.

  “I love her,” he said. “But you already know that, don’t you?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “She makes me feel things I thought I never would again and things I never imagined I could feel.” He inhaled slowly and let it out.

  “Then you’re at a crossroads, Pat. I stand by what I told you weeks ago, that you’re good for Aelissm. You make her happy and I think she makes you happy. But you both have to decide if that’s enough. If you decide you want to fight for this, one or both of you is going to have to make an incredible sacrifice.”

  “All my life, I wanted to be a detective,” he murmured. “I never dreamed I would have to choose between that dream and another. Or that a woman might be more important to me.”

  “Is she more important?” June asked. “Don’t answer that. Just think about it. And, in the meantime, try to be more careful.”

  He smiled. “I don’t care what Aeli says about you. You’re an incredible woman, June. Whatever man finally captures your heart will be one lucky son of a bitch.”

  “Why, thank you, Pat.”

  “I mean it, June.”

  “I know you do. Now, get back to work. You put Aeli in a really good mood. Please don’t put her back in a bad one.”

  “I’ll try not to. She’s very distracting, even though she isn’t here.”

  “You’re in trouble, Pat.”

  “I know. But I kinda like it.”

  June laughed. They said good-bye and hung up. Pat stood outside for a little while longer, letting the peaceful evening soothe him. The sun slid behind the peak of the ski hill, plunging the valley into shadow while the eastern peaks still glowed brightly above. The sky was littered with popcorn clouds that turned from gold to orange as he watched.

  The sacrifice would be his, he knew, because he couldn’t ask Aelissm to leave Northstar. But could he give up his life-long dream? He’d been away from his job long enough that he’d felt rusty the last two weeks tracking Adam Winters. The instincts were still as sharp as ever, but he’d had to stop and think about steps he usually took without paying any conscious attention to them. When had waiting tables, cooking, and washing dishes become more familiar to him than hunting for clues and suspects?

  Looking around him at the valley and the mountains, then in the window at the people he’d come to know, respect and cherish, he weighed his choices. His career was in Washington, and Bill and Mary Granger and his family, but there were bad memories there, too. And, as long as he was so near Seattle, Sara would always be there, taunting him and showing up when he least expected it. Here, there were good friends and the invitation of home. He’d likely end up running the inn alongside Aelissm if he stayed. Not exactly how he’d once imagined his life. He watched the woman playing with her child again, noted how everyone joined in the game of hide and seek and again pictured Aelissm chasing after a child, laughing and smiling. If this is what he would be trading his dream for, he knew it would be a trade well made.

  In the end, the question was, which road would he regret not taking?

 
; Chapter Sixteen

  “SEVEN O’CLOCK,” Adam muttered, glancing at the clock on the wall beside the kitchen door of the restaurant. “Thank God. I’m done.”

  He hastily untied his apron, yanked it off and hung it beside the others next to the time clock.

  “Where do you think you’re going, Brandon?”

  Adam turned to find Dora pushing through the double doors from the dining room. He frowned at the nasty scowl on her face. The owner was in town, he knew, and she’d been walking on the proverbial eggshells all day. Which had put everyone in a foul mood. Adam had been forced to wait tables for a while earlier that afternoon while one of the waitresses took care of a “personal matter”. As a rule, he always avoided getting volunteered to cover a wait shift, even for a few minutes. Too many people in town knew Aelissm or her grandparents. He couldn’t take the chance that she’d start asking people if they’d seen him and finding out that he’d been working at the roach motel’s restaurant for so long. But Dora had shot down every excuse he could come up with and he’d had the displeasure of serving the motel’s arrogant owner. Between him and the rest of the irritatingly picky customers they’d had today, Adam was about ready to quit on the spot.

  “I’m going home, Dora. My shift’s over.”

  “We’ve got a rush out there. You’re not going anywhere.”

  “You’ve got Doug and Mitch. They’ve got it covered.”

  “Bullshit. Mitch gets more complaints than anyone I’ve ever employed. He’s lucky I ain’t fired him.”

  “See you tomorrow, Dora,” Adam said and reached for his time card.

  “Punch that ticket and it’ll be your last punch.”

  “You won’t fire me because you don’t have anyone else,” he said tiredly. “Either you let me go now or I’ll quit.”

  Her penciled brows came together in the deepest scowl that he’d yet seen on her haggard old face. Apparently, she despised having her bluff called.

  “Good night, Dora.”

  He punched his card and slid it back in its slot. As the door shut behind him, he thought he heard Dora call him an arrogant prick and laughed coldly. Maybe he was, but he’d had more than enough today. He was walking across the parking lot toward the back gate when Amber called out to him. He wasn’t in the mood to talk to her right then, but he stopped and waited for her to catch up. She had that effect on him and it was both unsettling and enticing.

  “Dora looked really pissed. What’d you say to her?” she asked.

  “I told her I was going home and if she had a problem with it, I’d quit.”

  Amber threw her head back and laughed. “I love that about you, Brandon. You don’t take her shit. Serves the old hag right.”

  Adam winced when she used his fake name. The desire to hear her utter his real name had grown into a fever, but how could he tell her without risking his secret? If she knew why he was here, he’d lose her for sure and she had come to mean so much to him. He didn’t want to keep secrets from her. He wanted to be free and honest with her. But he couldn’t be. And he was beginning to wonder if Aelissm was worth all this heartache and aggravation.

  “What?” Amber said, frowning. “What’s that look for?”

  “What look?”

  “The one on your face. Like someone told you your best friend is dying.”

  “Not a very good comparison, Amber,” he said. His voice was barely above a whisper. “My best friend’s already dead.”

  “Oh, Brandon, I’m so sorry.” Her beautiful eyes rounded with concern and he wanted to dispel her worry. “You’ve never told me that before. How’d he die?”

  “Burst aneurysm.” No need to tell her he was probably responsible for it.

  She threaded her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. When she laid her head on his shoulder, he allowed himself to feel the remorse and grief he’d denied. It had been over a year now since he’d nearly strangled the only best friend he’d ever had and the impact hit him hard. He shuddered and wrapped his arms around Amber, incredibly glad she was there. Not once in the past year had he slowed down enough to grieve. He didn’t want to now, either, but he needed a moment to collect himself. There would come a day when he would be free to mourn his friend and properly reflect on everything that had happened in the last year.

  Amber pulled away and held him at arm’s length. “What’s wrong, honey?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing more than usual. It was just a bad day on top of it.”

  “I hate it when the owner’s in town. It’s never a good day when he’s here.” She sighed, then kissed his cheek. “I’ve gotta head over to class. I’m already late and if Ms. Davis is in a bad mood, she might not let me take the final.”

  “I don’t think she’d do that to you. I’m sure she knows how Dora is.”

  “Everyone in town knows how Dora is,” Amber remarked. “This won’t be the first time I’ve been late for class because of her. Maybe I should take Ms. Davis up on her job offer. I could work out there for the summer. She said Mrs. Struthers told her I could stay in the apartment above the pool house at the Ramshorn.”

  “Sounds like a great summer.”

  “Doesn’t it? You could come, too.”

  “We’ll see. You’d better go.”

  This time she kissed him on the lips, then deepened it. He had to push her away so she wouldn’t be any later. He watched her walk away, smiling when she winked at him over her shoulder. It was strange that he’d been irritated by the mention of Aelissm. He usually enjoyed listening to Amber talk about her, but just now, it had been as if thought of Aeli had intruded on his private moment with Amber. The revelation was confusing because the need to find Aelissm still pulsed through him.

  He turned and started for his house again. What did he even want from Aelissm? Once, he’d wanted her, but now he had Amber and compared to her, his lust for Aelissm Davis paled to a faint haze. If it wasn’t desire that pulled him toward her, what was it that kept him alert for any sign or news of her? Did he want her forgiveness for Bryce’s death, or her gratitude for releasing her from a relationship she would have eventually tired of? And how much longer could he keep playing this game with her? He was tired of hiding. More than that, he was tired of lying to Amber. She was a good woman. She deserved better than what he was giving her.

  When he reached his house, he paused at the sight of a white paper pinned to the door. It was folded in half and his name—his real name—was printed on it in clear, familiar hand-writing. Trepidation lanced through him, white hot and frigid. His hand shook badly as he took the note down and opened it.

  Hello, Adam, it began. You’ll have to tell me how you like being hunted. From my own experience, it’s not a pleasant situation. I don’t know what you want from me, but you won’t get it. We’ve both suffered from Bryce’s death, but you won’t let us move on. I’m moving on with my life, now. I’m giving you the opportunity to end this quietly. I want you to leave on your own. I don’t want to make a big deal out of this. Please leave me alone.

  There was no flourish to end it, only her signature. Not that he needed it to know the note was from Aelissm. He quickly entered the house and locked the door behind him. How the hell had she found him? The answer was so glaringly obvious that he cursed himself for not being more careful. Her uncle’s nosy detective. Patrick O’Neil wouldn’t have been promoted to detective under Bill Granger unless he was good at his job. Aelissm’s uncle didn’t tolerate laziness or ineptitude in his subordinates. If he thought about it, he was surprised he hadn’t received a note from him a long time ago. But O’Neil hadn’t written the letter. Aelissm had.

  “Son of a bitch,” he muttered.

  She knew where he was now and he could honestly say he didn’t like being the prey. He’d have to move and find a new job. Just when he’d started to get comfortable. Amber wouldn’t understand and he couldn’t see a way to explain it without revealing too much. He could quit and blame it on Dora, but moving? How could he lie
that away? As he thought about it, anger began to bubble.

  She was moving on, was she? With the detective, no doubt. Well, Adam was damned if he was going to stand by and let a year of his life go to complete and total waste. He might not want Aelissm like he once had, but he wasn’t about to let her walk all over him. And he certainly wasn’t about to let another man claim what was his. End it quietly? Never.

  Crumpling the letter into a ball and hurling it across the room, he stormed out of the house. The door slammed satisfyingly behind him. He’d need to use the pay phone outside the restaurant because he didn’t want to chance his co-workers overhearing his conversation and mentioning it to Amber. When he reached the phone, he was irritated to find it already in use. Impatiently, he waited for the woman to finish her call. As she babbled on to whoever was on the other line about all the really fun things she and her husband had done that day, Adam crossed his arms and scowled. His mood continued to darken.

  “C’mon, lady. Other people need to use the phone,” he said after he’d been waiting for more than ten minutes.

  She glanced over her shoulder at him, sneered and made a comment to her friend about rude assholes. And went right on talking.

  With a growl, Adam walked down the street to the gas station. The pay phone there was mercifully free. He quickly dialed the requisite numbers for his pre-paid card, then dialed the phone number, silently praying she’d pick up.

  “I thought I told you not to bother me again, Adam,” she said.

  “You did, Sara. But I thought you told me you were over Patrick O’Neil.”

  “I am.”

  “Then you won’t be upset to know he’s sleeping with Aelissm.”

  The silence on the other end of the line was filled with promise. He could see her perfectly made-up face sliding from beautiful composure to ugly hatred and smirked. Pulling her strings was almost as satisfying as it was going to be when he finally caught Aelissm and made her understand him. He’d never cared for Sara and her cold dismissal of him when he’d driven all the way to Seattle to help her get revenge on the only man who’d ever walked away from her had reinforced his opinion of her. She truly was a selfish, cold-hearted bitch.