by Karen Rock
“We can do that later. I really need to get out.”
And clear my head, she added silently. See if the man outside is my ex.
She stepped out of her gown and yanked on the running gear she’d brought. Good thing she’d already planned on the jog. As she walked beside her mother through the door, she heard the seamstress barking orders to the rest of the groaning and griping bridal party.
Poor woman. Julie would personally invite her to the reception as a thank-you for taking this job with such little notice. How many guests would that make? Eighty-five? Eighty-six? Even though it wasn’t a huge wedding, with most of their guests staying at the lodge to take advantage of this ski and spa holiday, it felt almost unmanageable. Thank goodness for the lodge’s upbeat, efficient events planner, Grace.
After knocking to ensure her father wasn’t inside and changing, she inserted the old-fashioned key to her parents’ room and led her mother to the bed.
“I don’t need this much help, Julie.” Dianne clamped a hand around the carved headboard and let go of the walker. “When you and Mason get married, there won’t be any need for you to come over after work.”
“Of course I will.” Confusion twisted through Julie. Didn’t her mother want her to check in? Didn’t she appreciate her company on the many nights her father worked late? “What do you mean?”
Dianne kicked off her heels before lying down. “I’m going to ask Janelle to move in with us. She can have your apartment in the guest house and I’ll have full-time care. She needs a place to stay now that her husband’s gone, and you need to focus on Mason. He’s your priority now, isn’t he?” Her mother raised an eyebrow.
Julie thought of the many evenings Mason, too, worked late, and of his weekend squash matches. Mason filled up his own time card. One of the things he said he loved about her was her undemanding nature; he liked his space. As for her, she liked his dependability. His life ran like a solar-powered watch.
“But you need me, Mom.”
“Of course I do, sweetie. Let’s talk it over later.” Dianne yawned, then squeezed Julie’s hand.
“Are you tired?” Concern spiked. Caring for her mother—and the accounting job Mason had encouraged her to quit so she could finally pursue her passion for photography—had been Julie’s life these past eight years. What would it be like when her free time became her own? Her mind ran over the possibilities and came up pathetically empty. The thought of snapping photos of their suburban town’s car wash and minimart didn’t match the dream that had come to her in college of traveling the globe, capturing the essence of foreign cultures through her lens. She’d wanted to be more adventurous then. Another person. Someone she no longer knew...
“I’m a little tired.” A faint smile lifted her mom’s lips. “Would you shut the curtains? I’ll take a nap until you get back.”
“I’ll bring you tea.” Julie checked her watch. “Your medicines will be due then, too.” Julie headed to the window and stared at the forest trail below, hopeful that the Austin look-alike wouldn’t be too far away before she got out there.
“Have a good run, sweetheart.”
Julie kissed her mother, grabbed the chocolate mints off the nightstand and headed outside.
Darn it, she deserved a cheat. All three candies disappeared before she’d descended the large, curved staircase into the vaulted foyer. Ah. Sweet chocolate. If only it cured what ailed her. Hopefully, the exercise would give her the boost she needed.
“Going for a run, Miss Barrett?” asked the attractive, thirtysomething desk clerk. Noelle, Julie recalled.
“Yes. I hope it’s not too cold for it. It snowed earlier.” Julie pulled on her fleece and glanced down at her black spandex leggings.
A boom of laughter erupted from a group of men she recognized as Mason’s out-of-town uncles. They stood before a towering tree made of potted white poinsettias with red berry strings and lighted pinecones woven among them. In the center of the wall rose a two-story stone fireplace. Oversize gold ornaments hung from above, sparkling under the entwined-birch chandelier’s lights.
Beautiful.
A few men glanced over, their eyes lingering on the pretty auburn-haired woman behind the counter. Her pixie features looked as otherworldly as this place.
Without seeming to notice the attention—or was she just used to it?—Noelle consulted a temperature gauge mounted on a tongue-and-groove wall. “Thirty degrees. You’ll be warm in minutes and the snow shower tapered off a few moments ago.”
“Thanks. You haven’t seen Dr. Stanton, have you?”
Mason often lectured her on the damage running inflicted on her knees. She still couldn’t believe he’d agreed to participate in a charity run the day before their wedding even though he disapproved of the sport. But when he’d heard it benefited MS, he’d jumped in, the supportive man who never let her down. After this event, she’d stop, she’d promised him, and she would, once they said their vows. Until then, she’d take every chance she could to push her body through space. There was something primal and liberating about conquering distances with nothing but her feet and her will.
Noelle’s green eyes twinkled. “He’s gone into town with a few of the groomsmen. They mentioned the Tail-of-the-Pup.”
Ah. The pub they’d passed on the drive in. Good for him. As for her, she needed air and hard exertion...and Alexis. If she did run into Austin, it’d be good to have her best friend by her side.
With a wave, she shoved open the leaded-glass doors. Her breath formed white clouds as she stepped onto the pine deck and pulled on her gloves. After a few stretches and jumps to get her blood flowing, she trotted down the hewn-log stairs and passed a sleigh bedecked in Christmas garland and silver bells. Ribbons adorned a white horse’s bridle and a bundled family passed around open thermoses of what smelled like cocoa while jabbering about a trip to Santa’s Village.
She neared the entrance to the trail and soon the dense forest enveloped her. Icy patches crunched under her speeding feet. She moved into the shadows and down narrow paths enclosed by dark spiky weaves of branches, past leaning trunks wrapped with years of ivy, through smells of cold earth and wet layers of leaves. She rounded a bend and jerked to a stop to avoid a man barreling her way.
Something about his sure, athletic stride, the sharp angle of his square jaw and the sculpted chest revealed by his damp T-shirt froze the air in her lungs.
When the tall man pulled up, she angled her head and met warm brown eyes beneath tousled, sandy-blond hair. His eyes widened in recognition and a whole percussion section burst to life in her chest. It was Austin.
She backed against a bare maple, trying to hush the pounding.
For years, she’d told herself she was glad he’d never come for her. But as she studied that familiar, handsome face, her stomach on an elevator ride, she realized that she’d always hoped he would. Most of all, she’d hoped she’d stop hoping for him.
She suddenly recalled something else her mother had offhandedly mentioned when she’d described the merits of Lake Placid. It was where the US Bobsled and Luge team trained before touring the world. The athletes Austin practiced his sports chiropractic on. Somehow she’d forgotten it—repressed it? And now she wondered. Could knowing he might be here have factored into her decision to choose Mirror Lake Lodge? Had she secretly hoped for this encounter? A wave of guilt and confusion crashed over her. Sent her tumbling. Made her gasp for air.
Silence stretched between them. Potent. Seething with unspoken words until she said the one name she thought she’d banished long ago.
“Austin?”
CHAPTER TWO
AUSTIN REYNOLDS HELD his sides and bent at the waist, his pulse racing. What were the odds of running into an ex-girlfriend in this remote spot?
“Julie. What are you doing here?” He forced his gaze away
as he straightened, uncomfortable. He knew he was staring. But she was even more beautiful than he remembered. She’d matured, but still resembled an earnest college student, her long, dark hair slipping free of whatever held it, her brown eyes large and tilted upward, lashes so thick they looked wet.
And her chin. How many times had he traced it? Kissed it? Marveled at the soft skin that belied its strong jut? He shook off those memories like gathered dust and studied the peeling white bark on a birch clump. Anything to refocus him. To stop this instant prickling awareness...the rush of old feelings made new again just at the sight of her.
She ran a finger under her wristband, her teeth appearing on her bottom lip. “I’m...uh...getting married.”
Her eyes swerved to his for a brief moment, and her brows rose, challenging. In the distance, a raven’s caw echoed.
“Congratulations.” His overloud voice startled a cardinal from its perch, the bird’s flight a scarlet slash against the snowy landscape. After tracking its path, their gazes met again, then slid away. A chill ran through his heart. Julie? Married? But that meant taking a leap of faith...something she’d never been willing to do for him. “You must be happy.”
“Of course!” Her short, straight nose curled the way it always had when she fibbed. Funny how he remembered little things like that. He stepped close enough to see the faint, crosshatch scars beneath her right eye. The result of a tree house fall when she was ten, he recalled.
“Of course,” he repeated, reeling. Why was this news affecting him? He’d moved on long ago.
There was a long, electrifying pause before a brittle silence descended.
“Well. This isn’t even a little bit uncomfortable,” she observed at last, her full lips in a wry twist. For the first time, she met his gaze straight on and the impact made his lungs close up. Wariness curled like smoke in Julie’s eyes, but her expression hadn’t changed.
“Nah. Not at all,” he replied when his breath returned. He was intrigued, despite himself. With the lodge close, his escape route was steps away, yet he was seized by the desire to linger. He’d missed her sarcastic, quirky personality, he realized. What harm could come from a few exchanged words? They were nothing to each other now.
“Are you training here?” She laced her fingers into a hammock that swung in front of her hips.
“We’re here for a few months before touring. How did you know?” he asked, taken aback.
“I think my mother might have mentioned it.” Oddly, guilt flashed in her eyes before she dropped them.
“I didn’t know she followed winter sports.” Now that he had stopped moving, the cold air settled over his arms, raising bumps.
She put on a smile that wasn’t really a smile. “Who knows what my mother’s into lately,” she mused, her voice far away.
“Who knows what anyone’s into,” he muttered. Julie. Getting married. The concept gnawed at his gut. Why was this bugging him?
Her smile faded as he peered at her and he cursed himself for that revealing slip. “So when’s the wedding? I would have thought you’d have it at home.” He only partially succeeded in keeping the bitterness out of his voice. She’d never been willing to leave Connecticut for him...
Water under the bridge.
She slowly raised her downcast gaze. “I’m getting married at the Mirror Lake Lodge on Christmas Eve.”
His eyes flew to her left hand, a lump on her ring finger visible beneath her glove. “Congratulations. Who’s the lucky guy?” A very lucky guy, he had to admit, staring at her lovely face.
“Mason Stanton. He’s a doctor in my father’s practice.” Something lay across her voice, a long shadow. In the gray light, her skin looked pale. Not exactly a glowing bride. Then again, he supposed standing outside in below-freezing temperatures wouldn’t put him in the mood to gush, either. Especially with an ex.
“Sounds like you got what you wanted, then.” After four years together, and almost another year of long distance waiting, he’d finally realized they didn’t want the same things.
“Yes.” She rubbed her arms and jumped a little, her breath a foggy mist. The whine of Ski-Doos grew louder as a pair of the machines flashed by, deep in the woods. “How about you. Married?”
“No. Haven’t met the right lady.” He felt a pang of regret when he saw her slight wince. “Plus, I’m never in one place long enough. The team’s tour schedule is demanding, though it’s nice when we settle here for training.”
“It’s hard to imagine you ever staying in one place,” she quipped, her eyes searching his.
“It’s hard to imagine you leaving one.”
An electric charge singed the air and neither looked away. After a moment she coughed lightly into her glove, her eyes skittering sideways. “People change.”
“Not as much as we think,” he observed grimly. Something made him want to call her out. Her stubborn denial of the facts, the way she balked at risk, never took chances—on him or anything—it jabbed under his breastbone. Hard.
Her politeness melted. Suddenly there was fire in her eyes.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
When he spoke, white puffs accentuated every word. “Come on, Julie... Marrying a doctor like your father? One who also lives in Connecticut and works in your family’s practice? What kind of change is that?”
Obviously she wanted a rerun of her childhood. Not the life he’d offered her when he’d taken a sports chiropractic and strength-training position with a Swiss team all those years ago.
Julie’s face froze, and slowly, imperceptibly, her body shrank back. “You don’t know anything about me anymore.”
He grimaced and wished he could take back that pointless rant. “You’re right. This is stupid. I’m—I’m happy for you. Glad we met up.” He dropped to one knee and tightened an unraveled shoelace, hiding his face.
Julie let out a long, shuddering breath. “Me, too. So do you live in Lake Placid?”
“I just sold my apartment, so I’m staying at the Mirror Lake Lodge until my condo is finished. It’s a new construction near Mount Van Hoevenberg. An easy commute to work.” He forced a neutral tone. Made himself take it down a notch. They weren’t new exes quibbling over who took custody of the dog.
The winter sun emerged through its cloud coverage and pierced the thick boughs around them, throwing patterns of light across her delicate profile, her skin tight around her mouth. “So you’re staying here?”
“It’s not like I’ll be in your way.” In fact, now that he knew she’d be getting married there, he’d spend more time than ever at the Olympics office or on the mountain. Anywhere but near the woman who’d found the happiness she’d denied him.
Her gold-toned skin grew pink. “I wasn’t worried about that.” The nose curl. Again. “It’s good seeing you.”
She turned back toward the trail curve, ready to disappear from his life again. And he’d let her now as he had before. It’d been the right choice when he’d made it years ago.
“Same. Good luck with everything.”
Her brows lowered and she nodded slowly. As if she needed that luck. Or was that just his imagination again? Darn it. She was happy. Leave her be.
Leave them both be.
With a wave, she jogged off. He watched the long-legged strides that carried her away, an emptiness rising in him as she vanished around the corner. Odd as it’d been to see her here after so long, it felt as though they’d picked up right where they’d left off...and that wasn’t a good place.
He didn’t miss her. So why was it so hard to watch her go?
* * *
LATER THAT EVENING, Julie pressed a hand to her rumbling stomach and looked up from her red rice cake entrée at a loud clanging sound beside her. Mason stood, trim and dapper in a pin-striped suit, pinging his cake fork against his win
eglass. He looked as though he belonged in the elegant Teddy Roosevelt era in which Mirror Lake Lodge’s The View restaurant had been built. She tried imagining him in the outdoors, sweating despite the cold, exertion brightening his eyes the way it had Austin’s. She failed.
Austin... Mason... How similar their names were. Was that a coincidence or another connection to Austin she’d repressed? It still rankled that she’d somehow picked the one wedding venue where she might cross paths with her moving target of an ex. It couldn’t mean anything, surely.
She pressed her lips together and shook off her traitorous thoughts. She’d left her ex on the trail. He had no place here.
Hickory panels reached from floor to ceiling and surrounded massive inlaid fireplaces that popped and crackled at either end of the long, elegant room. A moose head mounted above one mantel was reflected in the large Victorian mirror atop the opposite hearth. Christmas trees in each corner fragranced the air with fresh evergreen, the merry glow of their miniature lights competing with the carved pineapple and scrolled chandeliers. This long-anticipated event should feel as special as it looked, but her run-in with Austin had shaken her confidence.
Mason wasn’t an extension of her old life as Austin had suggested. She’d expected her ex to be impressed with her big news, maybe feel regretful that he’d given up on her so quickly. Instead, he’d pointed out how little she’d changed. Told her she still played it safe.
Completely wrong.
She glanced between her father and Mason and mutinously buttered a bread roll.
Way off base.
Mason cleared his throat and raised his glass higher, clanging.
Oblivious, the relatives invited to this private dinner continued to chatter. They sat on upholstered chairs around cloth-covered tables that broke up the red-and-white-diamond pattern on the carpet. Julie met her mother’s eyes across the table, her expression as surprised as Julie felt. Her father, on the other hand, rubbed his bald patch in that way he did whenever he got excited.
