by Liz Isaacson
He was. He absolutely was. But what was he to her?
He shot her a look that held that exact question, but Elise kept her smile hitched in place.
“Pleasure to meet you,” he said to Sophia, shaking her hand. He repeated the words and gesture with Patsy, and Elise grabbed a plate and started putting French toast on it.
Gray took a piece and the cup of coffee Patsy offered, and the four of them sat down to eat together. Patsy carried the conversation by asking Gray about himself, and Elise shot her a grateful look.
Gray would barely look at her, and Elise couldn’t help feeling like she’d made a terrible mistake.
Chapter Seven
Gray stuck close to Elise as she flitted around the lodge, setting up a podium with a tablet on it, building a fire in the living room, and setting out signs. The sidewalks were clear—thankfully—and by the time they got away from the other women working around the lodge, a couple of hours had passed.
Gray didn’t mind; he literally had nothing to do that day. He honestly didn’t know how Colton could stand the open hours without something to fill them with. He’d have to ask again, because Gray knew he’d run out of things to do soon enough.
He’s Colton’s brother went through his mind over and over again. Every time he heard those words, his annoyance spiked. But what was Elise supposed to call him?
Her friend?
He wouldn’t have liked that either.
“You know,” he said as they went past the stable. “I was here last Christmas Eve. I met Patsy and Sophia then.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Elise said, her voice a bit too bright.
Gray didn’t want to have a difficult conversation with her or make her feel bad about what she’d said. He’d seen the way her smile had turned plastic as they’d sat down to breakfast. She already knew what she’d said.
So maybe he didn’t need to bring it up.
The silence between them felt charged, though, and he didn’t like it. “It’s great your cabin is connected with a sidewalk,” he said, cursing himself the moment the sentence left his mouth. What did it even mean?
“Yeah,” she said, and Gray started praying to salvage this situation.
All of the differences between them crowded into his mind, and Gray wondered if maybe they were just too opposite. Maybe once he went back to Colorado, he wouldn’t feel as strongly about her as he did right now.
“I’m sorry about that,” she finally said. “That weird introduction. I didn’t know…I don’t know what we are.”
“I don’t either,” he said, relief flowing through him. “It was fine. A little odd, but fine.”
She reached over and took his hand in hers, her gloves a barrier between their skin. “At least I didn’t say you were a bear.”
He tipped his head back and laughed, all the tension between them gone with that single action. “I’m definitely striking out more than you, Elise.”
“Sometimes we all just need a pass,” she said.
“So I’ll take one for the bear comment,” he said. “And the boxes.”
“And I get one for the awkward introduction.”
“Deal.” After that, the conversation flowed again, and she asked him about the farm where he’d grown up while he got to work on her porch light.
“It was a great place,” he said. “It still is. Just a little run down.” He reached up to take the light bulb out now that he’d removed the cover, but it was stuck tight. He grunted as he squeezed the glass and tried to twist it. “I think this is rusted.”
He’d brought out a folding chair to reach the light, not a ladder, and he couldn’t get any higher to see better.
“I’ll be right back,” she said, leaving him on the porch as she disappeared into her cabin.
Gray tried again, but the bulb wasn’t moving. And if it really was rusted, maybe he wouldn’t be able to put a new one in either. “Come on,” he muttered, reaching up with both hands to try to get some leverage on it, grip it more tightly, or something.
All at once, without any warning, the bulb shattered. He cried out. Pain sliced through his hand. Broken glass and other debris rained down on his face.
He instinctively curled into himself, ducking his head and bringing his hands to his chest. The scent of blood filled his nose as he coughed and tried to get the shards out of his mouth.
His head swam, and Gray needed to get off the chair before he fell. A groan came out of his mouth, and he reached to balance himself against the house beside him just as the door opened.
“I broke it,” he said, stumbling as he came down off the chair.
“Whoa,” Elise said, hurrying out onto the porch. “Are you okay?”
He hadn’t looked at his hand yet, because his eyes stung and he wanted them to keep watering so his tears would get out all foreign objects. He blinked and finally closed them once Elise put her hand on his arm.
“Gray, you’re bleeding.”
“Uh huh,” he said stupidly. “My eyes hurt. I might have gotten glass in them.”
“Come in the house,” she said her voice filled with authority. Gray liked that voice, liked how she took charge, and he let her lead him into the cabin.
“Oh, I don’t do well with blood,” she said, her voice shaky now. “But I’m okay. I’m going to be okay.” She kept muttering under her breath as she parked him in front of the sink. She narrated everything she did, and Gray just went with it. “I’ve got the sink on. The water is getting warm. I’m going to take care of your fingers first, and then we’ll look at your eyes. Can you put your hand in the water, Gray? Put your hands in the water.”
Her cold fingers guided his, and the water felt like hot needles against his icy, cut skin. He jerked them back, but she held them in. “I’ve got to see it,” she said. “It’s going to be fine. You’re okay. I’m okay.”
She didn’t sound okay, but Gray didn’t dare open his eyes to look at her. “I am okay, Elise,” he said. “I just want to be careful. Are you going to pass out?”
“No,” she said. “This isn’t too bad. Just two fingers—your pointer and your middle finger. The cuts don’t look too deep. Let me go get some Band-Aids.” She left him standing in front of the kitchen sink, and Gray opened his eyes enough to see his fingers. Blood dripped into the sink, and he picked up the rag there. Pressing it to his fingers, he shimmied his way out of his coat and bent over the sink.
If he could just splash some water on his face, he could be sure he wouldn’t be inhaling light bulb filaments or broken glass. With his two good fingers and his thumb holding the rag over his two injured fingers, he used his free hand to washed his face. He opened his eyes and splashed water right into them, which stung.
But it also convinced him he wasn’t going to scratch a retina with a piece of glass.
Elise returned and said, “Towels. I have towels.” A moment later, she held one to his face, and he let her pat it dry. She took over with the rag and the towel, bandaging up his fingers a few moments later. “There.”
She looked up and met his eyes, and Gray felt sure he’d entered the presence of an angel. “Thank you,” he said.
“I need to sit down.” She moved over to the kitchen table and took a seat, closing her eyes and breathing in deeply. Gray joined her, though he didn’t think he’d pass out. He’d seen plenty of blood before, too.
“Once, when Hunter was a little boy,” he said, hoping a story would calm her further. “He was riding his scooter in the parking lot at HMC. That’s the family company. Hammond Manufacturing. Anyway.” Gray took a deep breath. “He was maybe six or seven. Sheila had already left, and I had something I had to do at the office one weekend. Hunter’s so great, and he didn’t mind coming to the office with me, especially if I let him ride his scooter. So he was, and I was busy doing who-knows-what.”
He could still see his son’s face though, even if he couldn’t remember what he’d been doing at HMC. “The next thing I know, he’s getting off the ele
vator just shrieking. Positively shrieking, and there’s blood all over his face.”
“Oh, dear,” Elise said, her eyes opening and focusing on him.
Gray reached across the small, round table and took both of her hands in his. “Yeah, that was about my reaction. I hurried to him and got him in the kitchen at the office there to see what was going on. Through his tears, he told me he’d run into a parked truck on his scooter, and though he was wearing a helmet, he had this big gash on his chin. So I took him to the ER, and he got five stitches.”
“Wow. I’ve never had stitches.”
“Never?”
“Nope.” Elise shook her head, her eyes wide, but the color coming back into her face.
“I’ve had them a few times,” he said. “Once, I got this fish hook stuck in the back of my bicep, and it ripped out a great big chunk.” His arm twinged in phantom pain, as if it could remember that. He chuckled. “Anyway, Hunter was fine. We had to call the guy who owned the truck and tell him, because Hunt had dented it.”
He shook his head again, that memory of that terrible thing actually not so bad now, all these years later. “And let me tell you, that was a day that I felt like the biggest failure of a parent.”
“No,” Elise said, turning her hand and aligning her fingers with his.
“You think I’m perfect, Elise, and I have a thousand more stories like that to illustrate I’m not.”
She nodded. “I know that, Gray. I do. We all have stuff about ourselves we don’t like. Mistakes we’ve made.”
“That’s right.”
“To me,” she said. “From the outside, and as someone just starting to scratch the surface of Gray Hammond, you’re pretty darn perfect.”
Warmth filled Gray, and he let himself smile at her. “I could say the same thing about you.”
“Oh, really?” She cocked both eyebrows at him. “Which part did you like better? That I’m afraid to sleep alone in my own cabin, or that I almost fainted at the sight of blood?” She shook her head and laughed, and he liked that she didn’t take herself too seriously. “You’re a little intimidating, Mister Hammond, with your law degree, and your perfect poise, and your marathon body.”
“Oh, so me shattering a light bulb in my face and not being able to make pre-scored boxes is just forgotten now?”
She laughed again, and Gray joined her this time. He lifted her hand to his lips, and everything sobered between them. Gray looked at her, really looked, and his heartbeat started sprinting in his chest. “I like you, Elise Murphy,” he said. “Do you really think we can keep getting to know each other when I go back to Colorado?”
“I hope so,” she whispered.
And hope was all Gray needed in that moment. “Me too,” he said. “Now, we still have that porch light to take care of.”
Later that night, Colton once again snored on the couch when Gray finally returned from his evening at Elise’s cabin. She’d made an enormous pan of chicken enchiladas, half of which Gray had brought home for Colton and Annie at her insistence.
“Hey,” he said as he nudged Colton’s foot again. “I’m back.’
“I’m awake,” his brother said, bolting to a sitting position. “I’m up. I am.”
“Elise sent chicken enchiladas.”
“Sweet.” Colton got up and followed Gray into the kitchen, got out a plate, and peeled the foil off the pan.
“You’re having one right now?”
“Why wouldn’t I have one right now?” Colton peered at his brother. “And if you’d just wait one more hour in the morning, I’d go running with you.”
“You would?”
“You’ll be faster than me, but that’s okay. When I went last summer, Wes had to ride a bike to keep up with me.” Colton put three enchiladas on a plate and turned to stick them in the microwave.
“I don’t run outside often,” Gray said. “I don’t know how fast I’ll be.” He looked down at his bandaged fingers. “I can wait another hour.”
“Perfect.” Colton faced him again. “So? Dinner tonight? All alone at her place. Good? Bad? Kissing?”
Gray rolled his eyes, the very thought of kissing Elise sending his pulse into a frenzy. Yes, he wanted to kiss her. So part of that pick-up was due to anticipation. The other ninety percent was because of fear.
“Dinner tonight was great,” he said. “We get along great, Colt.”
“Two greats,” Colton said. “Must be great.” He grinned and pulled a fork out of the drawer. “And?”
“No kissing.” Gray almost reached up and touched his cheek, but he stopped himself in time. Elise had kissed him there again, and he’d asked to see her the following day too. “Is this stupid? I’m leaving on Sunday.”
“I left Coral Canyon.”
“It’s not the same, Colt.”
“I know.” For once, his brother didn’t try to make a joke or act like Gray’s situation was the same as his. “I don’t think it’s stupid. You have a phone. You can see how it goes.” He turned to get his enchiladas out of the microwave. “I actually think it’s a good thing for you to have some distance from the relationship in another day.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because your natural instinct is to squash it. I can see it on your face.” He faced Gray again. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
Gray just shook his head, because he couldn’t tell Colton that.
“This way, instead of killing it and breaking up with her because you’re afraid you’ll fall for her, you can go home, do your Dad thing. Deal with Mom and Dad. Run with Ames. And keep talking to Elise. See if it really had legs to stand on.”
“And what if it does?” That was the thing Gray was most scared about. He looked at Colton, letting his fear and anxiety march across his face.
“Then you can make a plan,” Colton said. “You like plans, Gray.”
He nodded, because he did like making a plan. Even if he had to abandon it halfway through, he liked knowing he’d thought through a situation to an acceptable end.
Problem was, he could not see how things with Elise would end, and whether or not that would leave him—and Hunter—in peril.
“Plus,” Colton said. “This way, you keep Hunter on the sidelines for longer.” He waved his fork in the air like making a checkmark. “You do what you want to do when it comes to him and women. You protect him.”
“Do you think he needs to be protected from Elise?”
“Heck, no,” Colton said. “But I think you think that, and this way, you can do that.”
Gray nodded, because even if he didn’t want to admit it, Colton was right. In fact, long-distance dating sounded like a really good idea for Gray, and he clapped his brother on the shoulder and said, “Thanks for waiting up for me, brother.”
“Anytime.”
Gray went upstairs, but tonight, instead of collapsing in bed and thinking about Elise, he dropped to his knees and began to pour his heart out to the Lord.
Chapter Eight
Elise thought whoever had decided to serve pizza through a drive-through window was a genius. She was glad she didn’t have to get out of the car, because as it was, the wind tried to steal the two boxes of pizza from her as she took them from the teen handing them to her through the window.
“Thanks,” she said, smiling at the girl. She drove happily on her way, knowing the way to Colton’s house as if it were her own. She’d stayed in her cabin for the third night in a row, and she was beginning to think she could definitely do it for a fourth night.
Before she knew it, a week would’ve passed, and then a few days later, Bree would be back.
“Bree’s married,” Elise told herself as she made the turn onto Colton’s street. She saw Gray’s dark brown truck in the driveway, and her heartbeat skipped around happily. He’d enjoyed dinner at her house last night, and she’d been glad to cook for him. Then they’d sat on the couch and talked about why they lived in a state where it snowed, and where they’d go if they could go anywhere.<
br />
Elise knew Gray had the money to go anywhere he wanted, and she’d been somewhat surprised by his confession that he wanted to visit a rain forest and then maybe a beach. “Maybe?” she’d asked him.
“I don’t really care to travel,” he said. “It was Wes who wanted to see every state.” Gray had shrugged then, and Elise found him so attractive when he was relaxed. When he took his cowboy hat off to eat and chat. When he didn’t have his shirt buttoned all the way to his throat.
He’d been relaxed and casual in her cabin, but never once did he do or say anything improper. They’d talked about Hunter only a little bit, and Elise had initiated that brief conversation about what Hunter liked to do in his free time.
Gray had said Hunter liked to work the farm and fish, and Elise had taken that to mean the apple hadn’t fallen very far from the tree.
As she pulled up to the curb, her phone rang, and Elise picked it up from the cup holder to find her mother calling. “Mom,” she said after she’d connected the call.
“How are you, Elise?”
“Good,” she said, glancing toward the brand new house Colton had purchased in this new neighborhood. No one had come out to get the pizza, and she wondered if she should run it in and then continue her phone call. “What’s going on?”
“I have some news,” her mom said, and Elise heard the excitement in the words. She tensed, because she had a suspicion of what her mother was about to say.
“Henry asked me to marry him, and I said yes!”
“I knew it,” Elise said, smiling. “That’s great, Mom.” She’d definitely have to go to Las Vegas and meet Henry, probably before the wedding. She had the distinct thought that she should go in the next couple of weeks, because she didn’t have a lot of work in the winter. “When’s the big day? Wait. You’re not running off to one of those twenty-four-hour chapels in Vegas, are you?”
“Of course not.” Her mom laughed. “Henry has three kids, and he’s talking to them about thier schedules. One of his sons is a big lawyer in Washington D.C.”
