by Liz Isaacson
She blinked a couple of times, and Sterling could practically hear the words she wanted to say before she said them. Terrible about what that Amber Lyons did to you. And on national TV too.
He braced himself as she opened her mouth. “I’m Norah Watson.” Her eyes scanned his height, coming back to his face a moment later. “I’m sorry about your fall. Will you ever snowboard again?”
Ah, wasn’t that the question of the year? Sterling didn’t know the answer, so he lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. Emotion surged up his throat, along with the feel of the wind against his face, the smell of a fresh snowfall, where it stuck no matter how hard he tried to swallow it back.
“I’ve seen you race,” she said. “You were like liquid on the mountain. So smooth.”
“Thanks,” he managed to croak. He actually would’ve preferred she gave him her condolences about his ex-girlfriend. He’d at least be able to find another date someday. But snowboarding had always come before women, and he couldn’t articulate yet how much he’d lost when he’d lost snowboarding.
“You can’t stay here,” he said, his rough voice matching the shredded edges in his chest.
Panic crossed her face, troubling her lips and causing a twitch in her fingers. “But I have to. The girls have been working so hard for this outing.”
Unrest swirled in his gut. “I’m staying here for a while.” How long, he didn’t know. He didn’t have anything else to do, and nowhere else to go, and no one to see.
Norah began unpacking the groceries. “How about we strike a deal?”
“A deal?” Sterling folded his arms and watched her work.
“You’re obviously living downstairs.” She tossed him a look over her shoulder that said, Right?
He didn’t indicate an answer either way, just waited for her to continue.
“This place is three levels. We always stay upstairs in the bunk bed room.” She glanced to the ceiling like she could see the bunk beds from here. “I have eight girls in my group, and you won’t even know we’re here. We’ll stay on the top two levels. There’s a kitchen here, and one downstairs for you.” She gave him another up-down glance. “You’re obviously not going to be traipsing around the property, and we’ll be gone before you even know we’re here.”
He doubted it. He’d heard her, and he’d been half-asleep. What would eight teenage girls sound like?
Chickens, he thought. Or elephants.
“I have to turn in a strict itinerary for these outings.” She reached for a binder on the counter. “You can see our schedule if you want. We’ll be gone cross-country skiing most of the morning tomorrow, and I only let them go down to the game room once, on Saturday evening, and we’ll be back in bed by ten both nights. I promise.”
She lifted a paper toward him, but Sterling waved it away. Though the game room took up considerable space on the bottom level, where he was living, he hadn’t used it since he’d arrived, and he wasn’t planning to. It also had a separate entrance, around the side of the garage. He barely used the kitchen in the basement, opting to pick up his cell phone and order, well, pizza. Everything was easier than trying to explain where the front door really was, and the sidewalk leading around the side of the house from the driveway led to a door he didn’t have to climb any stairs to answer, which was why living on the bottom level had been his first choice when he’d come to the cabin several weeks ago.
“I don’t want a bunch of girls here,” he said.
“But you won’t even know we’re here.”
“I knew you were here.” He gave her a pointed look. “And I have my home health nurses coming twice a day. That can’t be disrupted.”
“Of course not. And I won’t blast any rap music.” She crossed her heart. “Only Mozart. Soothing. I promise.” Her lips tugged upward, and something slipped in Sterling’s resolve.
“I don’t know…the doctor said I need a lot of rest.” He glanced out the windows located above the spiral staircase that led downstairs. “My mom didn’t say anything about this when I told her I was coming here.”
Norah smiled like she’d won. “Well, I’ll call Nancy right now and ask her.”
When she mentioned his mom, Sterling felt the victory blow land against his lungs. The last thing he wanted was to talk to her, especially after their last conversation.
“Don’t do that,” he said. “I guess I can put up with you for three days.”
Norah put away the rest of the groceries under the misses-nothing eye of Sterling Maughan. The Sterling Maughan. The one who’d won gold at the last Olympics and had been set to sweep every event in this winter’s X-Games.
Of course, that was before the Break-Up to End All Break-Ups, and then the devastating fall that had broken his left femur and cracked part of his pelvis.
He looked good for such an injury, standing there glowering at her, wearing a T-shirt that pulled across his broad shoulders, a loose pair of gym shorts, and the bulkiest leg brace she’d ever seen. At least he could stand, and he certainly hadn’t lost his brooding good looks in the accident. Norah had seen enough interviews to know.
“Do you need help getting down the stairs?” She didn’t turn to look at him as she asked. Someone with as many muscles as Sterling could snap her in half with his bare hands. He didn’t look as though he’d lost anything in the bicep department since his accident.
His dark eyes didn’t dance the way they had on the medal podium, though. And while she’d seen him in countless family photos—always alone, surrounded by his five older brothers and their wives and families—she hadn’t realized how dark his hair was. The colors on her old TV were obviously lacking.
“I could use some help, yes.”
His words surprised her, but she crossed through the kitchen and stepped down the two stairs to the living room. This particular staircase that led to the basement spiraled, and she knew from experience that going down was harder than going up. Especially because the last three stairs were very steep and quite uneven.
“I’ll go first,” she said. “You can brace your weight on my shoulders.” She moved down a few steps and stopped. The heat of his hands on her shoulders sent a shiver through her she hoped he didn’t notice.
Giddiness swept through her. Her half-brother would never believe she’d met Sterling Maughan, the professional athlete that was pure celebrity for the people in Gold Valley. As they moved painstakingly down the steps, Norah toyed with the idea of asking him for a picture. Would she come off as a gushing fan? A lunatic? Some flirty girl? Utterly insensitive?
When they reached the bottom floor, Norah gasped at the sight of the living room. A nest—a real, live, human-sized nest!—on the couch showed where Sterling had obviously been living. Soda cans, pizza boxes, paper wrappers, straws, and clothes littered the floor in a six-foot radius from the nest.
“How long have you been here?” she asked, taking in the unlit fireplace, the TV, glowing with instructions on how to grill ribs, above the mantle. He obviously hadn’t used any of the three bedrooms down here. The door to the closest bathroom stood open, but all the blinds on the wall of windows that would normally show a deck and breathtaking winter scenery had been tightly shut.
“Since last week.” Sterling hobbled into the kitchen—much smaller than the one on the main floor, but certainly sufficient for this bachelor sixth son.
She followed him, freezing as he downed a handful of pills. Just the sound the caplets made against the plastic bottle conjured old hurts and images she’d rather forget. She forced her feet to move and reached under the sink for a garbage bag. Fluffing it open, she began to fill it with a week’s worth of fast food waste.
“You don’t have to do that,” Sterling said.
“It’s my job.” Norah winced as she caught a whiff of Sterling’s socks. “Your mom pays me to do this.”
Sterling made a grab for a pair of discarded board shorts, and Norah pulled back. “I don’t need you to do my laundry.”
“I don’t do laundry.
”
“Great.”
“But I’m killer at picking up trash.” She gave him a wide berth as she moved around the couch and reached for the pizza box. The remote fell off, and she put it on the coffee table.
“I can do it.” But Sterling sank back into his nest and lifted his injured leg with his hands. He groaned as he placed it on the stack of pillows he’d laid out on the coffee table.
Watching him, a flash of what life would be like if Norah had a lot of money stole through her head. Yes, the sports news feeds had been full of Poor Sterling Maughan. His career is over just as it was picking up momentum. And too bad about his girlfriend being such a cheater….
But “poor Sterling Maughan” was anything but poor.
He wasn’t working two jobs and going to school at night just to pay the electric bill and put food on the table and make sure his mama had the medicine she needed. Norah tasted the bitterness of her situation on the back of her tongue, and it was too familiar. She hated feeling this way, and yet she couldn’t push down the negative vibes.
She stuck a smile on her face as she tied the now-full trash bag. “Hey, can I ask a huge favor? My half-brother is a big fan of yours. Could I get a picture with you?”
Sterling looked up, his eyes half glazed from the pills. Strong jealousy Norah hadn’t felt in a while surged through her. She managed to push it away.
“Sure, I guess.” The disinterest in his voice didn’t fall on deaf ears, but Norah whipped her phone from her back pocket anyway. She wanted to spray an entire can of disinfectant on his nest before she sat down, but she flopped down on the blanket at his side like it was a throne fit for a queen. A puff of foul-smelling air surrounded them, but Norah contained a cringe.
“Okay, smile.” She focused on the two of them, but Sterling’s smile looked more like a grimace. Maybe she’d jostled his leg too much. Something whispered inside her that it wasn’t just his leg giving him trouble.
Norah snapped the picture and turned toward Sterling. They sat close enough for her breath to brush his cheek. He kept his mouth steadfastly shut, and if she had to guess, she should be happy she couldn’t smell his breath.
As she watched him, she felt his sadness penetrate her defenses. Felt his helplessness. Her mother had always told her she had a compassionate heart and was able to sense someone in distress, which was why she’d been taking classes in social work for the past year.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, unable to break eye contact with the damaged once-pro-snowboarder.
He blinked, shrugged, laid his head back, closed his eyes. “It happens.”
Norah stood, haunted by the finality in his tone.
Help him, she prayed, unable to do much more than that for the man who wore his emotional turmoil so openly. As she went back upstairs to finish preparations for her girls, she promised herself she’d check in on Sterling over the next couple of days. Even though he had nurses coming, he seemed like he could use a friend.
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ABOUT LIZ
Liz Isaacson is the author of the #1 bestselling Three Rivers Ranch Romance series, which includes seven full-length novels and five novellas, and the Gold Valley Romance series. She writes inspirational romance, usually set in Texas and Montana, or anywhere else horses and cowboys exist. She lives in Utah, where she teaches elementary school, taxis her daughter to dance several times a week, and eats a lot of Ferrero Rocher while writing.
Learn more about all her books here. Find her on Facebook, twitter, and her blog.
Be sure to look for her new cowboy romance series in Gold Valley, Montana, coming in January 2017. The new series starts with BEFORE THE LEAP and will continue with AFTER THE FALL (February 2017), THROUGH THE MIST (April 2017), and BETWEEN THE REINS (May 2017), with two additional books coming in July and August 2017.
She also writes as Elana Johnson, who is the author of the YA dystopian Possession series, the Elemental series, and ELEVATED and SOMETHING ABOUT LOVE, which are young adult contemporary romance novels-in-verse. She also has a YA time travel duology, RIFT and MEND.
Her adult contemporary romance, UNTIL SUMMER ENDS, is out now from Cleis Press/Start Media, and her debut adult fantasy, ECHOES OF SILENCE, just released from Amazon/Kindle Press. See all of Elana's books here.
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BEFORE THE LEAP
Book One in the Gold Valley Romance series
by Liz Isaacson
Copyright © 2017 by Elana Johnson, writing as Liz Isaacson
Published by AEJ Creative Works
All Rights Reserved
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book can be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the express written permission of the author. The only exception is by a reviewer who may quote short excerpts in a review. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
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Interior Design by AEJ Creative Works
