Mountains Apart (Mills & Boon Heartwarming)

by Ross, Carol

  “Bering, welcome. How was the wolf conference?”

  “Good, Senator. It’s always nice to see old friends.” Bering reached out and shook his hand. “Thank you for taking the time to meet with me.”

  They made small talk for a few minutes before the senator got down to business. “Now, bring me up-to-date on what’s currently happening in Rankins.”

  “You know the basics already. Cam-Field has a team in place and they’ve begun their pitch—in earnest. They’ve scheduled a town-hall meeting in a couple weeks and the town-council vote is a couple days after that.”

  Bering filled him in on what had gone down in Rankins over the past weeks. He felt himself missing Emily even as he relayed details of the conflict between them.

  “And while they are doing their best to get the entire community behind the project, the fact is they only need the votes from the town council. The town council usually votes the way of the town, and so Cam-Field wants the support of the community. And things will go far more smoothly for them, development-wise, if they have that support, but they don’t have to have it. And the truth is, Jack, I’m worried.”

  Senator Marsh nodded his head. “We’ve been doing some research out of my office. Unfortunately, Cam-Field has some very deep pockets. Very little debt, some prime real-estate properties and huge profits in the last five years—astronomical profits, actually, what with this oil situation and how it’s been.”

  The senator went on, “And this Franklin Campbell is one shrewd character, I can tell you that. Whip-smart and a heck of a businessman. He has resisted every temptation to overextend himself and has focused solely on this company of his, which explains the millions of dollars.”

  Bering grimaced. “How many millions?”

  “More like a billion, but you know what, Bering? I honestly don’t think it matters. The environmental lobby is all abuzz about this. Thanks to you, Evan Cobb and others have been blogging about it. And, if it reaches the point where we need legislation, I will get the votes. I love my hunting trips, Bering. You know that better than anyone.”

  The conversation gave Bering a measure of relief and it must have been evident on his face. Senator Marsh reached over and clapped him on the shoulder. “Rest assured, son, I will do everything in my power to shut this project down, or delay it indefinitely. There are other, albeit more costly, routes for Cam-Field to access this oil lease without involving Rankins or the surrounding area at all.”

  Bering nodded. “Thank you, Senator.”

  “I should also mention that there is some other interesting stuff we are looking into. I’m not quite sure what to make of it yet. What’s the name of the guy in charge up there for Cam-Field?”

  Bering cleared his throat and regretted the words even as he knew he had to say them. “Emily Hollings.”

  The senator’s brows shot upward. “A woman, huh?”

  Bering resisted the urge to add that she was so much more than that. “Yes.”

  “Boy, I would not have guessed that. From what I’ve learned about Franklin Campbell, I would have predicted that he was old-school through and through. What do you think of her so far?”

  “Smart, tough, articulate, good at her job,” he replied.

  “I’ll get someone researching her right away. Now, I hope you like roasted lamb...”

  * * *

  “EMILY, I WOULD LIKE you to meet my mother, Claire James.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “And this is Emily.”

  Bering’s mother smiled and held her hand out to Emily. “Hello, Emily, I’m so glad you could come. It’s wonderful to meet you—finally.” She cast a chastising look up at her son.

  Emily noticed, pondering the meaning there, but he only chuckled as he leaned over and kissed his mother on the cheek. “It’s nice to see you, too, Mom.”

  “How was your trip?”

  “Short,” Bering said.

  “Successful?”

  “Yes, very.”

  Emily saw Bering’s jaw tighten as he looked down at his mom. Was it her imagination or had there been some kind of message in the look that passed between them? She hoped that everything had gone okay for him.

  He’d only returned the previous evening and Emily hadn’t had a chance to ask him any details about his trip. The conversation had been brief, consisting mainly of Bering’s invitation to Sunday brunch at his mother’s house.

  Janie appeared in the doorway and Bering stepped into the kitchen with his mother.

  “Emily, I’m so glad you’re here,” Janie said. “Thank you for helping Bering the other night. The boys could not stop talking about you. I hope they didn’t wear you out too much.”

  “No, I enjoyed every minute of it. They are great kids. Bering talks about them all the time. He talks about all of you, actually.”

  “I don’t know what they would do without their uncle,” she said with a warm smile. “Then again, I don’t know what I would do without him, either.”

  Emily was becoming familiar with that feeling herself. “Thank you so much for the scarf, Janie. I wear it all the time. Is the wolf button the signature on all your work?” She gestured toward the rack behind her, where she’d hung it along with her coat.

  Surprise flashed briefly across Janie’s face before it transformed with an engaging smile. “Well, you’re welcome. But all I did was fill a special order. And the wolf button is unique to your scarf.”

  Emily tilted her head and stared at Janie, processing this information. “A special order?” she repeated.

  “Yes, I was kind of surprised because Bering’s never actually requested anything so specific before, but I’m glad you like it.”

  Bering hadn’t mentioned that he had asked Janie to make it special for her. And she suspected, from the look on Janie’s face, that she knew that, and might be trying to tell her that, too. She smiled conspiratorially and said, “I really, really do. You know, you could start a business.”

  “I’ve always liked to knit, but after Cal died, I found that it was one of the few things that just...made time pass. That probably sounds weird, huh?”

  “Not at all,” she said. Drawing did that for her, she explained to Janie, and although the circumstances were obviously different, she thought she could understand at least a little. She recalled how she’d filled many lonely hours when she was young and had first gone away to school. She would draw for hours, just turn her brain off and get lost in it. It made perfect sense to her that Janie would need something like that.

  Their conversation was temporarily put on hold as Bering’s relatives began filing into the house. She was promptly introduced to a variety of aunts, uncles, cousins and too many little ones to count or to even keep track of. Some she’d already met at the office, or during one community event or another, but no one seemed to hold her connection with Cam-Field against her—not outright anyway. Emily watched and listened with fascination as hugs, kisses, scowls, jabs, teasing and plenty of laughter gradually filled nearly every square inch.

  It seemed to Emily that she was a source of curiosity to them all. And she thought keeping up with a boardroom full of keyed-up executives was a challenge. She was subjected to several subtle questions, many thorough perusals and a couple outright interrogations, but she had expected as much and all in all she thought she handled herself fairly well.

  The atmosphere seemed to mellow considerably after dinner. And how could it not? Emily was absolutely stuffed full of some of the best food she’d ever eaten in her entire life.

  The children disappeared into the basement, although stomps, shouts and giggles could be heard drifting up the stairway. Adults gathered in the living room and kitchen with steaming mugs of coffee or tea. Emily wandered into the wide hallway to discover it contained two walls of photographs, spreading from nearly floor to ceiling. She quickl
y spotted Bering in several photos.

  There was a whole story laid out on the walls and Emily had no idea how much time passed as she eagerly perused the contents, her imagination churning with images of Bering as a child, and then as a teenager, and throughout it all his interaction with this crew of loving family members.

  “Hey,” Bering said a while later, coming up behind her. “Here you are. I thought maybe you’d bolted.”

  “No way.” She gestured at the walls. “I’m enthralled by your family.”

  “Enthralled,” he said with a nod. “That sounds so much better than the terrified or horrified that you could be.”

  She turned toward him. “You know how lucky you are, right?”

  “I do. But thank you for saying so.”

  He leaned over her shoulder to peer at a photo. His nose brushed against her neck and Emily inhaled sharply as a warm thrill spiked through her.

  “Mmm,” he said, “you smell good.”

  “I do, huh?”

  “Yeah, like lavender and—” he sniffed loudly and ungracefully “—ham.”

  “Ham?” she repeated with a giggle. “It’s actually bacon,” she whispered. “I dabbed bacon grease on my wrists and behind my ears this morning.”

  “Really?” His tone was infused with amusement.

  “I just wanted to try to fit in here.”

  “Then next time use bear grease,” he said with a chuckle. He pointed at a photo. “This is my dad.”

  “I figured,” she said. “You look just like him.”

  Bering raised an eyebrow. “You know, some people say he was a very good-looking guy.”

  She squinted at the photo. “Uh, he’s okay.”

  He laughed and then stepped closer. “I missed you. I haven’t had anyone to keep my ego in check for three whole days.”

  His look felt flirtatious, like the pre-kiss-and-speech Bering. The cease-fire Bering?

  “Did you miss me?”

  She tipped her head and studied him with narrowed eyes. “I don’t know...I barely remember you. Give me a second...Bernie? Baird? Wait—is it Barry?”

  He reached up and ran a thumb lightly down the side of her cheek and across her lower lip. Emily let out a soft gasp. He cupped his hand along her jaw, dipped his head and kissed her. His lips were warm and insistent, and though much too short, the kiss was thorough and full of heat. It took a second for her to catch her breath.

  “Does that help you remember at all?”

  Emily blinked up at him. “Maybe,” she whispered dazedly.

  “Good.”

  “I didn’t think you wanted to... You said...”

  He ran a hand through his hair. His voice sounded strained. “Emily, it wasn’t because I didn’t want to.”

  “Why, then?”

  “Because I was doubting my own assertion that we can remain...um, friends in spite of your job.”

  “I don’t normally kiss my friends,” she returned softly.

  “I don’t, either.”

  “Bering, what are we doing?”

  He reached out and wrapped one hand around the back of her neck and the other around her waist. He pulled her to him and held her in his arms. “I don’t know, but I do know that I don’t want to not do it anymore. I tried that. I told myself I wasn’t going to kiss you again after that first time, and I won’t anymore if you don’t want me to. But I had a lot of time to think while I was gone and I know it’s going to be complicated but, Emily, I—”

  “It is,” she said anxiously. “It is complicated, but you’re the one who keeps saying that we can... You’ve actually made me believe it.”

  He closed his eyes for a few seconds. He opened them and asked, “Is that what you want?”

  “Yes.”

  “Me, too,” he said and grinned down at her.

  He kissed her again and took his time doing so.

  They were both breathless when they parted. “Emily, I think we should go. There are some things we need to talk about and—”

  “I hope I’m interrupting?” a voice called cheerily from just a few feet away.

  Emily jumped. Bering didn’t flinch but muttered something under his breath and then said, “You are.” He didn’t take his eyes off Emily.

  “Bering,” Emily returned in a chastising tone, “she wasn’t trying to—”

  “Trust me, she was.” Finally he looked at Janie. “What are you doing skulking around here anyway?”

  “Chaperoning, and obviously it’s needed,” she quipped. “Actually, I was using Mom’s bathroom. The other ones were occupied and you know how it is when you’re this far along...”

  “You’ve mentioned it often enough,” Bering said drily.

  “Just wait till you have a pregnant wife,” Janie answered matter-of-factly. “Then you’ll be singing a more respectful tune. Do you want kids, Emily?”

  “Um...” Emily said. She was flustered—flushed from the close contact with Bering and also embarrassed at being caught at it. “I do.” As she managed to get the words out, she realized in that moment how much she did. Janie seemed happy with her answer if the look on her face was any indication. But it wasn’t something she felt like discussing right now. It felt too intimate—too intermingled with these new and confusing feelings for Bering.

  “Bering, um,” Emily muttered, overtaken by the urge to change the subject and the course of her thoughts. “Maybe we should—”

  “Go? Yes, we should definitely go. Mom,” he halfheartedly shouted down the hall. “Thanks for the delicious meal. We’re gonna go.”

  There was no way he could be heard over the cacophony of noise still radiating throughout the house, but he took Emily’s hand and started down the hallway.

  “Bering, stop!” Emily chastised. “I was going to say move into the other room with Janie. But if we are leaving, then we will thank your mom properly and say goodbye to every single one of your relatives.”

  “Really, Bering, how rude,” Janie added, a pleased look on her face.

  “Oh, Emily, no,” he said with a groan. “That will take forever. We can slip out and no one will even notice. I promise they won’t mind.”

  “Hey, it’ll only take a minute.” She turned to walk toward the chaos.

  Bering snaked a hand out and nabbed her wrist before she could get far. She yelped in surprise as he tugged her back toward him. “Emily, think about this. It’ll be at least an hour before we get can out of here. If we go out the back—”

  “It’s not going to work,” she said as he tried halfheartedly to pull her along. “Nothing will stop me from properly thanking your mom and your aunts and saying goodbye to your relatives. What in the world is that? I didn’t know you had spiders that big in Alaska.” She pointed up at the ceiling and then darted down the hallway as Bering fell for it completely.

  Janie called out, “Oh, wait, Emily, you know what? You guys can’t leave yet anyway. You haven’t had dessert.”

  “Dessert?” Emily stopped and turned immediately when she heard the word.

  “Yep, there’s pie.”

  “Pie?” Emily cast an accusing look at Bering, hands on her hips. “There’s pie, Bering.”

  “I—” Bering said.

  Janie clarified, “There’s huckleberry, apple and coconut cream. Have you tried our huckleberries yet?”

  “In your mom’s scones,” Emily replied.

  “Those are good, but they don’t compare to pie.”

  “Huckleberry pie? Bering, you know I’m not leaving here without trying that pie.”

  Bering groaned. “Of course you’re not,” he muttered, and then he looked at Janie. “I’ve created a monster. First, I couldn’t get her to eat—now I can’t get her to stop.”

  Emily laughed
and continued through the doorway, waving over her shoulder.

  * * *

  BERING TURNED AND LOOKED at his sister with narrowed eyes. “I will get even with you. You know that, right?”

  Janie grinned at him. “I do, but you know what? It’s worth it. And besides, I still have two months to go before these kids are born, and I know it won’t be anything too severe before then.”

  “That just gives me more time to plot.”

  “She’s a doll,” Janie said, abruptly changing the subject. “I thought she’d be so uptight. You know...corporate executive and all? But she’s so not. I like her, Bering.”

  “Me, too,” he replied.

  “I know.” She nodded and added a knowing grin.

  “What do you mean?” Bering returned skeptically.

  “Bering, you’re my brother. I know you. You’ve got this—” gestured up at him “—look plastered all over your face, and you can’t take your eyes off her. You’ve never asked me to knit a scarf for anybody before. In fact, you have never asked me to knit anything for anybody ever—until now.”

  He knew it was all true. He didn’t care.

  Janie placed one hand on her stomach and the other flat against her chest and grimaced.

  “What’s the matter?” Bering asked quickly. “Are you okay?”

  She took a deep breath, blew it out slowly and finally answered, “Yes, it’s just heartburn. Babies didn’t like those pork chops. I’ll be fine.”

  Bering watched her closely for a second. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  Her voice was quiet and sober when she spoke. “Yes, I’m fine. But what are you going to do?”

  “About what?”

  “About being in love with your archenemy? About being in love with a woman who’s going to leave you?”