Montana Dreaming

by Judy Duarte

  “I can’t spend the night alone in a cabin with you. What would my family say? What would your father say?”

  “You’re twenty-seven, Emily. Your family cares if you spend the night alone in a cabin with a man?”

  “I have an older brother who’s protective. I have two younger sisters who I have to set an example for.”

  Brad was looking at her as if she’d landed in Thunder Canyon from another planet.

  “They care about me, Mr.—” she felt Brad’s warning look “—Brad.”

  “Do you think they’d rather have you spend the night in a car or maybe Caleb Douglas’s barn?”

  When Emily worked for Brad, she concentrated hard on her work and didn’t let him distract her. Today she hadn’t had work to concentrate on. Whenever he looked at her, her breath caught. The feel of his hand on her arm was making her whole body tingle. His presence sent her into a tizzy and that’s why she couldn’t think straight. She could see now they really didn’t have any other options.

  The fact that he couldn’t convince her easily had made Brad’s jaw set. If he was angry with her, he was restraining it well as the sparks in his eyes made butterflies dance in her stomach.

  Finally he released her arm. “If you want to return to Chicago, I’ll find someone to take you to Bozeman. But I doubt if there are any flights out tonight.”

  She was sure he was right about that and, darn it, she wanted that bonus. She needed it to help with the last of her sister’s expenses. After Lizbeth graduated, Emily could save toward going to college herself. “I don’t want to go back to Chicago. I came here to do a job with you and I’m going to do it. Let’s tell Mr. Douglas we’ll stay at his cabin.”

  “Are you sure?” Brad’s deep voice held a measure of concern.

  Before she lost her nerve, she responded, “Yes, I’m sure.”

  When Caleb’s foreman dropped Brad and Emily off at the rental-and-used-car lot, Brad still had high expectations this trip would be quick and successful. Now he hoped so even more than before. Cooped up in planes beside Emily for most of the day, he’d been much too affected by her natural femininity. There was nothing coy about her, nothing flirtatious, nothing pretentious. But ever since yesterday, he couldn’t keep the adrenaline from rushing through him whenever he inadvertently touched her. He couldn’t keep the light scent of her perfume from teasing his libido.

  However, self-restraint had never been a problem. So they were going to spend the night in the cabin together. It was one night, and he’d pretend she was a backpacking buddy.

  Emily had insisted on staying outside with the luggage and the laptop computer he’d brought along mainly for her use. Inside a small building on the car lot, Brad’s expectations diminished as he spoke to the woman behind the desk. She’d just told him she had no SUVs to rent.

  “If you don’t have an SUV, what about a pickup?”

  The frizzy-haired redhead frowned. “Mister, you’ve got to understand what’s happening here. We’ve got more sightseers than you can count coming into Thunder Canyon. Up until a few months ago, we didn’t have much call for rentals. Now we can’t keep an SUV or a truck on the lot to rent or sell. I can take your name and number, and if one comes in I can call you. But for now, that blue sedan out there is as good as it gets. It was turned in yesterday and the mechanic went over it before he left today, so it’s in good shape.”

  Peering out the window, Brad spotted the light blue midsize car. He produced his credit card, knowing he had no choice. “I’ll take it.”

  When he emerged from the office ten minutes later, keys in hand, he noticed the big, blue Montana sky had changed. Gray clouds had covered the sun although dusk was still an hour away. He was starved and he supposed Emily was, too. She was standing by their luggage, her arms wrapped around herself.

  She hadn’t dressed for Montana weather. For their flight she’d worn tan casual slacks and a cream oxford shirt. But the blouse had short sleeves, and the sweater she’d thrown over her arms for most of the trip didn’t look that heavy. He’d spent a summer in Montana over a decade ago, but he’d forgotten the weather here was as changeable as a woman’s moods. He’d forgotten how even in summer the mornings could have a nip and the nighttime temperature could drop into the fifties.

  He dangled the keys in front of her and lifted her suitcase, as well as his. “I have directions to a grocery store. We can pick up food and supplies and head out. Do you have the directions Caleb gave us?”

  An open Jeep with four men sitting inside sped much too quickly down the street. The vehicle backfired as it turned a corner.

  Hoisting her purse onto her shoulder, Emily took a slip of paper from her pocket as she tried to keep up with his long stride. “Right here. I went over them again. We’re going to have to watch the odometer carefully. He said there weren’t any road signs after the first turnoff. How rustic do you think this cabin is?”

  “He said there’s one bedroom and the place is furnished. There’s water and electricity, but if the power goes out, we have to use the pump out back for water.”

  Emily was horrified. “If the electricity goes out?”

  He stopped. “It’s in the mountains, Emily. I guess anything can happen. Haven’t you ever gone camping?”

  Shaking her head, her expression told him that going on a camping trip was as foreign to her as signing up for a trip to Mars.

  “Caleb assured me there’s a fireplace. We’ll be fine. We just have to remember to pick up some Sterno.”

  “Sterno?”

  “So we can cook if the power goes out.” He started walking again, came to the car and gave it a look-over. “It’s not what I wanted but it should get us where we want to go.”

  “I hope so,” she murmured, looking worried.

  Before he thought better of it, he set the suitcases on the ground near the trunk and took a step closer to her. “We can handle anything for one night, right?”

  A breeze whipped her hair across her face and a strand caught on her lip. Without forethought, he reached out and smoothed it away. Her skin was so soft under his thumb, her lips such a pretty natural pink, her eyes a shade of green that captivated him.

  The hum between them that had seemed to come from nowhere kept him immobilized for a few seconds until finally she repeated bravely, “I can handle anything for one night.”

  But Brad was beginning to wonder whether he could.

  A cabin in the mountains of Montana with a secretary he was suddenly finding very difficult to ignore. Bringing Emily Stanton along on this trip had been a monumental mistake. Now he just had to be damned sure he didn’t make another one.

  Chapter Two

  Buying supplies took longer than it should have, Brad thought, as he drove away from the Old Town section of Thunder Canyon, with its frontierlike connected storefronts and boardwalk promenade. It seemed his taste and Emily’s were decidedly different. She’d looked for food with few preservatives and spent more time in the produce section than he’d spent buying Sterno burners, matches, candles and a flashlight. While he’d snatched up a package of chocolate cookies, she’d weighed one apple against another. Now she was silent as the gray clouds faded into a dark sky and the wind picked up even more. The interior of the car seemed much too confining with the heater blowing and Emily’s perfume floating around him on the air currents. She was studying the map with a penlight attached to her key ring.

  They were only a mile out of town when snow began to fall. It swirled lightly at first, then began hitting the windshield more densely.

  “How can it be snowing?” Emily asked in amazement. “It’s May.”

  “This is Montana.”

  “That explains it?”

  “It’s the altitude and the mountains and weather fronts. There is life outside of Chicago.”

  He hadn’t meant to snap at her, but her dismay was evident, and he asked, “You’re sorry you came, aren’t you?”

  “Aren’t you?”

  A
s tall firs collecting the swirling snow sped by, he realized he’d needed this break from routine. “Actually, I’m not. I get tired of sitting at the computer doing searches. I’m beginning to hate the politics of finessing important clients. And I’m thoroughly fed up with investigating one company stealing another’s secrets.”

  In the darkness he could sense her gaze on him as she asked, “Isn’t that what you want to be doing? Isn’t that why you came back to Chicago and joined your father’s firm?”

  Emily had never asked him personal questions before. They’d never had a personal conversation, and he wasn’t sure this was the right one to begin with. “I came back for lots of reasons,” he answered, explaining nothing.

  A few heartbeats passed as snow swept around the car in a squall, covering the road and everything else they couldn’t see through the storm.

  “Don’t you like working with your father?”

  Persistence with her work was one thing. Persistence in digging personal info out of him was another. “I came back to work with my father.”

  “That’s not what I asked you. Sometimes you seem so removed from it all.”

  Day after day he’d thought Emily had done her work, not noticing much else. Apparently he’d been wrong. “It’s not always easy working with family. When I’m in my office, I’m there to get a job done.”

  “You’re good at what you do. You always find the answer, solve the problem, connect the right people together.”

  “But…?” he drawled, knowing there was one.

  “But you do it so…impersonally.”

  “The same way you do your work?” he inquired calmly.

  Her hand brushed his question aside as she shifted in her seat to look at him. “That’s different. I type. I file. I transcribe. I don’t work with people. You do.”

  Thinking about it, he realized why he stayed impersonal. “It’s no fun discovering that a wife is cheating on her husband. Why would I want to get involved?”

  “You don’t normally take divorce cases. At least not unless your client is rich and famous.”

  Brad remembered the talk-show host who had come to him last year asking for complete anonymity. Brad had met with the man where he could remain incognito, and Emily had set up those clandestine appointments.

  Through the illumination of the car’s headlights, Brad could hardly see ten feet in front of him. He slowed the vehicle to a crawl and glanced at the odometer. “I don’t want to miss the first turn.”

  “I don’t know how you can even see,” Emily said in a subdued voice, dropping the subject they’d been discussing.

  Brad wasn’t sure he could see, but somehow through the snow he spotted the high and square rock formation that Caleb had described as distinctive right before the first turn. However, as he attempted to turn left, the car skidded, then spun in a circle.

  In the dark, suspended moment, he heard Emily’s gasp.

  “We’re all right,” he assured her as he managed to control the car and head in the right direction again. Reaching out, he laid his hand on her arm.

  When there wasn’t another peep out of her, he stole a glance at her. “Are you okay?”

  “No, I’m not okay,” she blurted out. “I’m scared. What if we get stranded out here?”

  “The snow’s letting up. We’re not going to get stranded. Why don’t you try to find something on the radio.”

  “Do you think that’s going to distract me?”

  “It might distract us both.”

  In spite of his attempt to keep his attention focused on road conditions, to his annoyance she was distracting him…more than the storm or the snow or the wind or the strange road at night. Her reactions were so damned honest. He wasn’t used to honesty from a woman.

  Emily fiddled with the channel-selection knob on the radio, but all she could produce was static.

  “I could hum,” he suggested, trying to lighten the atmosphere. But Emily’s mind was obviously still on their drive and their destination.

  “What did you think of Caleb Douglas?” she asked, her voice not quite steady. He had to give her a gold star for trying to overcome her apprehension.

  “I think he’s a man with a lot on his plate. He has an office in town to run his new ski-resort project and he owns the biggest ranch in the area. But he still had to buy a cabin to find peace and quiet. That tells me his life is speeding by pretty fast and he’s trying to put on the brakes.”

  Shifting in her seat again, she let go of her clench on the door handle. “Maybe. Or maybe he just needs a quiet place where he can get in touch with who he is, not who everyone thinks he is.”

  Emily’s perceptive comment made Brad glance at her once more. Although he really couldn’t see her by the luminescent glow of the dials, he was very much aware that she was there and that she had more substance than he ever expected. Still, he remembered the way she’d jumped at the offer of a bonus. He remembered the night his fiancée had let money take precedence over a life together with him. He remembered his lawyer telling him before he left Chicago, “Suzette Brouchard wants a settlement.”

  As Brad drove deeper and higher into the mountains, snow fell lightly most of the time. Now and then it became heavier and Brad could feel Emily’s tension. That was an odd thing. He didn’t consider himself particularly intuitive when it came to women because he didn’t usually plug in that well.

  By the time they reached the last turnoff on the directions, Brad felt relieved. “We’re almost there.”

  Emily muttered, “Thank goodness,” and he smiled. They’d laugh about this when they got back to Chicago.

  In the next few moments, the smile slipped from Brad’s lips. As he spotted the creek he’d have to cross before they drove the last half mile or so to the cabin, he realized the situation they’d be in if he did. In May, runoff from the mountains could cause flooding. As the road curved onto the bridge, he could see sloshing water had reached its snow-covered surface. The problem was, he couldn’t turn back. With the snow accumulating steadily every mile they’d traveled, the car would never manage a trip back to Thunder Canyon tonight. At least in the cabin they’d be warm and dry. They’d brought enough food to last them a week.

  Brad thought about the cell phone clipped to his belt. What were the chances he could still get a signal out here?

  The car’s tires swished through the slushy snow and water on the bridge.

  As Brad covered the half mile, then veered off the road to take the lane to the cabin, he could tell that here the two or three inches of new powder that had fallen tonight covered patches of old snow that still hadn’t melted.

  The sedan’s tires churned beneath them, and he couldn’t make any more headway up the incline. “This is it. Why don’t you stay in the car while I get the supplies unloaded. You’ll be warm and—”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  “Emily…”

  “I’m not the damsel-in-distress type, Brad.”

  After he switched on the inside light, his appraisal of her was quick, from her off-white sweater to her flat tan leather shoes. “I may have to carry you inside, as well as the supplies. How far do you think you’re going to get in those shoes?”

  When she looked him over, from his jean jacket to his black boots, she mumbled, “I have sneakers in my suitcase.”

  “Good. You’ll need them. Do you want me to get them out now?”

  She shook her head. When she did, he couldn’t help but follow the sway of her dark hair along her cheeks. He couldn’t help but think how silky it looked and how he’d love to feel its softness in his hands.

  “I’ll keep the sneakers dry for tomorrow,” she responded quietly. “Let’s just get inside.”

  Blocking thoughts of touching Emily out of his head, realizing she was as stubborn as he was, he didn’t argue with her. If she wanted wet feet, that was her choice.

  As Brad exited the car, snow fell on his head and shoulders. He took in a couple of lungfuls of cold
night air, surveyed the pines not far from the cabin illuminated by the car’s headlights and realized he was glad he was here. He’d only be in Montana a few days, but already he was relieved he was away from the city…away from his father…away from Suzette Brouchard and a situation he couldn’t resolve until the lab results came in.

  Out here, all of that seemed very far away.

  After he rounded the car to open the trunk, Emily appeared beside him. He’d loaded batteries into the flashlight after he’d bought it and now he used it to guide his key into the lock on the trunk. When it popped open, he shone the beam inside.

  Emily reached for her suitcase, but his hand covered hers. “I’ll get that.”

  His skin meeting hers sent an electric jolt to his system. When his gaze collided with hers, he saw she was as affected by the result of their contact as he was. Her expression was startled, her eyes wide with man-woman awareness. Snow was settling in her hair, falling onto her long, dark lashes unenhanced by mascara. They didn’t need to be enhanced.

  When she shivered, he ordered gruffly, “Just grab a bag with groceries. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  Ignoring his instructions, she hung her camera bag around her neck, then picked up two bags and started the ten-yard trek to the cabin.

  Brad swore softly, shook his head and decided the next few days were going to be damn interesting. For the past six months Emily Stanton had played the part of a dependable secretary who kept her opinions to herself. Now he realized there was a woman behind that facade—a woman with spirit and a mind of her own.

  The rustic-looking log cabin didn’t have a porch, simply two snow-covered redwood steps leading to the door.

  Watching Emily as her small feet sank into the snow, Brad followed her. When the sole of her leather shoe sank onto the first step, her foot slipped. He realized he’d been expecting that to happen.

  Dropping the suitcases, his arms went around her and the grocery bags to prevent her and their supplies from tumbling into the snow. Her shoulder brushed his chest as he caught her, and his nose grazed her hair—hair that smelled like flowers