by Marie Force
“I remember,” Landon said as he shook her hand. “Nice to see you again.”
“You, too. I might be responsible for the axe-and-junk story.”
“Might be?” Colton asked.
“One of his groupies came up for a visit and I might’ve told her he’d had an unfortunate run-in with the axe.” As she spoke, Lucy felt her face get very warm.
“That is hilarious and brilliant,” Ella said. To her brother, she added, “I love her. You have to keep her forever.”
Lucy felt like she’d been gut punched by the wallop of emotion that overtook her at the thought of Colton keeping her forever.
“Who is Colton keeping forever?” another male voice asked as he joined the crowd in the kitchen.
“Shut up, Hunter,” Colton said.
Lucy remembered Hunter from the last time she’d met him. He was the oldest Abbott, the one who dressed like he’d just stepped out of the pages of GQ magazine.
“Oh hey, it’s the eunuch,” Hunter said dryly, starting a wave of laughter that took down everyone in the room except Colton. “Don’t try filing a workman’s comp claim when we all know you never had much to lose in the first place.”
“Oh burn,” Charley said, giving Hunter a high five.
“That’s not at all true,” Lucy said. The words were out of her mouth before she took a second to think about what she was saying—or who she was saying it to. She couldn’t let Colton take all this abuse when she’d been the one to start the rumor. Everyone stared at her for what felt like an hour of face-heating misery until Charley started another wave of laughter.
“She must really like you, Colton,” Charley said.
“She does really like me,” Colton said with a pointed look at his sister.
“I can’t believe I said that,” Lucy muttered, making them all laugh harder.
“I’ll love you forever for it,” Colton said for her ears only, smiling as he kissed her temple.
Hearing him say he’d love her forever did weird things to Lucy’s insides, even if they both knew he was only joking.
“Lucy, honey,” Molly said, “I sincerely apologize for the band of hooligans I raised.”
“It’s okay. I know you did the best you could.”
Hannah came through the kitchen carrying Homer and patted Colton on the chest. “She’s a keeper.”
Colton straightened out of the slouch he’d fallen into. “I heard there was going to be food here. Was that another rumor?”
“Oh hush,” his mother said. “Go get Lucy something to drink, and you’ll be fed soon enough. The rest of you leave him alone, you got me?”
“Why do we have to?” Charley asked. “He wouldn’t leave us alone if we were the one bringing a mystery woman to dinner.”
“Do you have a mystery woman, Charl?” Colton asked. “That would explain a lot.”
“Shut up.”
“You shut up.”
“Children,” Molly said with obvious exasperation. “All of you shut up and get out of here before I start knocking your heads together.”
That seemed to do the trick as the Abbott siblings heeded their mother’s orders, and most of them filed out of the kitchen.
Lucy was still stuck on Colton saying he’d love her forever. She hadn’t heard much of what’d been said after that.
Colton took Lucy’s hand and led her out of the hornet’s nest in the kitchen, through the dining room to the huge family room, where his father and grandfather were watching a Red Sox game with Wade.
Lincoln and Elmer jumped up to greet Lucy.
“Well, isn’t this a nice surprise?” Elmer said as he hugged her. “It’s so nice to see you again.”
“You, too, Mr. Stillman.”
“Call me Elmer, honey. Everyone does.”
“Thank you. I will.”
“Hey, Gramps,” Colton said as he hugged his grandfather.
Elmer patted his grandson’s face. “Still can’t get used to you without all the scruff, boy.”
“That beard hid a whole lot of ugly, if you ask me,” Wade said without taking his eyes off the TV.
“This is a tough crowd today,” Colton said. “Wade, take a break from being surly and say hi to Lucy.”
Wade looked up at her. “Hi, Lucy. Are you the mystery woman?”
“I suppose I am.”
“We’re very glad to have you here, honey,” Lincoln said.
Colton had never appreciated his father more than he did in that moment.
“Thanks for having me.”
Watching Lucy interact with his family and roll with the teasing only made Colton like her more than he already did. And when she’d defended his manhood against Hunter’s attack, well . . . He’d sort of meant what he’d said about loving her forever.
Her reaction to that statement hadn’t been lost on him. It had thrown her to hear him say those words, even in jest. But he didn’t regret saying them. The more time he spent with her the more he could see himself loving her forever. What he couldn’t picture was how they’d ever work out the logistical issues that kept them living two very separate lives despite what they’d found with each other.
When Lucy nudged him, he realized he’d missed part of the conversation. “Yeah?”
“I was asking how the woodpile is coming,” Elmer said.
“About halfway there.”
“And the accident with the axe I heard about from Cletus earlier?”
“A misunderstanding,” Colton replied.
“Well, that’s a relief.”
“You know it.”
His mother called them in to dinner, where the good-natured teasing continued during the delicious meal. Colton downed two plates in the time it took most of them to eat one.
“Hurry up and get your seconds, everyone, before Colton goes for thirds,” Molly said.
“What can I say? I’m a growing boy.”
“So, Lucy,” Elmer said, “have you always lived in New York?”
“Born and raised in Queens. My father still lives there.”
“Were you lucky enough to be blessed with siblings like we were?” Hannah asked sarcastically.
“Thankfully only one. Emma is a year younger than me, and she has an eight-year-old daughter, Simone.”
“How did you meet Cameron?” Ella asked.
“We took some classes together in college and discovered we had a lot in common. We’ve been friends ever since.”
“You must miss her,” Hannah said kindly.
“I do.”
“We’re taking very good care of her,” Elmer said, patting Lucy’s hand.
“She loves everything about being here.”
“It’s a good place to be,” Charley said. “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”
“I’d never dream of knocking it,” Lucy said.
Colton had reached his limit in both food consumption and family dynamics. “Sorry to chew and screw, but we’ve got to get going.”
“He’s got to go screw, all right,” Landon said under his breath, igniting the left side of the table in laughter.
“Landon,” Lincoln said sharply. “Have some respect for our guest.”
“Sorry, Lucy,” Landon said as the others continued to chuckle.
“No worries,” Lucy said as she stood, bringing her plate with her.
“Just leave that, honey,” Molly said. “We’ll get it.”
Colton took the plate from her, put it on top of his and put his free hand on her back to guide her around the table. On the way by, he bent to kiss his mother. “Thanks for dinner, Mom.”
“Thanks for coming.”
“Yes, thank you, Molly,” Lucy said. “It was delicious.”
“We were happy to have you. Same time every week, so I hope you’ll come again.”
“I’d love to.” She made a friend for life when she bent to give his gramps a kiss. “It was nice to see you again, Elmer.”
“The pleasure was all mine, honey. You come
back again soon.”
Colton rinsed their plates and put them in the dishwasher. Then he led her through the mudroom to the yard, where he whistled for Sarah and Elmer. The dogs came running, followed closely by George and Ringo. “Hey guys,” Colton said, rubbing four blond heads at once. “You missed dinner.”
He opened the back door for George and Ringo and called after them, “Incoming!”
With his dogs settled in the backseat of the truck, Colton held the passenger door for Lucy and waited until she was buckled in before he closed the door and walked around the front of the truck. He couldn’t get a read on her, and that made him anxious.
Had dinner with his family turned her off completely? He was almost afraid to ask. Driving down Hells Peak Road, he took a couple of tentative glances at her. She was staring straight ahead out the window and seemed a million miles away from him.
CHAPTER 16
Quite the sap run. It kicked in during the night as a southwest wind kept the temp up. Then today, a chilly northwest wind with intermittent sun and snow kept the sap gushing clear as a glacial lake.
—Colton Abbott’s sugaring journal, April 5
“Sorry if they were a bit much,” he finally said when he couldn’t take the silence any longer.
“They were wonderful. I can see why Cameron loves them all so much.”
“Oh. Really?”
“Yes. Did you think I wasn’t enjoying myself?”
“I couldn’t tell if you were charmed or appalled.”
“Definitely charmed. Who wouldn’t be, Colton? They’re amazing and funny and beautiful—every one of your siblings is beautiful. You know that, don’t you?”
“Ew, gross. They are not. I’ll give you Hannah and Ella maybe, but the rest of them . . . Yuck. My stomach just turned.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. By the standards of anyone with a heartbeat, your brothers are hot and your sisters are gorgeous.”
He curled his lip in mock horror. “Lucas and Landon are not hot.”
Lucy laughed at his reaction. “You’ve been spending far too much time alone on your mountain. While you weren’t looking, your baby brothers turned into gorgeous men who are firefighters. Do you understand the significance of that?”
“I guess they’ve saved a life or two. So what?”
“Now you’re just being obtuse.”
“That’s a big word.”
“Dense. Is that better?”
He bit his lip to keep from laughing out loud. She was so damned funny.
“Firefighters are the sexiest men in the universe. Not only do they save lives, they run into burning buildings, they get cats down from trees, they pry people out of mangled cars, and they do it all in those suits. What’re they called?”
“Turnout suits?”
“Yes! Those.”
“You think turnout suits are sexy?”
“Turnout suits are a huge turn-on.”
“You’re not right in the head, Lucy Mulvaney. That’s all there is to it.”
“You’re the one with the vision problems. Not me.”
“Well, even though you’re not right in the head, you were a good sport back there, and I appreciate it. Especially the boost you gave to my flagging manhood. Up until that point, it hadn’t been a very good day for my boys and me. Lots of ups and downs—and not the good kind. You turned things around rather nicely.”
“I still can’t believe I said that in front of your mother.”
“With the ten of us underfoot, there’s nothing she hasn’t already heard. Don’t sweat it. She was probably impressed that you stood up for me. She’s big on loyalty. That goes a long way with her. And with me. You were very, very loyal to me. And my boys. We intend to show our appreciation as soon as we get back to the mountain.”
Laughing, she shook her head. “You’re incorrigible.”
“You love me.”
A pervasive silence occupied the rest of the ride home, and Colton berated himself the whole way for being flippant about something as important as love. Did he love Lucy? Probably. Was he in love with Lucy? He was well on his way to being in love with her, or so he thought. Having never been in love before, he wasn’t really sure what it felt like.
All he knew was he wanted to be with her as often as possible. He had no interest in any other woman, which was unusual in and of itself. Under normal circumstances, he preferred variety and had several women who enjoyed hanging out with him on occasion with no strings attached. That had worked for him for a long time. But not anymore. After what he’d shared with Lucy, he couldn’t imagine going back to meaningless encounters with women who were nothing more than friends with benefits.
He’d always been up front with them before he got involved. He wasn’t looking for serious and he didn’t want anyone’s feelings to be hurt. If a woman seemed to be getting overly serious about their arrangement, he ended it.
So how was he supposed to know if he was in love with Lucy? When Will got back from the lake, Colton was going to talk to his older brother about this situation. He needed a reality check, and he needed it soon before he did something stupid to mess up the best thing that’d ever happened to him.
Lucy felt like she was floating through a weird dream state as they returned to Colton’s cabin. Twice in the last few hours he’d used the word love to refer to what was happening between them. In just a few days’ time, what had been easy and noncommittal had taken a sharp turn toward serious.
And though she kept reminding herself that none of the obstacles that stood between them and any kind of future together had been addressed, that didn’t stop her from wanting more of him.
Even though it was July, the temperature on the mountain had dropped with the sun, so Colton lit the huge castiron woodstove in the cabin.
“Do you normally light the stove in the summer?”
“Not very often. When you spend winters up here, this doesn’t count as cold. But I know it does for you, so I don’t mind heating the place up.”
“I want to know everything about how you manage up here without electricity. What do you do for light, for example?” It wasn’t totally dark yet, but it was getting there quickly.
“Kerosene lamps.” He lit two of them, and they cast a cozy glow over the small space.
“How about refrigeration?”
“I rely on an old-fashioned icebox and get blocks of ice delivered every other day in the summer. I make my own in the winter.”
“Where is it?”
“It’s over in the sugarhouse. It stays cooler there year-round, so that’s the best place for it.”
“Will you show me the sugarhouse and tell me how it all works?”
“Sure, I’d be happy to show you tomorrow.”
“How about cooking? I’m trying to picture life without a microwave.”
“I have my very own microwave right here,” he said, gesturing to the iron woodstove. “I can cook both inside and on top, and the heat of the fire gets things done pretty quickly.”
“Very impressive.”
“It’s not fancy, but it gets the job done. I don’t want for much up here, except lately.”
“What do you want for lately?”
“A phone, for one thing, and an Internet connection. Two things I’ve lived perfectly fine without until I had someone I wanted to talk to every day.”
Smiling, Lucy picked up her bag. “I’m going out to the bathhouse. Will you check to make sure there are no ‘visitors’ named Fred or anything else out there waiting to scare the crap out of me?”
Chuckling, he said, “I’d be happy to.”
Once he’d declared the yard critter free and lit yet another kerosene lamp in the bathhouse for her, he left her to get changed.
As she brushed her teeth and changed into yoga pants and a tank top, Lucy had to admit that she’d been skeptical about what it would be like to live without electricity and all the modern conveniences. But Colton made it look easy—and comfortable. Sure it was d
ifferent than what she was used to, but different wasn’t necessarily bad.
Until she realized she had no way to manage one other nightly task: charging her cell phone. Suddenly different seemed very, very bad.
“Colton,” she said when she returned to the cabin. “What do I do about my phone?”
“What about it?”
“I can’t charge it here.”
“No, you can’t. Is that a huge problem?”
She didn’t want to overreact, but the thought of her family and employees not being able to reach her made her twitchy. “Not a huge problem . . . It’s just . . . I’m not used to being out of touch. What if there’s an emergency?”
“I’ll tell you what. Tomorrow I’ll take you down to town and you can charge up at the office, okay?”
“Yes,” she said, relieved. “That’d be great.”
“Good.” He held up the bedcovers for her. “Jump in so you don’t get cold.”
She slid between soft flannel sheets and he tucked the comforter in around her.
“Be right back.”
Lucy watched him cross the room and leave the cabin, closing the door behind him. She loved looking at him and watching him move. He had a confident way about him, like he was comfortable in his own skin and didn’t feel the need to explain himself or his choices to anyone. It was an admirable quality and one she wished she could more fully embrace. At the end of the day, she was a pleaser. She wanted the people who mattered to her to be happy, even if that meant giving up things that might’ve made her happy.
She’d definitely made sacrifices for her family and had been more like a second mother than an aunt to Simone. As a single mom, Emma relied heavily on her, and Lucy was happy to do whatever she could for both of them. But had that been at the expense of her own life and happiness? These weekends with Colton had shown her what she’d been missing by frantically tending to the needs of others for so many years that she’d forgotten how to tend to her own needs.
Speaking of her own needs . . . He came back inside, bringing the dogs in with him this time and getting them settled on their beds. Then he stripped off his shirt and dropped his shorts, leaving both in a pile on the floor as he headed for the bed with a look on his face that left no doubt about what he had in mind.
