by Marie Force
“Why did she want it?”
“Mostly because of Will and Cam and giving them a chance to get settled. Or something like that.”
“So you like this girl, huh?”
“Yeah, I like her. I hated taking her to the airport just now. We had a really great weekend.”
“I’m glad someone did.”
“How’s Chloe feeling? I heard she was really sick.”
“She was. She’s better now.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“What isn’t wrong?” Max ran his fingers through hair that was much lighter and longer than Colton’s. “This isn’t working out at all.”
“You and Chloe?”
“Yeah. It’s a fucking mess. All we do is fight. Nothing I do is good enough. I say the wrong things. I do the wrong things. I’m getting to the point where I don’t even like her anymore, which makes me feel like shit to even say since she’s pregnant with my kid.”
“Just because she’s pregnant with your kid doesn’t mean you have to be in a relationship that makes you miserable.”
Max blew out a deep breath and shook his head. “I don’t know what to do.”
“I have an idea that might give you a break from it all. I’m going to New York next week, and it would help me out if you could hold down the fort on the mountain while I’m gone. It would give you an excuse to get out of here for a while and give you both some breathing room.”
“Does it make me an asshole if I say that’s the best offer I’ve had in a long time?”
“Nah, it doesn’t make you an asshole and trust me, I’d tell you if you were.”
Max barked out a laugh that was much more in keeping with the way he usually laughed. “I have no doubt you would.”
“Look, just because she’s your baby’s mama doesn’t mean she’s it forever, you know? As long as you take good care of her and the baby, you’re holding up your end of the deal. Nowhere is it written that you and she have to make a go of it romantically to be good parents to the kid.”
“I know, and I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately. The thing is . . . Before the baby and everything, I thought she might be my forever. It was that good between us. Now . . .” He shook his head. “It’s a goddamned mess.”
“I don’t know much about pregnant women, but from what I’ve heard it does a number on their hormones and emotions and everything else. You probably ought to let it ride until after the baby comes before you make any big decisions. I’d hate to see you have regrets later.”
“That’s true.” Max glanced over at him. “When did you get so wise anyway?”
“I’ve always been wise. You’ve just never noticed before.”
“Oh my God, I think I just threw up a little.”
“Ha ha.”
“So if I wanted to take on more hours on the mountain, you’d be cool with that?”
“I’d love it, but when Lucy’s there, you have to stay at Mom’s.”
“You’d really make me stay at Mom’s?”
“If it meant being alone with Lucy, yes, I would. And besides, Mom will cook for you.”
“That’s true.”
“Let me ask you this . . . If a guy happened to be in the market for a cell phone, where would he get one around here?” Unlike most of his siblings, Max had had a phone for years.
Max stared at him as if Colton had just told him he’d seen Bigfoot in Lake Champlain. “Are you freaking kidding me? You want a cell phone? Holy shit! You must be in love!”
Colton resisted the sudden urge to squirm as Max tossed the L word around. “Shut the fuck up and just tell me where to get one.”
“Better yet, I’ll take you. This I’ve got to see.”
“I don’t think I want you there.”
“Too bad. I’m going. Let me just tell Chloe I’m leaving.” Max went inside, leaving Colton alone to ponder whether he was in love with Lucy. He still wasn’t sure, but if the shitty way he’d felt watching her walk away from him was any indication, he was well on his way.
“Let’s go,” Max said brusquely as he came back outside.
“You just had another fight?” Colton asked.
“Everything is a fight. Every. Fucking. Thing.”
Colton followed Max down the sidewalk to the truck. “Dude, that’s no way to live.”
“You’re telling me.”
“Go over to the mountain while I’m away. Take some time off from the situation. It might do you both some good.”
“I’m going to. Even though I feel like I should be here, clearly she doesn’t want me here, so I’m probably doing more harm than good.”
“She can call you if she needs you.”
“Yeah.” Max turned to him. “Thanks for listening and everything.”
“No problem. Sorry it’s such a shitty situation.”
“So am I.”
They rode in silence into downtown Burlington, where Max directed Colton to a store that sold cell phones.
“How are you planning to charge this phone on your mountain anyway?”
“Aw shit.”
Max howled with laughter. “You’re such a dumbass.”
“Screw you.”
“I can show you where to get a generator, too.”
“Fuck,” Colton said with a groan. This whole thing was getting way too complicated for his liking.
“Welcome to the twenty-first century, bro. Allow me to be your tour guide.”
“I hate you right now.”
“Whatever. You’ll love me when you’re talking to your lady later.”
“If you say so.”
“I say so.”
By three thirty that afternoon, Lucy was home at her cozy Soho apartment, and all she wanted to do was sleep. The muscles in her legs were so sore from the hike up the mountain that she wanted to cry from the pain that she’d tried to keep hidden from Colton. She didn’t want him to think she was a total out-of-shape mess, even if she was. Curled up on the sofa, she tried not to think about the piles of work she’d let slide during the fantastic weekend in Vermont. She tried not to think about Colton and the many ways he’d turned her world upside down during said weekend.
Try as she might not to think about him, however, he filled her every thought.
Her cell phone rang, and she thought about ignoring it, but she reached for it on the coffee table and saw it was Cameron, so she took the call.
“Hey,” she said.
“How’s it going? Are you back in the city?”
“Just now, yeah. What about you? Still at the lake?”
“No, we got home last night. We took yesterday off, but we had to work today.”
“Good time?”
“Great time, but I didn’t call to talk about me. I want to hear how the rest of your visit went. What did you think of Colton’s mountain?”
“I loved it.”
“You did? Really? I wasn’t expecting you to say that.”
“Why not?”
“Come on, Luce. It’s me you’re talking to. I know how you are about your hot showers and your modern conveniences.”
“That doesn’t mean I can’t do without them for a day or two here and there. It was fun to rough it a little, and it’s not like we did without much. There was hot water and hot coffee and a hot man. What else do I need?”
“He is hot. I’ll give you that.”
“Hands and eyes off. You’ve got your own hot Abbott brother.”
“Yes, I do, and I have no interest in anyone but him. However, I have eyes that work perfectly well, and Colton Abbott is hot.”
“So I’ve noticed. Apparently, every woman in Butler has noticed, too.”
“We heard the weirdest thing when we got back to town yesterday.”
“Let me guess. Something about an accident with the axe?”
“Yes!”
“That might’ve been my doing.”
“Oh, this I’ve got to hear!”
By the time Lucy finished relayin
g the story of the rumor she’d started, Cameron was laughing so hard she wasn’t making any noise. “Then the food started arriving from his fan club. I’ll bet one of them is there now tending to his festering ‘wound.’ ” The thought of another woman tending to him made Lucy want to scratch the eyes out of the imaginary woman’s head, which was certainly a first. Jealousy was an entirely new experience.
“Are you really worried about that? How did you guys leave things?”
“No, I’m not really worried. We’re tossing around the BF/GF words.”
“Oh my God! That’s awesome!”
“I’m glad you’re happy about it.”
“Aren’t you?”
“I am . . .”
“Why do I hear a but in there?”
“When I’m with him, everything is great. Everything seems possible. The minute we’re apart, I start second-guessing the whole thing and wondering how in the world this could ever really work. Especially after yesterday.”
“What happened yesterday?”
“He showed me his mountain and told me how he makes the syrup. I could really see how much he loves what he does. I mean really, really loves it.”
“I saw that, too, the first time I was there and he showed me the sugarhouse and everything.”
“That’s his life, Cameron. His calling. He wouldn’t be him without it. And I can’t leave my dad and Emma and Simone. Not to mention the business . . . I just can’t.”
“I know,” Cam said with a sigh. “I told Will that this weekend. I’m sorry it’s all so messy.”
“It is what it is.”
“Do you love him, Luce?”
“Oh God, don’t ask me that after I just told you how hopeless it is.”
“That’s the most important question. Why wouldn’t I ask it?”
“I don’t know if I love him. How am I supposed to know that?”
“Want to hear the questions I asked myself when I was trying to figure out how I felt about Will?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Is he all I think about? Can I not wait to spend more time with him? And is it impossible to keep my hands to myself when he’s around?”
To her eternal mortification, Lucy broke down into gut-wrenching sobs.
“Aw, shit, Luce. I wish I was there so I could hug you.”
“I wish you were, too.”
“It might seem too easy for me to say it’s all going to be fine, but it will be. If it’s meant to be, you guys will figure it out just like we did.”
“I can’t see that happening for us.” Lucy wiped the dampness from her face. “This is so not me. Crying over a guy. Ugh.”
Cameron, that bitch, laughed. “Welcome to the club, my friend.”
“What club? What’re you talking about?”
“It’s love, and it’s wonderful, maddening, frustrating, amazing . . .”
“I think you’ve been spending too much time with Will and his magic wand to be objective.”
“Perhaps,” Cameron said with a chuckle. “His wand is quite magical—and never more so than this weekend. There must be something in the water at that lake house.”
New tears fell from Lucy’s eyes when memories of Colton’s magic wand chose that moment to remind her of the bliss she’d known in his arms. “Stop.”
“I’ve been where you are, Luce,” Cameron said softly. “Everything seems hopeless except for what you feel for him. I get it. The best advice I can give you is to let it ride for a while. Nothing has to be decided today or tomorrow or next week or even next month.”
“That’s true. I just wish I didn’t feel so shitty when I’m not with him, which is most of the time.”
“Now you know how I felt when I left Will to come back to the city.”
“Yeah, and I feel bad because I didn’t get it then. But I do now, so I’m sorry if I wasn’t sensitive enough to how miserable you were.”
“You were fine, and you might not want to hear it, but you sound an awful lot like a woman in love.”
“I’m not in love.”
“No?”
“No. Definitely not.” The phone line beeped with an incoming call. “Hang on. I’m getting a beep. Oh hey, it’s Emma. I need to take this. Call you this week?”
“Please do, and hang in there, okay?”
“I will. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
CHAPTER 20
How’s the sap running? Choose your adverb: swimmingly, phenomenally, copiously, amply, abundantly, generously, very well indeed. In other words, the tanks are close to overflowing; twice as much sap is coming in per hour as the reverse osmosis can handle. It will run all night.
—Colton Abbott’s sugaring journal, April 13
Lucy took the call from her sister, somewhat relieved to be spared any further speculation as to whether she was in love with Colton. “Hi, Em.”
“Hey, are you home?”
“Just got in.”
“How was the weekend?”
“Fine.”
“Still not ready to spill the beans?”
Since his family knew all about them it probably was time to tell hers. “I might be more ready than I was.”
“Good. Come over for pizza with me, Simone and Dad. Invite Troy if you want.”
Lucy had a lot to do after being away for four days, but the idea of spending hours alone with her own thoughts wasn’t very appealing. “What time?”
“Around six.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Simone will be excited. She’s been missing her Auntie Lu on the weekends.”
A pang of guilt struck in the vicinity of her heart. “Tell her I’ll make it up to her.”
“I’ll do no such thing. She’s already a spoiled monster as it is.”
“She is not! She’s an angel.”
“We’ll agree to disagree. See you soon!”
“See you.” Lucy ended the call with Emma and sent a text to their friend Troy, inviting him to Emma’s for dinner.
He replied right away. Would love to. I’ve been missing my friends lately.
Once again Lucy felt guilty about the people she’d been neglecting while she ran off every weekend to meet Colton. Her friends and family had propped her up after her mother died and had been so supportive since Cameron decided to move. They deserved more from her than weeks of silence and mystery.
She spent the next couple of hours doing laundry and wading through the swamp that was her e-mail inbox. It had exploded in her absence with messages from clients, potential clients, past clients and employees seeking guidance on ongoing projects. All the activity should’ve made her ecstatic, especially when she thought about how hard she and Cameron had worked to begin the business and how badly they’d struggled during the economic downturn.
Things were flush again. They were busier than ever. And she couldn’t have cared less. “This is bad,” she whispered to herself and her empty apartment. “Really bad.” How could one weekend—albeit an amazingly awesome weekend—totally screw her mojo?
It couldn’t. That was all there was to it. Tomorrow she would hit it hard and get back to work with a vengeance. She’d had two extra days off and had three days to make it count at work before Colton arrived for a week in the city.
She’d see him in three days. There was no way she was spending the next three days moping around like a lovesick puppy. She wasn’t lovesick or any other kind of sick.
Three hours later, she was sitting on the floor of her niece’s pink bedroom, dressing and undressing the American Girl dolls she’d bought for Simone for Christmas and taking orders from the tiny princess who had her firmly wrapped around her little finger.
The voices of Emma, their dad and Troy filtered in from the living room, chatting away as they watched a Yankee game and waited for the pizza Emma had ordered to arrive.
“Put this one on Rebecca,” Simone directed, handing Lucy a red velvet gown.
“I like that with her dark hair.�
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“That color doesn’t look good with our hair, does it?” Simone asked. She’d been either blessed or cursed—depending on who you asked—with the exact same auburn curls as her Aunt Lucy.
“It’s not our best shade,” Lucy agreed. She’d made it a priority to prepare her niece for life as a redhead to the best of her ability. Whereas Lucy tended to be a somewhat mild-mannered redhead, Simone had gotten the more fiery personality that often accompanied red locks, and Lucy adored every feisty inch of the little girl with the big personality.
The doorbell ringing in the other room had Simone bolting from the bedroom.
“I guess that means playtime is over, Rebecca,” Lucy said to the doll as she placed her carefully on Simone’s bed. Those “toys” cost an arm, a leg and a foot.
After the pizza had been devoured and Simone sent off to take a shower, Lucy felt three sets of eyes homing in on her and sensed the inquisition she’d been putting off for weeks now could no longer be avoided.
Deciding a preemptive strike was in order, she put her wineglass on the coffee table. “His name is Colton Abbott, and yes, he’s Will’s brother. I like him. He likes me. We have fun together, and no, I’m not moving. Not now or ever, and he knows that. He’ll be here next week on business, and I’d like you all to meet him as long as you promise not to turn a very nice molehill into a mountain of epic proportions.”
“Did you just refer to your boyfriend as a molehill?” Emma asked.
“It was a metaphor.”
Troy sighed and shook his head. “What’s with those Abbott guys anyway?” He’d been less than thrilled when Cameron decided to move to Vermont to live with Will.
The words magic wand danced through Lucy’s mind, but since her dad was watching her with the wise gray eyes that didn’t miss much of anything, Lucy refrained from sharing the thought. “They’re nice guys.”
“Is he as nice to look at as Will is?” Emma asked. “Will is dreamy.”
“Oh barf,” Troy said. “Dreamy. What guy wants to be called that?”
Emma stuck her tongue out at him. “You’d probably love to have a woman call you that.”
“Right,” Troy said. “Pardon me if I pass on that.”
“Colton is every bit as nice to look at as Will is,” Lucy interjected when she got the chance. “Maybe even more so.”
