Love at Last (Last Frontier Lodge #2)

by J. H. Croix

  With a sharp shake of his head, he answered. “Hey Elaine, what’s up?”

  “I figured I’d better call you since you haven’t called to check in yet and you haven’t answered any of my emails.” Elaine’s tone was polite with a hint of frustration.

  Garrett sighed and plunked down on the couch. Gage and Marley had a phenomenal view from their private quarters above the lodge restaurant. The ski slopes were in view with Kachemak Bay visible to the side. Snow was falling softly this afternoon, almost lazily floating down, the snowflakes plump and fluffy.

  “I’m sorry, Elaine. I haven’t been blowing you off on purpose. I know you’re working overtime to cover for me, and I promise you’ll be paid double for every extra hour you put in. I just needed a break. Truth be told, I haven’t even checked my email.”

  Elaine was quiet for a moment. “I didn’t think you were blowing me off on purpose. We’re juggling a lot here with you gone. I’ve handed over your most pressing cases to Olivia Brooks. I know she’s new here, but she’s the only associate who has time to cover. She’s doing a great job so far. Some of your old clients are getting pushy about when you’ll be back. Even though I don’t know why you’re out, I’m telling them it’s a family emergency. That’s about the only thing that shuts people up. Should I start scheduling for you after the month is out?”

  Garrett could feel Elaine’s curiosity burning, but knew she was always gracious and would never push. He ran a hand through his hair, his eyes tracking a raven that flew by the windows. The sun was falling low in the sky, its soft light haloing the spruce trees. He took a breath. “I don’t know, Elaine. I might be out more than a month. I’m sorry.” His mind spun. He’d canceled everything for a month, but now that didn’t seem even close to enough time for him to clear his head. Gage’s comments about why that case got to him kept popping up, making him question if he even wanted to go back to what he’d been doing. That usually led to another round of questions, wondering if he was half out of his mind to walk away from the career he’d built. And then there was Delia—beautiful, sexy, sweet Delia who’d slipped through his sophisticated defenses. Hell, she was the only woman who’d made him notice he had defenses.

  “I see,” Elaine said quietly. He could sense her thinking and waited.

  “Do you mind me asking what’s going on? Out of nowhere, you had me cancel everything for a month, which is a long time in your world. Now it sounds like it might be longer. This isn’t like you, Garrett.”

  “I know. I’m not trying to hide anything from you, Elaine. I haven’t taken more than a few days off at a time since before I started law school. I just need a break. If I had a better explanation, I’d give it to you. I’d appreciate it if you kept this to yourself. As far as I’m concerned, have Olivia cover anything pressing and I’ll check in once a week. Will that work?”

  Elaine chuckled softly. “Garrett, did you forget you’re the boss? Of course, it’s okay. Olivia will be fine. This is giving her a chance to prove herself right out of the gate. As far as I’m concerned, you deserve a break. How about I call you Monday after next in the morning?”

  “That’s more than a week away.”

  “Exactly. You don’t need to check in any sooner than that. You’re amazing at your job, but with Olivia’s help, we can juggle everything we need. Take that break.”

  The line went dead in his ear before Garrett had a chance to reply. He slowly set the phone down on the table by the couch and sat in the quiet room. He watched the sun’s slow bow behind the mountains, streamers of soft lavender and pink in its wake. In the fading light of dusk, he was startled out of his reverie when the door swung open.

  Marley flicked the lights on and grinned when she saw him. “Hey Garrett! I didn’t even know you were up here.”

  He stood from the couch and strode over to relieve her of the grocery bags dangling from her hands. Marley followed him into the kitchen area. Their private quarters were comprised of a wide room including the living room and a kitchen and dining area to one side with windows running the length of the room. A small hallway in the back led to the master bedroom and bath, along with two other bedrooms and a bathroom.

  Garrett quickly got to work unloading the groceries. Marley giggled as she watched him. “Gage always said you were efficient. That appears to apply to everything.”

  He glanced up at her, meeting her warm green eyes. He shrugged. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to take over like that.”

  Marley shrugged. “No worries. I’m not territorial about my kitchen. I was about to start dinner for you guys.” She tugged a wine bottle out from the wine rack against the wall and arched a brow. “Wine or beer?”

  “Beer. Can I help with anything?”

  Marley shook her head. “Sit and keep me company. Gage will be up here soon. He was finishing up in the office.”

  Garrett took the beer Marley slid across the counter to him and sat down on a stool while she started dicing and sautéing vegetables.

  “What’s for dinner?”

  “Stir fry. Hope you like it.”

  “I’ll eat anything.”

  Marley’s lips quirked in a smile. “You and Gage both.” She lifted the cutting board to slide onions into a pan. “Can I be a little nosy?” she asked.

  Garrett shrugged. “Sure. I showed up unannounced at your place with plans to stay for a month. I can’t promise I’ll answer all your questions. Hell, I might not even know the answers, but ask away.” While Marley was new to the family, he trusted her completely. Once he’d seen her with Gage, any doubts he’d had dissipated. She was so clearly in love with his brother it made his heart twinge. Besides, she’d brought a lightness to Gage that Garrett hadn’t seen since before Gage went into the military.

  “What’s up with you and Delia?”

  Marley’s question slammed into him. He didn’t know what he’d expected her to ask, but it wasn’t that. He thought he’d been careful about how he was around Delia in front of others.

  “I can tell by the look on your face, I’m not crazy then.”

  “Damn, Marley. How about you give me a sec?” He knew his tone sounded slightly annoyed. He wasn’t annoyed with her, but himself. He’d never been anything other than cool and slightly distant when it came to women. His life didn’t leave much room for emotional entanglements, so he kept his relationships casual. They were more like business transactions. He had dates for premier work functions and not much else. He left women satisfied and made expectations very clear—there weren’t to be any. He was so thrown off guard with Delia, he was fending off questions about what was going on with them when he didn’t even know the answer himself.

  He caught Marley’s concerned gaze. “I didn’t mean to push too far. It’s just I noticed you go into her office the other day and saw her right after. She looked a little,” Marley flushed and scrunched her nose. “Um, well, she looked like you’d just kissed her.” She paused and looked at him carefully. “Delia’s a good friend. I grew up with her, and her family was always close to mine. I know you don’t know me that well, so I don’t mean to be too pushy. It’s just I don’t want to see her get hurt.”

  Garrett nodded. “If I seemed annoyed, it wasn’t with you. I, uh… Aw, hell, I don’t know what to say. Look, I don’t know what Gage has told you about me, but I work like crazy and relationships aren’t really my thing. I’m not an asshole, but I get why you might be worried about Delia. I’d prefer if you didn’t give Gage all the details because I don’t want to piss him off, but the thing is I like Delia. I didn’t plan on it. Just happened. So when you ask what’s up with me and Delia, that’s about all I can say.”

  “Okay.” Marley eyed him for a long moment. “Seems like maybe I need to be worried about you too,” she said softly.

  Garrett’s throat tightened, emotion washing through him. He forcibly cleared his throat. “Maybe so,” he said with a soft chuckle.

  Marley nodded and turned away to add some garlic, spices and
sauce to the pan. She gracefully gave him a moment of space and quiet before she spoke again. “Do you want to talk about it? Gage has been worried about you, you know?”

  Garrett nodded. “I know. He doesn’t say much about it, but I can tell.” He tried to think of a way to make sense of what was going on with him, but nothing did. He took a swallow of beer. “I’d love to talk about it if I thought I could make sense of what’s going on with me.”

  Marley kept stirring and nodded as if she expected him to continue. So he did. “All I know is one day I couldn’t even look at the woman who lost her lawsuit against the insurance company I was representing. That’s the day I canceled everything and flew up here. My office assistant called today, and I can’t even tell her when I’m going back because every time I try to think about it, I start to get a headache. Gage thinks I’m upset about that case because it hit too close to home.”

  She nodded. “He mentioned that to me.”

  He took a breath. “Right, so you know the details then. Maybe he has a point. I don’t know. All I know is I don’t even know if I want to go back anymore, and that makes me feel half crazy. I worked my ass off since the day I graduated from law school to get my practice where it is in Seattle. I make tons of money and have my pick of cases. It’s what I thought I wanted and now I’m tired of it. Makes me fuckin’ crazy.”

  Marley turned the burner off and took a sip of wine. “The details were different, but I went through something similar.”

  “The robbery?” he asked, referring to Marley’s abrupt move back to Diamond Creek from Seattle after she’d been robbed and assaulted. With the help of a friend and former SEAL team member, Gage had been instrumental in finding justice for Marley.

  “The robbery was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I moved to Seattle with grand plans to start a tech company and be all kinds of amazing. I learned a lot and don’t regret being there, but it didn’t satisfy me the way I hoped. Sometimes you need to take a breather to find out what you want. The robbery gave me that chance. You’re not me, but maybe you should stop worrying about answers right now. From what Gage has told me, it’s not like you can’t afford not to work. I’m sure Gage already told you, but you’re welcome to stay here as long as you need.”

  Garrett took a slow breath, the tension in his chest easing slightly. “Since I can’t seem to find the answers, I’ll try to take your advice.”

  The door swung open and Gage walked through. “Hey man,” he said, slapping Garrett on the back as he walked by to drop a kiss on Marley’s cheek.

  Conversation moved on to lighter matters. Hours later, Garrett lay in bed, Delia lingering in his thoughts. Any moment he was alone, she was on his mind. And any moment she was on his mind, lust streaked through him. He was rock hard. He kicked the covers off and strode into the bathroom. His hand was nothing like what he hoped to experience with Delia, but the release was enough for him to fall asleep.

  Chapter 6

  Delia’s phone chirped insistently. She came to a lurching stop in the parking lot and fumbled in her purse, not bothering to check the screen and see who was calling.

  “Hello,” she said quickly. There was a long enough pause that she repeated her greeting. After the next pause went a beat too long, she sighed and started to pull the phone away when she heard her name.

  “Yes?”

  “Delia, it’s Terry.”

  Her stomach lurched and dread filled her followed with flashing anger. Terry was Nick’s ever-absent father whom she hadn’t seen or heard from since the week after she told him she was pregnant. At the time, she’d been in her senior year in college and believed herself in love with Terry. Or so she’d thought. She’d bitterly come to learn the man she thought she loved wasn’t the man he was. She’d been in the untenable situation of only discovering she was pregnant when she was more than three months along. She’d been on the pill and rarely had her period anyway. She hadn’t even blinked when she didn’t have her period for three months straight. She’d been buried in classwork and working a full-time job at a local restaurant in Juneau.

  After weeks of feeling nauseous every morning, her roommate, Sarah, had given her a long look and come home later that night with a pregnancy test. When Delia sputtered and told Sarah she was being ridiculous, Sarah had arched a brow and asked her if she’d forgotten to take her pills here and there. She’d missed a whopping total of two pills the month she’d gotten pregnant, but it was more than enough.

  Delia remembered her last conversation with Terry more vividly than she’d like. Not because it was hazy with lost-love memories, but because it was the day she learned the sharp difference between perception and reality and came to learn how easily some people could lie. She swatted the memory away and focused on now. For a second, she tried to stay calm, but then decided it didn’t matter. She’d never had her chance to let loose on Terry for leaving Nick to wonder who his father was and why he was never around. It would be hard for her to care less about Terry being a part of her life, but his absence mattered a lot to Nick, if only because it left a giant, gaping question mark in his heart.

  “What the hell do you want, Terry?”

  Silence greeted her, so she barreled onward. “It’s been six years and you just pick up the phone and call? I don’t know what you want or why the hell you’ve bothered to call now, but you’d better not think you can just waltz into our lives like this!” Her heart hammered, and she felt sick with anger.

  “I, uh… Look, Delia, you have all kinds of reasons to be pissed off at me. I’m calling because my mom found out about your son and asked me to call you. She’d like a chance to meet him.”

  Delia noticed Terry didn’t say “our son,” but rather “your son.” She was alternately relieved and angry at the distinction. Her heart pounded, and her mind spun. All these years, she’d tried to come to terms with the fact that Nick’s father had zero interest in him. She’d had to accept her own poor judgment and not beat herself up too much—incredibly difficult sometimes—and consider what she’d do if he ever reached out. She took a breath and tried to gather her composure.

  Not yet. “Oh, so you think you can just call and ask if your mom can meet my son? You don’t even have the nerve to say he’s yours. I guess I should be thankful for that because you’re nothing more than an accidental sperm donor.” Her tone was bitter, and she didn’t care. She had to cultivate her composure for Nick’s sake, but not for Terry’s.

  Terry was silent for several beats. “Like I said, I get why you’d be pissed off. I’m only calling because of my mother.”

  Delia let his words sink in, her disappointment echoing against the absence of his interest in getting to know his son. She’d rehearsed imaginary answers to him a thousand times, but she hadn’t rehearsed the answer to this. Nick’s father wasn’t interested in him, but his grandmother was. Shit, shit, shit. Think, think, think. Another deep breath, and she finally managed to speak. “The only reason I’m not hanging up the phone is because of my son. If your mom wants to meet Nick, she can call me directly. Feel free to give her my number. I’d rather you not call at all unless you’re interested in a relationship with your son. If that ever happens, the terms will be mine. Are we clear?”

  The last part she’d memorized, so the words slid off her tongue easily, even though fury was pounding through her. Her stomach felt hollow and her heart clenched with hurt for Nick. She waited.

  Terry finally spoke. “I understand. I appreciate you’re willing to talk to my mom. I don’t think I ever mentioned her to you. Her name is Helen Carson.”

  “Nope. You never mentioned her to me,” she replied, exasperated with him after only minutes of conversation.

  “Right. I’ll tell her she can call.” After another awkward silence, Terry spoke again. “I get why you think I’m a total ass. I’m trying not to make things worse by trying to be something I don’t know if I can be.”

  “What would that be?” Delia asked unable to keep her
voice from vibrating with the force of her anger.

  “A father. My life’s been kind of a mess. I’m not the most stable guy. It may seem like I’ve been blowing you off all these years, but for the last few, I thought it was best if I stayed out of the way.”

  Questions tumbled through her mind, but she held her silence. It was up to him to do more than he had and she wasn’t about to open a can of worms for Nick for someone who wasn’t sure they were ready to be there for him.

  “Okay. How about you have your mother call me? If something changes, maybe she can let me know.”

  “Right. Thanks, Delia.”

  “Sure.” She ended the call without a goodbye. Her chest was tight and her throat ached and all of her pain was for Nick, her sweet little boy who raced at life with open arms, who asked questions about the father he’d never known and who accepted answers that were hard for anyone, much less a six year old boy. She leaned her forehead against the steering wheel and forced herself to breathe slowly and deeply.

  After several moments, she sat up and glanced around her. She’d stopped to pick up mail at the post office. She opened the car door, letting the icy winter air wash over her. It settled her heightened nerves. Slamming the door behind her, she made her way inside, the thin layer of snow crunching under her boots. She quickly checked the mail and tucked it in her purse. On the way out, she was looking down when she heard her name. When her eyes lifted, they collided with Garrett. He stood near the end of the aisle where her post office box was, leaning against the wall. His jacket hung loose. He had one hand tucked in his pocket. It tugged his jeans down just enough to reveal a glimpse of his muscled abs. A curl of lust slid through her veins.