Amalie thought of the house she’d always wanted to buy in Bloor West Village. As a dream, it didn’t seem as enthralling as it once had. Could it be that this was what she’d truly longed for?
DAVIN WASN’T RELEASED until the following afternoon. By then he had most of the hospital staff’s signatures, plus Heidi’s and Matthew’s, on his cast. The landlady had stopped by with a batch of fresh cookies, and Matthew had let them know he was returning to Seattle.
“I’ll contact you when I get the memorial service organized,” he said.
“We’ll be there,” Amalie promised.
A good many of the Avalanche Control workers had also come to visit Davin, and all proudly left their autographs on the cast for Davin to remember them by.
As if there was any chance he would ever forget. Although he’d learned some important lessons that night on the mountain, Davin still viewed the whole affair as an exciting adventure, and couldn’t wait until his arm had healed enough that he could go out skiing again.
The resilience of the young, Amalie thought, knowing the experience would have traumatized her forever. Or would it?
She’d felt no greater terror than those minutes after the avalanche had struck, burying Davin instantly. But there’d been something magical about that rescue. Watching, helping, people working together, losing personal egos completely in the desire to save a life.
“We aren’t going back to Toronto yet, are we?” Davin had asked anxiously.
Amalie wasn’t sure how to answer that. They’d stay until the memorial service in Seattle, of course. It wouldn’t make sense to drive all the way back to Toronto, then travel across Canada again, to go to the service.
But Matthew would have the service organized within the week. What would happen after?
Davin chattered the whole drive back to the apartment building. Grant was at work, but he’d promised to come by later, for dinner. Amalie was planning to impress both him and Davin with her spinach and cottage cheese manicotti. All in all, she felt she had several things to smile about as she turned down the familiar street.
Only to find a vehicle parked in her usual spot. A plain white van. Something about it made her frown, but then Heidi waving from the front door distracted her.
“Come in already!” the Swiss lady was calling. “I’ve made hot chocolate.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
BY THE TIME Amalie dragged Davin away from Heidi’s minifeast, it was already two in the afternoon. She insisted he lie down for a nap while she began the preparations for dinner.
Once the manicotti were stuffed and the tomato sauce was simmering, Amalie picked up the phone to call her parents.
“Amalie? Finally. We hadn’t heard from you in so long we were starting to worry.”
“Well, we did have a bit of a disaster here. Or a near disaster, at any rate.”
“A disaster? Just a minute…Fred? Pick up the phone in the bedroom. Amalie’s on the line.”
Seconds later, her father’s muted voice traveled over the line. “You there, Amalie?”
“Yes, Dad. How’s your back?”
“The specialist couldn’t find anything wrong. Guess I’m just going to have to put up with the pain. What was this about a disaster?”
Amalie told them about Matthew Stanway’s visit, his unexpected news.
“Helena was pregnant? Not really a disaster, is it? At least she was married this time.”
“If she’d lived, it might have been. Have you forgotten what the doctors said after Davin was born?” Apparently, they had. There was no reply, so Amalie took a deep breath and then explained about Davin’s accident and subsequent rescue in the mountains.
“Bottom line is he had a big scare—we all did. He’s okay, though. His arm is broken, but it won’t take long to heal.”
“I can’t believe he would run off like that,” her mother said. “You raised him better.”
“Oh, Mom.” Couldn’t she just be glad he was all right?
“When are you coming home?” her father asked. “I was thinking of making an appointment with a chiropractor in Toronto, but wanted to make sure you’d be able to drive me this time.”
Amalie stared at the receiver, wondering what it would take to turn their focus to Davin’s well-being, rather than their own.
She’d always thought they felt things, just didn’t put their feelings to words. Now she could no longer believe that. They truly hadn’t cared about Helena. And they didn’t care about Davin, either. Anger made her bold.
“I don’t know, Dad. I’m actually considering moving here. I’ve met a very nice man.”
“A man?” Her mother’s voice was shrill. “But you’ve only been gone a few weeks.”
“His name’s Grant Thorlow and he heads the Avalanche Control Center at Rogers Pass.”
“Has he asked you to marry him?”
“No,” she had to admit, “he hasn’t.”
“Does he know about Davin?”
“Of course he knows about Davin.” Amalie couldn’t keep the irritation out of her voice any longer. “He dug him out of the avalanche, saved his life. For your information, Grant is very fond of Davin, Mother.”
“Maybe now. But when he sees the day-to-day responsibility of raising a child…”
“Oh, Mom. Couldn’t you just be happy for me?” Of course not, she suddenly realized. Because they didn’t care about her, either. Not really. Oh, as long as she went along with what they said, they were fine. But any time she tried to do something just for herself, there they were, urging her back inside the line.
“I have to go Mom, Dad. I’ll call you later in the week, once I’ve made up my mind for sure.”
She hung up on their protests, then sank into a chair.
What had she just done? Told her parents she was moving to Revelstoke when she herself hadn’t even decided. But wasn’t it what she wanted? So what if Grant hadn’t asked her to marry him. Maybe he didn’t feel he knew her well enough yet.
But she knew him well enough. In fact, she felt as though she’d known him forever.
Love. She’d had no idea it would be this wonderful—
A sound from Davin’s bedroom sent her running to his room. She found him sleeping, his hair a pale halo on the stark white pillowcase. On the floor was a book. It must have slid off his sleeping bag.
Amalie stroked his cheek. His eyes immediately flew open.
“I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”
He propped himself up on his good arm. “No. I was just lying here, listening to you on the phone. Are we really going to move to Revelstoke?”
She brushed back a strand of his hair. “Would you like that?”
“Oh, yeah!” He paused for a moment. “I would kind of miss Jeremy, though.”
Amalie nodded. And she would miss Jenny. The breath of sanity in her crazy-busy world. But Jenny had her own husband, her own family, and Amalie wanted a chance for the same. “Maybe we should think about it, right?”
“I guess.”
“That’s my boy.” She ruffled his hair, thinking she really had to remember to be more careful in the future. The walls in this building…what else had Davin overheard?
“You know, Davin, your mother had a hard time delivering you when you were born. But no one blames babies for hard deliveries. It’s not their fault.”
He thought about that for a while. “You keep calling her my mother, but I don’t think of her that way.”
“Oh?”
“She never cared about me. She never visited me. There isn’t one picture of me in this place. Or of you or Grandma or Grandpa. I don’t think she loved any of us.”
Amalie had been so busy she’d almost forgotten. “Wait a second, Davin. I want to show you something.”
She went into her room, to the bag of Helena’s personal effects she’d picked up at the hospital.
Autopsy results had confirmed Helena’s pregnancy at just over thirteen weeks. So there’d been no abortion—which gav
e credence to the theory that Ramsey had taken her to the mountain so she could make that decision.
Now Amalie sorted through the clothing Helena had been wearing that day, for the bag containing the jewelry that had been on her person.
The small plastic packet contained a gold Piaget watch, diamond stud earrings, a long gold chain with a locket…
Amalie took the chain and locket back to Davin’s room and sat on the floor next to his sleeping bag. “See this? Your mo—I mean, Helena, was wearing this when she died.”
A jab from the end of her thumbnail released the catch, and the locket separated, revealing two pictures. The first was of a white-blond-haired woman with blue eyes.
“Was that her?” Davin asked.
“No. See that pink dress? I saved my baby-sitting money for six months to buy that for my high-school graduation.” Helena, of course, had never graduated. She’d been working and living on her own already. Maybe, Amalie mused, her sister had just figured out their parents a lot quicker than she had.
She shifted her finger so Davin could see the picture on the opposite side of the locket. It was a miniature of a tiny, red-skinned baby.
“That was you when you were born.” Amalie handed him the locket. “Helena had her faults, Davin, I know that’s true. But she loved us both.”
Maybe more than they’d ever guessed. Was it possible Helena, too, had feared that seeing Davin would make her regret her decision to give him up? Was that why she’d never visited?
Davin took the locket, smudged his finger over the pictures, then buffed them clean with the corner of his sleeping bag. Amalie saw tears gathering in his eyes, and longed to hold him close.
Tentatively, she touched his shoulder. “I know she loved you, Davin, and even though you don’t feel it, she is your real mother.”
Davin’s shoulder trembled slightly. She pulled him closer. “But in my heart I can’t believe she loved you more than I do. I can’t believe anyone could. From the moment you were born, I thought you were the most perfect child in the world, and I still do.”
“Oh, Mom!” Davin’s good arm shot up around her neck, and a sob shuddered through his body.
“Oh, my baby.” Amalie cradled him close, that word still ringing in her ears, the most beautiful word in the entire world.
Mom.
DAVIN FELL ASLEEP for real around five o’clock. Amalie was aware of the setting sun as she placed napkins around the table and prepared a salad. It would be a long time before the disappearance of daylight didn’t remind her of those minutes of terror on that mountain.
Minutes of terror that could have ended tragically, but hadn’t.
Amalie had dozens of vivid memories of Grant from that night. His tall, powerful body in front of her on the ski trail. His expression of dread when the avalanche released. The ruthless determination while he was shoveling, then his fast action in applying CPR.
Finally, and most moving for her, his tenderness when covering Davin on the stretcher.
Every step of the way he’d shown control and competence, leaving no doubt that he knew how to handle the emergency. Yet, at the same time, how much he cared had been obvious.
Now she thought again about his invitation the night they’d made love. Not to marry him, no, but to stay, and that was something.
As the hour for him to arrive approached, Amalie’s stomach grew tighter and tighter. Anticipation, hope, fear…
Would he have changed his mind? Since the bodies had been recovered, there was no reason for her and Davin to delay their departure past the date of the memorial service. Would he ask her once more to stay?
If he did, Amalie had decided she would say yes.
True, asking her to move to Revelstoke did not constitute a proposal. Maybe she was crazy, to consider uprooting her life for a man who might never marry her. After all, they’d never even discussed the possibility.
But Amalie knew this was the one time she had to do something, not because it was practical but because it was what she wanted. Needed.
Amalie glanced at the clock on the stove, the watch on her wrist. Oh, please, let it be six soon!
With time on her hands, she changed her sweater, put on perfume, a touch of makeup. After a momentary pause, she slipped Helena’s locket over her head. Her sister’s more expensive jewelry was not her style. She’d already returned most of it to Matthew and would take the watch and earrings with her when she drove out for the memorial service.
But this locket would help her hold Helena to her heart. As soon as possible, Amalie intended to replace the photo of herself with one of her sister.
A knock at the door startled, then delighted, her. Somehow Grant had bypassed the security downstairs. And arrived twenty minutes early to boot!
She rushed to the door and opened it in a wide arc.
Then froze as a tall, slim man placed a hand on the door frame, preventing her from shutting him out.
“It’s been six weeks, Helena. And I’m getting tired of waiting for your answer.”
GRANT INSPECTED HIS NEW HAIRCUT in the window of Flowers from the Heart. It had never occurred to him that buying roses in Revelstoke on February 14 might be difficult.
“You really should have placed an order in advance for Valentine’s Day.” The young girl behind the counter had short blond hair, spiked with gel and glittering with metallic sparkles. He didn’t think she was old enough to understand how important this was to him.
“You mean to tell me you don’t have any roses? None at all?” He stared at a beautiful long-stemmed arrangement in the glassed-in refrigeratored area.
The clerk followed his gaze and shrugged. “Those were ordered two weeks ago. We do have some pink roses left.” She nodded to a vase, which contained five tiny buds.
For a moment he considered. Then shook his head. No. He was trying to make a statement here. And that statement required a dozen long-stemmed roses.
As he considered his options, he heard bells from the door behind him. He turned and saw a man in a suit and trench coat stomping snow from his boots. Grant glanced away, then quickly back.
What do you want to bet this is the guy… Sure enough, the man leaned over the counter and pointed to the beautiful arrangement of red roses. Willingly, the clerk pulled them out and set them on the counter.
She glared in Grant’s direction, then turned to her customer. “Yes, Mr. Elliott, we have your flowers. Let me wrap them up in plastic for you so they don’t get shocked by the cold.”
Grant sidled nearer to the man. “For your wife?” he asked, tilting his head at the bouquet the clerk was now fussing over.
The man nodded.
“Been married long?”
“Fifteen years,” the man said, keeping his eyes on the flowers.
“So things are obviously pretty secure. You aren’t having problems with your relationship or anything?”
“Now, look here.” The man faced him. “Do we know each other?”
Grant held his arms up apologetically. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to get personal. It’s just—I’m planning to ask a woman to marry me tonight. I have no idea if she’ll say yes. In fact, I think the cards are kind of stacked against me. What would you say…”
The man shifted his body back a few inches. “Hey, you seem like a nice guy. But my wife really likes roses.”
The clerk returned with the flowers. Carefully, she placed them in the suited man’s hands. She glowered at Grant. “You’d better stop harassing the customers or I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
“Is that right?” Getting thrown out of a florist shop made for an amusing picture, but the situation wasn’t all that funny. He stared at the cellophane package in the other man’s hands. He just had to get those flowers….
AMALIE RECOGNIZED HER CALLER as the man who’d been watching her at the Rock Slide Saloon after her dance with Grant. She couldn’t think of any legitimate reason for him to want to speak with her. Panicked, she drew back the door, int
ending to slam it on his fingers. But he anticipated the move and used his shoulder to wedge the door open.
“Please don’t burn me off, Helena. If you’ve decided the answer is no, don’t I at least deserve an explanation?”
He didn’t sound dangerous. Amalie decided he didn’t look dangerous, either. Just tired, and maybe even a little distraught. After a glance at Davin’s closed bedroom door, she stepped out into the hall to clear up the mistake.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, but I’m not Helena. She died in an avalanche about three weeks ago. I’m her twin sister, Amalie.”
“Come on!” Disbelief widened her unexpected visitor’s blue eyes. “Helena, I know you have your reservations about bringing me back into Davin’s life, but you don’t need to lie—”
“Davin?” The floor under her feet seemed suddenly unstable. “What is your name?”
The man stepped back, shaken by the intensity of her tone. “You know very well…” His gaze zoomed in on her, and he drew a quick breath. “You’re not Helena. You are her twin.”
He took another step back, his shoulders slumping, hands dropping to his side. “Did Helena really die?”
He appeared shattered by the possibility. Amalie hated to confirm it. “I’m afraid she did.”
“Oh, God, this is so unfair!” He turned to the wall and hit his forehead against it.
Amalie was remembering one of her rare visits to Toronto to visit Helena after she’d moved out. Helena had thrown a small party to introduce her to her new friends.
“You’re Davin’s father, aren’t you?”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
GRANT WAS WHISTLING the same tune that had been plaguing him for weeks, as he drove down the freshly plowed road leading to Amalie’s apartment. On the passenger seat next to him sat a bottle of champagne and the dozen long-stemmed roses.
He’d offered the man at the florist’s a private, guided tour into the backcountry for him and his wife and a couple of their friends in exchange for the flowers. He sure hoped the man’s wife liked skiing. He’d hate to see fifteen years of marriage jeopardized.
A Sister Would Know Page 19
