Suddenly Last Summer

by Sarah Morgan

“It was a great party.” Kayla had brought Maple with her and she cuddled the dog as she sat down at the table. “I talked to a million people and my face hurts from smiling. It’s going to be great for the business. Is there anything I can do to help with breakfast, Elizabeth? Can I cook something?”

  Brenna pulled a face and Elizabeth smiled nervously. “You just sit there, dear. I love cooking and we all know it’s not your favorite thing.”

  “What she means is you are truly terrible at cooking.” Élise poured coffee into mugs and set them on the table. “What? Why are you all looking at me?”

  Brenna grinned. “Because you don’t know the meaning of the word tact.”

  “I speak the truth so none of us is poisoned. At cooking, Kayla is truly terrible but at organization and marketing—” She lifted her mug in a toast. “She is a genius. To Kayla.”

  “To Kayla,” Brenna said and Kayla grinned as she lifted her mug.

  “To us and to teamwork. The summer hasn’t been awful. We’re still in business. Here’s to a brilliant winter with masses of snow and more bookings than we can handle.”

  “Talking of winter, I spent some time with Josh last night.” Brenna added maple syrup to her pancakes, missing the look Kayla sent Élise.

  “He’s a nice boy,” Alice murmured. “His grandmother is in my knitting group.”

  “He’s thirty-something, Alice.” Brenna smiled. “Not exactly a boy.”

  “A man.” Elizabeth topped up the pancakes. “A very handsome man. I’ve always liked him, even though his father once arrested Tyler for skiing off Mitch Sommerville’s garage roof. What were you talking about, dear?”

  “We’re thinking about doing a course on winter safety.” Brenna picked up her fork. If the mention of Tyler had unsettled her, she wasn’t showing it. “We’re both members of the Mountain Rescue Team so it makes sense.”

  “Tyler’s a member of the Mountain Rescue Team.” Alice reached across and stroked Maple’s soft, springy fur. “You could do it with him.”

  Élise winced. “Alice—”

  “I just think the two of them would work well together, that’s all. Isn’t Maple looking well, Elizabeth? I remember when Jackson found her in the forest—she was skin and bone. It’s done her so much good living with the family. She loves it here.”

  Élise felt a lump in her throat. She loved it here, too. Who wouldn’t? Who wouldn’t love living here, with the O’Neils?

  Aware that Kayla was watching her, she helped herself to a pancake.

  Merde, she was losing it. Now she was empathizing with Maple and what she should be doing was thinking of Brenna’s feelings.

  “I think it would be good for Brenna to work with Josh.” For one thing it might be the wake-up call Tyler needed. “I like him.”

  The door opened and Jackson walked in. Maple sprang from Kayla’s lap, hurtled across the room like a bullet and jumped up like a spring, deliriously happy to see him.

  He scooped her up. “Any of those pancakes left?”

  “Of course.” Elizabeth slid pancakes onto a plate and placed it on the table. “Sit down. Are Tyler and Sean coming, too?”

  “Tyler is on his way.” Jackson sat down and slid his hand over Kayla’s knee. “Sean has gone back to Boston. He texted me.”

  “He dropped in to say goodbye.” Alice picked up her knitting. “He said he’d be back next week to take Walter to his hospital appointment.”

  Élise kept her eyes on her plate.

  She should be relieved he’d gone. It was what she’d wanted, wasn’t it?

  The intensity of what had happened the night before had shocked her.

  It had shocked him, too.

  She wondered if he’d spoken to his grandfather before he’d left, or whether he’d just left the topic of the row simmering between them.

  “More to eat, Élise?” Elizabeth hovered, the pan in her hand. Élise shook her head.

  “Non, merci. I am not hungry.”

  “I ate so much last night I may never eat again.” Jackson gave her a smile as he reached for the maple syrup. “The food was incredible. Everyone was talking about it. You’re a genius and we’re lucky to have you. I probably don’t tell you that enough.”

  “I am the one who is lucky.” Living here. With them.

  She looked up and met his gaze.

  He was the best friend she’d ever had.

  Without him...

  She swallowed. She didn’t even want to think about where she would have been without him.

  Jackson stuck his fork into a pancake. “So is this a good moment to ask you another favor? Kayla and I have had a new business idea. We’re going to offer corporate team-building events. We need help with the food.”

  “Pas de problème, I will book them a table in the restaurant.” It was a relief to think about work again. “Just tell me how many.”

  “Not the restaurant. They’re going to hike and camp overnight on the Long Trail. If that doesn’t help them bond, nothing will.”

  “You are taking a group of senior executives camping?”

  “Genius, don’t you think?” Kayla sneaked some food to Maple who was still nestled on Jackson’s lap. “It will be a real test for them. You’re responsible for providing them with delicious food to take their mind off blisters and insect bites.”

  “Who is going to put the tent up?”

  “They are. With a little help from Tyler. He’s going to add in the whole gold-medallist-elite-sportsman-motivational-talk thing he does. All part of our unique offering.”

  “Tyler will be driven mad spending two days trapped with office types. How did you persuade him to do it?”

  “Two of the first group are women. I showed him photographs. So could you design a menu? Something they can cook with limited equipment.”

  “Of course.” Élise pondered the options. “It will have to be light to carry and easy to cook. You need to give me the equipment they will have and I will see what I can cook on it.”

  “I can go one better than that.” Jackson helped himself to more pancakes. “You can do the trip yourself. Tyler is going to plan the route and pick the best camping spot. You can go together. There’s the O’Neil Cabin high up on the trail but he thinks that’s too far for just two days of hiking with city folk who usually just walk to a cab or a subway so he’s going to find somewhere closer. Keep next weekend free.”

  “I have to be in the restaurant.”

  “Poppy and I can cope.” Elizabeth wiped her hands on her apron. “And Antony, the boy who’s just joined, is turning out very well. He’s a hard worker. He just needs a little more confidence. We’ll be fine. It will be good for us to manage without you. You can’t carry on working this hard.”

  “I love working hard and it is important for the business that we bring in as many guests as possible.”

  She owed Jackson a debt. A debt she was determined to repay in full.

  And now that Sean had gone and Walter was improving by the day, life could get back to normal.

  * * *

  “THEY’RE PLEASED WITH your progress, Gramps.” Sean drove out of the hospital car park, determined that this time he was going to find a moment to bring up the topic of their row. He didn’t know what he was going to say, but maybe they could clear the air a little. “I checked the results myself. You’re a walking miracle. They want to know what your secret is.”

  “No secret. All it takes is Snow Crystal air and having your family around you. You were looking better yourself after spending time at home. Now after a week in the city you’re back to wearing the stress along with the suit.”

  Sean knew his stress had nothing to do with his week in Boston and everything to do with what had happened the night of the party.

  Élise had wanted him to leave, so he’d left. That should have been it. With his grandfather recovering, he’d expected to return to his life in Boston and pick up where he left off.

  Instead, he found himself missing certain th
ings. He missed the long days working on the deck. He missed the smell of summer rain on the trees and the slap of water against the deck as he worked. He missed exchanging banter with his brothers.

  But most of all he missed her. The smile. The dimple. That mouth.

  Shit.

  He tightened his grip on the wheel. What the hell was wrong with him?

  All right, so it had been good sex, but good sex didn’t usually affect his concentration. And the fact she hadn’t wanted to make any of it personal shouldn’t worry him, either. No one understood that better than him.

  “I’m not stressed, Gramps.”

  “Of course you are and that’s hardly surprising with the life you lead, cooped up in that box under artificial lights.”

  “You mean the operating room?”

  “That’s what I mean. Unhealthy. You need air. And people. A job is all well and good but it’s marriage to a good woman that makes a man happy and content.” Walter stared straight ahead. “You should try it.”

  Sean almost drove the car into the ditch. Marriage? “I can tell you now that isn’t going to happen so you can let that drop right now.”

  “A man can’t fool around forever.”

  “I’m not fooling around. I love my work. I’m not prepared to compromise that for a relationship and no sane, self-respecting woman would put up with my hours.”

  His grandfather ignored him. “I worked long hours. Your grandmother was very understanding. We’re a team. Always have been, right from day one.”

  “Grams is a saint, we all know that.”

  “It was a good party. Shame you had to leave so early the next day. Still, at least you came. Élise is a good dancer, isn’t she?”

  Sean gritted his teeth.

  His grandfather knew. Somehow, his grandfather knew.

  Sweat pricked the back of his neck. He thought of Élise, her legs tangled with his, her mouth on his as the rain dripped through the canopy of the trees. “I had to leave. I’d fixed the deck and it was time to fix some patients.”

  “If you’re fixing them on a Sunday morning I hope you’re charging them a lot. I guess you are or you wouldn’t be driving a car like this one.” His grandfather stroked his hand over the seat. “It’s not big enough for a family.”

  “I don’t have a family.”

  “Yet. When you do, you’re going to need to buy something bigger.”

  “I don’t need anything bigger.” Remembering why he’d chosen to live in Boston, Sean punched the gas and headed toward Snow Crystal. “So the hospital doesn’t want to see you for another six weeks. That’s great news.”

  It meant he had no reason to come back for six weeks. Six weeks was plenty of time to get back into the rhythm of his life.

  “The doctors here are good. As good as any you’ll find in Boston. You should work here. Then you’d be closer to home. Maybe the hours wouldn’t be so long.”

  It never ended. No matter how old he was, the pressure was always there. It was like being trapped under someone’s boot.

  It had been like this for his father and he’d had it all the time with no respite.

  His stomach felt hollow.

  The desire to bring up the topic of the row fled. How could he talk about it when he was still angry inside? When the resentment was still there?

  Instead, he kept to the subject of work. “You don’t understand anything about what I do.”

  “So tell me.”

  Sean was thrown because his grandfather so rarely asked for details about his life. The conversation was only ever about Snow Crystal. The business. The family. What he wasn’t doing.

  He decided that anything was better than a conversation about marriage. “My department is at the forefront of innovation in ACL surgery.” Knowing that his grandfather, an experienced skier, would understand exactly what that meant, he didn’t bother simplifying it. Instead, he explained his research, his interests, what excited him. And his grandfather listened.

  “So you’re stabilizing the knee and getting the patient active again. That’s good. Rewarding work.”

  Sean relaxed slightly. “Yes.”

  “So if you’re the one running it, you could run it from here.” His grandfather’s tone was innocent. “I don’t see why Boston should benefit from your skills. There are plenty of folks around here that would be happy to have you fix them when they’ve broken something and we have more skiing injuries than people in Boston. Last time I looked they didn’t have mountains there.”

  They’d come full circle. “I deal with top athletes. They travel from all over to see me.”

  “No reason why they couldn’t travel here. And they’d have the views, good food and fresh mountain air thrown in for nothing. If you worked here, you’d be able to live at Snow Crystal, help your brothers and see plenty of Élise.”

  “Jesus, Gramps—” Sean slammed on the brakes and pulled the car into the entrance of the Carpenters’ apple farm, narrowly avoiding a deep rut in the road.

  “Don’t use bad language. It upsets your grandmother.”

  “Grams isn’t here. And I’ll use whatever language I choose to use, just as I’ll live where I want to live and do the job I want to do.”

  “And kiss the girl you want to kiss.”

  “Yes.” Sean narrowed his eyes, wondering just how much his eagle-eyed grandfather had seen the night of the party. “That, too.”

  “Just make sure you’re not so busy kissing every pretty girl you meet, you lose the one you’d like to kiss for the rest of your life.”

  Suddenly all he could think of was the generous curve of Élise’s mouth, that dimple, and he gritted his teeth.

  “My focus is my job.”

  “A job doesn’t keep you warm at night. I loved my job, too, but the moment I met your grandmother, I knew. So did she. Maybe you have to get to a certain age to know what’s important in life. Health and people you love around you. That’s it.”

  Sean leaned his head back against the seat. “Are you about done with the lecture?”

  “Not lecturing. Just passing on my wisdom. It’s been easier on your brothers, you being home more the last few weeks. It’s because of you the Boathouse is opening. If you were closer, you could do more of that. And you could use some of that expertise people pay good money for to help Brenna develop a pre-conditioning program before the ski season. Now get out of here. The Carpenters aren’t my favorite people and I don’t want to be parked on their land.”

  Afraid that if he answered he’d say something he regretted, Sean was about to pull back onto the road when he saw a flash of long red hair far in the distance. Someone was walking in the Carpenters’ apple orchards.

  He squinted, trying to get a clearer look but whoever it was vanished out of sight.

  Feeling uneasy, Sean turned his head to see if his grandfather had noticed anything but Walter was concentrating on the road.

  “This car is too low down.”

  Sean glanced back at the farm but there was no one in sight.

  Telling himself that there were plenty of women with long red hair, he pulled back onto the road and flattened his foot to the floor, deciding that the sooner he dropped his grandfather back, the better.

  “I’ll be back to take you to your next hospital appointment, not before.”

  Churned up inside, he dropped off his grandfather, reassured his grandmother that Walter was making miraculous progress and went to find his brothers.

  He found Tyler outside the Outdoor Center, sprawled in the dirt, fixing a mountain bike.

  His brother took one look at his face and sat up. “You look happy. Gramps is obviously back on form. Don’t tell me, he wants you to move back home and run a private clinic right here at Snow Crystal.”

  “Something like that.”

  Tyler wiped his forearm over his forehead. “Haven’t seen you since the party. I noticed you disappeared early.”

  “I was tired.”

  “Yeah, right. So tired
you had to lie down in a nice big bed. I’ve been that tired a few times in my life.”

  Irritated by the conversation with his grandfather, Sean sent his brother a look. “Why is everyone suddenly so interested in my love life? What about you? Did you dance with Brenna at the party?”

  “No, but I noticed you did.” Tyler’s expression darkened. “So what was that about? One woman isn’t enough for you?”

  “For your information I can’t imagine kissing one woman for the rest of my life.”

  “You kissed her?” Tyler jumped to his feet and the bike crashed to the ground. “You kissed Brenna?”

  Sean, who had been thinking about Élise, was startled to find himself pinned against the fence. “Hey, this is my favorite suit. What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “You have to ask me that? You kissed Brenna!”

  “I did not kiss Brenna.”

  Tyler’s hold relaxed slightly. “You just said you did.”

  “I did not. I said my idea of a nightmare was kissing the same woman for the rest of my life. I did not say I kissed Brenna.” Sean shoved his brother and smoothed his creased shirt, battling sibling irritation and other emotions he didn’t want to examine more closely. “I’ve known her since she was four years old. She’s like a sister to me.”

  “Right. Good.” Tyler’s shoulders relaxed slightly. “Your shirt needs ironing. Your standards are slipping since you arrived home.”

  Sean decided revenge didn’t have to involve ruining a perfectly good set of clothing. “Of course, just because I’ve known her since she was four years old doesn’t stop me from noticing that she’s looking good.” His shirt was already creased so he decided he might as well go for it. “Now you mention it, maybe I should kiss her. Why not?” He decided to stir a bit harder. “Although I might have competition.”

  “Competition?”

  “Yeah. I saw her talking to Josh. Judging from the look on his face, he definitely doesn’t think she’s four years old. Women love Josh.”

  “They’re friends.” From the way Tyler spoke through his teeth it was obvious the relationship didn’t thrill him.

  “He sat next to me in biology and English, which means he’s known her as long as I have. I don’t see you creasing his shirt.”