“I came up for Jimmy’s wedding,” Kevin reminded her. “There wasn’t any party at the Salty then.”
Undaunted, Lily pressed on. “You came up for the ceremony and flew back right after it was over. There wasn’t time for a party. But there is now.” She gave him her most beguiling smile. “This way, we can really show you off.”
He didn’t want to be shown off. He wanted to take a quick shower and kick back for the evening. Maybe just bask in being in the same area as the rest of his family.
“I’m kind of tired, Lily.”
Lily wasn’t about to let him back away. She threaded her arms through his.
“No excuses, big brother. You wouldn’t want to buck tradition, would you? It’s bad luck. The miners are a very superstitious bunch. They wouldn’t take it kindly if you turned your back on tradition.”
Kevin sighed. “Wouldn’t want to annoy the miners,” he murmured. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad. “Who’ll be there?”
“Everyone,” Max told him. “There isn’t enough room inside for everyone at the same time. But it’s still warm enough for them to mill around outside.”
They all knew that temperature here was a temperamental thing. It was August, but even if the sun didn’t go down as it should, the temperature did at times, dropping down into the mid-forties without warning.
Despite the town’s sudden growth spurt and new enterprises, the Salty Saloon still held the title as the favorite gathering place for the residents of Hades and its outlying regions. Owned by Ike Le Blanc and his cousin, Jean Luc, Alison’s husband, it had been the beginning of the two cousins’ business venture. Its success was indirectly responsible for their eventually buying the general store, restoring the town’s defunct movie theater, beginning renovations on the town’s one hotel and, now, investing in Lily’s proposed restaurant.
Her mind racing with details she needed to take care of, primarily cornering Ike to let him know what she was up to and having Luc spread the word around town about the party, Lily quickly brushed a kiss against Kevin’s cheek. “Jimmy’ll drop you off at the house and then I’ll come for you in half an hour or so.”
Kevin’s eyebrows drew together. Why couldn’t they just proceed on to the saloon and be done with it?
But he knew better than to ask Lily for an explanation. She’d always had her own unique way of doing things and hated being questioned. Besides, he welcomed the few minutes to himself so that he could work on his enthusiasm about this so-called party in his honor. While he was happy to see everyone, the nagging thought that this was only temporary, that all too soon he’d be returning home alone after Lily’s wedding, adhered to him like a slow-moving slug leeching at his happiness. He had to work his way through that before he went to the Salty.
He nodded at her compliantly. “Whatever you say, Lily.”
“See?” She turned her face up to Max. “That’s how it’s done.”
Max merely grinned as he took her hand and walked back to their vehicle.
Kevin envied them their happiness, even as he was glad for them.
There was an entire wall of people in every direction. Noise assaulted him as voices mixed with music. The smell of alcohol and smoke was everywhere. Kevin turned to the woman who had been sent to fetch him when Lily failed to turn up as promised.
“Are you sure this isn’t a fire hazard?”
June grinned and shook her head as she elbowed her way in, cutting a path for him as well. “Most of the volunteer fire fighters are in here already.” She raised her voice as the din went up a notch. “They don’t seem to have any objections.”
He had no idea who the firefighters were, but the mellow, tolerant mood that generally permeated the crowd was very apparent.
“That’s because most of them are probably feeling no pain,” he guessed.
June looked at him. Was that a judgmental tone? Because of the noise, she couldn’t quite tell. She tried to recall if she’d ever seen him with a drink in his hand, other than toasting Jimmy at his wedding. She couldn’t remember. The details of the last wedding were blurry, except for the fact that she’d thought he was one of the best-looking men she’d ever seen. With his jet-black hair, worn a bit long, his piercing green eyes and high cheekbones, he looked like Jimmy, only better.
“You don’t drink?” she asked.
Right about now, he thought, a drink sounded like a pretty good thing to him. “I never said that.”
“Then follow me.” Taking his hand, she began to weave her way through the sea of bodies to the bar. “What’s your pleasure?” she tossed over her shoulder.
The words were eaten up by the din. He raised his voice. “What?”
June stopped. Turning, she leaned in to him. Her hair, worn loose tonight even though she hadn’t changed her clothes from earlier today, brushed against his face. “What’s your pleasure?” she repeated.
You.
The silent response caught Kevin completely by surprise. Where the hell had that come from? He didn’t think about her in those terms. In comparison to him, she was a child, for heaven’s sakes. Why had he even thought that?
Simultaneously clearing his mind and his throat, Kevin said, “Scotch and soda,” a tad too loudly.
She nodded. Her hair seemed to shimmy as it flowed about her shoulders. Kevin stifled the urge to thread his fingers through the strands and push them away from her face.
June was still holding on to his hand. He shoved the other one into his pocket to stay on the safe side.
“Sounds simple enough,” she acknowledged.
Reaching the bar, she elbowed her way in and met with resistance. The man to her right wasn’t budging. Tall and muscular, he was taking up more than his allotted share and laughed when she tried to get him to move. June frowned, annoyed.
“Hey, Haggerty, leave a little room for the guest of honor,” she told him.
The man grinned down at her. “I’d rather leave just enough room for you, June. Say, about this much?” Holding his hands apart, he indicated the tiny pocket of area right before his torso.
Taking a step forward, Kevin found his way impeded by her hand as she waved him back. He saw June’s profile become rigid. “Only if you want to sing soprano, Haggerty.”
The man’s grin only broadened as he struck a cocky stance. “Oh, a few minutes with me, June, and I could have you singing another tune.”
All the protective instincts he’d developed over the years galvanized in a single movement. “The lady asked you to move.” Ignoring the glare June tossed his way, Kevin stepped in front of her. “I suggest you do that while you’re still able to do so on your own power.”
Haggerty’s grin hardened a little. The man’s eyes swept over him, looking him up and down. Kevin had no idea what conclusion was reached, only that he wasn’t about to back down.
And then Haggerty snorted. “Bad luck to punch out the guest of honor on his first night in Hades.” He drained his mug, then set it down on the counter with a slam. “Guess I’ll have to wait on that.”
Kevin didn’t look away. “Guess so.”
And suddenly Ike was on the other side of the counter, breaking up the tension with his easy voice. “On the house, Haggerty.” He placed a tall glass of stout beer before the miner. “As long as you drink it over there.” He pointed to a pocket of space at the far end of the saloon.
Haggerty’s eyes lowered to the drink. When he raised them again, his expression could almost be called amiable. He picked up the glass. “I never said no to anything free.”
Ike watched him until Haggerty was well out of earshot, then turned his attention to the two people directly before him. He wiped away a smudge on the bar. “What’ll it be?”
“Scotch and soda,” Kevin told him.
Reaching under the bar, Ike brought out the good stuff and began to pour. “Goes without saying that yours is free, too, Kevin.” He pushed the glass toward his guest. “And a bit of advice to go with it. Next time, pick on som
eone your own size,” he cautioned, “not a gorilla.”
Kevin lifted the chunky glass in his hand. “He was bothering June.”
June squared her shoulders. At five-one, she was the shortest in her family, as well as the youngest, and took offense easily because of both. “I can handle myself.”
He wasn’t about to argue with her. “Always nice to have backup.”
Ike grinned and leaned over the bar, as if to impart some deep wisdom.
“Listen to the man, darlin’. There’s strength in numbers.” He glanced over to the man who was standing nursing his beer, watching them even as he was talking to someone at his side. “To my recollection, Ben Haggerty’s not a mean drunk, but there’s always a first time.”
She shrugged, picking up the tall, foamy mug that Ike placed before her. “Worse comes to worst, I can have Max arrest him.”
“Won’t do you much good if it’s after the fact, darlin’,” Ike commented. Someone at the far end of the bar raised his hand and called his name, though the latter melted into the din before it reached him. “Well, I’m off.” He paused to nod at the glass in Kevin’s hand. “Let me know when you need another.” With that he moved to the other end of the bar.
Taking a long sip, Kevin looked over toward where Haggerty had gone. The man was no longer looking at them. “He give you trouble before?” Kevin wanted to know.
June took a long swig of her beer, then wiped away the foam from her upper lip. “Haggerty?” Kevin nodded in response and she shrugged. “No more than some of the others.”
“The others?” Just how many men came on to Max’s sister?
She hadn’t given it much thought. She did now as she considered his question. “The other men.” Despite the sparse lighting in the saloon, she could almost see the thoughts as they formed in Kevin’s eyes. She wasn’t sure if she should be insulted or touched. She settled for giving him an explanation. “Kevin, the men outnumber the women in Hades about seven to one and the winter nights out here do get lonely.” She shrugged again. “Sometimes the men get a little pushy, but we’ve never had anyone assaulting a woman if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s not that kind of a place.”
She was young and innocent, he thought. Too bad the world wasn’t that way. “Every place is that kind of a place.”
She shook her head, amused, as she took another long sip. “Spoken like a man from the big city.”
“No, spoken like a man who’s been around, who knows that human nature isn’t always as kind as we’d like it to be.”
There was more, but it wasn’t his place to tell her about Alison, about the way a trusted family friend had, under the guise of comforting her over her father’s death, gone too far and scarred her so much as a young woman that it became almost impossible for her to ever be intimate with a man. That had it not been for Luc and his overwhelming gentleness, his sister might still be alone and hurting. It would have proved his point, but he had no intentions of revealing Alison’s personal business to do it.
Finishing her beer, she set her glass down on the bar and then looked at him. A slight frown played on her lips. “Why do you do that?”
He didn’t follow her. “Do what?”
Her brow furrowed with impatience. “Why do you talk as if you’re an old man?”
He wasn’t aware that was what he was doing, only that he was trying to make her a little less trusting. Better safe than sorry. “Well—”
“You’re not, remember? I thought we settled that on the plane.” She cut him off before he could offer an explanation. She didn’t want one, all she wanted was for him to realize that he was still in the prime of his life.
He looked around. It was hard to judge how old most of the men in the area were. But he felt it safe to venture that they were closer to his age than to hers. “Maybe not if you consider the men in the bar.” And then he looked pointedly at her. Funny, she made him feel old and young at the same time. But chronology was chronology. “But I am, in comparison to you.”
She was very, very tired of being thought of as the baby in the bunch. She’d already run her own business and sold it at a profit and was now engaged in a second career. What did it take to get through to these people that she was a grown woman?
“I’m not a child.”
He smiled at her. “I didn’t say that.”
She didn’t care for the indulgence she saw in his eyes. She didn’t like being humored or patronized, only acknowledged. “And I can take care of myself.”
He nodded. “You already said that.”
Annoyed, she blew out a breath, trying not to lose her temper. “So, what is there left to say?”
She reminded him a great deal of his sisters when they were being particularly stubborn. “Anything you want.”
Somehow, through the ebbing and flowing of the crowd, they’d managed to be moved toward the door again. She took a deep breath of the outside air that had found its way into the establishment and calmed down a little. “All right, why are you so sad?”
He could only shake his head. “You don’t mince words, do you?”
She knew she was outspoken and made no apologies for it. “We live life at a different pace up here. We don’t move fast, but we don’t miss an opportunity to say what we mean, either. We’ve got earthquakes, avalanches and cabin fever, and there might not be another chance, so we don’t pass them up when they come.” She fixed him with a penetrating look. “And you’re avoiding the question. Why are you so sad?”
When she looked at him like that, he found he had trouble focusing his thoughts. “I’m not sad.”
“Now you’re lying,” she said with equal bluntness. June shrugged. “That’s okay, you don’t have to answer my question. To you, I’m just a nosy stranger.”
He didn’t want her to think that was the way he saw her. Or that he was deliberately shutting her out. June was family, even if just extended, and family was the most important thing in the world to him. It always had been. “My whole family’s up here. I miss them.”
The answer was simple from where she stood. “Then stay.”
She was very, very young, wasn’t she? “Things are more complicated than that.”
She decided she liked him. Really liked him. And as such, she decided that he needed her help. The man had to lighten up just a little or he really was going to become old before his time.
She placed a hand on his shoulder, commanding his undivided attention. “Things only get as complicated as you let them, Kevin.”
Chapter Four
June paused for a moment, letting her hand drop to her side, as if suddenly aware of crossing some personal line that needed to remain uncrossed. “You have a woman back in Seattle?”
“What?” Kevin was thunderstruck by the question.
Amusement curved her mouth. “A woman. A female companion. A softer version of you,” she added when he made no response. “Do you have one of those back in Seattle?”
He had no idea why he had to keep blocking the urge to touch her. “No, what makes you ask?”
She would have thought that was obvious. Kevin was looking at her oddly. Did he think she was interested in him? It certainly wasn’t meant to be a personal question on her part.
“Well, that’s the only complicating factor I can think of. You sold your business. You just said that everyone you care about is up here.” She connected the dots for him. “That means that you’re perfectly fancy-free if you want to be.”
Oh, when had life ever been that easy for him? He couldn’t think back that far. “You’re twenty-two, aren’t you?”
Because he was Lily and Jimmy’s brother, she fought her natural tendency to take offense. Instead, she kept her voice calm, even. “That has nothing to do with it. I was born old.”
Wasn’t that always the mantra with people who were too young? he mused. His eyes swept over her face. Her perfect, smooth, heart-shaped face. “You don’t look all that old to me.”
“I could sa
y the same about you.” Her smile flashed, casting a spectrum like the northern lights. Mostly within him. “Of course you might need to take a little closer look at me. It’s daylight out here, but your eyes can still play tricks on you.” As if to underscore her point, June stepped closer to him, raising her face up for his inspection.
He doubted if he’d ever seen a complexion so flawless. Or compelling. The woman could have easily done commercials for soap.
“No, no tricks,” he murmured. Other than the one his own pulse was executing by vibrating faster than he could ever remember it having done before. “You still look as if the dew hasn’t come off your life.”
There it was again, that unintentional patronizing attitude. “You’d be surprised, ‘old man’.” The grin entered her eyes and then slowly, enticingly, faded as she looked up into his face. From out of nowhere came the feeling that everything had stood still and was holding its breath within her. It took her a second to find her voice, another to dig up her bravado. “So, do I kiss you, or do you kiss me?”
He suddenly couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than to do just that. To kiss her, to feel her lips against his.
But that would be as wrong as wrong could be.
He smiled for her benefit. “Neither. If I kissed you, I’d be robbing the cradle. If you kissed me, there’d be a riot scene.” He nodded toward the men standing just inside the Salty, many of whom were looking at them and trying hard to appear as if they weren’t.
The stillness within her left, to be replaced by the pounding of her heart as it tried to come to terms with anticipation and something that looked as if it wasn’t going to be.
“Afraid?” June challenged. She tossed her hair behind her shoulder in a movement that Kevin found impossibly sexy. “I would have never pegged you for being afraid of trying something new.” She turned neatly on her heel, heading for the entrance, her voice incredibly nonchalant. “Your loss.”
The Bride Wore Blue Jeans Page 4
