Wild Iris Ridge (Hope's Crossing) Page 8

  The crazy man intended to walk her up to Iris House. She stopped there with her hand on the doorknob. “It’s half a block. You don’t have to come with me.”

  “Yeah. I do.”

  “What about the kids?”

  “They’ll be okay for five minutes.”

  “This from the fire chief?”

  “I’ll be in sight the whole time and can be back in sixty seconds from anywhere on the block. If it makes you feel better, I’ve got a baby monitor I use when I’m working out in the yard after they’re in bed. I just need to plug it in. The signal reaches at least as far as Iris House so we can hear if either of them wakes up.”

  She wanted to insist he march right into his bedroom and catch some of that sleep he so obviously needed. But then, she’d never exactly been the Mother Hen type, and this seemed an odd time to start. Besides, she was just too tired to get into it with him.

  She waited a moment while he found the monitor and set it up in the hallway so he could hear the children if they called out, then he stuck the handset in his pocket and they walked out into a quiet night, cool and lovely with gleaming streets and the breeze heavy with the scent of rain-drenched pine.

  At just past 1:00 a.m., most of Hope’s Crossing slept. She could see a light on below here and there, but most houses were dark. Once, she knew who lived in most of the houses on this street, but it had changed since that brief time she lived here with Annabelle so long ago.

  Change was inevitable. Nothing stayed the same in life. Why hadn’t she kept that in mind these past few years at NexGen and prepared a little better for it?

  She breathed in deeply of the sweet air that made her want to go on a long walk in the mountains, something she had learned to love during her time here in high school.

  She certainly hadn’t done enough of enjoying the outdoors in Seattle. She had lived in a beautiful place but working sixteen-hour days didn’t allow much free time to enjoy it.

  That wasn’t a problem now. She had nothing but time.

  They were almost to Iris House when she finally asked the question that had been plaguing her since he dragged her into his house and told her she was an answer to prayer.

  “How do you manage everything now? The kids, your job. It can’t be easy. Do you ever think about working somewhere with a more regular schedule?”

  “It’s a juggling act sometimes, but I have a lot of help. Pop. Charlotte. Erin—that’s Andrew’s wife. I try to work around the kids’ schedule, and I also have a good babysitter and quasi housekeeper who comes in and spends the night when I’m on the overnight shift. Linda Madison. She actually lives right there.” He pointed to a house that was two doors down from Iris House, now dark and shuttered.

  “The name seems familiar but I can’t picture her.”

  “She taught at the elementary school for years. Second grade. She was good friends with my mom. And Annabelle, too.”

  “Oh, I think I remember her now. Red hair and those big, swoopy kind of glasses.”

  “That’s her. Her hair is still red but her glasses are smaller now, you’ll be happy to know.”

  “Whew. That’s a relief.”

  He lifted his mouth a little but didn’t give in to a full-on smile.

  “She doesn’t have any grandchildren so she’s kind of adopted mine, which works out great for everyone. The only problem is, she’s gone on a once-in-a-lifetime cruise through the Panama Canal for the next few weeks so I’m on my own,” he said, just as they reached the iron fence encircling Iris House. “We’re managing, though. Most of the time.”

  He reached to open the gate for her. “So you’re really going to turn this old place into a bed and breakfast?”

  “That’s the plan for now. Who knows? I may change my mind and decide it’s too much work. It’s probably smarter to just sell it and let someone else assume all the risk and the effort.”

  “You’re not usually the sort to back down from a challenge.”

  “Not usually. But I’ve also learned over the years to pick my battles. Sometimes the fight just isn’t worth it.”

  “True enough.”

  “You’d better get back to the children.”

  “Yes. Good night. Thanks again.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  He turned to walk home but on impulse she followed him through the gate. “You know I love being with Faith and Carter, right?” she said. “Right now I’ve got nothing else pressing on my time. I would be happy to help you with them whenever you need, at least until Mrs. Madison returns.”

  His gaze narrowed in the slice of moonlight between two clouds. “I don’t need your help. I’ve got it covered,” he answered, his voice clipped.

  Just what she needed tonight. Another stupid rejection. “Of course you do,” she returned in what she hoped was a calm voice instead of the angry words she wanted to snap back.

  “Sorry I presumed.”

  She reached for the gate behind her and struggled with the latch in the darkness. After a moment, he sighed and reached out to help her open it. His hand covered hers, the strength and size and heat a vivid contrast to the cold, wet metal.

  “Lucy. I’m sorry. I’m a bear tonight.”

  “Tonight?” she asked caustically.

  “Yeah. Most of the time, probably. Tonight is...worse than usual. A couple of hours ago, we were called out to a double fatality. A couple of tourists. A young couple from Nebraska. The guy was speeding in the rain up the canyon and flipped their rental.”

  In that wedge of moonlight, she thought the lines looked a little deeper beside his mouth. “Oh, no.”

  “Fatalities always hit my guys hard, even when we don’t know the people. It’s a reminder that we’re all a heartbeat away from losing everything we care about.”

  He would know that more than most. Her heart squeezed in her chest, and she couldn’t help reaching out to touch his arm.

  Again, his heat seemed to draw her like a warm fire on a cold winter’s night. Without the chimney fire, of course.

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly.

  He gazed down at her for a long moment and something seemed to shiver awake between them, like a great slumbering creature that had just shaken off a long subterranean hibernation and finally wandered into the sunshine.

  “A little more grumpiness than usual is completely understandable,” she added.

  Though she didn’t want to give up the heat and comfort of touching him, she forced herself to withdraw her hand. “I meant what I said about the kids. I really do love their company. They can help me at Iris House as I go through each room and start cleaning out.”

  “I appreciate the offer. If I can’t make things work the way we usually do things, I know where to find you. Good night.”

  He waited by the gate until she had let herself into the house. Once she closed the door behind her, she looked out through the wavy original oval glass pane on the front door and watched him walk back through the rain-slick streets, remembering another rainy night so long ago.

  It was late May, she remembered. Memorial Day weekend. She had been twenty-one and had just finished her undergraduate degree in computer science and marketing in a fast-paced three years. She had taken an internship at NexGen but wasn’t due to start for a few weeks so she had decided to come spend some time with Annabelle and Jessie, who had graduated from college the year before and was teaching first grade at Hope’s Crossing Elementary School.

  Unfortunately, she planned the trip without talking to Jess, and it turned out her cousin had already made plans for the weekend to fly to San Diego with some friends so they could hit the beach after a long Hope’s Crossing winter.

  She had invited Lucy along, but Lucy was going to be spending the summer being extremely underpaid in an expensive city and
had decided she couldn’t justify the cost of the trip.

  Jess offered to stay home, too, so they could enjoy a visit together, but Lucy knew her cousin didn’t have an unlimited budget, either, and would lose the money she had already paid for her share of the trip, so she encouraged her to go.

  Friday night, she had been at loose ends at Iris House and one of her friends from high school, Sara Benevidez, had called her, wanting to go listen to a live band at The Speckled Lizard—a rather disreputable bar in town where some of the cute tourists tended to hang out.

  She had agreed, though cute tourists were definitely not on her radar. She had decided not to date until she had met a few of her career goals.

  She could picture that beautiful spring night at The Liz vividly. The honky-tonk band that hadn’t been half-bad, a little dancing, a few margaritas, a little lighthearted conversation. In Boulder, she was so focused on her schoolwork that the renowned party scene there had sort of slipped by her. That night, it had felt great to let her hair down and remember she was a twenty-something about to embark on the rest of her life.

  And then Brendan walked in with one of his brothers. Jamie, the helicopter pilot.

  She recognized them as Caines right away. Big, built, great-looking.

  She’d never met Brendan, but she knew who he was. He was five years older and something of a legend around Hope’s Crossing. He had been a star running back on the high school football team and had gone on to play college ball and had a few pretty good years for the Broncos before suffering a career-ending injury.

  She figured she had nothing at all in common with a former professional athlete. Still, he rated off the charts on her own personal yum scale. The dark hair, those blue eyes, the chiseled features and wide shoulders.

  After Jamie Caine came over to talk to Sara—who had apparently gone out with him a time or two, as had half the women in town—somehow they ended up sharing a table with the brothers. Sara and Jamie had been flirting heavily and not paying attention to either of them, which left her matched up with Brendan by default.

  He had just moved back to town after years away to take a job with the fire department, and she had found it incredibly sweet that he was moving back to help protect and serve his hometown.

  Something about the beautiful spring night and the giddiness of having a man like Brendan look at her with interest—and maybe the simmering anticipation coursing through her veins at being about to embark on a new life—brought out a side of her she’d never expected. Where she was usually focused, serious, intense, that night she was actually vivacious and fun and flirty, all the things that seemed to come so easily to her friends.

  They danced, they laughed, they talked...and she lost a little of the heart she usually protected so carefully.

  When he walked her back to Iris House, he told her he wanted to see her again, but he was leaving for a couple of days on a quick hiking and fishing trip with Jamie while his brother was home on leave.

  She explained she was leaving the day before he got back for Seattle and her internship.

  His disappointment had been incredibly gratifying. She did scribble her email and phone number on a piece of paper she found in her handbag and he promised he would be in touch as soon as he returned.

  Then at the front gate that she could see gleaming black in the moonlight, he had kissed her.

  She let the curtain flutter close now, remembering. It had been intense and passionate, probably the most incredible kiss of her entire life. A kiss filled with promise and possibilities, with the budding of something wild and sweet and wonderful.

  She had gone to sleep that night—and for the next week—replaying that kiss in her mind, dreaming about him, wondering about him.

  He had never called her, of course.

  When he came back to town from his trip, he met Jess in all her tall blonde gorgeousness, and the fickle man forgot all about the strange, intense tech geek he had only known for a night.

  Why shouldn’t he? Jessie had been everything he was looking for. Sweet, warm, kind. And there. She loved Hope’s Crossing and wanted to stay in town and start a family, just like Brendan.

  She loved football and his family and him.

  They were perfect for each other—which hadn’t made Lucy feel any better about the situation when Jessie called her all giddy about the great guy she was dating and about how he might be The One.

  She sighed now and moved away from the door and into the huge, quiet house.

  She had tried to be happy for Jessie when, after a year of dating, Brendan proposed. After all, he was everything Jessie had ever dreamed about, and Lucy certainly wasn’t in the market for a big, gorgeous ex-football player turned firefighter, right?

  After her internship, she had taken a permanent job at NexGen and moved quickly up the ladder. As Jessie and Brendan settled down and bought the house she had just left, as Jess became pregnant quickly, as sweet Faith came along, Lucy threw all her energy, her effort, her loneliness into her career.

  As a result, she became the youngest director in the history of the company and had been on track to a vice presidency within the next two or three years, everything she told herself she wanted.

  That chance meeting on a long-ago night had meant nothing for either of them.

  So why couldn’t she seem to get it out of her head?

  * * *

  LUCY FREAKING DRAKE.

  Brendan stomped down the street without looking back at Iris House. He was angry with the world right now—at the food poisoning that had dragged him back to work on a night he wanted to be with his kids; at the stupid, pathetic tourist who didn’t understand the concept of driving safely for conditions and had paid for it with his life and the life of his new bride; at Lucy for showing up at his doorstep right when he needed her...and then for making him feel things he didn’t want to, ever again.

  For two years, since Jessie and the baby died, everything inside him had been on ice. A frozen block of nothing. He had been going through the motions, focused mostly on two things—doing his job and being the best damn father he could manage to Faith and Carter.

  He had achieved a place where, while he wouldn’t exactly call it peace, at least he wasn’t the crazed, grief-stricken, hot mess he had been in those first months after that life-changing-in-a-heartbeat moment when the doctors had come out of the E.R. treatment room to tell him his wife and child were gone.

  Gone.

  An otherwise healthy mother of two had been taken by a shocking, extremely rare complication of pregnancy, coronary artery dissection, a tear in an artery that allowed blood flow in places it shouldn’t be in the heart.

  She had gone into cardiac arrest in the grocery store and his own paramedics had been called to take her to the hospital. He’d been home with the kids when he got the phone call and by the time he frantically dropped Faith and Carter off with Mrs. Madison and flew to the hospital, she and the baby were already gone.

  It had been more than two years and he had eased into a routine of sorts as a widower. Everything had been going along fine. He had learned how to juggle a dozen plates at once and was doing his best to keep things rolling at a decent pace.

  Now Lucy Drake, with her dark curls and her big green eyes, had to blow back into his life and change everything.

  He didn’t want to be attracted to anybody. He wasn’t ready for the surge of his blood or the pound of his heart—and he sure as hell wasn’t prepared to be attracted to Lucy.

  She had never liked him and made no secret of it. She was abrasive and rude and went out of her way to try hitting all his hot buttons.

  At first, he figured he deserved it. She was the first and only woman he had been a complete ass to.

  They had kissed once—a pretty amazing kiss, yeah—and he had been really attracted to her, desp
ite their differences.

  A week hiking around the mountains around Hope’s Crossing on that fishing trip with Jamie had left him plenty of time to think, though, and the bald truth was, while Lucy had been great-looking and fun and exciting, she wasn’t what he wanted in life.

  He loved his hometown and now that he was back, he couldn’t imagine living anyplace else, while she had been brimming over about the excitement of city life and how she couldn’t wait to move to Seattle and start her fast-paced career.

  He’d known he wanted to build a family and a home here, so what was the point in starting a relationship with a woman who had made no secret she wanted none of those things?

  End of story, he’d figured.

  He hadn’t called or emailed her as he promised, figuring the heat between them would fizzle and die without an oxygen source. Though he felt like a jerk about it, he didn’t quite know how to explain to someone as smart and savvy as Lucy that he was entering the dating game with an eye on the long play.

  He figured, it had only been a kiss. Her heart wouldn’t exactly have been broken. Besides, she was busy with a new job, a new city, and had probably forgotten all about him.

  Then he met Jess one afternoon at her summer job waiting tables at one of the restaurants at the resort and fell hard for her, not even knowing at first that Lucy was her cousin and best friend until their third date, when she had finally given him her address and he realized she lived at Iris House with Annabelle Stanbridge.

  He had awkwardly asked Jess about Lucy, and she had gushed about how much she loved her cousin and was so proud of her. He had almost stopped dating her right then, figuring things had become too messy, but Jess had been sweet and warm and he had needed that in his life at the time.

  Still, Lucy had always been the fly in the ointment of their peaceful marriage. He always left their interactions feeling vaguely guilty, like he was some big, heartless player—not to mention that she had done her best to talk Jessie out of marrying him, which still rankled.