Читать книгу The Home Is Where The Heart Is Collection - Maisey Yates - Страница 19
ОглавлениеAIDAN TOOK HIS TIME checking on Jemma, their foaling mare, talking to her, making sure she had the special feed mix the vet had recommended.
He knew his efforts were completely unnecessary as Jim did an excellent job managing the horses, but it gave him a good excuse to keep a little distance between him and Eliza and to work on trying to rein in this crazy attraction he hadn’t been able to shake all day.
This stupid season—this time for family, for connection—was seriously messing with him, especially this year, when he had almost lost everything.
He didn’t want to be so drawn to her and her cute little girl.
Yes, Eliza Hayward was a lovely woman—soft, curvy, with an air of delicate vulnerability he found intensely appealing.
She made him want to take care of her, to tuck her close and protect her from the hardships of life—an impulse he knew was completely ridiculous, not to mention chauvinistic and also unnecessary. He had only known her a day but he already knew Eliza Hayward had a fierce independent streak and seemed to be doing a fine job of managing life on her own, including raising a child with health challenges.
He admired many things about her, including her willingness to jump right in where she saw a need—specifically decorating his Christmas tree.
He had never been so immediately and forcefully drawn to a woman. Even BethAnn the Betrayer had taken a few months to pierce through his natural defenses and gain his trust—and that had happened when he was a naive college student living far from the security of home and still raw and grieving from his mother’s death.
He wasn’t that dumb, hungry kid anymore. BethAnn had taught him to be cautious and vigilant, especially when it came to women who appeared sweet and needy on the outside but could be cold, calculating, soulless bitches beneath the fluttering eyelashes and shy smiles.
Eliza had secrets. He hadn’t missed the shadows in her eyes or the way she carefully evaded certain topics, like her husband. In all likelihood, she was exactly as she appeared—a widow who had sustained some tough breaks lately.
Or she could be a con artist who had manipulated him and the events of the past twenty-four hours to her best advantage.
He couldn’t quite believe that one, but he would be a fool to let the magic and wonder of Christmas overshadow his own hard-won common sense.
He hadn’t been a fool in a long, long time.
Okay, he might have made a few irrational decisions during the summer—like purchasing three hundred acres on an Idaho lake, along with six commercial buildings and a factory he didn’t know what the hell to do with. But that had been a fluke, a medically induced anomaly. He was all better now, back on track, clearheaded and completely rational.
Maybe this attraction to Eliza—this yearning he also didn’t know what the hell to do with—was simply an unexpected side effect of that brush with mortality. Maybe she represented the world he had consciously given up when he set out to create the dynasty that would become Caine Tech.
Whatever the reason, he needed to keep his distance from her until his family arrived. After that, he would be so busy keeping all the Caines happy and entertained, not to mention avoiding Pop’s entirely too perceptive gaze, to have time to do something crazy like fall for a woman he barely knew.
He fed Jemma one of the apples he had also filched from the kitchen. “Here you go. There’s a good girl,” he murmured to her and received a nuzzle in return.
With a wish that all females could be so uncomplicated, he headed back to Eliza and Maddie. Eliza was on the bench in the middle of the barn petting Argus, who was clearly infatuated, while Maddie carried on an in-depth conversation with Cinnamon about Santa Claus and whether the horse might be able to talk on Christmas Eve, along with the rest of the animals.
He remembered his mother telling him and his brothers that old folk belief, that the magic of Christmas extended to animals being able to talk only on Christmas Eve. One year when he was about seven, he and Brendan had stayed up past midnight trying to get their big yellow Lab, Chester, to say something besides woof. Chester hadn’t been the brightest bulb on the tree under the best of circumstances and apparently Christmas Eve hadn’t suddenly endowed him with any particular linguistic skills.
“Are you ladies ready to head back to the house?”
Eliza nodded. “Come on, Maddie. Let’s put your mittens back on.”
“I don’t want to leave yet. Cinnamon is my second best friend now, after Bob.”
“You can visit her another day,” Eliza promised.
“Can I ride her sometime?”
“We’ll see,” Eliza said as she finished putting on the mittens. “Okay. We’re ready to go.”
He opened the door for them and immediately snowflakes swirled inside.
“It’s snowing again?” Maddie exclaimed. She sounded not quite as excited about the continuing storm as she had earlier in the day.
“Looks like it,” he answered.
Eliza lifted her face up to the flakes. “I can’t believe this. At least another two inches of snow fell in the half hour we were in the barn.”
“It’s supposed to taper off tonight.”
Maddie gamely trudged through the heavy snow for a few feet, until he reached down and lifted her up and onto his shoulders again. She didn’t weigh much, probably not even fifty pounds.
“Look how pretty it is,” she said, her voice soft and almost reverent. “The snowflakes look like little angels with parachutes.”
“If that’s the case,” her mother said from beside them, “you’ve got an angel on your nose.”
Maddie giggled and lifted her hand from his head. He couldn’t see her but he assumed the wriggling he felt behind him came from her wiping it away.
“There. Is it gone?”
Eliza smiled softly at her daughter. Snowflakes tangled in her eyelashes and her pale pink beanie and the little pale freckles on her upper cheekbones. She was so lovely and he had a feeling she was completely oblivious to it, which somehow made her all the more appealing.
“That one is gone. You’ve got about four more all over your face.”
“Ack! Get off me, angels! Get off,” Maddie exclaimed with more giggles, which made Eliza smile.
He loved that about kids, he thought, as he led the way up the path to break a trail for Eliza. They had such a clear insight into the magic and wonder around them, a perspective that adults surrendered when worry over mortgages and car payments took over their imaginations.
When they neared the house, an unfamiliar beat-up pickup truck was parked under the porte cochere. He frowned, wondering who was crazy enough to brave the poor roads and snowy conditions. The pickup had a snowplow on it, half full of melting snow, and giant studded tires. Whoever was here must have plowed their way up the hill to Snow Angel Cove.
“Expecting somebody?” Eliza asked when they neared the house.
“Not that I know of. I suppose it could be someone with a delivery for Sue.”
“Great service, if it is.”
“Let’s find out.”
He opened the door leading into the mudroom and heard the sound of female voices coming from the kitchen. He swung Maddie off his shoulders to more of her giggles—man, a guy could get addicted to the sound of a kid laughing—then hung up his coat and the wool hat his physician insisted he wear against the elements. Eliza helped Maddie out of her coat and mittens and hung them and her own outerwear on a hook near his.
When Aidan went into the kitchen, he found Sue in the sitting room off the kitchen, along with the auburn-haired doctor from the emergency room and the woman who had come out of the store to help Eliza after the accident.
They were sipping coffee, a tray of pastries on the table between them, and seemed on the best of terms with Sue.
“Dr. Shaw!” he exclaimed. “And Mayor Shaw.”
They must be related, he suddenly realized as the surname finally clicked. He hadn’t made the connection until right then because they looked nothing alike—the doctor with her pale skin, green eyes and auburn hair and the incoming mayor with the dark hair and complexion that spoke of some sort of Hispanic or Native American heritage. They did share a similar bone structure and their mouths were the same, but the resemblance ended there.
“I’m not mayor until the first of January,” she said. The laughter in her dark eyes faded and she gave him a polite smile.
“How did you make it up the hill to Snow Angel Cove?” he asked them.
Dr. Shaw’s smile was slightly warmer though still not quite cordial. “Best investment I ever made, trading a year of waived office deductibles for Maisy Perkins and her kids in exchange for that old pickup. My nurse and office assistant both told me I was crazy, since Maisy herself is a hypochondriac and out of her six kids, two have asthma and two have brittle bones. Joke’s on them, right? Already this winter I’ve used that old pickup to get to the hospital more times than I can count when my own car was stuck, not to mention saved a fortune plowing the parking lot of my office. Hi, Eliza. Hi, Maddie.”
“Hi, Dr. Shaw,” Maddie said, skipping forward. “Guess what? I have a new best friend named Cinnamon. She’s a red horse.”
“Do you?” The doctor smiled kindly down at the little girl, no more immune to her charms than any of the rest of them.
“Hello,” Eliza said. “You’re sisters. I should have realized.”
“We are,” the physician said.
“Half sisters, actually,” McKenzie offered. “Same father, different mothers. And a long story.”
To him, her smile was the temperature of Lake Haven—colder maybe, since the lake never quite froze over—but to Eliza, her smile was as warm and welcoming as a mug of hot cocoa, with whipped cream on top.
“Devin was saying she wanted to check on you and I offered to tag along.”
“And here we are,” Dr. Shaw said. She reminded Aidan of a much calmer version of her sister, who seemed to vibrate with energy—along with the antipathy toward him he couldn’t miss, even though he didn’t quite understand it.
“I’ve been dying to see inside this place since Mr. Caine here took it over. We played here a lot when we were kids, when the Kilpatrick family used to own it. I hardly recognize the place now. With all the building permits that were railroaded through the town council the last few weeks, I knew it had to be spectacular and I was absolutely right. It’s just stunning.”
He didn’t miss the caustic edge in her tone. What beef did the mayor have against him? Yeah, he had caused an accident in front of her store but she had said herself the road conditions were at least partly to blame.
“I’m sorry you went to so much trouble,” Eliza said, a delectable hint of color on her cheekbones. “Especially unnecessary trouble. I am really doing much better, as you can see for yourself. A phone call could have saved you time and effort.”
Dr. Shaw studied her carefully. “I’m glad to see you’ve got a little color back. Yesterday you were so pale, I thought you were trying to camouflage yourself into the snow. Staying here at Snow Angel Cove appears to agree with you.”
Eliza cast a sideways glance in his direction and he was almost positive her blush intensified.
“It’s a lovely home and Sue is a fantastic cook, as I’m sure you have figured out.”
McKenzie, in the act of choosing another of Sue’s delicious lemon bars, grinned. “You know it, sister.”
“I love it here,” Maddie declared. “Did you know Mr. Aidan has six horses? And one is a pony named Cinnamon who is just the right size for a girl who will be six years old in February?”
“I did not know that,” Devin said. She smiled at the girl, though her gaze seemed sad somehow.
“We just went to see them and Cinnamon ate a carrot right out of my hand. It tickled.”
“Guess what?” McKenzie said. “I have a horse, too. His name is Darth Vader and he’s my best friend, too. Next to my sister, anyway.”
Both women seemed charmed by Maddie, which wasn’t surprising. She seemed to have that effect on people.
“I wish I had a sister,” she said wistfully. “Even a brother, I guess, if he wasn’t a pain.”
“I’ve got five of them and I’m usually more than willing to give a few away,” Aidan offered.
“I want a baby sister or brother,” she said. “Your brothers are probably old like you.”
McKenzie Shaw and Sue both chortled at that and Eliza groaned.
He was only thirty-seven and until that moment he thought he was in the prime of his life—the past few months notwithstanding—but he suddenly felt like he should be looking into buying a Jazzy and investing in denture cream.
“Sorry,” Eliza murmured.
“You’re the one under pressure to procreate, not me,” he said.
Her color returned in a delightful pink tide. “Why don’t you have a cupcake?” she suggested quickly to distract her daughter.
“How are you really feeling?” Devin asked. “I worried about you all night.”
“Oh, I wish you hadn’t. I’m fine. A little achy but that’s all.”
“Would you mind if I perform a quick exam? That’s the real reason I came, because I wanted to check your condition for myself.”
He liked the doctor more and more for her diligence.
“Please?” she pressed.
Eliza sighed. “It’s completely unnecessary, but since you’ve gone to so much trouble, I suppose I can’t say no.”
“Is there somewhere private we can go?”
She gestured toward the hallway leading to the cook’s quarters. “Back here to the rooms I’m moving into. There’s a comfortable sitting room there.”
“Perfect.”
As soon as they walked into the other room, Sue rose. “I need to take those chicken pot pies out of the oven if I don’t want them to burn.”
“Can I help?” Maddie asked.
“No, but you can keep me company,” Sue said. “Come on, kiddo.”
They headed hand in hand toward the oven. Though they were only fifteen feet away, it felt like a football field as he was now virtually alone with the prickly new mayor.
“Would you and your sister care to stay for dinner?”
“No,” she said abruptly.
The polite thing would probably be to make casual, meaningless conversation. He didn’t have much patience these days for doing the polite thing. “You don’t like me very much, Mayor Shaw. Care to explain what I’ve done to offend you in the twenty-four hours I’ve been in town?”
She looked guilty for a moment before she sighed. “Transference, Mr. Caine. Plain and simple.”
Against his better judgment, he was intrigued. The situation didn’t seem plain or simple to him.
“I don’t like you or not like you,” she went on. “How can I? I don’t even know you. I’m sorry if I’m acting otherwise. I’m just...angry at the person who sold you half of my town.”
“Ben Kilpatrick.”
At the name, she made a face as if she had tasted something particularly nasty in Sue’s lemon bars.
“Yes. Ben Kilpatrick.”
Her animosity toward his old friend was startling. Nearly everybody liked Ben—or respected him, anyway. He was one of the hardest-working men Aidan knew.
“I love Haven Point, Mr. Caine. This has been my home my entire life. I know you haven’t spent very much time here but when you do, you’ll see it’s a magical place, a good town full of kind, decent people who are struggling to survive.”
“What I’ve seen of it would certainly back you up on that.”
“It’s a nice enough town now, but you should have seen it a dozen years ago. This was a dynamic community with a thriving economy—thanks in large part to the Kilpatrick legacy. After Big Joe Kilpatrick died and Ben inherited his estate, everything started to fall apart.”
Ben never talked about his family. He ignored direct questions and subtly and skillfully deflected the indirect ones. “Why do you say that?”
The mayor frowned. “Before Big Joe was even in the ground, Ben closed the boat manufacturing plant that was our biggest employer around here. Two hundred people lost their jobs in a single afternoon and we’ve never recovered from the blow.”
That must be the large empty factory building he had bought when he wasn’t quite in his right mind. He had walked through the facility a month ago and wondered what the hell he was going to do with it.
“Ben turned his back on this town and everything we stand for,” McKenzie Shaw went on, her features growing more and more animated—and angry. “While he was off doing Lord knows what in California, he let Snow Angel Cove—his beautiful family home that his grandfather had built by hand—fall into complete disrepair. You’ve done wonders with it, by the way. I’ll give you that. The place really does look great.”
“Thank you.” At least she was no longer giving him the skunk-eye. He would have to warn Ben not to make any unexpected visits to town unless he wanted to be hauled out to the middle of the lake and dropped in.
“What he did to this house was a crying shame. What he did to Haven Point was criminal. He owned half the commercial buildings in town. As an absentee landlord, he did nothing to upgrade the infrastructure or even do basic repairs like plumbing or electrical work. One by one, businesses either moved into better facilities on the outskirts of town, relocated to Shelter Springs or folded completely. The rest of us are barely holding things together. Now that the inn has burned down, we’re down to a couple of restaurants, my flower shop, an insurance office, the bank, the copy shop and a few gift stores. It’s pathetic.”
She didn’t seem to expect a response from him, just went on as if she had been rehearsing this speech since the election.
“I love this town, Mr. Caine, and I understand we need investment and smart planning. As the new mayor of Haven Point, I am more than willing to work with you, whatever you decide to do with your property here. I would beg you not to simply sit on it and do nothing. Oh, and if you think you’re going to come in and build some big tourist trap resort that will suck all the personality and life out of my town, I will fight you with every last breath in my body.”
“You don’t want tourists?” he asked, surprised at her vehemence. His hometown, Hope’s Crossing, had a booming economy because of tourism.
“Short-term visitors are fine in moderation. Sure. We welcome and embrace them. Lake Haven is breathtaking and the Redemption Mountains offer endless recreational opportunities. People have been coming here for the benefits of the mineral hot springs since Native Americans first stumbled onto them generations ago. They’re necessary and important to the area but we can’t survive on tourism alone. We need long-term employment, jobs that pay enough to support families.”
She had gone from looking at him like he was Satan’s favorite cousin to gazing at him with a completely unwarranted hope, as if he could step in and solve all the town’s problems.
He had bought a vacation home to escape the pressures and demands of his frenzied life in California, for crying out loud—and he hadn’t been thinking very clearly when he did it. He wanted a place where he could fish and ride horses and be with his family, not another project.
He was trying to come up with a diplomatic way to tell her so when Eliza and Dr. Shaw returned.
They were smiling together and neither of them looked particularly worried, which he had to assume meant the doctor hadn’t found any unexpected problems in the impromptu examination.
“Since I know you’re only going to hound me to tell you after they left,” Eliza said to him, “I’ll save you the trouble. You’ll be relieved to know, everything checks out.”
He glanced at Dr. Shaw, who nodded. “She is in amazing condition for someone who was hit by an SUV yesterday.”
“Barely tapped,” Eliza muttered.
“Thank you for coming out all this way to make sure,” he said, ignoring that. He still broke into cold chills whenever he thought of it. “I appreciate your dedication. I asked your sister if you would like to stay for dinner. She declined but I will repeat the invitation. We would love to have you.”
The two sisters exchanged an unspoken communication. “We can’t,” Dr. Shaw said reluctantly. “I have a few other patients I wanted to check in on during the storm. Thank you, though. And thank you, Sue, for the coffee and delicious treats.”
“I enjoyed the visit,” Sue said. She came over carrying a white paper bag. “I wrapped up some of the nibbles for you to take with you.”
“Wow! Thanks!” McKenzie Shaw exclaimed, looking far too fresh-faced to be on the brink of assuming the town’s mayoral position.
“You’re welcome. You two be careful out there.”
“We will. Can I use your ladies’ room before we hit the road?” McKenzie asked.
“Certainly. I’ll show you where it is,” Eliza said. She led her toward the front of the house to the guest powder room.
“Mr. Caine, could I speak with you for a moment?” Dr. Shaw said when the other two women were out of earshot.
Was he about to get another lecture on his responsibilities to the town? He sighed but didn’t know how to avoid it. “Certainly.”
She glanced over to the kitchen where Sue was pouring Maddie a glass of juice. “Somewhere private?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Of course.”
He led the way through the house to his office. “Actually, I’m glad for the chance to speak with you, Dr. Shaw. I know Eliza said she was fine but do you still have any areas of concern about her physical condition we should know about?”
“You know I can’t tell you anything more, Mr. Caine. Confidentiality laws and all. If it sets your mind at ease, I can let you know I told her I see no reason to schedule a follow-up.”
He felt as if a weight the size of one of his horses had just been lifted from his shoulders. “That helps. Thank you.”
“I asked to speak to you because I wanted to ask how you are.”
He picked a pen up from the desk and idly twirled it through his fingers. “Fine. I was completely unhurt. Shaken up, maybe, but physically fine.”
“I’m not talking about the accident,” she said, her voice quiet.
His fingers tightened on the pen. “I don’t know what you mean,” he lied.
“Don’t you?” Though she spoke the words quietly, he saw firm knowledge in her eyes. “I saw the incision at the hospital yesterday when you ran your fingers through your hair. It’s quite well hidden by your hair but not completely concealed. Tumor?”
He could bluff here and lie to her. It would be the safest route because of the secrecy that had been so carefully maintained for the last three months. What would be the point? She wasn’t a stupid woman.
“Before I say anything else, I must demand absolute discretion from you. You cannot mention this conversation to anyone. By some miracle, we have managed to keep it a secret from the media and I intend to keep it that way.”
“I would lose my medical license if I casually chatted about my patients’ medical history, Mr. Caine. And before you tell me you’re not my patient, you live in my town now. That makes you mine, whether you ever come into my office or not.”
In her way, she was as committed to Haven Point as her sister, the mayor, he realized. “I appreciate that. I’m sure you understand that I cannot be too careful in my circumstance.”
“I do. So was it a tumor?”
He had kept this a secret for so long, he found it difficult even to form the words. “Yes. Benign meningioma.”
“Ah. Benign. That must have been a relief.”
He thought of those two weeks of hell when he hadn’t been sure. The entire time as they waited for tests, he hadn’t been able to shake the dark memories of his mother’s lingering, horrible cancer death. He just figured he would buy a one-way-ticket to Africa, wander into a veldt somewhere and let the lions have at him.
In those two weeks, everything in his life had come into sharp, raw focus and he had come to the stark realization that though he had achieved incredible material and professional success, he still had hollows and spaces inside him he didn’t know how to fill.
“A relief. Yes. It started growing quickly and affecting function, which is how it was discovered in the first place, so the decision was made to remove it in September.”
“What sort of residual side effects have you seen in the last three months? Headaches?”
“Sometimes.” He considered headache a relative term for those moments when he wanted to rip his scalp right off his skull.
“Blackouts? Seizures?”
“You mean did I pass out when I was driving yesterday and endanger innocent pedestrians?” He didn’t bother to keep the testiness from his voice.
“I didn’t say that.”
He knew that hadn’t happened. He remembered each instant of the accident with vivid clarity, something he wouldn’t have been able to do if he had passed out.
“Since the surgery, I haven’t had any. Beforehand, yeah. The tumor was kind of a tangled mess. It made life...complicated.”
“I can imagine.”
She was quiet, green eyes filled with compassion. With that calm, trust-inducing bedside manner, she must be an extraordinarily good physician, he thought. He feared she would be one of those doctors who burned out quickly from caring too much for her patients.
“I’ve been cleared to drive again for the last six weeks.”
“I’m sorry I pressed you about it but I’m very glad you confided in me. I assure you, I will keep what you have shared with me confidential. I’m sure you have a strong support system around you and probably amazing physicians back in California but I understand how isolating a serious medical condition can be.” She handed him a card. “This is my cell number and my email. Please know you can contact me at any time if you have any concerns or questions while you’re in the Lake Haven area.”
“Thank you.”
He opened the office door for her and after a pause, she walked out and rejoined her sister and Eliza, who stood admiring the Christmas tree in the great room.
“Everything okay?” McKenzie asked with a curious look at her sister.
The physician gave her a casual smile. “Yes. I was just telling Mr. Caine here about the Lights on the Lake Festival and urging him to take his family while they’re here.”
“The Lights on the Lake Festival?” Eliza asked.
“Yes. It’s a week from today,” McKenzie said. “It’s great fun. You’ll love it! It’s a huge celebration in town where all the boat owners in Haven Point and Shelter Springs decorate their watercraft with Christmas lights and sail in a big parade from their marina to ours, three miles. There’s a big gift boutique, food vendors, music and then they light off fireworks over the lake.”
“In the cold?” Eliza asked.
“Everybody bundles up, warm and cozy, and the town puts little kerosene heaters all over downtown. I promise, you’ll have a great time.”
“You said it’s next Saturday?”
“Yes.”
“My family isn’t coming until the following Tuesday. The day before Christmas Eve.”
Too bad he hadn’t known about it earlier or he could have scheduled his family visit differently—though with all the complicated schedules, he wasn’t sure they could have pulled it off, anyway.
“Oh, that’s a shame,” McKenzie said. “It’s a can’t-miss event. But you all should definitely come. I promise, you’ll love it.”
“Sounds fun,” Eliza said. “Thank you for the information. And thank you especially for coming out in the storm to check on me. It was very kind of you. Both of you.”
“We take care of each other here on the lake,” Dr. Shaw said. “You’ll see that after you’ve been here a few months.”
Eliza looked regretful. “I’m afraid I won’t be here that long,” she answered. “I’m only staying here through the holidays to help Mr. Caine with his guests.”
“I understand from Megan Hamilton that you were supposed to start as her new manager today, until the place burned down yesterday,” McKenzie Shaw said.
Eliza made a face. “Yes. Obviously, yesterday was not the best day of my life.”
“No kidding! I’ll keep my eyes open to see if anybody else might be hiring in the area,” she offered.
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
“Oh, you’re welcome. We love when new people move in,” McKenzie said. She gave him a quick look. “Well, usually.”
He didn’t laugh but was surprised to find he wanted to.
“Kenz, we better go,” her sister said quickly.
“Yeah, you’re right. Places to go, people to see. You know how it is.”
They both hugged Eliza, who seemed surprised and touched by the gesture, then headed out into the softly falling snow.
