Taming His Montana Heart(3)

“Is too.”

Alexa pointed at Haley. “I can stay with her while you’re working.”

“Oh, you can, can you?” Shaw waved at a tall man making his way to them via the snow that had been pushed to the side of the road. “What if she’s working?”

“She isn’t. She’s talking about her tooth.”

Chuckling, Haley locked gazes with Shaw. Their relationship shifted a little, a subtle change that took it from one hundred percent professional to something she wasn’t sure she should or could explore but spoke to her on a deep level. She’d become part of Shaw’s personal life, at least briefly.

“Sorry,” Haley told Alexa. She wanted time to stop; to be given the opportunity to try to make sense of what had just happened between her and her employer and why it mattered as much as it did. “I have to go back to work in the morning. It wouldn’t be safe to have you around then.”

“What do you do?”

“Haley Walters is in charge of the snowmobiles.” Shaw supplied. “She’s right. It could be dangerous.”

“I love snowmobiles! Do yours go really fast?”

Alexa’s high laugh again joined with Shaw’s deeper one and warmed Haley’s heart. She shared yet another look with Shaw. This one said a great deal about loving a child’s view of the world.

“Not all the time,” Haley said. “And you can only be on one if you’re with an adult.”

Alexa scraped at the snow with her purple boot. “That’s not fair.”

“There’s a lot in life that isn’t fair, princess,” a different male voice said. “Look at you. If you get any more snow on your coat no one will know what color it is.”

That obviously made an impact on the girl, prompting her to try to brush it off. The snowfall had picked up a bit since Haley had gotten out of her car and the wind felt stronger. Dark clouds like heavy blankets added to the environment’s impact on her senses. She was glad she hadn’t waited until evening to return to Lake Serene. The last thing she needed was to be hit by some idiot who didn’t know how to drive in a storm.

Today had been only her fourth trip away from Lake Serene since she’d come to work here. Once her tooth had been dealt with and she’d gone grocery shopping, she’d debated spending a few hours reconnecting with civilization, but the worsening weather report had made up her mind for her. That and knowing Shaw wanted to see her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about again being surrounded by a wilderness anchored by a frozen lake.

A little isolated. Not sure she belonged here or wanted to.

Having nowhere else to go.

“I figured that daughter of mine would con you into playing in the snow with her,” Alexa’s father said to Shaw. “She can be pretty persuasive.”

Shaw smiled and again ruffled Alexa’s hair. “You know I love it.”

“Yeah.” Alexa’s father drew out the word. “I know you do. You need to get yourself one or more of these con artists.”

Shaw’s lack of a response might not mean anything, but Haley thought she detected longing in his expression. What was the saying, something about it being lonely at the top? The resort’s buck stopped at Shaw’s doorstep which made it a 24/7 job, but she wasn’t convinced it was that simple. Shaw was handsome, responsible, decisive, and intelligent. He managed the staff in a professional and even-handed way. He must have been like that for a long time to prompt his uncle to hire him. In the years before coming to Lake Serene, he must have met women who’d been drawn to his strong personality, women with the kind of strength and independence Shaw admired.

Shaking off the question of why she was contemplating Shaw’s qualifications as a husband and father and why those things hadn’t happened, she turned her attention to what he was saying to his brother. From what she gathered, the brother, his wife, Alexa, and a younger child had been here for several days. Although Shaw wanted them to stay longer, his brother and sister-in-law had a flight to catch and jobs to return to. Also they wanted to get to a lower altitude before dark.

“Thanks so much for coming,” Shaw said as he hugged his brother who was maybe an inch shorter with a bit of a paunch. “It means the world to me.”

Shaw’s brother grabbed his shoulders. “I’ll call before our flight takes off. Next time I’ll bring the folks. I’m sorry they couldn’t come.”

Sober, Shaw nodded. “So am I.”

“I just wish you lived closer. Hasn’t enough time passed that—”

“This is my life now. It’s better this way.”

“Is it?”

*

Haley was still trying to process the nuances of what the two men had said when she realized Shaw would have to walk back to the main resort complex unless she offered him a ride. When she did, she half expected him to turn her down since it was only about an eighth of a mile. Instead, after saying thanks, he climbed into the passenger’s seat. He didn’t take up much more room than the few other people she’d had in her vehicle, but she was more aware of his presence. It was just the two of them, the world no longer mattering. Nothing being said. His hands on his knees, he studied the interior while she turned on the engine. If he was taking note of how close they were to each other, he gave no indication. Maybe he was planning to tell her she wasn’t handling her job as well as he’d expected her to. She couldn’t think what she might have done wrong, didn’t want to think about their official relationship.