Taming His Montana Heart(38)
Chapter Thirteen
Shaw could tell Haley was distracted. She might be trying to decide whether she was ready to spend the evening with the man who signed her paycheck, but he wasn’t going to ask.
He figured she’d gone to her place and changed into the attention-grabbing long white knit sweater and black leggings before joining him in the lodge, but much as he’d like to believe she’d done that for him, he couldn’t. Maybe she’d gotten something on the snowsuit that was practically her uniform and had grabbed what was in her closet. What he did know was that he wasn’t sure he could get through the evening without touching her hair. It looked and smelled as if she’d just shampooed it and was that a bit of mascara?
So if she’d dressed with him in mind, why wasn’t she letting him know in subtle ways? Instead of leaning into him, she was sitting upright and sipping on hot cider while holding a green cookie in the shape of a tree. At the moment she was watching workmen reposition a ladder close to the twenty-something-foot tall evergreen that dominated the room. He sat near but not against her on a leather couch to the left of the fireplace. Many more than one employee had looked their way.
Three couples that he was aware of had fallen in love at Lake Serene. He and Haley were a long way from that happening to them and maybe he shouldn’t have reached out to her the way he had earlier today, but he had, and here they were.
The projected storm had held off until nearly dark but was now doing its thing. Thinking the parking lot might soon be impassable, he’d asked Haley whether she’d walked or driven. She’d explained that she’d walked the quarter of a mile from her place and had left her boots in the entryway, thus her socks.
“Are you tired?” he finally asked. “Maybe you’d rather go home?”
“What? No. What makes you say that?”
“You’re quiet. Maybe supervising tree decoration isn’t your thing.”
She stared at her half-full mug. “It’s something I haven’t seen much of but that isn’t—I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be distracted.”
“That’s all right.” He wasn’t sure it was.
When she leaned closer, he accepted that she was focused on keeping their conversation private, not intimacy. “You’re all right with this?” she asked.
“This?”
“Our being together.”
“We don’t owe anyone an explanation.”
“That’s not what I mean. I just don’t want our being together to make things uncomfortable for you.”
“They aren’t. What about you?”
She studied his knees. “I’m not sure what I feel.”
Despite his disappointment in hearing that, not that he could articulate his own emotions, he nodded. “Fair enough. Maybe we’ll get back to that later.”
“Maybe.” She watched the workmen for awhile. “Daron and I had a serious conversation this afternoon. I don’t know if I told him the right things.”
“About what?”
“Some stuff he’s going through. Daron feels trapped here.” She sipped on her cider. “I wouldn’t be surprised if most of the teenagers who live at Lake Serene feel the same way. It’s such an isolated community. Kids want to see what the rest of the world’s like.”
“I’d never try to stop them from trying their wings.”
“I feel the same way but Daron’s too young to do it on his own.” She laughed as one of the housekeepers draped a popcorn garland around her husband’s neck and pretended to choke him with it. “Besides, he feels responsible for his mother and siblings.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I suggested he set some short-term goals.” She started to cross her legs only to lose her balance on the couch’s soft cushions and tilt toward him. It was probably his imagination, what he wanted, but did she remain close to him longer than necessary?
“Hopefully he’ll take your advice,” he said even though right now he didn’t care about Daron. Shampoo had never smelled so incredible and her legs—distractible. “The important thing is not to nag,” he managed. “I’m not saying you would, but I resented anyone giving me advice when I was his age. What about you? Did you think you knew it all then?”
“I guess.”
She was avoiding, dancing away, keeping a wall around her past, making him wonder what lurked inside those walls. Maybe it was something not so different from what he kept to himself.
“Daron doesn’t see Lake Serene the same way I do,” she said. “He understandably feels hemmed in. In contrast, the longer I’m here, the more I appreciate it. Yes, there’s the resort with visitors everywhere but all around is unspoiled wilderness. It’s seductive.”
Seductive. “You’re in a pensive mood.”
“If I am, I think our trek into the backcountry plays a large role. I found a lot of myself there.”
Touched by how much she’d revealed, he could only respond with a nod.
Christmas carols had been playing in the background, but someone must have turned up the volume because suddenly music filled the room. He didn’t recall hearing anything about an ugly Christmas costume contest but maybe that explained why the half dozen children who’d just arrived were dressed as they were. One little guy wore an iridescent red sweater festooned with multicolored cloth balls. A girl Shaw figured to be nine or ten had on a sweater that had probably been white before someone washed it with colored garments. Someone had stapled a number of ribbons to it.