Taming His Montana Heart(47)

“You’d come to regret it. The slow cooker is my lifeline. So I take it this passes the test?”

“Absolutely.” He wanted to ask how she’d learned to cook but that person had probably been her mother.

As they ate, they talked about the drawbacks to living so far from town followed by admitting that most of the time it wasn’t a problem. At least they weren’t rehashing the weather, and he hadn’t said something dangerous like admitting she’d turned him on.

After Haley had cleaned up—she wouldn’t let him help—they went into the living room where the conversation briefly turned to politics. He thought he might have trouble coming up with much to talk about, but all it had taken was her asking how his niece was handling waiting for Christmas to get him going on his family. After telling her that Boone and Carol were being run ragged trying to keep Alexa’s little brother from tearing into the gifts, he asked about her nieces.

Her eyes glowed and she looked as if she didn’t have a care in the world while she extolled the benefits of Skype. She told him how the girls’ volleyball teams were doing and her brother’s admission that he was glad Kassi had broken up with the boy she’d been dating.

“Kassi had confided in me that the boyfriend wanted her to spend all her time with him,” Haley explained. She was rubbing her right knee which made concentrating on words difficult. “He got upset if she talked to any other boy. I tried to warn her about his possessiveness, but I wasn’t sure I was saying the right things.”

“Maybe she’s more likely to listen to you than her folks.”

“That’s why Mick and Carol brought me on board.” She smiled ruefully. “For some reason, Kassi thinks I have it all together.”

Smile like that again, please. “I’m looking forward to being seen as a fountain of knowledge by my niece and nephew.”

“I don’t think that stage lasts very long.”

“You’re probably right. We might as well enjoy being seen as the relative who has it all together for as long as we can.”

She studied her short nails. “I’ve thought about why the girls confide in me. I think part of it is because that time in my life stands out.”

Her mother had been murdered when she was fourteen. “Do your nieces know what happened to their grandmother?”

He guessed she didn’t want to look at him, but to her credit she did. Just the same, wariness lurked beneath the surface. “They don’t know all the details. Maybe because they grew up hearing about it, they haven’t shown much curiosity. That might change.”

At least she hadn’t changed the subject. “Have you and your brother talked about how you’d handle that?”

She leaned back and closed her eyes. “Not enough.”

If he hadn’t been through his own storm, he probably wouldn’t have been able to comprehend what she was thinking about, but he got it. She was reliving her mother’s murder. Much as he wished he was holding her, this was probably safer.

“It’s going to be hard,” she said with her eyes still shut. “The girls are old enough that they understand that bad things happen. Last year one of Maddie’s best friend’s parents were in an accident. The father wound up with a broken hip and the mother had a concussion.”

As she detailed what she knew of the accident and that Maddie and Carol had made several casseroles to take to the family, Shaw realized she was dodging around what had triggered this particular topic. Her brother was some ten years older than her which meant he might not have been living at home when their mother was killed. Maybe Haley had seen—

Ah, no, I don’t want that for you.

“I don’t know which would be better,” he said, “sitting your nieces down and spelling things out or waiting for the opportunity to work it into a conversation.”

“I don’t think there’s a right way, or if there is I haven’t discovered it.”

The more he thought about it the more convinced he became that Haley had firsthand knowledge of how her mother had died while her brother didn’t. Otherwise wouldn’t Mick be taking the lead in informing his daughters? He wanted to demand that Mick let her off the hook, but the family dynamic wasn’t his business. He was an outsider but wanting to come closer. The why of that desire had a great deal to do with her role in every dream he’d had recently.

“If you want to talk about it…”

She stood and walked over to the window, reminding him of what had taken place when they’d been together at the resort. The mobile had blinds but she’d pulled them up as high as they’d go. He could see the snow-covered evergreens. Did she think of the trees as shelter and comfort or did she wish she could see more of her world? He hoped the trees made her feel less alone.

I’m here. Does that matter to you?

And can I deal with the consequences if it doesn’t?

“You’re here for a meal,” she said by way of answer. “We’ve solved a few of the world’s problems, or rather we’ve decided they’re mostly beyond solving.”

“I don’t care about the rest of the world. It’s you I’m concerned about.”

“Me? I’m fine.”

Do it. Get the words out. Risk a great deal “Haley, your mother was murdered. That isn’t something a person gets over.”