Angel's Rest(24)

He escorted her inside and gave her the two-bit tour. “I can’t believe this is only a vacation house,” she said after exiting the media room. “Scuttlebutt in town is that Jack Davenport rarely visits. Only a handful of people have ever met him. If this place were mine, I’d live here permanently. What a waste to have it always sitting empty!”

Gabe knew that in reality, Eagle’s Way welcomed visitors quite often, although that wasn’t something he could share. “Jack is a busy man.”

“Well, I hope whatever he does with his days is worth the sacrifice.” She reached down to pet the boxer, then said, “What about your days, Gabe? What brings you to Eagle’s Way? Celeste tells me that you are a landscape architect. Are you here working on a new project?”

Avoiding her question, he asked one of his own. “I just met the woman last night. How does she know anything about me?”

Nic explained the older woman’s contact with the hospital project he’d done in South Carolina. “A small world,” Gabe murmured as he gestured toward the cozy upholstered seating group that offered a spectacular view of snowcapped mountain peaks. “Have a seat, Nic. I’ll get our coffee, then you can tell me why you’re here.”

He took a step toward the kitchen, then paused. “Here. Hand me the leash. The dog probably can use some water.”

Gabe detoured to the mud room, where he pulled a dog bowl and a box of treats from a storage closet. He filled the bowl with water and waited for the boxer to slake his thirst. Then he offered up a dog treat while saying, “Don’t get ideas. You are leaving when she does.”

When he returned to the great room moments later carrying two steaming mugs of coffee, the dog led the way and plopped down at Nic’s feet. She accepted her coffee with a smile. “Thanks. Have a brownie.”

“Maybe later,” he replied, eyeing the tin she’d opened and placed atop a magazine on a nearby table. He leaned his shoulder against the wall of windows and watched her, sipping his coffee, waiting for her to speak, and telling himself he didn’t notice the way the sunlight seemed to dance in her hair. When the silence stretched, he finally said, “All right, Dr. Nic. Spill it.”

“The coffee?” She was the picture of innocence.

He leveled a chiding look, and she offered up an apologetic shrug. “I’m trying to decide the best way to do this.”

Gabe hoped she wasn’t working up the nerve to ask him for a date. While he recognized that neither one of them had intended it, the atmosphere surrounding last night’s dinner had ended up having too much intimacy for comfort. She was a nice woman, a beautiful woman, but he should have dropped the dog at the door and beat feet last night. “Nic—”

“Gabe,” she said at the same time, “I want to ask your advice about an idea Celeste has proposed to help Eternity Springs’ economic state.”

Oh. No romantic advances. Well, good. Gabe relaxed and reached for a brownie. “My advice? That’s easy enough, I guess. I don’t know that you should put much stock in it, however.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Now, I think it might help if I set the scene a bit, first. Do you know anything about the history of this part of Colorado?”

“A little.” Gabe lifted a brownie from the plate. “When I was a boy I was fascinated by the Alfred Packer story.”

Nic grimaced at the reference to the only man in American history convicted of cannibalism. “Eew. What is it about boys? My friend Cam Murphy had that same fascination when we were growing up.”

Gabe grinned, then tasted the brownie, and forgot all about history. “Wow. Just wow. This is good.”

“Sarah Reese bakes the desserts for the Bristlecone Café. Her cheesecakes are even better.”

“I have to start eating in town.”

Nic sat back against the cushion, a smug smile fluttering on her lips. “That’s an excellent idea, but I’m getting ahead of myself. Are you familiar with Eternity’s founding fathers or the legend of how the town got its name?”

“I recall that the name was derived from the local hot springs and the area’s isolation. Something about it taking an eternity for anyone to get here. I also know that Jack’s great-something-grandfather was a miner who discovered the rich vein of silver that provided the base of the family fortune.”

“That was Lucien Davenport. He and Daniel Murphy and Harry Cavanaugh opened the Silver Miracle mine.”