Authors: Cindy Gerard

A Bride For Crimson Falls (9 page)

BOOK: A Bride For Crimson Falls

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“Indirectly.” That semblance of a smile whispered across his lips again. Just as quickly it was gone. “Are you ready to head back? Scarlett’s a little worried that you’d gotten lost.”

Colin saw no alternative but to bite the proverbial bullet. “It’s hard to admit, but she’s right. I
was
lost.”

“No you weren’t,” Greene said amiably as he turned with the expectation that Colin would follow.

“I wasn’t?” Colin fell in step behind them.

“Nope. You were just soaking up the scenery and were about to head back when Nashata found you. Anyway, that’s the way I see it. But it’ll be your story, so you can tell it any way you want to.”

“I think I like your version,” he conceded with a smile, and decided then and there that he liked this man. “Thanks,” he added, buoyed by the prospect that he didn’t have to lose face in front of Scarlett for the second time in as many days.

Until she saw Abel and Nashata walk out of the clearing with Colin in tow, Scarlett hadn’t admitted to herself how worried she’d been. She stepped back from the dining room window and let go of a sigh of relief.

“So that’s the way it is,” her friend said.

She turned around and gave Abel’s wife, Mackenzie, a blank look. “So that’s the way
what
is?”

Mackenzie just grinned and, easing carefully up from the dining room table, walked to the window and peeked outside. “You were really concerned about him, weren’t you?”

“Of course I was concerned,” Scarlett said, working hard at not sounding defensive and giving herself away. “He’s a guest And whether I like it or not, a business partner. Naturally I was worried. I don’t want anyone getting lost out there. It could be dangerous.”

Mackenzie watched her husband and the guest in question walk toward the hotel. She turned back to Scarlett, a knowing look on her face. “He doesn’t appear to me to be the kind of man who would have trouble taking care of himself. As a matter of fact, he looks capable of taking care of just about anything he sets his mind to. Tell me, Scarlett, has he set his mind on you?”

Scarlett was about to sputter out a laughing protest, when she recognized the look in her friend’s sparkling green eyes. She tilted her head, considering. When comprehension dawned, she wagged an accusing finger Mackenzie’s way. “You’re in on this with J.D., aren’t you?”

Mackenzie, petite and elflike, with her short, reddish hair and pixie nose, affected an expression of pure, perfected innocence. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Scarlett snorted. “And the lake isn’t deep. J.D. sent you, didn’t he? He’s got it figured out that we’re on to him by now, and instead of tossing his hat through the door to check out his welcome, he sent you to test the waters.

“Well, you can tell that hopelessly romantic meddler that his little ploy isn’t working. I am
not
in the market for a man. Colin is
not
in the market for a woman. And furthermore, make sure he knows he ought to be ashamed of himself for sending a woman in your condition to do his dirty work.”

Glowing, in the second trimester of her pregnancy, Mackenzie studied Scarlett for a moment, then shrugged. “Oh well. I tried.” She walked back to the table and sat down. “But you’ve got to admit,” she added, picking up where she’d left off on one of Scarlett’s caramel rolls, “it wasn’t such a bad idea. Colin Slater looks like hunk material to me.”

Scarlett made a tsking sound. “This from a happily married and very pregnant woman.”

“I’m married, not dead,” Mackenzie said in her typical straightforward style. “And if I didn’t have an eye for quality, I wouldn’t be married to top-of-the-line material now.”

In spite of her irritation, Scarlett smiled, remembering the unique circumstances under which Mackenzie and Abel had gotten together. In this day and age, the idea of a mail-order bride went against every feminist gene in her body, but she couldn’t argue that it had turned into the perfect arrangement. She’d worried about the reclusive and brooding Abel for as long as she’d known him. The interruption of Mackenzie, and her fifteen-year-old brother, Mark, in Abel’s isolated and solitary life had been the best kind of turmoil. And after a rough start, the match appeared to be perfect.

“I’ll forgive you,” she said, joining Mackenzie at the table. “Your hormones are haywire so you have an excuse. But J.D. had better walk softly and stay out of my path for a while, or I’ll slice him up and use him for fish bait. Why does he think he knows what’s best for me, anyway? And how dare he presume to arrange my relationships.”

Mackenzie chewed thoughtfully on a bite of roll. “Maybe he figures that since he was responsible for talking Abel into advertising for a wife and it worked out for us that he has a knack for matchmaking.”

“He has a knack for interfering, nothing more,” Scarlett amended, as she rose to get more hot water for Mackenzie’s herbal tea.

“So what you’re saying is that you don’t find Colin Slater attractive,” Mackenzie said, noting how fidgety Scarlett was.

“I didn’t say that,” Scarlett corrected. “I’m not dead, either.” They shared a grin. “But I’m not shopping for a man. And if I was, Colin Slater wouldn’t be on the list For heaven’s sake, we have nothing in common. He’s a New Yorker. He eats, breaths and sleeps business. He’s about as comfortable in the north woods as I am in the city. And I’m as far from being his type of woman as...”

When she trailed off, unable to come up with an adequate comparison, Mackenzie supplied one for her. “As different as I am from Abel?” she asked brightly.

Scarlett frowned. “That’s different.”

“How is it different?”

“It just is,” she said irritably. “Look, I don’t even know why we’re talking about this.”

After gracing her with an irritatingly smug grin, Mackenzie took another sip of her tea.

“It’s not going to happen,” Scarlett insisted. “So you can just get that ‘we’ll see’ look out of your eyes.”

“Hmm” was all Mackenzie said.

With a shake of her head, Scarlett muttered her frustration, then jerked her head around when she heard the sound of the men approaching the dining room.

“It looks fine,” Mackenzie whispered, and only then did Scarlett realize she’d touched a hand to her hair to smooth it.

“I wasn’t doing it for him,” she snapped, then jumped at the sound of Abel’s voice.

“You weren’t doing what for who?” he asked as he and Colin joined them at the table.

“Geezer,” she improvised quickly. “I...I wasn’t cleaning the bar this morning for him. It’s...it’s not a job I expect him to do.” She shot a quick, fidgety look Colin’s way, then felt herself flush all over at his open and thorough study of her face.

Abel pulled out a chair beside Mackenzie and, seemingly oblivious to the undercurrents of awareness humming around the table, sat down. “Feeling okay?” he asked in that intimate, protective voice Scarlett had learned to recognize as the one he reserved only for his wife.

“I’m great. Scarlett has fed me, pampered me and coddled me like a mother hen.”

“My wife, Mackenzie,” Abel said, turning from her to Colin. “Mackenzie, this is Colin Slater. He was just on his way back when Nashata and I ran into him.”

“Nice to meet you, Mackenzie.” Colin extended his hand across the table.

“My pleasure.” Mackenzie returned his smile. “I hope you’re finding your stay at Crimson Falls and Legend Lake to your liking.”

Colin’s mouth twisted into a semblance of a grin. “It’s...certainly different from what I’m used to.”

“Different good, I hope,” she persisted.

He thought a moment then conceded with a slight nod. “Yeah, I guess you could say that The country’s beautiful. The falls are spectacular. It’s the quiet that’s giving me trouble.”

“It’ll grow on you,” Mackenzie assured him. “Trust me. I was born and raised in L.A., so I know what you’re talking about. It was a little unsettling for me at first, too, but now nothing could compel me to go back.”

“Mr. Slater will have to take your word on that,” Scarlett interjected, rising from the table. “He’s only here for a couple of weeks and then it’s back to New York.”

Mackenzie’s eyes danced between Scarlett and Colin. “Well, that’s unfortunate. But isn’t it nice to know Crimson Falls and Scarlett’s good cooking are only a few hours away by plane?”

Scarlett felt her color rise again. She sent a warning look Mackenzie’s way before turning to Colin. “Are you ready for that caramel roll now?”

“Thought you’d never ask.” He gave her a probing look. “I should shower first but I’ve been thinking about that roll for the past hour.”

“Coming right up,” she said in her best, breezy, innkeeper’s voice and made a beeline for the kitchen.

They were all still sitting around the table, looking relaxed and comfortable with each other when she returned. Not fair, she thought. Not fair at all, considering her heart was still skipping and slipping at the thought of Colin’s eyes and the way he’d looked at her when he’d first come into the room. Like she was dessert and he had a sweet tooth.

“Where’s Mark?” Abel asked as he scooted his chair closer to Mackenzie to make more room for Scarlett.

“He and Casey are out back playing with the puppies.”

“How’s Mark doing?” Scarlett asked, still achingly aware of Colin’s gaze on her as he pulled out a chair for her so she could sit down beside him.

“Mark is amazing.” Mackenzie’s smile was full of pride and love. “Since I got him out of the city and, with Abel’s help, got him settled in here, he’s a different boy.”

Scarlett was glad. She was well aware of Mark’s troubled past as a gang member in the streets of L.A. It was Mackenzie’s desperation to get him out of the web of danger and crime that had ultimately led her to answer Abel’s ad. Their story was one of those fantastic, unbelievable tales that gave her faith in the goodness of the human condition and the healing power of love.

At least it worked for some people, she conceded, watching Mackenzie and Abel together. It had also worked for J.D. and Maggie. Maggie had been severely wounded by a damaging relationship when she’d escaped to Legend Lake and Blue Heron Bay a year ago. J.D. had found her there and cured her with his love.

And now he was determined to wrap up Scarlett’s love life in a neat and tidy package with pretty ribbons and bows. She had a news flash for him. Colin Slater was not about to be wrapped up by anyone. And even if he was, she would “return to sender” unopened.

She made a concentrated effort to avoid looking at him as he sat beside her. It was difficult. She’d been supercharged with awareness since this morning. First, when he’d been running beside her, she’d been far too cognizant of the strength of his muscular thighs, the breadth of his chest as he regulated his breathing to match his long strides, the sheen of perspiration, slick on his skin as he’d worked up a sweat. When the path had narrowed and he’d fallen into step behind her, her heartbeat had accelerated—not so much from the exertion of the run, but from the knowledge that his gaze was tracking every move she made. Five miles had never seemed so long.

And the past hour had seemed like ten as she’d worried and wondered if he was lost out there. The thought of anything happening to him had made something inside twist and ache...too much. Just like the thought of him leaving in twelve days hurt too much. Way too much, since she’d only just met him. Way too much, considering there could never be a future for them under any circumstances.

Six

“S
o everything’s going okay for you over here?” Scarlett heard Abel ask through the tangled maze of her thoughts.

“Great.” She forced a smile and made herself concentrate on something other than her futile feelings for Colin Slater. “And thanks to the raffle, I’ve got enough of a nest egg to start on some more of those repairs.”

“I don’t have to remind you that I want to help you, right?”

“You’ve already helped. Abel built my new dock,” she explained to Colin. “He’s a master contractor. Besides building his own log cabin, he custom designs and constructs them as a business.

“And no, you don’t have to remind me,” she said for Abel’s benefit, then, to keep the conversation flowing she mentioned that Colin was also in construction.

“More or less,” he clarified. “Unlike Abel, we don’t start from the ground up. We’re more into renovation and restoration.”

“That’s perfect,” Mackenzie said brightly. “Scarlett needs all the help she can get restoring the hotel.”

It took everything in her to keep from glaring at Mackenzie. The woman could give meddling lessons to J.D.

“Colin isn’t helping with the renovation,” she informed them quickly. “He’s here for a vacation.”

“And the fact is, I haven’t been asked to help,” Colin added with a look that Scarlett had difficulty translating.

Colin was having a little trouble sorting out what he meant, too. When he’d arrived yesterday, he’d had no intention of getting embroiled in Scarlett’s problems with the hotel’s renovations. Now here he was, only a day later, and the more he saw of her day-today struggle, the more he realized he wanted to help out. And then there was the fact that if he didn’t find something to do with his hands soon, he couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t keep them off the hotel’s owner. Volunteering his services suddenly seemed like the wisest thing to do.

“I think you’ve just had another offer,” Mackenzie said, correctly interpreting his statement. “It wouldn’t be polite to turn it down.”

“It wouldn’t be polite to impose on a guest,” Scarlett said, looking, in Colin’s opinion, just a little bit harried.

“She’s not imposing, is she, Colin?” Mackenzie persisted, ignoring the warning look Scarlett shot her way. “I’ll bet you’re just itching to dig into any number of projects around here.”

Colin grinned. Mackenzie Greene, it seemed, was as determined as her cohort, J. D. Hazzard to start something between him and Scarlett.

Since he was just as determined to keep his distance, and despite the increasing difficulty in doing so, he decided to humor her and do something for Scarlett at the same time. Hopefully the side benefit would be that it would save him from idle time and idle thoughts...like how good this roll would taste if he was licking the caramel from Scarlett’s skin instead of from a stainless steel fork.

“Now that you mention it,” he said, “I was considering asking Scarlett if she’d mind if I did a little work for her.”

“Mind? She wouldn’t mind. She’d be relieved that someone was taking some of the burden of this place off her shoulders.”

“I don’t consider Crimson Falls a burden,” Scarlett said between tightly clenched teeth.

“Of course you don’t,” Mackenzie amended quickly. “I meant that with all of the other things you have to do around here to keep you busy, an extra pair of hands would be appreciated.”

“I think maybe it’s time we got you back home,” Abel said with an indulgent look at his wife, before turning an apologetic but amused gaze on Scarlett. “She’s wound up like a thunderbird in an electrical storm, and sometimes she doesn’t know to quit while she’s ahead.”

“You have to leave so soon?”

Colin noted that while Scarlett’s protest sounded sincere, her relief was also evident. Mackenzie’s not-so-subtle attempts to throw them together and to paint Scarlett as a woman in need of a man around the house had rattled her big-time.

“We have to leave,” Abel stated firmly, and helped his marginally miffed wife to her feet. “I want to make the crossing before the winds rise and the lake gets choppy. A storm front’s moving in tonight, and we can’t be subjecting you or the baby to any rough water.”

Mackenzie smiled lovingly at Abel, then turned to Scarlett with an elaborate sigh. “I love it when he gets all busbandly.”

Abel snorted. “I sincerely hope this child does not come equipped with your smart mouth.”

“You love it,” she returned cheekily, and Colin could see by the look on Abel’s face that he did.

Feeling as though he was intruding on a private moment, he looked away. Without conscious thought, his gaze went straight to Scarlett’s. She, too, had averted her attention from the tender looks passing between husband and wife, and he sensed what she was feeling. It was the same thing he was feeling. A sense of loss. Acute, cutting loss—for everything Abel and Mackenzie shared. For everything that Scarlett had never had and deserved. For his own inability to commit to anything beyond the scope of his business. And suddenly he was struck by a deep feeling of regret.

He was stunned. He understood why a woman like Scarlett would have feelings of something missing. He had no understanding of why he was struggling with them. He was perfectly content with his life the way it was. He didn’t need an intimate relationship— emotional or physical—to feel complete. And yet here he sat, numbed by the emptiness that gripped him.

Scarlett met his eyes, then quickly glanced away. “I’ll go get Mark.”

In silence, he watched her walk out of the room.

“She’s a very special person.” Mackenzie’s tone was soft, her eyes searching.

Colin drew a deep breath before addressing Mackenzie with a quick, thoughtful smile. “Yes. She is.”

“Pretty, too.”

Abel shook his head, gently gripped his wife’s arm and led her toward the door.

“Enough, woman.” He sent Colin another apologetic look over Mackenzie’s head.

Yeah. Enough, Colin thought. Enough of this introspective conjecturing about what his life would be like with someone like Scarlett to share it.

The night was dark and overcast. The wind Abel had expressed concern about had picked up. Colin stood on the end of the dock, his hands shoved deep in his pockets. Oblivious to the night chill and the gusts that whipped the bay into rolling, white-capped swells, he thought back to the events of the day.

After meeting Mackenzie’s younger brother Mark, he’d bid his goodbyes and taken a quick shower. Then, looking for something to occupy his time, he’d double-checked with Scarlett to make sure she really didn’t mind if he tinkered around.

“I want to start with the door to my room,” he’d explained. Graciously, but with reservations that she’d tried to hide, she’d assured him that if that was the way he wanted to spend his vacation, he was welcome to do anything he wanted.

Anything he wanted.
If she only knew.

With a weary shake of his head, he resumed his distracted study of the night.

He’d planed the door to his room until he was certain there was no way it could stick again. He’d repaired the porch board he’d nearly tripped over yesterday. He’d waited until she’d left the kitchen after lunch, then replaced the washers in the dripping faucet.

It was while he was standing on the verandah, contemplating what other Band-Aid fixes he could perform on a structure that needed major surgery, that the women had approached him. Shyly at first, but then with a flirtatious friendliness he’d found hard to resist, they’d roped him into a game of cards. They delighted in teaching him hearts, promising him with teasing smiles that they’d work up to strip poker if he’d rather play that particular game.

They’d been outrageous, and absolutely harmless, he’d realized. As the afternoon had worn on, he’d let them lure him into a state of relaxation he hadn’t imagined he’d had in him to feel. When they’d conned him into playing pool in the bar and then proceeded to beat the pants off him, he’d called it quits. They’d good-naturedly offered him a rematch anytime he wanted one and then had headed to the dock to soak up some sun. With that distraction gone, he’d hunted down Geezer and helped him mow the lawn.

Even now, as he stood on the dock and thought back, he’d known what he’d been doing. He’d been running. And hiding. From emotions that felt raw and exposed. From the unsolicited sensations Scarlett Morgan stirred up every time their gazes accidentally collided.

She had neither the sophistication nor the guile to hide the confusion she was feeling. He both damned and treasured that lack of calculation. Those liquid, telling eyes of hers gave away every emotion. She wanted him. She was afraid of wanting him. She knew it wasn’t wise to want him.

Just like he wanted her. Was afraid of wanting her. Knew it wasn’t wise to want her.

He lifted his face to the wind and sincerely hoped she had the strength to cling to her convictions, because he sure as hell was having trouble sticking to his.

“I don’t have to worry about you falling asleep standing up, do I?”

He’d been so preoccupied thinking about Scarlett, he hadn’t heard her step onto the dock. Only when he turned and felt a rich flood of pleasure wash through him, did he realize that no matter how much he told himself it was wrong, he’d been hoping she would come looking for him.

He smiled in the dark. “I don’t think there’s much danger of that.”

But there was danger here. Danger in the way his heart thundered as she approached...tentatively, with her hands tucked in the pockets of a light weight jacket, her tanned bare legs looking even darker in the night.

He bit back a rueful smile, wondering when he’d strayed so far away from the convictions that had ruled his life. Business had always been first. Then he’d met Scarlett Morgan, and all she had to do was stand there and he was lost in the wanting for something more.

She was beguiling in the dark, enticing beneath the heavy sky and beside the restless water. The wind played with the fine curling wisps of her hair. The night shadowed and shaded the delicate contours of her face, nearly hiding the vulnerability in her eyes.

“We worked you pretty hard today,” she said, tipping her face into the wind, intentionally avoiding eye contact.

Obviously he hadn’t worked hard enough or he’d be in bed now. Asleep. Alone. Instead of contemplating that bed with both of them in it.

“It felt good to be doing something with my hands,” he said, trying to put some distance between them with conversation—-no matter how inane. “Before Slater Corporation got so big, we were still working on brownstones and apartment buildings. I used to do a lot of the actual renovation work myself. I don’t get a chance to dig in much anymore. Too much paperwork. Too much travel. I realized today how much I’ve missed it.”

“Well,” her tension was evident in her continued reluctance to look at him. “I hope you didn’t let Geezer take advantage of you.”

He smiled in spite of himself. “I don’t let anyone take advantage unless I want to be taken advantage of.”

“Like the way the girls did this afternoon?”

He chuckled, remembering. “They’re quite the crew. I don’t think I’ve ever been around women who had so much fun just entertaining each other. They laughed constantly.”

He studied her soft smile in profile and knew he wanted to see it a hundred other ways. Looking up at him from his pillow. Looking down at him in the throes of passion.

“I always enjoy the week they spend here—the way they let loose. They make me feel like a kid again.”

The wistfulness in her voice shifted his thoughts from desire to anger—not at her but for her. “A kid who works all the time and watches from a distance, while everyone else has fun?”

When she just shrugged, he pressed her. “What does Scarlett Morgan do for fun, anyway? Besides work in her garden and take care of everyone else?”

Again she lifted a shoulder, then wrapped her jacket tighter against the buffet of the wind. “When I have time, I read. I listen to music. Sometimes I get around to watching one of the movies J.D. is always lending me from his collection of classics.”

“That’s it?”

She squared her shoulders defensively. “That’s it. And it’s enough. But what about you?” she countered, finally turning to face him. “From the account J.D. gave me, all you do is work. What do you do for fun in
your
life?”

Nothing, he admitted to himself reluctantly. He didn’t know when regret for that omission had settled in. He suspected, though, that it was his lack of attention to more frivolous needs that had him in this fix right now. This fix of wanting something more—to distraction. Something, or someone.

“Point taken,” he conceded. “So we’re both guilty of working too hard. Old habits are hard to break, I guess.”

The longing in his voice must have alerted her. Just as the understanding in her eyes had him moving toward her.

“Maybe the question now,” he said, searching her face for a warning to back away, “is what are we going to do about it?”

BOOK: A Bride For Crimson Falls

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