Chapter Sixteen #2
‘I knew Richard.’ Clo placed a lapis-blue serving dish on the counter and began scooping mashed potatoes into it. ‘He was a good man.’
‘I wouldn’t know,’ Bryce said sharply and then took a deep, steadying breath. ‘What I mean is I should have taken the time to know him. I regret that I didn’t.’
His gaze slid over the framed photos sitting on the wood mantel above the stone fireplace and then glided to the McGuire and Perkins family pictures strewn about the rest of the room.
There was a sorrow I recognized in his eyes. It was the realization that a time had passed you’d never get back but wished you could. It was how I thought about Grandpa Beau’s passing.
We lost him the summer I went to a special equine camp in Fort Collins. On a muggy June day, Clo found him in the garden under a tree. She thought he’d fallen asleep, but when she couldn’t wake him, she knew he was gone for good.
I’d rushed home after that to console her and my sisters. Of course, Belladonna was nowhere to be found. It was just one of the many reasons why I wasn’t quick to reply to her emails. Whenever you let her in, even if it was for a second, she managed to break your heart.
The timer dinged over the stove, and Clo waved us all to the table.
Instead of waiting for me to point him to a chair, Bryce jumped up.
He set his wine glass on the table and strode into the kitchen, swiping a pair of oven mitts off the counter.
‘Please, let me,’ he said once she had the oven door open.
Oh, he was good.
Clo gave him a smirk and stepped back. In one smooth move, he had the large roasting pan out and resting on the cooling rack set to the right of the sink.
‘Dani, will you please do the honors,’ Clo said, waving me away from the stove.
‘I can carve—’ Bryce started.
‘Do you have surgical training like my Dandelion?’ Clo snipped.
He shot me an impish grin. ‘No, ma’am, I do not.’
Clo grabbed the oven mitts from him and slid them on. She reached into the pan and hefted out the rack holding the turkey, setting it on a thick cutting board with a border well to collect all the juices.
‘It’s been resting in the oven for thirty minutes so it should be ready.’ She pointed to the row of tools (kitchen shears, boning, chef and carving knives) she’d set out next to the cutting board. ‘It’s all ready to go for you.’
‘This is ridiculous,’ I said. ‘If you want it done right, you should ask Lia. She’s a pro at gutting fish.’
‘Nope. It’s all you, Dandelion,’ Lia said with an annoying smirk.
Aster tugged on the corner of Bryce’s shirt, pointing for him to sit at the end of the table where Grandpa Beau once sat. Yet another thing that would probably set Lia off tonight.
‘Grab the wine bottle,’ Aster ordered. ‘This often becomes a long and drawn-out battle over the proper way to carve a turkey.’
‘There’s a wrong way?’ He set down the bottle in the center of the table and waved a halting hand at Aster so he could pull out her chair. Clo flashed an approving grin at him.
What was happening? Where were her Art of War plans?
Once she was finished giving him her dazzling smile, Clo pointed to the trussing twine and barked, ‘Cut there first.’
I arched a brow at her. ‘Now you’re going to supervise?’
We had a five-second stare-down until she trained her gaze on Bryce and said, ‘I’ll take a glass of wine.’
Before Bryce could reach for the bottle, Lia was swiping it away. ‘I’ve got this.’ She filled Clo’s glass at the head of the table and sank down next to Aster.
Yeah, Lia was not going to make this easy for Bryce.
With Aster peppering him with more questions, and Lia giving him multiple withering gazes, I went to work cutting away the twine and then removing the legs and thighs with the boning knife.
As I worked, the weight of Bryce’s stare made me glance up more than once.
When our eyes locked, he gave me that same awestruck look from yesterday.
Aster clocked the rising flush on my cheeks.
I dropped my head, focusing back on the bird while Bryce tried to engage Lia.
He asked about her work, and the training needed to be on a search and rescue team.
Unfortunately, he mentioned one of the trails they’d just closed, and Lia fisted the corner of the white tablecloth.
‘Please tell me you’re not one of those people who ignores trail signs. Because if you get caught, it’s a five-hundred-dollar fine.’
‘I would never do that,’ he said quickly.
‘You’d better not.’ Lia wasn’t giving him an inch. ‘I’ve spent too many days rescuing people like you who don’t know their skill level before they set off on a hike.’
‘Camellia, modulate your tone please,’ Clo said.
The chandelier above the table flickered once as my grandmother approached the table. Bryce was out of his seat and pulling out her chair.
‘Thank you.’ That warm smile was back. ‘And just so you know, my granddaughter is usually on better behavior, but the dry conditions and lack of rain have put Harvest Moon at a very high risk-level for a wildfire. It’s put everyone on edge lately.’
The gravy popped and spurted behind me. Maybe I’d looked at the wrong knob. I stepped back and removed the pan, held my hand a few inches above the burner but there wasn’t any heat. What the hell? After Bryce was gone, I had to insist Clo have it serviced.
‘I respect what you and your team do, Lia. In fact, I saw you all in action on the bluffs last week,’ Bryce said.
‘That was a fairly straightforward job.’ She said the words casually, but her shoulders went tight.
‘What happened, Lee Lee? I didn’t hear about this in town,’ Aster said.
‘A thirteen-year-old kid was hiking with his family visiting from Denver. He was messing around behind them, looking at his phone, not paying attention to where he was going. His family got pretty far ahead and he lost track of them. When he realized it, he started to sprint into the woods, caught his foot on a rock and broke his ankle.’
‘Your team was there quickly. Assessed him and he was on a stretcher and down the trail in no time.’
Bryce’s compliment earned a rare smile from Lia. ‘It’s why we put in a lot of training hours.’
‘Did you have to apply first aid, honey?’ Clo asked after a sip of wine.
‘Just a quick splint to stabilize the ankle.’
I slid a large pile of meat onto a white porcelain serving platter and approached the table. Bryce was up again, taking it from my hands and setting it in the center.
‘Is he okay now?’ I said as Bryce pulled out my chair, giving me an easy smile that shot goosebumps across my skin.
‘Yeah, we found his parents a few minutes later. They took him to the hospital once we got him loaded into their car,’ Lia said.
Bryce settled down into his own seat, his eyes never leaving Lia as she went on. ‘The family called the fire station the next day to let us know it was a clean break. That the kid was feeling all right but would be in a cast for six weeks.’
Bryce pulled a notepad from his pocket and we all froze.
‘I wanted to take a few notes about the rescue if that’s all right.
It’d be great to include in the article about the town.
’ He pressed a pen against the spot on his finger that was ink-stained.
‘A few of the guys on your crew said the kid fell and was hidden in some brush. That he would have stayed camouflaged if you hadn’t found him.
They mentioned something about your acute hearing and sense of smell.
How you have an oddly strong connection with the land. Can you tell me more?’
Lia went back to clenching the edge of the table. Aster dug her fingers into the side of her chair. Despite having plenty of water, the lavender in the vase drooped and withered.
We’d allowed ourselves to be dazzled by Bryce’s charm for too long tonight.
Forgotten the real reason Clo had invited him here.
The real reason we should be on guard, even in the place all three of us still considered home.
But his questions, his curiosity about Lia, were a good reminder that even though he flashed us smiles, acted like a gentleman, he was still our common enemy.