Chapter 24
He shouldn’t have done it.
Spence stopped just outside the bedroom door he’d closed as he’d left, not ready to face anyone at the moment.
He shouldn’t have done it because all his good, responsible resolutions had just been blown to hell.
He’d intended to wait until she was well, at least well enough to function on her own.
He’d intended to simply be there when she needed him, if only because he knew how stubborn she was about accepting help.
He’d intended to be the support she needed right now, nothing else.
He’d never intended to kiss her, especially under his parents’ roof, although that modifier made him feel like a rowdy teenager again.
But she’d been right there, looking up at him with those eyes.
And her lips had parted slightly, as if she’d suddenly needed more air, just as he had.
The temptation was overwhelming and he hadn’t been able to resist. He simply had to touch, to taste.
It wasn’t just an urge, it was a necessity.
And then reality had wiped everything out of his mind except for the taste of her lips under his. The feel of her long, taut body against his.
Nice job, Colton. She’s just out of the hospital and you’re pushing her up against a wall.
It had made the rest of the process of getting her to the bed—and blocking any and all thought about joining her there—awkward and uncomfortable. Not because she’d pushed him away. Oh no. She’d reached up and pulled him closer, as if she’d wanted more. And more. Which had made backing off hard.
Among other things…
Only remembering the doctor’s words about getting enough rest and not pushing too much too fast—as if he knew Hetty’s nature already—had enabled him to back off. But it hadn’t enabled him to do it easily. Or willingly.
Spence gave a sharp shake of his head, gritted his teeth and steeled himself to go face his parents. And stopped dead just inside the great room entry when he realized they were snuggled up on the couch together…kissing.
His first thought was the silly idea that there was something in the air. Something that had not only made his control snap, but theirs.
Vivid memories flashed through his mind of the times when as a kid he’d walked in on them just like this.
“Ew, gross!” had been his usual reaction.
But now, he felt an odd sort of knot in his gut.
After all that had happened, after everything they’d been through, and everything they’d accomplished in spite of it, his parents were still rock-solid, still able to feel like this about each other.
And he realized, at the far-too-late age of twenty-eight, how damned lucky he was to have them as an example.
“Hetty all right?” his father interrupted the kissing to ask.
He nodded, hoping they couldn’t guess from his unsettled state what had happened right down the hall.
He tried to focus on what came next, without relating it to what he’d just done.
He had to make a charter drop-off tomorrow, early, as much as he would rather stay close by just in case.
But they’d already had to shuffle things around so much, he couldn’t mess it up even more by canceling now that Hetty was home safe.
“You’re taking her to therapy tomorrow?” he asked his mother, who nodded in turn.
“And I’ve got her on Wednesday,” Dad put in. “After that, she’s all yours. We’ve got your calendar cleared on those days through the end of the second week.”
All yours… Did he have to put it like that?
“And if I know Hetty,” Mom said, “after that, she’ll be stubbornly back to trying to handle everything herself, so you’d better hover.”
All he could do was nod. Because, if he spoke, he was afraid he’d give everything away, and he had no right to do that until he and Hetty had had that talk. The one he didn’t want to have here, where there was every likelihood of an interruption.
“I’ll check in when I get back from the drop-off tomorrow,” he said as he headed for the front door, thinking that at least he didn’t have to worry about Hetty being in good hands. And then, with the door already pulled open, he stopped and looked back at them. “I love you,” he said.
Their eyes widened and he took it as proof he didn’t say that nearly often enough. The smiles they both gave him made him realize that needed to change. Now.
Nothing like a brush with death to wake a guy up.
The next day, he got back to the RTA office after making what happily turned out to be a routine run to one of their fishing camps further down the sound, and was still filling out the report for Lakin—in that unique but efficient way he had, thanks to a certain high school tutor—when the door opened.
He looked up to see his cousin Mitchell stepping in.
“Hey,” he said in surprise. As a very successful attorney practicing corporate law, Mitchell—who winced if you shortened it to Mitch—didn’t spend much time at RTA, although, like any Colton. he’d be there in an instant if need be. “I thought you were in Anchorage.”
“I was. Got back last night, but it was late, so I got some sleep and waited until today.”
“How’d it go?” Spence asked, knowing Mitchell had been there giving testimony on a case filed against some bureaucratic agency that had overstepped. It hadn’t been his case, but he’d been called as an expert witness.
Mitchell smiled. “The opposition wasn’t very happy with me, so I’m taking that as a win.”
“Sounds good to me,” Spence agreed with a grin.
His cousin lifted a brow at him. “I hear things have been a little crazy around here. How’s Hetty?”
“She’s going to be fine,” he answered firmly. “She’s at my folks’ place, and Mom’s working from home this week to be there with her.”
Mitchell smiled. “No wonder I didn’t see her at the Weekly when I got in this morning.” Spence nodded, knowing that his office was right next to the Shelby Weekly office. “That sounds like Aunt Abby.”
“Yes. It’s just like her,” Spence agreed, his throat tightening a little all over again at how both his parents had leapt into action when needed.
Mitchell glanced around the RTA headquarters, empty right now, except for Spence. “Kind of kinks things up a bit around here, though, doesn’t it, being down a pilot?”
“For a while. But Dad’s filling in, and we’re using the chopper until the plane’s repaired.”
Mitchell frowned. “I ran into Officer Reynolds outside my office this morning. He said it had been tampered with?”
Spence nodded, the warmth fading as the barely sublimated anger welled up again. “If anybody less than Hetty had been at the controls, I probably wouldn’t be standing here talking to you now.”
“But who would ever—”
Spence held up a hand and shook his head. “We don’t know for sure yet. Might be somebody connected to a client, or totally unrelated, just some nutjob taking potshots. They’re working on it. You know how slow that can go when you’re working with little scraps of evidence.”
“Too well. Speaking of which, what’s this about Hetty finding a dead body up there?”
Quickly, Spence told his cousin what he knew, once again ending with the same exasperation at the lack of progress.
“But your brother is on that one, so I’m betting it’ll go faster,” Spence said, meaning it.
“It will if Eli has anything to say about it,” Mitchell agreed.
“So, what’s up for you now?”
The other man grimaced slightly. “I don’t know. Things have been pretty quiet. I’ve got nothing on the docket at the moment. I mean that thing in Anchorage wasn’t even my case.”
“So you can go fishing or climb mountains for a while,” Spence said. “By yourself, as usual,” he added with a wry grin because, just like himself, it was his cousin’s habit to trek out solo whenever he had some spare time.
He knew, and he was sure Mitchell did, too, that the family worried about that.
Just a little, but some, because…well, Alaska.
But to Spence it was worth the risk, to fully experience the vast expanses, to enjoy literally endless summer days and cope with winter nights and single digit temperatures.
To savor the pristine white of snow and the crackling ice of the glaciers.
And above all else the towering peaks that put what they called mountains in the continental U.S.
in a distant second place. He supposed it was the same with his cousin.
“Actually, I’m thinking maybe I should be worried,” Mitchell said. “Every time I have a lull like this, something big seems to come along.”
“I’ve had enough of big things for a while,” Spence said, his tone dry. “So the next one’s yours.”
Mitchell gave him an exaggerated side-eye. “Thanks a lot, cuz.”
Spence was still laughing as his cousin left. And knew the only reason he had the heart to laugh at all was his family and the fact that Hetty, indeed, was going to be fine.
And it flitted through his mind that he wanted the day to come when he didn’t have to separate the two.