Chapter 4
FOUR
Doc’s Jeep was idling at the curb right on the dot of eight a.m., and Grace tried to squash the hint of disappointment. She’d been hoping that Owen would be the one to come get her.
She smiled at the man as he swung out of the Jeep to pack up the boxes she’d stacked just inside the door of her shop. One was pretty big, and it took some finagling to get everything in the vehicle.
“I should have brought Black’s truck,” he grumbled.
“You know, I probably could have driven myself up the mountain,” Grace said as she climbed inside and pulled the seatbelt across her chest. “I have an SUV.”
Doc shot her a look. “They wouldn’t have let you up the mountain. You have to be pre-approved or with one of us.”
Hm. Well, okay then.
Doc wasn’t any more chatty going up the mountain as he’d been going down, so Grace settled back for the ride. It was a different guard at the security gate this time, and he actually requested her ID. Grace handed it over and watched as he took a picture of her ID with a tablet, then he handed it back. Doc pulled away, not saying anything about the stop.
She was so freaking curious, though.
It had snowed a little last night in town, but up here, several inches had fallen. Grace was glad she’d worn her snow boots and her lined jeans.
Doc let her into the cabin she’d been working on, then started bringing in boxes. He asked if she needed more help, but she could tell he didn’t want to stay.
“Nope. I’m good. Thank you, Doc.”
When she’d first started ordering things for the Foxhole, she’d asked Owen about power. He’d assured her that she could order regular items, with regular cords. And so far, she hadn’t seen any fluctuation in the power supply. The cabin was warm, even with the banked fire in the fireplace. She went ahead and stoked it up, though, if just for the ambience.
Then she went to work. She unpacked box after box, and by the time Owen entered the cabin four hours later, she was almost done.
Grace grinned as he stopped in surprise, looking around the cabin. The Christmas tree in the corner should probably have been bigger, to fill the space better, but it was what she had available. It was beautiful, though, if she did say so herself. Multi-colored twinkle lights adorned it, as well as red bows and swathes of red velvet ribbon. There were a few vintage ornaments she’d gotten from Jazz’s store, but she’d made sure to put them higher up, out of the reach of tiny fingers.
The mantle had been decorated with a live evergreen bough and a red bow at each end of the mantle. There was dead space at the top of the cabinets in the kitchen, so she’d filled that with more green boughs and twinkle lights. She’d put holiday touches in every room of the cabin, and even with the sun shining in through the windows, she could tell it would look magical at night, with just the twinkle lights to illuminate the space.
Owen took off his hat, dropping it to the new bench by the door. Then he stood in the living room with his hands on his hips and looked around. “You’ve done an incredible job, Grace. You’ve made it a home.”
Tears started in her eyes, and she had to look away. She wasn’t sure why she was so affected by his words, but she was. “Thank you,” she said softly. “I hope they love it as well.”
Owen nodded. “I think they will.”
“If there’s anything Angela needs, please let me know. I can get my hands on almost anything in town,” she laughed.
He nodded. “I will. Thank you, Grace.”
She moved around the space, collecting trash into a box for him to dispose of. She put a separate box filled with tissue paper to re-wrap the ornaments in the downstairs closet to be used later. Then, with a final look around, she left the house and climbed into Owen’s truck.
“Normally, when I design a house, I’m there for the reveal,” she said, “so you’ll have to tell me how they like it when they get in. Okay?”
Owen glanced at her. “I promise.”
They headed down the drive, and she looked at the tree houses again. She could see three of them, now that she was looking. “Why tree houses?” she asked curiously. “Seems like that would be very hard to do, with the utilities and stuff.”
“It was,” he admitted, “but the team from New Hampshire helped us out with the construction. It’s a unique challenge, but some of the men need that challenge. And some of the guys feel more secure in the air, where no one can climb up to get them.”
She frowned, reaching for the dash as they hit a bit of a hole. “It sounds like you have prisoners of war here.”
The skin tightened around his eyes, and Grace realized she must have rubbed at some truth.
“Some of the men have been in difficult situations, yes. But that’s all I can say.”
Curiosity ate at her, but she heard the warning in his voice. And what business was it of hers, anyway? Unless she was designing a space for someone specifically, she didn’t really need to know about the men on the mountain. She knew they were former military who needed counseling, and that needed to be enough.
“Can you let Angela know that this coming Saturday is our Christmas festival? The baby would probably love to see the lights and the big holiday blow up dolls. Santa will be there with his reindeer and there will be a lot of activities for the kids.”
Owen glanced at her. “Real reindeer?”
Grace grinned and nodded. “Our local veterinarian has an assortment of rescue animals, and she has two reindeer that were abandoned on Black Mountain. Or escaped and were never claimed. Either way, she brings them out every Christmas.”
Owen snorted. “Not something you’d expect to find in the mountains up here.”
“Oh, she has a mountain lion and two bears, several bobcats as well as half a dozen regular deer that can no longer be released into the wild for one reason or another. She’s a state certified rehabber, so she sees a lot of interesting things.”
He hummed thoughtfully. “I’ll be sure to tell them about it.”
Silence settled between them, and she was a little sad the job was done. As of right now, she had no more reason to come up here. And it was probably the last time she’d see Owen for a while.
The thought was disheartening. Owen Black was like candy to her, and she wanted to know more about him.
So, say something, girl!
“If you need a guide for the festival, just give me a holler. Or if you’re ever at loose ends and would like a dinner companion…”
Grace couldn’t believe how forward she was being, but she didn’t want this to be the last time she saw him. A lot of times he would email her an order for something he wanted and she would get it shipped in to her store, then somebody from the Foxhole would pick it up.
Incredibly, she thought his cheeks might have turned a little dusky. He glanced at her quickly, then back to the road. “I appreciate that, Grace, but I’m really not into dating right now. I have more responsibilities than I can tell you, and it wouldn’t be fair to anyone to try to squeeze more in.”
Grace took a steadying breath, trying not to show him how much that had hurt. “Okay. I get it. If you change your mind, you know where I am.”
They sat in an awkward silence for a few minutes before she started chatting to him about the other cabins. It was random, desperate chatter, but she couldn’t just sit there, stewing in her own misery.
She’d never been turned down before. It was usually men pursuing her, and she’d had to let a few guys down easily. Personally, she was more traditional, so she believed that the man should be the one asking. Grace couldn’t remember ever asking a man out, and certainly not being turned down. Owen was different, though.
When he pulled up in front of her store a few minutes later, she gathered her stuff and slid out quickly, tossing him a wave without making eye contact. She let herself into her store and dropped her bag to the ground, huffing out a breath and giving a little scream.
“Are you okay?”
Grace jerked in surprise, then winced. Her part-time girl, Andy, was looking at her strangely. They had a wedding in a few days and she’d asked her to come in and sort out a delivery.
“Yeah,” she sighed. “Just feeling humble. The next time I tell a guy no, I’ll have to take a second to appreciate the courage it takes to ask.”
Andy winced. “Oh, no. Did you ask that manager guy out?”
“I did,” she admitted. “He let me down nicely, but it was still a definite no.”
“I’m sorry, Grace,” she said, coming around the counter to rest a hand on her shoulder. “Want to help me with wedding stuff? That usually puts you in a good mood.”
“Yeah,” she said, huffing out a breath. “Maybe I need to change gears. Let me run my stuff upstairs and I’ll be back down.”
Owen called himself ten kinds of idiot as he pulled away from Grace’s shop. She had looked so sweet asking him to dinner, and it had broken something inside him to tell her no. There was no way he was going to involve her in their mess, though. They had legitimate killers stalking them, and guilt was already chewing at him because it was probably only a matter of time before danger found the laid-back town of Whisper Hollow.