2. Rhys
Chapter two
Rhys
R hys Menzies stood inside the cafe, staring out the window at nothing in particular. Counting raindrops, his Mam would have called it—although it rained a lot less in Colorado than it did in Scotland, which he was eternally grateful for. Some people thought the Scottish were impervious to rain, but Rhys much preferred being warm and dry, and ideally with a strong black coffee within arm’s reach.
He should have been on the road hours ago, after his shift finished. Instead, he’d lingered, giving the kitchen a thorough cleaning and catching glimpses of the dark-haired woman who spent the afternoon sitting by the window with her nose buried in a book. The sharp tang of cleaning products clung to his hands, and he could feel a headache coming on, but it was worth it.
"What are you still doing here? You should be halfway home by now.”
Rhys sighed as he turned around to face his sister Adelaide. Her eyes landed on the left-hand side of his face, and he resisted the urge to glare at her. Multiple surgeries had reduced the scar to a pale white line that ran under his eye and around the side of his mouth, but he would always bear the physical reminder of the bomb blast in Afghanistan that ended his military career much earlier than he planned.
“I’ve driven back in the dark plenty of times before,” he reminded her. “You don’t need to harp on about it.” It was a long drive back to the ski resort where he usually worked, and although he didn’t begrudge spending his days off helping his sister Adelaide’s extended family run their cafe, it did put a lot of miles on his truck.
“You know we appreciate your help at the cafe, but it’s not like you to stay so late. I worry, that’s all.”
He pulled his truck keys out of his pocket and walked over to where Adelaide was standing at the door. “Maybe I was angling for an invitation to dinner from my favorite sister?”
She snorted. “I’m your only sister, and you’d better not forget it. I hope you’re hungry—Riley’s making lasagna tonight.”
Rhys would be hard-pressed to forget not only that Adelaide was his sister, but just how much she had done for him. Two years earlier he had moved on a whim from Scotland to work in avalanche control at a ski resort, trying to outrun the nightmares that plagued him. He’d landed a job easily enough, and only a few months later Adelaide followed him to Colorado for a fresh start of her own. Cantrell, where she found work as a rescue helicopter paramedic, was a couple of hours’ south of where he was based, but at least they weren’t on opposite sides of the world any more.
An hour later, Rhys was wishing he was wearing sweatpants instead of his fitted canvas work pants. Adelaide’s husband Riley went all out on the lasagna, and Claire joined them for dessert as well.
When there was a rare lull in the conversation around the dinner table, he took the opportunity to satisfy his burning curiosity. “Did I overhear you offering the apartment above the store to the woman who was reading the book all afternoon?”
“Yes, I did.” Claire’s eyes narrowed at him. “Why are you asking?”
“Just wondering.” Rhys shrugged, his face heating up at the bald-faced lie. “We had a quick chat when I dropped her coffee off, but it sounded like she hadn’t made up her mind about staying, or catching the next bus out of here.”
He saw Claire wrestling with how much to tell him, before her natural tendency to gossip won out. “Brianna’s interested in taking over the lease for next door, but when I told her how much the rent was, she went quiet.”
“But you own it—surely you can cut her a deal?”
Claire sighed and scraped the last of her tiramisu from the bowl in front of her. “I could, but it wouldn’t solve my long-term problem. Mom loved the store, but I’m tired of being a landlord, and I wouldn’t mind doing a bit more travelling before Riley and Adelaide start popping out grandchildren.”
Adelaide snorted quietly next to him. He knew Riley and Adelaide were in no hurry to start having kids, but it seemed they’d neglected to inform Riley’s mother of the fact.
“I’ve been thinking about investing in property." He waited for the surprise to show up on Claire’s face, and he wasn’t disappointed.
“Really." Claire's arched eyebrow took in his well-worn clothes that had seen better days. He liked Adelaide’s mother-in-law well enough, but she had a way of looking him up and down that made him feel like she could see into his soul.
“What can I say, the British Army are generous when you’re caught in the line of fire.” He didn’t miss Adelaide’s indrawn breath next to him. His injury was the catalyst for her deciding to train as a paramedic—a career she loved and excelled at—but the immediate aftermath hadn’t been easy for either of them.
“I thought you were planning to settle in at the ski resort,” Riley said from across the table. “Has something changed?”
“Maybe I decided the ski resort life isn’t for me.” He took a sip of his soda. He would have preferred a beer, but he needed his wits about him if he was driving back tonight. “Besides, you’ve said more than once that you wished we lived closer. If I move down here, then I can see you every day—and I can join the Cantrell Mountain Rescue team you’re always going on about.”
Adelaide looked at him with misty eyes, and Rhys swallowed the lump in his throat. Neither of them was given to public displays of affection, but she was clearly touched by his seemingly split-second decision to move closer to her.
“We could certainly use your avalanche knowledge in the team,” Riley mused. “It’s been a busy winter and it’s nowhere near over yet.”
“What if this Brianna woman doesn’t want the store after all?” Adelaide asked. “She could leave tomorrow, and you’d be stuck with all your money tied up in a property with no tenant.”
“The money’s not doing me much good in a savings account.” He shrugged. “Even if she doesn’t want it, I can always do it up a bit and put it up for lease.”
“If you’re serious, I’ll give the lawyer’s office a call in the morning,” Claire said. “Our lawyer has just retired, and they’ve sent some new upstart from Boulder in his place. Let’s hope they know something about commercial property transactions.”
“A lawyer’s a lawyer, right?” Rhys drained the last of his soda and stood up. “Let me know what paperwork I need to do at my end. And I really should be on my way...”
Two hours on the road to think about Brianna. I wonder if she knows that she taps her pen against her cheek when she’s thinking, and how cute it makes her look…
Only a week after Claire set the wheels in motion, Rhys was the proud new owner of the vacant store. At Adelaide’s urging he had contacted a leasing agent in the area, who was confident that new tenants could be found, even if Brianna didn’t want to take over the store.
Once he made the decision to move, Rhys was surprised how quickly he was able to pack up his life at the ski resort. In hindsight, between his long hours working to control avalanches, and the days off spent in Cantrell, it was inevitable that he only had a handful of friends—who were more drinking buddies than anything else—and could fit his entire life into the back of his truck.
What he hadn’t made a decision on, however, was how to tell Brianna that if she accepted the terms Cpl Sparky LLC was offering, he would be her landlord.
After a day spent developing online training on how to use explosives for avalanche control, all Rhys wanted was to relax with a cold beer—but Riley had other ideas.
“If she sticks around, you’re going to have to tell Brianna that you own the place.” Riley took a swig from his beer. “If she’s anything like your sister, keeping secrets doesn’t go down well.”
“I know…” Rhys grumbled, his attention only half on the climbing documentary they were watching after dinner. Riley and Adelaide wouldn’t hear of him taking a room in town, instead insisting he move into the spare room above their garage. The arrangement was working well: Riley appreciated the company when Adelaide was working long shifts, and Rhys was enjoying the chance to get to know his brother-in-law better. “It just hasn’t come up, that’s all.”
“Because you haven’t mentioned it, or because you’ve been trying to avoid the topic entirely?” Riley raised an eyebrow in a perfect imitation of Claire. “Mom told me how Brianna’s been in the cafe nearly every day this week, and all you’ve done is gaze adoringly at her when you think no-one’s looking. You might want to try actually having a conversation with her that’s not about her coffee order.”
“Your mam is something else.” Clearly Rhys hadn’t been as subtle as he thought. “Fine, I promise to be a better conversationalist when I see her tomorrow. Now can I drink the rest of my beer in peace and quiet?”
Riley raised his glass in a mock salute before turning his attention back to the screen, and Rhys breathed a sigh of relief. During his last inspection of the shop, he imagined Brianna in every corner, and now he couldn’t imagine leasing it to anyone else. Tomorrow, he resolved, he would do more than drop off her latte and a cinnamon bun—he would find out what her plans were, and encourage her to stay.