Chapter Four
Chapter Four
April
ZOEY’S HEART POUNDED AS she strode away from the emergency room, the grieving mother’s sobs still ringing in her ears. She was angry. Furious. She was so effing tired of stupid, careless people making stupid, careless decisions that cost the youngest and most vulnerable their lives.
“What made me think I wanted to do this stupid job anyway?” she muttered. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Her shift had ended an hour ago, so she hurried to the locker room and retrieved her purse, slamming the door with a metallic bang. Eight minutes later, she screeched her tires as she punched the gas, accelerated onto the freeway, and headed home.
She was taking the long route to the townhouse she’d shared with Cooper for the past two years. Well, a year and three-quarters. He’d be home already. It was Thursday, an office-hour day for him. He’d be rested and relaxed and ready to interact when she arrived home. Invariably, his office days were good days.
Some days, that totally ticked her off.
Zoey should have gone into orthopedics or, better yet, plastic surgery. Then she could spend her days doing boob jobs and nose jobs and plumping lips instead of dealing with dead toddlers.
“Cabinet latches,” she muttered. “What’s so hard about putting latches on cabinets where you store your drain cleaner?”
Maybe she should ditch medicine altogether and find a flower shop to run.
She rolled down the window and let the air blow through the car, the sound system belting classic rock. She continued three exits past the one leading home and only exited the highway and turned toward home when she judged her blood pressure had lowered back to a normal level.
She hit the garage door opener, and the door slowly lifted. Zoey was surprised to discover that Cooper’s car was gone. Inside, she found a note on the mudroom door.
Your dinner is in the oven. On a dessert run. Will be right back.
~C~
“Yum,” Zoey murmured. She followed the tempting aroma of balsamic chicken toward the kitchen, where she kicked off her shoes, poured a glass of red wine, and removed a plate from the warming oven. Fresh broccoli and a side of pasta. The man had been busy.
She was halfway through her meal when she heard him enter the townhouse. Zoey expected him to be carrying a quart of ice cream from the creamery just outside the neighborhood. Peach ice cream was her fiancé’s favorite food group. Instead, the bag he carried sported a grocery store’s logo. She smiled up at him. “The chicken is delish. Thank you.”
Cooper studied her closely. “You’re welcome. You doing all right?”
She knew right then that he’d called the hospital. He probably spoke to the ER nurses’ station, and someone told him about the toddler. “I’m okay. What’s in the bag?”
“Italian cream cake.”
Yes, he’d definitely called the hospital. Italian cream cake was Cooper’s way of taking care of her. Not a bad way at all. “You’re spoiling me. Better stop it, or I won’t be able to fit into my wedding dress.”
“Yeah, not hardly. I’ll bet you’ve lost ten pounds since Christmas.”
Though he said “Christmas,” they both knew he meant since their return from Colorado on their wedding venue trip. That first week back, she’d lost seven patients in the ER. Seven! From car wrecks, an accidental shooting, a backyard pool incident, and a bicycle wreck. It had been a perfectly horrible week. Then, a respiratory virus turned into pneumonia and knocked her on her butt. She’d missed three weeks at the hospital. Since then, she’d all but lived at work as she played catch-up on her training, which left her exhausted and pining for more time with Cooper. Seemed like they hardly saw each other anymore.
Zoey took a sip of her wine and then shrugged. “Every bride wants to lose weight before her big day.”
Cooper chose to change the subject after that, and he shared news about a mutual friend from their days as resident physicians as they dug into the cake. She was loading dishes into the dishwasher when the doorbell sounded. Glancing at Cooper, she asked, “Are we expecting someone?”
“Not me. Keep eating. I’ll see who it is.” He strode toward the front of the house.
A moment later, Zoey heard the low murmur of masculine voices. It was too soft for her to identify the visitor. She wiped her mouth with her napkin, her gaze on the doorway. Spying the new arrival, her face lit up. Tall and fit, he had sandy blond hair with a touch of gray at the temples and laugh lines at the edges of his blue eyes. “Dad!”
“Hi, sunshine,” Adam Hillcrest said, his smile easy and warm.
Zoey slid off her chair and all but ran toward her father. His strong arms enveloped her in a comforting hug, and a measure of the tension within her flowed away. Her dad loved her unconditionally. He’d been the one person she could count on her entire life.
“This is a nice surprise.”
“Actually, it’s not.”
Zoey pulled away from the hug and stared up at him. Her father looked at Cooper. “You have any whiskey?”
“Sure.” Cooper turned to get it while Zoey asked, “Daddy, what’s wrong? Are you sick?”
“No, I’m fine. Nothing is wrong with me.” He sighed, then said, “This is about your mother.”
Zoey took a deliberate step backward. Now she understood why he’d asked for the drink. A discussion about Jennifer Hillcrest was invariably helped by booze. Zoey resumed her seat at the bar.
She hadn’t heard a word from her mother in probably three years. That had been a phone call to tell Zoey that Jennifer was getting married again. “What has she done this time? Another breakup? Another bankruptcy? Another arrest?”
“No, honey. This time, I’m afraid it’s different. Zoey, your mother has cancer.”
Zoey went still.
Her father continued. “She contacted me about six weeks ago and told me she’d been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. She was being treated at her home in Florida, but her doctors were not hopeful. I arranged for her to be evaluated at the hospital, and she’s been accepted for a clinical trial. She begins treatment tomorrow.”
The hospital he referred to was the one where he worked as a researcher, MD Anderson Cancer Center. Adam continued. “She asked that I wait until now to share the news with you.”
While Adam went into detail about Jennifer Hillcrest’s condition and the treatment plan, Cooper sat beside Zoey and took her hand. Adam answered the medical questions Zoey and Cooper posed, then, following a brief moment of silence, Zoey summarized. “So, she’s terminal.”
“I’m not prepared to make that pronouncement. We’re making advances every day, and I’ve seen this team perform miracles in the past.”
And this, Zoey thought, was the difference between an emergency room physician and a medical researcher.
“But it is serious,” Adam continued. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t have thrown this into your lap. I know the timing could be better.”
“There’s the understatement of the night,” Cooper muttered. He gave Zoey’s shoulder a gentle squeeze, signaling his support.
The final months of a fellowship were beyond busy and filled with stress. On top of the make-up hours at the hospital from her illness in addition to the regular full work schedule, Zoey had end-of-program exams on her horizon.
Adam’s rueful grimace acknowledged the point Cooper had made while Zoey’s thoughts shifted from the medical to the personal. “What about Gary? Is he with her?”
Adam took a sip of his drink. “Well, apparently, her husband passed away a couple of years ago. She’s been living in Florida.”
Really? The last Zoey had heard, Jennifer had been living in North Carolina. Zoey filled her cheeks with air, then blew out in a rush.
Adam shot his daughter an apologetic look and then put the cherry on top of the reason for his visit. “Honey, your mother asked me to ask you to visit her.”
“I see.” Zoey sat back in her chair, her thoughts spinning. “I see” was a silly thing to say. She didn’t see anything. That’s the way it had always been with everything where her mother was concerned.
Zoey had been six years old when Jennifer Hillcrest left her husband and daughter for the first time. She’d stayed gone three months before showing up again without notice or really any repentance that Zoey had noticed. Five months later, Zoey woke up one morning to find her gone again.
Adam allowed his wife to return to live with them one more time when Zoey was nine. When she left again less than a month later, Zoey’s dad told her mom never to come back. Their divorce had been finalized the day before Zoey’s tenth birthday.
“I don’t know how to explain your mother to you,” her father told Zoey when he shared the news. “I know she loves you, but I think she has her hands full trying to care for herself.”
“Do you still love her?” Zoey asked.
He let the question dangle unanswered for a long time. Finally, he said, “No, sweetheart, I don’t. But listen to me. What’s between your mother and me is separate from your mother and you. My feelings have nothing to do with your feelings for your mother or hers for you. She’s no longer my wife, but she will always be your mother.”
“So, it’s okay for me to love her still?”
“Of course, baby. I won’t ever try to interfere with that.”
Zoey had nodded. She’d believed her dad. Back then, she’d believed in her mother, too.
She’d believed her mother would one day love her enough to speak the truth. Twenty years later, she was still waiting.
Her mother was a mystery. She’d told both Adam and Zoey tales about her past over the years. Little of what she’d said had turned out to be true.
Jennifer had claimed to be an orphan when she’d met Adam, the young, nerdily handsome, smart-as-a-whip college student who bought doughnuts at the shop where she waitressed. Theirs had been a whirlwind romance, she’d told her daughter. They’d been two young people drawn together by his daily sugar craving and her attraction to a brilliant mind.
Turned out that Jennifer was one area in his life where Adam wasn’t so brilliant. Though neither of her parents ever admitted as much to Zoey, she could do the math, and their marriage had been the result of an accidental pregnancy. Zoey had often wondered if Jennifer had seen Adam as a meal ticket and gotten pregnant on purpose.
She did believe that, for a while, her mother had tried to make the marriage work. Zoey had memories of love and laughter in their home. She knew her father had suffered when Jennifer went away.
Only when Adam eventually decided to divorce her did he discover through the legal process that Jennifer Beaudine Hillcrest didn’t actually exist. She admitted to being a runaway who’d assumed a false identity and used a fake ID when she’d married Adam. She’d refused to reveal to either her husband or her daughter the truth about who she was or where she came from. While she married twice more after Adam—that Zoey knew about, anyway—she’d kept the Hillcrest surname.
And now, Jennifer Hillcrest was dying and finally—finally—wanted to see her daughter. Zoey had given up asking for visits a decade ago. “Has she given up, then? Does she want to say good-bye?”
Adam shook his head. “No, not at all. She’s ready to fight, which is one of the reasons I recommended her for this trial. We know how stubborn she is.”
Zoey studied her father. How did Adam feel about Jennifer’s return to their lives under these circumstances? Facing this prognosis? She honestly couldn’t tell.
“Look, sweetheart, I’m not about to tell you what to do. If you choose not to see her, you won’t hear one word about it from me. I believe you had a right to know this information, but Zoey, you don’t owe her anything.”
Well, except for my life.
Cooper draped his arm around Zoey’s shoulder in silent comfort and support. She drew in a deep breath, then released it slowly with a sigh. “I’ll go see her. I’d regret it if I didn’t. Who knows, maybe she’ll finally come clean about her family background.”
Maybe Zoey would finally discover why her mother left her, why she’d never loved Zoey enough to stay. Why Zoey had never been good enough.
“If you want answers from her, I’d recommend you go tomorrow,” Adam suggested. “This treatment will hit her pretty hard. She won’t be in the mood for a heart-to-heart once she’s into treatment.” He paused a moment, then added, “That’s assuming she’d ever be in the mood for a heart-to-heart.”
Zoey considered the next day’s schedule and inwardly sighed. “I’ll go during lunch tomorrow. Will I see you there?”
Adam shook his head. “No. I’m leaving tomorrow for the conference in Brussels, remember?”
Zoey snapped her fingers. “Your big presentation. I can’t believe I forgot about that.” Her father was going to be gone for a month.
“She didn’t forget,” Cooper said, rising and crossing the room, headed for their bedroom. Over his shoulder, he said, “She bought you a gift. I was going to drop it by your place on my way to the gym in the morning.”
Delight filled Adam’s face. “You bought me a present?”
“ We did.” Zoey gazed at Cooper with loving gratitude as he returned carrying a gift-wrapped package. He’d even wrapped it, too. Oh, Cooper. You are the most thoughtful man. “It’s for the plane trip.”
Adam unwrapped an advance reading copy of his favorite thriller writer’s upcoming novel. His chin dropped. “Whoa. How did you get your hands on this?”
Delighted with his reaction, Zoey beamed as Cooper explained. “The daughter of one of my partners is roommates with the author’s daughter. Zoey got the idea to ask for an autographed book. This is what he sent.”
“It’s signed to you, Dad,” she pointed out.
“Well, I’ll be damned. Thank you, sweetheart.” Adam shook Cooper’s hand and clapped him on the shoulder. Then he gave Zoey a big hug, whispering in her ear, “I’m sorry, baby. Remember, though, she is not your responsibility. She gave up that right years ago.”
“I know. It’s okay. I’ll be fine. I hope you have a great trip, Dad. Break a leg at your presentation and enjoy your well-deserved vacation.” It was the first extended vacation he’d planned to take in years.
“Thanks. I’ll be back in six weeks. I’ll keep in touch by phone and e-mail. I’ll check with the hospital about Jennifer, and I’ll keep you informed so you don’t need to concern yourself. You take care of your business at the hospital and get ready for that big party we’re having in August.”
Her father left Zoey and Cooper’s place a short time later. Exhaustion hit Zoey when the door closed behind Adam, and she murmured, “I’m toast.”
“I can imagine.” Cooper slipped his arms around her and pulled her close. “Want me to go with you tomorrow?”
Zoey let herself relax into him and considered the question. More than anything, she’d like answers from her mother. “Thank you, but I don’t think so. This might be my one chance to find out about her family.”
Cooper pressed a kiss against her temple. “I know that’s important to you.”
Zoey had tried to explain to him in the past about the hole in her soul caused by not knowing anything about her family history. Her dad came to live with her grandparents through a closed adoption. Her mother had been a nameless runaway who had lied about everything important. All of her life, Zoey had yearned for roots.
Cooper was a good man who loved her, but she didn’t expect him to truly understand this part of her. He knew his bloodlines. He had parents and grandparents who’d shared with him a family history going back generations.
Zoey sighed and said, “Yes, it is.”
The following day in the first hour on the job, Zoey dealt with a severe burn case, an accidental choking, and a poisoning before leaving the ER to deal with administrative issues for a couple of hours. She next stole forty minutes to study for her exam. Throughout the morning, her tension grew. By the time she climbed into her car for the short drive to MD Anderson, her nerves were strung tight as a guitar string.
Fifteen minutes later, standing in the hospital room doorway, Zoey studied the woman lying in a bed. Jennifer Hillcrest had aged since she’d last popped into Zoey’s life some three to four years before. She was thin, her once-dark hair now peppered with gray. Her head turned. Their eyes met.
A lifetime’s worth of yearning swept over Zoey.
“Well, look at you,” Jennifer said. “Aren’t you a pretty thing? I’d forgotten that you have your grandmother’s eyes.”
My grandmother’s eyes. It was the first such remark Zoey had ever heard. “Hello, Jennifer.”
She didn’t call her “Mom” or “Mother.” Jennifer had forbidden that early on. She’d claimed to have been too young to be a mother. “We’ll be friends, you and I, Zoey. That’s what we’ll be.”
Such a liar she’d been. Zoey needed to remember that today.
She walked into the room, a strange combination of a little girl out of her element and an experienced physician well accustomed to hospital rooms. Uncertain of what to say or how to begin, she retreated into safe Dr. Hillcrest territory. She checked the readings on the machines monitoring Jennifer’s condition.
“So, am I alive?” Jennifer asked after a moment.
“Looks that way to me.”
“Your father tells me you are a doctor, too.”
“I am. I’m a pediatric emergency physician.”
Jennifer closed her eyes and rested her head back against her pillow, a faint smile on her face. “In that case, you should be my doctor. Even after all these years, I’m still a child.”
Well. What was Zoey supposed to say to that? She shoved her hands into her jacket pockets and said, “Dad told me you wanted to see me.”
“Yes. He warned me that you might not be keen about the idea, so I’m a little surprised to see you here.”
“Honestly, that makes both of us.”
“Sit down, Zoey. I do have a few things I’d like to say to you. Dying gives a girl perspective.” She watched her daughter closely for a reaction, but Zoey had been a physician long enough by now to keep emotion from showing on her face.
Jennifer continued. “Knowing I’m about to meet my maker makes me think I should try to right some wrongs in my past.”
A conversation can’t wipe out a lifetime of neglect, Jennifer. Nevertheless, Zoey was interested to hear what her mother had to say. To a point. She took a seat beside the bed. “I’m on my lunch break. I can only stay about fifteen minutes.”
“So, you want me to hit the high points?”
“That would be good.”
Jennifer studied Zoey for a long minute before she began. “More than anything, I wish I could have made a life with you and your father. I tried to make it happen. I truly did. But the die was cast long before I met Adam, I’m afraid.”
Zoey shifted in her chair. Did she believe anything her mother said?
“For a little while, I harbored some hope. I thought perhaps that things could change. That you and your father could save me.” She closed her eyes and said, “It wasn’t meant to be. It was better for you and your father that I left. For that, I want to tell you that I’m sorry. I don’t believe I’ve ever said it before.”
No, she hadn’t. A flood of emotion washed through Zoey. She was nine years old again, and her mother was packing her bag. Zoey hadn’t understood it then. She didn’t understand it now. “Why? You said you want to right some wrongs. Tell me why you left, Jennifer.”
Her mother’s mouth shut. Her lips flattened in a grim line. She shook her head, refusing to answer the question, and shifted her gaze to stare out the window.
So much for making amends.
The exchange set the tone for Zoey’s visits from that day forward. Nevertheless, she returned to the hospital daily, always hoping for answers to her lifelong questions.
“You have your grandmother’s eyes,” Jennifer had said. Who was this grandmother? Who were your people? Do I have family anywhere?
May
Helen braked her car to a stop in front of the newest and most isolated cabin on the Reflections Inn at Mirror Lake property—their luxurious honeymoon cottage. Or, at least, it would be luxurious once they added the final touches. The structure itself had been completed. What was left for her and her partners to complete was the fun stuff.
Some of which she had loaded into the back of the SUV.
As she switched off the engine, Helen’s phone chimed with a text. Genevieve was running late, and Helen should expect her in twenty minutes. Helen replied with a thumbs-up emoji. A second text from her sister announced BIG NEWS INCOMING . Helen tucked her phone into her jeans pocket and murmured, “That’s interesting.”
She unloaded the first of four large tubs she had stored in the back of her SUV and carried it into the cottage. Just as she set the box on the sofa that had been delivered the previous day, her phone rang. The ringtone identified the caller to be Nicole Vandersall.
Nicole was Lake in the Clouds’ assistant city manager and Helen’s right-hand woman. The former librarian and mother of two had moved to Lake in the Clouds following a divorce to be closer to her widowed mother, a neighbor of Helen’s in the Mountain Vista Retirement Community condos. Helen had been impressed by Nicole’s organizational skills, the kindness she showed her ailing mother, and how she handled her teenage daughters. Shortly after winning the mayor’s race last August, Helen had convinced the city council to hire Nicole to serve as Lake in the Clouds’ city manager. Hiring Nicole had proved to be one of the best decisions the city had made in decades.
Nicole learned fast, and she’d been a great help to Lake in the Clouds’ mayor pro tempore, Celeste Blessing, while Helen had been away last December. In April, when the Bennett sisters had popped over to visit Paris for a week, Nicole stepped up and performed the mayor’s duties seamlessly. If Helen were being brutally honest, Nicole made a much better mayor than she.
She set the phone on the coffee table and connected the call, putting it on speaker. “Hello, Nicole.”
“I’m sorry to bother you, Helen, but we have another wildlife problem on Main Street.”
Helen closed her eyes and sighed. “Bears again?”
“Cougars.”
“What?” Helen’s eyes flew open as she straightened in alarm. “We’ve never—”
“The two-legged kind.”
“Oh.”
Nicole elaborated. “A group of six women is in town for the Rodgers and Hammerstein Film Festival at the Emily. They’re staying out at Reflections.”
Well, damn. Helen slumped down onto the sofa.
Nicole continued. “I am told that Gage was having pizza with his sons and daughter at the bowling alley. Our tourists appear to have begun their three-martini lunch well before noon. They started harassing the Throckmorton family.”
“What sort of harassment?”
“Flirtation on steroids.”
“Oh dear. Was Scamp there? Gage’s young grandson?”
“No,” Nicole replied. “All involved were adults, thank goodness, because three of the cats sprang. They swooped in, sat on the guys’ laps, and attempted to steal kisses.”
“Oh, for crying out loud.”
“The men managed to extricate themselves, but in the melee, Gage’s daughter threw an elbow that caught a tourist’s nose. Blood gushed, and the visiting team went wild.”
Helen scowled and asked, “What is wrong with people?”
“I blame social media. Anyway, they’ve been detained on a drunk and disorderly charge. The plan is to keep the… I hesitate to call them ladies… in jail long enough to sober up. The Throckmortons aren’t pressing charges, although Lindsay wasn’t happy because her shirt got ruined, and Gage apparently was hot under the collar about having his family lunch interrupted.”
“I imagine he was. I don’t think he often gets together with all three of his kids. These chicks are lucky he’s not demanding they be charged with sexual assault.”
“True, that,” Nicole agreed. “Well, with any luck, this incident is over, but I thought I should give you a heads-up because you’re the mayor, and they’re staying at Reflections. I asked Chief Roberts to let you know once they’re sprung from lockup.”
“Thanks, Nicole. I appreciate it.” Helen dropped her head back and stared up at the ceiling. “Is there anything else I need to know about before the council meeting tonight?”
The two women briefly discussed a couple of city business issues before ending the call. As Helen returned her phone to her pocket, a chuckle escaped her. She’d have to tease Zach about this the next time she saw him.
Zach Throckmorton was the eldest of Gage’s three adult children and the owner of the company that had transformed the Bennett sisters’ investment property from a tired and outdated tourist camp to a working-toward-five-star resort.
Helen headed back outside to retrieve another box when she spied her sister approaching in her crossover SUV, which was also loaded with storage tubs. Genevieve pulled up behind Helen’s vehicle. The moment she switched off the motor, Helen asked, “So, let me guess. Your big news involves your boyfriend and cougars.”
“What?” A wrinkle of confusion creased Genevieve’s brow.
“You haven’t talked to Gage?” Helen lifted a tub from her SUV.
“No, but I am headed out to the ranch after I leave here. We’re going horseback riding up to some scenic viewpoint he wants to show me. You said ‘cougars’? Was someone hurt?”
“No. Everyone is fine.” As she relayed the story about the out-of-control tourists, Helen eyed her sister more closely, noting the way she glowed. Surreptitiously, Helen checked her sister’s left ring finger. Still empty. So, Gage hadn’t popped the question. Helen expected a marriage proposal would come sometime this year, although Genevieve didn’t appear to be expecting one imminently. Helen believed her sister would have mentioned the possibility if she thought one was on the near horizon.
Genevieve continued, “He’s having lunch with his children.”
“I know.” Perhaps the purpose of his family lunch had been to inform the Throckmorton progeny of Gage’s intention to propose prior to the fact. If that was the case, Genevieve was obviously oblivious. So, why the glow? “What’s your big news?”
Genevieve’s shine went incandescent, and her emerald eyes sparkled. “Willow is pregnant.”
The news was an unanticipated arrow to Helen’s heart. She bobbled the tub in her arms as a wave of pain seasoned with jealousy radiated through her.
The emotion shamed Helen. As always, she powered through it. She pasted a smile upon her face and tried—seriously tried—to make it genuine. “Congratulations, Nana. That was fast.”
“Happened on their honeymoon.”
Helen did a few quick calculations as she carried the storage container toward the cabin’s front door. Her niece had married in early March. “She’s due in December? How is she feeling? Do they know yet if it’s a boy or a girl?”
“She says she’s feeling great. No morning sickness and that early pregnancy fatigue is easing. I think it’s too soon to know the gender. Nevertheless, she told me they’ve decided to wait until the baby is born to find out.” Genevieve grabbed her own tub and followed Helen into the Honeymoon Cottage.
“They’re waiting?” Helen set the tub down with the ones she’d brought inside earlier. “That’s unusual in this day and age.”
Genevieve set her burden next to Helen’s tubs in the kitchenette. “Willow and Noah think waiting is a better option for Drew and Emma. One of them is going to be disappointed, and they won’t be as focused on whether they have a brother or a sister when there’s an actual baby to play with.”
“Well, I’m thrilled for them and for you, too. That’ll be three new babies in three months, with Jake and Tess’s twins due in October. Speaking of your eldest and his wife, how is Tess feeling?”
“She’s doing better. She says she’s only throwing up once a day instead of three times.”
“That poor girl.”
“She’s been pretty miserable. But I keep telling her it’s all worth it in the end. She’ll get two precious bundles.” Genevieve waited for a beat and added, “I won’t mention what a pain in the butt adult children often are.”
“I thought you were getting along well with your offspring right now,” Helen said, arching a questioning brow.
“I’m thinking about Gage. His up-and-down relationship with Lindsay is in the valley again. That’s the reason behind today’s pizza summit at the bowling alley.” Genevieve’s expression turned rueful as she added, “He was hoping to improve the situation before they all head off to Alaska on their family vacation.”
“Well, who knows? Maybe the cougar brawl will unite father and daughter and facilitate healing.”
“Maybe.” Genevieve gave her sister a doubtful look.
Helen doubted it, too. She also had her suspicions about why Gage’s daughter had a bee in her bonnet these days. Genevieve might be blind to the rancher’s deepening feelings, but Helen could spot the development from a mile away.
And Gage’s daughter didn’t like her widowed father having a new woman in his life.
Genevieve wasn’t blind to that. The twenty-something-year-old woman had made her feelings clear last year when her father praised Genevieve during the opening gala for the Emily. While she might not have a personal beef with Genevieve, Lindsay Throckmorton Higgins clearly thought it was too soon for Gage to move on with his life where romance was concerned.
Eyeing her sister, Helen considered keeping the gossip she’d picked up yesterday at the nail salon to herself. But, no, Genevieve shouldn’t be caught off guard. “I heard a rumor that she’s moving back to town.”
Genevieve’s head snapped around. “Who?”
“Gage’s daughter.”
“What?” Genevieve’s eyes went round and a little buggy. “Lindsay and Frank are moving to Lake in the Clouds?”
“Sometime this summer, so tweeted a little birdie in my ear.”
That tidbit obviously sent Genevieve’s mind to spinning. “Is Frank joining a bank here? Are they going to live at the ranch?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who’s the birdie? Is this for real?”
Helen explained about being drawn into a conversation with the sister of the wife of Gage’s ranch manager while seated next to the woman in pedicure chairs at the nail salon. The woman proved to be a rabid gossip.
Genevieve tried to act as if the news hadn’t disturbed her, but Helen wasn’t fooled. Genevieve would have to figure out what she wanted from Gage Throckmorton, and she would need to do it quickly.
While her sister was busy figuring out her wishes, dreams, and desires, Helen needed to go to work on her own. Somehow, some way, she needed to come to terms with these old emotions that all these new babies were stirring up inside her.
Well, first things first. She and Genevieve had a honeymoon cottage to decorate.
While her sister went outside to get the last tub from her SUV, Helen rolled her shoulders, stretching her taut muscles, and did some forward thinking. When Genevieve returned with the bucket, she said, “So, we have a number of Christmas-season weddings booked. And at Thanksgiving, too, I believe. Willow will need maternity leave. We’ll have to put our contingency plan into action.”
“I know.” Genevieve carried a tub labeled “Bedding” into the bedroom and set it on the king-sized bed. “It’s good that we prepared for this possibility when we decided to expand the wedding business. Willow said she’d start interviewing for an assistant coordinator next week.”
“Thank goodness,” Helen said, relieved. “Kelly said that Willow has needed help for weeks now. Once we put the architectural drawings of the Glass Chapel onto the Reflections Inn website, wedding inquiries exploded.”
“It’s going to be such a beautiful building,” Genevieve said as she removed the lid from her tub. She hummed with pleasure when she spied the duvet cover lying on the top of a pile of bedding. “And this place is going to be perfect.”
“Dare I say we’ve improved on the Honeymoon Cottage at Angel’s Rest?”
“Only because we totally ripped off Celeste’s ideas. Our baseline was near perfection. You ready to get decorating?”
“Let’s do it,” Helen said as she released the lid on a tub containing bath towels.
They spent the next hour dressing the cottage. They’d chosen a soft, romantic color palette of sage, bronze, and copper tones. They hung curtains on the windows and pictures on the walls. They placed dishes and glassware into cabinets and stocked the pantry with paper goods and picnic supplies. Once the bed was made, towels stacked, and the rugs spread upon the floor, they finished with the little touches that added romance to comfort—scented candles, branded soaps, bubble bath, and lotions made specifically for them by Heavenscents out of Eternity Springs.
Once done and with empty crates returned to their vehicles, they stood side by side in the middle of the main room and surveyed their handiwork. “It’s perfect,” Genevieve said with a sigh. “Don’t you think it’s perfect?”
“Yes, I do. However, I expect we will have a few adjustments to make after Willow and Noah’s quality-control visit this weekend.”
Helen smirked. “Aren’t we lucky to have our own pair of newlyweds in-house to ensure we got it right?”
Genevieve took another long look around, then spoke confidently. “Oh, we got it right. So, what’s next on the list?”
“Well, I’m headed back into town. A box of merch for our Christmas market booth arrived just as I left this morning. I’m anxious to inspect the contents.”
Genevieve’s eyes lit. “Oh yeah? What merch? From what vendor?”
“The glass tree ornaments. It’s our special order from Whimsies.”
Genevieve clapped her hands in delight. “Ooh. I want to come and have a look.”
“Don’t you have a horseback riding date?”
“Yes, I do.” Genevieve’s lips twitched with mirth. “I’m dying to hear his version of the cougar attack.”
“And you get to share Willow’s big news.”
“True. Although, I admit I’m a little hesitant to do so. He’s already jealous that we’re having twins in October. The man wants more grandchildren.” She paused a moment and considered. “You know, I wonder if that’s why Lindsay and her husband are moving to Lake in the Clouds? Maybe they’re ready to have a baby and want to be around family.”
Babies, babies, babies. Helen stifled a sigh. She might as well get prepared. With three new grandchildren on the way, infants would be top-of-mind for Genevieve for the next year or so. “Well, I’ll put the tree ornaments in our storage unit after I inspect them, so come by whenever you’d like. You have a key.”
“I’ll do that.”
The sisters shut and locked the cottage door, hugged good-bye, and went their separate ways. At the intersection of the highway and the entrance to the resort, on a whim, Helen turned away from town and toward the scenic alpine loop. Twenty minutes later, she pulled off at an overlook high above Lake in the Clouds, exited her vehicle, and took a seat on a wooden bench. She fixed her gaze on the valley below, but she didn’t really see the town. Nor was she more than minimally aware of the moisture that swam in her eyes and eventually overflowed.
She loved her little sister. Truly, she did. She loved Genevieve with her whole heart. The woman was her confidant. Her traveling buddy. Her best friend. Almost every time, Genevieve had been there for Helen when Helen needed her. Through the divorces—all three of them. Through the miscarriages—four of those. She’d been there when Helen had her professional triumphs, too. Making partner, the mentoring award. Her race for mayor. Genevieve was—like their father used to say—good people.
And today, Helen was pea-green jealous of her.
Genevieve had babies—four of them. She had grandbabies, two with three more on the way. She’d had one successful marriage to a handsome man to whom she’d been the sun and the stars, and now another fabulous man had gone head over heels for her and soon would pop the question. Just see if he doesn’t.
And Helen, all she had was memories. Once upon a times. And what-ifs.
What if .
Those had to be two of the saddest words in the English language.
Summer of 1973
“What if you don’t tell your parents?” Billy Poteet whispered in Helen’s ear.
She playfully shoved him away. “They’d find out anyway. You know they would. Someone would tell them, and then I’d be grounded for life.”
“But it would be worth it, don’t you think?” He winked at her and slid his hands around her waist. “Imagine it. Fireworks booming against a starlit sky, the reflection of colors on the surface of the lake. You. Me. A blanket.” He pulled her close, bent his head, and covered her mouth with his.
Helen wrapped her arms around his neck and gave herself up to the pleasure of his kiss. They stood shielded from view of the swimmers at the neighborhood pool by a hedge of junipers. His tongue slipped past her lips, probing and exploring, stoking the fire inside her until she melted against him with a moan.
Helen was in love.
Billy Poteet was a man, a high school graduate as of three days ago. Too old for barely-fifteen-year-old Helen, her father had decreed after she’d introduced him to Billy on Christmas Eve. Edward Bennett had forbidden her to date the senior basketball player who bore a striking resemblance to Hollywood heartthrob Robert Redford. Of course, that had only made the relationship more exciting, and Helen had been a rule-breaker from the beginning.
The shrill trill of a whistle interrupted the spell. The head lifeguard at the end of the hedge called, “Hey, you two. The runts in the kiddie pool can see you, and the mamas have complained. Break it up!”
Startled, Helen pulled her mouth away from Billy’s. She could feel the warmth of a blush sting her cheeks. Billy only laughed and stole another quick kiss. Then with his summer blue eyes glinting down at her, he flashed a boyish grin. “Guess I’d better go cool off.”
He ducked around the end of the hedge and ran toward the swimming pool, letting out a yell as he leaped into the air and cannonballed into the water.
It was the first day of a truly glorious summer.
Since her father’s Christmastime edict, she and Billy had been careful to keep their relationship quiet. Their efforts had been complicated by the fact that her brother Paul was a classmate of Billy’s. He was an overprotective older brother, which meant they’d spent the entire spring semester sneaking around.
Luckily, Paul had joined their older brother John in Austin this summer as they both were taking summer classes at the University of Texas. Helen’s job babysitting her younger sister and brother gave her a first taste of real freedom. Her sibs wanted to spend every day at the pool, and the lifeguards did the babysitting.
Nine-year-old Genevieve was clueless about her sister’s romance, as was six-year-old Mark. They ran in packs with classmates at the pool, paying Helen little attention. It was a perfect situation.
Billy and Helen took full advantage of it. He was even able to talk her into the Fourth of July rendezvous at the lake. She’d secured an invitation to spend the weekend at a friend’s lake house. He and two of his buddies rented a houseboat for the weekend.
They’d watched fireworks together and later, created some of their own. It was Helen’s first time, and Billy had made it perfect for her.
She floated through the summer in the throes of first love, and determinedly refused to think about what would happen in the fall. Because Billy wasn’t simply going off to college like her brother. Billy was joining the Marines. He was scheduled to leave on September twenty-fourth.
The magical summer officially ended when the mid-August start of school meant the idyllic days at the swimming pool came to a close. Helen greeted the beginning of her sophomore year in high school with a growing sense of distress. She’d never felt so alone as when she walked through the hallways at her school, knowing Billy wouldn’t be meeting her at her locker between classes or sitting with her at lunch. If she felt this lonely while he was still in town, how would she manage once he left for basic training?
When they met in the parking lot at the football stadium before the game on the second Friday of September, he presented her with the traditional ribboned mum that girls wore to school on football game days. Ordinarily, florists delivered the mums on Thursdays. Billy had to deliver his in person so that her parents wouldn’t see it. Helen opened the mum box and burst into tears.
“Oh, baby, what’s the matter?” he asked, pulling her into his arms. “Did I not get a big enough flower? Did you want more ribbons? More cowbells?”
“I don’t want you to leave!” she wailed. “Why did you have to go and join the Marines? Why couldn’t you have stayed here and gone to college at Midwestern? What if you go off and forget about me?”
“Oh, baby. I’m not going to forget about you. I love you! I’m doing this for you… for us. The Marine Corps is going to give me all sorts of opportunities.”
“Yes,” she snapped. “Like dying in Vietnam!”
“Now, Helen. I won’t be sent to ’Nam. The war is over. The Paris Peace Accords were signed in January. They’re bringing troops home, not sending new ones over there. I told you that my recruiting officer told me that when I’m finished with all my training, I’m just as likely to be stationed Stateside as anywhere else.”
“Is that the truth?”
Billy shrugged. “It’ll be okay, I promise. I’ll come home on every leave, and I’ll write you and call you.”
“Oh, that’ll be just great,” she declared. “I can see my dad handing the phone over to me when a Marine calls.”
“We’ll find a way. Haven’t we managed since Christmas?”
“Yes, but—”
“No buts. It’s all good, sunshine. I’ll miss you like hell, but I promise these next three years will fly by. Before we know it, you’ll be graduating. And then, we can get married.”
“Married.” It was the first time he’d mentioned marriage.
Helen lifted her head from his shoulder and gazed up at him with hopeful wonder in her eyes. “Married?”
“Yeah.” His expression turned fierce. “You don’t think I’m gonna let some other guy make time with you, do you? Look, I know you are smart as a whip and will want to go to college. We will make that work, too. I want a future with you, Helen. I want to be your future.”
My future. Our future. Married. “I love you, Billy.”
“I love you so damned much, Helen. Promise me you’re not gonna forget me after I leave.”
“Forget you!”
“Yeah. Maybe take up with the captain of the football team.”
Helen tenderly cupped Billy’s cheek. “Jeff Jarrett? What would I want with that loser?”
Grinning, he turned his head and pressed a kiss to her palm. Helen swallowed hard and swore, “I promise I won’t forget you, Billy Poteet. You’re my hero. I will love you forever.”
He closed his eyes. “Now that’s what I wanted—no, I needed—to hear.”
Helen could see the truth of the statement gleaming in his eyes. A whirlwind of emotions blew through her. Fear, hope, yearning, and regret—more feelings than she could put a name to. Yet, strongest of all, most consuming of all, was love.
She needed to show him. Now. Helen rose up on her tiptoes and pressed a quick kiss against his lips. “You know, Billy, it’s a beautiful night. What if we skipped going into the game?”
A million years later, seated alone on a bench above Lake in the Clouds, Colorado, thrice-married and thrice-divorced… childless… oh, dear Lord… childless, Helen Bennett McDaniel grieved for the only man she had ever truly loved with her whole heart. She grieved for her hero, her hopes, and her dreams.
Helen grieved for the family she and her Billy had lost.