Chapter Eleven
Looking around the festively decorated ballroom of Maverick Manor, it seemed to Wilder that after a lot of years and a lot of parties, they all started to look and feel the same. The glittery venues and beautiful women mixed with champagne bubbles and blurred together in his mind.
His memories of last year’s celebration, being the most recent, were perhaps a little clearer.
He and Leighton had been seeing each other for a few weeks by then, and he easily pictured the sparkly green dress that hugged her curves and the sexy skyscraper heels that put her mouth within easy reach of his.
But the rest of the details remained fuzzy.
He knew she had pale blond hair and moss green eyes, but the image that teased his mind now was of dark hair and dark eyes.
And as the features came more fully into focus, he noticed other inconsistencies: the lush mouth was a little too full, and instead of being painted glossy red, the lips were naturally pink. Naked. And somehow even more tempting.
Beth’s lips.
The realization was as startling to Wilder as it was unsettling.
Scowling, he escaped to the outdoor terrace to get some air and clear his head.
Looking around at the crowd, everyone decked out in their holiday finest, it belatedly occurred to him that Beth might not have wanted to come to the party because she didn’t have anything appropriate to wear.
He would have been happy to take her shopping, if she’d asked, though the way she’d balked at shopping with him the last time, he wasn’t surprised that she didn’t.
Which was too bad. He wouldn’t mind seeing her in something other than the jeans or leggings and bulky sweaters she seemed to favor. Or maybe in nothing at all.
Uneasy with the direction of his thoughts—and uncomfortable outside without a coat—he returned to the gathering. After a quick stop at the bar, he stood on the periphery of the crowd and spotted his father in conversation with an older, petite blonde he didn’t recognize.
Could this be the mystery woman his father had gone into Kalispell to have dinner with?
Max had been uncharacteristically tight-lipped the day after his date, volunteering no details and refusing to respond to his son’s questions.
But whoever this woman was with the platinum curls and four-inch heels, she seemed to have Max’s complete and undivided attention.
And because Wilder was watching them, he didn’t notice the pretty brunette who’d sidled up to him until she spoke. “Can I buy you a drink?”
His smile was automatic as he turned. She had dark hair pinned up in some kind of fancy twist, with a few strands pulled loose to frame her heart-shaped face. Her eyes were as blue as the sapphires in her ears and sparkled with wicked promise.
She was beautiful and confident and not at all subtle about what she wanted—the type of woman who usually made his blood hum in his veins. And yet, when he looked at her, he felt nothing but a vague appreciation for her obvious attributes.
In response to her question, he held up the bottle of beer in his hand. “I’ve already got one.”
“Then I guess you should buy me one,” she said.
Even if he wasn’t interested, it wasn’t in his nature to be rude.
So he put his hand on her back and led her to the bar, where she ordered some kind of froufrou cocktail that set him back twenty bucks.
A small price to pay for a man interested in what she was obviously offering. But he wasn’t that man. Not tonight.
She introduced herself as Simone and told him that she lived in Billings but had come to Rust Creek Falls to visit a friend from college who’d recently split from a longtime boyfriend.
Except that the longtime boyfriend had apparently seen the error of his ways and showed up with an engagement ring in hand, leaving Simone to celebrate on her own.
“Or maybe not entirely alone,” she said hopefully.
“You’re never really alone in a crowd like this,” he remarked, looking around for one of his brothers in the vague and futile hope someone might come to his rescue.
He caught a glimpse of Logan, snuggled up with Sarah, oblivious to the world around them. Of course, even if he managed to snag Logan’s attention, his brother would never guess that Wilder wanted to be rescued.
“Is something wrong?” Simone asked, licking her lips to remove the pink sugar that had transferred from the rim of her glass.
“What?”
“You’re frowning,” she told him.
“Sorry.” He smoothed his brow. “I guess my mind was wandering.”
“Not something a woman wants to hear when she’s flirting with a handsome man,” she chided, stroking a long, painted fingernail down his arm.
“Sorry,” he said again. “It’s not you, it’s me.”
The warmth in those blue eyes immediately chilled. “Yeah, I’ve heard that one before. Too many times.” She stepped back then. “Thanks for the drink.”
Then she turned and walked away.
He could have called her back. He knew how to turn on the charm and, with a wink and a smile, he could have smoothed her ruffled feathers and been kissing her at the stroke of midnight.
But he didn’t want her to come back. He had no interest in yet another meaningless encounter with a virtual stranger.
A movement caught the corner of his eye, and he glanced over to see his brother Knox flying his hand through the air like a makeshift plane, then tipping his fingers to dive down and spreading them apart.
Wilder lifted a brow. “Are you having fun?”
“As a matter of fact, I am,” Knox said. “Because not only am I here with the sexiest woman in all of Rust Creek Falls, but I just watched my little brother—the one that no woman can apparently resist—crash and burn.”
“I didn’t crash and burn,” he denied.
“What are you guys talking about?” Xander asked, unapologetically shoving his way into their conversation.
“Our baby brother just crashed and burned,” Knox said.
“You wish,” Wilder retorted.
“So the sexy brunette with the mile-long legs in the skintight dress didn’t just walk away from you?” Knox challenged.
“She walked away,” he confirmed. “But only because I didn’t want her to stay.”
Xander frowned, feigning concern. “Did you hit your head when you crashed?”
“I didn’t—” Wilder huffed out a breath. “You know what? I don’t care. If you want to believe I crashed and burned, fine.”
His brothers exchanged a glance.
“Okay, now I’m seriously starting to worry that there’s something wrong with you,” Knox said.
“There’s nothing wrong,” Wilder assured them. “I’m just not in the mood to spend the night with a woman who doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“But isn’t that your whole MO?” Xander asked.
“If you stop having sex with women who don’t mean anything, you won’t be having sex with anyone,” Knox warned.
“Unless he’s met a woman who could actually mean something,” Xander mused thoughtfully.
“Wilder?” Knox snorted. “As if.”
“If you’d focus your attention on your own woman, you might realize that she’s trying to snag your attention before she waves her arm right out of its socket,” he replied.
Thankfully, the distraction worked in shifting the topic of conversation, but his brothers flanked him and maneuvered him over to the big table occupied by his siblings and their partners.
“What’s going on?” Knox asked, when he’d lowered himself into the vacant seat beside Gen.
“Lily was just telling us the most recent news about the mystery lover in the Abernathy diary,” she said, referring to the jewel-encrusted book they’d found hidden in the floorboards shortly after moving to the Ambling A.
“Am I the only one who feels uncomfortable about reading someone’s diary?” Avery wondered aloud.
“Yes,” Lily said. “I mean, a person’s privacy should be respected, of course, but this diary is practically a historical document. And I believe Josiah Abernathy put his innermost thoughts on paper because he expected—or maybe even hoped—that someone else would read his words someday.”
“Maybe the mysterious ‘W,’” Sarah chimed in.
“Plus, there are some really steamy passages,” Xander noted.
“Not trashy,” his wife hastened to clarify. “But definitely passionate.”
“I think he really loved her,” Knox said.
“Who?” Logan asked.
Knox shrugged. “Whoever ‘W’ is.”
“Are there any clues about her identity?”
“Asks the person who didn’t think we should be reading the diary,” Finn noted dryly.
Avery shrugged. “But since it is being read, are there any clues?” she pressed.
“Actually, there is something,” Lily said. “Whoever she was, she was apparently pregnant with Josiah’s baby.”
Avery gasped. “He had a child with his mystery lady?”
Lily shook her head. “Apparently the baby was stillborn.”
“Oh.” The expectant mom instinctively touched a hand to the slight curve of her belly, as if to protect her own unborn child from such a tragic fate. “That’s so sad.”
Lily winced. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking—”
Avery shook her head. “There’s no need to apologize. And I am as curious as everyone else about Josiah and the history of the Ambling A.”
“Well, apparently ‘W’ was so devastated by the loss of her child that she went crazy.”
“Literally or figuratively crazy?” Sarah asked curiously.
Her friend and sister-in-law shrugged. “I can only tell you what’s written in the book.”
“I asked because I’d heard that Winona Cobbs apparently spent some time in an asylum after the Abernathys left town,” Logan’s wife explained.
“The definitely eccentric and questionably clairvoyant Winona Cobbs?”
“The one and only,” Sarah confirmed.
“But I’ve lived in Rust Creek Falls my whole life and I’ve never heard so much as a whisper of a rumor that Winona Cobbs was ever pregnant,” Gen said.
“She wouldn’t be the first woman to keep an out-of-wedlock baby a secret,” Sarah remarked. “Especially so many years ago.”
“Except that Winona isn’t exactly known for her ability to keep secrets,” Lily commented.
“And if the diary is as old as we think, she would have been a teenager at the time,” Knox chimed in.