Chapter 37
Beckett
Beckett pulled into the driveway of the luxurious home where he was delivering the table then shut off his truck engine.
Juniper didn’t so much as blink awake. She was obviously exhausted, poor thing. She had certainly survived a chaotic month.
Should he wake her or let her sleep while he delivered the table?
He decided to let her wake up on her own. She needed sleep more than she needed to see a log home worth a small fortune.
The designer he had been working with, Heather Mason, pulled up behind him as he was opening the back of the trailer. Over
the past year, she had commissioned several pieces from him for her clients.
He was grateful for the work, though he wasn’t as thrilled that she had begun to act a little flirty with him.
“Beck! Thank you so much for doing a rush job on this one. The owners are hoping to be in the house in two weeks and you already know how demanding
they can be. They expect every single thing to be perfect.”
She gave an exasperated eye roll before she stepped forward and offered her cheek for him to kiss.
She did smell good, softly seductive, but he wasn’t tempted in the slightest. Frustrating that he couldn’t seem to drum up
any interest in someone who was patently interested in him, while he pined over a woman who was unattainable.
“I can’t wait to see what you’ve done with it,” she gushed. “I feel like every project you do for me is somehow better than the one before.”
“I try.”
“And you succeed. Let me have a look.”
“You’ll see better once I get it out of the truck. It’s already on the furniture mover. Can you help me guide it into the
house?”
When she looked slightly aghast, gazing down at her strappy sandals and white shorts that showed off long, tanned legs, he
had to smile.
“Nothing to it, I promise. All you have to do is help me steer. I’ll do all the work.”
“Okay. As long as you promise I won’t get dirty. I’m on my way to lunch with some girlfriends after this.”
“You won’t,” he assured her.
While he could see she was reluctant, she still climbed into the back of the trailer to help direct him as he pushed the table
down the loading ramp to the sidewalk.
He had wrapped it in soft blankets to protect it for the ride and as he removed them, the table gleamed in the sunlight.
“Oh,” Heather exclaimed, gazing with admiration. “It’s perfect! So much better than the pictures you sent me.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“I love it. More importantly, my clients are going to love it.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck in an impulsive hug, holding on longer than strictly necessary. As she released him,
he caught movement out of the corner of his gaze and found Juniper walking around the passenger side of the truck to where
they stood at the rear of the trailer.
She looked a little disoriented, her eyes clouded with lingering sleep and her hair disheveled on one side where she had slept
against the seat.
Still, she looked soft and sweet and delicious.
Heather, he saw, had taken a step away from him and was viewing June with a cool gaze.
“You shouldn’t have let me sleep. I planned to help you unload the table.”
“The designer already helped. Juniper Connelly, this is Heather Mason. She’s the one responsible for this gorgeous renovation.
Heather, this is June. She’s staying at a cabin near my place and kindly let me drag her along today.”
June seemed to collect herself. She matched Heather’s cool look with one of her own.
“Heather. Lovely to meet you. The house is beautiful.”
“I didn’t have much to do with the exterior, other than working with the architect and the builder to design the new entryway.
You must come inside and see what we’ve done. New everything. You won’t know what a huge improvement it is over the old house.
It was a disaster. Nothing had been done to it for more than thirty years. Now it’s like an entirely new place inside.”
Beck had personally liked the old place. It had character and a unique style. He couldn’t deny the renovation had been lovely,
though.
“If you can help me guide the table, I can set it in place while you give June the grand tour. As long as you don’t think
the homeowners will mind.”
“They absolutely won’t. They’re so excited to move in after all this time, they’re showing it off to everyone.”
While he did most of the work to push the wheeled furniture mover through the front doors, both June and Heather helped by
steering and stabilizing the table so he didn’t dump the whole thing into the flower gardens on either side of the sidewalk.
By the time they made it inside, June and Heather were talking about a new decorating trend and the importance of creating
timeless styles that wouldn’t look dated in a year or two.
“Oh, it’s lovely,” June said when they walked inside the huge vaulted entry.
“The architect and I decided to open up the second floor to create more space in here. Come on, let me give you a tour.”
“Do you need more help?” June asked him.
“I should be fine. Thanks.”
He was finishing the table setup, which mostly involved making sure it was straight and removing the rest of the protective
coverings, when they both returned, looking like fast friends now.
“So? What do you think?” he asked.
June looked around in admiration at the big great room with its soaring windows offering a view of the Tetons. “It’s gorgeous.
And what a spectacular setting. Makes me wish I had a place like it here.”
“If you buy one, I can help you decorate it,” Heather said with a friendly smile.
Before June could answer, Heather’s phone rang. She looked at it briefly then made a face.
“Sorry. Will you excuse me? It’s a supplier I’ve been trying to track down for a week.”
She walked away to take her call and June wandered over to the two-story wall of windows and the jagged mountains beyond.
“It’s hard to believe they’re real.” The sheer awe on her features left a funny ache in his chest.
“I have seen the Tetons countless times in my life, especially during the past five years, but I have the same reaction every
time I catch another glimpse of them. It’s like seeing the Pacific Ocean from a favorite beach after I’ve been away from California
for a while.”
“The world is a beautiful place, isn’t it? I tend to forget when I’m in a constant round of development meetings and strategy
sessions with my team.”
“It is. And lucky you, to have been given a second chance to see and appreciate all the things you never had the opportunity
to experience before.”
“You’re absolutely right. I am lucky.” She seemed surprised at the concept. “The table looks great. And the huge dining table in the other room is stunning. Absolute perfection.”
He had to smile. “It’s not. That’s part of the beauty of working with wood. No two pieces of timber are alike. My favorite
pieces to use are those that have gnarls and burrs or other imperfections. They give the piece character and life.”
She seemed to mull that as Heather returned. “I’m sorry about that. Not everyone is as punctual as you are, Beck. And few
take as much pride as you do in your work. I gave him an earful, believe me.”
He had no doubt Heather would be tough on anyone whose work wasn’t up to her standards. That was probably one of the reasons
she was one of the most exclusive designers in Jackson Hole.
He glanced at his watch. “I promised June a picnic lunch so we should be going. The deli closes early.”
Heather made a disgusted face. “Jackson has dozens of fantastic restaurant choices and you’re going to the deli for lunch?”
“No. We’re going into the park. This is June’s first time visiting the Tetons. I want to take her somewhere she can see them
up close and really take in their majesty.”
They returned to the entryway, where his table held pride of place. “I hope that’s where you wanted it. That’s where we talked
about, anyway.”
“It’s perfect,” Heather assured him. She moved to the table and ran a hand across the gleaming surface. “You’ve been paid
for everything, right? Mary told me she paid the invoice yesterday.”
“Yes. I got it. Thanks.”
“I’ll be in touch about the Samuels’ new build once we work out a few more details.”
“Sounds good,” he said, then he and June walked back to the pickup truck.
“Let’s go grab our lunch. I’m starving suddenly,” he said as he opened the door for her.
“If you would rather find a restaurant in town somewhere, we really don’t need to have a picnic in the Tetons.”
“Which would you prefer?”
She hesitated. “The park,” she admitted with a rueful smile. “I really would like to see it.”
“Good choice. That’s my preference, too.”
The trickiest part of the whole trip was finding a place near his favorite deli in town where he could park the truck and
trailer. By some miracle, he was lucky enough to nab a pull-through spot in the grocery store parking lot next door, where
he grabbed a bag of baby carrots and a couple of apples to go with their deli sandwiches.
Soon, they were on the road, driving past the town square with its entwined elk antler arches toward the entrance to the national
park.
“So many people,” June said as they waited for pedestrians to cross in front of them.
“Jackson is always busy with tourists, but summer weekends are the worst. It just calls for patience. But we’ll be out of
town shortly. I know a really lovely place where we can enjoy lunch away from the crowds.”
She seemed enraptured by the passing scenery as they drove.
“Yellowstone isn’t far from here, is it?”
“If we keep going on this road past Jackson Lake and Colter Bay, we will eventually hit the south entrance to Yellowstone.
It’s great to see and you definitely should, but everything in Yellowstone is so far apart, you really can’t experience it
in a day trip. You have to stay over at one of the lodges there.”
“Maybe I’ll try to do that before I go back to Seattle.”
He drove to a favorite out-of-the-way picnic area above Jackson Lake, at the site of a charming old church, where they were
lucky enough to find an empty table.
“It’s not very fancy,” he said. “You might have been better off at one of the nice restaurants in town.”
“This is perfect,” she assured him as she sat across from him.
They chatted about her work and her life in Seattle while they enjoyed their delicious deli sandwiches, hers veggie on wheat and his turkey.
A family with two young boys set up at the table near them, and before long they were kicking a soccer ball around. When a
missed kick ended up with the ball coming toward their table, June rose, caught it with her foot and kicked it back to the
boys, to their great delight.
One of the boys kicked it toward her again and they passed it back and forth a few times before the boys’ mother called them
to eat and June sat back down.
“You’re good with kids,” he observed.
She gave him a startled look. “Not really. I haven’t had a lot of practice as an only child, though I did occasionally babysit
for some of my mom’s friends.”
“Were there no other kids when you were in foster care?”
“The woman who fostered me was raising two nieces, but they were around my age. She took in several other kids, but they were
all older. I think Stella tried to focus on teenagers, who can often be harder to place.”
“That’s great.” He thought of his own childhood, where he had constantly been surrounded by loving parents, grandparents and
his siblings.
“Have you ever wanted any kids of your own?”
For a brief instant, a wistful expression softened her mouth before she seemed to brusquely push it away. “Not seriously,
no. I suppose I always thought the pressures and responsibilities of my job made it unlikely I could find room in my life
for children. Now it’s probably even more unlikely because of this stupid heart condition.”
She tried to sound casual and unaffected, but he didn’t miss the shadow of sorrow in her gaze, as if something had been taken
away that she had never realized she wanted.