Chapter Six
L iam leaned back in his chair, sipping on a whiskey rocks as the delicious meal wound down, watching Emily masterfully interact with his siblings and mom without missing a beat. He’d been prepared to run interference for her from all the questions he knew his siblings would have for her about England, New York, and their relationship. But as it happened, Shay and her fiancé, Cooper, Will and his wife, Izzy, and even Cami and her almost-fiancé, Gus, showed restraint. Instead of peppering her with questions, they plied her with funny—embarrassing—stories about him and some about each other. All of which beat the alternative—the interrogation of Emily—for which he was grateful.
From time to time, Emily met his gaze with a reassuring smile or a wink, and as the meal went on, he began to relax. Even when Will told the story of eight-year-old Liam getting his foot caught in the loft ladder and hanging upside down until Will and Shay finally found him and couldn’t stop laughing.
“Yeah, it was funny unless you were upside down and the blood was rushing to your brain,” Liam allowed. “But as I recall, Will, it was you, the next week, who fell into a gopher hole up to your knee. I think you were stuck there for a good twenty minutes before I got you out.”
“Before you stopped laughing long enough to get me out. Payback,” he said, chuckling at the memory.
“ Boys ,” Sarah said, rolling her eyes. “Do you have brothers, Emily?”
Liam saw that question trigger something in her eyes. Sadness?
“Yes, one,” she admitted. “Older than me, but quite stuffy. But… I have a sister, too. And she’s always the life of the party and the best photographer I know. I hope one day she’ll come out to see this beautiful ranch, as well.”
Shay said, “She’s welcome any time. We could use some photographs of the ranch, actually. Tara, here, is working on our website. She’s a wonder.”
Tara, the nineteen-year-old single mom the Hardesty clan had adopted over the Christmas holidays last year, blushed at the praise as she bounced her baby, Lolly, against her shoulder. “I wouldn’t go that far,” she said, brushing her blonde hair from her eyes. “I just like doing that stuff.”
“Lucky for us.” Cami, the youngest of the Hardesty siblings, gave Lolly’s cheek a brush with her fingers. “Plus, she loves to cook. I hear you’re a whiz in the kitchen, Emily.”
“Oh, that’s lovely,” Emily told her. “Good to start young. And I do love cooking, as well. It’s the thing I do to stay sane when all around me is chaos. Speaking of good cooking, Tara will have a good teacher in you, Mrs. Hardesty. This meal was delicious. And that banana pudding—I’m sorry, it was to die for.”
“Thank you, darlin’. Liam’s raved about your flourless chocolate cake. I’ll give you my recipe if you’ll share yours with me? Because he won’t stop hounding me.”
Liam groaned. “Mom—”
Emily couldn’t help but laugh. “Of course. Besides, I promised him I’d bake him one if I came out.” She turned to Tara. “Perhaps we can make it together.”
Tara’s eyes widened with excitement. “Really?”
She nodded. “I’ll just need a few supplies.”
“I probably have them on hand. But don’t worry about that now,” Sarah said.
Will rubbed his hands together. “This is sounding better and better. Just tell us when and we’ll be back to taste test.” Everyone at the table agreed.
“Do you ride, Emily?” Shay asked, changing the subject. “Because we have wonderful ranch horses who would love an outing if you’re game.”
“I used to ride as a girl,” she said. “We had several horses, one for each of us. But I was the only one who loved riding. And horses. I’m afraid it’s been a long time for me.”
Cooper shrugged. “It’s like riding a bike.”
Sarah, who had never been a rider, shook her head. “Don’t feel pressured, dear. We have plenty of things to do without risking life and limb.”
“Oh, I’m not afraid of horses. Truly. I’d love to ride. If”—she turned to Liam—“you’ll go with me.”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” he said.
“Maybe tomorrow?”
He shook his head. “No. Tomorrow I have something else special planned.”
“Ooooh! Do tell!” Cami said, leaning forward on her hand. Emily raised her brow, intrigued.
“Nope. Then it wouldn’t be a surprise.”
“Whatever it is, can I come?” Ryan piped in from beside him.
“You’ve got school.” Liam scrubbed a hand in his hair—to which Ryan pushed him away with an embarrassed laugh. “Besides, this one is just the two of us. But when we take the horses out, you’re more than invited.”
Emily turned to Ryan. “Liam tells me you’ve been training that pretty dun out there in the paddock. I’m quite impressed by your skills. When I was your age, I was still figuring out which curry brush my horse preferred.”
Heat rose to his cheeks. “Cooper’s been teaching me. He’s the one who has the magic touch with horses.”
“And he gets none of that from me,” Cooper’s father Ray said, joking. “But I will take credit for his good looks.”
Cooper play-punched his father’s arm.
Emily’s gaze took in the family who were all focused on her. “When I met Liam in New York, so randomly on the subway, I couldn’t have imagined where he came from, or what a wonderful, talented family he had here. But I’m so glad to meet you all. Thank you for the lovely welcome and the dinner.”
“You’re very welcome,” Sarah told her. “And you must be exhausted after this long travel day.”
“I think the time change is starting to kick in.”
They all got up and began to clear the table. Sarah forbade Emily’s help. “Guest, remember? Now go get a good night’s sleep and get ready for whatever surprise Liam has in store for you tomorrow.”
He walked her back to the cabin under a starry sky. The pathway was lit here and there with edging lights and string lights wound around the trunks of nearby trees here and there adding to the magical feeling of this place at night.
The night air was colder than the chilly afternoon and he put an arm around her shoulder as they walked to keep her warm.
“You were a hit,” he told her as they walked. “They all loved you.”
“You have a lovely family.”
“A lot of personalities, for sure,” he said. “But that’s what makes us work, I guess.”
“So, what is this big surprise you have for me tomorrow?” They reached her cabin door and lingered outside, reluctant to end the night.
“You’re gonna have to wait. But I think you’ll like it. You’re not scared of heights, are you?”
Her eyes widened. “Are we going… mountain climbing?”
He laughed. “No. Just checking.”
“Well, I did work on the twenty-first floor of our building for six years, so I’d have to say, no?”
“Good. Since you’re still technically on New York time, will ‘early’ bother you?”
She bit her lip. “How early?”
“Six am?”
“Now you’ve got me curious. Six it is. I’ll set my alarm.” She leaned back against the cabin door, smiling at him.
His gaze was on her mouth, but he forced his eyes up to meet hers. “So. Good night then.”
“Night… Hey, Liam?”
He hadn’t moved. He was still close enough she could feel his heat.
“Yeah?”
“Tonight reminded me of my favorite nights, cooking for friends back in the city. It was nice. Thank you.”
He smiled. “It was nice. Nice to have you there. Now… get a good night’s sleep. I’ll see you in the morning. Wear comfortable shoes. You have comfortable shoes, right?”
“Would I come to the wilds of Montana without them?”
His gaze continued to blaze a trail across her face.
Her cheeks heated. “You’re… not going to kiss me?”
“You want me to kiss you? Because I will.” It was more of a threat than a promise.
“So… what are you waiting for?”
“Maybe,” he said, tucking his hands around her waist, standing mere inches from her, “I’m waiting for you to say I’m not gonna scare you away with a real kiss. Or cross your boundaries. Or make you think I brought you here for some ulterior—”
She wrapped her hand around his jacket front and pulled him closer and took that decision right out of his hands. She kissed him. Fully. Not a quick buss on the lips either. No, this was the same kiss they’d shared on her stoop in front of her house, the one neither of them had expected. The one that had been haunting her imagination since that day.
He pulled her up against him, shifted the kiss, deepening it, his lips softening against hers and she felt the tension in his shoulders relax. He tasted sweet, and she inhaled the fragrance of his skin against her cheek. Wanting that kiss to go on and on, she nevertheless felt him pull back from it and rest his forehead against hers as they each caught their breath.
“Emily—”
“You don’t scare me, Liam,” she told him. “Nothing about you scares me.”
He swallowed thickly. “Good. I’m-I’m glad.”
“Good.”
“Okay,” he breathed back. “Now that we have that settled, I—”
His phone buzzed in his pocket. For a moment, she thought he might ignore it, whoever it was. But with a frown, he took it out and looked at the text.
“It’s Will. Some contractor needs to talk to me ASAP. About some work that’s going to get done tomorrow. I’d better go.” But there was disappointment in his voice. She nodded at him and he said, “Get some sleep. Tomorrow will come early.” He kissed her again in a way that seemed so natural, as if he’d known her for years.
“Good night,” she said.
“Night.” He turned and walked backward a few steps, just smiling at her in the moonlight.
*
The next morning, bright and very early, Emily climbed into Liam’s truck, and they drove off to some mysterious destination in the near dark. The sky was barely lightening, and, in the distance, she could still see the moon hanging over the far horizon. The early morning sky was still awash with stars, and she couldn’t believe she was here, sitting beside Liam in his pickup truck, driving to—who knew where?
She yawned and wished for a cup of coffee. Sleep last night had been elusive as it always was the first night in someplace new. But it wasn’t just the strange surroundings, which were beautiful. It was that kiss that had her tossing and turning all night long. She replayed it over and over in her head and how it could have taken a very different direction. Was she glad it didn’t? She couldn’t say. But this morning, there was an ease between them that hadn’t been there before. Maybe because they’d gotten that kiss out of the way and they could just… be together.
Now, as she turned to watch him steer his truck down the road, he caught her smiling at him.
He smiled back. “You look fetching in the morning.”
She laughed. “ Fetching. I like that word. Even though I certainly don’t deserve it this morning.” She’d done her best to look okay—a splash of cold water, a little makeup… but her sleep-rumpled hair was impossible, and she’d pulled it back in a messy bun. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going? Are you… simply kidnapping me?” The prospect of that did appeal.
“Only for a few hours. And you’ll find out soon enough.” He sent her a quick look. “You like surprises?”
“Hm-mm. Generally. Unless, of course, they involve me losing my job or… falling from great heights on a surprise adventure.” He laughed and she tipped her head against the glass passenger window, watching him.
She liked looking at him. He was just so bloody handsome, in a very unself-conscious sort of way. And now that she could stare at him, unabashed, she enjoyed the way humor played across his expression, and she realized she’d misjudged him that first day they’d met. She had thought him more of a serious type. Kind, but all business. But getting to know him here with his family, she could see that he wasn’t that at all. He was funny and sweet and intense all in the same moment. And that he’d taken time away from all his work and planned this day for her—this secret adventure—really touched her.
After a ten-minute drive, as the sun was pulling up above the horizon, he pulled his truck into what looked like a small airfield with several small planes and a pair of helicopters parked near a large hangar. Emily sat up straighter. “You are not taking me skydiving.” It wasn’t actually a question. More of a declarative statement.
“Nope,” he said, reassuring her. “I wouldn’t do that to you. Although if you want to do that at some point—”
“Uh, no, thank you. That fits comfortably into the falls-from-great-heights category.”
With a grin, he pointed at the helicopter where a rather cute pilot-type guy was inspecting the back rotor. A big, curly-haired dog sat beside him, patiently waiting.
“See that guy? That’s Jake Canaday. He’s a friend of mine. This is his company, and he’s going to take us on a little tour of the area.”
Relief filled her. “Really? Brilliant!” she said, relieved. “I’ve never flown in a helicopter.”
“Now you will. I want you to see the real Montana.”
She bit her lip, excited for what was to come. She’s flown in over the countryside from New York, but nothing like a chartered helicopter ride around these beautiful valleys and mountains.
They greeted Jake at the helicopter and Liam handed him a smallish duffel bag to stow. “Picnic,” he told her. “Jake, this is my friend Emily. Emily Quinn? Jake Canaday.”
Jake extended a hand. “Nice meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”
“Oh, God. Should I be scared?”
“Not at all.” Jake laughed. “He’s said only good things about you. And when he told me he wanted to take you for a ride, I had to agree. You know, Liam is a hard man to say no to.”
She smiled at Liam. “Quite.”
The dog wagged his way over to her and gave her a good sniff at the knee.
“This is Monday. He’s along for the ride today.”
She bent down and rubbed behind the dog’s ears. “Hello, Monday. You’re a beauty.”
“He’s here for the compliments,” Jake joked. “His favorite thing is riding along. Besides, I have some business up the mountain with my uncle, and he loves it up there. So, Liam’s timing was perfect. I was hoping my wife, Olivia, would be here by now, so she could meet you, but she’s dealing with the kids this early, and I guess she couldn’t wrangle them. You two ready to go?”
“As we’ll ever be,” Liam told him, clapping him on the shoulder.
“All right then,” Jake said and climbed into the pilot’s seat. “Let’s go!”
A few minutes later, they were flying over the valley Liam called Paradise Valley where the land stretched out before them toward the rising sun like a golden wave. Liam had put Monday in the back with him and her up front in the copilot’s seat with the best view of the landscape. It was, in a word, exhilarating.
Through their headsets, Jake pointed out the land features as they flew past—the Yellowstone River that snaked across the prairie, here shallow and full of little ruffled rapids and icy edges and there, pocketed by deep, dark pools. Behind them was Copper Mountain and in the distance, the towering Absarokas, with their craggy mountainsides covered with pine and what she imagined were aspen, though they were naked from winter and only hinting at budding green. The stands of trees were slashed by massive granite cliffs that started and stopped with dangerous suddenness, and she thought of that photo of the mountain goats clinging to a mountainside that Liam had sent her that day of her last interview. The one she’d had trouble imagining seeing as real. But there they were. Jake pointed them out a few minutes later, scurrying along the steep side of the mountain, spooked by the sound of their chopper. There were a half dozen of them, and a little baby goat, as well. Emily almost squealed with delight at seeing them.
Everywhere she looked was the topography of that old Brad Pitt movie, A River Runs Through It , but seeing Montana firsthand was a revelation. They flew across landscape without roads, where one could only get to by hiking nearly impossible territory. But she was grateful to be able to see it from the air. She could almost smell the sharp tang of pines as they flew past them.
She pointed at the sight of a moose standing near the river that cut through a canyon. “Look!!” she told Liam through her headset, who just smiled back at her and nodded. “It’s enormous! I thought they only lived in your Alaska.”
Jake laughed.
Liam did, too. “We’re lucky to see them,” Liam told her. “But they keep pretty much out of sight in the forests and willow fens nearby that flood in the spring.”
“Incredible.” She nodded, peering down through the bubble of glass at her feet, hoping to see more.
“Ready for a little thrill?” Jake asked her.
She gripped her seat. “Um… Am I?”
His answer was to dive the helicopter sideways and swoop into a thick-sided canyon, following the path of the river that flowed from somewhere above them on the mountain. Emily held her breath, her eyes wide as he skimmed the surface river closely and then suddenly climbed as the canyon opened up to a higher meadow where touches of winter still clung.
In the distance, she saw a home perched in the middle of nowhere, all glass and wood and quite beautiful, tucked into a mountainside looking as if it had just sprung out of the rock itself.
“What in the world?” She forgot she was speaking into the mic.
“That’s my uncle’s place,” Jake told her. “He’s a bit of a hermit. But a very… wealthy hermit. He’s a technology wiz, inventor, and one of my favorite people. Anyway, I promised him I’d deliver him some supplies from town this morning. See? There he is.”
Indeed, there was a middle-aged gentleman standing near a landing pad waving at them. Two dogs were by his side, wagging their tails. With graying hair and wearing an old cardigan and shlumpy-looking khakis, Jake’s uncle might fit in perfectly with half of the pub-goers in the Cotswold villages back home. As unpretentious as they came. A bit of a grandpa vibe.
“He lives all the way up here on his own?” she asked.
“He’s got his birds and his dogs. That’s enough for him. He’s not unfriendly. He just prefers his own privacy. Every now and then, we talk him into town for a celebration of something or other. Otherwise, we come to him. He’s also part owner of my aviation company.”
“Birds?” she asked.
“Falcons,” Liam told her. “We’ll see them later if he has time.”
Falcons? This was turning out to be a fascinating outing. Once they landed, Liam’s uncle came and helped her out of the helicopter. Monday bounded out to greet his furry cousins.
“You must be the Emily I’ve heard so much about,” Jake’s uncle said, extending a hand. “I’m Deke. Deke Lassen.”
How in the world had he heard about her all the way up here? Liam winked at her.
“So lovely to meet you, Mr. Lassen. What a fabulous place you have here!”
“It’s my little sanctuary. Welcome. And Liam?” He shook his hand. “Good to see you, too. I’d say you two had better hurry if you plan to catch some of those trout down at the river though. It’s been pretty good fishing down there lately. Spring is here early, though we might still get another snow this year.”
Liam grabbed the dufflel bag he’d brought from the helicopter. “Thanks, Deke. We’ll strike now while the trout are hungry. Emily here is going to learn how to fly fish this morning.”
“I am?”
“You wanted the full Montana experience, didn’t you?”
“But… fishing? Me?”
“Not fishing. Fly fishing. It’s a whole other world. You’re gonna love it. You need any help off-loading this stuff before we go, Jake?”
“No, we’ve got it. You two have fun. See you in a couple of hours.”
Emily supposed she was game for anything this morning, even—a shiver ran through her—loading squiggly earthworms onto fishhooks. Her father was not an outdoorsman, aside from shooting trap with political cronies now and again. But she imagined that Liam had grown up on these rivers, fishing with his father or his siblings on lazy summer days.
In spring, this high up, the air was still chilly as they hiked down to the river to a place that was out of sight of Deke’s house and the Yellowstone still had lacey traces of ice along its banks, but the water was running swiftly, save a few deep pools that sat beneath the branches of the willows along the shore.
“They’ll be hungry now that the river’s thawed,” Liam said, pulling his disassembled fishing rods from the pack.
“Please don’t tell me we have to dig earth worms before we can fish.”
“You’ll be happy to know there are no worms involved at all. Fly fishing uses flies. Hand-tied to look like insects. Like the ones that land on the water or hover above.”
“Ah.”
He handed her an assembled pole and started on the other one. “Fly fishing is really more about teasing the fish than waiting for one to take the bait. You’ve really never fished before?”
She shook her head, eyeing the nearby dark water with suspicion.
“Don’t worry. I’m going to show you how. You’ll see. It’s fun.”
Or a way to embarrass herself by being completely out of her depth. Ah, well. Failing around Liam was becoming her modus operandi. So, what did she have to lose? She was here for an adventure of her choosing. And here she was having one!
The water was too cold to go standing in the river, though he told her that was his method of choice. But they stood together on the shoreline, and he showed her how to cast the fly across the water with a rhythmic one-two-three motion, releasing the line a little more with each forward bow of her rod. It was definitely easier said than done.
“That’s it,” he told her, showing her by example with his own line. “Easy, easy motion. One, two, three release.” And off his fly would go, stretching out across the water where it would float as he tugged it back in jerky little motions that imitated actual flies.
It took him all of two minutes to snag a fish, a pretty, strong rainbow trout that fought him all the way in. But after admiring the shimmery color of him, Liam set him free and released him gently back into the dark pool.
“Too small,” he said, though he looked good sized to her.
But being the softie she was, she was glad he released the fish. For the next half hour, they cast lines out over the river. He caught a few and kept them in his creel, floating in the river. She snagged nothing but a tree behind her, a log near the shore, and her own jacket once.
“I am not a quitter,” she told him finally, “but this is impossible.”
Setting his pole down, he came to her side. “Here, let me help you.”
He stood behind her, pressing her back up against his hard chest and covered her right hand on the rod with his, showing her the motion and feeding the line out as he went. Emily momentarily forgot all about the fishing and could only think about how close he was and how much she wanted to turn in his arms and kiss him.
He smelled like… like soap and fresh air, and if he was wearing any scent at all, it was his own, a scent that had stirred her dreams at night after that one kiss on the stoop of her apartment in New York.
Focus, Emily.
She wanted to figure this out. To impress him. Wanted to make him proud of her—from some foolish, deep-seated feeling of insecurity, she was sure. Some need to prove herself to the men around her. But it wasn’t Liam putting that pressure on her. She was doing it to herself.
She let herself flow with the feeling of his arm on hers. Back and forward, back and forward. And the fly at the end of her line sailed on the air currents effortlessly until it landed with a plop yards and yards away in the middle of the stream.
“That’s right,” he murmured beside her ear. “Now, slowly reel it back in, giving it a little tug now and then, make it jump across the water.”
“Like this?”
He let go of her hands. “Exactly like that.”
Emily smiled, getting the feel of it now. She reeled and tugged, then—it pulled back!
“Oh! Oh! I think—I think I got a bite!”
He laughed and nodded, talking her through how to reel it in. The fish was much stronger than she’d expected, and it fought her the whole way. Liam grabbed a net and met the trout at the water, scooping it up in a single swish.
It was a beauty of a trout, much bigger than his—maybe a two pounder—and sparkling in the morning light. Liam high-fived her and set about removing the hook from its mouth.
“Wait,” she said, pulling her phone from her back pocket. “I need a photo of this. No one will believe me!”
“Then you should hold the fish. Here, give me your phone.”
She handed it to him and struck a cheesy pose with the fish dangling beside her face.
But Liam’s expression changed with the suddenness of the Montana sky. “Emily. Come here. Don’t turn around.”
“What?” She made a face. And, of course, she turned around.
She immediately regretted it. Her heart nearly jumped in her throat.
Not twenty feet away, prowling in the bushes behind her was a bear. A very big, very brown bear. And not ten feet away from her, another very small bear, waddling in her direction, curious, looking adorable and instantly—with a dread that crawled up her skin—she knew that was not good. She couldn’t seem to make herself move. She was frozen to the spot. “Oh. My. God.”