Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
Gavin couldn’t believe the barriers Kari was pushing past. Mama hadn’t seen him with a woman since Janielle.
She’d taken it in stride, as always. She even seemed to approve.
Mama was a gentle guiding influence for all of them, but she didn’t tell him what to do.
She’d counseled him to put Janielle and her memory behind him and move on with his life, but he thought she understood why that would be hard for him to do.
Austin didn’t look like Janielle, for which he was grateful, but his son did little things that reminded him of her.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t let Janielle go; it was that he couldn’t forget the mistake he’d made.
He hated himself for losing control. At least he had no worries that he’d taken advantage of Janielle; she’d purposefully pushed past all his barriers that night.
Then, the day she’d secretively deserted him and left Lonepeak Valley, she’d admitted to him that she’d planned to rope him into marrying her because she thought he had a good shot at the NFL.
From what he understood, she’d gotten a better offer.
Mama hadn’t shared all the details of how she’d rescued Austin, and he’d never asked.
He hadn’t wanted the fact that he almost lost his son to boil and fester so he’d put it in a box and focused on being the best dad/brother he could be.
He pushed all of that away as Austin bounced up the trail in front of them, singing some song about being on top of the world, and Kari walked at his side. She stared around wonderingly. “It’s so beautiful. Do you ever get used to how beautiful it is?”
He gave her a sidelong glance and said truthfully, “No.” Would a man ever get accustomed to having such beauty as Kari’s in his life?
He hoped it would never get old, just like this amazing spot where he’d spent most of his life.
It was rugged and beautiful and a big part of him.
Would there ever be a world where someone like Kari could be part of him? Whew. He needed to slow down.
She stopped oohing and ahhing for a second and turned to him. “This is a nosy question to ask, but how young was your mom when she had you?”
Gavin lifted an eyebrow. “Let me think. I turn twenty-nine in a few weeks, and she’s fifty-five. So … twenty-six?”
“Fifty-five? She looks fabulous.” Her mouth pursed and she focused on Austin, who was jumping and smacking snow off of pine boughs. “She was forty-five when she had Austin?”
Gavin’s heart slammed against his chest. Once again, Kari was far too perceptive. “I didn’t tell you?” He couldn’t remember it really coming up. He’d been so shaken when she’d said they were father and son, but he hadn’t finished the made-up story.
Five months had passed and Janielle had disappeared before he’d finally admitted to himself he was never going to find her on his own, and he’d gone to his parents, telling them the entire story.
Mama had somehow tracked her down and brought Austin back.
The first day he saw his two-week-old son had been the best day of his life.
He immediately gave up any ideas of leaving for college.
Missing his chance at the NFL never mattered to him after that.
“Austin’s adopted,” he said to Kari.
She stopped walking. When Gavin pushed out a breath and turned to her, the look in her blue eyes was raw shock. “No way is Austin adopted. He looks exactly like you.”
Gavin’s pulse was racing. How did he respond?
His siblings had all accepted Austin immediately when Mama returned from Texas.
Of course they believed Austin was adopted; Mama hadn’t been pregnant, and they were all younger than Gavin, so as teenagers they were basically focused on their own lives.
Everybody in town had always believed it also, except for the one friend in whom Janielle had confided that she was expecting before she ditched Gavin and Lonepeak Valley.
Miraculously, her friend hadn’t shared their secret; she’d left for college shortly after graduation and rarely returned.
“Crazy, huh?” he said in an unstable voice.
Kari was staring at him as if she knew, but how could she?
“What’re you two doing?” Austin called. “Ice is a melting.” He laughed at his own joke. The ice wouldn’t melt until late April or early May, as high as this lake was in elevation.
Kari thankfully started walking again. Gavin fell into step beside her. “Does he know?” she asked in a low voice, tilting her chin toward Austin, who had started back up the trail as soon as they’d picked up their pace again.
“Know?” Gavin longed to tell Austin he was his son, but how did you break that to a kid?
He and Mama had discussed bringing it up soon, while Austin was still an easygoing, adorable kid.
What if he hit a rough teenage patch? He needed to know before hormones came into play.
Gavin couldn’t imagine Austin ever being anything but the happy kid he was, but he knew teenage years could be hard.
Ella had been so moody as a teenager that they’d all threatened to move to the lodge to get away from her at one point or another.
“That he’s adopted.”
Gavin breathed easier. “No.” He felt prompted to elaborate: “We’re going to tell him. We need to pretty soon, I think. He’s old enough to understand but not old enough to throw a teenage fit.” He said these words quietly, though Austin wasn’t paying them any attention.
Kari looked at him. “You’re pretty impressive, Gavin Strong.”
Those weren’t the words he’d expected to hear from her right now, but her praise made something expand in his chest, as if he was suddenly capable of more love than just what he had for his family.
“You’re not only a successful business owner and a nice guy; you’re raising your brother as if he were your own.” She paused, and his heart raced again. “Is that because your dad’s not doing well?”
Gavin nodded quickly, grasping at the out she’d given him.
“Yeah. Papa’s accident happened the winter before we adopted Austin.
” That was another reason he’d waited so long to tell his parents, as they’d had plenty to deal with that year.
“I was actually planning to go away to Texas A&M to play football, but I stayed to help Mama run the lodge, take care of Papa, and be there for all of my younger brothers and sisters.”
“Everyone else has moved on but you and Austin?”
“Yeah, but they’re pretty good to come back.
” It was on the tip of his tongue to ask her to come back too.
After she left on Monday, would she ever return?
Maybe he could talk her into coming back in the summer, give her more fodder for setting books here in a different season.
What he really wanted was to ask her to come back in two weeks for the weddings and their family reunion.
Introducing her to Mama had gone well, and he suddenly wanted the rest of the family to meet her.
They’d love her. The more important question was, Would she come back for the experience and the writing material, or come back for him? He didn’t dare ask.
Kari thought Gavin was even more impressive than she’d told him.
“A nice guy” didn’t begin to cover how great he was, and she felt like she was just scratching the surface.
Why did she have to live fourteen hours away by car?
It was a pretty short plane ride and then a couple of hours in the rental car to get here, but it wasn’t as if he was asking her to stay, or to come back after she left.
Good heavens, they were barely getting to know each other, but she was already invested in him and little Austin.
The lake was incredibly beautiful, with the sun sparkling off the ice and snow and the green pine trees and bare aspen trees surrounding it.
She could see trails going farther up the mountain, probably made by snowshoes.
The trail they’d walked on to get here had been so packed down they hadn’t needed snowshoes, but she could imagine she’d sink to her waist if she tried to venture out into the trees.
Lacing up her skates on the edge of the lake, she pushed to her feet, shuffled onto the ice, and slipped as her feet shot right out from under her.
“Whoa,” Gavin grunted as he caught her before she fell.
Kari’s breath rushed out as his arm encircled her waist and she was staring up into his handsome face.
“You all right?” His voice was husky and low, sending a thrill through her. Yep, this was why women swooned in some burly, handsome guy’s arms.
“Good catch,” she got out.
He only gave her his partial smile, but it still made her knees weak. He lifted her onto her skates, but she was wobbly. She couldn’t blame it on the slick ice or her lack of experience on skates. It all had to do with the man holding her against his side.
“Okay, let’s start out slow.” His arm remained around her as he guided her forward. His skates made easy movements on the ice. She struggled to keep hers underneath her and stay upright.
Austin whooshed by. “Keep up!” he called to them.
“Funny,” Gavin muttered. He glanced down at her. “I kind of like going slow.”
Kari swallowed hard. Was he talking about ice skating or relationships? She wouldn’t have minded rushing things with Gavin, but slow would ensure a lasting connection. “I don’t mind it either.”
Gavin’s full smile lit up, and the air whooshed out of her. They were smiling like fools at each other.
Austin whipped by again. He flipped around and skated backward. The kid was a natural on the ice, as she’d already witnessed at his hockey game. “Don’t just pull her, Gav. You gotta teach her.”
Gavin rolled his eyes. “We just want to skate slow for a minute.”
“No way.” Austin slowed down and extended his gloved hands to Kari.
Kari couldn’t refuse him, not with those deep brown puppy-dog eyes looking up at her.
She stretched her hands out as Gavin released her waist. She felt the loss of his touch immediately, but she focused on Austin’s instructions as he skated backward and coached her.
Gavin stayed close, giving her encouragement, but it wasn’t nearly as fun as skating together had been.
She loved being with Austin, but her mind was scheming ways to get Gavin alone.
Tonight, she would somehow finagle a kiss out of that man.
She had plenty of experience in orchestrating kisses.
If only Gavin would respond like one of her heroes.
That said, she knew the danger of getting too heavy-handed with her characters.
She could mess up the whole plot or theme doing that.
She frowned. Would she mess up her and Gavin if she tricked him into a kiss?
She prayed he wanted that connection and furthering of their relationship every bit as much as she did.