Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Kari spent two of the best days of her life with Austin and Gavin.
On Saturday, they skied until her legs were shaky, and they ate lunch and dinner together.
Then, after the spa was closed, they took Austin with them to play in all the therapy pools.
Austin made it a lot of fun, but there weren’t any chances for intimate moments—well, none beyond her nonstop fantasies about how Gavin would finally kiss her, and a few smoldering looks he gave her.
Both brothers walked her up to her room that night.
She was falling hard for the oldest Strong brother, but she knew she’d already given her heart to the youngest. At twenty-six, it was a little odd to want to be a surrogate mother to a ten-year-old, but she was having a lot of fantasies about being a permanent feature in Gavin’s life and helping him raise Austin.
Yet Gavin hadn’t suggested anything serious with her.
On Sunday, they invited her to church. She loved everything from the picturesque church to the kind people who told her how beautiful she was and how they’d never seen Gavin with a woman before.
Gavin’s skin darkened so perfectly, but he didn’t say anything about it.
At least she had no doubt that he wasn’t a player.
Yet she had to somehow get to the bottom of his broodiness and lack of dating.
It wasn’t exactly mainstream to only focus on work and raising your little brother, never seeking a woman in your life.
In her opinion, everybody needed romance in their life.
Sunday afternoon, they had dinner with his parents and then went on a hike to ice-skate again.
Austin tried to teach her hockey. She’d fallen so hard swinging the stupid stick, and missing the puck completely, that she was afraid she’d broken her tailbone.
Luckily, the pain lessened, so she’d probably just have a good bruise.
As they walked home from the lake, Austin was holding her hand, while Gavin trailed behind them, carrying the skates and hockey gear. “Gav said you have to go home tomorrow?” The little guy looked up at her with those deep brown eyes as if her departure would break his heart.
“Yeah. I fly out at noon.”
Austin’s lower lip stuck out. He kicked at a pinecone that had fallen on the snow-packed trail.
Gavin had explained that they had to snowshoe on it when they got heavy snowfall, but then he and Austin would pack at least this two-mile stretch down so well they could hike easily to the lake.
“Everybody always has to leave me,” Austin said.
Kari glanced over her shoulder at Gavin, hoping for some help. His deep brown eyes looked almost like Austin’s, as if the thought of her leaving was going to rip him apart.
She stopped in the middle of the trail and put her arms around the little man.
“I wish I didn’t have to leave so soon, but I’ve loved being here with you.
” She glanced up at Gavin as she said it, hoping he got the message.
They’d had a lot of fun these past few days, but they hadn’t had any deep conversations that would lead her to believe he was going to share his tragic past with her or ask her to come back.
“I’m not leaving you, Austin,” Gavin said in a strong, determined voice.
Austin leaned back, and she released him from the hug.
He gave his brother a forced smile. “I know, bro. You’d never leave me, and Mama, she wouldn’t leave me.
But everybody else always has to go somewhere.
I know Heath and Hazel and Jed and Cassie are going to live in Park City mostly, and Stetson’s at school, and Trey and Ella are always traveling.
At least Nick is coming back.” His voice lowered and he said, “I heard Mama talking on the phone to Auntie Annie, and she said Papa is dying.”
Gavin dropped to his knees in front of Austin, grabbed him, and pulled him in for a fierce hug.
Kari found her eyes pricking with emotion as she watched the two of them together.
They were made to be together, but for some reason she didn’t feel like an outsider, or like the author writing the story.
She felt like she might be a key player in this story.
“Papa’s health isn’t great,” Gavin affirmed, “but he’s not dying anytime soon.” Gavin swallowed and glanced up at Kari before saying, “I’m never going to leave you, bud, and Kari …” He licked his lips, stood, and stared at her. “Maybe someday Kari would come back.”
“Come back?” Kari’s heart slammed against her chest. Coming back for a visit, or to set up residence here?
She could write anywhere. Her parents wouldn’t be thrilled, but maybe there was a room for semi-permanent rent at the lodge just waiting for her to occupy it.
She hadn’t seen any condos around the small town in the valley.
Gavin lifted a shoulder.
“Yes!” Austin cheered. “Come back soon, Kari.”
“For sure.” Her spirits fell. Gavin hoped she’d come back, but he hadn’t issued a specific invite.
She could always just book another long weekend or even a week at the lodge, but she wanted him to issue the invite and leave no doubt that he wanted her here.
He hadn’t shattered her ideas of being together, just tamped them down.
She gave Austin what she hoped was a reassuring smile.
It wasn’t Gavin’s fault that she was racing way ahead of the relationship.
It was what she did. In her fictional world, characters could fall in love in a matter of hours and live happily ever after.
She had to remind herself that wasn’t the case in the real world.
Sometimes it was easier to live in her head.
Yet as Gavin took her hand and Austin walked in front of them, chattering and skipping and seeming restored from his worries over the promise of Kari coming back, she thought real people were pretty great, maybe even better than her characters.