‡‡
“Thanks for having my back in there,” Carter said after the meal was done. He ushered Amanda out of the town hall and set off toward number twenty-three. The sun was getting low in the west, but the temperature was still comfortable. Nights like this when he was young, he and his brothers would play baseball with the other kids in town, protesting heartily when their mother tried to call them in at bedtime.
He wished he could enjoy this evening, but his gut was knotted up from this latest confrontation with Gage—and he was still off-balance from Dennis’s earlier accusations. At the time he’d told Amanda he’d never seen the old man act that way.
That was a lie.
Dennis had predicted the crash when Carter’s father had taken out the large loan to upgrade the mill equipment.
He’d confronted Carter’s father one afternoon in front of everyone. “You’re a fool,” he’d shouted. Carter had stood staring with the rest of the employees as the reclusive man faced off with his father. “You’ve got to hunker down when trouble’s brewing! You don’t give away your ammunition right before the war starts!”
His father had laughed. “There’s no war starting. We’re in great shape. We’ve got trees for miles, Dennis. Enough contracts to keep us busy for a lifetime.”
“That’s when trouble comes—when you think you’re on the top of the world.”
They’d all thought he was crazy. Three years later, the Ridge had emptied out.
“No problem. Four brothers must be a handful,” Amanda said, breaking into his thoughts. Carter pulled himself together. Dennis had made a lucky guess back then, that was all. He couldn’t know the future.
“You’ve got that right,” he said.
“Must have been fun, too. When you were growing up here?” She tilted her head to look at him.
“Most of the time. Other times I wished I was an only child.” He’d been wishing that again when Amanda had stumbled on him and his brothers arguing in the cafeteria. He’d had to invoke the rule again—the one that said his brothers needed to go along with what he was telling Amanda. Gage had tried to overrule it. Smashing his fist into his palm to tell the rest of them he was done with all that. He’d been about to ruin everything.
Amanda had saved the day. She’d stood up to Gage the way few people did, and in the end Gage had to back down.
“I have just one sister,” Amanda said. They made their way around the Circle and turned onto Center Street.
“Older or younger?”
“Younger—by a year,” Amanda said.
“Are you close?”
“Not anymore.” Her voice was wistful. “We were thick as thieves as kids, but when we were teenagers, we stopped seeing things eye to eye.”
“Boys? Politics? Musical tastes?”
“Family matters.” Amanda kept her gaze on the ground ahead of them. “My parents split up when I was fifteen. She took Dad’s side.”
“That’s rough.” Kids shouldn’t have to take sides in a situation like that, to his way of thinking.
“Melissa ran away a few times,” Amanda said softly. “She left for good when she was sixteen.”
“Did something happen to her?” Carter stopped walking and faced her.
“No.” Amanda shook her head. “I mean, yes, it did. She moved in with her boyfriend’s family. Refused to come home. Mom finally agreed to let her stay. Kicked in money for groceries and rent in return for Melissa’s agreement to remain in school. It worked. She graduated. Even got a scholarship to an arts program where she studied dancing. But she never forgave Mom for driving Dad away, as she put it.”
“That must have been hard on your mother. On you, too.”
“People leave,” Amanda said. “That’s just life.”
Her calm words covered a world of pain. Carter wished he could wrap his arms around her. Protect her from the cold, hard world. It was too soon for that, though.
Someday, he promised himself.
“I won’t leave,” he told her, starting to walk again. She followed suit. “You get sick of me, too bad. I’m staying right here.”
A ghost of a smile flickered over her face.
“I know,” he told her. “That doesn’t get your sister back.”
“I can understand why she lashed out as a teenager. What I don’t understand is why she hasn’t moved on. She never apologized to Mom. Barely talks to me.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” They reached number twenty-three. “Here we are.” He walked up the steps and opened the door. “Do you have everything you need?” He willed her to invite him in. He wished he’d thought to install a porch swing or furnish the living room with a comfortable couch. There was nowhere for him to hang out with her except the bedroom.
It was too soon for that.
Unfortunately.
“I’ll be fine,” she said firmly as if she could read his mind.
“You sure? We could sit here and watch the sunset.”
“I’m sure. I’m tired. It’s been a long day.”
She couldn’t be more direct than that. “Breakfast at seven at the town hall, then.” He retreated down a step.
“I’ll be there. Good night.”
“Night.” Carter watched her close the door, swallowed his disappointment and turned away.
Gage was waiting for him when he reached the end of the driveway.
“I’m not in the mood for whatever it is you want to say to me,” Carter told him.
“That’s a hell of a bet you’re taking on a woman you barely know.”
“All those years you spent with the Rangers, you never had a gut feeling you had to follow?” More than once one of those feelings had saved his life when he was with the SEALs.
“That’s different.”
“No, it’s not,” Carter said. “Maybe you’re right and I’ll regret what I’ve done, but not nearly as much as I’d have regretted not following my instincts. She’s the one, Gage. I’m going to marry that woman.”
“That’s what you think.”
“That’s what I know.”
Amanda wished she’d asked Carter to stay.
She’d been fine while the sun was up. She’d taken her time looking over the house again, trying to envision what it would be like when all the renovations were done. She’d discovered a back deck and a small yard, and spent some time mentally designing a kitchen garden and a place to put a barbecue.
Upstairs, she’d arranged what little possessions she had and tried out the shower. Now it was nearly ten. It had been dark for more than an hour. She’d checked the locks downstairs three times, but she’d left the windows in her bedroom open a crack to cool the place down. Luckily there were screens, or she was sure the bugs bumping up against them would flock inside. The occasional metallic tap and buzz of wings kept startling her. So did the rustles and noises she heard outside.
She told herself over and over they were natural sounds. Small creatures skittering among the accumulation of dead leaves. The wind in the trees. Things like that. In LA she’d grown used to a constant hum of traffic. The absence of it here left her uneasy. She kept imagining Buck prowling around in the shadows outside her house.
She assured herself that wasn’t the case. He had no idea where she was.
Still, maybe she should have said yes when Carter offered to call an old friend to come stay with her. He’d done everything he could to make her comfortable here, but she’d let jealousy get in the way. Now she was paying for it.
The worst of it was she didn’t get cell phone service in this house, and there was no TV to fill the silence with noise. She couldn’t even distract herself by searching online to figure out what to do with the painting hidden in her bathroom.
What if something happened and she needed to call for help?
What if Buck tracked her down?
She wondered where Carter was sleeping. At his folks’ old house? It seemed a million miles away now that it was dark outside. There were no streetlamps as far as she could tell. Even the starlight didn’t penetrate the canopy of trees overhead.
Amanda kept her light on until nearly midnight, but she had a feeling Carter and his brothers would notice if it was on much longer, and she didn’t want to give Gage the satisfaction of knowing what a scaredy-cat she was. He’d already chalked her up as useless.
When she turned it off, the night pressed in from all sides. What had she gotten herself into? She didn’t know when she’d last been this afraid—except for the night she’d run from LA.
Buck can’t find me here, she told herself.
And she prayed for dawn.
“Where’s Amanda?” Hudson asked the following morning when he entered the town hall kitchen.
“I’ll go check on her when breakfast is ready.” Carter tossed the last eggshell into the compost bin and washed his hands. He did a couple of neck and shoulder stretches, trying to get the kinks out of his body.
“Where’d you sleep?” Hudson asked. “With our newest townswoman?”
“Across the street in number twenty-four. On the floor,” Carter said. “Wanted to stay close in case Amanda had any trouble.” A beep alerted him the latest batch of waffles was done.
“Sucker. I would have told her if she wanted to take my bed, she needed to take me with it.”
“Which is why the ladies are falling all over you.” Carter indicated the room, empty except the two of them. He opened the waffle-iron Lincoln had bought when he’d come home, peeled off the waffles and set them on a pan in the oven with the rest to keep warm.
“If I’m single, it’s because I want to be,” Hudson said.
“Keep telling yourself that.” Carter poured another round of batter into the waffle iron and closed the lid. Hudson had always been cocky, but these days he was worse. He wasn’t finding much action in town, as far as Carter could tell. Maybe he was frustrated and that’s why he was laying it on so thick. “Can you take over making the waffles? I’ll see if Amanda is up.”
“You could text her. Oh, wait, our connection sucks.” Hudson pretended he’d just remembered.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m working on it. Get those scrambled eggs going, too.”
“If I’d known I was going to get stuck with kitchen duty, I’d have stayed in bed,” Hudson called after him.
“Whatever.”
As his brother got to work, Carter made his way through the cafeteria to the town hall’s front door and exited into a soft, warm morning that made his heart lift. His plan had worked better than he could have expected. He’d lured a beautiful woman to Elliott Ridge, and now he’d get to spend time with her fixing up a house. What more could he want?
When he reached number twenty-three, he raised his hand to knock on the door, then thought better of it. Amanda might still be sleeping. He’d poke his nose in, see if she was up, and if he didn’t hear anything, he’d simply close the door again. He could come back later. When he turned the handle, however, the door was locked from the inside.
Carter pulled his keys out of his pocket, realizing belatedly he probably should have given them to Amanda. He’d do that today.
The lock stuck, as usual, leaving him swearing under his breath before he got it open.
He swung the door open slowly, peered around it—
And ducked as a tile shattered against the wall next to his head.
“What the hell? Amanda? It’s just me—Carter.” He recognized that tile. It was from a box he’d left stacked near the stairs a couple of days ago, meant for the kitchen backsplash. He waited a moment to see if the coast was clear, peeked around the edge of the door and opened it wide.
Amanda crouched a yard or two away, breathing hard, scanning the room as if looking for something else to throw at him. When she saw him, she straightened. “Carter? Why are you breaking into my house?”
“It was my house up until yesterday.” He held up the key. “Guess I wasn’t thinking straight. I didn’t want to wake you if you were still sleeping. I thought I could open the door and suss out the situation.”
She ran her hands through her hair. “I was just coming down the stairs when I heard the key in the lock, then the door started opening. It was like something out of a horror movie.”
He didn’t point out it was broad daylight, and technically he still owned the place—or at least his family did. He took the house key off his ring. “Here. It’s the only copy. I swear. You’re safe here, Amanda,” he added, seeing the humor in the situation now that he wasn’t in danger of losing an eye. “This is the country. No one goes around breaking into houses.”
She flashed him a skeptical look. “You sure about that? There’s crime everywhere, isn’t there?”
“Not here.” He couldn’t remember anything being stolen when he was a kid. People were in and out of each other’s houses all day back then. Everybody knew everybody.
Of course, Elliott Ridge wasn’t a ghost town at the time.
“Anyway, breakfast is on. We’ve got waffles and eggs. You hungry?”
“I—guess.”
That didn’t sound promising. He’d scared her. She was probably re-evaluating whether she wanted to stay. “Come on, I make fantastic waffles. We’ll eat and go over your house plans before I head to the mill.” He tried to sound enthusiastic.
“Fine. Breakfast. I can do that.” But she didn’t look happy as she walked past him out the door.
She was safe here.
Amanda hoped that was true, but her heart was still pounding when they arrived at the town hall cafeteria. She was embarrassed she’d nearly brained Carter with a tile, but it was his fault for scaring her. She hoped he’d bought extras.
It didn’t help she’d barely slept last night. She’d tossed and turned for hours. When her phone alarm had chimed a half hour ago, she’d bolted straight up out of a nightmare, convinced a smoke alarm was going off.
Fortunately, that was her mind playing games. Some bird had been peeping outside her window, and her brain had turned the sound into an angry shrill. She’d inspected the house top to bottom before getting dressed. Nothing was amiss.
She thought she’d pulled herself together by the time she walked downstairs to go to the town hall, but when she heard the key in the lock, instincts had taken over. Thank goodness Carter had good reflexes.
He ushered her to the same long table they’d eaten at the previous evening. She caught sight of Hudson in the kitchen. Carter joined him there and came out again with a platter of waffles, scrambled eggs, some sliced fruit, plates and silverware. The rest of his brothers assembled one by one as she helped set the table, and soon they were sharing the food around. With each passing moment, her fears quieted, leaving her shaking her head at her own antics. She was a grown woman, for heaven’s sake. She shouldn’t be afraid of the dark.
She had every right to be afraid of Buck, though. It made sense to be worried about the masterpiece in her bathroom cabinet, too. Later, when she managed to get alone, she’d have to try her phone in different places at the Ridge. Maybe there was somewhere she could get a signal, so she could go online and figure out what to do with it.
“What’s on the agenda today?” Lincoln asked.
Amanda returned her attention to the men around the table, especially the man on her left. Carter looked just as good this morning as he had yesterday. Better, maybe. He smelled shower fresh. His muscles strained against the fabric of his shirt. Every once in a while, his shoulder brushed hers, sending a little thrill of anticipation through her.
“I want to put in a couple of hours on Amanda’s bedroom before work.” Carter interrupted the fantasy that began to spin in her mind. “We’ll get started on the drywall. Most of it is okay, but there are a few places that need to be patched. When we’re done, we can paint.”
“Always smart to start in the bedroom,” Hudson joked, then flinched when Lincoln punched him in the arm. “What?”
“There’s a lady present.”
“If there wasn’t, the joke wouldn’t be funny.”
“It’s not funny,” Carter told him.
“Amanda thinks it’s hilarious.”
Was she smiling? If so, it wasn’t because of Hudson. It was the way the brothers interacted with each other. She could almost imagine how they’d been when they were children.
Gage thumped a fist on the table, making the plates, glasses and silverware jump. “Smarten up,” he growled at Hudson. He turned to Amanda. “I’m not related to any of these idiots.” He helped himself to a stack of waffles and passed the plate.
Amanda laughed despite herself. The other four men looked affronted.
“Gage is not the funny one,” Carter said.
“Definitely not,” Hudson said darkly.
“He’s a little funny,” Amanda pointed out and was rewarded with the ghost of a smile from the man. Carter, catching it, leaned forward.
“Anyway, we’ll start in the bedroom…”
Lincoln, Hudson and Nate all guffawed, and Amanda couldn’t help laughing, too. “You’re just making it worse,” she told him.
He sat back and crossed his arms. “Fine. We’re going to work on Amanda’s house. Then I’ll get over to the mill. Lincoln, can you hold down the fort until I’m there? Maybe it’s time you took the lead anyway. You know a hell of a lot more about lumber than I do.”
“Hold on. Wait a minute,” Lincoln said, setting down his fork. “Not sure I’m ready for that. Things didn’t go so well last time I tried to step into that role.”
“That was different,” Carter said.
“Was it?” Lincoln held his gaze for a long moment before heaving a sigh. “Maybe it was. I just don’t want to screw it up, you know?”
“You won’t screw it up. Hudson will help you, right, Hudson?”
“I’ll be there,” Hudson said.
“I can help out, too,” Nate said.
“I know you’d rather be in Grandpa’s shop,” Lincoln said.
“Lumber is a business, woodworking is a hobby. That’s what Dad always said, right?” Nate said mildly.
“That’s what he said. Doesn’t mean you have to agree with it.”
Nate didn’t answer that.
“What are you going to do today?” Carter asked Gage.
Gage just shrugged.
“We could use an extra pair of hands,” Lincoln told him.
Gage grunted but kept eating.
Amanda focused on her plate, finding she was hungry now that she wasn’t alone or frightened anymore. Buck would have a hard time getting past all these men to cause her harm.
“Is there a Wi-Fi password I should have?” she asked when the silence stretched out. “I couldn’t even get online last night.”
“There is, although I’m not sure it will help you much.” Carter told her what it was. “Our service isn’t great. I’m working on that.”
“It’s satellite,” Lincoln told her. “Slow as hell when you can connect at all.”
“That’s okay,” she said doubtfully. “I didn’t come here to hang out on the internet.” She did need to find a way to get rid of the painting, though. She reached for the syrup. Maybe she could run into town to a coffee shop.
“If you get bored, you come find me,” Hudson drawled. “I’ll keep you company.”
“No thanks.” Her answer was automatic.
The rest of the men laughed.
Lincoln mimed a plane crash, complete with sound effects.
“Guess she told you, buddy,” Carter said. “Better luck next time.”
“She doesn’t know what she’s missing.” Hudson stabbed another bite of waffle with his fork.
“Sounds to me like she’s got a pretty good idea,” Nate said.
“I’ll give you a pretty good idea—”
“Settle down and eat,” Gage roared.
Everyone stilled before Lincoln shook his head. “Sure thing, old man.”
“Don’t call me old man,” Gage said, but the bickering ended, and the men got down to the business of consuming their food. Amanda followed suit. She was starting to like the Elliott brothers. Even Hudson, the dedicated flirt—and Gage. She got the sense that despite their arguing, they all believed in family. She had no doubt they would rally together against a common enemy.
Conversation turned to general topics as Amanda ate her waffle and eggs. The meal done, she went back to her house, Carter promising he’d join her there soon. Last night, when she’d gone to bed, she’d been very aware that Carter had slept in it only the night before. Had he moved in purely for the sake of efficiency, like he’d said, or had he meant the house to be his before she arrived? Once or twice she’d wondered if the Elliotts had really planned to sell a house for a dollar, or if that was a story Carter made up on the fly. After all, she’d heard him fighting with his brothers about something in the town hall kitchen last night.
Now she surveyed her limited wardrobe with frustration. She’d bought a couple of things during her two weeks on the road, but only what she could find in airports. The clothes she was wearing would have to do for renovation work, which left her only a couple of other casual outfits and one dress she’d bought in desperation her first day on the run. One of these days she would go to town and stock up, but she wasn’t in any hurry to leave the safety of the Ridge.
She closed the closet door when she heard knocking and went downstairs. Carter was standing outside.
“You really don’t have to keep your door locked if you don’t want to.”
“Habit,” she said.
“Ready to put up some drywall?”
“Sure.” She led the way upstairs, glad she’d tidied what little she had away. The room felt smaller with Carter standing in it, and even though all she’d done here so far was sleep, it still made her feel vulnerable to have him in her bedroom.
“Have you ever done this before?”
“No,” she admitted, “but I’m sure I can learn.”
“Let me show you what to do.”
For the next hour, Amanda helped hold sheets of drywall while Carter screwed them into place, a job that forced them practically into each other’s arms.
Carter smelled good, some mixture of shampoo and soap she couldn’t identify but appreciated. She was getting a fine view of his muscles as he moved and appreciated that, too. More than once his arms made a cage around her as he accomplished his work. It was all she could do not to picture him putting down his tools, backing her against their newly repaired wall and kissing her thoroughly.
She’d enjoy that, she had to admit.
As they worked he described what the community had been like when he was young, and she did her best to concentrate on what he was saying. “My brothers are staying in Mom and Dad’s old house,” he said as he measured the last gap they needed to cover in the wall. A remnant of old drywall remained in the corner. When he’d put away his measuring tape, he bent to wrest it off.
“Where do your parents live now?”
“South Carolina. When the mill shut down and everyone left, Dad was having health issues. Mom put her foot down and made Dad move closer to my grandmother and other members of her extended family. She didn’t think it was a good idea for them to live up here all alone. Turned out for the best. Dad was in the hospital several times with heart problems during the next few years, and Grandma passed away. In late June Dad’s getting a hip replacement.”
“But they didn’t sell the Ridge? Isn’t there property tax or something that would make it hard to hold on to a huge place like this if no one was living here?”
“My family amassed a lot of different properties over the years, including a number of houses in Chance Creek,” he explained. “Dad’s been selling them off one at a time in order to hang on to the Ridge. Can you help me move this?” he added, gesturing to an old dresser that had been left in the house by its previous owners. Carter told her he thought it could be stripped down and stained, and it would be good as new. In the meantime it was still functional.
Amanda came to help him move it away from the wall, staggering a little under its weight. When it was sitting several feet away, she caught sight of something on the floor.
“What’s that?”
Carter picked it up. It was a small porcelain figurine of a cuddly black bear.
“That’s cute.” Amanda reached for it. Carter passed it over.
“It is?”
“I like it. Jasper,” she pronounced. “That’s his name.” She set him on the dresser. “He can be my good-luck charm.”
“Jasper, huh?” Carter repeated.
“That’s right. He’ll be my first decoration.” Amanda chuckled. “Probably not the vibe you were going for when you planned your renovations.”
“I was thinking modern rustic,” he admitted, scratching his jaw. “But sure, go all country schoolmarm on me. Collect a hundred figurines, if you want. I won’t mind.”
“Country schoolmarm it is.” She warmed under his regard. Something about the way he looked at her told her Carter was ready to like just about anything she did. He was disposed to like her. Was he simply bored living way out here in the country with his brothers, or was there something about her that had caught his eye?
She wished she could ask him, but she couldn’t imagine doing so. What if it turned out she was reading him all wrong?
When they’d replaced the last piece of drywall, he showed her how to tape the gaps and apply the “mud.” She was good at that, better than Carter at achieving a smooth finish, and soon he designated her “chief mudder.” She wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not.
Carter was easy to get along with. He was cheerful, patient and quick to crack a joke when he could find one. She learned a little more about his family and the history of the Ridge. Carter stuck to positive stories, though it was clear times had been hard in his teenage years.
“You said you were in the Navy,” she prompted when they’d been working for an hour. “What was that like?”
Carter was quiet a moment. “I was with the Navy SEALs.”
Amanda was surprised. She’d always supposed a SEAL would be a flint-edged, scarred warrior. Dour and silent. Brooding. Carter was anything but. When she asked him about it, he laughed.
“It takes all kinds to accomplish a mission. If we all spent our time brooding, we’d never get anything done. Some of us have to be optimists.”
“Fair enough,” she said, but his stories were generating more questions than answers. She found she looked at him a little differently now. Carter had to be showing her his soft side, but if he was a SEAL, there must be a harder side, too. He must have spent a lot of the past twelve years training for all kinds of missions. That explained the muscles.
Did it explain his determination to reach the goal he’d set for himself?
“I’d better get to the mill,” Carter finally said when they’d cleaned up. “I’d rather stay here with you, but there are bills to pay. Will you be all right on your own?”
“Of course.” Although she’d miss his company.
A knock sounded on the front door. Amanda followed Carter downstairs just as Gage stuck his head in. “Megan’s here. I let Lincoln, Hudson and Nate know, and they’re on their way.”
“We’re coming,” Carter told him.
“Who’s Megan?” And why did a zing of jealousy zip through her? She barely knew Carter. She couldn’t be possessive of him yet.
But she was.
“Real estate agent,” Carter answered succinctly. Together they went outside to where a curly-haired redhead was standing next to a light-blue truck. She was far younger than Amanda had expected. Probably in her early twenties.
“Megan Lawrence, this is Amanda Stakewell,” Carter said when they’d joined the others. “Amanda, this is Megan.”
“Nice to meet you. You must be new in town. I don’t recognize you,” Megan said.
“That’s right.”
“Welcome to Chance Creek.”