*Mark was at the committee head table, taking a moment for himself. He checked his watch, then ran an eye around his establishment.
Everything was ready. Many of the thirty-odd people they’d expected had already arrived. The urn was on, hissing steam above a Warning Do Not Touch sign, and chatter filled the air as Marie sliced cake and handed it out.
She hadn’t brought the famous cupcakes, so that was one argument he didn’t have to worry about.
People wandered the bar with their plates and coffees, looking around, touching the furnishings and maybe reevaluating the place. It was likely the first time many of them had been inside.
This was what the bar would look like if someone got it up and running for real. Alive. Useful. Needed. A community hub, since it was the biggest building in town.
Regardless of what went down in the next few days, his treachery was bound to be discovered at some point. He didn’t doubt it and he wasn’t going to run from whatever backlash was thrown his way, but he’d grown fond of these people and it was going to hurt.
Someone opened both doors to the bar to let a group in and Mark glanced up.
Lauren was on the veranda, talking to old Gerdin.
She was wearing an alabaster-colored dress, not quite cream, not quite buttermilk, the hemline above her knees, and Mark couldn’t take his eyes off her. She’d worn trousers every day he’d known her.
He strode to the door, almost in a daze. No woman had ever bewitched him like this one.
Out on the veranda the night air enveloped him, as did her perfume. Sage, lime, and the sweetness of orange.
“There’s a lot of high expectation in there,” Gerdin was saying. “Hope you’re up for this.”
“I am,” she assured him in an even tone. “It’s going to be a good meeting, Mr. Gerdin. I can promise you that.”
“And the house?”
She winked at him, playfully. “I won’t be forgiven if I tell you before I tell the others.”
Something was changed about her tonight. Not just her clothing, something at the heart. She wasn’t pretending to be cool and aloof, and she had poise, but it was from within.
And, by God, she looked good.
“So it’s all going to work out?” Gerdin said. “The saloon and your business at Sage Springs?”
Mark stepped forward, making his presence known. “Lauren and I had discussions about that this afternoon, and we’re on the same page.”
She turned to him with a raised eyebrow.
“Although we need to iron out a few things,” he finished.
“We certainly do,” she muttered, but she said it with a smile.
Of all things he hadn’t expected, it was to see her smile at him.
Gerdin must have felt he was in the way because he cleared his throat, mumbled something about his wife, and left Mark alone with Lauren, her light perfume, and her smile.
“Hi,” he said. “How are you feeling?”
“Better. Sorry about before.”
“What happened?”
“I guess I forgot to eat breakfast.”
“I hope you’ve eaten now, because all I’ve got to offer is cake and beans with chili.”
She laughed, her cheeks flushed with such a beautiful glow Mark reined himself in.
She was the one who was going to make the changes in the town. She was the one who was meant to lead—and he couldn’t allow her to. Not tonight. Maybe not until this whole business was over and he’d gone. Too many lives depended on him getting this right.
“Are you coming in?” he asked, taking his eyes off her and stepping back to let her go inside before him.
She hesitated, no doubt taken aback with his sudden abruptness.
“How are you holding up?” she asked as she passed him.
“Don’t worry about me.”
*
Lauren headed for the table that had been put out in front of the rows of chairs. She’d never seen the Surrender bar so clean, warm, and welcoming. Or full. Plenty of people had arrived for the meeting, including a few visitors from Hopeless. Davie was standing guard by the urn and pouring coffees. Winnie Johnson who worked in the salon and the takeout was fussing with plates and forks while Marie sliced cake.
Lauren put her tote bag onto the table, followed by her paperwork, and stepped away, waving to them. Davie beamed. Sweet little Winnie blew her a kiss—and Marie swung her cake knife in the air, indicating Lauren look behind her.
She spun around. “Find anything interesting?” she asked Mark, who was shuffling through her notes. She plucked them from his hands.
“Just wondering if we’re on the same page.”
“Difficult to tell, since you don’t appear to have any paperwork of your own to compare notes.”
“It’s all up here,” he said, tapping his forehead, then taking his frown and his focus to his bar.
Maybe she was looking at him through a changed viewfinder, but she didn’t need her heart to tell her something was off with him tonight. He hadn’t quite met her eye and when he did he didn’t hold her gaze for too long.
“How far away is the lake and the waterfall?” he asked.
“How did you know about either?”
“There’s a sign, on the brick archway.”
A lopsided sign. She’d have to get one of the Buckners to fix it.
“I’m planning on using the area, to bring Surrender and Hopeless together. Molly’s photographers will love it, and if they also like hiking we can get a proper trail going between the hacienda and Sage Springs. Or if the photographers are men and they bring their wives and girlfriends, Surrender would have something to offer the women, while Hopeless catered to the men.”
“That might take business off the bar.”
“You’ll have to fight for it. What are your ideas, anyway?”
“The good news is that the ladies in town are going to make sure there’ll be no raucous brawls or gambling.”
“You’ll let them make decisions?”
“They’re decent ones, so far.”
“They don’t interfere with your own plans?”
“Like I said to Marie, I’ve had a number of ideas, none of which fully appealed to me.”
She wanted to like him, but it was as though she were being pulled between two different paths. One where she was comfortable in his company, the other where caution resided. Ava had said there was unrest on the way, and she had an ominous sense it was going to come from Mark.
She glanced at the paperwork in her hands, then back to him. “Are you here to snoop on me?” It was important to listen and watch and let her heart confirm the facts. But the trust issue was going to be difficult.
He paused for only a moment. “Are we back to that? Okay. Yes. I’m snooping on you. How am I doing?”
Her heart told her he was telling the truth, and although she had to suppress a shudder, there was still no sense of ill-will from him.
“You kick off the meeting by telling everyone your visions for Sage Springs,” he said. “After that we’ll play it by ear about how our businesses are going to be cojoined.”
“Cojoined?”
“Isn’t that what you want from me?”
“Are you sure cojoined is the right expression? It reminds me of till death do us part. Talking of which—what are your views on marriage?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Children. Do you like them? What about longevity? What are your thoughts on that? Because it’s what I’m going to be talking about tonight. Building on what we’ve got. Seeing it through no matter what. Trust.”
“Lauren, I have no idea what you’re trying to say but you’ve gone pale again. Are you okay?”
“Just dandy.” She thrust her paperwork into her tote bag. “Excuse me.” She walked off, heading for the coffee urn. Idiot! So much for her flirting skills. She hadn’t gotten further than a smile and a blush out on the veranda.
She’d promised herself she’d never look for a man’s good opinion again, and what had she done since he’d been in the house that afternoon? Fallen for his charm—all over again.
A few minutes later, she put her still-full coffee cup down. It was just a prop. An excuse to leave his side and give herself a few minutes alone.
Standing in the far corner of what had once been the diner, she folded her arms across her chest.
Were she and Mark going to share their lives forevermore and bring up their children together? At this point she couldn’t imagine it, but it was what she’d longed for when she was a child, dancing in the ballroom, imagining romantic interludes with her future husband. She’d been young, so there had been nothing more in her imagination than a few chaste kisses, but with Mark, a tall, confident male, she might let her mind wander to what they would get up to as adults.
There’d be nothing chaste about his lovemaking. His hands, for a start, were strong and capable. There was strength in his shoulders and his arms too, and there was that warm, tender look in his eyes when he was teasing her.
“Sugar, you can’t keep your eyes off him,” Marie said softly, suddenly at her side.
“That’s because I might marry him.”
“Somebody ought to,” Marie murmured and made to leave.
Lauren caught hold of the sleeve on her cherry-colored cardigan. “You’re not shocked by what I just said?”
“I told you, sweetie—stranger things. Why some woman hasn’t already snapped him up and whisked him off on a honeymoon in Paris is beyond me.”
She’d always known Marie’s strengths, and since she’d been home she’d seen many more. But just how many talents did her aunt possess? “Did you know what I was going to do with Sage Springs?”
“It was obvious.”
“Who told you? Ava?”
“Nobody told me! What else could you do with the place? It’s exactly what our women need. A haven, that’s what it’s going to be. Now, let go of my sleeve. I need to have a word with Butch Buckner before Hortense eats him alive. I think she’s got the hots for him.”
Sage Springs Haven.
Could the name work? If her idea took off the way she believed it was going to, all the retail stores and businesses in town would benefit. The whole valley would benefit. Molly’s photographic studio, Saul’s hiking, and Momma Marie’s blog wouldn’t know what had hit it!
“Lauren!”
She turned to the sound of Mark’s voice, excitement soaring and replacing her earlier dejection.
He beckoned her. “We’re about to start.”
No smile, no flirting tease in his eyes.
She’d spent a little time walking in and out of every room in Sage Springs after he’d left and before she ran up the hill to see Ava. She’d even sat on the staircase with the now broken treads. But nothing had swept over her. No coldness, no weird feelings, just—nothing.
What was his role in ending the curse and could she really see into the future?
Given his attitude so far tonight, all she’d be left with were memories of things that had never happened. But her future was full of what she’d have a hand in creating.
Sage Springs Haven.
She headed for the committee table, her heart light.