Elissa clutched the world’s messiest sandwich. As if the huge helping of creamed chicken, cheese, tomato, and onions weren’t enough, the short-order cook had shoved French-fried potatoes in the mix. The sides of her mouth ached at the notion of fitting that thing in for a bite, but her stomach rumbled in anticipation.
“Hey there, Miss Tillman.” Howard Drake waved from behind the soda fountain. “Sammy told me you were here.” He jerked the draft arm, filled a glass with cola, and handed the drink to a waiting customer. “Not your usual company.” Smiling, he nodded toward Cole.
Cole’s brow raised slightly, and he bit off a hunk of his sandwich.
“No, not today.” She captured the tomato before it slid out of the sandwich and shoved it back with her pinky. “But the event with that group happens again a week from tomorrow.” And hopefully, she could rally more people to come. Attendance had been pretty low.
“Sounds great. Enjoy your lunch.” He shot another grin and returned to the kitchen.
“Thank you.” She raised her sandwich to her mouth, ready to conquer it.
“‘Usual company’?” Cole popped a potato in his mouth and reached for his Coke. “How do I get an invitation to that party?”
“You become female.”
He choked on his drink, and Elissa’s suppressed chortles ripped free.
“If it’s all the same to you, I’ll sit that one out.” Cole wiped the side of his smiling mouth with a napkin. “I take it you come here for women’s meetings?”
“I’m the chapter leader for Allegheny County.” Laughter erupted from a group of factory workers at a table across the room. Her mother would frown at the display, but Elissa smiled. “We support each other. Discuss our hardships. The goal is to make the city aware of its injustice toward women.”
“You amaze me.” The deep resonance of his tone made her insides hum.
She stirred her drink with her straw. “Those women are amazing. Some work at the hospital. Others in factories. They work identical jobs as men but are paid reduced wages. I’m thankful for my position at the Review because at least Father respects me enough to pay me competitively.” But for how long? Father hadn’t mentioned the loans recently. Did that signify finances were improving? Or was he delaying the inevitable?
“I can see your influence.” He eyed the single yellow rose in the small glass vase in front of the napkin dispenser.
Smiling, she glanced around the quaint area. Every booth had been decorated with a flower. “That would be Mrs. Drake’s doing. She’s the owner’s wife and a dear friend of mine.” She inclined her head to his plate. “How’s it taste?” She took a nice-sized bite of her sandwich.
“They don’t make food like this in New York.”
Her jaw stilled mid-chew.
He leaned on his elbows. “Don’t believe me?” The normal rasp of his voice softened. “I’ve missed a lot of things about Pittsburgh. I couldn’t forget it. No matter how hard I tried.”
“Pittsburgh couldn’t forget you either.” She bit the inside of her cheek, hoping with all hopes she didn’t make a complete fool of herself. “But it’s a little cautious, having you back within its borders.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “I can understand that.” He shoved the salt and pepper shakers aside and reached across the table, his hand beckoning hers. “I only want to know if I’m welcome, or if I should remain outside its perimeters. The heart of the city is important to me.”
Her toes curled inside her shoes, and she wiped her hands with a napkin. Could she? The vault of her heart had been locked, and Cole seemed to be the only one with the combination. He knew which way to turn her feelings and push the pressures of her soul. Last time, he’d stripped that vault bare and ran off with the spoils. Could she trust him again? She stared at his hand, awaiting hers. Pressing her palms to her thighs, she inhaled a stabilizing breath. “I can’t answer you now.” The truth peeled from the swell of emotions. “But know I’m not as opposed as when you first arrived.”
“Making progress. That’s all a guy can expect.” He flexed his fingers, reached for a fried potato, and grinned as he tossed it in his mouth.
Elissa relaxed against the wooden seat. “I’m not sure I can eat anything else.” She’d made a meager dent in her meal, but she couldn’t tempt her fluttering stomach.
“Ready to head to the incline?” Cole finished off his Angus beef sandwich and wiped his fingers with his napkin.
She nodded but remained uncertain why this meant so much to him. To every other local, the incline offered only a safe means for those who lived on Mount Washington to get to downtown. One more sip of her Dr. Pepper and she was set. Cole offered his arm with a charming smirk, and she tucked her hand in the crook of his overcoat.
“I’m glad you agreed to ride the incline.” He paused at the door and held her stare. “I have something to tell you. Words I’ve never spoken to anyone.”
He’d said it.
Cole’s chest ached as if intending to explode, but he’d told Elissa he had a confession to share, and now he had to stick with his promise and spill all. His breath puffed before him in foggy clouds.
God, I need your help.
As they walked up the grated steps to the incline entrance, Elissa’s gaze scanned the bleak surroundings. Maybe this was a bad idea. A soot-crusted building at the base of a barren hill wasn’t the most ideal place to impress a lady. He curled his hand around the scuffed doorknob to the incline station and held the door for Elissa to enter. The modest passenger waiting area possessed a few wooden benches and a yellowed sign listing the operating hours.
With a pat to Elissa’s hand, still nestled in the crook of his arm, they approached the counter.
“Afternoon, folks.” The attendant gave a hearty smile and adjusted his cap. “Round trip is five cents, sir.”
Cole fished his pocket for a dime. “I’m paying for the lady as well.” He turned and acknowledged Elissa with a smile, but she didn’t notice, so preoccupied was she with digging around her purse. “Elissa, I got this. I asked you on this date, remember?”
She blushed and gave a small nod.
He handed the coin to the middle-aged man behind the counter.
“Taking the lady on the incline as a date, huh?” His thick-rimmed spectacles didn’t conceal the laughter in his eyes. “I have to say this is a first.” He dropped the change into the metal register.
“When the woman is tough to please, you have to think outside the box, my friend.” Cole tapped the side of his temple.
“I think a dime fare is letting you off easy, Mr. Parker.” Playfulness traced Elissa’s smirk. “Next time should be at The Regent.”
The most expensive restaurant this side of the Ohio River. Cole laughed, and his heart warmed at the delight in her eyes. “Since you just agreed to a second date, I’d be happy to foot the bill.” He slid his arm around her. “Do you think your pops can give me a raise?”
Her shoulders rose with silent laughter. Probably because they both knew Cole wasn’t collecting a salary. Thank God for the stock market and the benefits of having his desk beside the finance manager at the Dispatch. He’d squirreled away substantial savings from his former job, and the dividends from his stocks were an added bonus.
“All right, you love birds.” The worker rounded the counter and motioned them to follow. “Watch your step, and don’t move about in the car. This is an eight-hundred-foot long track, so make yourselves cozy.” He held the door open with a grin wider than Mount Washington. “It’s probably a good thing you have this car to yourselves.” He winked, and Elissa’s mouth parted.
Cole chuckled. He needed this dash of humor to keep his spirits light. The motorized box remained exactly how Cole had remembered, the yellowed woodwork, the stiff benches carved with people’s names, smudges on the windows.
Elissa stepped through first and selected a seat. She chose the front—the exact spot he’d chosen sixteen years ago. He gritted his teeth. One foot in front of the other, Parker.
The man closed the door behind Cole, trapping him with his memories.
“It’s a shame the river is so polluted, and the buildings are so ugly. The view could be remarkable.” She closed her eyes as if envisioning an immaculate skyline, free from the ashy marks of factories.
This area bore the soiled fingerprint of the massive steel industry, and with it came the weighty recovery from The Great War. Yet its heart pulsed to the beat of resilience. Like Cole’s. “My grandfather was on the team of engineers under Samuel Diescher.” The designer and master builder had been sort of a hero to the locals, saving them from trekking the mountainous stretch on foot.
She scooted closer, her side brushing his, her nearness bringing much-needed warmth. “You never told me.”
He shrugged. “Because I hated this place. Hated everything about it.”
Elissa’s mouth twisted, her eyes searching his face.
“I was ten when I last saw this view. My dad brought me.” Heat poured off his words, and Cole could almost taste the fiery bitterness. “He raved on and on about his own father and about this incline. Its fortified steel structure. The steam engine. The cast-iron drum and air brakes.” Amazing how much he remembered. Why hadn’t the words abandoned him like the man who’d spoken them?
“Your father was an engineer, right? So I guess he followed in your grandfather’s footsteps?”
With a slight hitch, the car began its slow climb. The squealing of wire cables and the clicking of iron track charged the air.
“Yeah. One of his jobs. According to Mom, he had several. None of which he kept long.” Cole blew out a breath. If voicing this brought healing, the flaming pain slicing his chest would be worth it. “This was the best memory I had with my dad. I remember wanting to make him proud, even more than Granddad had.” What a joke Cole’s life had been. The only one he’d made proud was the bootlegger he’d kept in business. “Later, when he left, I despised this thing. And for a long while, despised him.”
Her fingers wrapped around his arm. “You were young and forced to grow up quickly.”
Cole glanced at his scored knuckles—the evidence of his work as a breaker boy in the mines. The foreman’s cursing shouts, the chunks of skin amongst other impurities soiling the conveyor belt, the bleeding palms from hand-picking the sharp slate from the pile of prized coal, all left haunting effects on a twelve-year-old boy earning money to aid a depressed mother. “I’m thankful for that afternoon at Howe Springs.”
Her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “That fountain was a refuge for both of us.”
His routine stop between the mines and home, the place of washing his wounds in the crisp, spring water, became the cleansing place of his soul. “I’m thankful for that pig-tailed girl who glanced up from her book and dragged me by the elbow to her father.” Determination had marked Elissa’s steps that day, and admiration had stamped Cole’s heart. “If it wasn’t for you, I may not be here.”
Her sad smile matched her somber tone. “No child should be forced to work in those death pits.”
Cole ran the flawed knuckle down her cheek. “You’ve always stood against injustice.” His gaze traveled from her eyes to the yellow rose. “Never forget the impact you have, Elissa. It changes lives.”
Biting her lower lip, she peered out the window. “A lot of men needed work back then. Father rejected dozens each day. I honestly don’t know how I convinced him to hire you on.”
“Because you pour your heart into your persuasions.” He curled an arm around her, and she snuggled into his chest. “And who could say no to your heart?”
She stiffened but didn’t break from his touch.
“Thank you for believing in me, Spark.” He wished this trek lasted more than five minutes because he could hold her forever.
She angled her face toward his. “But if you hate this incline so much, why bring me today?”
“I can’t run from the past anymore.” His mind might insist he was that scruffy child his father abandoned, but his heart impressed him with an image of the true Father. The One who accepted him. Loved him. “I wanted to create a new memory with someone I care about.”
“Cole?” Her voice rumbled against his chest.
“Hmm.”
“Why didn’t you come back?”
He tugged her closer. “I was scared.”
She shifted in his arms. “Of what? Being stuck with me?”
He pulled back, clasping her shoulders, peering into her face. “Never.” His chest tightened at the hurt marring her eyes. “It’s just … you looked exactly like her.”
“What?” She jerked free from his hold. “Who is her?”
“My mom.”
Her brows sank. “I don’t understand. What’s your mother have to do with you not returning?”
He flicked a glance back. Halfway to the summit. “Remember what you told me the second before I stepped onto the train?”
“Yes,” she said, voice brittle, gaze lowered.
I love you. Words he’d hoped to evoke since the moment he’d recognized his love for her. Words that had seized his heart with a whisper of the future, but his past had screamed of nights of torment. Hearing his mother weeping when she’d thought he’d been asleep. Staring at his dad’s empty chair at dinnertime. Each birthday, every holiday a misery because of an absent father. “When you spoke those words, you looked identical to my mother … the day my father left. She’d said ‘I love you’ with so much admiration in her eyes.” He shook his head. “Mom didn’t know he wasn’t returning. Believed it was another business trip.”
She’d gotten served the divorce papers five months later.
“You did the exact same thing. Left. You didn’t even write to let me know you’d changed your mind about us.”
“Because I never changed my mind.”
Her fingers fanned against her breastbone, wariness returning to her eyes.
“I couldn’t let go of you, but I didn’t want to hurt you.” This wasn’t going as he’d hoped. Words lodged in his throat, and all his thoughts seemed to tumble down the barren hill beneath them. “Mom explained away Dad’s abandonment by saying he had an adventurous spirit—that he couldn’t stay in one place too long. The words she spoke to describe him, people used about me. Carefree, impulsive.” And soon, failure.
The hard angles of her face softened. “You are not like him. Look how you stepped up to help your mom with the bills. You were twelve, Cole. Twelve. When most boys were cutting up in the alleys, you were in the mine, getting your hands mangled. Then delivering papers on your bike. Washing windows, shoveling walks. You never missed an opportunity to help your mom. I respected you as much as I loved you.” She shifted in her seat as if she realized the weight of her words. But instead of looking mortified as he expected, she stared at him head on, with squared shoulders. “And if we would’ve married, then you would have been the same. A great provider, an excellent husband.”
The car approached the summit, but he couldn’t leave this unsaid. He grabbed both of her hands and peered into her face. “I’m sorry, Elissa. If you only knew the time I’ve spent thinking of you. Wondering what you were doing. Trying to get copies of the Review so I could read your society page.”
She blinked at his words.
“I’ve known you were Elliot Wentworth. I’d know your work anywhere.” He traced her jawline with his thumb, settling it under her lowered chin, gently lifting until her gaze met his. “You pour portions of your soul into your articles. Reading them, I felt close to you.” He smiled. “I also know how to set a table for a formal dinner now.”
She laughed even as tears escaped from her eyes.
He brushed them away. “I now know that I’m not the sort of man I once feared becoming, but it took years of pain to discover it. I’m sorry for ruining our future together.”
She gripped both of his hands. “Maybe the future is only beginning.”
He dipped his head and pressed his mouth against her waiting lips as if sealing the promise of a fresh start. Everything in him hummed with adoration for her. He slid his arms around her back and gathered her close. The roots of this relationship dug deeper than physical attraction. He could feel her love for him, from the delicate pressure of her lips to her tender fingers cupping his face. He couldn’t defend himself against the surge of protectiveness waving over him. The contest. The murder case. He needed to keep this woman safe. She needed to stay in his arms for a lifetime.
The car stopped, but neither of them moved. Their lips, hearts, touching each other in the most magnetizing way.
Someone cleared their throat, and Elissa jumped back. A woman in her sixties, hands loaded with grocer’s bags and eyes heavy with disapproval, stepped past them and sat down with a huff. Elissa’s shoulders shook with suppressed laughter, but Cole didn’t bother to hide his. He adjusted his hat, which had gotten bumped by Elissa’s forehead during their smooching session, and he sent a wink toward the disgruntled lady.
She mumbled a “Well, I never,” while they made their exit, hand-in-hand.
With a base lined with smoke-belching factories and the face of the hillside pocked with exhausted mines, Coal’s Hill had been reduced to an industrialized wasteland.
“It’s not promising.” Elissa assessed the view with a crinkled nose.
“Everything has potential for beauty.” Cole stroked her forefinger with his thumb. “Besides, I have the most breathtaking view around.” He trained his focus on her and watched a tender smile bloom. “I kind of feel sorry for this place.” They strolled down the narrow walk. “It was once a big shot. A flourishing mine, but greed plundered its depths, leaving it to decay.”
“I know a man who bears the same name, who was also a big shot.” She leaned in, pressing her cheek to his shoulder. “And though he may have been left to rot, God had a different plan.”
“He did indeed.” He kissed her forehead. “But this isn’t a nice location for a date. I apologize for that. I’ll make it up to you.”
“How so?” Her smile curved sideways.
“You’ll get your fill from The Regent, and after that, would you accompany me to my cousin’s wedding this Wednesday?”
“Sterling and Sophie?” The sun broke from behind the prison-gray clouds, but the delight in Elissa’s eyes shone brighter. “I really like her. We’ve had some great conversations. She’s the only person I know who can make that man smile.”
“How do you know …” Ah, Elissa would know his cousin’s fiancée, considering she’d been helping with his mom’s apartments for years. “Thank you, Spark.”
“For what?”
“For being you.” He tugged her closer. “Are you ready to head back down?
“Only if we can pick up where we left off.” Her teasing smile ignited every nerve in him to burn with expectation. “I’d be delighted to be your date this week.”
And hopefully, forever.