A Baby and a Betrothal (10 page)

“Yes,” Olivia answered at the same time Logan said, “We don't know.”

Olivia waved away his concern. “It's a routine appointment. My doctor wants me to go in for a blood test and some monitoring they can't do in his office.”

“Plus IV fluids,” Logan added.

“She thinks I'm dehydrated.” She smiled, but it looked strained. “The morning sickness isn't getting better.”

Logan took her hand. “And it lasts all day.”

“But it isn't an emergency.” Olivia stepped forward, swayed and leaned into her husband. “Really, Katie. I'm tired and weak. It's not life threatening.”

Logan glowered. “Not yet.”

“You two go on.” Katie gave Olivia a quick hug and patted Logan awkwardly on the shoulder.

“But if you need something—”

“It can wait.” Katie felt embarrassment wash through her. She was worried about needing a nap when Olivia could be in the middle of a real crisis. “I'll drop off dinner to your house so that it's there when you get home.”

“You're doing so much already,” Olivia said, pursing her lips.

“But we'd appreciate it.” Logan shrugged when his wife threw him a disapproving look. “What? You need to eat something besides crackers and I know she's a great cook.” He turned to Katie. “I'm parked on the next block. Would you stay with her while I pull up my truck?”

“Of course.”

He gave Olivia a quick, tender kiss on the top of her head and jogged toward the front door.

“He worries too much,” Olivia said when the door shut behind him.

“He loves you.” Katie linked her arm in her friend's. “Does Millie know you're going to the hospital?”

“Please don't say anything,” Olivia answered, shaking her head. “I promise I'll text if we find anything serious.” She squeezed Katie's hand. “I love this baby so much already. I know it's wrong to become attached so early in the pregnancy. So many things can go wrong, and I'm not exactly a spring chicken.”

“Don't be silly.” Olivia was in her early thirties and Logan a couple of years younger than Katie. Although an unlikely couple, they were actually perfect for each other. “Have the tests and I'm sure the news will be good.”

“Of course. You're right.”

They walked out of the community center just as Logan pulled to the curb. He jumped out of the truck and came around to open Olivia's door for her. The love in his eyes as he looked at his wife made Katie's heart ache.

“Thanks, Katie,” they both said as Olivia climbed into the truck.

Katie waited until they'd disappeared down the block then turned back toward the community center. Tori Woodward stood on the sidewalk in front of her.

Katie smothered a groan. The last thing she needed today was a run-in with her former friend. “Hey, Tori.” She went to step around the other woman. Tori, as always, looked Aspen chic in a pair of designer jeans with elaborate stitching on the pockets, a silk blouse and strappy sandals. Katie glanced at her own utilitarian clogs, part of her standard work uniform. The pair she wore today were bright purple, shiny like a bowling ball and totally clunky in front of Tori's delicate sandals. “I've got a Founder's Day Festival meeting right now. Good to see you.”

Tori moved, blocking Katie's way again. “Of course you do, Saint Katie. I see you're still using the same martyr routine to ingratiate yourself with people. Does anyone have a clue as to who you really are?”

Katie's head snapped back at Tori's words. “This is who I am,” she said, wishing her voice sounded more sure.

“Right. You're also the person who would ruin her supposed best friend's chance at love.”

Katie swallowed. It would be simple to think Tori was talking about present day and the change in Katie's relationship with Noah, but she knew that wasn't the case. “You're the one who cheated, Tori. You made that choice.”

“Noah would have never found out if you hadn't given him that note.”

“The note he received wasn't signed.”

“Don't play dumb,” Tori said with a snort. She lifted her Prada sunglasses onto the top of her head, her green eyes boring into Katie's. “You were the only person who knew about my fling with Adam.”

“You can't know that for sure. And if you were so committed to Noah, you wouldn't have fooled around with someone else.”

“I was eighteen and stupid, I'll grant you that. Mainly stupid to trust you with my secret. You had a crush on Noah even then. It killed you that he was in love with me.”

“I was happy for you,” Katie argued, shaking her head. She felt her breathing start to come faster, bile rising in her throat. “But it wasn't fair to him.”

“He wasn't himself that year,” Tori shot back. “When his dad got sick, Noah couldn't focus on anything else.”

“He was going to ask you to marry him.”

“Exactly,” Tori practically hissed. “I would have said yes. We were going to be happy together. Noah was my first, you know.” She shook her head, gave a bitter laugh. “Of course you knew—you were my best friend. I thought you understood I needed to make sure he was the one.”

“I never understood why you needed to sleep with another guy.” Katie crossed her arms over her chest. “It was wrong, just like it was wrong of you to ask me to cover it up.”

“So why didn't you just tell him instead of letting him find out the way he did?”

Katie almost blurted out the truth. How she couldn't stand to be the one who hurt Noah, had been afraid Tori would turn it back on her. Katie and Tori had become friends freshman year of high school, when Tori's family moved to Crimson—her father had worked in one of the exclusive hotels in Aspen, and Tori acted as if that made her better than the local kids around Crimson. She'd been a snob, yes, but she'd also been beautiful, gregarious and so confident.

It had felt as if a spotlight suddenly shone on her when Tori chose her as a friend. Now it seemed clear Tori had liked Katie because her low self-esteem made her easy to manipulate. It was her mother all over again. Tori made small digs about Katie's weight or lack of style, and like a puppy eager to please, Katie would do more to make herself indispensable so Tori wouldn't drop her.

“You don't know it was me who left the note.”

“All this time, and you're still denying it? You haven't even admitted it to him. What's Noah going to think when he finds out his perfect Katie-bug was the one to break his heart?”

Katie swallowed around the panic lodged in her throat. Yes, Tori had cheated, but Katie remembered how angry Noah had been at the anonymous note that had led him to find his girlfriend with another guy. “Why are you doing this? Do you want him back? Is that why you're here?”

Tori closed her eyes for a moment, as if she was debating her answer. “No. I'm way past wanting to be the wife of a forest ranger.” She tapped one long nail against her glossy mouth. “Although I wouldn't mind a roll in the sheets for old times' sake. If Noah had mad skills in the bedroom back then, I can only imagine how he's improved over the years.”

Katie felt herself stiffen. When Tori's gaze narrowed, she realized she'd walked right into a trap.

“You've had sex with him.”

“I didn't mean—”

“That's why I'm going to tell him.” Tori leaned closer. “You betrayed me, and no one gets away with that.”

“It was ten years ago.”

“Doesn't matter. In this town I'm the one who crushed Noah Crawford's already broken heart and you're the angel who picked up the pieces. But we were both responsible for his pain. I'm tired of everyone looking at me like I'm some sort of Jezebel.”

“No one thinks—”

“Noah does. His friends do. Hell, my own mother reminds me every Christmas about the one that got away. Maybe I deserve it, but I'm not the only one.”

Tori had started dating Noah sophomore year of high school, and Katie thought he'd always loved her more than she deserved. When Tori alienated most of her girlfriends besides Katie, she'd become more dependent on Noah's attention. But she'd always wanted Katie to tag along, almost as a buffer or proof to Noah that she wasn't the mean girl other people made her out to be. Katie knew she was, and as her feelings for Noah had grown, it became more difficult for her to watch the way Tori strung him along.

Maybe she'd taken advantage of the knowledge she had to break them up. But she'd believed it was the right thing to do. He'd been wrecked that summer, and holding tight to his relationship with his self-centered, shallow girlfriend wasn't going to make his grief over his father's death any easier.

But would Noah understand her motivations and why she'd never revealed that it was she who'd typed that note?

“Don't do this,” she whispered. “I was a good friend to you and that note wouldn't have changed the outcome of your relationship with Noah.”

The other woman pursed her glossy lips. “I won't say anything,” she said after a moment.

Katie started to breathe a sigh of relief but Tori added, “Yet. But I'm here the whole summer. And I may change my mind. You'll never know. Any day, any moment I may decide to throw you under the bus the way you did me.”

Katie shook her head. “I'll deny it. You have no proof.”

“You won't,” Tori answered confidently. “If he confronts you, I know you won't lie. The little
bug
doesn't have it in her.”

Oh, that nickname. Noah had started calling her Bug after he heard Katie's mother chastise her for something she'd eaten at the bakery. Katie had been so embarrassed, feeling fat and sloppy. But Noah had put his arm around her shoulders and whispered that she was no bigger than a little bug, and next to his height and bulk, she'd actually felt petite.

Over the years it had become a reminder of their “buddy” relationship. Hearing Tori speak the word made her want to run home and inhale a pan of brownies in one sitting.

“I'm going to my meeting,” she said after a moment. “I'm sorry you're still angry. But you need to figure out where that animosity should really be directed. It isn't at me.”

“Don't be so sure.” Tori adjusted her sunglasses back on her face then walked away, her sandals clicking on the sidewalk as she went.

Katie fisted her hand then pushed it against her stomach, trying to ward off the pain and dread pooling there. All she wanted was to eat and sleep right now, but she turned and started back into the community center. She had responsibilities, people depending on her, and no matter what she wanted for herself, she couldn't stand to let them down.

Chapter Ten

N
oah drummed his thumbs against the steering wheel, glancing every mile marker at Katie's profile.

It was a great day for swimming, unseasonably warm for late June with the sun shining from a sky so blue it looked like the backdrop on one of Sara's movie sets. He'd borrowed a small fishing boat from Crimson Ranch so he could take Katie to the far side of the reservoir where the water might be a degree or two warmer than near the mouth of the mountain stream that fed it.

The day was perfect, other than the fact that Katie had barely said two words since he'd picked her up an hour ago.

“We're almost there,” he said and adjusted the radio to a satellite station with better reception this far into the mountains.

Hidden Valley Reservoir lay on the far side of the pass past Aspen. The dirt road that wound into the hills above the valley was maintained but still rutted in places.

“Okay” was her only response.

“You nervous?” He placed one hand on her leg, squeezing softly in the place above her knee where he knew she was ticklish. Immediately she flinched away from him and he pulled his arm away from her.

“A little.” She continued to look out the window for a few minutes, then added, “I'm tired. Sorry I'm bad company.”

“You're never bad company, Bug.”

“Noah,” she said, her tone harsh.

“Sorry. It's a habit. I won't call you that.” He focused more closely on the road as they passed an SUV coming from the other direction. “I mean it in a good way, you know? I always have.”

“I don't like it,” she snapped.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” He wasn't sure what was going on, but if swimming took her off her game this much, was it really worth it?

“If you want to turn around, go ahead.” She pressed her fingers to her temples. “I'm not sure what's wrong with my mood today, but I understand if you don't want to be with me.”

As he came to the opening in the trees that signaled the entrance to the state park where the reservoir was located, he pulled off onto the shoulder of the gravel road. “Listen to me,” he said, moving his seat belt aside so he could face her. “I don't give a damn about your mood. Happy, sad, pissy for no reason. It happens and I'll take them all. We're friends, Katie. You've seen me at my worst. The more I think about it, I've never seen you anything but kind, generous and ready to please whoever you're with. I can take one afternoon of a bad mood without turning tail. Give me a little credit.”

She looked at him as if she wanted to argue, then shocked him when she asked, “Do you think you would have been happy married to Tori?”

He felt his mouth drop open, clamped it shut again. “Where the hell did that question come from?”

“It's weird seeing her back in town for an extended period of time. It makes me wonder—”

“Don't.” Noah lifted his hand to cut her off. “I'm not interested in reuniting with my old girlfriend, if that's what you want to know.”

She shook her head. “That's not it. But if things had gone differently that summer, you'd have asked her to marry you.”

“I was a different person back then. Young and in so much pain.” He pressed his head against the seat back, looked out the front window to the endless blue sky above the treetops. “I had no business thinking of spending my life with anyone. In the end, Tori and I chose very different directions for our lives. Who knows if that would have made a marriage too difficult?”

“Maybe it was good that you broke up? I mean, in the long run?”

He let out a bark of laughter, surprised at the bitterness he felt after all these years. “I sure as hell can't say I'm glad things happened the way they did. But I don't regret not having Tori as my wife.”

Memories of the pain of that summer, the sting of her betrayal when he was already so low flooded through him. The thought that people knew about what she was doing, and no one had the guts to actually talk to him about it. A stupid, cowardly note left under his windshield wiper.

As his body tensed, he felt Katie's fingers slide up his arm. “Thank you for answering the question. I know you don't like to talk about that part of your past.”

“Did it help you?” He inclined his head so he could look at her, watched her bite down on her bottom lip as she thought about her answer.

“Yes,” she said after a moment. “It did.”

He grabbed her hand, kissed the inside of her palm then pulled back onto the road again. “Then it was worth it.” He squeezed her fingers before placing her hand back in her lap. “And bad mood or not, we're doing this. You have nothing to be afraid of with me, Katie.”

Her chest rose and fell as she stared at him. “You have no idea, Noah.”

“Katie.”

“We're going to do this. I'm going to do this.” The way she looked at him, her brown eyes soft and luminous in the bright daylight, made his breath catch.

She must be talking about swimming, but he thought—and hoped—her words might have more meaning.

Best not to push her too far too fast. So he nodded and finished the drive to the reservoir.

* * *

Who would have guessed the hardest part of going swimming with Noah would be stripping down to her bathing suit in front of him?

“Turn around.” They'd launched the small boat he'd borrowed into the water and now it was tethered to the small dock down the hill from the state park's gravel parking lot. Katie stood next to the back of the truck, clutching a beach towel to her chest.

“I've seen you naked, Katie.” Noah grinned at her, looking every bit the modern-day rake she knew him to be. “I think I can handle a bikini.”

“I did
not
wear a bikini. And it was dark that night at my house. Broad daylight is different.” She reached for the wet suit he held in his hand. “Give that to me and turn around. I don't need you watching while I encase myself like a sausage.”

“The water's not bad today,” he said with a laugh, holding out his arms wide. “You won't need that.”

“Easy for you to say.” Noah wore a pair of low-slung board shorts, Keen sandals and a T-shirt with the Colorado state flag on the front. He looked like a high-mountain surf bum. Cold air and water had never bothered him, and his work for the Forest Service only seemed to make him more impervious to the elements.

He frowned as he studied her. “You're already shivering. It must be close to ninety degrees today. What's going on?”

“Nerves.” She squeezed the edges of the towel tighter. “My teeth are chattering.”

Noah took a step closer to her, placing his palms over the tops of her arms, his skin warm against hers. “You don't have to do this. If Matt or any other guy cares that you don't like boating or swimming, they're not worth it. This is who you are.”

She shook her head. “It's not who I
want
to be. It probably seems like nothing because you aren't afraid of anything. But I'm sick of being scared and living life on the sidelines.”

He bent until they were at eye level and flipped his sunglasses off his head, his brilliant blue eyes intense. “There are plenty of things I'm afraid of, and you don't live life on the sidelines. Not being the adrenaline junkies your parents are doesn't make you less of a person, Katie-bug. You have friends who care about you, a thriving business, and you're an important part of this community.”

“Because I have no life so I'm always available,” she muttered, although she had to admit his words soothed her a bit.

“Will boating on the Fourth of July give you a life?”

“The start of one, maybe.” She shook her head. “Matt knew my parents out in California—that's where he went to college and he trained with my dad for an Ironman a few years ago.”

“I thought Logan and Olivia introduced you.”

“They did. My parents told Matt we wouldn't have much in common since I'm such a homebody.” She tried to make her voice light. “My own parents think I'm a homebody.”

Noah's eyes narrowed. “Your parents are wrong.”

“I'd like to prove to myself that I'm more than who they think I am.”

He placed a soft kiss on the top of her head. “I'll wait for you down by the boat. We're going swimming today.”

As he turned away, Katie placed the towel on top of his truck and squeezed into the wet suit. The thick black material covered the entire upper half of her body but cut off at midthigh. Zipping it up, Katie glanced at her reflection in the passenger-side window then groaned. She looked like a cross between a rubber inner tube and a baby seal. The wet suit fit like a second skin, and while it was more coverage than her bathing suit, it still showed more of her figure than she was used to.

It was good she was doing this with Noah before she went boating with Matt and his friends. She could boost her confidence not only in the water but out of it. She made her way down to the dock and forced herself to lower the towel to her side as Noah looked up. The wet suit might be tight, but it was basically modest. She had nothing to be embarrassed about in front of him.

Nothing at all, she realized as his eyes widened in appreciation at her approach. “Damn,” he said when she hopped onto the dock. “I've never seen anyone make a wet suit look sexy.”

She waved away his compliment, but butterflies zipped across her belly at his words.

“Seriously, Katie.” He helped her step into the boat. “Sexy. As. Hell.”

“Stop.” She placed the tips of her fingers in his and jumped onto one of the captain's chairs near the front then down onto the floor. Noah gave her a tug, and she landed against his chest as his arms came around her. “Just friends, Noah.”

His smile was teasing. “There are many types of friends.”

“We're the type who don't call each other sexy,” she answered but didn't pull away.

He placed his mouth against her ear. “If you say so.” His breath tickled the sensitive skin. “Still nervous?”

She heard the smile in his voice and moved away, lowering herself into one of the leather chairs. “I'm in a boat,” she whispered. “On a lake.”

“A reservoir, to be specific.”

“I'm going swimming, and you're trying to distract me so I won't be so scared.”

He tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. “Is it working?”

“I'm not cold. That's a start.”

He took the seat behind the steering wheel and reached past her to open the glove compartment. He took out a faded baseball cap. “Put this on and tighten it.”

“Won't it blow off?”

It was one of his favorites and it felt strangely intimate to adjust it on her head.

“Should be fine and it'll keep your hair from tangling in the wind.”

“You have a lot of experience with the long-hair issue on the water?”

Without answering, he leaned over the side of the boat to unfasten the rope looped on one of the dock's pillars. A minute later he'd motored them away from the shore and toward the mountains rising up on the far side of the water. The reservoir was calm, almost placid, and they passed only a couple of smaller fishing boats with old men casting from the sides. Over the holiday weekend, the state park would be crowded with tents and RVs in the campground on the high ridge. Over a dozen boats would dot the water, with people tubing, water-skiing and wakeboarding along the waves.

Colorado might be a landlocked state, but enough outdoor enthusiasts lived in and near the mountains to make the best of the sprinkling of man-made lakes and reservoirs throughout the high country. As popular as these areas were during the summer, Katie had managed to avoid going out on the water since she'd had her bad experience as a girl. To call it a near drowning might be exaggerating, but it had felt that way to her.

Her fear of open water was irrational, but until now she'd had no reason to confront it. She concentrated on breathing as the boat sped across the water.

Noah's hand landed on hers a moment later, and he tried to pry her fingers loose from the seat. “You're safe,” he called over the hum of the motor.

She shrugged out of his grasp. “You should keep both hands on the steering wheel,” she yelled back. “And eyes on the road. I mean the water.”

He laughed, his voice carrying over the noise.

She recited the ingredients for favorite recipes in her head, focusing on the familiar to distract her from how far away the dock was now. She knew Hidden Canyon Reservoir was nearly seven miles long, making it one of the larger bodies of water in the state. It wasn't as wide as Lake Dillon in nearby Summit County, a fact that comforted her a bit. She could see from edge to edge, and she watched cars drive along the state highway that bordered the park, counting the seconds between them as she tried not to hyperventilate.

After what seemed like an eternity, Noah slowed the boat and she could hear waves slapping against the aluminum side. Aluminum. Ugh. She was basically floating in a soda-pop can. The thought did not reassure her.

“We're in the middle,” she said, her breath hitching. “How deep is it here?”

Noah checked the depth finder mounted near the boat's dashboard. “About eighty-five feet.”

Katie swallowed.

“Water temperature is seventy-two degrees. That's like a hot tub for this time of year.”

“What are those things?” She pointed to the black dots moving across the square screen.

“Fish. It tells you their depth so you know how to set the down riggers. Josh mainly uses the boat to take groups of guests fishing.” He glanced at her then grinned. “The big schools of trout stick to the ten-to twelve-foot range. They won't be nibbling your toes, if that has you worried.”

Katie dug her fingernails deeper into the seat cushion. “Everything has me worried.” She straightened her shoulders and stood. “If I'm going to do this...” She began to step onto the side of the boat.