Frontier Inferno (3 page)

“Yep, specialty of the house.” Chris dug into his and forked a big bite into his mouth. She followed it with her eyes, watching the tip of his tongue dart out to clear a dab of purple juice from his full lower lip.
Oh, God
. Swallowing, he said, “There must be fifty kinds of wild berries in the area, and some of the local homesteaders sell them to the hotel in season. They freeze ’em and make pie all year. Cobblers, too. Pancakes, jam….”

The first bite melted in her mouth, the crust perfect, the filling so divine, it almost distracted her from ogling Chris while he ate his. She moaned. “I want to roll in this.”

He grinned, his teeth stained with juice. “I know what you mean.” But the heat in his eyes held another message and an image of rolling in berries, naked, with him filled her imagination. She ducked her head, irrationally sure he knew what she’d been thinking.

His fork clattered to the plate. “Come on, finish up. We have to go meet Kathryn and see about that job for you.”

***

The wind whistled off the water, and Heather shivered and pulled the hoodie tighter around her. Off in the distance, a speck grew larger, becoming a small airplane. Chris hadn’t said where Mrs. Castillo had been, perhaps shopping or visiting somewhere. The light aircraft landed on the open waters of the inlet, gliding in toward the pier where they stood. Two men fastened it to the dock then opened the forward door and another at the back. After loading luggage and boxes tied with cord, odd-shaped bundles and a cage containing squawking chickens onto a cart, they trundled it to land. A dozen or so people deplaned and Heather scanned the women, wondering which one was Kathryn, while Chris smiled and waved at the passengers, exchanging friendly banter. Finally, when the plane appeared empty, a tall, slender woman with a long red braid and wearing jeans and a brown bomber jacket as battered as Heather’s own appeared in the doorway and stepped onto the dock. The pilot?

“Chris, if you’re waiting for someone, I’m afraid you’re out of luck. Nobody else on board.” She slung a duffel over her shoulder. “Maybe tomorrow.”

“Kathryn Castillo, I’d like you to meet Heather. She’s looking for a job and she’s great with kids.”

Mrs. Castillo extended a hand and Heather shook it, surprised. The hotelier’s wife, a bush pilot? Her serious gaze encompassed Heather. “Trust Chris to find someone to help out. We were starting to think we’d never find the right person. Nick always says get two references for any position, at least. Can you offer a second?”

Great with kids? Even if she hadn’t been on the run, Heather’s abilities leaned more toward finding the best new garage band in the area than child care.

“I don’t know, I….”

Chris took Kathryn’s bag and waved the women ahead of him. “I know you’re anxious to see Madelyn. We can talk on the way to the Lodge. How was the flight?”

“Not bad, a little weather about a hundred miles north, some thunder and lightning, but no rain. We’re getting a lot of these storms early.” She took long strides up the hill and Heather double-timed to keep up. Kathryn looked back at her but didn’t slow her pace. “So, how long have you known Chris? I didn’t even realize he knew we were looking. Andie must have told him.”

Andie?

“I’m afraid I still don’t know what the job is.” Some sort of daycare for guests’ children in the hotel? And was the pilot/manager’s wife also in charge of the nursery? And how could she find another person to vouch for her? The hardware store man seemed an unlikely choice.

Kathryn stopped and Heather stumbled to a halt to avoid bumping into her. “Chris? You brought me a nanny, but didn’t even tell her she’s a nanny?” She bit her lip and toyed with the end of her reddish braid. “I take it you have no experience then, Heather?”

Her heart sank. If ever there were a job she had zero qualifications for, nanny filled the bill. “A…a nanny?” They started up again in silence while she absorbed the knowledge she would have to go on or go back. Nobody in their right mind would hire her to take care of children.

Billy appeared on the steps. “Kathryn!” He launched himself into her arms. “Did you meet my new friend? She’s very nice and she likes kids.” A tall, olive-skinned man with black hair and piercing eyes followed him out, a baby in his arms.

The woman laughed and set the boy on his feet with a swat on his behind. “She is, is she? I couldn’t ask for a better second reference.” Mounting the porch, Kathryn took the baby, and the fellow—her husband, presumably—and enfolded them both in a warm embrace. “My family.”

“Welcome home, my dear.” They stepped apart and the man shook Chris’s hand. “Good to see you. Billy was helping me entertain our Princess Madelyn while we waited for her mom to land.” He rested his arm over Kathryn’s shoulder and faced Heather. “And who have we here? A new friend, Chris? Someone from home?”

Kathryn drew her closer and pushed Madelyn into her arms. “Our new nanny. Heather, meet my husband, Nick Castillo, the manager here and, until this moment, fill-in nanny whenever I’m away.”

He grinned, a warm smile dancing in his eyes. “To be fair, the entire staff has filled the position. I can’t tell you how relieved I am to have someone who knows what they’re doing take over. And look, she likes you.”

Heather held the cooing baby, terrified. What if she dropped her? Or forgot to feed her or….

Kathryn patted the little girl’s cheek. “You do like your new friend, don’t you, Maddie? Billy found you the perfect nanny.”

Heather silently thanked him, but tightened her grip and Madelyn squeaked.
Dang, already doing it wrong
. She’d read somewhere you should position a baby like a football…or was that for nursing? Did it work the same way for a bottle? How old was the little red-and-gold-haired girl?

She was so in over her head.

“Well, Billy, it’s time we hit the road.” Chris rested a hand on her shoulder and spoke to her in a low tone. “You’re all set, now.” A moment later, the two of them climbed into the old, dusty truck and Billy waved from the window as they moved toward the back of the property and the dark green trees lining the road closed around them. She’d known them a few hours, but watching them leave felt as if she’d lost her best friends.

In the near distance, thunder rumbled and a jagged bolt of lightning split the sky. Kathryn shivered. “Glad I made it in before that hit. A big electrical storm is bad news for a small plane.”

Nanny Heather
. Not a title she’d ever anticipated having, but, to her surprise, one she liked. Nick and Kathryn were hands-on parents, unlike her own mother, who’d passed her off to paid help as soon as possible. So her duties were far from onerous and left her plenty of time to explore the hotel, its grounds, and to get to know the staff.

And Princess Madelyn, or Maddie, as almost everyone called the baby, adored Heather second only to her mommy and daddy, raising her hands and crowing whenever she entered a room. Her ego soared at the affection, but her heart ached at the thought she couldn’t stay long. So far, the pile of forms Kathryn wanted her to fill out lay untouched on the dresser in her small, cozy suite down the hall from the manager’s quarters. She still hadn’t even told them her last name. At some point, they were going to learn the truth, and all hell would break loose. It would be better to be on her way by then.

Besides, though she looked for them every day, Billy and his hunky dad never came to visit. Foolish of her to hope for more than a casual friendship, but the erotic dreams disturbing her sleep each night kept the focus on her intense attraction toward the firefighter whose shirtless likeness adorned the Lodge kitchen wall. When she’d asked about the sexy calendar, Andie, the chef, told her Chris had posed for it after a woman photographer approached him at the Fourth of July picnic in the gardens the previous summer. He’d demurred until she explained the charity’s family fund helped so many wives and dependents of soldiers killed in action.

His good heart overcame his embarrassment and he’d finally posed for it and told no one. But she’d sent a box of the calendars to the Lodge and now everyone in town knew. Andie said he took a good bit of teasing, but she thought it was mostly because few of the locals could match his physique.

Heather just liked looking at him. What an incredible body. She wondered whether anyone would mind if she took the page with her when she left.

Andie, in particular, made her welcome. With so few guests in residence, she was trying out some new recipes for the summer menu. And Maddie’s parents seemed to need Heather to take the little one only a few hours a day at most. So, while the baby napped in her stroller or played on a quilt in her father’s office, the part-time nanny wrapped a huge apron over her black jeans and rock band T-shirts and dug her hands into berry tarts and complicated breads she’d only expected to find in a European resort, not the back of beyond. Of course, it was a Castillo resort. Even in the back of beyond, the guests would receive the best.

To add even more interest to her culinary experience, she discovered Andie lived with Paul and Rex…two men! What must that be like? In the bedroom or the kitchen, complications would abound. But the woman glowed with happiness whenever Rex, a forest ranger, or Paul, a firefighter, stopped by to snitch a pastry or a kiss. Okay…envy.

And Paul worked with Chris. Heather gobbled up every mention of his name in conversations with the chef.

Chris liked Andie’s cooking—brought his son to Andie’s home a couple of nights a week for dinner.

He insisted on driving that old truck that Rex thought belonged on a scrap heap.

He asked how Heather was settling in. Whether she liked her job? If she planned to stay.

Why didn’t he just ask her himself?

Each detail made her crave more. Want to see him. But she stopped short of asking for his phone number. Because his questions weren’t personal enough to suit her. Just the sorts of things anyone might ask about a stranger in town. And she wasn’t staying long. Why start something, even if he did return her interest, that she couldn’t finish?

Why did that make her feel so let down? They’d only spent a few hours together.

The days passed quickly, and soon she’d been employed a week. Kathryn, wearing jeans and a pretty, light blue sweater that complemented the red-gold hair spilling over her shoulders, tracked Heather down in the kitchen, where she was up to her elbows in bread dough. Kathryn scooped a chortling Maddie from her baby seat on the counter. Outside, another thunderstorm growled and flashed, but the thick log walls gave her a greater sense of security than Heather had ever felt at home.

“Hi there. I heard you were spending time with Andie. I didn’t realize you were also a chef.”

She choked. “I’m anything but. In fact, until I arrived here, I don’t think I’d cooked anything more for myself than maybe ramen or toast.”

Yet, while she loved caring for Maddie, she’d never found a pastime she liked doing more than working in the kitchen. Could she learn enough in her short tenure at Castle Lodge to get a job cooking, or maybe baking, somewhere? She wouldn’t have Andie’s gift or training, but maybe some
back-of-beyond
restaurant even deeper in the Last Frontier might want a short-order cook who made great turnovers. And eggs. Under Andie’s tutelage, she’d learned to make a perfect egg every way. She wiped her hands and grabbed a hot pad.

A crinkle appeared between her boss’s straight gold brows. “You must have been dying of malnutrition. Didn’t your mother teach you to cook when you were growing up?”

And cut into her day? Cooking?
  That’s what staff had been for. They’d had as many on hand as she’d seen here in the Lodge’s off season. “Umm, no. She didn’t…she isn’t a very good cook.” A thinly disguised lie. Mother wasn’t any kind of cook. Opening the oven, Heather drew out a golden frittata.

“Oh, Andie’s specialty. One of the staff’s favorite lunches. You’re in for a treat.”

The chef shook her head. “I didn’t make that. Your new nanny did.”

“I just learned. Would you like a taste?” Heather breathed in the scents of onions and peppers, admired flecks of sun-dried tomatoes peppering the top. Then she became aware of the others’ focus on her and her cheeks heated. “Oh, if you think I’m neglecting Maddie…?”

Kathryn nuzzled the girl’s tummy. “Do you feel neglected, my darling?” Baby giggles made all of them smile. “She’s sweet-smelling and fed and happy. That’s about all she, or I, would hope for.”

“There’s so little for me to do, and I thought, that is, if you didn’t mind, I could help out here, too.”

Kathryn shook her head. “If you want to hang out with Andie, cool, but you earn your keep by being there whenever I need someone to take care of Maddie. You have no idea how that eases my mind. Especially when I’m flying off for a day or two. Nick is the best dad ever, but he does have a hotel to run.”

Heather cringed at a loud clap of thunder. Lightning lit the room brighter for an instant and the hair on her arms stood on end. She waited for the next rumble to follow. Funny she’d imagined snow in Alaska, but not the kind of storms that had terrified her since childhood.

Shrugging off her uneasiness, she placed a towel over the bread dough, and set it aside while Andie grabbed a stack of plates from the sideboard. “Join us for lunch?”

“Save me some, if you can,” Kathryn said. “But I just came in for the baby. And to let you know there are a couple of handsome firefighters headed this way. They look hungry.” She tucked Madelyn back in her seat and carried her out, tossing over her shoulder, “Maybe for more than food. You’re free for the rest of the day. Maddie and I are going to hang out. I have to fly tomorrow.”

No sooner had she disappeared than the door swung inward again to admit Paul and…Chris. The two men laughed and jostled one another into the kitchen. “Andie, we’re starved. Oh, eggs, great!”

Paul wrapped his arms around Andie and gave her a big kiss. Heather tried not to wish for the same treatment from the other man.