Once Burned (9 page)

“How ‘bout I make it up to you, Evie, by getting the drinks myself. Lindsay, what can I get you?”

“Do you have any of that Belgian White beer you had me try the other day?”

“You mean the Harvest Moon Beltian White? Sure do. I’ll bring you one.”

“You’re a true gentleman, Henry,” Evie remarked. “Isn’t he, Linds?”

She only nodded and eyed her friend.

“Well, my mama did try to raise me right.”

Lindsay stood so Henry could get up, then sat in the chaise lounge and watched him walk up to the back deck of his house. She kept watching until he disappeared inside.

“Babe, would you mind fetching some more firewood?” Evie asked her husband. “We’re getting low.”

“Sure thing, sweets.”

Not a very subtle orchestration, Evie.
Glowering at her companion, Lindsay sighed. “Get whatever you feel you need to say out so I can go back to enjoying my evening.”

In true Evie fashion, she didn’t miss a beat. “Do you honestly think you can just walk away from him without looking back like none of this happened?”

“Yes, I do because that’s what has to happen. That was the deal.”

“Why, Linds? I’ve never seen you as comfortable with anyone as you are with him.”

“It’s all part of—”

“Part of the deal. So you’ve said. Repeatedly. But I know what I’m seeing.”

“You want to know why it’s so easy to be with Henry, Evie? It’s temporary. No strings attached, no fear of things going wrong, and no expectations beyond distraction. It’s freeing, and Henry is a very considerate companion.”

“Then why—”

“Give it a rest, Evie!” Lindsay snapped. “I don’t have time for a relationship, and I’m not looking for one, anyhow. And Henry’s
definitely
not ready for one. Neither of us needs any more complications.”

Evie pointed a finger at her. “I call BS. Everyone has baggage, Linds, but there’s something happening here, and I firmly believe that Henry may be the man to help you unpack.”

“I thought that about Logan, too, remember? I thought he wanted to be that man, but he had no plans to be and ended up tossing another suitcase on top of my gargantuan pile of baggage.”

“Henry is a far better man than Logan ever dreamed of being. Trust me, Lindsay. I may not know him as well as I’ve come to know the rest of his family, but they’re all good people. Every single one of them.”

“Maybe so, but he’s as screwed up right now as I am. You don’t have kids yet, but when you do, you might understand how badly Melanie hurt him by making him believe Dylan was his son.”

“What does that have—”

“Leaver her alone, Evie,” Skye said quietly.

“But she’s—”

“Evie. Let it go.”

Skye offered Lindsay a sympathetic smile and a roll of her eyes as their friend snapped her mouth shut and folded her arms tightly across her chest.

“Do you think I’m wrong, Skye?” Lindsay asked.

“I don’t know, but Evie may be right about you and Henry. There’s too much there to be nothing more than an act. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you this happy or this relaxed—maybe not
right
now—and that has to mean something.”

Lindsay growled at the smug gleam that ignited Evie’s eyes. They waited silently for Skye to continue.

“I’m not saying you should jump into a serious relationship with him… but don’t write him off, either.”

Lindsay drew her knees up to her chest and draped her arms around with her chin resting on them. “I have to.”

“Why?”

She didn’t have an answer for that. A thousand reasons pranced tauntingly through her mind—he was too fresh from his break up with Mel, there was too much distance between her home and his, she wasn’t girlfriend material…. On and on the excuses paraded, but they were all weak. Some were absurd. The only one that held any weight was Noah. He had gotten so attached to Logan, and it had hurt him deeply when Logan left them. She vowed to never put him through that again, but even protecting her son didn’t seem like a strong enough reason to shut the door on Henry. She wanted his friendship, and instinctively, she believed he would never do to Noah what Logan had done or what his father continued to do. A little voice in the back of her mind reminded her that Henry had up and walked out of Dylan’s life.

Dylan’s not his son
, she argued.
And Mel used him. He was right to leave.

Noah wasn’t his son, either.

Abruptly, Lindsay pushed to her feet just as Vince returned with a wheelbarrow full of firewood. Seeking solicitude, she headed around to the front steps of Henry’s house and sat with her elbows braced on her thighs and her hands folded loosely in front of her. Tipping her head back, she tried desperately to quell the swarm of conflicting emotions. The sunset had faded into a dim reminder of the vibrant colors, and a single star twinkled in a darkening sky.

It was stupid that she wanted to be with Henry right now since he was at the center of her confusion, but when she heard footsteps to her left and looked up to see him striding toward her with two beers in his hand, her heart leapt in relief.

“Hi,” he greeted gently.

“Hi.”

“Mind if I join you?”

“Please do.”

He sat beside her on the steps and took his Leatherman out of its case on his belt, then used the blade to pop the tops on the beers. They sipped in silence for several minutes, and Lindsay was content to enjoy his quiet, unassuming company. Evie was right about one thing. Henry had a way of soothing her that even her best friends couldn’t. She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh.

“Skye said Evie went after you pretty good about us,” her companion murmured, “so I figured I’d better come talk to you.”

“I love her dearly, but sometimes, she doesn’t know when to stop.”

“I’m sure she only wants you to be happy.”

Lindsay nodded. Inexplicably, tears burned her eyes, and she swore under her breath. Henry must have noticed because he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. Pinching her eyes closed to keep the tears locked behind her lids, she leaned into him, resting her head on his shoulder and cursing her trembling chin. When he set his beer down and tucked his other arm around her, a single tear escaped and slid hotly down her cheek.

She lost track of time, but when she’d regained some control over herself, sunset had vanished into a vivid blue-green twilight. The clouds that had burned so brightly had drifted off to the northeast, leaving the heavens clear and glittering.

“I’m afraid,” she said at last. “That’s why I have to let this thing we have go even though I don’t want to.”

“Why are you afraid?”

“My son. I’ve made mistakes with men in the past that hurt him, and I can’t let that happen again.”

“I’d never hurt Noah, Lindsay.” He let out a long breath. “That may be hard to believe since I just left a little boy only a month ago.”

That he’d expressed the exact concern that had bounced into her head before she’d left the fire was oddly reassuring.

“I had to do it, though. I knew I’d never be able to make it work with Mel,” he continued, “and it was best to leave when he’s too young to remember me when he gets older. It’s still killing me to leave him at all, but he’s not my son, and his real father deserves to know him.”

“Do you think Mel wouldn’t bother to find him if you’d stayed?”

“I
know
she wouldn’t.”

“I’m sorry, Henry.”

“Me, too. Feeling better?”

“Yes… and no. I’m calmer, if that’s what you mean, but the problem remains.”

“What problem is that?”

“I don’t want what you make me feel to end. I’m getting attached to you, Henry, and I don’t even feel guilty about it. You’re a good man.

He didn’t respond to the compliment and didn’t try to allay her concerns. He only hugged her tighter, and right then, that was exactly what she needed.

“I don’t know if I’ve said it yet, but it means a lot to me that you would take the time to get to know me so you wouldn’t use me as an outlet for your pain over what Mel did to you. You don’t still feel that need do you?”

“No, I don’t. And that is entirely your doing.” He shifted momentarily to kiss the top of her head and tuck a wayward strand of her hair behind her ear. “You’re a remarkable woman, Lindsay—honest, adventurous, beautiful—and I should have known from the start that I didn’t have a chance of walking away from this without becoming attached to you, too. I don’t want to, but we can call off the rest of the deal if that’s what you need. Take sex tomorrow night off the table and go to Luke’s game as friends only.”

Without hesitation, she shook her head. “No, I don’t want to take sex off the table. I want that memory of you, too.”

“All right.” He hesitated a moment. “Are you ready to go back to the fire?”

“I think I am. Thank you.”

Hand in hand, they returned to their friends and curled up together again on the chaise lounge. To her relief, Evie didn’t resume her drilling about Henry, and they were able to spend the rest of their evening together in laughter.

“THAT LAST PLAY of the game, what was your left tackle doing, Luke? He left a gaping hole on your blindside.” Lindsay recalled with marvelous clarity how she’d yelled almost that exact question to Henry over the capacity crowd and how her heart had pounded as one of the defensive linemen barreled through the gap left by the Bobcats’ distracted left tackle and reached for their unguarded quarterback. Luke had noticed him just in time to bring the ball back close to his body and lunged forward just as the lineman reached to snag him around the waist. With impressive power and agility, Luke had broken the tackle and sprinted down the field to turn what could easily have been the only sack of the game into a touchdown. Though she’d seen ample evidence of his quick thinking and athletic ability throughout the game, Lindsay was still stunned by the play. She’d screamed wildly as the refs threw their hands in the air to confirm the successful extra point, and seconds later, the horn had sounded the end of the game. The Bobcats had won with a score of thirty-five to seventeen and brought Lindsay’s fantastic adventures in Montana to a close on a high note.

Sitting a couple chairs down and across the table from her at the front of the Pekin Noodle Parlor in Butte, Luke shrugged. “It was his first game, too.”

“Obviously. That was a sloppy mistake, but luckily, the rookie quarterback is amazingly quick on his feet. Quite an impressive debut, Luke,” Lindsay remarked.

“You never worried about your blindside when Shane was your left tackle,” Luke’s cousin and best friend Becky muttered.

“No, I didn’t.”

Something in Luke’s tone—a thread of bitterness or anger or perhaps anguish—made Lindsay sit back in surprise. She glanced questioningly at Henry.

“Long story,” was all he said. “And not a happy one.”

“So not the stuff for a fun evening like tonight,” she surmised.

He nodded. “Are you enjoying yourself?”

“Immensely, but I would have thought that was obvious.”

“It is,” he replied with a grin. “But I like hearing you say it. You are a fascinating woman. I know I’ve said it before, but you are. You really do know your football.”

Lindsay ducked her head sheepishly. “Sorry if Skye and I have hogged the conversation.”

“And Becky.” Henry inclined his head to the girl, whom Lindsay guessed was a couple years younger than Luke. “Like I said, it’s fascinating to watch. It’s also pretty funny that the three people most involved in the discussion of the game are women.”

“I warned you.”

In response, Henry dove in for a quick kiss while no one was looking. “Am I complaining?”

His voice was a low rumble, almost a purr, that set her pulse to pounding in anticipation of what they had planned for later in the evening. Then his eyes narrowed and searched her face with a flicker of concern.

“Are you feeling better than you were last night?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what my deal was yesterday other than I don’t want to leave. And then Evie started in on me, reminding me that I have to. The game today really helped. It was a great game, and with so many people from Northstar there to support Luke…. I needed that. All of it.”

“It’s nice to know that there are still places in this world where people genuinely care about each other and will do anything for each other, isn’t it? Gives us hope that life won’t always be so hard or so lonely.”

“That’s exactly it.” She tilted her head, frowning contemplatively. “Life
has
been lonely and it started even before Evie moved here and before Skye’s photography business started gaining steam. All I do anymore is take care of Noah and work and worry.”

When Henry reached a hand out and slid his fingertips along her jaw with that sympathetic shadow in his blue eyes, she rested her cheek against his palm, closing her eyes briefly to focus on the heat of his skin against hers.

Cheers rose from their table, and Lindsay opened her eyes to see everyone’s gaze turned toward the TV in the corner of the room. It took her a moment to realize it was a brief snippet of Luke’s post-game interview that had captured their focus. The commotion drew the attention of several other diners, who peeked out of the enclosed booths that lined the aisle leading to the kitchen at the back of the long, narrow restaurant. One man, noticing that the young man on the screen was seated at the big table in the front of the room, joined them to congratulate Luke on his well-played game. At this point, Aaron and Skye decided to call it a night.

While Aaron and then Henry headed to the back of the restaurant to pay their checks, Lindsay stood to embrace her best friend.

“Travel safe tomorrow,” Skye whispered.

“See you when you get back to Washington.” Lindsay tilted her head in Aaron’s direction and winked. “That is,
if
you make it back.”

“Oh, please,” Skye said with a roll of her eyes that did little to obscure how her pupils dilated at the reference to her date. “One Evie in our trio is enough.”

“Right you are, but have some fun with Aaron while you’re here, all right? I can already see the good he’s been for you.”

Skye glanced toward Aaron, who was making his way back to the table. “Yeah, he has.”

“Just two more days until Darren officially becomes your ex-husband.” Lindsay hugged her friend again. “It’s going to be so lonely in Washington without you, but if you come back more at peace, it’ll be well worth it.”

“I’ll miss you, too. All the more because you won’t be here to keep Evie’s romantic imagination in check.”

“She’ll probably start planning your wedding to Aaron the moment she and Vince get back from their honeymoon,” Lindsay said with a laugh. “She can be a pest, but that’s why we love her.”

“Yes, it is.”

Aaron returned, and he and Skye bid their final goodnights to their party, who responded as one with such jubilance that Lindsay marveled at how readily the Conners and O’Neils had folded both friends from Washington into their group despite knowing them such a short time. After six weeks with them and Aaron, Skye was certain to come home a mellower, happier version of herself even if this spark between her and Aaron turned out to be nothing more than a passing attraction. Lindsay immediately quelled the twinge of envy but couldn’t stop herself from wondering what good a month and a half in Northstar would do for
her
state of mind.

You can’t think like that,
she scolded herself.
That isn’t your life, and thinking about what can’t be will only make you miserable.

“Shall we head out?” Henry asked beside her, startling her.

Not trusting her voice, she only nodded.

When Henry announced their imminent departure, everyone rose and hugged her in turn, each wishing her safe travels, thanking her for coming to the game and dinner, and expressing hope that she would come back soon. Even though she knew it wasn’t likely to happen, she promised she would. Henry offered his arm, and she slipped her hand around his elbow, and together, they followed his twin and Skye out the door and down the long flight of stairs to the street below.

Lindsay stared out the window of Henry’s truck at the brick buildings that rose proudly over the hill that was Uptown Butte, and scattered throughout the historic district, the city’s trademark black gallus frames stood as testaments to Butte’s hard rock mining history. Henry drove the five miles west toward Rocker, where Lindsay would be spending the night in a hotel just off the Interstate. The music was turned down so low that she couldn’t make out what song was playing on the radio, and she was acutely aware of their lack of conversation.

“You’re awfully quiet,” Henry remarked as he pulled into the parking lot of the hotel and shut his truck off. “You’re not having second thoughts about this, are you?”

“Second thoughts about what? Sleeping together or heading home tomorrow and trying to pretend like none of this happened?”

“The first thing,” he replied, “because there’s not much we can do about the second.”

“No, no second thoughts. None at all about sleeping with you. In fact, how I feel about
that
is entirely unclouded.” She glanced at him. “What about you? Any reservations?”

“As long as you don’t have any… not one.”

“Then why are we still sitting in your truck?”

He turned as fully toward her as he could in the confines of his seat and seatbelt, frowning faintly. For what felt like at least a full minute but was probably less than ten seconds, he said nothing. Then, in a voice that was disarmingly tender, he gestured to the hotel and said, “Forgive me for saying this, but after our adventures this week, this feels… cheap. Are you sure you want to spend your last night in Montana in a hotel?”

“I don’t exactly have a choice, do I? Vince and Evie are flying out first thing in the morning, and while I’m sure they’d let me stay at their house, I have no one to drive me to the airport tomorrow.”

“Sure you do. And you have somewhere else to stay, too—with me. We’re planning on spending the night together, anyhow, and your flight doesn’t leave until four. That gives us plenty of time to sleep in, enjoy a lazy Sunday breakfast, and maybe even a sneak in a quick lunch with my family if you’re not opposed before we have to head back to Butte.”

“When you put it that way….” Lindsay grinned. “Think the hotel will let me cancel my reservation without charging me an arm and a leg?”

“They probably won’t charge you anything. The off season has started.”

Sure enough, it was still early enough and the evening—and late enough in the season—that she was able to cancel her room without paying a dime, and within minutes, she and Henry were back in his truck and on their way to Northstar.

Unlike the short ride between the restaurant and the hotel, they talked the length of the two-hour drive back to Henry’s house. They talked about his plans for the near future—he was going to help out on the ranch until he decided what to do with himself—and about Noah’s favorite activities and what Henry wanted to show Lindsay and her son on her next trip to Northstar, whenever that might be. Lindsay figured he’d probably find himself a wife or at least a girlfriend who wouldn’t appreciate him playing tour guide to a woman he’d slept with long before she made it back here, but she kept the comment to herself. He was trying to steer the conversation away from serious topics, and she appreciated his effort. She wouldn’t ruin it with speculations about the lucky woman who would someday get to call this charming, considerate man hers.

While they talked, Lindsay enjoyed the scenery and how the evening sun painted the grassy hills on either side of the Interstate and tipped the pines and first that blanketed the foothills of the surrounding mountain ranges with sharp golden light. The shadows lengthened as they rolled southward until the sun dropped behind the western mountains, casting the land in darkness while the sky above burned. By the time Henry parked in front of his house, the sky had filled with stars.

He told her to wait in the truck a moment while he hauled her two suitcases up to the deck and opened the front door. When he returned to open her door of the truck, she understood why.
Ever the gentleman, aren’t you, Mr. Hammond?

Her heart hummed with anticipation as she slipped her and into his and slid out of her seat.

Lindsay had been in his house before but only briefly, and while she had appreciated the simple, open layout, she hadn’t paid as much attention to the details as she did now. It was a distinctly masculine space, and she couldn’t discern anywhere that Mel might’ve had an influence. Artifacts of ranch life—an old wagon wheel, horseshoes, weathered barn wood, and various other odds and ends likely dating back to the Lazy H Ranch’s beginnings—were scattered through out the house not with a decorator’s artful hand but by a collector’s loving eye. Hunter green and rich, dark blue accents added splashes of cooler color to the earthy tones of the artifacts and golden tones of the walls paneled with tongue-and-grove slats of knotty pine. The furniture—a plush, stone-colored microfiber couch, log coffee and end tables, and a log dining room set—was all newer. If she had to guess, she’d say the log pieces were all locally handcrafted, and if Henry hadn’t built them himself, he knew their crafter personally.

No television, she noted. She liked that. With all there was to see and do here, who needed TV? A tall, narrow bookshelf stood in the back corner and was filled with worn paperbacks and a few hardcover novels, painting an interesting picture of Henry wiling away cold winter nights with a good book.
Nothing sexier than a man who likes to read,
she mused.

The woodstove in the front corner of the living room was cold and dark, and it was too warm to light a fire, but Lindsay smiled as she imagined curling up on the couch with Henry to watch merry flames dance behind the glass. It was a Rocky Mountain fantasy for sure.

Inevitably, she was drawn to the small but well-appointed kitchen. Like the furniture, the appliances were all newer, brushed stainless steel, and the counter tops were solid granite.
Granite!
More golden pine added some warmth to the otherwise utilitarian coldness of the granite and steel. Despite the limited room, it was efficiently laid out with a snack bar separating it from the living room and adding more counter space. Oh, the meals she could cook in here. It put her tiny kitchen back home to shame.

“Considering your previously mentioned enjoyment of cooking, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s the kitchen that has stolen your attention,” Henry remarked. “Now that I think about it, I’m kicking myself for thinking I had to treat you since it was your vacation because I imagine you’re one hell of a cook.”

“I can make a decent meal without burning anything,” she replied coyly.

She spotted a tri-folded letter and envelope resting on the snack bar and nosily stepped over to see what it was. In a tidy house with no other papers visible, it seemed to her that this one must be important enough to warrant being out in plain sight. Upon closer inspection, she decided it was in fact something official.