by Liz Isaacson
Finally, she stood and said, “Should we go downstairs? There’s a huge theater room down there.”
“Sure.” He collected their plates and took them back into the kitchen, placing them in the sink. “Lead on, Miss Everett.”
She gave him a sly smile and went first down the steps. He wasn’t sure where everyone else in the house had gotten to, but he didn’t see anyone in the basement either. There were comfortable couches, another, smaller, kitchen like the one in his summer cabin, and a hallway that led to more doors.
“Bedrooms down here too?” he asked.
“Four, I think,” she said, walking past the pool table. “Drinks in the fridge. Hot tub through those doors. Theater room here.” She stood in the doorway, framed by only blackness behind her.
Liam’s mind lingered a bit too long on the hot tub as he approached her. He took her hand and went in the room first to find a dozen leather recliners. “Nice,” he said. “My summer cabin could obviously use an upgrade.”
Rose scoffed. “Right. I’m sure it’s fabulous.”
“Our next date will be at my place, okay? I’ll give you the grand tour.”
“All right.” She exhaled. “Can you cook?”
“Oh, no. Cooking is off the table,” he said as his eyes adjusted to the dark. “I mean, I can open cans and stuff. Nothing really edible.” Nothing he’d make for his girlfriend.
“I don’t suppose you had a lot of ingredients or accommodations where you worked.”
“Not a lot, no.”
She picked up a stack of DVDs. “You pick.” She handed them to him and moved to the very back row, where a loveseat sat nestled in the corner. He watched her curl into the corner, tucking her legs under her skirt and looking at him.
Liam had apparently lost the ability to read, because he looked at the cases blankly. Finally, he just selected one and held it up.
“The player’s right there on the wall behind you,” she said, and Liam turned to put it in. He knew where he wanted to sit, and the electric current between him and Rose could’ve lit up New York City for hours.
He loosened his tie and sat on the other half of the loveseat as the screen brightened with the home menu of the movie. They seemed to move as one, perfecting a dance they hadn’t even practiced yet.
He lifted his arm, and she slid into his side, making him warm and thrilled at the same time. And now he was ready to watch the movie. He only hoped he could actually pay attention and not spend the next couple of hours entertaining his fantasies.
Chapter Nine
Rose’s heart didn’t seem to beat normally once while she was curled into Liam’s side. She knew deep down in her gut that it was much too early to kiss him. They’d only been out a couple of times, and he had walls between them she wanted removed before anything too terribly intimate—like kissing—could happen.
At the same time, she understood what it was like to have unpleasantries in the past and not want to talk about them. So she couldn’t really blame him for keeping his experiences with Doctors Without Borders all bottled up.
So she snuggled with him and watched the movie, laughing at the funny parts and sighing at the romantic ones. When it ended, she practically leapt out of his arms and to her feet. “Okay, I have a surprise.”
“Oh, boy,” he said with a smile. “I can’t wait to see what it is.”
“It involves chocolate, and it may or may not be the first time I’ve attempted this particular dessert.” Twice today, actually, and she didn’t want to tell him how the first pudding hadn’t even set up. She’d followed all of Celia’s directions and still the custard had been soup.
Nervousness trickled through her as they left the theater room and went back upstairs to the kitchen. “It’s chocolate.” She froze and turned back to him, that loose tie so sexy she wanted to throw herself into his arms and kiss him right now, consequences or not. “You do like chocolate, right?” she asked. “You’re not one of those crazy healthy doctors or anything, are you?”
He tipped his head back and laughed, the sound flowing over her and up to the rafters in wonderful waves. She smiled too and giggled.
“I like chocolate,” he said, still chuckling.
“Great. So I made this pie, and I hope it’ll be good.” She moved further into the kitchen and opened the fridge. She’d just finished topping it with whipped cream when he’d knocked on the front door of the lodge. She pulled it out and held it in both hands, gazing at it with wonder streaming through her.
She had not had a normal childhood. Nor a normal adulthood. She had not taken home economics, or learned to cook, or clean, or do hardly anything normal kids and then people did. While Lily and Vi had never hired help in their homes, Rose had.
Back in Nashville, she had a housekeeper and a chef, and plenty of money to pay them. Her mother did too, and she’d always reassured Rose that she wasn’t being shallow because she’d rather spend her time at the salon, or the gym, or the mall.
But holding that pie…Rose felt a sense of accomplishment she hadn’t known existed. Her double-platinum records did not mean as much as this pie.
Now, she just needed it to taste good. With slightly shaking hands, she set the pie on the counter and got out plates and forks. She wasn’t sure how to end this date, because Liam wouldn’t be leaving the house. Would they go upstairs together? Would he pause outside her door? Try to kiss her?
Rose’s heart could hardly stand the anticipation, and she felt completely out of her element. That was new for her. She’d always been completely in control of her feelings and the relationships she had.
She dictated how fast or slow they went. She’d asked men out before when they’d dragged their feet. She’d taken charge of dates when they started to go badly.
But with Liam…well, Liam was different.
“Are you going to cut it?” he asked, and her eyes flew to his. He watched her with interest, and she wondered how long she’d been standing there.
“Yes.” Heat filled her whole body, and her fingers fumbled in the utensil drawer for a knife. Down the hall, Charlie cried, and Rose turned that way. Of course Lily would get him. She and Beau had agreed to have their Valentine’s night in their bedroom, where they had a fairly large TV and a mini-fridge. Beau said it was everything he needed.
Sure enough, Charlie quieted in the next moment, and Rose faced Liam again.
“I can do it,” he said, gently taking the knife from her. His fingers lingered on hers, and she simply looked at him. “So.” He made one long slice down the middle of the pie. “How many kids do you want?”
“What?” Rose almost put one hand over her now-furiously beating heart.
“You want kids, right?” He glanced at her, those oceanic eyes all-knowing. “How many?”
Rose swallowed, her secret out. How he’d known, she wasn’t sure. “A lot,” she admitted.
“Define ‘a lot’.” He made another long cut, crossing the first. “I mean, remember the records? Some people would think ‘a lot’ was one hundred thousand.”
“I don’t know,” Rose said. “I’ve just always imagined myself with a house full of kids.”
Liam nodded, his eyes steadfastly on the pie now. “So in a house like this—or a house like mine—that’s a lot of kids. A dozen.”
Rose needed to save this conversation. Fast. “Oh, I’m much too old to have a dozen children.” She gave a light laugh, hating how fake it felt in her throat. “Even if I started tomorrow, I could probably only have…four.”
He lifted his head and looked at her. “Four.”
“If I started tomorrow,” she said again, taking the knife from him and finishing the job in a few strokes. “Which, obviously, I’m not going to do.”
“Obviously.”
She put a piece of pie on a plate, and it looked okay. When they both had one, she handed him a fork. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Liam.”
“Happy Valentine’s Day, Rose.” They watched one another, the chemistry
between them explosive, like God had poured two reactive ingredients together when He’d put Rose and Liam in the same room.
She took a bite of the pie first, and it didn’t taste bad. At first. “Oh, no,” she said around her mouthful of cream and custard. “Don’t eat it.” But she probably shouldn’t have taken such a big bite, because her words sounded garbled at best.
She tried to wave at Liam, but his motion was already underway and all she ended up doing was flipping cream onto the counter and almost dumping her pie on the floor.
With horror, she watched as he chewed, noting the exact moment he realized the chocolate custard was much too bitter, the crust too crumbly, and the texture not at all smooth the way it should’ve been.
Rose moved to the sink and put her plate in it before spitting out the offending dessert. “Okay, that was sick.” She turned back to Liam who had managed to swallow his. “You ate that?”
He swallowed again, looking around, probably for a drink. Rose hastened to get glasses down from the cupboard and fill them with water. And when Liam started gulping his, she started laughing.
He nearly spit out his water as he joined her. “Well, at least you’re not perfect, Rose.”
That sobered the moment, and she set her glass on the counter. “You like that I’m not perfect?”
He swept his arm around her waist and drew her close to his body almost like they were slow dancing. He even swayed a little. “Definitely. Who wants to live up to someone who’s perfect?”
“Mm,” Rose said, closing her eyes and really enjoying this moment in Liam’s arms. “I’m starting to get how people feel around you.”
He scoffed and stepped back. “Oh, please.”
She giggled in a very flirtatious way, and said, “Walk me upstairs, cowboy?” as she laced her hand through his arm.
He did, and he did pause outside her room, gazing down at her with adoration in his eyes. Rose had seen it before. Well, not in such a pair of stunning eyes, and that made the moment all the more powerful.
“Good night. Sorry about the weather.” She stretched up and brushed her lips against his cheek before entering her room and closing the door behind her.
She pressed her back into it and took a deep breath. The materials used to redo the lodge were beautiful and expensive, but she could still hear Liam on the other side of the door as he said, “Good night, my beautiful Rose.”
By the next morning, Mother Nature had blown herself out, leaving behind two feet of snow, downed tree branches, and several reports of people without power, people who’d slid off the road, and people in need.
When Rose arrived, still a bit sleepy and in her pajamas, in the kitchen, she found Beau, Graham, and Liam there, making plans.
“What’s going on?” she asked, turning over a mug that had been left by the coffee maker.
Liam filled her in on the help that was needed around Coral Canyon, and she let her eyes slide down his body. “And you’re going to go help pull a car out of a snow bank in a suit?”
“I’ve done a lot in a suit,” he said, a devilish twinkle in his eye. “Do you want to come?”
She did, but she didn’t at the same time. The lodge still had power, and baby Charlie was home now….
“You should stay here with Lily,” Beau said. “She could use the company, and we’ll be gone for a long time.”
Rose’s defenses immediately went up. She could do what she wanted. In the end, though, what she wanted was exactly what Beau had suggested. So she nodded, poured her coffee, and started adding sugar and cream to it.
“I’ve got the plow on the front of the Hummer,” Graham said. “We should be able to get down the canyon.”
“It hasn’t been plowed?” Rose asked, unable to help herself.
“It’s one of the last roads to get done,” Graham said. “Especially up this high. They’ll go up to the Prospect Lake area first, but then they don’t come back until everything else is almost done.”
“Don’t they know there are people up here?” Rose didn’t like the idea of being snowbound, and she’d never had to deal with such a thing in LA or Nashville. Sure, there were a few ice storms or scares in Tennessee every year. Rose simply didn’t leave the house, but she could if she wanted to.
“We know to call down if we’re having a problem,” Graham said. “Come on, guys. I told Sheriff Newbough we’d be down by eight.”
Sudden panic seized Rose, and she didn’t want any of them to go. “Are you sure it’s safe?” Some of her anxiety must have bled into her voice, because all three men stopped what they were doing and looked at her. Beau and Graham looked like they’d had a great, long, full night of sleep. Liam did not. He wore exhaustion around his eyes, and the tie he’d had on last night was completely gone this morning.
“We all have four-wheel drive vehicles,” Graham said, glancing first at his brother and then Liam. “I’ve got the plow, and I’ll go first. They’ll follow. We’ll be all right, Rose.”
“What if you’re not?” She folded her arms, wishing she was wearing something more commanding that purple silk pajamas.
“I’ll call Laney,” Graham said. “She’ll call the Sheriff. And then I’ll call him too.”
“And I’ll do the same,” Beau said. “But I’ll call Lily.”
“You have a new baby.”
Beau gave her a kind smile. “Rose, you’re not from Coral Canyon. It snows like this all the time. This is what?” He glanced at Graham. “Our fifth or sixth major storm this winter?”
“At least,” Graham said.
Rose looked at Liam. “And you? You’ve been working in Africa for the last couple of years. I bet it doesn’t snow there.”
Beau and Graham exchanged a look and scuttled past Rose and down the hall toward the garage. She heard them say something to one another, but she couldn’t catch the words.
Liam approached her and put both hands on her shoulders. “I’ll be all right.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead and made to move past her.
And she didn’t like that. Not one little bit. Her concerns were valid, and she’d never liked being brushed off. Her sisters had done it while they wrote songs, until the producers had liked the one Rose had written by herself. Then, suddenly, they’d seen her value. Let her into their inner sanctum. Trusted her.
She did not like watching Liam walk away in those shiny shoes—which had zero traction, thank you very much—and hoping it wouldn’t be the last time she saw him.
Behind her, Charlie gave a wail, and Rose spun in that direction. She hurried down the hall to Lily’s room and knocked lightly. “It’s Rose.”
“Come in,” Lily said, and Rose pushed into the room to find Lily sitting up in bed with Charlie cradled in her arms. Everything that had been tense and angry inside Rose melted.
“Oh, he’s so beautiful,” she said as she arrived at the side of the bed. “Can I hold him or are you feeding him?”
“You can hold him and feed him.” Lily nodded to the bottle on the bedside table. “I’d love to take a shower.”
Rose gently took the tiny infant from her sister and picked up the bottle with a couple of fingers. “We’ll be right here. Won’t we, sweetheart? Yes, we will.” She took Charlie to the rocking recliner and settled down to feed him.
“Did the men leave?” Lily asked.
“Yes,” Rose said, some of her earlier discomfort returning. “Will they really be okay?”
Lily glanced up, and their eyes met. “They usually are, Rose.”
“Liam has no idea what he’s doing,” she said. “He barely even listened to me.” And she didn’t want someone who discounted everything she said just because they were intelligent too. Or because all she’d ever done with her life was write songs.
Rose frowned. She’d never been unhappy with her life—until she came to Coral Canyon. Until she’d seen that there was another type of life possible for her. One with cozy fires, and Christmas traditions, and babies.
She glance
d down at Charlie. Oh, how she wanted babies.
Lily trailed her fingers across the top of Rose’s head on her way to the bathroom. “Don’t think too hard about it, Rose.”
She wasn’t sure how that related to anything she’d just said, but it probably applied to everything going on in Rose’s head. She sighed and rocked, listening to the soothing sound of the shower and the gentle sound of Charlie sucking his bottle.
And this was her new heaven.
Problem was, would Liam even want a life like this? He’d never had it before either, and he didn’t seem to be slowing or stopping or even realizing there was something different than what he’d always had.
Chapter Ten
Liam peered through the windshield, the sunshine making the snow glint wickedly. Graham’s plow did quite a good job getting the snow off the road, and Beau’s truck put easy-to-follow paths to the pavement. So Liam kept the LandRover on course and foot by foot, mile by mile, the three of them made it down the canyon.
Relief coated his insides, and he flexed his fingers on the steering wheel. He hadn’t even realized how tense he’d become. But Rose’s anxiety had bled into him, made him question whether he could drive in the snow or not. It had been a very long time since he’d had to.
They came upon the first car that needed help getting out of the snowbank on the side of the road. Graham hopped out of his Hummer like he was Wyoming’s roadside assistance, and got everything hooked up. Beau worked too, while Liam sat there and watched.
He’d known the Whittaker brothers a little bit growing up. When he took Lars to the swimming holes, the river to fish, or the lake, he’d often see them there too. Graham was a couple of years older than him and Beau a couple younger. But they hadn’t been friends.
He admired them now, as they worked for the welfare of others, leaving their warm homes, their wives and children, to come out in the snow and help. Liam had always wanted to help people, so he at least understood that.