by Holly Rayner
She kept waiting for him to show any sign of boredom at all this useless, irrelevant information she’d unintentionally been storing up, but he never did. Instead, he listened and asked questions, and laughed and commiserated with each new story.
They spoke until the sun was truly down, and the residual light on the horizon was waning. They had to use their phones as flashlights to make their way back down the steep mountain path.
By the time they had made it most of the way down the hill, the darkness was absolute around them. They could see lights in the distance here and there—the street light over the trailhead parking lot that was their destination, and the lights of Stockton peeking up from the valley.
But the darkness of the growing night closed in around them and made Paige feel as though they were alone together in some secret, private space. The glow of their phone lights was the vessel carrying the two of them together through the darkness, and the sound of the bugs in the forest around only served to increase the sense of shared isolation.
By the time they reached the trailhead, and the car that waited for them, Paige was sad to have to set aside the closeness she’d begun to feel on the hike—the closeness she had felt throughout the day, if she was honest. And she dreaded what was going to come next. She tried to speak casually as they got back into the car, but the words sounded breathy and uncertain coming out of her mouth.
“So, I don’t know if you were thinking to hang around Stockton or if you wanted to move on, but there’s really just one hotel in town. And ‘hotel’ is honestly a big name for it—it’s really just a couple of rooms that the Haases rent out above their house. If you wanted to keep going, there’s a bigger place over in Springfield on the other side of the mountain that I can give you directions to.”
It was hard to tell much about his expression in the limited light of the car interior. Paige cursed the shadows that fell across his face and kept her from being able to make out his reaction.
“The place off of Oak Street that you pointed out from the overlook?”
She felt a thrill run up her spine just at the fact that he remembered one little detail out of the whole long, rambling speech she’d unloaded on him an hour ago.
“That’s the one. If you want, I can guide you there.”
“Oh, if you don’t mind, that’d be great.”
This time, the thrill running up her spine was considerably bigger. He was staying. He was staying in Stockton, at least for the night. This still wasn’t a date. It couldn’t be—not if she hadn’t been honest with him about her son. But the hazy dream the day had been would continue longer, and for that, she was grateful. She gave him directions to the Haases’ bed and breakfast off Oak Street, resisting the urge to take him there by a longer route so that she could stay longer in the car with him.
But when they reached their destination, Paige was in for a surprise.
“I guess they turn the lights off when they’re not expecting guests?” Kehlan offered. “I don’t imagine they get a lot of people showing up without a reservation.”
“No, not many…” Paige said. “But they usually keep the porch light on at least. Wait here; I’ll be right back.”
As she neared the front porch, she saw a small square of paper affixed to the door with a bright piece of tape. It was comfortingly consistent with the slightly quirky, arts and crafts-obsessed person she had always known Mrs. Haase to be, but it was still making her nervous. Of all the times for the bed and breakfast not to be open, did it have to be tonight?
She stepped up to the door and read the note. It was only a few lines about being closed for the weekend as the Haases were away visiting family, but Paige stood there staring at it for a long time, as though it were written in a foreign language. As glad as she was that the Haases were finally making it out to visit their grandchildren in Albuquerque, she couldn’t help but feel horribly inconvenienced that they’d picked this weekend.
It felt like she stood there for ages deliberating, but it could only have been a minute or two. There were two options in front of her in light of this new development. With no rooms available here, the closest accommodation was over an hour away on the other side of the mountain. Sure, Springfield wasn’t that far away, and maybe Kehlan would come back to Stockton the next day. But just as likely, he would take the opportunity to venture further into the countryside. There were some great hikes and waterfalls out that way. It would make more sense for him not to backtrack to a place he’d already seen so much of.
And if he did venture on, the dream that this whole magical afternoon and evening had been would be over. Paige would be back where she was, in her ordinary life, that had seemed so much more acceptable to her before Kehlan had shown up and made the day such an adventure.
But there was another option. She could offer him her couch to sleep on.
It wasn’t exactly luxury accommodations, and she doubted that a man who had attended a fancy boarding school in Switzerland had ever been reduced to sleeping on someone’s couch.
It was doubtful, she thought, that he would say yes, even if she offered. But the chance that he might, and that she might be able to extend what today had been over to another day was enough to compel her to ask.
There was only one thing holding her back: Dylan.
Paige was a single mother, and her house showed it. If she invited Kehlan over, there was no way she could avoid telling him about her son, and once he found out about him, she might as well not have invited him over at all—their little bubble would have been ruptured anyway.
Maybe it would be better just not to offer, she thought, and to preserve his image of her as unattached and free. To just let the afternoon and evening stand for itself. And that way she could imagine to herself, as well, what might have been, without having to face the reality that Kehlan, just like most men, would run when they found out that she had a son.
She honestly didn’t know what she was going to do as she slowly walked back to the car. But as soon as she sat down, and saw Kehlan’s inquisitive face, she knew what her choice had to be. She couldn’t live the rest of her life without at least taking the chance.
“So,” she said, “it turns out they’re out of town. And this is really the only place to stay around here. I can give you directions to that hotel in Springfield, if you like, but if you’d rather stay around here, I’d be happy to let you stay with me. It’s only a couch, but I swear it’s more comfortable than it looks.”
The next words stuck in her throat, but she knew she needed to get them out before he answered. It would only be more awkward if she added it after the fact.
“My son is on a field trip, so I’d be glad for the company. I haven’t slept in a house this empty in nine years.”
For a second, she thought she was going to be cursed to not see his facial expression as he sat in the shadows of the car. But then he leaned forward slightly, putting himself in the light of the street lamp spilling in through the sunroof. Paige’s heart was racing, thumping so hard in her chest that it seemed impossible that it wasn’t audible in the small space of the car.
But there on Kehlan’s face she saw a genuine smile.
“You have a son? You hadn’t mentioned.”
She felt herself involuntarily return his smile as relief flooded through her body.
“Yes, his name is Dylan. He’s nine.”
She had two conflicting drives: on the one hand, she wanted to tell him everything about Dylan, up to and including pulling the ultimate mom move and besieging him with all the pictures she had of Dylan on her phone. On the other hand, she was desperate to hear what he had to say about it.
With difficulty, she managed to stop at the basic information and keep her mouth shut.
“That’s wonderful,” Kehlan said, with barely a pause. “You know, I don’t have many regrets in my life, but I always wished I had found someone I wanted to settle down and have children with earlier on. I had always pictured myself with child
ren by now.”
Another wave of relief, and Paige found herself talking again.
“Well, it has its moments. I can’t imagine how it would have been going through medical school with kids, that’s for sure. But he’s the light of my life. Before you showed up at the diner, I wasn’t sure how I was going to get through these next couple of days without him.”
Was it her imagination, or was there something devilish in his grin?
“Is that so?” Kehlan asked, and Paige blushed when she realized her accidental implication that they would be spending the next few days together.
She shrugged it off, hoping that the darkness hid the red in her cheeks.
He settled back, and she lost his face again. All she could see were glints in the darkness as his hands moved to start the car back up again.
“Then I would be happy to stay and keep your mind off worrying about him, if you’re sure it’s not a bother.”
There was an implied question in there, but also an assumed answer, as the car hummed to life, and he began to back out of the driveway.
“You’ve been doing a great job of it so far,” Paige mumbled under her breath, preparing to lead this strange, attractive, charming man back to her home.
Chapter 8
Kehlan
A son! The reality of it sat up in the front of his mind as he figured out what to do with it. On the one hand, it was a complication, and for most of his life, he had done the best he could to avoid complication as much as he possibly could. He had worked hard to establish a career, and to put off all of the familial obligations he could as much as he could.
But on the other hand, maybe it was time for a little complication. Maybe a little complication would do him some good, to save him from the stark realities of the conflict he was in with his own family. What he had told Paige was absolutely the truth—he’d always loved kids, and he’d always pictured having them. He’d just never met a woman who intrigued him the way Paige did, enough to make it seem possible that they would fit into his unusual life.
His unusual life that he still hadn’t come clean to her about entirely.
Now, with her letting him into the truth about what she had been holding back all afternoon, the truth of his family’s status felt less like a necessarily avoided distraction and more like a lie of omission, and the mounting guilt of it overwhelmed everything he said and did.
It struck Kehlan as Paige showed him around her house that he had never actually been inside a home like this. He’d seen versions of them on TV shows, and he’d seen the outside of them, driving by. Growing up as he had, precious few of his friends could be termed middle-class. Even in college, any parties he attended were parties he threw, and those were few and far between. His need to prove his seriousness about his profession had always driven him to excel far beyond what was expected, and that left less time for socializing than he wished it had, looking back.
Paige’s home wasn’t that different in the basics, just more condensed. It was notable how run-down things were. In his life, all the basic amenities tended to be replaced by newer, more innovative models before they showed any real signs of wear. But here, there was only room for what needed to be here. And what was here was imperfect.
There was a ding in the side of the stove, and the refrigerator hummed a bit more loudly than Kehlan suspected it was supposed to. There was an area rug rather oddly placed, which he suspected was there to cover up some defect in the floor of the dining area, and the carpet in the living room had discernable areas where it was more worn than others.
The couch and the love seat coordinated well, be clearly hadn’t been sold as a set, and the television was small and out of date. Mail was stacked on the table by the door, along with a few spare keys, which Kehlan suspected must be to neighbor’s houses. He’d heard of that practice, and was delighted to see it might actually exist.
But, beyond anything else, the biggest difference between this house and anywhere Kehlan had ever lived was the pictures. The frames weren’t well matched, but they were coordinated. He’d never met Dylan, or even heard of him before ten minutes ago, but here he found himself standing in front of his whole young life so far, displayed up on these walls, along with the friends and the family that surrounded him. He recognized Alvin in a couple of them, although most had people with a clear family resemblance to Paige.
“It’s not much, but it’s home,” Paige said, smiling, and Kehlan realized that he was smiling, too.
“If you want to have a seat,” she went on, “I’ve got a bottle of wine. And I should have something to eat too…we never got a chance to have dinner, so hopefully you’re as hungry as I am.”
As soon as she said it, he realized that he was. Hours and hours of physical exertion after a long flight had left him ravenous. Their meal at the restaurant on the slopes had been substantial, but it also hadn’t been nearly enough under the circumstances. Kehlan wasn’t usually the kind of man to put off eating for forgetting—he had always enjoyed it too much. Another little oddity of how distracting he found Paige, he thought, as he heard her shuffling around in the kitchen, opening and closing cabinets and moving things around in a clearly overcrowded fridge.
“It’s not much,” Paige said when she returned to the living room, setting down a tray on the coffee table after moving aside some coloring books. “But it’ll get us fed.”
Looking at the food while Paige sat down and poured the wine, he had to disagree. There were a variety of pieces of cakes, quiches, and sweet and savory pastries. They were all fairly small, but delicious-looking all the same. And they were surrounded by a huge variety of cheeses and crackers and meats.
“What is all of this?” he asked, accepting a glass of wine that he’d barely noticed her pouring. “How do you just have all of this lying around?”
Paige shrugged.
“Oh, it’s just this and that. Some of these are things that Alvin is experimenting with for the diner and he wants my opinion on, but I’m never in a state of mind to try it and tell him at the end of a shift, so I take it home and tell him later. Some of them are samples from various venders in the region that I’m considering integrating into the menu at the Coffee Cup. So, I guess I should have warned you, it’s a condition of eating all of this that you tell me what you think.”
Kehlan chuckled.
“For this, I think I can manage that. Seems like a fair deal to me.”
The general quality of the samples was much higher than Kehlan had expected. When he told Paige this, she simply answered off-handedly that she made sure to do her research before she even bothered with samples, and Kehlan was struck again by the skills she’d developed in this field without seeming to realize she was doing anything more than waitressing and chipping in a bit now and then with logistics.
As they ate, and drank, Kehlan turned the conversation towards Dylan. He had a feeling it might set Paige off on the same kind of flowing description that she had gone off on at the restaurant on the slopes and at the overlook. She wanted to talk about him, Kehlan could tell, and he was gratified when his questions unleashed exactly the tide of effusive discussion he was hoping for.
Her face lit up, and the love she had for her son shone through in the little details about him she talked about, even as she complained about the annoyances and frustrations he brought into her life, along with the love and joy. She was easy and relaxed, and Kehlan found that he loved seeing her that way. He hadn’t realized she’d been on edge for much of the day, but now that she no longer was, he saw the difference and he treasured it. She settled back into the couch, and her head rested gently against his arm that he had draped behind her.
Aside from Dylan, they also talked more about Stockton and what Paige loved about it. It seemed she never tired of talking about it, and he felt that he’d never get tired of hearing her.
“I wish I lived somewhere like this,” he said, when the samples on the tray were sparse and the wine in the bottle was gone.
“Somewhere with rivers and lakes and mountains. Don’t get me wrong, the desert is beautiful in its own way. But it’s not what I want.”
By this point, Paige had so settled into him that he could feel the vibration of her voice physically in his body when she answered.
“Then why don’t you? Why go back there after medical school at all? There are plenty of places with rivers and mountains and valleys and lakes.”
The drawback of her being so close was that she must have felt the increase in his heart rate as he responded.
“I wouldn’t have. I didn’t want to. But I have…obligations.”
He loved the feel of her body moving as she chuckled.
“Believe me, I know a thing or two about obligations. But what obligations did you have? You don’t have children. You were young, with a medical license and…you know, the way you are. You could have gone anywhere.”
Was she pretending she didn’t notice that his heart was racing now? Or was she just so exhausted that she genuinely didn’t notice?
“My family comes with more obligations than most.”
“Oh?” she asked, her voice muffled as she turned to him. She must have been exhausted. “Is that a cultural thing, or…?”
She was drifting off as they spoke. He almost decided not to tell her, since he couldn’t be sure she’d even remember this fully in the morning, close as she was to sleep. But he pressed on. He needed to tell her, even if he ended up having to tell her twice. Maybe it would be easier with practice.
“Sort of. A…royal family…culture thing.”
This opened her eyes.
“Royal family? You’re the prince of Al-Derra?”
“I’m a prince of Al-Derra. My cousins are the ones who will one day rule. I’m just…the supporting role.”
Her eyes fluttered closed again.
“I spent the day with a prince,” she murmured softly.