by Liz Isaacson
“Yeah?” Lily turned in his arms and faced the window, trying to see it from his perspective. Down here, the flaws weren’t quite so obvious, and she supposed it did look nice.
“It’s wonderful,” Celia said with a sniffle. Before Lily could turn to look at her, the older woman left the room.
“It’ll be even better in the summer,” Lily said. “When the sun is hotter and brighter.”
“I love it,” Bree said with a smile. She touched Lily’s arm, and when Lily looked at her, she found kindness in her eyes. “The guests will like it too.”
“I went with the last name,” Lily explained. “Because I figured you Whittaker brothers would keep the lodge. Maybe rename it, but always keep it.”
“I plan to keep it,” Beau said. “I should probably talk to Graham about that. He bought it, years ago after our dad died.”
Lily tightened her arm around him, and said, “Let’s go see what Celia whipped up for this celebration.” She hadn’t specifically asked Celia to bake anything, but when they entered the kitchen, she had strawberry shortcake on the counter as she piped perfect star-shaped dollops of whipped cream onto it.
Lily ate the delicious dessert and basked in all the compliments from the others. While the wind howled through the Wyoming landscape, she felt warm and secure inside Whiskey Mountain Lodge. With Beau. With this new family she was making.
A few days later, she and Beau wandered through the Christmas trees in the parking lot at the hardware store. Lily wore her hair up under one of Beau’s ballcaps, an oversized jacket, and a pair of sunglasses. No one questioned her on the last accessory, because it had been snowing for days and the sun had finally broken through, causing a blinding glint to reflect off of everything.
“I like this one,” she said, pointing to a tree hardly bigger than herself.
“It’s too small, sweetheart.” Beau chuckled and pointed toward the far side of the lot. “That foyer is huge. We need at least twenty feet.”
“How are we supposed to decorate a tree twenty feet tall?”
“One ornament at a time.” He took her hand and led her through the much smaller trees to the giants on the side. There were only six to choose from, as apparently the twenty-footers weren’t that popular.
They all looked the same to her, and she let Beau pick the one he thought was “the most robust.” He paid for the tree, and she watched while he and two other men hefted it on top of his SUV.
Back at the lodge, she had to help him, Bree, and Graham get the tree in the house, but then she stood back and watched as some of the red, blue, and yellow light from the stained glass window danced across the pine needles.
“Looks great,” she said, noting that the top of the tree barely reached the top of the stairs. They probably could’ve gotten a thirty foot tree and still been fine.
“Do you want to start decorating today?” he asked.
“Not really,” she said. “We have plenty of time, right?” She admired the bare tree just the way it was, wondering why it needed to be dressed up at all.
“Sure, yeah,” he said. “I think we need new lights anyway. I can get some this weekend, and then we’ll get ‘er done.”
Lily stayed in the living room while he went down the hall to his office. Celia wasn’t at the lodge today, and Bree stopped by to say she was running down to town to get a few things for the guests that would be there the following evening.
She had just made herself a cup of hot chocolate and settled next to the tree when someone knocked on the big front door a few feet from her. It sounded like a child’s knock, barely loud enough to hear.
Glancing toward the hallway, she expected to find Beau standing there. Or at least coming. Nervous energy fired through her like fireworks. Was he expecting someone? Should she answer the door?
She waited, thinking maybe she’d imagined the sound. But it came again—soft yet insistent.
She couldn’t fathom leaving a child outside with the wind driving the snow to and fro the way it was. She sent a quick text to Beau—are you expecting someone at the lodge?—before she got up to open the front door.
“Hello—” Her voice turned to glass and shattered when she saw a tall, gangly man with chestnut brown hair on the porch. He was not a child. He could surely knock harder than he had been.
Behind her, she heard Daisy bark, and a flutter of hope entered her chest.
The man turned toward her, and Kent’s mouth turned upward as if he was genuinely excited to see her. “Hello, Lily.”
Her mug of hot chocolate fell toward the tile floor, smashing into shards, hot liquid, and spongy marshmallows. She felt frozen, but she managed to start to swing the door closed. If she could just get it locked, she’d have a few seconds to get Beau and figure something out.
But Kent put his foot in the way, and the door wouldn’t budge.
Nineteen
Beau received several messages at the same time, and it took him a moment to tear his attention from the email he’d just gotten.
Sheriff Glamp had confirmed several days ago that Kent was in Jackson Hole for the foreseeable future, not just for the holidays. And the county recorder had just emailed him to let him know that a man fitting Kent’s description had just inquired about where Beau’s offices were.
So Kent knew he was Lily’s lawyer. He was tenacious and resourceful too, if the text from Karla at the diner was any indication. A man just asked around all my tables for where you lived. He knows.
Beau’s heart pounded in his chest. Kent felt moments away, and he pushed his chair back to stand up. He tapped on Lily’s text, and his blood went cold.
No, he was not expecting anyone. He bolted toward the door as Daisy started barking. Not good. Definitely not good.
“Don’t open it,” he called, jogging down the hall. Everything in his world felt off-kilter, especially when he skidded to a stop in the living room and took in the scene before him.
Lily had already answered the door, Daisy at her side.
Kent was already inside the lodge.
Beau had failed.
He continued forward anyway, stepping between Kent and Lily though there was no room for him there. He forced her back toward the tree, and thankfully, she went, taking the Rotwieller with her. “You can’t come in,” he said. “This is private property.”
Kent simply stared at him, a placid smile on his face.
“Please back up,” Beau said again, his voice with a bit more bite.
“She invited me in,” Kent said.
“No, I didn’t,” Lily said, and Beau was glad she had enough fight left in her to speak.
“You’re not welcome here, and you can’t come in,” Beau said. “If you don’t leave right now, I’ll call the police.”
“She’s my wife.”
“Ex-wife,” Lily said.
“She has a restraining order against you,” Beau said.
That got Kent to look at him. “Excuse me?”
“Filed yesterday morning. If you don’t leave in the next ten seconds, I’m afraid you’ll be spending the night in jail.”
An anger so violent entered Kent’s face that Beau braced himself to get punched. But he would take the hit if he had to. In that moment, nose-to-nose with Kent Gulbrandsen, Beau knew he’d fallen in love with Lily.
“I didn’t get notified of a restraining order,” he said through clenched teeth.
“That’s because you weren’t at the hotel in Jackson Hole,” Beau said calmly. “Go ahead and call down to the police department here. Or over to Sheriff Glamp’s office. You’ll see I’m telling the truth.”
Kent pulled out his phone as if he’d stand in Beau’s warm foyer and make his calls.
“Out there,” Beau said, nodding toward the door. “All the way to the road, in fact. This is private property to that road, and you can’t be within one hundred yards of Miss Lily Everett.”
Kent snarled, but he spun and marched out of the front door. Beau wasted no time in
bringing it closed and locking it. He turned back to Lily, his adrenaline still pumping through him with the speed of a freight train.
“I’m sorry,” she said, tears springing to her eyes. “He knocked so softly, and I thought maybe it was Bailey or another child.”
Beau gathered Lily into his arms and shushed her. “It’s fine.”
“I didn’t know you filed a restraining order.”
“Kent’s been getting closer and closer,” he said. “I got some emails and messages this morning—literally moments ago—so I’m glad I did.” He’d made the decision on the spot, while at the courthouse the previous day. A restraining order would indicate Lily didn’t feel safe, and that could very well help them with the last remaining case Beau was still working on.
And now it had gotten Kent out of the lodge too. He moved to the door and found Kent crossing the parking lot with long strides. “I don’t think he’ll come back.”
“But he knows where I am,” Lily said. “I have to go.”
Beau turned back to her, glad he had a hold of her hand or he feared she’d already be gone. “No, you don’t have to go. That’s the point of the restraining order. It keeps him away. You’re safe here.”
She shook her head, her fingers slipping out of his. He felt like he was teetering on the edge of a very high cliff, and if she left Whiskey Mountain Lodge, he’d be falling forever. “Don’t go,” he said, his voice strained and full of emotion.
I love you. Please don’t go.
He could’ve said the words, but he didn’t.
I only have one more case to finish, and I’m so close. Please stay.
Lily’s tears slid down her cheeks. “I can’t put you in danger.”
“I’m not in danger.” Now he sounded like an angry dog, barking the sentence at her. His phone buzzed and chimed, but he didn’t look at it. He couldn’t seem to look away from Lily.
“It’s time to go back to Nashville anyway,” she said.
“No,” Beau said, a definite note of pleading in the two-letter word.
“You’ll finish the case, and then it will all be over anyway.” Lily threw up her hands as if she had no idea what to do, frustration etching itself into every line of her face. “We both know I can’t stay here forever.”
“Why can’t you?” He took a step forward and reached for her, ready to say all the words that needed to be said.
She backed up too, looking at him helplessly. “That was never the plan.”
“Make a new plan.”
“I can’t, Beau.” She took another step backward, and then another one. When she reached the doorway, she turned and walked down the hall, her footsteps sounding very final though she didn’t even wear shoes.
Beau stood in the living room, the slight scent of the pine tree beside him making his stomach sour. Or maybe that was the china all over the floor, or the spilled hot chocolate inching nearer to his boots.
Or maybe his heart was breaking again, and he simply couldn’t stop it.
Beau wanted to hide in the office or his bedroom while Lily left Whiskey Mountain Lodge, but he wasn’t a ten-year-old, and he thought maybe he’d find the bravery he needed to speak.
So he followed Lily outside, glad when there were no other cars parked in the lot. Kent hadn’t come back in, obviously confirming the restraining order Beau had put in place. Something seethed just beneath his skin. There was no guarantee that he wasn’t sitting in his rental, just down the hill where he couldn’t be seen from here.
But that warning from Beau’s mouth had fallen on deaf ears. Lily was determined to leave, and though she continued to sniffle and weep, her resolve on the matter seemed absolute.
He hefted her two bags into the truck beside the one she’d already put there and slammed it closed. “Anything else?”
She readjusted her purse on her arm and shook her head.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said. “We haven’t even decorated the tree.”
Fresh tears started, and she reached up and cradled his face. “I know. I’m so sorry.”
But was she really?
“Talk to me,” he said. “I don’t understand.”
“This…we….” She shook her head, her pretty blue eyes torturing him with the sadness they held. “I have another life, and it’s time I get back to it.”
The breath got sucked out of his body as if her words were a vacuum and she’d plugged the hose right into his lungs. Deirdre had wanted her old life back too. Beau obviously wasn’t a strong enough influence for anyone to stay and make a new life with him.
Fury roared within him, and he started nodding in short bursts. “Fine.”
“Beau.”
“Don’t,” he bit out. “I get it. This isn’t your life. You’ve never wanted this life. We’ve always been temporary.”
If only his stupid heart would get those memos and listen to them.
“Go on, then,” he said. “Good luck in Nashville.” He turned and walked away, calling over his shoulder. “I’ll need to contact you about the last case, so after you ditch your phone and get a new one, do be kind enough to text me at least once.”
He couldn’t help the pettiness in his voice, though he didn’t like it and wished he could act differently. But he couldn’t get to the house fast enough either. He ran the last few steps to the stairs and took them two at a time.
Once inside, on the still sticky floor, he slammed the heavy wooden door and locked it before he leaned his back against it.
He sucked at the air, the panic and desperation coiling together to make a tornado of negativity in his core.
“I can’t…live…like this,” he gasped, trying trying trying to understand what was so bad about him that he couldn’t get a woman to stay in Coral Canyon. Why couldn’t he meet someone like Lily at the grocery store? Someone who already lived in town and wanted to be here?
One tiny ray of hope shone through the dark clouds descending on him, and that was that he hadn’t confessed the full depth of his feelings for Lily. She didn’t get to know he loved her, and that she’d broken his heart. He’d given Deirdre that satisfaction, but he would not give it to Lily.
He slid down the door and sat on the floor, the lodge bigger and emptier than it had ever been. The Christmas tree in front of him seemed stupid without any lights, tinsel, or ornaments on it, but Beau wasn’t feeling much Christmas spirit at the moment.
A day passed. Then two. Beau fed the horses, and made coffee for himself in the mornings. He texted Celia and said he didn’t need her help until Christmastime. He didn’t want to explain about Lily, or the fact that he hadn’t even gotten out the boxes of Christmas décor.
Bree showed up when there were guests, and she eyed him as he sat in front of his laptop in the office until he snapped, “What?”
“Nothing.” She got up and left, and when she didn’t come back, Beau’s guilt took over. He texted her an apology, and she responded with I understand. Is Lily coming back?
Beau didn’t want to admit that she wasn’t, so he ignored Bree’s message and focused on the case. The restraining order would certainly help. As would the new statements Beau had procured from a pet store in Hollywood, where Kent had apparently applied for a job. He’d gotten it, but never shown up for work.
So he obviously wasn’t following the judge’s ruling from the alimony cases, and Beau added those statements to his case file.
He got out his best suit and took it to the cleaners. He wanted it to be ready if he had to appear in court, as a settlement started to become farther and farther from reality.
He did not decorate the tree. Or try to get in touch with Lily.
Sheriff Glamp had said Kent had cleared out of town, and no one in Coral Canyon had seen him either. So he was either smarter than Beau had given him credit for and had taken the restraining order seriously, or he knew Lily wasn’t here and had followed her back to Nashville.
The restraining order would work there too, but not if Lil
y didn’t enforce it.
One morning, only a week before Christmas, Beau’s exhaustion kept him in bed past his usual rising time. He laid there, his head turned toward the window, and watched the snow drift down. Coral Canyon was under almost three feet now, but Beau found he didn’t care.
He didn’t care about much of anything anymore.
A loud banging noise had him jolting to a sitting position, as did the clomping of booted feet as they came toward his bedroom door.
“Beau!” Graham called, but knowing that it was his brother and not a thief did not comfort Beau. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. His texts saying as much should’ve clued everyone in, as should’ve his complete absence from church or a social life at all these past few weeks.
More banging on the door, and then it opened. Graham stood there, dripping water from the brim of his cowboy hat onto Beau’s perfectly clean floors.
“What are you doing?” his brother asked.
“Sleeping.” Beau laid back down. “Leave me alone, Graham.”
“I’ll take care of the horses,” he said, and he did as Beau asked and left.
Beau wanted him to come back almost the moment the back door slammed closed, and he pressed his eyes shut so he could try to make sense of things.
He couldn’t.
When he was up, he wanted to be down. But when he got down, he wanted to be up again. He didn’t want Graham there, but as soon as he left, he wanted his brother to come back.
Frustration filled him from top to bottom, and he prayed, not for the first time, that he could somehow find his way through this maze he’d gotten trapped in.
The Lord usually provided a light for Beau, some way for him to see the end goal and work toward it. But he felt like he’d been abandoned, and there simply wasn’t going to be any help this time.
Graham did return a while later, this time with a cup of coffee. “Laney said she’d come decorate the tree.” He set the mug on Beau’s bedside table and took up residence in the armchair.
“Don’t you have to work?” he asked.