by Norah Wilson
She’d found out in the worst possible way. And now they were paying the price. He should count himself lucky that she’d finally answered his call this Friday morning.
He sighed. “I should have told you and Scott myself, Ember. Before you heard it from someone else.”
“The time to tell me would have been before you sold it!”
“Sweetheart, like I told you in the messages I left you, Titus deserves—”
“His chance to get out and follow his dream. I get that and I’m not denying it. But Dad, there had to have been another way. Any other way than to lose the land. God, what would Grammy Clara and Grampy Edward say?”
It was all on the table now—the sale, the move at the end of the month, Titus’s plan to leave on Sunday for RCMP training. Who knew how long Scott would be sticking around? He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly. “I’m sure—”
“So why was I the last one to know?”
“That’s not how it was intended,” he insisted.
“Yeah, right!”
She sounded so young. Hurt. Betrayed. And it was that latter sentiment in her voice that cut him the hardest. She’d had enough of that in her life. Lord above, what had he been thinking when he’d sent her out to see Jace Picard at the cabin? What had he been hoping for?
“When are you coming home?” He knew her friend Ryker would take good care of her, but she needed to come home. The sooner she came back, the sooner fences could be mended. And yes, they would be mended—they were family. The Standish Clan. He just hoped they’d be mended before Titus left Harkness. But he’d already told her Titus’s departure date. All he could do now was hope she came around in time to say goodbye.
“I don’t know, Dad.”
He cleared his throat. “Someone called the house looking for you.”
There was a long pause. “Who?”
“A friend of yours from med school—Joanne Pine. Said she was calling from California.”
“She’s more than a friend,” Ember said. “I might be working with her. Setting up practice with her and her husband.”
“In California?”
“Yes.”
Arden was taken aback. It was the first he’d heard of it. He knew his brilliant daughter had more than a few offers, but California? That was so far away.
But what was to keep her in Harkness now?
“Come home soon, Sweetpea. You can tell me all about this California proposition.”
“I…I still need some time. A few more days. Okay?”
Will that be before Sunday? he wanted to ask, but held the words in. If he pushed her, his girl was almost certain to dig in her heels. He rasped the whiskers on his neck with the back of his knuckles. “Okay.”
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“Why didn’t you tell me it was Jace stuck out there at Old Man Picard’s camp? What were you thinking? What were you trying to do?”
“I thought if you guys...” He felt suddenly weary, like the phone receiver was too heavy to hold. “I don’t know what I was thinking. And I’m afraid my meddling has backfired on another front.”
“What do you mean?”
“I sorta gave your brother Titus a push toward Ocean Siliker.”
“Titus and Ocean? I’d have thought that was a good match myself.” Her acknowledgement was grudging, colored, no doubt, by her own experience of his meddling. “But I guess just because a pairing looks good from the outside doesn’t mean there’ll be a spark there.”
“Oh, there’s plenty of spark. Enough to burn down the old barn. And they get on well together too. Since they came down off the mountain, they’ve been inseparable, working side-by-side, putting the farm to rights for winter.”
“Readying it for winter?” Her question was sharp. “What’s the point of that? The Picards are just going to plow everything under and build a toxic waste storage facility on it.”
The words were a knife to his heart. “We don’t know that for sure,” he said. “And nothing like that was ever mentioned when your brother and I talked with Jace.”
“What else would they do with it?” she demanded. “And do you seriously think they’d tell you they were planning to turn our organic farm into a toxic waste dump while they were trying to wheedle it out of you?”
“Now wait a minute. I’m the one who decided to sell. Titus approached the Picards on my behalf. If it turns out they’ve got dubious plans for the property, that’s on me for not asking. I just figured...I don’t know...that they’d parcel it up for residential development or something.”
Ember sighed. “Sorry, I’m still processing this whole thing. Tell me about Titus and Ocean instead. If they’re so perfect for each other, what’s the problem?”
From one sore subject to another. “Their paths are headed in different directions. Now that Titus is finally free to join the RCMP, nothing’s gonna keep him from it. He’ll be bound for the West and cadet training on Sunday. Lord knows when he’ll get assigned back to these parts, if ever. Meanwhile, Harkness is where Ocean is determined to stay, according to Faye. She’s got it in her head that Faye needs her help.”
Ember snorted. “Faye Siliker needing help?”
“Could be she does,” he said. “She’s not getting any younger and she shouldn’t be alone over there in that big old house. But the upshot is, my interference accomplished nothing except heartache for Titus and that sweet girl.”
“Don’t beat yourself up over it, Dad. If they really love each other, they’ll figure it out.”
He pinched the bridge of his nose, blinked rapidly. He wasn’t so sure anymore. Hadn’t that been his line of thinking when he’d sent Ember out to help Jace? And just look at how that worked out.
“I’m sorry, Ember,” he said. “About everything.”
“Me too. Bye, Dad.”
The line went dead.
“Bye, Sweetpea.”
Arden replaced the receiver.
Chapter 29
“ICE CREAM? Again?” Ember said. “Are you trying to fatten me up?”
They were sitting on top of Ryker’s covered boathouse. Accessible from the French doors at the back of the house, the boathouse roof doubled as a patio. Ember had to admit that the up-close view of the Prince River was pretty spectacular. Currently, they sat in stripes of shade from the naked limbs of the tall poplars that flanked the house.
“This evening’s specialty,” Ryker said. “Chocolate chip cookie dough.”
“Why didn’t you say so?” She leaned forward in the Adirondack chair to take the bowl Ryker offered. She looked down at the contents. “That’s a pretty meager looking serving, isn’t it?”
“I can fix that.” He reached for the bowl.
“Kidding!” She drew it back out of his reach. “That’s enough ice cream for two people, which sounds about right, since we’re talking cookie dough.”
He picked up his own heaping bowl and took a seat in the matching chair beside her.
She dug into the ice cream, feeling just a little bit guilty. Ryker had opened his home to her without hesitation. For the last three mornings, she’d woken up to an empty house, but one that was divinely scented with fresh brewed coffee and perfectly crisped bacon. All she’d needed to do was scramble some eggs and make toast. And each night, he’d come home by five o’clock. Given that it was still prime construction season, she knew he was leaving the work site hours early to keep her company. He’d even worked Saturday. This morning—Sunday—she’d tried to repay him by making him a full breakfast, but he’d taken charge again at lunch time, making them tomato soup and homemade biscuits. Now with the ice cream...
Maybe that was a good thing, the guilt finally surfacing. It meant she was coming around enough to appreciate how much she’d been imposing on him.
She took another bite of the chocolate chip cookie dough goodness. Obviously, she hadn’t come around to the point that she was beyond a little Ben & Jerry’s consolation, but who could blame her? Her whol
e world had been turned upside down.
Betrayed.
She had never felt so betrayed in her entire life. Which was saying a hell of a lot, considering what she’d thought Jace had done to her ten years ago. But this was worse because she felt betrayed on so many fronts at once, by so many people.
Appetite evaporated, she set the bowl on the table without making much of a dent in it. She wasn’t really an eat-her-emotions kind of woman, but she appreciated her bestie’s thoughtfulness all the same.
“Want to talk about it?” Ryker asked. He could have added some more. He’d heard it all, a couple times already.
She smiled. “I’m good.”
He nodded, dug into his own ice cream. She smiled as she watched him. Poor guy. He was probably relieved that she’d given him a pass on the offer of a heart-to-heart.
Her smile faded. He’d been awesome during these last few days. She’d driven straight to his house from Jace’s apartment, storming in unannounced. Ryker had been going over some construction plans, costing out an upcoming job. He’d put everything aside, and while he hadn’t tried to hug her—they were friends, but that would have just been too awkward for both of them—he’d leant her a sympathetic ear. And he’d let her crash in his spare bedroom, a small but surprisingly airy-feeling room. The next morning, he’d followed her to Faulkner’s to return the rental, then driven them straight back to his house. Other than that necessary errand, she’d been content to lay low during the day while he worked. And sleep. If she’d accumulated a sleep deficit, it should be well and truly rectified by now. The evenings she’d spent hanging out with Ryker.
Okay, hiding out might be a more apt description than hanging out.
She wasn’t just hurt. She was furious. Mostly at herself for letting her guard down. But she had lots of anger to go around for everyone—Jace, her father, her brothers. She had no desire to talk to any of them, though she had broken down and answered her father’s call on Friday. She knew Ryker had phoned Arden to assure him she was all right. She knew this because he’d told her so. And she was okay with that; she had no desire to be cruel or to cause her father needless worry. She also knew she could trust Ryker to keep her confidences. He wouldn’t have told her dad anything more than that she was with him and was safe.
The string of messages from Scott went unanswered. Likewise for Titus. Well, for the most part. She hadn’t been able to resist one blistering text for him.
Before she’d discovered Jace’s duplicity, she’d responded to one of Titus’s incessant texts with yet another Still with patient message. Titus has blown up and texted back, Cut the crap. We know you’re with Jace. Feeling guilty about her lies of omission, she’d let his curt text ride, but after seeing that agreement for purchase and sale... Where did he get off being so freaking...accusatory? She’d let him have it with both barrels. Since then, she’d ignored all further messages from her family.
The thought gave her a pang. Titus would have left this morning. He was probably half way across Quebec by this time. She should have gone home to see him off, but she hadn’t been able to summon the energy for any kind of confrontation. She’d call him later, when he got to Regina and had a chance to get settled in.
And then there was Joanne and Hannibal. She’d called them on Tuesday, two days before everything had blown up, but instead of giving them her answer on the California partnership, she’d put them off, bought some more time.
Why? Because she’d allowed herself to think things were going to work out with Jace? That she’d be staying here?
Dammit. she still didn’t know what she wanted to do. Jetting off to California would be so easy...
Pushing further thought from her mind, she snuggled down into the oatmeal-colored cable knit sweater Ryker had loaned her and gazed out over the river. Midstream, a fish jumped, a quick flash of silver in the dying evening light, and then gone.
“Men are pigs.”
She glanced sideways at him. “Nice try. But really, I’m good. All talked out.”
“Maybe I’m not.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You really want to have a discussion about how men are pigs?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Because it’s not universally true.” She fixed him with a gaze. “Not all men are pigs. Case in point, you.”
He grinned. “’Preciate the vote of confidence, Red. But you gotta admit that men do pig things. Take Jace, for instance. Cheating on you all those years ago with this spider woman, Bridget What’s-Her-Face.”
She sat up straighter. “But he didn’t cheat on me. If anything, he was the victim.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t sound like it to me.”
Why was he saying this stuff? “We’ve been over this, Ryker. He did nothing wrong back then, except maybe not telling me about the blackout, the missing time. And hiding that stupid hickey, of course. He definitely didn’t cheat on me. Terry got him drunk—probably spiked his booze to make sure he got completely wrecked—and manipulated Bridget into posing for those pictures. He was innocent. But like a child, I ran without giving him a chance to explain.”
He sat forward in his chair. “Why’d you do that?”
She looked down, unable to hold his piercing gaze. “I guess I didn’t trust him enough, since I let those pictures persuade me so completely.”
“And?”
She glanced up briefly to see he was still studying her intently. She dropped her gaze again and shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe part of me needed to do medical school alone. Devote myself to it.” She picked at the cuff of the oversized sweater. “Maybe I just needed to be on my own, to grow up.”
When he said nothing, she glanced over to see a smile playing on his lips.
Her eyes narrowed. “Okay, I see what you did right there. What you’re trying to do with this whole discussion.”
“What’s that?” He looked at her with such innocence from beneath those ridiculously thick lashes.
“For one thing, you just got me to acknowledge that there may have been other factors at play when I ran away all those years ago. That no situation is ever as simple as it might appear.”
“Hard to argue with that.”
“But it’s totally different this time.” Her fingers tightened on the chair’s wide arm rests. “This isn’t me running off in a fit of jealousy, or to find out if I could stand on my own. This is about the farm. Standish land. My home.”
He nodded agreeably. “Like I said, never trust a man. We’re all—”
“Ah, yes. Pigs. Which brings us to the other thing you did.”
He gave her those innocent eyes again.
“You attacked Jace unjustly, forcing me to defend him. You made me acknowledge that he’s a good, decent person.”
“Is he?” Ryker pinned her with his gaze again.
“Yes,” she said slowly. “Yes, he is.”
He’d been a good guy back then, and he was a good man now. How many times had he proved that to her? His concern for people, for the region. The boxing club that would turn no member away for inability to pay.
What had he said when she asked him if the thing he wanted to tell her could destroy them?
It shouldn’t. Not if you trust me.
But she hadn’t trusted him. She hadn’t hung around to demand explanations. She’d run.
Again.
It was time to rectify that.
“Thank you, Ryker.”
“What for?”
“Everything. Giving me a place to hide out and lick my wounds. Listening to me.” She gave him a tremulous smile. “For being such a great friend. A really, really smart friend.”
“Careful, Red. You’ll make my head swell.”
“Ha! Considering you could make a living as a body double for Joe Manganiello. I don’t think anything I could possibly say could swell that head of yours.”
“Body double, huh?” He laughed and slouched back in his chair. “Maybe I should give that a try. Give up this construc
tion gig and go to Hollywood.”
“Nah,” she said. “Too much sitting around waiting between takes. It’d drive you crazy. Plus it would be dangerous, with all those pyrotechnics and crazy stunts. I like you with all your limbs intact.”
“Glad someone does.”
She slanted him a get real look. “Um...I think there are a whole lot of ladies around who appreciate you that way.”
He gave her his most wicked grin, the one that made his dimples flash. “Yeah, but the trick is finding the right one.”
“Which maybe you could do if you gave up working from sunup to sundown. Well, when I’m not here, guilting you into cutting your day short so you can babysit me.”
“No guilt involved. Seriously, Ember. I’m happy to spend the time with you.”
Well, he wouldn’t have to do that much longer. “Mind if I go make a call?”
“Mind if I eat your ice cream?”
She laughed. “No.”
“Then be my guest.” He swiped her dish of melting ice cream and dug in.
She took her cell phone out of her pocket, crossed the deck and entered the house through the French doors.
Jace answered on the second ring.
“Ember?” He sounded surprised to hear from her. And was that a hopeful note beneath the surprise?
“I shouldn’t have run away,” she said without preamble. “I should have given you a chance to explain.” He said nothing for a second, so she added, “In case you missed it, this is me, giving you that chance.”
“Ember, I just took a seat on a plane. A middle seat. Quarters are a little tight.”
A plane? Well, that hadn’t taken long. Where was he? Las-freakin’-Vegas? The Mayan Riviera?
As though he could hear her thoughts, he said, “I’m in Ottawa, for meetings. I’m bound for Fredericton now,where I’ll pick up my car and drive home.”
“I see. So, not the best timing for a conversation like this.”
“No. And I’m going to have to turn my phone off in a second anyway.” She heard the tinny sound of a recorded pre-flight safety message running in the background. “Can I call you when I get back?”
She inhaled a deep breath, released it. “I’d prefer face-to-face.”