Her Heart's Bargain

by Cheryl Harper

  Macy nodded. “I got that.”

  “Do I make you nervous or something?” Winter asked as she dragged over one of the polished rocking chairs that normally sat in front of the observation window. So, she wasn’t going to disappear into Ash’s office. Fine. “Also, did you know there’s a bear back there?”

  Macy darted around the desk to the window. Careful study turned up no bear, but that didn’t mean Winter was wrong. “He’s gone.”

  “So disappointed. He a friend?” Winter sighed as she kicked off her heels. “Let me know if a visitor pulls up. Can’t be seen like this by the public.” She stretched her legs out. “The bear? A friend?”

  Macy wandered slowly back to Winter. She’d never seen Ash’s sister so...comfortable. Casual. On the verge of relaxed instead of sharp and powerful.

  “When I first started working here, Ash told me bears were good luck.” Macy sniffed. “After the week we’ve had, everyone would like to see their luck turn, you know? Plus, who doesn’t love bears?”

  Winter stretched in her seat. “Fish. All animals smaller than bears. People who meet bears. Lots not to love about bears, but I get it. We don’t see them often enough to ever get over the thrill of it, do we?” Winter rolled her head against the back of the chair. “Word to the wise, though. Don’t trust everything Ash tells you. In college, I did my best to study every Cherokee tale and as much indigenous folklore as I could. Thought I might be a teacher or a writer or...something. Bears are sacred, symbols of strength and courage. Meeting a mama with her cubs would not be lucky.” She wrinkled her nose. “Also, I was bamboozled enough by Ash as a kid to learn to verify everything he tells me. I ended up owing him money and doing his chores entirely too many times to forget he can be convincing when he wants to be.”

  “I have a hard time picturing Ash as a... What? A practical joker?” Macy had spent too much time with him. How had she missed something like that?

  She wanted to see that side. How amazing would it be to know Ash in a way most people didn’t?

  Winter leaned forward. “Okay, I’ll agree I haven’t seen much of that Ash lately, either. It’s like the accident robbed him of any ability to enjoy life. Work. That’s all he does. In high school, he was class president. Not that that’s a great indication of a fun-loving guy, but he got out there, you know? People knew him. Now, he’s so...focused on the job. He was always serious, but there were some things he loved. I don’t know what those are now.” She pressed two fingers over the frown line between her eyebrows. “Except here, in the Reserve. When we stand next to Yanu, I see him, all of him. And I think that’s where the bear good luck charm story came from. Our grandfather probably told us that so we’d stop shaking in terror every time he took us up to the falls.” Her face was somber as she added, “It’s too bad Ash got over that fear. Maybe he wouldn’t have tried to climb up the face to the overlook without the proper safety equipment.”

  Macy gasped. She’d never heard the full story. “Ash did that?” It didn’t fit the man she knew. He followed protocols to the letter, and required that of everyone who worked with him.

  “He used to run with a different crowd. A little wild. For Ash, these mountains are about connection and...history. For me, too. But other people are about challenge and risk and...” Winter closed her eyes briefly. “It’s easy to do dumb things for the people you want to impress.” She clasped her hands over her waist. “Know anything about that?”

  Stuck trying to mash the two different pictures of Ash together, Macy lost the thread of the conversation. Winter was watching her closely. “Ever changed the way you act for someone else? I mean, outside of the crush you had on the most popular boy in high school.” She rolled her eyes and muttered, “Or the college of business, if you’re me.”

  Macy puzzled over Winter’s question. “What do you mean?”

  Winter’s huff of breath was loud in the quiet lobby growing dim. Soon it would be completely dark outside. In the winter, shadows stretched slowly all afternoon, but as soon as the sun sank behind the tall ridge of mountains, the valley went black.

  Macy hoped Ash was close to home. Still, driving the mountain roads in the dark would be no challenge for him. He knew them.

  She preferred he not have to do it more than necessary.

  “I guess I don’t know what I’m asking. People pretend to be something they’re not sometimes. I’m guessing you don’t. Neither does Ash now.” Winter shrugged. “Maybe you were never as silly as me, falling for someone so different from you that you can never shake the worry that it’s a terrible idea. You could say you’ve found the man who loves you as you are and I could hate you for that unless you mean Ash. In that case, I would swallow my bile over true love and celebrate my brother’s good luck. Because he needs something or someone other than all this mess.” Winter’s head thumped against the rocker. “I’ve lost all ability to follow a train of thought.”

  “Your brother and I are not a couple, true love or not.” Macy wanted to drop the subject. Any relationship with Ash would be a mess of...tangled strings. The fact that other people saw potential in it was silly.

  She and Ash butted heads over everything. Love wouldn’t change that.

  Would it?

  Macy clasped a hand over her suddenly topsy-turvy stomach.

  “What is it with speculation on my relationship with my boss?” Ignoring Winter’s suddenly alert expression, Macy stomped behind her desk and plopped down in her chair.

  “Someone else is asking?” Winter dragged the rocker next to Macy and leaned forward, her eyes sparkling anew.

  “No one that matters.” She waited for that to sink in. “I don’t appreciate all this mess he’s in, mainly because I know it makes him unhappy. How do I know? I bear the brunt of his surly attitude. He’s worried for the Reserve and for you.” Determined not to back down on Ash’s behalf, she muttered, “Which you would know about if you’d answered any of his phone calls.”

  Winter shot her an irritated frown. “I’ve had a few things going on.”

  “So has Ash.” Macy tipped her chin up at Winter’s annoyed glare. She would fight for him because he wouldn’t. Not against his sister.

  But Winter had been in the eye of the storm, too. Macy wasn’t sorry she’d said what she had, but it was impossible to ignore how defeated Winter looked. “Do you want to talk about it?” Macy asked.

  Macy didn’t smack her forehead, but she thought about it. There was no reason Winter Kingfisher, important public outreach officer for the Reserve, fiancée to one of the heirs of the richest families in Tennessee, would want to spend time discussing her feelings with Macy.

  But it was clear Winter needed someone.

  Winter lifted her bare feet from the cold tiles and tucked them under her. Macy winced and tried to calculate whether frostbite was even possible indoors.

  “All week I’ve answered calls from news outlets and tabloids alike, politicians demanding answers and a few testing to see what I might know about the environmental impact report and who released it to the governor.” She turned. “But no call from Whit. My best friend. The man I might marry.”

  This was the issue. Macy had a feeling Winter could juggle all those questions and still have time to cook a four-course dinner. She’d be good at everything she tried.

  More than anything, Macy wanted to come up with something encouraging to say.

  But there was no way to spin a man leaving her alone in the middle of a mess. Challenger for the office of governor and beloved heir to one of the most powerful families in the state or not, Whit Callaway should have been by her side, making problems go away.

  If he loved Winter.

  Macy frowned as she shifted in her seat. She wasn’t sure she believed that kind of love existed, the kind that weathered storms and came out stronger. Did Whit blame Winter’s brother for damaging his campaign? Logically, it mad
e sense.

  If he loved Winter, couldn’t they work through that?

  Somewhere inside, Macy wanted to believe that there was a kind of love that would look at that mess as a mere temporary inconvenience, not a final end.

  “No matter how I look at this, I can’t see how my brother and my fiancé ever come to terms.” Winter shrugged, standing and walking over to the windows. “And where does that leave me? I’ve either got to tear everything to the ground or I’ve got to...stand back while people make Ash a scapegoat and then destroy this place.”

  Macy sighed. “You really aren’t good at keeping secrets, are you?”

  Winter laughed. “If you only knew how many I’ve skated around for the past few days, you’d see that I’m better at it than you think.”

  She’d wanted to investigate Winter as a possible option for the guilty party. Now she was almost certain Winter would have been the last person to hide behind the scenes. She was bold, not sneaky.

  Macy was relieved to cross Winter off her list of suspects.

  Winter covered her face with both hands. “I’m not certain why I’m unloading on you.”

  After a lifetime of similar conversations, the ones where the grocery store checkout lady told her about her terrible hysterectomy over the coupon exchange and her hairdresser asked for advice on investments, Macy didn’t even pause to wonder anymore.

  “The thing about bears being good luck...” Macy stood, wanting to be brave enough to force Winter away from the chilly windows. Coffee would help. Coffee always helped. “I didn’t hear many of those pieces of...whatever you call them...while I was growing up.”

  “Lies?” Winter asked. “Legends. Folklore. Or superstitions, if we’re being academic.”

  “Whatever. My grandmother, who was the most practical woman you’d have ever met, would have told me meeting a bear was what I deserved for slacking instead of doing my chores.” Macy nodded at Winter’s shock. “Yes, imagine that lecture for ten years and then someone mentions something to believe in, like bears are good luck, something that may or may not be true, but that it doesn’t hurt to have some hope in. All I’m saying is, seeing that bear might not change my luck, but believing that it could will.”

  Winter considered that, and Macy was pretty sure what she’d said made zero sense even though it was an attempt at capturing what was in her heart. These Kingfishers were hard to read and even harder to convince. Winter, with all her degrees and experience with important people, had probably seen and heard it all.

  “I’m saying...” What? Why had she started this? “You saw the bear. You can either believe it means nothing or hope for better luck. What does it hurt to believe something good is about to happen?” Macy blinked for a minute after she finished speaking. Where had all that come from? And did she actually believe it? She crossed over to stand next to Winter, shivering at the cold penetrating the glass.

  When she realized she did believe every word, it was impossible to ignore how her time in Sweetwater had changed her. “Hokey nonsense, my grandmother would say.” She watched Winter’s reflection. “But that’s better than despair any day, I’d say.”

  Winter’s slow smile was enough to make Macy’s mood lighten. “I’m happy you’re here, Macy. I needed to hear that. I don’t know what to do with it, but I believe we’re here together for this conversation. And when you and Ash fall in love, because that’s what I’m going to pin all my hopes on for the future, I can’t wait to tell the world you’re an optimist at heart.”

  Macy shook her head. Somehow the conversation had taken a turn that she hadn’t expected.

  So, she decided to take the wheel. “Love? No way, but I was going to do my best to get close to you so that I could investigate whether you were responsible for this mess with the lodge. But that doesn’t seem to be the way to go anymore.” Macy rubbed her forehead.

  “You’re not great with secrets, either.” Winter crossed her arms over her chest. “Good to know. No one would believe you were lying to cover for Ash if it comes to that.” She paced in a small circle. “I’ve been thinking all week on how to move this attention away from Ash, but he’s right in the middle of the story. Pointing the finger at someone else only works if there’s proof. He’s my brother, so of course I’d defend him. I can’t let the Callaways fire him. I can’t. He loves this place. Otter Lake needs Ash.”

  “If he’s fired...” Macy stared hard out the window, desperate for a bear distraction.

  The faint trail of lights signaling someone turning into the parking lot was a relief.

  “Someone’s on their way in.” Macy checked the large clock over her desk. “Even though the ranger station is officially closed.” This time of year, park gates were locked at eight, but the visitor center closed promptly at five, no matter the season. “Grab your shoes and head for the coffeemaker. We’ll give Ash another call as soon as I lock the doors.”

  Winter bent to pick up her shoes without any argument, but before Macy could get the door locked, Ash’s SUV swung into the parking spot in front. He killed the lights and limped slowly in, and no matter how many times it happened, Macy got the same feeling of relief.

  Rain or shine, light or dark, good day or bad, when Ash was near, she relaxed.

  Then she realized she was about to have a front row seat to a family drama and wondered if she could get her purse out of the drawer of her desk and slink past him before the tension choked her.

  Growing up as she had, with her grandmother who had no patience for drama of any sort, the prospect of diving headfirst into this gave her a nervous knot in her stomach.

  “You lost your phone and had to get a new number at exactly the same time you tripped on your heels, hit your head and got amnesia, so you didn’t remember that you had an older brother who would worry after a few days of you dodging his calls.” Ash narrowed his eyes at Winter. “That’s it, right? You would never believe what other people are saying over what I’ve told you myself.”

  Macy knew her eyes were round, but she was certain her mouth was clamped shut. They didn’t hesitate but launched right into battle.

  “Or I’ve been doing nothing but talking on the phone, one obnoxious call right after the next, and so I needed time to call you back.” Winter dropped her shoes with a loud clatter before she marched up to Ash. “Or I needed you in person, not over the phone.” She wrapped her arms around her brother’s neck and pressed her forehead to his shoulder. “Be quiet and hold me now.”

  Watching Ash hug his sister tightly was shocking. Winter no longer seemed capable of striding right over the competition. She’d needed her brother. Envy brought a sting to Macy’s eyes.

  Being so alone wasn’t too difficult most of the time.

  Standing on the outside of this, though... Macy pinched the end of her nose, desperate to chase the tears away. Then Ash tilted his head up and their eyes met. He was asking for her help. Without words, Macy understood that he needed her.

  “Let me lock the door. Then I’ll make coffee before I leave.” Macy took her key ring out and pressed her hand to Ash’s shoulder as she reached around him to lock the door. “It won’t take a minute.”

  Before she could ease away from them, Ash bent his head closer to hers. “I know it’s Friday and you might have plans, but I’d appreciate it if you’d stick around.” He glanced down at his sister who was studying them both suspiciously. “Both of you.”

  “What about dinner at Mom and Dad’s? It’s a command performance, some kind of emergency meeting,” Winter said as she stepped back, her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

  Had she realized she wasn’t as tough as she’d imagined?

  “I called it.” Ash glanced at the window. Was he seeking the solace from the view? “If I’m going to fight, I need my allies. Dinner seemed the easiest way to get everyone there.”

  “So, we’re your team.” Win
ter motioned to Macy. “The two of us.”

  “Yes, the people I trust most.” Ash gripped both of their shoulders and it was hard for Macy to shake the feeling that something was shifting between her and Ash Kingfisher.

  Not that it mattered. He needed her. Whatever it was, she was in.

  CHAPTER SIX

  MACY WASN’T QUITE convinced how great an idea it was to be strapped in beside her boss for the drive to his parents’ house for Friday night dinner and strategy session, Winter Kingfisher’s taillights leading the way into Sweetwater, but it was better than what she’d had planned for the evening, so it was easy enough to go along.

  Except for the crushing silence.

  Ash had yet to say a word.

  The tension between them was new. They were outside of the office, on their own, in the close confines of the dark SUV.

  Something about it made Macy think of a first date. In her mind, she could picture Ash showing up at her door. Instead of the Reserve uniform, he was wearing a jacket.

  Macy had to blink at how easy that was to imagine, Ash wearing date clothes. She saw him every day, but that would be a new side of him.

  A date with Ash would be a mix of old-fashioned good manners, conversation like pulling teeth and so much time to enjoy his handsome face.

  No wonder this felt like a date. She was already there.

  If one of them didn’t speak soon, Macy was certain she’d just forget how from all the stress of scrambling through her brain to find something to say.

  Ash cleared his throat and Macy froze. He’d get the ball rolling.

  When he merely shifted in his seat, Macy huffed out a breath. “Could this get any more awkward?”