Saving Laurel Springs

by Lin Stepp

  The boy looked up with a shy grin.

  Carter sent a scowl Lillian’s way but received no remorseful look from her in return.

  “So. You decided to grace us with your presence again after all these years,” she said. “To what do we owe the honor?”

  Nana shook a finger at her. “Lillian, mind your manners. The boy has a right to come home whenever he will. And he’s come to see us as soon as he’s gotten here.” Nana smiled at Carter. “Never mind Lillian. You know she’s pleased to see you.”

  Carter wasn’t so sure.

  However, the visit moved on, awkward but not unbearable. Nana chatted with amiable pleasure, and Lillian managed more cordiality after a while. Even Beau warmed up and joined in the conversation when he learned Carter had a son his age.

  After a requisite twenty minutes, Carter stood to tell them he needed to head back home. Nana saw him out the door and followed him to where he’d tied Traveler.

  She saw Carter look around, scanning the property. “She’s not here, boy. She came in upset and left in a huff about something.” She raised her eyebrows thoughtfully. “Did you see her earlier?”

  Carter nodded.

  Her gray eyes studied him. “I guess something happened then that got her riled up.”

  Carter ran a hand through his hair. “Nothing in particular. Just seeing me after so long, Nana.”

  The old woman considered this. “You were hoping to see her here again when you came, weren’t you?”

  “Yes.” There was no point in denying it. Carter or Rhea had neither one ever been able to lie to Nana. It was of no use. She always saw right through it, even if you lied artfully.

  “Why did you want to see her?” Nana asked, moving closer, watching him.

  “Maybe to smooth things over. To talk a little more.” He dropped his eyes. “I’d like to at least be friends.”

  Nana weighed this idea and then looked up toward the ridgelines above them. “Well, I reckon I could mention this. She got Jewel out of the stable and took off up toward the mountain. You can probably figure out about where she might go if you think on it. If you happened to ride up that way and ran into her, then I guess you would.”

  Carter leaned over and gave the white-haired woman a kiss and a hug. “If I happen to ride up that way, I’ll keep it to myself how I happened to be there.” He grinned.

  “That might be wise. The girl is a little wrought up right now.” She patted his cheek fondly.

  Carter mounted Traveler and started back down the pathway that brought him to the Deans’. Only this time as he got to Low Ridge, he encouraged Traveler across Grassy Branch at a well-worn crossing and started up a hill through the woods to the upper ridgeline, called High Ridge, on the mountain behind it.

  As he crested the ridge, Carter and Traveler followed the narrow trail along the edge of the ridgeline leading out to Rocky Knob, a rocky shelf of high rocks protruding from the mountainside. If you knew the way, you could find a rough pathway behind several higher rocks and walk right out onto a wide, flat rock angling out from the mountain. On a clear day, you could see all the way down the valley from this point—and could see almost the entire property of Laurel Springs Assembly.

  Carter knew the spot well. He and Rhea Dean had come here ever since they discovered this rocky point at seven years old.

  He tied Traveler with Rhea’s dappled gray horse, Jewel, in the woods behind the rocks, and then he made his way through the rocky maze and out to the point. Rhea sat on the rock with her knees pulled up, looking out on the valley below.

  “Go away,” she said, without turning around. “I don’t want to talk with you anymore today.”

  “We don’t always get what we want in life,” he answered, coming out on the rock to sit down beside her.

  CHAPTER 3

  To Rhea’s annoyance, her dog Dutchie ran with eagerness to wrap herself around Carter’s legs before he started out on the rock. He squatted down with pleasure to greet the black-and-white mutt, mostly Border collie, with her tail wagging like an eager flag.

  “Traitor,” Rhea muttered to the dog.

  Carter chuckled. “She hasn’t forgotten I rescued her the day that man drove by the lake and threw her out his car window—straight into the water all tied up in a gunnysack.”

  Rhea set her jaw, her anger stirring at the remembrance. “That horrible man stopped his car and threw her off the bridge into Douglas Lake!”

  “Good thing she barked or we might not have known a pup was in the sack at all.” He scratched Dutchie with fondness behind her ears.

  A flash of remembered fear hit Rhea as she recalled how scared she’d been that day when Carter dove off the bridge to rescue the dog. It had been a long dive, even from the shallow end of the bridge. “You dove in and swam out to save her. You could have drowned yourself.”

  “But I didn’t.” Carter edged his way carefully out on the rock to sit down beside her. Dutchie, more cautious of the rocky ledge, stayed back in the shade of a deep overhang.

  He sighed. “Best view in the world.”

  Rhea edged herself away from him on the rock, hugging her knees in her arms. The silence stretched out between them as they looked down over the valley and the property of Laurel Springs.

  At one time, Rhea would have been happy and content to have Carter here beside her, looking out over their world together. But not today.

  “What are you doing here?” she said at last.

  He turned to look at her, pulling his sunglasses down so she could see his eyes. “This is my home, Rhea. And this is my spot as much as yours.”

  She frowned at him. “No. Not anymore. You’re only a visitor now and not a very welcome one. At least not to me.”

  “I’d like to work past those bad feelings,” he said quietly.

  She crossed her arms, appalled at his words. “Bad feelings? That’s an understatement. Is that how you express the fact that you left Laurel Springs, abandoned all your dreams and promises, and haven’t come back for nine years?” Her mouth tightened. “Honestly, Carter, I feel it’s extremely charitable of me to even be talking with you at all.”

  “There might be reasons for why I haven’t come back. There might be more to what happened than you know.” He reached out a hand to brush a stray hair back from her face.

  Rhea slapped his hand away. “Don’t start trying to work your way back into my good graces, Carter Layman. We may have known a deep friendship once, but you ended that when you abandoned Laurel Springs and when you abandoned …” She caught herself before she finished her sentence, biting off the word.

  “When I abandoned you?” Carter asked softly. “I know it seems that way.”

  “No, Carter, it was that way.” She pulled her arms tighter around her knees, moving farther away from him. “We may not have been formally engaged, but we were committed. You, of all people, know that’s true. We were pledged and you broke all your promises to me.”

  Carter picked up a small rock and flicked it with anger over the rim of the rock. “You broke some promises to me, too, Rhea Dean. I’m not the only one at fault in what happened. We’d both planned to go away to college in California. Only I had to go alone.”

  Rhea looked toward him in annoyance. “My father had a heart attack the month before college started. Remember? I couldn’t have left then—left Mother and Nana with all the worry and care—and with all of Daddy’s responsibilities at Laurel Springs to shoulder alone. It was tourist season. I couldn’t go.”

  “Maybe.” His jaw took on a familiar stubborn line. “Or maybe you didn’t want to enough. That was our dream, Rhea—to go to California, to get our degrees and find a way to make big money so we could come back here and fix up Laurel Springs.”

  He ricocheted another stone off the ledge and down into the valley. “I had to go alone and I missed you. You promised you’d come at midterm, but you found another excuse not to come.”

  “Daddy wasn’t much better,” she interrupted.
“You know that. I was needed here.”

  He turned angry eyes toward her. “I needed you, too, Rhea. And I couldn’t come home that summer. Then, as summer ended, you didn’t come again. You promised you would and you broke that promise, too.”

  Rhea blew out a breath. “You were working on your first big game that summer, while I was here trying to keep Laurel Springs going, trying to keep up Daddy’s jobs and responsibilities. I meant to come in the fall, but as you well know, Daddy died.”

  “And still you didn’t come.” His voice was quiet.

  Rhea shook her head in exasperation. “Things changed, Carter. My father died. I could hardly pack up my bags and head out West. I was my parents’ only child. Who would handle Daddy’s responsibilities?”

  He slanted her a sharp glance. “Your mother would have managed. She’s a strong woman. And she and Nana would have understood if you left them. They knew I had to go on to California alone and be without you for a year.” He pitched another stone over the cliff in irritation. “Dash it all, Rhea, how do you think I felt? I felt abandoned when you didn’t come. I felt you didn’t care.”

  She began to lose patience. “Well, poor little you. So you just had to go out and find yourself a rich California girl and get married to console yourself.”

  Carter clenched his fists. “You’re ticking me off.”

  “Good. So go away and leave me alone. I don’t want to kiss and make up now that your little wife has died.” She spit the words out angrily.

  He grabbed her arm, provoked. “Do you ever think how you sound when you lose your temper and spout off like this—how you make people feel?”

  “I hope I make you feel horrible.” She jerked her arm away and inched her way back off the rock to stand up on more solid ground. “I hope I hurt you like you hurt me.”

  Carter followed her off the rock and stood up to grasp both her arms. “You don’t really mean that.”

  “Yes, I do.” She tried to pull away from him. “What are you doing back here anyway, Carter Layman? What’s brought you back now after all this time? I hoped you’d never come back.”

  Carter studied her face, and his voice grew soft. “You don’t really mean that either.”

  Tears threatened at her eyes, but she fought them back. “Yes, I do. I hate you, Carter Layman—for how you hurt me, for how little your promises meant. Do you hear me, I hate you.” She struggled now to get away from his grasp, hitting at him, trying to kick him.

  He fought her, wrestling her into a steely grip in his arms. And then his lips came down to lock on hers with anger.

  Rage simmered between them as Rhea struggled to free herself—and then reason and logic vanished and passion crashed over them. Carter pressed her against the rocky ledge, his hands moving over her. She whimpered, drawing him closer, letting her hands touch his face, his arms, all the angles and curves of him—so familiar to her heart even after all these years. Rhea felt Carter’s fingers in her hair, his lips explore her neck and shoulder. She felt the fire that always exploded between them sizzling in the air.

  He brought his lips back to hers, and the world seemed to fade away in the blaze of feelings that always erupted between them. Carter moaned and drew her even closer, pressing her tighter against the rock, and Rhea wrapped her arms around him, wanting to feel every inch of him touching her.

  It wasn’t until he drew back and smiled at her with that irritating, satisfied smile of his that she came to herself. What the devil had she done? She’d let him slip past her defenses! Let him hold her and touch her again when she’d sworn that would never happen.

  “You don’t hate me, Rhea.” He reached up to trace a finger down her face, his voice husky. “It’s still there between the two of us.”

  He leaned in to kiss her again, but she pushed him away. “There’s always been a little passion between us. Who knows why? But the fact that it ignites—like a sudden brush fire—doesn’t mean I feel differently.”

  She pulled away. “And it doesn’t mean I like you—or could ever trust you or respect you again.” She rubbed her hand across her lips, as if trying to brush away the traces of the kiss. “Nothing’s different because of this little moment, Carter. So don’t think it is.”

  She struggled away from him and around the rock path to her horse. He followed her, trying to reach out to touch her again as she reached Jewel and started to mount.

  “Don’t touch me again.” She slapped at him and swung herself up into the saddle. “You keep your hands off me.”

  Rhea paused then, looking down at Carter, who watched her carefully, that smug look still lingering in his eyes.

  Her temper rose again. She wanted to slap his face.

  He’d always been so devastatingly handsome—with such a sexual charisma. Even other girls in school noticed it, from elementary years on. In high school, she fought jealousy often, watching other girls flirt with him … sometimes wondering if he was true to her.

  He always teased her about it, telling her there would never be anyone for him but her. Promising no one else held any appeal but her. Obviously, that hadn’t been true.

  She tried to angle Jewel around Carter, wanting to get away.

  Seeming to sense her thoughts, Carter put a hand on her leg and smiled up at her. “See ya later—and love you forever, Rhea Dean.”

  She kicked out at him. “Don’t start telling me your lies again about loving forever, Carter Layman. You married someone else—remember? You have a son. Would you be here flirting with me if she hadn’t died? And next month or next year, if someone else comes along who takes your fancy, will you offer them your sweet talk, too? Touch them and make their blood sing?”

  He raised a knowing eyebrow at her. “Did I make your blood sing, Rhea? You did mine.”

  “You’re impossible!” She reined Jewel around him to start down the trail. “I hope you’re planning to go back home to California soon.”

  “And what if I’m not?” His voice was soft, and she saw his eyes watching her carefully with a question in them.

  Rhea felt a shiver and paused. “What do you mean?”

  “Maybe I’m not planning to go back soon.” He walked toward her, reaching out to take Jewel’s reins in one hand, looking up at her with those dark eyes that always seemed to see far into her soul. “Maybe I’m not planning to go back at all.”

  Her voice came out in a choked whisper. “Why would you stay?”

  “There are some old dreams here unfinished.”

  Irritated, she lifted her chin. “Like what?”

  “Laurel Springs. There’s a lot I’d like to do here.”

  She felt her anger rising again. “Laurel Springs has been here for a long time and hasn’t drawn you back through all these years.”

  His eyes flashed. “You don’t know about my life through these years. You don’t know what I’ve been feeling.” He gave her a hard look then. “You wouldn’t even write to me.”

  Rhea rolled her eyes. “You were married. Or don’t you remember that?”

  “Don’t get hateful again, Rhea.” He glared at her.

  She jerked Jewel’s reins out of his hand. “This conversation is getting us nowhere. I’m tired of it. And you haven’t given me even one good reason why you’ve come back at this particular time in history—or why you’re talking like you might stay. Laurel Springs must seem tame compared to the fancy California life you’ve been living. I can’t think of anything here that would hold your interest long enough to keep you happy.”

  Carter swung up onto his horse and brought Traveler up beside her where he could look into her face.

  “Give this some thought.” His gaze burned into hers. “I’ve come back for Laurel Springs—for our old dreams and to make her grand again—no matter how you taunt me for it. It’s time and past time.”

  He reached out to touch her face, tracing a finger down her jaw before she jerked away. “And I’ve come back for you, Rhea Dean—so get used to both of those ideas, like
them or not.”

  He spurred Traveler down the path then, leaving Rhea with her mouth hanging open. Blast him for getting the last word in!

  CHAPTER 4

  It didn’t surprise Carter that Rhea avoided him for the next week. He expected it after what happened between them at Rocky Knob. She’d let her guard down, let him know she still found him desirable. It was heady knowledge—and warmed Carter’s thoughts daily. Even if Rhea said she hated him, he knew now she didn’t. It was a beginning.

  He sat on the porch this fine Monday morning talking with Billy Wade Ledford, their six-year-old boys playing in the yard. Beau and Taylor, now fast friends, had discovered cowboy hats and gun-and-holster sets in an old trunk in Carter’s childhood room yesterday. They chased across the yard now, shooting each other in pretend games from behind bushes and trees.

  Carter smiled to see Taylor fall to the ground, groaning and feigning a hit. “It’s good to see Taylor running and playing like this, Billy. The last year or two took an unhealthy toll on him.”

  Billy picked up a chipped mug and took a swig of hot coffee. “You mean because of his mother dying? I guess that was a hard time for him. And for you. She had Lou Gehrig’s disease, didn’t she? Seems like I read women don’t get that much. Mostly men.”

  “Yeah.” Carter propped a foot up on a wooden stool. “Lou Gehrig’s, or ALS, usually strikes men. But women aren’t exempt. That’s why it took the doctors a little longer than usual to know what Judith had.”

  “What exactly is that—ALS?”

  “It’s a fatal neuromuscular disease. Starts with being tired, losing energy—tripping, dropping things, having muscle cramps—and gradually moves to more advanced muscle atrophy.” He shook his head, remembering the last years. “Taylor and I watched Judith lose her ability to walk or use her hands for the simplest acts of daily living, buttoning her shirt or tying her shoes.”

  Billy gave him a sympathetic look. “That must have been hell.”