She made a face. “I can’t possibly do much worse than your brother.”
Before Owen had gotten serious with Carla, he’d taken Ruthie on a disastrous first date. Their only date. While the two of them weren’t what you’d call friends, Ruthie was pleasant to all of us again.
She nodded to the group. “What are you guys drinking? John told me your drinks are on the house tonight because Pax helped him out with the deliveries yesterday.”
“My brother is a saint.” I had to hand it to Paxton, his willingness to help everyone sure paid off for all of us. “Make it two beers and a vodka cranberry easy on the vodka.”
“Is that for Owen?”
I glanced at her, surprised. “How’d you know?”
“He usually changes after a few beers,” she replied as she rummaged around behind the bar to make our drinks. “Maybe Carla can convince him that beer before liquor will make him sicker.”
“That almost sounds like you care, Ruthie.”
“Almost.” She trayed the drinks and slid them forward. “Take these to your table, and let me go back to texting this guy in peace.”
“Say no more.” I dropped the twenty into her tip jar. If we weren’t paying for drinks all night, then it was the least I could do. She saw the Jackson sticking out of the jar and smiled.
“Everyone says Owen’s the gentleman, but I’d say it’s you.”
“It’s all a front. I’m a complete fraud.”
“I can believe that.”
I laughed the comment off as I took the drinks back to my brothers, who were looking behind me with curious glances.
“What’s wrong?” I sat down and looked in the direction of their stares. Emily Flanagan had entered Reilly’s with an unsure look on her face.
“Who’s that?” Owen asked.
“I think she’s Judy Flanagan’s niece or daughter or something,” Paxton said.
“Daughter,” I blurted. “Her name’s Emily.”
Owen stared at me. “How could you possibly know that? Have you met her?”
Pax handed out the drinks. “At the grocery store. They were having a cat-fight in Wilkes’ yesterday.”
I looked at him with annoyance. “We were not. She’s a typical spoiled city girl.”
“Her mom’s nice,” Pax broke in.
“Judy’s kindness didn’t rub off on her daughter.” I grabbed my beer and took a long drink and took another look. She might not have been nice, but she sure was pretty.
“I didn’t hear you get her name in the store,” Pax said. “She wouldn’t even look at you.” He shook his head.
“That’s not true; she shot daggers my way.”
Owen laughed. “She hated you before she gave you her name? Aw, Eli, she hurt your feelings? No wonder you don’t like her.”
“It wasn’t like that, and you know it.” I chanced another look at her. I didn’t know why, but I was pulled in her direction. Something about her drew me in. Could it be because she had acted like I didn’t exist?
“So how did you get her name? You stalk her? Go ask her mom?”
“Shut the hell up, Pax.”
“See?” Owen pointed to Pax. “Imagine that annoying voice all week.” He sipped his drink and turned my way. “You still haven’t said how you got her to tell you her name.”
“She nearly fell in the parking lot,” I explained. “I caught her going down. To be honest, it was my fault because I startled her, but I can’t say she didn’t deserve it. She told me her name after that.”
“Your epic love story has finally begun,” Owen joked.
“No way. She and I are like dogs and cats. Her dislike for small-town folk seems to run pretty deep. She doesn’t seem the type to want to socialize with the lowly locals. It’s surprising to see her here among the heathens. I wonder what she’s up to.”
“I’ll find out,” Pax said as he pushed his chair away from the table and stood. We looked at him in disbelief. “What?” He lifted his hands to his sides. “If she turned Eli down, then she clearly has some taste. Won’t hurt to say hello.”
“You’re unbelievable; you know that?” I would have tossed his remaining beer at him, but nothing was worth wasting a free drink over.
Pax waggled his brows. “It’s not every day a gorgeous woman comes through here. Especially one we haven’t known since school … unless you’re Owen, and you don’t pay attention to the girls that were here from the beginning.”
“Mean, but not untrue,” Owen reasoned as he drank his cranberry and vodka. He glanced at Emily. “She’s pretty.”
“That’s an understatement,” Pax said. “She’s Carl-level gorgeous.”
“Is that your baseline standard for all women now?” I asked. “Because that makes it seem like you’re still crushing on Owen’s fiancée.”
“It also means your standards are impossibly high because no one can reach the level of Carla,” Owen added on.
Pax ignored us and walked over to the bar. We watched, seeing if he would fail. I wanted him to. Not necessarily because it was fun to see him flounder, but because I didn’t want her to like him and loathe me.
We barely heard him introduce himself when she glanced at our table. I ducked my head down, but it was too late. She stared straight at me.
“I take it you’re related to him?” Her tone hardened as her voice rose.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“I’m sorry. That must be awful for you.”
Pax made a face as he ran a hand through his blond hair. “Aw, don’t be like that. He’s not that bad, but I promise I’m better. Are you going to judge me based on my brother?”
“Yes. You have a problem with that?”
“Doesn’t seem particularly fair, or friendly, Miss Flanagan.”
“Go back to your brothers and talk about football, or the snow, or something other than me.”
I watched Pax cringe at the tone of her voice. “Kindness is free. Doesn’t cost you a thing to smile or say a nice word.”
“Do all the Cooper brothers talk first and think later? Or is it a Frazier Falls thing?”
Pax held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, I get it. You want to be left alone. There was no harm in seeing if you wanted to join us for a drink, though, was there?”
“You didn’t make it far enough to ask.”
“Nope, because your mouth opened first. Hope you have a better night.”
She stood there with her jaw hanging open.
Paxton rejoined the table to bursts of laughter from both of us. “You deserved that,” I said as he sat down looking like he’d walked through fire.
“She’s got one hell of a sharp tongue on her.”
“I can hear you, you know,” Emily called from her place at the bar.
I looked up as she glanced at me. For the smallest of moments, the two of us almost smirked at each other, but then she looked away as John Reilly came out with a bag. I ignored my brothers and listened carefully to catch every word said.
“Here’s the food for your mom,” he said. “I’ve thrown in some of those dumplings she likes on the side. Tell her to hurry up and get better soon, okay?”
Emily gave him a warm smile, which transformed her already attractive face into something beautiful. “Thank you so much.”
John looked toward our table. “Have you taken a liking to a Cooper?”
She laughed. “That’s like asking me if I’d like a case of the pox.”
John shook his head. “Mae West once said, ‘Love thy neighbor, and if he happens to be tall, debonair, and devastating, it will be that much easier.’ You could do a lot worse than a Cooper.”
It was funny to hear John dish out his worldly words of wisdom to Emily. Lord, it was time he had a new audience.
“When they come up with a cure for stupidity, I’ll consider it.”
She gave me and my brothers a final look and left the bar.
It appeared she could be nice to small-town folk, or maybe only to John s
ince he had food. Guess Miss Flanagan was more complicated than I’d originally thought.
“Hey, Eli, you want another?” Pax asked, holding up his empty mug. “Or are you going to sit there staring into space?”
“How can we already be on another round?” I’d been so focused on Emily that I missed everything around me.
Owen glanced at Pax’s empty mug. “Somebody drank away his shame, and I drank with him in solidarity. You want another or not?”
I shook my head. “No, leave me out this time.”
I wondered if I could find a reasonable excuse to visit Judy Flanagan’s house. Emily was like an itch I couldn’t reach. Maybe once I visited, she’d be out of my system for good.
Rich usually took wood from the mill to all the elderly residents in Frazier Falls. Between him and Pax, it was sometimes difficult to decide which one was saintlier. Maybe I needed to borrow the title for a day.
I supposed I could always call him and volunteer. At the thought, I froze. Why was I going to this much effort to see a woman I didn’t like? Who or what was I becoming? A damn masochist.
Disappointed in myself, I downed my beer, then motioned over to Pax, who stood at the bar.
“I changed my mind. Grab me one while you’re there.”
Ridiculous thoughts about Emily should be easy to erase with copious amounts of alcohol.
Chapter Six
Emily
I wished my mom could eat spicy food. Meals were boring if I had to stick to mild and easy-to-digest ingredients. I craved garlic, and jalapeños, and hot sauce. God, I missed hot sauce. I was so damn sick of potatoes.
The massive sack that Eli’s brother had found in the back of the store was a blessing, though there were only so many ways to make a potato. I wanted to burn all of them, simply so I didn’t have to see them again, but I couldn’t deny how versatile and filling they were. Besides, my mother loved them. I used to make fun of her for it, given that it made her look like an Irish stereotype. There was no potato famine in Frazier Falls.
“You worry too much about what people think of you, Emily,” she had told me on more than one occasion. She was content to love her potatoes, be they mashed, or boiled, or roasted, or fried, and she didn’t care how much I teased her about it.
There was no doubt I’d be a lot happier if I was more like my mother, but I couldn’t be her because I was me. Opinionated. Cynical. Judgmental.
Eli’s other brother, Paxton, was still grating on my nerves even now, two days after the fact. He had been so cocksure and arrogant like his brother. His easy charm wouldn’t have been out of place in Los Angeles, but it seemed obnoxious in Frazier Falls. If I was being honest, had I met him in California, I would have had no qualms about going home with him after a night of drinking and dancing.
The problem was, he wasn’t from California. He was from Frazier Falls, Colorado, and no different from his brother. Full of himself in a way only a man who knew everything about the people and places around him could be, but I wasn’t going to give him an opportunity to get to know me. I’d remain a mystery and forget the Coopers existed once I went home.
The other brother, Owen, was the engaged one, I assumed. Beyond frustrated, it annoyed every cell in my body that their names had stuck in my head after Sadie had shared her social media search. Out of the three brothers, he was the one who seemed the most level-headed and normal.
Technically, there was nothing bad about Eli or Paxton. Paxton had relented quickly when it became obvious I wanted him to leave me alone, and Eli had helped me with the potatoes I now peeled. He’d held the door open for me—though I was fairly certain he’d only done it to prove a point. Then again, he’d saved me from falling, which he didn’t have to do.
It was all well and good to say that I’d forget about him and his brothers when I returned to Los Angeles, but I was still in Frazier Falls, which meant running into Eli was a likely scenario. I’d now seen him twice in as many days. It was a miracle I hadn’t seen him before.
Looking out the kitchen window, the noonday sun shone as strongly as it could in the middle of winter, reflecting brilliantly off the snow. If it stayed like this over the next couple of days, then flights would resume in and out of the smaller airports. I could realistically be out of here by Wednesday.
I peeked at my mom through the open door. She was sitting on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket, watching old episodes of Downton Abbey. She always found something British to keep her occupied. Shaking my head in bemusement, I returned to cooking her lunch.
“That smells delicious,” she said in anticipation as I placed our food on the small dining table.
“Meat and potatoes would taste much better if you’d let me spice up the seasoning.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t go wrong with the classics. Leave them be.”
I grabbed the pepper mill and twisted it until a cloud of black dust covered my meat. It was my version of blackened steak. “As long as you’re happy with it.”
“I’m delighted to have someone cooking for me. You know how much I appreciate it, right?”
“Yes, I do.” I glanced out of the window once more.
“Why don’t you head on out after lunch and explore a bit? The woods here are beautiful.”
“The snow is still too thick on the ground for me to take you out.”
She fussed in exasperation. “By yourself, I mean. It’s about time you used your eyes and ears and took in a bit of the place you’re actually in rather than daydreaming about where you’d rather be. Thinking about that city of yours won’t make the snow melt any faster. Slow down and enjoy this while you can.”
I narrowed my eyes at her, feeling the crease from the tension in my forehead. “Is this an order?”
“If it’ll get you outside, then yes, it’s an order. Get out of the house. Don’t come back until sunset. Go wandering through the trees and visit the creek. It must be frozen solid right now. I’m sure it’s beautiful. Take some photos on your phone for your poor old mother to see.”
I let out a huff. “Fine.” I sounded like a sulky teenager. “I’ll go outside. Though I’m sure to hate every moment of it to spite you.” I looked up with a smile.
She smiled back. “That’s the spirit.”
Resigned to my fate, I finished my lunch and threw on as many layers as I thought I’d need. I twisted my hair into a bun, sighing at the flyways I could never control. Forgoing a hat in favor of a pair of fluffy earmuffs, I slid on a pair of leather gloves before waving goodbye to my mother.
“If the weather stays like this, you’ll be back to yourself in no time,” I murmured as I stepped outside. That was my hope. My mom would no doubt enjoy getting out of the house, and it would lessen the blow of my departure.
My heart still hurt at the thought of her staying here by herself. There was no guarantee the weather was going to keep getting better until spring. Today’s good weather could merely be a blip. Long enough for me to get the hell out of here, but not long enough to allow her to get better. What else could I do?
As I walked, I passed lots of houses with well-built, wooden porches covered in a layer of snow. I made my way out of town toward the edge of the forest. The houses became more spread out with large areas of parkland in between. There was a children’s jungle gym covered in more snow than I would have thought physically possible. The sounds of kids laughing filled the air as they happily flung themselves down a hill on everything from a cardboard box to a trash can lid.
Snow to a child was magical. I’d never gotten much of it in Ireland, where it was often too wet and mild, but there had been one or two occasions when we’d been the recipient of a snowstorm. The aftereffects had been nothing like the snow in Frazier Falls, but there had been enough snow for sledding. Enough to build a snowman. Enough to have fun. But I was no longer a child. I was an adult out for a walk imposed on me as some brutal form of punishment from my mother. Maybe I was still a child, after all.
The shrie
ks of delight from the children disappeared as I reached the line of trees that signaled the beginning of the forest. Here, by the park, many of the trees were deciduous, their naked branches waiting for winter to end. Up ahead, the forest gave way to all kinds of coniferous trees, and the mill I’d spied on more than one occasion when traveling through to visit my mom.
There was spruce and fir and pine. Possibly more. I’d never been much of a tree person, but given my background in geography, it came as a surprise to no one that I knew more than the average person about the world around me.
After walking beneath the snow-heavy boughs melting under the rays of sunlight, I had to admit my mom had been right. Getting out was good. It was beautiful here. Quiet and peaceful with air as crisp and clean as freshly pressed linen.
It was the perfect place for my mom to be even if I didn’t want to admit it. My lungs felt like they were being cleansed simply by breathing in the air. Air like this didn’t exist in Los Angeles. Sadly, it reminded me of home.
My laughter echoed through the trees. Ardmore hadn’t been my home in eighteen years. I’d spent more time in Los Angeles than in Ireland, and yet, despite all that, when I thought of home, I always thought of that tiny, inconsequential village in the middle of nowhere.
Eventually, after a bit of an uphill climb following the footsteps of someone who had broken a trail before me, I broke through the tree line and found myself in a narrow clearing at the top of a hill. I could see the entire town below me.
An unexpected “wow” escaped my lips as I took in the sight. The sun shone on a frozen ribbon that must have been the creek, the glinting rays turning it to silver.
Sitting beneath a tree on the snow-packed ground, I closed my eyes and took in the sounds of chirping birds and rustling pine needles as the wind skated through the forest. I’d never admit this to anyone, but this moment was perfect.
Chapter Seven
Eli
Despite having told myself I wouldn’t ask my future brother-in-law to help with his firewood deliveries, I said yes to his request to do the rounds of the forest. He had this obsession to make sure it was free of litter. He policed it like a ranger. Given that he and my brother were in Germany, it was hard to say no.
Shelter Me: A Frazier Falls Novel Page 4