by Jen Gilroy
“It is.” Georgia’s tone softened. “There sure have been lots of changes while I’ve been away. Nick’s a married man, to a woman who looks like a supermodel, no less, and he’s an instant dad to three girls. Mom’s got Ward in her life, and Amy’s grown so big I hardly recognize her. And here you are back in Firefly Lake all cozy with Luc Simard.”
Despite the new tattoo on her forearm and longer hair, her sister hadn’t changed a bit, and the two of them had slipped back into their relationship as if they’d never been apart. Like when they were younger, the instant Cat let down her guard, Georgia landed with military precision on the subject Cat least wanted to talk about.
“I have no idea what you mean.” She hugged the sweater to her chest. “Luc’s coaching Amy in hockey, and he’s living here at Harbor House while his own place is being built. Nothing more.”
“So why were the two of you also looking pretty loved-up on the dance floor?” Georgia’s blue eyes, a dark blue like Nick’s and their dad’s, sharpened.
“We had one dance. Everybody else was dancing, so it would have been rude to not join in. Luc only asked me to be polite.” Except, for a few minutes, the way he’d held her was intimate and right. Then he’d tensed, moved away, and, as soon as the New Year toast was over, muttered an excuse and left Cat strangely bereft.
“A real hero, isn’t he?” Georgia’s voice shook with suppressed laughter.
Cat rolled her eyes at her sister. “Even if he weren’t still grieving his wife, Luc and I have nothing in common. Look at him. He’s a jock, and I’m out of breath after a gentle bike ride.”
“You used to have a crush on him.”
“When I was in middle school maybe.” Because Luc had looked out for her and protected her from the kids who’d teased her because she was smaller and awkward at sports and being so good at school had set her apart. “Like you had crushes on boys. You danced with one of them last night.”
“Please.” Georgia made a face and gave a way-too-casual shrug. “Josh Tremblay’s still cute, sure, but he didn’t know I existed back then. Now, though, he’s so not my type. Can you see me with a guy who manages a plumbing and heating business? He has a kid, too, so he must have a lot of baggage going on.”
“He’s a good guy to know if your furnace fails in the middle of January or your basement floods at three in the morning. He also does a lot for Mom around this house, and I’m sure he doesn’t charge her for most of it.” Cat’s breath hitched. “And so what if he’s a dad? From what I’ve heard, he’s a fine man. It’s not like any of us get to our thirties without some baggage. You need to be practical.”
“And you need to live a little.” Georgia scooped up Pixie and eyed Cat over the dog’s head. “If you want my opinion, Luc would be a very good guy to live a little with.”
“Georgie…” Cat tried to keep the frustration out of her voice. “My life’s okay, really. With the research grant, I won’t have to teach for the next two semesters, so I can finally finish my book. If I finish the book and write a few more articles, I’ll have a better chance of getting a permanent job. And Amy needs me even more than usual right now. School’s hard for her, like it was for you, and now she has to cope with a new school. I want to help her all I can.”
“You’re a good mom. You’re also good at your job and you’re responsible.” Georgia’s voice was flat and she fiddled with Pixie’s collar. “You’re everything I’m not. I had no right to tease.”
“You’re a lot of things I’m not. Good things. You’re spontaneous and fun, and you wear your heart on your sleeve.” Cat set the sweater on a side table and reached around the dog to give her sister a hug. “It’s the wedding and a new year. Too much emotion. I’m glad you’re home, Georgie.”
“Me too.” Georgia set Pixie back on the footstool and returned Cat’s hug. “I’m sticking around, at least for a while. I talked to the night manager at the Inn on the Lake, and they’re looking for another fitness teacher at the spa. If I apply, I might have a good chance of getting the job.”
“That’s great.” Cat held her sister tight, as if she could somehow also bridge the years they’d been apart.
“It’s not fair for Nick to always have to keep an eye on Mom. Even before you moved here, you came up from Boston every few weeks. I should do my share.” Georgia’s voice caught. “Besides, I missed you guys, you know?”
“We missed you, too.” Although coming back to Firefly Lake wouldn’t have been what Cat would have chosen, maybe the grant had come at a good time.
“Did you talk to Dad before the holidays?” Her sister’s generous mouth narrowed. “Nick didn’t invite him to the wedding, and that must have hurt.”
“Like Dad hasn’t hurt us?” Cat’s mouth went dry. “I didn’t talk to him, and I don’t want him to be part of Amy’s life. I don’t trust him.” Her voice faltered, and her body got that familiar numb heaviness.
“I think he’s sorry for what he did.” Georgia twisted her hands together. “Nick may not have wanted him at the wedding, but he still talks to Dad every few months.”
“Nick can do what he wants. So can you.” Cat pressed a hand to her chest. “I don’t want anything to do with Dad.”
“I guess there would have been a lot of talk if he’d turned up at the wedding.” Georgia’s voice was soft and, for her bubbly sister, almost tentative.
Cat bit back a harsh laugh. “It’d have ruined Nick and Mia’s day. Mom’s family would have run him out of town for how he treated her, and that’s before the folks in Firefly Lake he cheated out of money got hold of him. The only reason Nick talks to Dad is because it reminds him of who he doesn’t want to be.”
And Cat didn’t need that reminder. Her dad had left exactly three months before her seventh birthday. She’d grown up without him, and she wasn’t in any danger of becoming like him. The only thing his desertion had done was make her more independent and resilient— determined to not count on anyone, especially a man. She straightened her shoulders and sucked in her cheeks.
“Nick could never be like Dad.” Georgia’s lower lip wobbled like it had when she was little.
“Of course not.” Cat’s voice was sharper than she intended. She stopped and took several breaths. “What I meant is I think Nick needs closure, especially because he’s now a dad. You were so young when Dad left, you don’t remember as much, but Nick was older and he and Dad were close. Nick looks a lot like I remember Dad looking, too.”
The charming, handsome man who’d called Cat his little princess and whom she’d idolized. The man who thought she was smart and pretty and told her she could do anything she set her mind to. Which she had, and she hadn’t needed him to do it, either. She stared at her hands. Even though she was an adult, the years hadn’t dimmed those childhood memories or made them any less painful.
“I can’t talk to him, Georgie.” She swallowed the lump lodged at the back of her throat.
“I think I should, but I can’t seem to either.” Her sister gave Cat a sad smile. “But maybe because of him, here we are both in our thirties and still on our own.”
“I’m single because I want to be.” Cat’s stomach churned. Maybe if she said it often enough, she’d believe it. The same way she told herself those bewildering feelings for Luc were nothing more than the residue of her childhood crush. Her heartbeat was loud in her ears.
“I’m single because no guy would put up with me. I’m too spontaneous and fun.” Georgia’s laugh was hollow.
“No, you’re not.” She made her tone bright. “Someday you’ll meet someone who appreciates you and—”
“Mom?” Cat swiveled at Amy’s voice. “Coach Luc’s organizing a road hockey game. You have to come and play. You too, Aunt Georgia.” Her daughter’s tone was hopeful.
Although Cat had planned to spend the rest of the afternoon with a book and a box of Lindt, she couldn’t let Amy down. After all, if she was truly going to help her daughter, Amy needed to see firsthand something Cat wasn�
��t good at.
“Sure, honey. I’ll be right there as soon as I put on some warmer clothes.” If she could find them, knee pads and a bicycle helmet might also come in handy.
“I should check on Mom. She and Aunt Josette probably need help with the dishes and…” Georgia’s voice trailed off as she sidled toward the dining room.
“Oh, no you don’t.” Cat took her sister’s arm in a firm grip. “If I’m going out there, you are too. No excuses.”
“I was in India only a few days ago. It’s a very hot country.” Her sister gestured to her gauzy, beaded top. “It’s freezing outside. I’ll catch a cold.”
“You catch a cold from a virus, not from being outside in the winter. I’m sure Mom has a pair of long underwear and a sweater you can borrow.” Cat steered Georgia in the direction of the stairs. “We Vermont girls are tough.”
And Cat would need every bit of that toughness to pick up a hockey stick in front of Luc. The man who’d taken off after their dance last night like he was chasing a breakaway puck in the last minute of the Stanley Cup final.
Chapter Four
Luc had missed this crisp, pine-scented air and the sharp crunch of snow under his boots. He’d also missed the clear blue of the sky, like an overturned bowl above his head, and how the sun glittered off the rolling white landscape. And down to his bones, he’d missed this view of the town of Firefly Lake laid out below Harbor House like a gingerbread village nestled between icing sugar-dusted hills.
He’d spent the last two years of his NHL career in Winnipeg, so it wasn’t like he hadn’t had winter in abundance. But he hadn’t had this kind of winter. Or maybe it was this kind of day. One that took him back to his childhood, when he’d pulled his sled down this same street and skated on the rink his dad had made in their backyard every winter. A day where, thanks to Gabrielle’s Quebec family, there’d been the same cheerful babble of English and French he’d grown up with. The same tourtière too, the succulent meat pie snug in its golden-brown pastry that was as much a part of his album of holiday memories as pond hockey and ice fishing.
“My mom will be right out.” Amy skidded to a stop beside him, bundled up in a blue ski jacket, matching pants, and a fluffy white hat and scarf. “You need to go easy on her, though, because she’s not real athletic. Maybe we could help her score a goal? What do you think?”
“Sure.” Luc smiled at the girl who, even at twelve, was already taller and sturdier than Cat.
“I absolutely can’t wait until next Saturday.” Amy’s crooked smile made Luc smile back.
“Why?” Whenever he’d thought about having kids, he’d imagined rough-and-tumble boys, but there was something about this girl with her button nose and passion for hockey that touched a part of him he hadn’t known was there.
“My first practice with you, of course.” Amy looked at him with a trusting expression. “I didn’t want to move here because of leaving my team in Boston, but being coached by you makes up for a whole lot. I still can’t believe it.”
Luc couldn’t either. He’d agreed to help Coach MacPherson as a favor last August, but, all of a sudden, he was running the whole show. “This is my first time as a head coach.”
“You’ll be great.” Amy waved away any objections he might have made. “I bet the kids will listen to everything you say because you played in the NHL and the Olympics. If they don’t, I’ll take care of them.”
“Thanks.” He pushed down the laugh because there was something sweet about this girl wanting to stand up for him.
“I mean it. My mom says you have to stop the bullies and tell other people what’s happening.” Amy’s light blue eyes clouded and her chin trembled. “Like you did with that guy who hit you. He got suspended and fined. You have to speak out, even if you’re a kid, or it’s hard, and you feel stupid.”
The hit from a brash young enforcer had ended Luc’s career. Or maybe it was the last hit in a career full of hits that had made the difference. His chest got heavy. He’d never know and, no matter how much he relived what had happened—all the could haves, might haves, and shoulds—it wouldn’t change the outcome. “Your mom’s right.” Luc would like to take care of the boy or girl who’d put the sad and almost defeated look in Amy’s eyes. “If anybody on the team here doesn’t treat you right, you have to tell me, promise?”
“I promise.” She tugged her hat over her eyebrows. “Here’s Mom now.” Her voice was a high-pitched whisper. “You remember what I said about the goal?”
“Sure.” He bumped his stick against Amy’s, then sucked in a breath as Cat came toward him. The sun turned the hair beneath her knit cap into a band of gold and, in her white parka topped with a pink scarf, she was a sexy snow queen instead of the familiar Cat McGuire he’d known all his life.
“Coach?”
“What?” He dragged his attention back to Amy.
“Are you okay?” Her voice was quizzical.
“Fine. I must have eaten too much of that tourtière.” He tried to laugh and failed. “Your grandma’s a fantastic cook.”
“My mom made the tourtière, not Grandma.” As Amy studied him, something flickered in her eyes that Luc couldn’t read.
“Then she’s a fantastic cook, too.” Luc bent his head to check the tape on his stick.
Cat was not only smart, she was beautiful and could make a traditional French Canadian meat pie as good as his mom’s, maybe even better. Although a big piece of his heart might be dead and buried, the rest of him wasn’t, given how he’d reacted to her over the last few days. She unsettled him more than any woman since Maggie, but in a whole different way than Maggie had.
“Amy says you want to play some hockey?” Cat’s expression was as resolute as it was scared. “You probably remember I’m not really sporty.”
“It’s only a fun game. We’ll take it easy.” He tried to make his tone reassuring, even as his pulse sped up. “Your mom’s cousins are playing, and those guys are in their sixties and seventies.”
“One of those guys was a champion speed skater in his day, and another’s so competitive his wife won’t even go out for a friendly night of bowling with him.” As Cat shook her head, the pom-pom on her hat bounced in a way that was both cute and sexy. “Appearances can be deceiving.”
And wasn’t that ironic, because Cat’s appearance had deceived Luc for years. Or maybe he’d never really looked at her until this week. He grabbed a hockey stick from the pile stacked under a tree and handed it to her. “You can be on my team. Since Nick’s already left on his honeymoon, I’ll look out for you.”
If he looked out for her like he always had, like she was Nick’s kid sister, he could ignore her surprisingly curvy butt outlined in dark jeans beneath the hem of her jacket. He could also ignore her smile that was sweeter than any of the treats that had graced Gabrielle’s New Year’s table. And he could make himself forget how Cat’s soft blond hair lit up his world more brightly than any of the candles that had decorated Nick and Mia’s wedding reception.
“You’ve got your work cut out for you.” Georgia, a tall brunette, who was a younger, feminine version of Nick, jogged down the walk and stopped at Cat’s side. “Cat’s the only person I know who can get hurt even watching sports. Remember when she went to get snacks at Nick’s high school basketball game and tripped over Mom’s purse? She fractured two toes.” She flashed her sister a teasing grin. “That kept her out of gym class for the next month, which, for Cat, was a good thing.”
Cat looked half amused, half irritated. “Some people aren’t naturally athletic. I’m one of them.”
“There’s a sport for everyone. A lot of folks just take longer to find theirs.” Luc turned Cat’s hockey stick the right way around, and her gaze caught his and held.
Maybe it was New Year’s magic or being back in Firefly Lake in the winter after all these years. Or maybe it had nothing to do with the season or the place and everything to do with the woman. But in that instant, and as Luc met Cat’s steady blue gaz
e, almost everything he thought about himself and what he wanted imperceptibly shifted and changed—maybe forever.
Cat brushed fluffy snow off the garden bench that she, Nick, and Georgia had given their mom for her sixtieth birthday, then set her mug of tea on one of its flat, broad arms. She’d gotten through both the wedding and a big family New Year’s, so maybe the ghosts of her past were well and truly banished.
She looked at the chubby moon that cast silver light across her mom’s garden and threw the dark trees near Harbor House into sharp relief. At the bottom of the terraced gardens, snow had drifted across the frozen lake to form peaks and furrows like the whipped cream atop Aunt Josette’s old-time Quebec sugar pie.
Sitting on the bench, she let the night soak into her. It was colder here than in Boston, and quieter. No sirens for a start, but no other traffic noise, either. It was so still that when the clock on the town hall struck eight, the sound reverberated off the dark hills. Cat’s breathing slowed. Nick was happy with Mia. Her mom was healthy and happy with Ward, and if Amy wasn’t happy yet, she was at least settling in better in Firefly Lake than Cat had expected.
Only because of Luc. The thought skittered away. She should be glad Luc could help her daughter.
“I thought you’d still be in front of the fire with a book, not out here.”
Cat started at Luc’s deep voice behind her. “Too many of my relatives decided the perfect place for them to play Monopoly was by that living room fireplace. I’m taking a breather.” She tried to laugh. “What are you doing?”
“After the third card game, I went for a run to work off some of the food your mom and aunt insisted I eat.” He sat beside her and grinned. “I’ve never met a card shark like Amy. That kid’s a fiend. If we’d been playing for real money, I’d have lost half my investment portfolio. I left before she cleaned me out entirely.”