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The cool touch to her arm jolted Vanessa out of her self-imposed trance. She dropped her hand to her side, noticing for the first time that the interior of the resort had gotten busy as members of the construction crew moved from room to room, the noise of their chatter and work tools filled the air while she’d been trying to conjure up something—anything—for the mural.
At some point during her daydreaming she’d handed off her cup of hot chocolate and pulled a sketch pad from her oversize leather bag, but other than grabbing a trio of pens and holding them one-handed in a familiar pretzel twist of fingers, she had...
Nothing.
“I hope your silence is a sign that you’re already brimming with ideas for the mural,” Callie said. “I think Nate’s suggestion is wonderful.”
Despite the panic ricocheting inside of her, Vanessa’s smile came easy. One of the first people she’d met after moving to Rust Creek Falls had been Callie, who was also considered a newcomer in town after she left Chicago back in January. “You think Nate is wonderful.”
Callie’s eyes were bright as she glanced at the tall man next to her talking with a member of the construction crew. “Yes, I do. It’s funny, but from the moment I saw him—oh, look, there’s Jonah.”
Vanessa’s gaze followed Callie’s pointed finger and amazingly the panic over her creative block quieted, replaced with a warm glow that surprised her as much as the way the handsome man stared at them.
At her.
Did she know him? He looked vaguely familiar, but Vanessa was sure they hadn’t been introduced before. No, she’d have remembered if she’d met this man.
Unlike the majority of the men here at the resort and in Rust Creek Falls with their broken-in jeans, T-shirts and flannel button-downs in every plaid pattern and color combination imaginable, he was dressed in black business slacks and a dress shirt.
He was tall, over six feet she guessed, and his slightly mussed brown hair showed hints of gold when the sunlight caught it as he turned away. Her gaze lingered over the way his shoulders filled the expensive cut of his dark gray suit jacket that she’d bet her last pair of Manolos was cashmere. The only thing that made him fit in was the hard hat he held in one hand.
“Who is that?”
Callie smiled and Vanessa realized she’d spoken the question aloud. “I mean, I haven’t seen him around town.” She paused, catching the capped end of one of her pens between her teeth. “At least I don’t think I have.”
“Well, you’ve certainly dated enough of the single men in town to know.”
Vanessa flipped her wrist and pointed her pen at Callie. “Hey! Six dates in three months isn’t that many.”
“Six dates with six different guys.”
“Five.” Vanessa had made the mistake of going out twice with the same cowboy. There wouldn’t be a third time. “But who’s counting? Besides, not everyone believes in love at first sight. I’m more of the ‘you only live once, so enjoy yourself’ kind of girl.”
Unlike half of the women in the town’s Newcomers Club, it seems.
Besides Callie, two other members—Mallory Franklin and Cecelia Clifton—had also found happily-ever-after in the past few months and were sporting pretty engagement rings, even though Mallory claimed she hadn’t specifically moved to Rust Creek Falls for the great “Gal Rush” as many of the locals called the arrival of females over the past year or so. She’d initially come to town to raise her orphaned niece, the little girl her sister and brother-in-law had adopted from China. Then she fell in love with former playboy rancher, Caleb Dalton.
“Hey, Jonah!” Nate called out, “Come over and join us.”
The man hesitated, but then spun back around and headed across the room toward them, the hard hat now perched on his head with a rakish tilt. Callie backed up a few steps toward her fiancé and sent Vanessa a quick wink. She grinned in response and followed, happier now that the conversation had shifted away from the mural she still hadn’t officially agreed to do.
“Welcome home.” Nate held out his hand. “When did you get in?”
“Late last night.” He switched his travel mug from one hand to the other and shook Nate’s. “Very late. Hence, the need for coffee.”
“There’s always a need for coffee.” Nate released him and turned to her and Callie. “You remember Callie?”
He nodded. “It’s good to see you again.”
“You, too, Jonah. I bet you’re glad to be home.”
A shuttered look filled his gaze for a moment bringing Vanessa’s attention to his green-gold hazel eyes. Tired eyes. The man looked like he could use a good night’s sleep and it was barely eight in the morning.
“Yes, it is,” he said, then turned back to Nate. “Sorry I’m a day late. I know I said October first, but I got stuck on business—”
“Hey, one day doesn’t matter. Did you read my latest email?”
“I meant to, but yesterday was all about tying up loose ends and a long drive. Did I miss something important?”
“Yes, but I think this is better, anyway. Remember when I said I had a great idea for the lobby?” Nate waved his hand toward Vanessa. “Well, here she is.”
The stranger turned his gaze to her, the expression on his face as blank as the walls—as her imagination. Well, blank when it came to the mural. Suddenly she was coming up with some great ideas for her and this handsome guy.
Vanessa forced out a quick laugh, thankful it sounded so relaxed and stuck out her hand. “Gee, you make me sound like a pole dancer or something. Hi, I’m Vanessa Brent.”
“Jonah Dalton.”
He took her hand in his and heat engulfed her fingers. Where had the tingling come from that turned the heat up to volcanic level?
The widening of his eyes told her he felt it, too, and he quickly released her, tipped his mug again and took a long gulp. It was then she noticed the logo on the side. “Dalton...are you related to either of the Daltons here in town?”
He nodded, tugging the brim of his hard hat a bit lower. “Charles and Rita Dalton are my folks.”
“Oh, my goodness! What a small world!” Vanessa hugged her sketch pad to her chest. “Your parents are the sweetest people. I mean, your whole family is so nice. I’m renting a cabin on the Circle D Ranch.”
“You don’t say.”
“Do you know the place? When I was looking to move out of the boardinghouse in town, you mom insisted she had the perfect cabin and she was right! The living room has this one wall that’s a huge single pane of glass—” she waved a hand at the windows that filled the other side of the room “—nothing like that, of course, but the views of the ranch and the mountains are amazing. I’m still learning how to work the woodstoves, the nights have been getting chilly, but the best thing is the claw-footed tub in the bathroom.” Vanessa closed her eyes for a moment a sighed. “Oh, fill that baby with foamy bubbles, give me a good book and I’m soaking for hours up to my—”
The sound of choking had her eyes flying open in time to see Jonah thumping at his chest with his fist. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” One more thump and then he cleared his throat. “Last mouthful of coffee went down the wrong way. Yes, I know the cabin. I grew up on the Circle D Ranch.”
“So, are you a cowboy like your brothers?” It wasn’t hard to picture him in a classic Stetson instead of the hard hat he wore. “Although, I’m guessing from your current chapeau you’re working here on the renovation?”
Both Nate and Callie laughed, reminding Vanessa she wasn’t standing here alone with this long lost Dalton son she’d now recognized from the numerous family photos in the main house on the Dalton’s ranch.
“Yes, Jonah is working on the resort. He’s the lead architect on this project,” Nate explained. “All the innovative building techniques we’re putting into this place to turn it into a premier resort are his. He’s also the lead on all of the interior design so you’ll be working for him. In a way.”
“She will?” Jonah asked, clearly confused. “As what?”
“An artist,” Nate said. “I’ve commissioned Vanessa to paint a mural over the registration desk in the front lobby.”
“You have?” The confusion on his face gave way to something closer to annoyance. “When?”
“Just today,” Vanessa chimed in. “But I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”
“Well, that’s good.”
Hmmm, interesting response. One arched eyebrow from her told him he was free to continue.
“No, that came out—what I meant was we’ve already got the designs for the interior furnishings in place.” Jonah’s gaze darted from Vanessa to Callie and back to Nate. “I mentioned earlier this week that Rothschild—the firm in Denver we hired—is sending a representative in a few weeks to give the team a final presentation on everything from furniture to curtains to...well, artwork.”
An emotion that hovered between resentment and relief filled Vanessa’s chest. It seemed Nate and his architect weren’t on the same page when it came to this so-called mural. Good. While the idea of taking on the commission scared her more than anything had in years, she’d admit she had been leaning toward saying yes, confident her talent hadn’t deserted her completely.
Now it didn’t seem to matter.
Chapter Two (#ulink_1804d9d8-24d6-5d95-bea1-b1d55032fb1a)
“Are you telling me you honestly didn’t know Nate had hired Vanessa to paint a mural in the resort?” Eli asked.
They’d managed to find an empty table with a couple of tall stools—one with a trio of half-finished drinks still sitting there—in the back corner of the Ace in the Hole, the local bar that catered to everyone from cowboys to bikers. Between the cracking of the pool balls against each other to the country music blaring from the jukebox for the dancers on the crowded parquet floor, the place was loud and noisy and Jonah had to lean forward to hear his brother. “No, I honestly didn’t know.”
Eli looked at him with one eyebrow raised.
“I didn’t.” Jonah dropped his gaze and fixed it on the icy longneck beer he turned in slow circles against the table top. “Not that it matters now.”
“Why’s that?”
Because Vanessa had walked out this morning with Callie following close behind, leaving Nate to make it clear the mural was going to happen and since the man owned fifty-one percent of the resort, he was going to get his way.
“I missed the email explaining Nate’s vision,” Jonah said. “Add the fact the rest of the investors had already approved the idea and it’s a done deal.”
“So your vote wouldn’t have made any difference?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean—” Jonah looked at his brother again. “Wait, what makes you think I had a vote on the subject?”
Eli’s mouth rose into a half grin. “You’re one of the investors, aren’t you?”
Jonah glanced around. No one seemed interested in their conversation, but he kept his voice low. “Why would you think I’d be—”
“Give me some credit, little brother. You’ve been in love with that old place from the moment it was built back when we were kids. You used to ride all the way from the ranch just to watch it being constructed. Even when it sat empty for years, you’d sneak in and hang out there. Remember that night with the football players from Kalispell?”
It took him a moment, but then Jonah smiled. “Yeah, we just about had them out of there, convinced the place was haunted, until Derek tried to steal their beer. That was a heck of a fight.”
“Only because that one guy had a can of spray paint aimed at one of the walls. You took him out with a flying karate leap and the fists started flying.”
It’d been him, his two brothers and three cousins—the Dalton gang as they’d been known back then—against the entire offensive line from the nearby high school, but they’d won. At least until word got back to the town sheriff and their folks. “I never shoveled so much horse manure in my life as we did that fall.”
“Anyway, I figured a rich and famous architect would have plenty—”
“I’m not famous.” Jonah cut off his brother and sat back in the tall stool, the heel of his steel-toed cowboy boot caught on the bottom rung. “Or rich.”
Eli toasted him with his now empty bottle. “You better be tonight. You’re buying and I could use another beer.”
Jonah watched his brother turn away and attempt to flag down a waitress. He never confirmed Eli’s suspicions, but the man was right. When Nate had contacted him about his plans for the forgotten log mansion and he’d found out about the investor team Nate was putting together, Jonah had insisted on buying in, easily parting with a healthy chunk of his savings.
Still, would he have voted along with the majority for the mural?
Probably, since after talking with Nate and finally reading the email, he liked the idea and what the painting would represent, even though it meant added work for the interior-design team when it came to including the painting in the overall plan. It seemed this Vanessa Brent was a pretty famous artist from back east. He hadn’t had a chance to do any research on her yet, but obviously she, and her work, had made an impression on Nate.
Just the sight of her had done something to Jonah that hadn’t happened in a long time.
Made him curious.
What was she was doing in Rust Creek Falls? Was she here as part of the influx of females influenced by an online blog about life in the Wild West his mother and sisters had talked about at dinner? According to his dad and brothers there’d also been a fair amount of single men and families who’d come to town as well over the past year, thanks to jobs created by both the recovery work from last summer’s flooding and more recently, the resort. They’d even hired on a few new hands at the ranch, putting the bunkhouse to use again for the first time in a long time.
Along with his cabin.
He couldn’t help but wonder what Vanessa might have done to the empty slate he’d left behind after she’d moved in. Were the few pieces of furniture he’d put in still there? Including the bed he’d handcrafted and now refused to picture her sleeping in?
And that flash of anger in her golden-brown eyes when he’d shot down the idea of a mural... Why had it changed to relief just before she’d walked out?
Stifling a yawn, Jonah drained his beer and chalked up his interest in Nate’s artist to his being dead tired.
Coming to the bar his first full day back in town hadn’t been part of his plan for tonight. A quick meal and then crashing headfirst into a soft bed had been more of what he had in mind, but the talk at dinner had quickly turned from the town’s population boom to him. His job, his travels and after one too many questions from his mother about his personal life, Jonah had willingly agreed to Eli’s idea they’d grab a beer or two to celebrate his homecoming.
Two more beers arrived and Jonah swore this would be his last as he twisted off the cap. It was then he heard a familiar laugh from a nearby table. He turned and looked at the group of men playing a lively game of poker, recognizing one of them right away. “Didn’t Derek rush through dinner because he had a big project to do in the barn?”
“Yeah, so?”
Gesturing toward the table, Jonah saw Eli’s gaze shift until it landed on their younger brother who sat with his back to them.
“Guess he finished early,” Eli said. “Or else he got tired of listening to mom’s excited chatter about your many accomplishments.”
Jonah’s face heated. “I was getting tired of that, too.”
“Hey, she’s proud of you. Dad, too. You’re the first one of us kids to make it big with your fancy Denver penthouse, traveling the world designing everything from skyscrapers to celebrities’ homes, not to mention dating a famous ballerina.”
“How did you know about that?”
“Mom cut out a picture of you two attending a charity event—nice tux, by the way—from some magazine. She had it hanging on the refrigerator for months until we all got so sick of seeing it she finally moved it to her sewing room.”
He groaned. “Please tell me you’re screwing with me.”
Eli grinned. “She was hoping you’d bring the lady home for a visit.”
Not likely. He’d returned from a business trip and walked in on her entertaining a fellow dancer—a ballerina—in her apartment. Hey, he was all for a person being true to themselves, but he wasn’t going to be her stand-in. Especially after the way she’d hinted about the two of them getting married. “I haven’t dated Nadia in a year. That was over before I left for Brazil.”
“Whatever happened to that sexy architect from your office I met when I visited a few years back? Before Nadia?”
Yeah, getting involved with a coworker he’d collaborated with on a couple of projects, moving their relationship from the office to the bedroom had been a mistake, too. He didn’t realize that until she decided to move up in the world and left him to marry a partner in a rival company, when he made it clear that he and marriage were not a good fit. Not anymore. “I wasn’t rich or famous enough for her.”
“Well, I guess mom’s just getting antsy for one of us to finally settle down,” Eli said. “Again. You’re the only one who’s tried the marriage bit. As much as she and dad were against you becoming a husband while still in your teens, I think she’s ready now for some grandchildren to spoil.”
This time the memory flashed in Jonah’s head before he could brace himself.
