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Beau wondered if she was so used to mowing men down with a glance from those blue eyes and a toss of that flaming hair that she couldn’t comprehend a straightforward business offer. “Yes. If you’re available, I thought we could discuss it over lunch.”
She looked so relieved, he was almost insulted. He concluded he must be losing his touch. True, it had been a coon’s age since he’d dated. Opening the clinic here and turning over his office in Boise to another doctor had taken up a lot of time and energy. It was a move he’d been saving and planning for, for five years.
Thinking over the past week, he didn’t think he’d given the new nurse any reason to distrust him. He hadn’t made a single untoward move during the four meetings they’d had to set up the screening program for the schoolkids.
With rueful amusement, he wondered if that was the problem—she’d expected a pass and he hadn’t delivered. The town gossips tended to paint the Daltons with the broad brush of conjecture and innuendo, recounting every escapade from their youth with delighted indignation to newcomers.
“I suppose that would be all right,” she finally agreed after taking her own sweet time to think it over.
“Good. Let’s go. I’m starving.”
He escorted her to his old pickup. She glanced at the vehicle, then at him. He couldn’t help but grin at her surprise. “The royal chariot,” he intoned, opening the door for her with a grand sweep.
The August heat, trapped in the interior of the truck, rolled over them like a blast from a furnace.
“Whew, let’s let it cool out a bit first,” he suggested. He slid into the driver’s seat and started the engine, then flipped the air conditioner on to maximum air.
She got in, fastened the seat belt and looked at him without a hint of expression on her Madonna-perfect face.
For the first time since first or second grade, he felt rattled by a female’s stare. That she expected nothing and wanted nothing from him was obvious. Puzzling, too. He’d never had such a nonreaction from a member of the opposite sex. Well, so much for the famed Dalton charm.
Laughing silently at his somewhat dented ego, he slammed the pickup door and headed for the lake. He wondered if she’d accept his proposition.
“How quaint,” Shelby murmured, entering the restaurant with its rustic wooden interior when Beau held the screen door open for her.
“Sit anyplace you like,” a young woman advised, smiling at them from the cash register. “I’ll be with you in a jiffy.”
“There’s a place by the window,” her handsome companion said, gesturing across the plank floor to the opposite side of the room. Since it was after the main lunch hour, there were only three other occupied tables at present.
Beau took her arm and guided her to a table commanding a view of the Lost Valley reservoir and the mountains beyond. When they were settled, the hostess brought menus over. “The special is barbecued beans on cornbread with salad or coleslaw. It’s delicious,” she told them. “Your waitress is Emma. She’ll be with you shortly. May I bring you something to drink?”
“Iced tea, please,” Shelby said.
While he echoed her order, she observed the scene beyond the large window. The sun emblazoned diamond dust over every leaf, every blade of grass, every ruffle of water in the lake, so that the whole world seemed to sparkle.
She sighed, filled with a sort of nostalgia now instead of the intense grief. Like the endless sweep of the waves at the seashore where she grew up, the mountains had a therapeutic effect on her soul, easing the pain of loss and the hopes that had once filled her eighteen-year-old heart.
If there was one thing she had learned since that youthful time, it was that life was relentless. She’d only to live one day at a time, then the next, and the next, and then somehow, a year went by, and another, and another.
The heart does go on.
Her companion dug some change out of his pocket. He lined up a penny, nickel, dime and quarter on the table between them. When she raised her eyebrows in question, he flicked a finger toward the coins.
“However much your thoughts are worth,” he said. “Take your pick. Or all of them.”
After the waitress delivered tall glasses of iced tea, Shelby looked over the change and selected the quarter. “It’s the Kentucky commemorative quarter,” she told him, holding it up so he could see. “My mother came from there. Her parents had a farm and boarded horses. She loves to ride and still does to this day. We always had horses when I was growing up.”
“Do you like riding?”
She nodded, then added truthfully, “Not that I’ve done much for the past ten—no, eleven—years.”
“We’ll have to see if we can’t change that. My family has a ranch near here with plenty of horses just lazing around and getting fat.”
The low, sexy cadence of his words rippled with easy affection as he mentioned the ranch. She knew he’d grown up there, raised by his uncle Nick along with five other Dalton orphans, his mother having died in childbirth and his father in an avalanche that also claimed his cousin’s parents more than twenty-two years ago. Amelia at the B and B had told her this much.
The soft aura of regret enlarged to include him. He, too, had suffered loss. He, too, had gone on and made a life for himself.
Heavens, but she was sentimental today. She laid the quarter back in the line and turned her attention to a couple who strolled along the lake path.
Her companion pushed the quarter toward her and pocketed the rest of the change. “That was for sharing your thoughts. You’ve been pensive today. Do you miss your folks?”
She nodded, letting him think she might be homesick. Baring her soul to anyone wasn’t her way.
“So why did you leave the civilized east and come out here to the wilderness?”
“I’m looking for a cowboy, of course. Isn’t that the American icon of manly courage?” Her grin wasn’t exactly sincere, but she managed to hang on to it.
“Ready?” the waitress, who looked as if she might be sweet sixteen, inquired.
Shelby ordered the special. The doctor did, too, but added barbecued beef on the side. When the girl was gone, he eyed her for a minute.
There was something about his serious manner that was appealing. He had depth to him. And a solid presence that a person could depend on.
A slight shudder rippled through her. Her husband, as youthful as she, had deserted her and their child after the first month of sleepless nights and worry. He’d been the boy next door and she’d had a crush on him for as long as she could remember. He’d promised he would always be there.
Always had been exactly ten months after the marriage.
Closing her eyes for a second, she willed the memories to fade back into the hazy mist of the past. What was done, was done. She opened her eyes to find Beau studying her with a somewhat quizzical expression.
He was probably wondering what made her tick, seeing that she tended to go off into a daze every little bit today. She’d better pay attention if she wanted to keep her job and do her research.
“Sorry,” she murmured, “I was daydreaming. The mountains are so beautiful I find it hard not to simply stare at them. What did you want to talk to me about?”
“A job.”
That surprised her. “Well, I already have one.”
His smile was quick and somewhat wry. “It’s part-time. I wondered if you might be interested in working at the clinic as my assistant in the mornings.”
“I’m teaching health classes at the high school three mornings a week. It’s also part of the new program funded by the state.”
“Yeah, the weight problems of the average American family has hit the national conscience, it seems. Education is part of the solution. Exercise is the other side of the equation, in my opinion. Not that anyone has asked me.”
His laughter reminded her of soft mornings and quiet walks, of birdsong and the whispers of the wind through the pines, of the peace she’d experienced since arriving in this enchanted valley. She could almost forget she had a mission.
“A daily activity program will be part of my class,” she told him, glad of an innocuous topic to discuss. “Diets don’t work for most people. Less than ten percent of those who diet keep the weight off a year later while those who stick to a regular exercise program do.”
“Right. Say, maybe we can incorporate some kind of program for our patients,” he said.
She realized where her enthusiasm for healthy lifestyles was leading. “I can’t take on anything else at present. But thank you for thinking of me.”
He shrugged, irritation or disappointment flicking through the thoughtful blue eyes. Well, she couldn’t live her life to please him. She had her own problems.
Her mom’s worried gaze appeared in her mental vision, her eyes the same deep blue as hers so that most people thought they were truly mother and daughter by blood. Maybe she was wrong to come here, to want to find out what she could about her birth parents.
Putting the past behind her sounded simple, but if she ever married again, she had to know…before she could chance having other children.
The heart-hurting love and regret hit her again, as always when she thought of the precious life that she’d once held in her arms—
“You okay?”
She blinked and came back to the present. “Sorry. I keep going off the deep end today, don’t I?” She laughed softly to indicate it was nothing serious, only spring fever or something like that.
Realizing she sounded nervous instead of amused, she took a sip of tea and fought for composure, building the wall around her emotions one stone at a time until she was safe behind it again. Their meal arrived, relieving her of the need for small talk until they were alone again.
“You’re very good with the children,” she told him. “Putting them on the stool while you sit on a chair puts them on the same eye level. That way you don’t loom over them like some colossus.”
His face lit up in pleasure. Her heart gave an odd hitch that disturbed her equanimity a bit.
“I hated getting shots when I was a kid,” he said. “One doctor had my mom sit on a stool and hold me while he sat on another one to do the examination. He told me he had to give me a shot, but it wouldn’t hurt as much as it had before. He was right. It didn’t seem nearly so bad. Since then, I’ve tried to remember what it’s like being a kid.”
She realized Beau would make a good father. A sigh forced its way past her lips. She hadn’t picked well when it came to a father for her child. Her nineteen-year-old husband had panicked and run when he realized there were serious problems to be faced.
Her parents had taken her and their grandchild in. Because of them, she’d weathered the storm of anger and grief and regret. Due to their loving support, she’d come through the ordeal a stronger person. With their help, she’d gone on to nursing school so she, too, could assist others in times of need.
Glancing up, she met the fathomless gaze of her companion. A feeling that all would come right, that here in this rugged country she would find the answers she sought, spread over her like a golden light. She smiled.
His lips curved in response.
Her smile grew.
He chuckled. “That’s better,” he said in a lower tone. “A real smile rather than a polite one.”
Their eyes locked. Time became suspended between one heartbeat and the next. She hadn’t trusted anyone outside her family since she was nineteen. Ten years. For a moment, caught in those incredibly blue eyes that seemed open clear to his soul, she relaxed her vigil. Warmth swept through her.
It was such an odd sensation that it took her a moment to recognize what it was and even longer to realize what had caused the acute stir of blood inside her.
An attraction. One that promised to be intense.
Her smile wavered. She wasn’t here for either a fling or even something more lasting. Her search for the truth of her past took precedence over everything else. Knowing that, she would then leave and start a new life in a new place.
Those were her plans.
Chapter Two
S helby was tired upon returning to the Lost Valley B and B that evening. After changing to a knit slacks outfit, she went to the large lobby and reception area. Several couples and a family with two children enjoyed the ambience of the common room.
The owner, Amelia Miller, called out a greeting upon seeing Shelby. “How did your day go with the kids?”
“Fine but tiring,” Shelby admitted. She chose a glass of iced wine cooler and a plate of fruit, cheese and veggies, then sat at a table for two overlooking the back garden. “You must have a green thumb,” she told her landlady when she stopped by the table.
“Nope, a dedicated gardener. I can do okay with African violets, but that’s my limit.”
“Join me if you have a moment,” Shelby invited.
Amelia nodded. “Let me refill the fruit tray, then I will.” She dashed off to the nether regions of the large Victorian that had been converted to a bed-and-breakfast.
Shelby watched the shadows lengthen over the lovely landscape. In the carriage house or barn or whatever it was behind the main house, she could see several people moving around. They appeared to be couples. Were they dancing?
Amelia returned with a glass of red wine. “Whew, I must be getting old or people are eating more. It’s harder to keep up nowadays.”
Since Amelia looked no more than a couple of years older than she was, Shelby ignored the age remark. She grimaced ruefully. “According to all reports, Americans are eating more.”
“So how was your first day, really?” Amelia asked. “Did Beau Dalton give you a hard time? Did you get heart palpitations as all the local gals do around the Daltons?”
Her laughter was so merry that Shelby had to laugh, too. “He is good-looking, but he was also professional.”
“Ah, yes. All the Daltons are dedicated to their jobs.”
Shelby, not knowing the family, didn’t comment. Instead she said, “He offered me a job in his office.”
“Did he? I suppose he could use more help. He has a nurse practitioner who’s also a midwife—she sees her own patients—and a receptionist who keeps the books, but he probably needs someone to assist him. It’s difficult to get help in a small town.”
“Hmm,” Shelby said noncommittally. “Has he been in business here long?”
“Before July he kept office hours in town, going from once to twice a week during the past year, but his main office was in the city. Last month he made the shift to here full time.”
Shelby had learned “the city” referred to Boise, which was over an hour’s drive south of the valley. “I see. Did he buy out another doctor’s practice?”
“No. Doc Barony died about ten years ago.”
Shelby knew Beau was too young to have had a practice there very long, but she’d hoped he had taken over another’s patients. That way, there might have been records going back several years, maybe to her birth.
“The house had been empty until Beau started up an office and brought in the midwife,” Amelia continued.
“The house?” Shelby asked, not sure what her landlady was talking about.
“Beau’s office. It belonged to the old doctor. The attic is still full of records, the receptionist said. She’s afraid the ceiling is going to fall in on her head.”
A jolt of excitement shot straight through Shelby. Records! Just what she wanted to get her hands on. But how?
Amelia finished her wine and stood. “Well, back to work. I see a new family arriving. How do you like your room? It’s rather small, so I worry about claustrophobia.”
“I love it,” Shelby assured the other woman, who had lovely auburn hair with golden highlights and a charming amount of natural curl, unlike her own flaming-red, string-straight locks that had been the scourge of her life.
With a satisfied nod, Amelia left. Shelby at once reverted to her own mission. If only she could accept Beau’s offer of a job. No, she already had too much to do. Maybe she could volunteer to sort through the old records, keeping the ones for current patients.
Why would anyone in her right mind volunteer for such a job? She couldn’t come up with a good reason.
