скачать книгу бесплатно
Derek said, “I just mentioned the party to him and he offered the Manor as a good place for it.”
“Ah,” said Amy, staring straight ahead, unable to make herself look at him though he was sitting right there at the other end of the coffee table from her. “Terrific.”
Eva explained, “Instead of separating the girls and the guys, I wanted one big party for all of us—with nothing X-rated, if you know what I mean.”
Viv clarified, “No strippers. And the games can be a little sexy—”
“—but nothing over the top.” Eva patted Luke’s hand. “Just good fun, right, Luke?”
“Works for me.” The groom nodded.
“It’ll be a nice, relaxed get-together for everyone,” added Eva, “not only for the wedding party, but also for all of our friends in town. We want it to be loose and easy and the Manor is a beautiful, comfortable place for it.”
Viv nodded at Derek and then at Amy. “Food and music are already taken care of, again thanks to Derek.”
Wait a minute. Had Derek paid for all this? Or just arranged everything? The boy she’d known in high school hadn’t had a lot of money. So then, he’d done well for himself?
Not that it mattered how much money he had. What mattered was that she would make sure the financial burden didn’t all fall on him—and wait a minute. Why was she worrying about Derek and his finances anyway?
Really, she didn’t even know the guy anymore....
Viv was still talking. “If you need specific songs played or whatever, I’ll be happy to pass your requests along to the band. You two will be putting your heads together and coming up with some fun things to do for the event, along with party favors and prizes.
“Mostly, it’s a balance. You don’t want to pack in too many activities, but you need a few games and such, to get people mingling. I’ve listed some very basic ideas on your party brainstorm sheets, just to jump-start the process for you. I’ll be ready with more suggestions if you need them and to help in any way I can.”
Amy tried really hard to focus, to keep her mind in the now, to think about great things to do at a coed bachelor party and what prizes and favors might be cute.
But her brain defied her will. Images assailed her, of those five days all those years ago, the tacky motel by the highway, the sound of the big rigs going by in the night, the reassuring warmth of Derek’s strong arms around her. How much she had loved him.
How scared she’d been, her life spinning out of control, nothing going the way she’d planned it.
“Fun activities,” she heard herself repeat. “Will do.”
From the other chair, Derek spoke up, too. “Uh, yeah. We’ll get right on that.”
The meeting continued. To Amy, it seemed endless. The memories pressed in on her, making it hard to breathe. But really, no one seemed to notice that she wasn’t saying much. Did they?
Eva and Luke seemed relaxed, happy as only two people in love can be. Viv was laser-focused on the wedding plans. Eva, a baker to the core, was all about the food and the cake, while Viv talked flowers and ways to make the barn setting really pop.
They discussed music for the wedding day, too. Luke and Eva had put in hours practicing their first dance. The band—the same group they were using at the bachelor party—had been given a long playlist of the couple’s favorites to fill up the evening. Luke joked that of course local eccentric Homer Gilmore would be welcome at the wedding. But they had to make absolutely certain that Homer’s infamous moonshine didn’t find its way into the punch.
As for Derek...
Well, Amy didn’t know how Derek was faring. From the moment he took the chair across from hers, she hadn’t been able to make herself so much as glance in his direction.
When it was finally over and Viv was closing up her binders and stacking them to go, Amy longed to race for the stairs and the big guest room up there that would be hers for the next few weeks. She’d brought her work with her. She could power up her computer and concentrate on keeping the giant accounting firm of Hurdly and Main, International protected from cyber-criminals and digital fraud.
But no. She and Derek needed to talk.
She needed to tell him...what? There was nothing to tell him. It was over and it had been over for years and years.
Still. They really ought to come to some sort of understanding as to how they were going to work together. Not to mention, she needed to know who in town knew about them. And how much they knew. And, from now on, what would be getting said to whom.
Suddenly, everyone was standing and moving toward the door—everyone but Amy. She shook herself and leapt to her feet.
And then once she was up, she just stood there at her chair, dithering over how to approach him, what to say to get his attention before he went out the door and she missed her chance to tell him...
What?
Dear Lord, she had no idea.
She blinked and finally made herself glance in his direction.
He was looking straight at her. “So, Amy, got a few minutes?” Those green eyes gave nothing away. “We should touch base.”
Her heart pounding so hard she was lucky it didn’t crack a rib, she nodded. “A walk, maybe?” she heard herself offer lamely.
“That’ll work.”
It took her several agonizing seconds to realize that he was waiting for her to join him. “Oh!” she exclaimed like a total doofus and ordered her feet to carry her toward him.
They all went out to the porch together and waved goodbye to Viv.
Luke shook Derek’s hand. “Friday, happy hour. The Ace.”
“I’ll be there,” said Derek.
The Ace in the Hole was the only bar within the Rust Creek Falls town limits. Amy remembered it all too well from her short, unhappy visit to town nine years before.
And then, last year, the Ace had garnered national attention when a reality show, The Great Roundup, had filmed final auditions there. Travis Dalton, Derek’s cousin, had been on that show and so had Travis’s now-wife, Brenna O’Reilly Dalton.
Amy had watched the show faithfully every week. The scenes filmed in town had made her feel all warm and fuzzy, made her long for Rust Creek Falls, made her remember the good times growing up. Best of all, The Great Roundup had allowed her to get sappy and sentimental from the safety of her Boulder, Colorado living room. Never had she ever planned to set foot in town again.
But now, here she was, about to get up close and conversational with the very reason she’d stayed away for so long in the first place.
Luke and Eva went back into the house, leaving Amy alone with the gorgeous broad-shouldered stranger who’d once ruled her teenaged heart. She just stood there, like a lump. She had no idea what to say to him.
He had his straw Resistol in his hand. He slid the hat onto his head and tugged on the brim to settle it.
Everything inside her was aching. This couldn’t be happening.
But it was.
“Let’s go.” He started walking. She followed him down the steps and out into the late-afternoon sunshine.
He turned for the big yellow barn where Eva and Luke would get married in less than four weeks. Amy came up beside him and they walked together, but not touching, neither saying a word. Somewhere far off, a lone bird cried, the sound faint. Plaintive.
“Here’s as good as anywhere, I guess,” he said, stopping at a split rail fence fifty yards or so from the looming shape of the barn.
For more reasons than she cared to contemplate, she didn’t want to look directly at him, so she turned toward the pasture on the other side of the fence. The papers Viv had given her crackled in her hands as she rested her forearms on the top rail and gazed off at nothing in particular.
Silence. Out in the pasture, a bay mare snorted and shook her dark mane.
Derek said, “You look good,” and she tried to read his tone. Careful? Thoughtful? Maybe a little angry?
What did it matter, though, what was on his mind? She didn’t know him anymore. They were strangers to each other now and she needed to remember that. “Thanks. You, too—and, well, I don’t even know where to start.” She did look at him then. He was watching her from under the shadow of his hat. Waiting. She swallowed. Hard. “I have been wondering, though...”
“What?”
“Well, it would be good to have some idea of who knows,” she said, and then wanted to kick herself. Could she be any more unclear? He probably had no clue what she’d just tried to ask him.
But as it turned out, he understood perfectly. “About us, you mean?”
“Yeah. About, um, what happened thirteen years ago.”
“Nobody in this town,” he said. “Nobody but me.” A slow smile curved his beautiful mouth. “Well, and you, now that you’re here. While you’re here.”
She caught her lower lip between her teeth. “I would like it to stay that way.”
“Just between you and me, you mean?”
“Yes, Derek.” His name in her mouth tasted way too familiar. “Just between us. Can we keep it that way?”
“You got it. I’ve never told a soul and I won’t start now.” And then he frowned. “But what about the Armstrongs? You didn’t ever tell Eva or her sisters?”
“No.” Her silly throat had clutched and the word came out in a whisper. She knew her cheeks had to be lobster-red. “Ahem.” She coughed into her hand. And then she made herself explain. “I never told the Armstrongs the whole story. All they know is that you and I dated in high school. How about Luke? Your family?”
“I meant what I said, Amy. I haven’t told anyone. It just seemed better to put the whole thing behind me. It’s the past and it needs to stay that way.”
“I agree.” And she did. Absolutely, she did. She wished that none of it had ever happened.
But it did happen. And it changed her in the deepest way.
Did it change him, too, she wondered?
Not that she would ever ask. She had no right to ask and she needed to remember that.
He smiled again—halfway this time, one corner of his mouth kicking up. “Luke waited until after I said I would be his best man to tell me that you would be the maid of honor.”
A strange, tight spurt of laughter escaped her. She quickly composed herself. “I see Eva all over that.”
“What do you mean?”
“She got me to agree to be her maid of honor before she mentioned that you would be best man.”
“So, you think she knows more than you’ve told her?”
“Well, you know Eva, right? She’s a complete and unapologetic romantic. I think she suspects there was more than just a high school crush going on between us back in the day.” Another tight little laugh escaped her—and then she wanted to cry. Really, she couldn’t stand for him not to know what she truly felt, how much she regretted the way things had ended up. “Derek, I...”
“Yeah?” His eyes held hers, a deep look, one that reached down into the center of her and stirred up emotions she wished she didn’t feel.
“I, well, I just need you to know that I’m sorry. For everything.”
Wow. She almost couldn’t believe that she’d gone and done it, apologized straight out. And as soon as the words escaped her lips, she kind of wanted to take them back.
Because really, wasn’t he the one who’d told her to go?
But what else could a person say at a time like this?
“I’m sorry, too,” he said.
“But it’s fine,” she blurted out.
He nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. It’s water under the bridge. Years ago. Not a big deal.”
“Absolutely. Over and done. We’ve both put it behind us. Derek, we can do this. We can be there for Luke and Eva. We can help make their wedding everything they deserve it to be.”
He took off his hat, hit the brim against his denim-clad thigh, then put it back on. “Yeah. That’s our job and we can do it.”
She straightened her shoulders. “We will do it.”
“Yes, we will,” he agreed.
And then they just stood there at the fence, staring at each other.
The silence stretched thin.
He broke it. “Well, all right, then. I’ll be in touch.” And without another word, he turned and left her standing there.
Chapter Two (#ud78470e1-ec90-5884-8325-efde2bd27ad9)
Feeling stunned by the whole encounter, Amy stared after Derek as he walked away from her.
Once he reached the turnaround in front of the house again, he climbed into a mud-spattered red F-150 pickup. The engine roared out, the big wheels stirring up a cloud of dust as he drove away.
What had just happened? She wasn’t sure. Had they actually forgiven each other?
Well, at least they’d said the words. And that was good, she decided. They didn’t need to talk it to death. What was there to say, anyway?
It was all in the past.
Too bad they’d come up with nothing in terms of a plan for the bachelor party. He’d said he would “be in touch.” What exactly did that mean?
Annoyance prickled through her. Okay, she got that she wasn’t his favorite person. But they did have to work together. He could have stuck around long enough to set a time and a place.
She glanced down at the papers in her hand. His numbers were right there at the top of the first page—mobile and home. Would the home number be the main house at his family’s ranch, the Circle D? She’d had that number memorized all those years ago. It was burned into her brain and she remembered it still. But this home number was different. Did he live somewhere else now?
He’d moved to the bunkhouse in April of their senior year, to give himself a little independence from his close-knit family. Back then, the bunkhouse number was the same as at the main house, but maybe they’d put in a separate line since then.
