Kitabı oku: «Montana Passions», sayfa 7

Chapter Nine

“Spooning,” Katie whispered.

They lay on their sides, her slim back tucked into him, her legs cradled on his, his arm across her waist. He nuzzled her hair, cuddled her closer, in spite of the fact that holding her tighter only aroused him more.

“Yes,” she said. “Spooning.”

“What in hell are you talking about?”

She chuckled. The sweet sound vibrated through him. “What we’re doing, tucked in this bed together, fully clothed, with you curved all around me. We’re spooning.”

He grunted, smoothed a wild coil of fragrant hair away from his mouth, and muttered, “We’re driving me crazy, that’s what we’re doing.”

“Hmm,” she said, and wiggled her bottom against him.

He took a slow breath. “That was completely uncalled for.”

“Sorry.”

“Liar.”

“But seriously, courting couples used to do this, in the old days…lie down together, with their clothes on, tucked up nice and cozy, like spoons in a drawer. Thus, spooning.”

“Spooning.” He laid his hand over hers, stroking the back of it, until she opened her fingers and he slid his between. She tucked their joined fists against her soft, flannel-covered breasts. He growled in her ear. “Frankly, I’d rather be shtupping.”

She giggled. “I don’t believe you said that.”

“The truth hurts. Let me tell you, it really, really hurts.”

She elbowed him lightly. “I’ll distract you.”

“Don’t worry, you already are.”

“I mean, from your, er, pain.”

“Oh. That. Good luck.”

“Back to spooning…Soldiers have done it, far back in history, spooning in the trenches to ward off the cold on a freezing night before a big battle. They’d keep warm using each other’s body heat.”

“Speaking of which, it’s too damn hot in here.” He pulled his hand from hers and readjusted the covers, pushing them down on his side.

“Umm.” She wiggled in against him again. “Better?”

It was agony, but at the same time…“Yeah.”

“Give me your hand back, please.” He obliged. She tucked it under her soft chin. “Yes,” she said on a gentle sigh. “This is nice…”

Nice wasn’t exactly the word for it.

Spooning.

Never in a million and a half years would he have pictured himself, lying here, spooning Katie Fenton.

But he was lying here, with her sweet-scented softness plastered all along the front of him, holding her tight, both of them covered in clothing from neck to ankle. He was lying here, never wanting to let her go.

He knew he’d never get any sleep like this. But he closed his eyes, anyway.

He woke abruptly as Katie threw back the covers and jumped from the bed.

He sat up. She was already past the rope he’d dropped last night, racing for the door to the front reception room.

He raked the hair back from his forehead. “Huh, wha—?”

She sent him a dazzling smile and hauled open the door. “The phone’s ringing.”

It rang again as she slipped through the doorway.

Katie picked up the phone in midring. “Hello?” No one spoke. She asked again, more urgently, “Hello?”

“Katie, darling? Oh, thank goodness.”

She felt the huge smile burst across her face. “Addy.”

“You’re there…you’re safe?”

“Oh, Addy. Yes. I’m fine. Justin and I got stuck here, at the museum. But we’re okay. We’re safe. Buttercup’s even okay—though she’s getting pretty cranky, trapped in the shed out back with only hay to eat.”

“You’re safe.” The relief in Addy’s dear voice was achingly clear. “We’ve been so worried…”

“I’m fine. Really. And so is Justin. Don’t worry anymore. Everything’s great, but what about you? And Caleb? And Riley?”

“Safe. We’re all safe.” A gentle chuckle followed. “Riley made it home from the hall before the snow got too bad. Caleb and I and Mr. Sy Goodwin got stuck in that office in town.”

“The ski resort office?”

“You know Caleb. Sy’s visiting from Billings. He expressed interest in the project and Caleb wanted to take him right over there to show him what a good investment he’d be making. I tagged along. By the time we realized we needed to get home, it was too late. But we all three made it back to the hall, and spent Sunday and Monday and three endless, uncomfortable nights there, with the others who didn’t make it home. It was an adventure, I’ll tell you.”

“Where are you now?”

“The snowplows started working last evening. Thunder Canyon Road was cleared by seven this morning.”

Katie looked at the clock on the wall—ten thirty-five. “So you’re at the Lazy D?”

“That’s right. Home safe and sound.”

Katie clutched the phone tighter. “Oh, I’m so relieved. I was worried about everyone.”

“Nothing to worry about. We’re all safe, and Caleb wants to talk to you.”

“Okay, I—”

Before she finished her sentence, Caleb’s deep voice was blustering in her ear. “Katie. Honey, you’re all right?”

Katie smiled all the wider. “I’m fine. Really. Safe and warm, and we had food to eat, sandwiches left by the Historical Society ladies. We’re pretty tired of ham and cheese, but it all worked out. Truly.”

“Justin Caldwell?”

The sound of his name on Caleb’s lips made her blush, for some silly reason—or maybe it was the memory of last night. “He’s here, with me. Safe. I promise.”

“All right, then. Katie, honey, you’ll be out of there in no time. I’m making a few calls to see that plow gets to you right away.”

“Caleb, that’s really not necessary. We’re perfectly safe and we can wait.”

Caleb wouldn’t hear of that. “I’m getting you out of there, and I’m doing it quick. Just sit tight now and hold on.” He spoke to someone—Addy, no doubt—on his end of the line. “Addy wants you to come on out to the ranch for dinner tonight. We’ll celebrate how we all got through the worst blizzard of the century—so far, anyway—safe and sound. She says to invite Caldwell, too. Can’t have an out-of-towner thinking we don’t know how to treat a guest.” He chuckled again. “Especially one who happens to be my business partner.”

Nice idea, she thought. Lovely idea. “I’ll ask him.”

“Good. I’m going to let you go now. I want you to call me if that plow doesn’t show up in the next hour.”

She wouldn’t, of course. She and Justin could wait as long as it took. But Caleb always enjoyed pulling strings for the people who mattered to him. “Thanks, Caleb. I love you—Addy, too.”

He made the usual, gruff, blustering sounds. “Well, now, who’s my girl?”

“I am. Always. Bye now.”

She hung up and turned to find Justin leaning in the doorway to the central room, one bare foot crossed lazily over the other. Her heart set to pounding and her breath caught at the sight of him—at the memory of last night that seemed to shimmer in the air between them.

“That was Caleb and Addy.” She sounded breathless. Probably because she was. “They were worried. I told them we were fine. And they said everyone else is safe, too.”

“Good.” He straightened from his easy slouch and came toward her, the predatory gleam in his eyes causing her knees to go weak and something low in her belly to go soft as melting butter.

She suffered dual urges—to back away from him; and to throw herself against him and lift up her mouth. In the end, she did neither. She held her ground, waiting, as he stalked toward her.

He reached her, his eyes still burning into hers.

A nervous laugh escaped her. “Justin, you look so…” The sentence trailed off. She didn’t know quite how to finish it.

He lifted a hand. With a light finger, he guided a stray coil of hair behind her ear. A little shiver went through her. “Cold?”

“No. No, not at all. Justin, are you okay?”

His hand dropped to his side and he stepped back. “So, today we’re really getting out of here.”

She nodded. “If we’re lucky, the plow should be here in the next few hours.”

He turned from her, abruptly. “Let’s get the coffee going.”

She caught his arm. “Justin…”

He swung back, his eyes dark. Turbulent. His bicep was rock-hard with tension beneath her hand. “What?”

She let go, fast. “I…well, you almost seem angry. I just don’t get it.”

He kept staring at her, giving her that strange, hot, dark devouring look, for an endless, tense moment and then…

His eyes changed. Softened. His wonderful, sensual mouth went soft, too. “Hell.” And he reached out and pulled her into his strong arms, squeezing the breath right out of her.

“Justin, what—?”

“I don’t want to lose you.” The rough, whispered words seemed dredged up from the deepest part of him.

“Oh, Justin.” She held on, tight as he was holding her. “You won’t. Of course, you won’t.”

A low, pained sound came from him and he crushed her so close, as if he would push himself right into her, meld their separate bodies into one undividable whole.

An image flashed into her mind: of the boy he once was, a boy all alone when he shouldn’t have been, standing at a wide window, watching the snow come down, wondering what was going to happen to him.

“You can count on me,” she whispered, meaning it with every fiber of her being. “You can hold on to me. I’ll always be here.”

He held her close for an endless moment more and then, with a shuddering sigh, his arms relaxed. She raised her head to meet his eyes and a rueful half smile lifted a corner of his mouth.

“Damned if I wasn’t kind of getting to like it here.”

She surged up, pressed a kiss on his beard-shadowed jaw. “Me, too. Oh, Justin…me, too.”

Over morning coffee and the inevitable sandwiches, she relayed Addy’s dinner invitation.

His eyes shifted away for a split second, and then he shook his head. “Wish I could. But I need to get back to Bozeman, ASAP. In my business, there are a hundred issues to deal with on a daily basis. I’ve been away since Saturday morning and that’s three days too long.”

She set down her stale sandwich and resisted the urge to work on him to stay. The guy had a demanding job and if they were going to get anywhere together, she’d have to learn to live with that—and on second thought, there were no ifs about it. The way he’d held her, as if he’d never let her go, out in the reception room a while ago, had banished all doubts on that score.

“I’m disappointed,” she said, matter-of-factly. “But I do understand.”

“Will you thank Adele for the invitation—and express my regrets?”

“You know I will—and it could be tough to get home at this point. You realize that?” Well, okay, she couldn’t help hoping that maybe bad road conditions would keep him in town tonight, after all. He could stay at her place.

They could catch up on their spooning.

She might even make a quick trip to the drugstore, take care of the contraception problem. She’d never bought a condom in her life and old Mr. Dodson, the pharmacist, might give her the lifted eyebrow when she plunked the box down at the cash register counter. But it would definitely be worth the slight embarrassment, to make tonight extra special, a night to remember.

Always…

But then Justin said, “It’s not even twenty miles. And by later today, at least, I’m sure they’ll have the highway cleared.”

He was probably right. Darn it.

The plow came within the hour. By then, Caleb had called a second time to tell her not to worry about Buttercup. A couple of hands would be over a little later with the snowblower and other necessary equipment to free the mare from the shed out back. Emelda Ross had called, as well, just to check and see that Katie was all right.

Katie and Justin, still dressed in their rummage sale clothes, bundled in the coats and gloves they’d arrived in, shovels in hand, waited on the porch as the plow lumbered up the street. It turned into the museum parking lot and kept on coming, right up to the steps. Katie waved at the driver, a local man whose wife and kids paid frequent visits to the library, and shouted, “Thanks!”

The driver gave her a wave in return and then backed to the street again. The plow, which had already made the Elk Avenue curve, headed east at a crawl, toward what was known as New Town, clearing the high white drifts into yet higher piles at the sides of the street as it went.

Justin turned to her. “Well. What next?”

A dragging feeling of sadness engulfed her: for all they had shared in the dim rooms behind them, for the uncertain future—which, she told herself firmly, wasn’t uncertain at all.

She and the man beside her had found something special. Nothing could change that. “Where’s your car parked?” she asked with a cheery smile.

“In the lot behind the town hall.”

“It’s not far, and mine’s there, too. Let’s get the steps cleared off and put the shovels away and then we’ll start walking.”

All along Main Street, folks were out with their shovels. The roar of snowblowers filled the icy air. People called out and waved as Katie and Justin walked by.

“Katie, how you doin’?”

“Some storm, eh?”

“Talk about your New Year’s surprise!”

“Come on. This is nothin’. Five or six feet. Piece a cake.”

“And they say it’s turning warm right away. In the fifties by Friday. What do you think of that?”

They waved back and called greetings and when they reached the hall, they found the front steps already cleared and the driveway to the back parking lot passable, as well.

They went in the front to ask after the things they’d left behind the night of the storm. Rhonda Culpepper, well past sixty with a white streak in her improbably black hair, waited at her usual post behind the reception desk.

Rhonda greeted Katie and nodded at Justin and announced with a wink, “I’ll bet I know what you two are after.” She bent down behind the desk and came up with Katie’s purse and Justin’s briefcase, phone and keys, along with a big bag for each of them filled with their own clothes and shoes. “Have I got every-thing?”

“Looks like it. Thanks, Rhonda.”

“Always glad to help.”

They went down a side hall and out a door at the back. A couple of guys were at work there, clearing the snow between the vehicles so people could get them out. Katie exchanged greetings with the men and then Justin asked which car was hers.

She pointed at the silver-gray Suburban, near where the men were working. “In a few minutes they’ll have me dug out.”

“Let’s get the snow off the roof and the windshield cleared, then,” he suggested.

She caught his hand. Even through their heavy gloves, she felt his warmth. Her pulse quickened. “It’s okay. Doug and Cam will help me.” She gestured at the two busily shoveling men.

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely. Where are you parked?”

His black Escalade was near the edge of the lot, not far from the drive that led around to the front. The snow had already been shoveled away around it.

She helped him knock some of the snow off the roof and the hood and he got inside and turned the vehicle on, ducking back out with a scraper. He set to work. She went on tiptoe and pushed more snow off the Escalade’s roof as he cleared the windshield.

It wasn’t all that long before he had the wipers going and he was ready to head out.

He cast a glance toward Cam and Doug, still shoveling away between the snow-covered cars and pickups. “Come here.” He grabbed her hand and towed her to the back of the Escalade, where they were out of sight of the working men. She went eagerly into the warm circle of his arms.

“Time to get out of here.” His breath came out on a cloud.

“Drive safely. I want you back soon. Very, very soon…”

By way of answer, he bent and pressed his lips—cold on the outside, so warm within—to hers.

The icy day, the growls of snowblowers on Main Street, the scraping of shovels on the frozen blacktop a few feet away—all of that faded to nothing. There was only Justin, his arms tight and cherishing around her, his mouth claiming hers in a bone-melting kiss.

With a regretful growl low in his throat, he lifted his head. “I’ll call you.”

She let out a laugh. “Good luck with that. You don’t even have my number.”

“Katie, you’re the town librarian and you’re like a daughter to Caleb Douglas, who happens to be a colleague of mine. I don’t think you’ll be that hard to track down. Plus, I’d bet the last strip mall I built that you’ve got a listed number.”

“Now, how did you know that?”

“You’re the listed-number type.”

She gave him a frown. “That’s good, right?”

He kissed her nose, her cheeks and even her chin, his lips warm now against her cold skin. Then he pulled away enough to look at her, a deep look, a look she couldn’t quite read. “I have to go.” His arms fell away and he turned toward the driver’s door.

She followed, already missing him, feeling bereft. He climbed up into the seat and shut the door. She went around the front of the vehicle to the other side, getting out of his way.

He saluted her—a gloved hand to his forehead. She mimicked the gesture. And then he was backing out, turning to get the right angle, and rolling forward. She watched as the big, black SUV disappeared around the side of the town hall, her heart pounding hard and heavy as lead beneath her breastbone.

She knew he would call her. Hadn’t he just told her he would? Still, she had the strangest, scariest feeling right then that she would never see him again.

Chapter Ten

Dinner at the Lazy D was a festive affair. Adele had the cook prepare a juicy prime rib and Tess Littlehawk, the ranch’s longtime housekeeper, set the long table in the formal dining room with the best china and crystal.

Riley, who’d been out earlier checking the stock, came in from his own place a half a mile from the main house to join them, his dark hair slicked back, wet from the shower he must have just taken.

“I was the lucky one,” he said, smoothing his linen napkin on his lap and sparing a wink of greeting for Katie. “Safe and sound at my place before things got too rough.”

Sy Goodwin, a feed-store owner and family man who’d decided to stay the night before heading back to his wife and four kids in Billings, laughed with Caleb and Adele over their shared “ordeal” in the hall—especially Sunday morning, when most of the others were suffering from an excess of beer the day before.

“A number of extremely discouraging words were exchanged,” Goodwin reported, his expression jokingly solemn, a definite gleam in his eye.

The creases in Caleb’s nut-brown face etched all the deeper as he let out his big, boisterous laugh. “I tell you, Katie, a bottle of aspirin that first day was worth its weight in gold.”

Sy laughed, too. “And anyone with a box of Alka-Seltzer could have gotten a fortune for it.”

Adele and Caleb agreed that Sy wasn’t exaggerating.

Caleb asked, a little too meaningfully as far as Katie was concerned, “And what about you and Justin? Stuck there in that musty old museum with nothing but mining equipment and Indian artifacts for company.”

Adele was shaking her head. “What did you do for all that time?”

We kissed, Katie thought. Forever. We spooned. All night. And I dropped in at State Street Drugs this afternoon and bought myself a box of condoms. Mr. Dodson hadn’t even batted an eye when she plunked it down on the counter.

She said, offhand as she could make it, “Oh, we found some books and board games in the storage room. We managed to occupy ourselves.”

Addy clucked her tongue and sent Katie a sly look. “A handsome guy, that Justin.”

Katie put on her sweetest smile. “Yes. He is. Very.”

Adele added, “I do wish he’d been able to stay and join us tonight.”

“He had to get back,” Katie said. “Business, you know.”

“Yeah,” Caleb agreed. “That man’s a real go-getter. Started from nothing and now he’s the biggest developer in western Montana—and not even thirty-five yet.” Those devilish green eyes of his were twinkling. “And our Katie’s gone and married him.”

Addy and Riley shared a glance and Sy Goodwin looked confused.

Adele had to explain to him about the mail-order bride reenactment they’d missed when they went down to the ski resort office.

“We heard after we got back to the hall that it was quite an event, that marriage of yours,” said Caleb. “Heard some old character named Green stepped up to play the preacher. Got right into the part. Even called himself ‘Reverend.’”

“Yep,” Katie agreed, keeping it light, but thinking of Justin. Of his low, teasing voice through the darkness that night they’d talked and talked. Of his kiss. Of his hands on her body. She should have gotten his number. But no. He’d said he’d call. And of course he would. “That ‘wedding’ was…really something.”

Maybe tonight, she thought. At least by tomorrow.…

The talk moved on to other subjects. After coffee and dessert, Caleb and Addy urged her to stay. They didn’t want her driving home on the icy roads in the dark.

She said she really had to get back. The roads to town had been cleared and salted and the snow hadn’t started up again. She’d be just fine.

It was after eleven when she let herself into her two-story farmhouse-style Victorian on Cedar Street.

She’d been home earlier, after Justin left her in the town hall parking lot, and she’d turned up the thermostat then, so the house was cozy-warm and welcoming. Switching on lamps as she went, she headed for the phone in the kitchen in back, where she found the message light on her machine glowing a steady red.

No one had called.

He didn’t call Wednesday morning, either. Katie went to the library at nine and jumped every time the phone rang, though there was really no reason he’d call her at work when all he had to do was look up her home number in the book.

Still, whenever the phone rang, her heart would race and the clerk would answer.

And it wouldn’t be him.

Emelda, who put in a lot of volunteer hours at the library, arrived at two. “It’s going to be fifty degrees today, can you believe it?” she marveled as she peeled off her muffler and hung up her heavy coat. “Snow’s already melting. It’ll be gone in no time if this keeps up.” She clucked her tongue and got to work shelving some new novels Katie had waiting.

At three, Emelda took over the check-out desk so the clerk, Lindy Peters, could have a break. The phone rang just as Lindy left the desk. Katie raced over and grabbed it on the second ring, though Emelda was moving down the counter toward it.

“Thunder Canyon Public Library,” Katie answered, absurdly breathless. “May I help you?”

It was only someone wanting the library hours for the week. Katie repeated them and said goodbye.

Emelda shook her silver-gray head. “I swear you are jumpy as a frog on a hot rock today. I would have gotten that.”

Katie hardly heard her. Her mind was full of Justin. What was he doing now? Had he gotten back to Bozeman safely? Well, of course he had. And it had barely been twenty-four hours since he left her at the town hall—well, okay, twenty-six hours, thirty-plus minutes, to be more exact. Not that long, not really. No doubt he had a mountain of work to catch up on. He probably wouldn’t be able to get away to see her until the weekend. He’d be calling—soon—to set something up.

“Katie? Did you hear a single word I said?”

“Oh. Emelda. Sorry, I…” She was saved from having to make some lame excuse for her distracted behavior when a little girl with a towering stack of picture books, her mother right behind her, stepped up to the counter.

After that, Katie managed to keep herself from rushing to grab the phone every time it rang.

Besides, by then she was feeling more and more certain that Justin would be calling her house, not the library. There was probably a message waiting for her at home right now.

When she got home at five-fifteen there were two messages, but neither was from Justin.

She simply had to stop obsessing over this. He’d said he’d call and he would. Justin was an honest man.

That night she hosted the Historical Society meeting at her house. As she served up the coffee and cookies and listened to everyone bemoan the storm that had ruined their museum reception, and trade news on Ben Saunders’s rapidly improving health, she couldn’t help expecting the phone to ring.

It didn’t. Not that night, not Thursday morning, not during her prelunch hours at the library, either.

She met Addy for their usual Thursday lunch date at the Hitching Post. Addy mentioned that she thought Katie seemed distracted.

Katie met Addy’s eyes across the table and longed to tell her everything—of the magic time she’d known with Justin when they were marooned in the museum, of the shattering beauty of the one night she’d spent in his arms.

Of how she couldn’t stop longing, every second of the day, for his call.

But no. It was all too new. She didn’t want to share what she was feeling with anyone. Not yet. Not until…

Well, soon. But not now.

She reassured Addy that she was fine.

And then Justin didn’t call the rest of the day, or in the evening, either.

By Friday morning she was beginning to wonder if something really might have happened to him, if he’d had some kind of accident on the way home to Bozeman. Whatever had kept him from calling her, she prayed he was all right.

She pored over the special edition of the Thunder Canyon Nugget that had come out Wednesday. It was chock-full of great stories of how folks had weathered the big storm. Two storm-related accidents were reported. One had occurred after the roads were cleared, when a pickup going too fast rolled on Thunder Canyon Road. The other concerned a high-schooler who’d driven his snowmobile into a tree while the snow was still falling on Sunday afternoon. Injuries were surprisingly minor in both cases. She found no mention of any accident on the road to Bozeman, nothing about a black Escalade or an out-of-towner named Caldwell.

Before she left for the library, she called Bozeman information. His home phone wasn’t listed. But they did have a number for Red Rock Developers. She dialed it and a service picked up. The offices opened at nine. She could leave her number and Mr. Caldwell’s secretary would get back to her during business hours.

“Uh, no thanks. I’ll call later.”

She hung up and considered calling Caleb, asking him if maybe he had Justin’s home number. But she found herself hesitating to do that. Caleb would be curious. He’d tease her about her “groom,” and ask her why she thought she needed his number. And then Caleb would tell Adele that Katie was trying to get ahold of Justin—and Addy would tell Caleb how distracted Katie had been at lunch the day before…

Oh, not right now, she thought. She wanted to find out how Justin was, wanted to talk to him, wanted to be reassured that everything was all right, with him and between the two of them, before she said anything to Caleb or Addy.

She went to work and tried to keep her mind on her job, a difficult task when every thought kept tracking right back around to Justin. Where was he? Was he okay? Why hadn’t he called?

By lunchtime, after Lindy had asked her twice what was wrong with her and Emelda had expressed concern over whether she might be coming down with something, Katie realized she had to snap out of it.

Worrying about Justin wasn’t going to do anybody any good. She’d track him down that evening, one way or another. Until then, she was keeping her thoughts strictly on her work.

At four-fifteen, the kids started arriving for Emelda’s story hour, which started at four-thirty. They all gathered around the low round table in the center of the children’s section, where Emelda would keep them spellbound with fairy tales and stories by the best contemporary children’s authors—and sometimes true-life accounts from Montana history.

Cameron Stevenson, one of the two men Katie and Justin had found shoveling out the town hall parking lot on Tuesday, brought his seven-year-old, Erik, as always. Often the parents would leave their kids and come back at five-thirty to collect them.

Not Cam. The tall, athletic auburn-haired teacher was a single dad and he took fatherhood seriously. He stuck around, even though he coached at the high school and would have to rush back there the minute the story hour ended to get his team ready for the evening’s home game. As he waited, he read sports magazines from the periodicals section and browsed the fiction stacks.

After five, as Katie was wrapping things up for the day, Cam wandered over to her workstation at the central reference counter and he and Katie chatted about nothing in particular: how good the varsity basketball team was looking this year and how Cam and Erik had barely made it home Saturday before the snow shut them in.

Cam joked that he’d heard how she and her “groom” had been stuck at the museum alone for the duration. “Some honeymoon, huh?” he asked with an easy grin.

“It was…quite an experience,” she replied in a library-level whisper, mentally congratulating herself on how offhand she sounded. “Poor Buttercup.”

“That old mare of Caleb’s, you mean?”

She nodded. “The old sweetheart was stuck out in the shed all that time, no exercise and nothing but hay to…” She didn’t finish.

How could she? Her throat had clamped tight. Joy and relief went exploding through her.

Justin!

He must have just come in. He stood over by the check-out counter, wearing a sweater that matched his eyes and a gorgeous coffee-brown suede jacket. He was scanning the room.

He spotted her. Her heart froze in midbeat and then started galloping. Somehow, she managed to lift a hand and wave.

He headed toward her, long strides eating up the all-weather gray carpet under his boots. She was vaguely aware that Cam had turned to see what—or who—had stolen the words right out of her mouth.

“I had a feeling I might find you here,” Justin said.