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Chapter Two

Dillon pulled money from his wallet and flicked it onto the table with his bill. What had gone wrong with Erika?

Just as he asked himself the question, he felt the vibration of his cell phone on his belt. Did someone at the resort need him?

When he pulled the phone from its holder, he checked the screen and smiled. “Hold on a sec, Corey, until I leave the restaurant.”

Outside the door, Dillon took a deep breath, wondering why Erika’s leaving had disappointed him so deeply. He didn’t even know her. He shouldn’t even think about knowing her. He was here for a month, then he’d be gone. Besides that, she had to be twelve or thirteen years younger than he was. Maybe that was the whole problem. She decided she’d rather be out with someone her own age.

Now, however, his mind went to his brother, holding the line from Midland, Texas. “Okay, now I can hear,” Dillon said. “I was at the Hitching Post. You know how noisy that can get.”

Corey laughed, a good old Texas chuckle. At thirty-three and six feet tall, with light brown hair and brown eyes, his brother was the epitome of a Texas male. As a management consultant, he dressed stylishly when he chose to, but he was most at home in his boots and jeans. He’d spent some time with Dillon, their cousins and friends at the Hitching Post in June.

“What were you doing at the Hitching Post?” Corey asked. “Don’t tell me you were trying to pick up somebody at happy hour?”

Corey enjoyed women’s company and didn’t understand why Dillon still didn’t date.

He and his brother had always been honest with each other. Although Ethan was between them in age, Corey and Dillon thought more alike on subjects other than women and had gotten to be better friends the older they’d grown.

So now when Corey asked, Dillon was honest. “I was here with someone.”

There was a pause as if Corey was thinking about that. “With someone? Like the receptionist you met at the resort this summer?”

“You guessed that how?”

“I saw the way you looked at her when she led us to Marshall’s office in June. But more than that, I saw the way she looked back.”

“Yeah, well, she’s not looking back now. We were having an enjoyable evening, then all of a sudden she froze up and left. I would have appreciated a hint as to what I did wrong.”

“You’ll probably never know,” Corey empathized. “I don’t understand women any more than you do. They have a language I don’t get—a language they want us to learn, yet they don’t want to teach it to us.”

After another pause, Dillon asked, “Did you call just to see how things are going here?”

“Partly. Actually I might be in Montana again in November. I’m thinking about staying at the lodge. How do you like it there?”

“It’s luxurious. Anything you might need is at your fingertips.”

“But?” Corey asked perceptively.

“But if you’re going to stay any length of time, you might want to rent one of the condos. Many of them are empty.”

“Thanks—I’ll keep that in mind. So how do you like Marshall’s practice?”

“A medical practice like this one could be any doctor’s lifelong dream. I can even glimpse elk from the wall of windows in my office.”

“Yet it’s not your dream?”

“I can’t dream anymore, Corey.”

The silence between them was telling and Dillon asked a clipped, “What?”

“You have to let go of the guilt. You’ll never be happy again if you don’t. For the millionth time, you had no control over Toby’s leukemia.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Thoughts of Dillon’s four-and-a-half-year-old son who’d died were so bittersweet he usually closed the door on them.

“All right. So let’s talk about what you’re going to do when your stint for Marshall is up. Are you going to accept that concierge practice in Odessa?”

The doctor who had offered Dillon the position had put a sweet deal on the table. “I don’t know. Taking care of the guests at the resort is a somewhat similar experience. I’m going to see how I like it before I make up my mind.”

“Good idea. The truth is I don’t know if I can see you being at the beck and call of patients because they’re paying you well for the opportunity to have you as their doctor. It doesn’t sound like you.”

“I never thought I’d be here at the resort, taking over for Marshall, either.”

Corey waited a beat before asking, “So you just ran into this receptionist again?”

“Not exactly. Erika’s my receptionist now.”

“Ah-hah! The plot thickens. Just how did she come to be your receptionist?”

“Grant assigned her. I’m not taking up all her time. It’s pretty slow for her most days, but she’s the one planning Frontier Days. She’s working right outside my office all day, so we interact.”

“I see. And tonight you decided to interact on a personal rather than business level?”

His brother’s words brought back the image of him holding Erika in his arms, his hand under her hair, his other hand clasping hers. At first, as they’d danced, she’d been close enough to arouse him. But then she’d needed some space. He got that. They didn’t know each other very well. But leaving as she had—

“Ask her,” Corey suggested.

“Ask her what?”

“Ask her why she left. That’s what you want to know, right? Maybe she’s one of those rare women who will actually tell you the truth.”

His silence was answer enough for Corey.

His brother offered, “Yeah, the Texas Traubs inherited as much pride as oil money. You know what Mom’s always preached—pride comes before the fall. I think that means if you don’t give up the pride, you’re going to trip over something.”

Purposely changing the subject again, Dillon asked, “Did you attend the family dinner on Sunday?”

“Oh, yeah. Peter was in great form, filling us all in verbatim on the latest board meeting.”

“After all these years, we should realize Peter’s not going to change,” Dillon reminded his brother.

When their mother had married Peter Wexler, Dillon hadn’t known what to think. At fourteen, he was still grieving for his dad and couldn’t imagine another man moving into his father’s place. His mother had told them she needed help with six kids and running a business. Peter knew the business from the ground up and she’d teach him what he didn’t know.

Dillon had heard the gossip at school as she’d dated Peter, then married him. The grapevine had debated over whether or not he was a gold digger. People assumed the oil-rig foreman would take Claudia Traub’s money and leave her high and dry … but first he’d share the good life with her. Since Dillon hadn’t been about to accept anyone sitting in his father’s chair at the table, he’d rebelled big-time. He’d stayed away from Peter as much as he could, making sure he participated in after-school sports, studied someplace other than home and spent summers with his cousins in Montana. He’d told himself constantly he only had to live through four years because then he’d be in college and on his own. He and Peter had settled into a kind of truce, but they’d never become close, never become son and father.

Away from all of it now, Dillon finally answered Corey’s question.

“We all have our own lives now. He’s always seemed to make Mom happy and that’s what’s important, right?” Dillon asked, still trying to convince himself.

“I guess,” Corey agreed. After a pensive pause, he asked, “So what are you going to do about Erika?”

“Maybe I’ll just do what you said and ask her why she left.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“I’ll talk to you soon,” Dillon said.

Dillon attached his phone to his belt and strode to his sedan. Did he really want to find out why Erika had left? Why even bother when by the end of September, he’d be gone?

Early the next morning, Erika exited the women’s locker room at the resort’s gym dressed in her tank top, shorts and sneakers. She was a little out of sorts. For some reason, today it had been difficult to drop off Emilia at the neighborhood day care—her little girl hadn’t wanted her to leave. Plus, her dinner with Dillon last night had stirred up pre–Scott Spencerman dreams—dreams of vows, shared goals and most of all children who brought such joy to everyday life. Yet Dillon had squashed them with his lack of enthusiasm for children … the dark emotion in his eyes when she’d mentioned his cousin’s kids.

Erika stopped short when she spied the object of her thoughts. Last night, Dillon had told her he liked to go horseback riding. But the weather was damp and rainy today, so he must have opted for the workout room instead. She wished she could just walk by him and forget last night had ever happened. But essentially, he was her boss and she couldn’t.

He had spotted her, too.

He’d finished with one of the weight stations. Grabbing a towel from a nearby bench, he slung it around his neck.

She swallowed hard. His broad shoulders and slim waist told her he’d always been an athlete. He was wearing a gray T-shirt with the sleeves cut off and navy gym shorts that didn’t hide his powerful thigh muscles. There was a dark patch of sweat on his chest and under his arms. His body glistened from his workout, but he didn’t seem self-conscious about it, though he wasn’t smiling now as they both took a few steps toward each other.

“I didn’t expect to see you here this morning,” he commented.

“I come in a few times each week.”

“I thought I’d save my favorite horse a wet, muddy ride.”

She might as well jump into it. “I’m sorry I didn’t pay my half of the bill last night. If you’d like—”

“Don’t be silly. I asked you to dinner, remember?”

Oh, she remembered. Glancing at his body again, feeling heat creep through hers, she recalled exactly why she’d accepted his invitation.

“Did I say something to make you run off?”

He was direct, that was for sure, and she liked that about him. She liked too many things. “It wasn’t you, Dillon. Really.”

“That’s hard to believe.”

When she didn’t say more, he took another step closer, and now they were within touching distance. “You have circles under your eyes.” He gently touched one of them with his thumb.

Erika trembled and she hoped he couldn’t feel it. She’d never felt this kind of chemistry before. Taking a shaky breath, she decided just to give him a little bit of personal information. “I was up late last night studying. I’m taking an online management course. After all, I don’t want to be a receptionist forever.”

“So you raced home to study?” He sounded … surprised. Maybe even a little impressed. “Would you like to do something like manage this whole resort someday?”

“Yes, I would. From everything I’ve seen here, I think I’d enjoy hotel management. I’m hoping that if I do a great job with Frontier Days, I’ll be promoted.”

Dillon’s gaze passed over her assessingly as if he was taking stock of her appearance and her intelligence, maybe even her age. Her shoulders squared and she knew she raised her chin, wondering what was coming next. Dillon had always been a gentleman, but they were alone here. Scott had taken advantage of any time they were alone to make a move on her.

But Dillon didn’t engage in idle flattery, nor did he step closer. He asked, “Do you want to stay in Thunder Canyon or move on?”

“I haven’t thought about leaving.” After all, she had a child and a life to make. “Why do you ask?”

“Because you’re young, intelligent and beautiful. The whole world is open to you. Have you traveled at all?”

She shook her head.

“Do you want to?”

“Maybe some day, but now I have to make a living and I’m establishing roots. After all, this is where I was born and raised. Don’t you feel that way about where you came from?”

He shrugged. “I think a career path can lead away from roots. If you want to become a resort manager, you could end up on a tropical island.”

Maybe he felt as if he’d shared too much personal information with her last night because he hadn’t answered her question. “I can’t picture myself leaving Montana. I feel grounded here.” She knew that mostly had to do with her mother and her daughter, but he didn’t need to know that. “Have you traveled much?” she asked, curious about his life … curious about what being wealthy meant.

“I traveled before college, backpacked through Europe that summer.”

“Your parents let you do that when you were so young?”

“Let’s just say I was a responsible eighteen-year-old, and at eighteen my mother and stepfather couldn’t really stop me. I needed to get away and that was the way I chose to do it.”

“I bet they worried about you the whole time you were gone.”

“My mother was busy managing my father’s company. Her marriage to my stepfather was still fairly new. I didn’t feel they’d miss me.”

“But they did.”

“I could tell my mother did by the way her face lit up and she hugged me when I got home. What about your parents? Do they live in Thunder Canyon?”

This was territory where she didn’t want to go, but she took a few footsteps in. “My mother does. She’s an elementary school teacher. But my father left when I was five and we never saw him again.”

“I’m sorry,” Dillon said sincerely. “I know how hard it is to lose a parent, no matter how that happens.”

She wanted to touch him now, the same way he had touched her. She longed to slip her fingers through the wave of hair on his forehead, or touch the line of his jaw that seemed so strong and determined. But she knew she should do neither. She knew she should back away.

She actually did take a step back. “I have to start my workout so I can get to the office on time.” “I won’t keep you, then. I’ll see you later.” “Later,” she agreed, then headed for the StairMaster. She needed more than a sedate yoga routine today. She needed to expend some real energy. That way she could forget how Dillon’s thumb had felt on her cheek. She could forget the way his body turned her on. She could forget the way she’d felt when he’d held her in his arms.

Late that afternoon, Erika studied the firmed-up details for Frontier Days. She found she accomplished more when Dillon wasn’t in his office. His presence distracted her no matter how she tried to focus. That was unusual. She was usually good at focusing.

She heard the light footsteps in the hall and looked up when Stacy Gillette strolled in.

Dillon’s “friend”—that’s how Erika thought of her—stopped at her desk. “Is Dillon in?”

“Not right now. He’s in a meeting upstairs. Would you like me to page him?”

Stacy didn’t seem perturbed. “No. I’ll see him soon enough.”

A dinner date tonight?

As Stacy left the reception area, Erika told herself once more she shouldn’t care what Stacy and Dillon meant to each other. But she did.

Time to focus again.

Turning to the computer, she printed out the schedule of events for Frontier Days. She was lifting the last page from the machine when she heard Dillon’s bootfalls and took a deep breath as he strode in. Right away she noticed the grim expression on his face. His gaze met hers when he stopped by her desk.

“Is something wrong?” She didn’t know why her voice wobbled a little but it did.

“We have a big problem. I had a meeting with Jeff’s father. I can’t talk him out of suing the resort. The whole situation is a mess. He’s already called his lawyer and the resort is going to have to do the same. I have a meeting with Grant tomorrow morning. He’s not going to be happy about this.”

“Will the resort really be in trouble?” She could be out of a job in a minute if it was.

“Legal fees add up. Guest numbers are down. The resort still has its main expenses. Grant might have to think about cutting guest perks.”

Erika suddenly heard noise in the hall—adult feet, the patter of little feet. Dillon turned toward the doorway just as Erika’s mother and daughter entered in a burst of activity. That activity was Emilia. She was doing a combination of hopping and running in place.

As soon as she saw Erika, she pulled away from her grandmother and practically flew to Erika calling, “Mommee! Mommee!”

Erika opened her arms as her daughter launched herself at her. She felt the joy she always felt when she held Emilia close to her heart. After a few moments of mother-daughter bonding, Erika peered over her daughter’s head at Dillon. His face showed surprise and then dawning understanding.

She had to say something. “Dillon, this is my mother, Constance Rodriguez, and my daughter, Emilia.”

Dillon first shook her mother’s hand. “It’s good to meet you.” Then he turned to Emilia, a bittersweet expression on his face. “Hi, there.”

Emilia turned into Erika’s shoulder shyly but peeked up at Dillon.

“Say hello, baby,” Erika encouraged her daughter.

Emilia opened one eye, rubbed her nose in Erika’s shoulder, then grinned at Dillon.

“I can tell you’re going to be a heartbreaker,” he said. “Are you around two years old?”

“Soon,” Erika offered. “In a few weeks.”

Constance crossed to Erika and her granddaughter protectively. “I hope we didn’t interrupt anything important. But I had a half day today and decided to pick up Emilia so we could have some quality time together. And speaking of time,” she said to Erika, “when will you be home?” She addressed Dillon. “Erika puts in such long hours. I hope someone appreciates it.”

“Mom!” Erika was embarrassed by her mother’s comment.

Dillon stepped in. “I think her hours are long because she’s taken on two jobs—being my receptionist as well as the coordinator for Frontier Days. I try not to keep her past five but I’ve noticed she tends to stay later.”

“You leave at five?” Erika’s mother asked.

“Usually. Unless I have a patient. But I’m on call in the evenings although I’m not in the office.”

“Do you live here?” her mother inquired and Erika wanted to crawl under the desk. She tried again in a warning tone, “Mom …”

Dillon glanced from mother to daughter. “I live in a suite upstairs. That seems to be the best way to keep me available to the guests.”

“I see.” Her mother was obviously absorbing it all.

Had she stopped in today to meet Dillon because Erika had gone to dinner with him?

Emilia squiggled to be let down. Erika didn’t want to let her daughter run free but there was little she could get into in the waiting area except magazines on the coffee table.

As Dillon watched the toddler, he commented to Constance, “Erika didn’t mention she had a daughter.”

“My daughter likes to keep her personal life to herself,” Constance answered.

Erika noticed Dillon’s gaze pass over her desk where no pictures or any personal effects were displayed and she could see the questions in his eyes, along with dark shadows she didn’t understand. But she couldn’t answer his questions here and now and didn’t even know if she wanted to. He’d probably run in the other direction if he knew her history. He was so polished, so confident, so sure of his place in life. In so many ways he reminded her of Scott. Yet when she was alone with him …

Her gaze collided with his. Everything seemed to go quiet except for the beating of her heart.

Suddenly Emilia tired of pushing magazines on the coffee table. She ran for Erika but at the last minute detoured and headed for Dillon instead. She ran into his leg and he caught her so she wouldn’t fall.

The toddler looked up at him and giggled as if what she’d done was great fun.

Erika stooped and caught Emilia again, lifting her high in the air. Emilia raised her arms and waved them. “Mommee, Mommee. Fwy!”

Erika explained, “She likes when I lift her up high so she can pretend she’s flying.” Instead of giving her daughter her way, Erika shook her head. “Not here. We’ll fly at home.”

The phone on Dillon’s belt chimed. “Excuse me,” he said, watching Erika with Emilia. He glanced at the caller ID. “I have to take this.” He spoke into the phone. “Just a minute, Grant.” Turning to Erika’s mother, he smiled. “It was good to meet you, Mrs. Rodriguez.”

“It was good to meet you, too, Dr. Traub.”

Then Dillon came very close to Erika and gently ran his hand over Emilia’s hair. “It was a pleasure meeting you, too, little one.” His gaze was so tender yet filled with a deep emotion Erika couldn’t read.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” he said to Erika. “Go ahead and leave. You were here early and put in a long day. Ruthann can handle any calls coming in now.”

With a last wave for Emilia, he disappeared down the hall and into his office.

“You like him,” her mother whispered to her. “That’s dangerous.”

“Don’t worry, Mom. I learned my lesson the last time.”

“I hope so.” Her mother still looked worried.

Erika knew liking Dillon Traub was not going anywhere. She had even more to lose now than she had three years ago. She would not let a man ruin her life again.

At D.J.’s Rib Shack that evening, Stacy tilted her head and asked Dillon, “How often can you get away from the lodge?”

They’d been catching up over a dinner of ribs and corn bread. “I’m not chained here,” he joked. “But I was hired to treat the guests so I don’t like to go too far. If I do want to go out for an evening, I can give Dr. Babchek a call. He’s retired and can back me up if Ruthann needs him.”

The restaurant wasn’t far from the main lodge. The Rib Shack was nestled in among boutiques that stretched from the lodge through the resort.

Dillon glanced at the mural on the wall of the restaurant, the one D.J.’s wife, Allaire, had painted. For some reason, thinking about D.J. and Allaire and their two-year-old turned Dillon’s thoughts to Erika and Emilia. The little girl was a miniature replica of her mother, glossy wavy hair, big dark eyes. She was a beautiful child—and Erika was a beautiful woman. Dillon sensed there was a lot more to his receptionist than met the eye. She seemed mature beyond her years, unless he was just trying to fool himself.

“Dillon?” he heard Stacy say.

“Yes.”

“I asked if you’ve seen D.J. and Allaire since you’ve been back this time.”

“Not yet. But soon, I hope.”

“What were you thinking about?” the perceptive social director asked. “You seemed miles away.”

“Not so many miles.” Studying Stacy, he said, “I was thinking about my receptionist, Erika Rodriguez. Before I left the office tonight, her mother came in with her little girl. I didn’t know she had a child and I wondered why she kept her a secret.”

“Emilia’s not a secret,” Stacy muttered.

It was the way Stacy said it that made Dillon take notice. “Is there a hidden meaning there?”

Stacy hesitated and Dillon suspected why. She wasn’t the type of woman who liked to gossip, but he wanted to know more about Erika and he wasn’t sure she’d tell him herself. “I don’t want you to reveal anything you shouldn’t,” he assured her.

“Can I ask why you want to know?”

Should he say that he was interested in her, when he was trying to deny that fact himself? “We’ll be working together this month. I’d feel better knowing something about her background.”

Toying with a morsel of corn bread still on her plate, Stacy finally shrugged. “I suppose it won’t hurt to tell you. Most of Thunder Canyon knows her story.”

“Her story?”

“Oh, Dillon, you know how gossip spreads in small towns, especially here in Thunder Canyon. I’m sure tomorrow at the resort several people will ask me about my dinner with you.”

“You’re kidding.”

She shook her head. “Think about the feud between Dax and D.J. and how that was all over town for years, especially after Dax and Allaire got a divorce and then D.J. started seeing her.”

“Water under the bridge,” Dillon muttered, knowing both of his cousins were extremely happy now. They’d settled their feud and actually become brothers. Not only that, but each had found the right woman to make them happy.

“Yeah, but that water has a lot of debris in it.” Stacy pushed back her plate and propped her chin on her hand. “Erika was run through the gossip mill from one end of town to the other. After high school she waitressed for a while and took a couple of business classes in Bozeman. She’d settled into a job as a receptionist for a real-estate agency in Thunder Canyon when the boom took off. I think she intended to get her real-estate license eventually and start moving up. Then a businessman named Scott Spencerman came to town. He found a condo through Erika’s agency, one here at the resort. Erika was only twenty-three. He was older, but she caught his eye. He flattered her and charmed her, gave her presents, but didn’t particularly take her out in public much, if you know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t know what you mean. If he cared about her—”

“She cared about him. She thought she was in love with him. He was a businessman who traveled a lot and only wanted the condo here for skiing in the winter, and maybe some hiking in the summer. He didn’t want a life here. He wanted entertainment while he was here.”

“Stacy—”

“You asked,” she drawled.

After a long pause, he asked, “So what was the gossip about?” He felt annoyed that people couldn’t keep their noses where they belonged.

“The rumor was that Erika was a gold digger who took up with Spencerman for what he could give her.”

“Is he still around?”

“God, no. When Erika found herself pregnant, he sublet his condo and disappeared. I don’t know what really happened. I don’t know if anyone does. But Erika was out of work after Emilia was born and I think things got pretty rough. Now she barely talks to anyone while she works and leads a very private life. No one really knows if the rumors about her were true or not. Many people thought she got what she deserved.”

“A child and heartache?” Dillon asked. “Just what kind of people live here?” Dillon had met women who wanted to date him because of what he had rather than who he was. Erika didn’t seem like that type at all. Could a whole town be wrong?

He thought about his mother and stepfather. Could a whole family be wrong?

“Are you interested in Erika?” Stacy asked, surprised.

He supposed that was because she knew he hadn’t dated since he and Megan divorced.

“Will you tell me she’s after my money if I say I am?”

“No. But I’ll tell you to watch your back and your heart.” She reached across the table and clasped his hand. “I know what you’ve been through—losing Toby and then your divorce. We’re friends, Dillon. We have been since we were kids. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

He smiled and shrugged off her concern. “How can I possibly get hurt? I’m only going to be here a month and then I’ll be returning to Texas.”

“A lot can happen in a month,” Stacy prophesied.

Part of him hoped her prediction was wrong. The other part of him hoped she was right. He felt as if he’d been living in a bunker since Toby died … since Megan had left. In his group practice with three other doctors, he’d seen patients and dealt with insurance companies until he was too tired to see straight. Each night he’d gone home and collapsed, many nights falling asleep on the couch with the television blaring so it overrode his thoughts. Perhaps a casual relationship was the antidote he so desperately needed.

Erika has a child, he reminded himself.

Maybe Corey was right and it was time for him to leave his bunker … to bury his regrets and the guilt that he’d failed to save his son. He remembered again the way he’d felt at the Hitching Post with Erika in his arms. Would she say yes if he asked her out again?

He might just have to take a chance and find out.