had gone out of town. Who knew? But Conn was determined to wait, to watch and collect all the information he could before taking the next step.
Introducing himself.
And the sooner, the better. His mom was slowly dying, and he’d promised her that he’d come up with a way to make her better.
The sound of splashing wine drew him back to the moment as Lacey refreshed his glass with more Riesling. The woman had come prepared with everything.
“So, now that I’ve got you all liquored up, are you going to tell me why you’re here?” She smiled, her eyes the same color as the sky surrounding an evening star, especially vivid against the lavender of her turtleneck.
“I thought we’d already gone over this. About ten times.”
“Never hurts to ask.”
“That’s what you think.”
She pushed the wine bottle aside, tilting her head in apparent interest, telling Conn that he’d provided a little too much information.
The lady was sharp. He needed to keep all hints of why he was camped in this cabin out of his voice.
She asked, “Is it really so awful to reveal anything about yourself? I mean, talk about hiding in your cave.”
He must have seemed offended, because she added, “Mars, Venus? No? You’ve never been exposed to the world of Dr. Phil self-help?”
Touchy-feely garbage. Right. “I’m not into all that new age philosophy, I suppose.”
The smile on her mouth froze, stiffened, then melted after a beat. “Sure. All that build-yourself-up stuff. It’s not everybody’s thing.”
Had he said something wrong? It wasn’t that he looked down on group-hug betterment; he was merely a simple man who hadn’t thought much about it. “I guess I just depend more on family to tell me what’s what. Having strangers feed me advice about who I am and how I can make myself different doesn’t appeal to a guy like me.”
Lacey folded her elbows on the table and leaned her chin on her clasped fingers, the fire casting a warm glow over her features. “You know you’ve provided a perfect opening for more personal queries. If I didn’t know that you’d scowl at me, I’d ask you what kind of guy you are.”
“Are you posing an off-limits question? Because I feel that scowl coming on.”
She grinned, making Conn wish she hadn’t already become such a vital part of his plan to be here in the woods. If she were an anonymous woman in a roadside bar, he might be able to caress the heart-shaped angles of her face without considering the consequences. But, even now, at a point when they still barely knew each other, he couldn’t afford to get close, to alienate her with the eventuality of his leaving town once he’d gotten what he needed from the Spencers.
“I can guess at what sort of guy you are,” Lacey said. “You’re a hiker, a nature boy who wanted to get out of the cold and ducked into my cabin. Right?”
He didn’t correct her, thinking she’d concocted a pretty good cover for the real reason he was here. “And what about you? Are you the type of woman who cooks dinner for a family in that big house of yours?”
Not that he thought she would’ve been dining with him if she had kids and a significant other; he was just surprised he cared enough to ask.
Lacey seemed taken aback by his inquiry. “I’ve got plenty of kin and friends. And there’s almost always someone in my home with me.”
“I take the hint, Ms. Vedae. You’re protected from creatures who wander in the woods and take up residence in your cabin. Don’t worry. I’m not a burglar or a bad man.”
She sat back in her chair, arms crossed over her chest, suddenly serious. “If I thought so, you wouldn’t be here eating my fancy food. And people who can sit through one of my meals generally call me Lacey. Okay?”
“Got it.” He felt as if he’d climbed over the tip of a mountain, surpassing an obstacle, enjoying the view on the other side. Even if only a small barrier had been crossed with this woman, it was a victory. Hopefully he’d put an end to her curiosity of the unknown. Hopefully she’d stay away.
He patted his stomach, as if signaling an end to the supper, but his companion merely sat in her chair, assessing him.
“There’s not much to me,” he said. “Just a nature lover. Remember?”
“It’s not that. It’s… Well, my stepbrothers will go nuts when they find out I’m letting you stay here. They’re going to want to investigate.”
“So don’t tell them.”
Lacey lifted a finger in the air, her eyes lighting up with a new realization. “You’re more than a hiker. You’re a hider.”
“I don’t like to be bothered, is all.”
The words froze in the air, stiffening her posture in the process.
Lacey started to rise from her chair. “I’ll just leave you alone then.”
He could imagine her trooping through the snow, back to her mammoth house. Intuitively, he knew no one waited for her back there. Otherwise, why would she be eating dinner with him? The thought of her staring out a window at the empty, blank spaces of silent-night snow made his chest thud with his own sense of isolation.
“Stay,” he said softly.
Her eyes widened, and she settled back into the seat with a certain amount of rebellion in her tight movements. Conn chided himself for listening to the angel on his shoulder. Now he’d be stuck dodging more questions from his inquisitive visitor.
After a pause, she said, “Things have gotten a tad boring since Daisy and Coral Cox moved out a few months ago. Of course, now Coral has her own little place and Daisy married my brother Rick, so…”
She caught herself, laughing. “My family. I can’t stop concerning myself with their lives.”
She’d said it with such patent longing that Conn couldn’t help filling the silence with conversation, just to keep her talking and smiling. He’d always been such a sucker for a pretty girl.
“What do you do with yourself, besides cooking like a dervish, I mean?”
She brightened. “I run my family’s horse feed business up in Louisville. But, as my brother Matt is fond of saying, I’m a master of delegation. My other brother Rick flies me in his Cessna to the city a couple times a week to take care of business, but things run so smoothly I can do most of the work from my home office.”
“A corporate type. I should’ve known from the way you handled matters this afternoon that you’re used to being in charge.”
“Was I terribly overbearing?”
Conn shrugged, underplaying his first impression of her. A soft bunny with fangs.
“Not overbearing, I guess. Surely in control.”
She
