One that required mending. That being the case…”
“You came home to heal. Has it worked?”
“Can’t even remember his name.”
Not quite true, but she was no longer hurting. Which just went to prove that Kenneth had never been right for her in the first place.
There was a long moment of silence while they concentrated on their eggs and toast. Lauren was conscious of how he kept eyeing her over his coffee mug. His bold curiosity made her squirm. But she had no right to complain. Not when she kept sneaking her own looks at him in return.
Her interest wasn’t very smart when the man was just passing through her life. Once the storm was over and the road cleared, he would be out of here and they would forget all about each other.
But until then, the two of them were caught here. Snowbound and aware of each other. Well, she was intensely aware of him, anyway. Little things, like the way his Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed, how his wide shoulders hunched forward, and a look in his eyes that was…what? Haunted somehow?
“So, tell me,” he said, breaking the silence, “what do you do with yourself all alone here in the wilderness? When you’re not rescuing accident victims, that is.”
She looked at him in surprise. “Why, I work, of course.”
“You mean you commute to a job?”
“I don’t have to. My work is right here.”
He twisted around when she nodded in the direction of the book-lined alcove at the far end of the living room. Her computer sat there on a table beneath a window that overlooked the lake.
“See the row of books on the middle shelf over to the left? Those are mine.”
“Are you telling me you’re an author?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
“I’ll be damned.”
She laughed. “Don’t be impressed. My name doesn’t appear on the spines. I’m a ghostwriter. Autobiographies mostly, and sometimes how-to books, all for professionals who haven’t the time or the skill to write their own. They communicate by e-mail, and I put it together for them.”
“And they get all the credit on the title pages? That doesn’t seem fair.”
“I’m not complaining. It pays the bills until someday when I hope to have my own name on the covers. How about you?”
“Nothing so interesting.”
He helped himself to more coffee. She waited for him to tell her about his work. To tell her anything at all about himself, but he changed the subject.
“Still blowing out there,” he said, glancing toward the window.
Talking about herself hadn’t worked. He wasn’t going to share his own secrets. She had to accept that.
“And drifting badly on the roads, I’m afraid.” She checked her watch. “It should be time for a local weather forecast. Let’s see.”
Did she imagine it, or did Ethan suddenly stiffen when she rose from the table and moved toward the counter where her portable radio was tucked between the toaster and the microwave?
They listened to the weather portion of the broadcast that reported downed lines, closed roads and the likelihood that the storm would not end before tomorrow. Mindful of the batteries, Lauren switched off the radio without waiting for the news.
Her imagination again, or did he look relieved this time? Should she be worried that he was hiding something from her?
ETHAN WAS FRANTIC as the day wore on, the snow outside building to a depth that made him wonder just when he would be able to leave. When he could do what he had come here to do before it was too late for him.
Lauren heated water for herself on the wood-fueled cookstove and carried it into the bathroom to bathe and change. Afterwards, installed on the sofa with pad and pencil, she worked on notes for her latest project.
Ethan kept the fires going for them and paced. Though she didn’t complain, he was probably driving her wild with the tension that kept him moving restlessly from one end of the long room to the other like a caged animal.
He couldn’t help it. Everything counted on his reaching Hilary Johnson, getting her to commit to the truth.
That was part of his need to get out of here, a big part, but there was something else. There was Lauren McCrea. In just the few hours he’d known her, she had brought him dangerously close to losing his head.
He wondered even now, gazing at her curled up in a corner of the sofa with her feet tucked under her, if she had any idea how alluring she was with her long, auburn hair, that slim, woman’s body with its surprising strength, and those warm brown eyes. He doubted it. She struck him as much too modest to realize her worth.
There was her smile, too. The kind of smile that made a man feel good about himself.
What a fool that guy in Helena had been to let her get away. Even if he hadn’t appreciated her looks, he should have cherished all her other qualities. Things like the courage that had sent her out into a howling blizzard to rescue a stranger, and then to care for him with a generosity that no man should have failed to value.
What are you doing?
This was crazy. He couldn’t have chosen a worse time to be so strongly attracted like this to a woman, particularly someone as special as Lauren. She deserved the interest of a man who could be open and honest with her.
And Ethan had been neither. Because if he had told her the truth, he would have risked involving her in his mess. He didn’t want that. Didn’t want her to learn she had a fugitive on her hands. She was already vulnerable enough just having him here.
But Lauren must have already realized that. She couldn’t have missed his concern about the radio, and must have wondered about it, even if there had been no way for her to guess he feared a newscast naming him as a wanted man. Probably not much chance of such a report, though, when Seattle and what had happened there were a long way off. Still, there was always the possibility.
No, he didn’t want to hurt her. So he had withheld an explanation, even though she was entitled to one. But she hadn’t demanded answers from him. She had accepted his evasive silence, even respected it. Amazing woman.
She’s not for you, Brand. Just stop looking at her, will you?
Fine. He’d look elsewhere. Admire instead the cabin her grandfather had left her. They must have been very close, Lauren and her grandfather. Shared a lot of good times together that left her with sweet memories. Thinking of his own grandfather, and how vastly different their relationship had been and how it had ended, Ethan envied her that.
Yeah, he liked the cabin with its stone fireplace and rough log walls. It was solid and honest. But not austere. Probably because Lauren had added her own personal touches, such as the colorful rugs on the polished plank floor, the cheerful curtains at the windows, the watercolors on the walls, the wealth of books on the shelves. Things that made the place safe
