I’m not interested in being the woman to do it. Besides, he told me he’s responsible for all these condos that are a blight on the town.” She made a face.
When she’d moved away, Tanya had been too focused on the future to think much about the town she was leaving behind. But over the years, as the disappointments of her failed marriage and faltering career had piled up, she’d looked back on Crested Butte with increasing fondness. In her memories, it was the perfect small town—a safe, beautiful place where the ugliness of the rest of the world wasn’t allowed. Even her annual visits to her parents hadn’t spoiled this image. She’d turned a blind eye to anything that marred the ideal she cherished. The Crested Butte of her memories was a wonderful place to be—the one perfect thing in her life.
Angela laughed. “Yes, Jack’s company built a lot of condos, which means he’s loaded. One more reason he’s considered such a catch.”
“I’m not fishing.” In the year since her divorce, Tanya had been too busy looking after Annie and trying to keep body and soul together to worry about a relationship.
“I thought you came back home to settle down,” Angela said.
“I came back home because I didn’t have any choice.” After her marriage had ended, she’d thought she could pick up where she’d left off. Only this time, instead of settling for work in commercials and soap operas, she was going to focus on movies and realize her dream of being a true star.
But the three years she’d taken off to raise Annie and nurture Stuart’s fragile ego meant she’d been forgotten by anyone who mattered. There was a whole new crop of directors and casting agents, not to mention new competition. None of them cared that she’d won raves in high school for her roles onstage, or that the Gunnison County paper once said she was bound to succeed in Hollywood.
Broke and discouraged, she’d accepted her parents’ invitation to come home. “As anxious as I was to leave this town, I realized it was the perfect place to raise Annie,” she said, dropping into the seat next to Angela. “I only wish it was more like I remembered. There are so many new buildings and people. So many changes.”
“I’m one of those new people and I’m not so bad,” Angela said. “And look how much the theater has grown. Some of it because of people who live in those very condos you hate.”
“I know.” It wasn’t so much the growth that upset her but the fantasies she’d had of slipping back into her old life so easily. She still struggled to reconcile her nostalgic picture of the town with reality—one more dream destroyed. Crested Butte had always been the one place where she mattered and it didn’t feel that way anymore. She wasn’t as invisible and friendless as she’d been in California, but she’d never expected to have to struggle to fit in here.
“You ought to go out with Jack if you get a chance,” Angela said. “He has a reputation as someone who knows how to show a woman a good time.”
Tanya made a face. “I don’t want a man with a reputation.” When she was ready to be with a man again, it was nice to know her instincts were still there, but she wanted someone dependable and kind, not an arrogant show-off like her ex, and not a man who knew all her secret dreams—and how badly she’d failed to realize any of them.
“Mom, can we stop on the way home for ice cream?” Annie flew down the aisle and skidded to a stop in front of the two women.
“I think Grandma has some ice cream in the freezer,” Tanya said. “If we ask nicely, I’ll bet she’ll share with us.” She stood. “We’d better go. It’s getting late.”
Angela followed them up the aisle to the lobby. “See you Tuesday, if not before,” she called. Tanya knelt to help Annie zip the denim jacket she wore. Even in June the nights were much cooler here in the mountains than they’d been in California.
“I can’t wait until it snows,” Annie said, squirming out of her mother’s reach. “Grandpa said he’d take me sledding after school.”
Tanya smiled, remembering the hours she’d spent on the local sledding hill as a child. Swallowing her pride and moving back in with her parents had been difficult in many ways, but at times like this she was sure she’d done the right thing. Despite all the changes, some of the good things she remembered from her childhood remained, and she wanted Annie to experience them all, to have the kind of memories that had seen Tanya through tough times in California. So what if she was never going to be the local darling again? Annie was the reason she’d come home to Crested Butte—the only reason she needed.
Chapter Two
The offices of Crenshaw Construction occupied a soaring cedar-and-glass A-frame in Crested Butte South. The building was less than a year old, and every time Jack entered it, he felt a surge of pride and satisfaction.
When he’d joined his dad in the family business shortly after graduating from college, it had been a small concern specializing in remodels and the occasional new home build. Now it was a multimillion-dollar concern, one of the leading builders in the area.
Jack had been at work for more than an hour Friday morning when his father strolled in and settled his big frame into a chair across his son’s desk.
Jack’s dog, a golden retriever mix aptly named Nugget, trotted from his favorite spot beneath the open window to greet the older man and was rewarded with a scratch behind the ears. Jack had adopted the dog six months before and the pup had the run of the office, though he spent most of his time close by Jack. “Did you get those scrims over to the theater last night?” Andy Crenshaw asked in an accent that betrayed his Minnesota roots. Though he’d officially retired last year as president of the company, he still maintained an office in the building and spent a few hours a week there, helping out as needed. The rest of his time was devoted to fly-fishing in the summer, skiing in the winter and traveling with Jack’s mom, Carrie.
“I dropped them off on my way home last night,” Jack said.
“You work too late,” Andy said.
“There’s a lot to do, Dad.” The exchange was an oft-repeated one between them, with all the comfortable familiarity of a pair of worn boots. Next, his dad would remark that Jack needed a haircut, or that he was letting the construction hands get away with too much by allowing them to stop work an hour early on Fridays.
But Andy didn’t stick to the script this morning. “You should never let a job get so big it takes over your life,” he said. “That’s why I kept things small when you and your sister were kids. I wanted to be home to have dinner as a family and to coach your softball teams and be in the stands at your basketball games.”
Worry pinched at the back of Jack’s neck. Why was his dad bringing this up now? “I always appreciated that,” he said. His parents had been his biggest supporters, encouraging him to believe he was capable of anything. A nagging thought pricked at him. “Dad, you don’t think I expanded the business because I didn’t think you did enough, do you?”
“No, no! I know you did it because it’s what comes natural for you.” Andy smiled, deep creases forming at the corners of his mouth and eyes from years spent working out of doors. “Everything you’ve ever done, you’ve worked hard to be the best, whether it was basketball or construction. I’m proud of you, son, but I’d like to see you with more in your life than work.”
“I have more in my life, Dad. I have plenty of friends. And I
