Home Sweet Home (11 page)

1941

Evelyn had never been happier to be outside. After a week of straight rain, she’d all but begged her mother to let her head to the train station to pick up the special ordered napkins for the museum gala. Anything to get out of the house…a house that suddenly felt stifling.

Waiting on the side of the train tracks for the freight train to arrive, she closed her eyes and turned her face up into the bright fall sun. She was finally relaxing, soaking up the precious rays of warmth, when goose bumps suddenly popped out all across the surface of her skin.

Quickly opening her eyes, she whirled around, only to look straight in the face of the man she’d gone out of her way to avoid for weeks.

Carlos.

But just because she had succeeded in avoiding him, didn’t mean she’d been able to stop thinking about what he’d said to her.

He had point-blank called her a scared little girl.

The worst part of it all was the fact that she’d continued to work on his sweater. No amount of reasoning with herself had gotten her to put it down yet.

Not when Carlos had made her feel more alive and yet, at the same time, more confused than she’d ever been. Scared, too.

Darn it.

“Hello, pretty girl.”

She blushed, even as she tried to respond in a stern voice, “My name is Evelyn.”

“Hello, pretty Evelyn.”

She didn’t want to smile, but it was really hard to keep her lips from turning up. Still, she wasn’t going to get into another conversation like the one at the building site, wasn’t going to walk away from Carlos with her stomach all twisted in knots again.

She turned her gaze away from him to stare down the length of the railroad tracks at the approaching freight train. She simply needed to ignore the continuing prickles of awareness all across her body—and inside her chest, where her heart was beating way too fast, way too hard.

“You ever just hopped on one of these things and seen where it takes you?”

“No.” What a ridiculous thought. “Of course not.”

But oh, how quickly did that ridiculous thought become tempting as she collected her package and started to turn away.

“Come on, pretty Evelyn. Let’s have an adventure.” He hopped into the open freight car and held out his hand to her.

Evelyn had a moment of panic at who could be watching them, at who might report this back to her parents. But amazingly, they were the only two people on the platform today, the only two people waiting for a delivery from the train.

Still she shook her head. “Are you kidding? They’ll chase us off. We can’t just hop on and take a ride without buying a ticket and knowing where we’re going.”

He didn’t argue with her, and she was unaccountably disappointed. Stupid girl, she should be glad that he was letting her off the hook this easily.

The train started to move, but instead of walking away, instead of heading back home where her mother and sisters were waiting for her, Evelyn couldn’t take her eyes off of Carlos as he pointed to the moving wheels.

“Oh no, it’s happening. Do you see that?”

She had no idea what he was talking about. All she could see was the rolling of the metal wheels against the iron track.

“What?” she finally snapped, as the train started to pick up speed. “What am I supposed to be seeing?”

He gestured to the world around them. “Life is passing you by.”

She felt it then, a sudden surge of anger mixed with something even wilder. An urge for freedom, for adventure, for passion, for everything she’d dreamed of for so long but had been too scared to reach out for because none of that was part of the master grand plan for her life.

Before she realized it, she was running after the train.

“Jump and I’ll catch you. I promise.”

And then she was jumping, and he pulled her into the freight car with him, both of them crashing together onto the wooden floor. As the two of them laughed, she felt so free, free enough that none of the rules she’d lived her life by until now seemed to matter anymore.

But then, as their laughter died down for a second and she got her bearings, Evelyn realized she’d never been this close to a man before, never found herself in a tangle of limbs and heat before.

For propriety’s sake at least, she moved away from him, straightened her skirts, and sat up in as dignified a manner as she could given the circumstances.

“I’ve been waiting to see that smile, pretty Evelyn. To hear you laugh.”

His words, the way he was looking at her made it hard for her to breathe and to say, “This is crazy.”

“And life is short.”

There was a darkness in his eyes as he said this, and she couldn’t stop wondering again about where he’d come from and why he was working for her father.

Oh god. Her father. He was going to kill her. She felt her skin grow hot and then cold as she thought about what he’d do, the way he would yell, if he ever found out about her impromptu—completely unladylike—train trip.

“We need to get off at the next town.” Her voice sounded way too shaky for her liking, and she forcefully steadied it before adding, “I shouldn’t have done this. I know better.”

The train slowed down at the next stop, and she was more than a little surprised when Carlos helped her climb off, even more surprised to find him getting off right behind her with both of their packages in his hands.

He looked at the timetable posted on the wall. “The next train back won’t be here for an hour.”

She tried to tamp down on it this time, that itch in the back of her neck, that wild yearning coming over her again. But one taste of adventure had given her a craving for more.

She wanted “more” so badly that she could taste it on her tongue, almost as if someone had given her one short lick of the sweetest lollipop before wrapping it back up and putting it away—out of her reach but where she could still see it and long for it—for good.

“Well,” she found herself saying, despite the fact that she knew better. “If we’re going to be stuck here anyway, I might as well show you the waterfall.”

His beautiful mouth quirked up slightly at the corner, and when he raised his eyebrows, she raised hers right back. This adventure might have been his idea, but now it was her turn to show him things he hadn’t seen.

Fortunately the waterfall was only a few minutes’ walk from the train station through the pretty red covered bridge. Soon they were standing in front of a cascading wall of water that arched off the rocks toward them. Warm from their short walk, feeling more confined than usual by the tight long sleeves of her dress, Evelyn moved closer to the cool spray of water.

Carlos’s warm voice caressed her. “Have you ever seen the back side of water?”

She frowned. “What are you talking about? Water doesn’t have sides.”

“Sure it does. The back side looks completely different. Come here and I’ll show you.”

But this time, she knew better. Heck, it was her stupid wild yearnings that had gotten her here, wasn’t it? Carlos was dangerous. She’d known that from the start, right from that first conversation when he had started unraveling her control as if she was simply a strand of tightly wound yarn.

“I can see it just fine from here, thank you.”

“It’s okay to be scared, pretty Evelyn. But life is unpredictable. Don’t wait too long to take a risk.”

“Stop calling me scared!” She turned on him in sudden fury, not just for constantly goading her, but at herself for all the things she wanted but was so scared to want, so scared to let herself feel. “I’m here, aren’t I? I got on that freight train, didn’t I?”

“Yes, pretty Evelyn, you did.”

But she could hear what he wasn’t saying. That just because she’d taken one step didn’t mean there weren’t more in front of her, just waiting for her to decide if she was brave enough to take them.

“Fine. Show me the back side of water.”

And this time when he reached for her hand, she wasn’t distracted by the movement of a train, wasn’t breathless from running…and she felt his touch all the way down past her skin, past her bones, past the blood that moved in her veins.

She felt his gentle touch all the way down into her heart as he carefully led her over slippery rocks to the small bank of dirt between the waterfall and the rock wall.

“Do you see it now?”

The water was a thick wall of movement, mesmerizing as it poured down from the rocks above their heads. It was nature’s misty curtain falling with such grace and ease.

“You’re right.” She breathed in wonder. “Everything does look different from the other side.”

She could feel Carlos’s eyes on her, knew he wasn’t looking at the strange shape of the trees, the sky, the mountains through the water. Her mouth tingled in anticipation of the kiss she knew was coming.

But then he was saying, “Come on, pretty Evelyn, let’s get you out of here before you get too wet,” and that was when she realized, just as he hadn’t forced her to get on the train with him, he wouldn’t force her to kiss him, either.

If she wanted a kiss from Carlos, she’d have to be the one to take that step.

To choose not just his kiss…but him, too.

N
ate was miles beyond impressed with the night Andi had set up for them. She’d taken him to Loon Lake, another Adirondack town thirty minutes down Route 8. As soon as they’d parked the car, she started to introduce him to families who had bought into the condominiums that had been built on the lake a handful of years ago.

Again and again, men and women told him how thrilled they were to actually be able to own a small piece of property in the Adirondacks. For some of them, it was an escape from the pressure of their real lives. For others it had been a chance to start over again, to build a new life.

She took him down the main street, busy and beautifully lit even on a weekday in fall, and introduced him to store owners who told him how glad they were to be able to keep their doors open all year-round rather than having to rely on a big summer and winter to sustain their bottom lines.

She pointed out how careful the town had been with its expansion, showed the ways in which the people had been very firm about staying away from chain stores, restaurants, and arcades.

According to Andi’s research, Loon Lake was making a name for itself as not just the perfect weekend getaway from nearby cities but as an ideal place to summer and retire and start new businesses as well.

“Loon Lake embodies everything I’ve been talking about. Development without going in the wrong direction. No casinos. Not too many tourist shops. The only thing about it that isn’t really ideal is the fact that the lake is so small. They can’t have any motorized boats on it or even the bigger sailboats.”

She turned her gorgeous eyes to him, a small smile on those beautiful lips. “You’ve had a good time tonight, haven’t you? Talking to everyone, learning about their town.”

“I have. I should have done it before,” he admitted. “You’re a very impressive salesperson, Andi.”

She’d made reservations at a restaurant on the lake and they’d stepped out onto the porch with their drinks. Clouds had come in during the past hour, completely covering the moon. Nate could smell rain in the air.

But the weather wasn’t the only thing shifting. The mood between them was shifting, too, as they both let themselves sink more and more back into the comfort—and pleasure—of being with one another again.

“I met your sister today at Lake Yarns.” Andi turned to look at him, so beautiful in the faint moonlight that his breath hitched in his chest. “She’s fantastic.”

He didn’t bother to hide his pride. “Madison is a really good kid. I got lucky with her.”

“And she got lucky with you.” Andi’s voice was soft, filled with emotion she didn’t bother to conceal.

Nate couldn’t stop himself from moving closer, not even when Andi nervously tried to put the conversation back on safer ground by saying, “I realized the other night that it’s been a long time since I’ve been in the lake. Any lake.”

He moved a little closer again, unable to keep his distance after such a good night with the woman he’d once loved. “How long?”

“Years maybe.”

He didn’t think, just plucked her glass from her fingers and put it next to his on the rail of the porch. “Let’s go.”

She laughed that beautiful laugh he loved hearing so much and took a step back. “Maybe next summer when it’s warm again.”

“No.” He took her hand in his. “Right now.”

He had her halfway down the stairs to the beach before she could react, before she could protest and say it was too cold to be doing this, that they had reservations and they were going to get all sandy. He took her partway down the beach away from the eyes of the people inside the restaurant.

“The water will probably feel better with your shoes off,” he teased.

“You were always full of ideas.”

“You forgot to add the word
good
in that last sentence.”

“No I didn’t.”

God, he loved this. Teasing her. Her teasing him back. Hearing the laughter in her voice.

“If you’re really going to make me go through with this,” she finally said, “I’ll need to roll up my jeans.”

“No one could ever make you do anything you didn’t want to do, Andi.”

He felt her hand tense in his a split second before she said, “You’re going to have to let go of my hand so I can take care of my pants.”

He grinned in the dark, glad that she was going along with his impromptu change in her plans for the night, glad that she was embracing adventure again. Even a small one like walking into a freezing cold lake.

After they had both kicked off their shoes and socks and rolled up their pants, she looked out at the water and said, “It’s going to be cold.”

He held out his hand for hers again. “We’ll get cold together.”

He felt rather than saw her hesitation before she took his outstretched hand. Finally she slipped her cold fingers through his. Together they walked into the lake, and he heard her quick intake of breath at the feeling of the icy water.

“Refreshing.”

He laughed out loud at her sarcasm. “That’s definitely one way of putting it.”

“Do you remember, we all used to dive into the lake after football games? We were crazy.”

“The kids still do it, you know.”

It was so dark he could barely see the white flash of her smile. “You’re kidding? Do you ever go in with them?”

“After every game.” He could swear there was something vibrating through her hand to his, an unspoken desire to go even deeper than their shared memories. “Come to the game this Friday, Andi. Jump into the lake with us.”

“No way.”

“Chicken?”

“More like old enough to know better. In fact”—she tried to pull him back out of the water—“my feet are knowing better right now.”

But instead of getting out, he pulled her in deeper and she gasped. “Nate! What are you doing?”

He would have told her if he knew, if he had a clue just what he was trying to get himself into, but before he could respond, fat drops of water started falling down on them. Moments later the sky opened up Noah’s ark–style.

“I saw a boathouse over there,” Nate said, pulling her down the beach.

“Shouldn’t we head back to the restaurant?”

“The boathouse is closer.”

Sixty seconds later they were out of the storm, taking shelter in the small covered boathouse with one faint lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Rain was lashing out across the dark lake and the wind had kicked in big-time.

Andi wiped her hair away from her eyes. “Oh my god, we’re soaked.”

Her clothes were plastered to her, her thin, wet sweater and form-fitting black pants leaving very little to the imagination. Too little for Nate’s peace of mind.

“This wasn’t at all what I had planned for the rest of the night,” she said frowning.

“It’s been good, Andi. Real good.”

She shivered and he scanned the boathouse, finally finding what he was looking for in the corner.

“Here,” he said, wrapping the towel around her back.

“Thanks.” She wrapped it all the way around her. “Isn’t there another one?”

“Nope.”

“This one is big enough for us to share, Nate.”

There was nothing he wanted more than to get in there with her under the towel, pressed up against her, her heart beating against his.

“That’s probably not a good idea, Andi.”

“You’re wet. The wind is blowing. It’s a good idea.”

No, it wasn’t. But there was no denying her.

Or himself.

He moved closer, and she held open the corners of the towel to let him in. He stifled a groan as her arms came around him, closing the towel around both of them. She was tall, but he was taller, and her head fit against his shoulder. Just like it always had.

“Better?”

He could feel her breath against his skin, was burning up from the heat of her warm body against his. He could barely get the word out, the word that was both complete truth and a complete lie all at the same time.

“Better.”

And then she looked up at him, and the desire sliding across her features, along with a deep, elemental yearning he saw in her eyes, had him damning the consequences.

“Do you have any idea how badly I want to kiss you, Andi? Right here. Right now. Just one kiss so I can finally know if you taste as sweet as you used to. So sweet I’ve never been able to find anything else like it.”

It was the only out he could give her, the chance to get the hell out of this boathouse and back to the safety of her mother’s big house on the lake.

Instead of running, her eyes dropped to his mouth, the pulse in her throat beating a wild rhythm.

“Just one kiss,” she echoed in a breathless whisper.

And then before he could kiss her, her hands were in his hair and her mouth was slanting across his.

Her mouth was soft, warm, sweet. She moaned softly into his mouth, and he uncovered the lemon and bubbles of the drink she’d been sipping outside the restaurant.

She was sweet. So sweet.

All these years he’d kept away from alcohol, not wanting to risk falling into the trap his father had. But Andi’s mouth was more addictive than anything he’d ever known.

She was the biggest risk of all
was the only sane thought left in his head, but this wasn’t about sanity. This was about taking everything he’d wanted, needed for so long, from the only woman who had ever really mattered to him.

He cupped her jaw in his hands, holding her steady for his onslaught, and Nate lost track of his surroundings as he made love to her mouth, nipping at her full lower lip, tasting the corners where her lips came together with the tip of his tongue. Moving his mouth temporarily away from those sweet lips, he ran kisses across her jawline, then down into the hollow of her neck to taste that pulse point that beat so wildly for him.

Andi gasped with pleasure, her chest rising and falling against his, and more than a decade of self-control shattered inside Nate as he kissed her.

“Andi, sweetheart,” he whispered against her skin. “We need to get out of here.”

“Nate?”

His name was a soft question on her lips, but when he reached out to brush the hair back from her face and her eyes locked with his, instead of desire, he saw panic move in.

“Nate. Oh no.” She inched away from him, but they were tangled up so tightly against each other beneath the towel that she couldn’t make any headway. “I shouldn’t have…we shouldn’t—”

Damn it.
He let loose a long, harsh breath.

“Don’t you think I know that, Andi?” Her eyes widened at his words, at the touch of his hand on her chin as he tilted her head back up to his and forced her to meet his eyes, to see the truth of his feelings for her on his face. “But do you really think either one of us can help it?”

She sucked in a shaky breath. “It was just supposed to be one kiss.”

He should have stopped. He’d felt her vulnerability in the way her lips trembled beneath his. He knew he couldn’t afford to lose his heart to her again when she was going to be leaving the lake soon.

It was the inescapable anger at himself for losing control—not just giving into his physical desire for Andi, but worse, giving into the emotions for her that had never gone away—that had him spitting out the words, “Trust me, I don’t want to be feeling this way about you any more than you want to feel it about me,” before he could grab them back.

And this time when Andi’s eyes met his, there wasn’t any heat in them anymore. Only an icy cold that reminded him of that night so long ago when he’d told her to leave.