Reunion Pass: An Eternity Springs novel (5 page)

“A surprise party for Nic and Sarah,” Ali said, a smile playing on her lips. “I can’t tell you how much the idea appeals to me right now.” Lifting her voice, she called, “Chase, would you please bring me my tablet off my desk?”

“Sure, Mom.” A moment later he returned to the kitchen and handed Ali her iPad. She pulled up a calendar and asked, “When’s graduation?”

“The fifth.”

“So you are looking at the seventh?”

“Yes.”

Ali pursed her lips. “Hmm … that’s right about the time the Garretts’ baby is due. I may have to juggle a few things, but yes, I think we could make it happen.”

“Wonderful!”

Ali made a note on her tablet, then tucked it into a drawer. Five minutes later, the four of them sat down at the Timberlakes’ dining table where, unfortunately, Lori was seated directly across from Chase. For the first few minutes, the conversation centered around the party. Then it turned to Ali’s veal spiedini recipe. Throughout it all, Chase never said a word, and Ali never once looked at her son.

What the heck was going on here? Did the tension have something to do with the missing bride? Lori didn’t think Chase had come home to announce a broken engagement. Ali would be in comforting mode, not firing off verbal barbs and shooting dagger looks.

Once they’d exhausted the topic of the seriously delicious meal, conversation lagged. Ali’s eyes grew teary, Chase looked miserable, and Mac’s jaw turned to granite. Lori wondered how soon she could graciously leave.

Mac made an effort. “So, tell us more about this decision you need to make, Lori. Your father told me not long ago that you were considering a specialization in veterinary ophthalmology.”

Lori hesitated. She wasn’t at all certain that she wanted to discuss her decision in front of Chase. And yet, a part of her wanted nothing more than to show him that she, too, had choices in life. She, too, had dreams and desires and goals to achieve. She wanted him to know that she most happily had roots ready to sink.

No wanderlust coating my heels. I don’t need French Riviera sand. My roots are sunk deep into Colorado dirt.

The thought triggered a memory of the moment she realized that she and Chase were well and truly done. It began in her mother’s kitchen. Sarah, Nic Callahan, Sage Rafferty, Ali Timberlake, and Celeste Blessing had been meeting in the living room discussing plans for the annual arts festival. Home from college to share her big news about receiving her vet school acceptance letter from Colorado State, Lori had been snatching a chocolate chip cookie from the cookie jar when she’d heard Chase’s name mentioned.

“He’s where?” her mother asked.

“Thailand,” Ali repeated. “He landed a job with a production company shooting a pilot for a cable TV sports show.”

Ali moved closer as Nic Callahan asked the question running through Lori’s mind. “He’s working as a river guide?”

“A photographer. It’s his first professional photography job. Mac and I are proud of him, but I won’t deny that I’d rather he found work closer to home.”

Thailand. The cookie jar lid rattled as she replaced it. Chase was on the other side of the world—and she hadn’t known about it.

“Whatever happened between him and Lori?” Sage asked.

Lori stared down at the cookie in her hand. Her mother had baked it, of course, using her special recipe—the one she’d shared with Lori as part of a Christmas gift. Lori had baked chocolate chip cookies for Chase on one of his visits to College Station. They hadn’t been from scratch, but the refrigerated-dough variety. Chase hadn’t seemed to mind. They’d eaten the cookies warm from the oven and chocolate had melted all over her fingers. He’d licked it off. Slowly.

Thailand.

A little sob escaped her, and blindly, she rushed from the kitchen and into her mother’s backyard. She sank onto the back stoop and tried valiantly to fight back the tears. When Daisy, one of her mother’s golden retrievers, wandered over to say hello, Lori wrapped her arms around the dog’s neck and hugged her close.

He’s gone. He’s really gone. Grief wrapped a band of steel around her chest and squeezed.

“Sweetheart.” Celeste’s voice floated over her like the brush of angel wings. Gentle hands gave her thigh a comforting pat. “Don’t despair.”

“I don’t know how we got here.”

“You and Chase?”

“There is no me and Chase! He’s gone to Thailand.”

“He didn’t move to Thailand, my dear. He’ll be back.”

Her voice broke as she said, “Yes, but not to me. Not to stay.”

“There, there.” Celeste clicked her tongue, and when Daisy impatiently wiggled out of Lori’s arms, the older woman enveloped Lori in hers. “My darling girl, if I may quote the Good Book. ‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven … a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.’ It is not Chase’s time to plant.”

“I know. That’s the problem. It’s always been the problem. He’s a tumbleweed who is happiest when a gale wind is blowing, Celeste. That’s just not me. I’m a weed with roots that I can’t get rid of. I don’t want to get rid of them.”

“Of course you don’t, and you shouldn’t. It’s your roots that will give you your wings.”

With Celeste’s words echoing in her mind, Lori answered Mac’s question. Talking about her opportunities reminded Lori of how happy she truly was, which in turn reassured her that she and Chase had made the right call. She was living the life she was meant to live. One day, she’d find a man who shared her dreams, just like Chase had found a woman to fly beside him as he soared around the world.

Yes, the what-ifs and if-onlys made her heart hurt a little sometimes, but for the most part, she was happy. Chase was happy.

Well, except for tonight. Tonight he didn’t appear to be a happy camper at all.

When Ali rose to serve dessert, Lori started to stand and clear her plate, but Chase stopped her with the first words he’d spoken since dinner began. “No. You’re a guest. I’ve got the dishes.” Once both mother and son had disappeared into the kitchen, Lori softly asked Mac, “Did something happen with Chase?”

He sighed and topped off his wine. “He has a new assignment. His mother isn’t taking it well.”

Neither are you,
Lori thought. She wanted to ask for more details, but Mac’s closed expression didn’t encourage them. Instead, she made small talk until Chase and Ali rejoined them, bringing coffee and pie and renewed tension between mother and son.

Mac sighed again, then did everyone a favor by launching into a story about the recent antics of the Cicero family’s puppy that managed to lighten the mood and even coaxed a genuine smile from his wife. Chase followed up the dog tale with one about his neighbor’s pair of parakeets that actually got a laugh from his mother. Chase answered with the flash of a familiar grin, then said, “Dinner was great, Mom. How about you let me clean up the kitchen. I promise I’ll hand-wash your knives.”

“That’s a deal.”

“The meal was wonderful, Ali,” Lori said after Ali suggested they finish their coffee over by the fireplace. “It’s one of my favorites.”

“Thank you. I always enjoy cooking for you, Lori, and I was so happy to have a little time with you. We miss you here in Eternity Springs.”

“I miss being here,” Lori said as she took a seat on the Timberlakes’ sofa.

Ali gave her a sly look. “Nic will be glad to hear that.”

As Eternity Springs’s veterinarian and her mentor, Nic had been trying for months to convince Lori to return home and join her practice. Lori held up her hand palm out. “Just because I miss home doesn’t mean I’m ready to move back. Like I said earlier, I’m still weighing my options.”

Ali took a seat beside Lori. “As well you should. Let me add one more thing, and then I promise it’ll be the last I say on the subject.”

“Okay.”

Ali’s gaze drifted toward the kitchen where Chase stood in their line of sight. “I don’t regret leaving Denver for Eternity Springs, but I do mourn the time I missed with my father, especially now that he’s gone. Family is a treasure. Don’t make short shrift of its value as you weigh your choices.”

“I won’t.” Lori allowed her gaze to follow the path of Ali’s stare and took the opportunity to study her ex for the first time in forever. He stood in front of Ali’s farmhouse sink with his sleeves rolled up and a frying pan in his hand. He’d matured into a ruggedly handsome man. All those hours invested in outdoor sports had filled out the frame of the young man she’d first met in the Trading Post grocery store almost a decade ago. His dark hair had sun streaks, but his eyes remained the warm, luscious brown of melted milk chocolate. He could work in front of the camera rather than behind it.

Though his frown might scare people off.

Lori finished her coffee and was about to stand to leave when two phones rang simultaneously—hers and Mac’s. “It’s Mom,” she said, checking the number.

“And Zach Turner,” Mac added.

The sheriff. Worry flared and Lori quickly answered the call. “Mom? Is everything okay?”

“It is now. I was worried about you. Are you still at Heartache Falls?”

“Yes. I was just getting ready to head home.”

“Don’t. A four-car pileup with injuries has the highway shut down between there and here. The sheriff’s department has their hands full, and they’ve asked for all nonemergency traffic to stay off the road. If that’s not bad enough, we’re getting a mix of sleet with the snow down here in the valley. It’s simply not safe for you to drive home tonight.”

Lori stifled a groan. Instinctively, her gaze shifted toward the kitchen where she saw Mac speaking to his son. Chase’s gaze met hers. He didn’t look any happier than she.

In her ear, her mom’s voice said, “I’m sure Mac and Ali won’t mind having an overnight guest.”

I hope not. Because it looks like they’re going to have two of them.

However, one of those guests hadn’t forgotten that she’d arrived in the midst of a family squabble, and her presence had delayed the settling of said squabble long enough. As soon as possible, she said her good-nights and retired upstairs to the bedroom suite Caitlin used when she visited.

She took a long, hot bath, then watched a movie, trying her best not to listen for the sound of footsteps traveling to the bedroom down the hall. Chase’s bedroom.

She fell asleep, trying her best not to dream about things that could not be.

She failed.

She dreamed she sat in the bow of a canoe on Hummingbird Lake watching a pair of hot-air balloons sail above. In tandem, the pilots of both balloons fired the burners, and behind her, two young voices roared in approval. Lori glanced over her shoulder to see a little boy, with dark hair and missing his two front teeth, staring upward with wide brown eyes. His younger sister and their golden retriever puppy also looked skyward. From his position at the stern, Chase met her gaze and grinned.

Lori awoke a little after two
A.M.
haunted by images of a life she’d never lead. For almost an hour she lay tossing and turning, unable to go back to sleep, until finally she switched on the lamp and reached for her phone, looking for the distraction of the Internet. Her phone wasn’t on the nightstand, and thinking back, she realized she’d left it on the mantel downstairs.

She hated the thought of leaving the warmth of the bed, but she desperately needed a distraction. Pulling on Caitlin’s slippers and robe, she quietly opened the bedroom door and made her way downstairs guided by the faint safety lights along the staircase. The darkness shrouding the first floor of the Timberlake home was broken only by a soft glow of a light above the cooktop in the kitchen and the glow of orange coals in the hearth.

The kitchen light and Ali’s admonition that she make herself at home beckoned, and she poured milk into a brown earthenware mug and warmed it in the microwave. She carried the steaming mug into the family room.

As she reached toward the mantel and her phone, a husky voice rumbled out of the darkness. “Want a shot of whisky in that milk, Glitterbug?”

Chapter Four

She almost dropped the mug of milk.

Chase watched Lori through bleary, gritty eyes and the haze of too much Scotch. Glitterbug. The old endearment he’d begun using after the first time they’d made love had rolled off his tongue like a song. Dammit.

“Chase! I didn’t see you.”

“Now there’s a shocker. So what else is new?” A soft, bitter laugh escaped him as he lifted his glass in a silent toast. To Lori? To the past? Who the hell knew? His emotions were a jumbled mess.

“You’re drunk,” she said, a note of accusation in her voice.

“A little. My dad stocks a very nice single malt. Goes down smooth as silk.” Unfortunately, he wasn’t nearly drunk enough, though not for lack of trying. If he were, he wouldn’t have been sitting here in the dark brooding about love and family and Lana and Lori. “What time is it?”

“After three. Have you been to bed at all?”

“Lana flew back to New York this morning. Or, I guess that’s yesterday now. You and me … well … I thought you’d remember. But then it’s been what … four years? Five? Do you remember the last time we went to bed? I wish I’d known at the time that it would be the last time. I’d have done something to mark the occasion.”

He heard a little gasp of what? Surprise? Scandal? Or maybe even pain? “You’ve changed, Chase Timberlake. I’ve never known you to be mean.”

He laughed. “Again … so what else is new?” He took another sip of whisky. A big sip. It burned on the way down, the only warmth within him. “You’ve never known me at all, have you, Glitterbug?”

“Don’t call me that,” she said with a hiss. “Don’t you ever call me that again.” She whirled around and started for the stairs, and quickly he said, “No. Don’t go. Please, Lori. Don’t go.”

The “please” or maybe it was their shared past stopped her. She didn’t turn back, but she didn’t continue upstairs, either. Maybe she’d wanted to hear those words from him before.
Please, Lori. Don’t go.