Rocky Mountain Hideaway (To Love Again Book 2) (7 page)

“That was an amazing breakfast, Tray. I shouldn’t let you do all the cooking this weekend.” Isabel carried bowls of berries and whipped cream to the fridge.

“I enjoy it. Besides, I wanted to let you sleep. I pulled together a few things for you to try on.” He headed for the stairs and she tagged along, watching the tight curve of his buns through the light material of his hiking pants.

At the end of the hall, she followed him into a work room. It was filled with skis of all sizes pegged against the wall and bikes hanging from the ceiling. Apparently his friends came to the mountains to get outdoors and get active. Isabel usually came to the mountains to go to the hot springs and lounge around.

Tray lifted pieces off the pile he’d assembled on the work bench in the back room, holding them up against her shoulders. “This fleece should fit you. Try it.”

Isabel pulled the orange fleece over her head. A little long in the arms, but otherwise perfect. She slid into the jacket Tray was holding out. “They fit.”

The last item looked to be a pair of light snow pants. Tray held them to her waist and they puddled on the floor at her feet. “These will be a little big, but they’re the smallest ones here.”

“I thought we were going for a walk, not an expedition. Is all this gear really necessary?” Isabel was getting more nervous about Tray’s plans. It sounded like she was getting in over her head.

“Just extra clothes. You never know in the mountains. You should also bring another set of clothes in case you get wet.”

“Are you serious? It’s not raining.”

“Not now, it isn’t. But in the mountains, shifting wind and weather means conditions can change in a flash.”

“Maybe we should just stick close to town?”

“Nuh-uh. This is my chance to show you a few things. It’ll be fun, I promise. I just have a habit of making sure we have enough gear.”

Isabel stepped over to him. Standing so close to him, she had to crane her neck to look into his face. He lowered his head to meet her eyes. She grinned up at him, teasing. “So you’re a boyscout, too.”

Tray’s smile warmed under her gaze and his eyes dropped to her mouth. His tongue slid over his lips, and he dropped down to press his mouth against hers. He kissed her tenderly, a slow-building kiss that threatened to overtake them both. Suddenly, she was acutely aware of the extra clothes she was wearing, the fleece and the jacket contributing to the warm flush racing up her body from her toes.

Tray’s mouth was more insistent on hers, his hand finding it’s way to her back beneath the jacket, pressing her hips into his. His excitement was evident.

Isabel moaned softly, eyeing the height of the workbench.

“Isabel?” Tray pushed back from her and caught her eye. “Let’s get outside for a bit.” Her disappointment must have shown, because he hurried on, “I’d love to do this, really.”

Isabel’s gaze drifted to below his belt as he shifted his weight and knew he was speaking the truth.

“It’s just such a nice day,” he continued, “and I really want to be able to show you a spot that I love.”

Isabel turned away to gather the rest of the clothes from the worktable, embarrassed. She was the one supposed to be worried about pacing. Here she is ready to get naked in the work room – how seductive is that? How can she teach him about seducing a woman if she’s ready to have him take her whenever, and wherever, he pleases?

She moved quickly out of his reach and up the stairs, leaving him to pack up the gear.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Tray checked that Isabel was still behind him. He’d started slowly, but found that Isabel was prepared to keep any pace he set. He wasn’t all out yet, and didn’t plan to be, but he was impressed that she was following along behind him, without complaint.

In fact, she’d pretty much been following along behind him without a word. Since the moment he suggested they get going and enjoy some of the day, she’d been quiet. If he didn’t know better, he would think she was pouting. But that didn’t fit his image of her. She was a professional, surely she wasn’t going to get emotional about being cut short in a kiss. Still, he could almost feel the air between them, and it wasn’t the late October wind creating the chill.

Being in the mountains always cleared his head, but Isabel was like an anti-clearing drug. The more time he spent with her, the more confused he was about his feelings. The plan had seemed simple, but this weekend seemed proof that the best-laid plans could go astray. Best-laid. Yes the weekend certainly qualified for that. He hadn’t been as well laid in a long time. Hell, he hadn’t been as well laid in his whole miserable life.

It wasn’t only that Isabel was older and a sex therapist. That part didn’t even seem to come into play. For one thing, he wasn’t convinced that Isabel did have more experience than he did. She knew all the right moves, but was somehow tentative. A bit like a fish out of water.

Tray was starting to believe that they were having great sex because there was something more than physical between them. He’d never felt so at ease with a woman. She made him feel like a giant, like he could do anything, and do no wrong. It was a marvelous feeling and he was starting to hope it was coming from sincerity, not from playing out a game. He could fall in love with a woman who believed in him lock, stock and barrel. Who wouldn’t?

Tray cleared the tree line and stopped in a small meadow. In seconds, Isabel was beside him. “What do you think?”

Isabel drank in the view of the valley laid out below her. They’d been on the trail only a couple of hours, but they seemed miles above the town below them. To the west stretched the rocky mountains, already snow-capped for winter. To the east, more mountains. Mountains three-sixty.

“I always forget how beautiful it is out here,” she smiled.

“This is where I really come alive.”

“To think it’s just over an hour away and I get here so rarely.”

“It’s a shame, really,” Tray threw the pack to the ground and rummaged for a blanket, spreading it over the ground. Isabel wandered closer to the edge to take photographs.

“Is this your idea of a good place to lie down?” she teased, coming back to where he was setting up.

“Actually I wasn’t sure we’d be lying down again after the way things ended in the work room.” He studied Isabel, hoping for a window into her thoughts. All his insecurities, that had turtled themselves away, seemed to be coming out of hiding. Apparently he still had it in him to peeve off a woman with little or no effort. He couldn’t even figure out what it was he had done that was wrong.

Isabel grinned sheepishly. “Oh. That. I just wasn’t in as much of a hurry to leave as you were.”

Tray decided to let it drop for now. He pulled out half a bottle of wine and placed it on his makeshift table. “I thought this would be a good spot to stop for lunch.”

“We’ve barely had breakfast,” Isabel protested.

“You’ll be able to eat. The fresh air always helps my appetite.”

“You’re probably right,” Isabel agreed, settling on the corner of the blanket and helping unwrap the packages Tray was setting out.

Isabel looked surprised as she unwrapped brie and cold cuts, a container of left over berries and a baguette. “When did you have time to pack all of this?”

“While you were in the shower,” he replied, pouring wine into plastic cups. “Here’s to familiar places and new friends.”

Isabel smiled back, and Tray was relieved that whatever tension had existed between them seemed to have passed for now.

“When were you last in the mountains, Isabel?”

“Hmm. I’m going to say, about eighteen months ago. A convention at the Banff Springs.”

“Fairmount Banff Springs?”

“It think it will always be the Banff Springs to me.”

“Nice hotel.”

“Landmark hotel, you mean. We had therapists from all over the world. Said this was one of the most beautiful places they’d ever been.”

“We’re lucky to live here. Do you get to many conventions?”

“Not really.” Isabel paused, rolling her glass between her palms. “Usually it’s so busy at work, and with the girls… it’s been hard to get away.”

Tray broke the baguette in half, opened it lengthwise and passed a piece to Isabel. She spread a layer of brie and laid a thin slice of proscuitto over the top. “This beats egg salad sandwiches.”

Tray laughed and prepared his own baguette, heaped with brie, several slices of proscuitto, salami, and a dash of capers.

Isabel rolled her eyes as he put the concoction to his lips. “I can’t believe you brought capers out here.”

“You should know it’s all in the details, Isabel.” He sunk his teeth appreciatively into the spongy bread, watching as Isabel took a generous bite of her own.

Isabel rooted through the bag. “What else do you have in here?”

“Extra clothes. Extra water.”

Isabel shook her head, laughing. “I stand by my earlier comment. We’re here for a few hours, not a few days.”

“You never know in the mountains. One minute everything is fine, and then… it’s not.”

Isabel looked suspiciously around at the sky, as if a storm could be approaching at any minute. Tray loved the lines of her face in profile. She had a tiny nose and her hair fell loosely over her shoulders. The hike had brought out the color in her cheeks and her eyes sparkled in the crisp air. He thought she barely looked thirty.

“You’re so beautiful, Isabel.” The color flared in her cheeks at the unexpected compliment. “No, really. I can’t believe you have children who are almost grown.”

“Sometimes I can’t believe it either,” she replied. “One day I was going to school and the next I was married with children.”

“Kind of like Peggy Bundy? Married with children?”

“Not exactly! Or at least, I hope not. It was hard in the beginning. There were times when I thought I couldn’t juggle one more detail. I kept waiting for that missing piece to make everything run smoothly.”

“Does such a thing exist?”

“That’s what the magazines tell us. Everyone has these wonderful lives, no one else seems to live in chaos or does the laundry at midnight because they have a sick kid who can’t sleep or because they have to redo a presentation that the dog threw up on.”

“Your dog threw up on your presentation?”

“Once, yeah.” Isabel laughed out loud.

“I hope you never tried that with any of your professors.” Tray laughed, picturing Isabel as a younger, earnest student handing in exemplary papers.

“I didn’t. Although I sometimes wished I could come up with something believable.” Isabel looked into his eyes and held his gaze. “You must find that. Is school hard?”

“At times. It’s really a lot of work, but… I guess being put off track for a while really puts it into perspective. There were so many times on the farm that I wished I was in school that now, when things get tough, I just remember how long I waited to get there.”

“That’s a pretty good attitude.”

“Mr. Good Attitude,” he said playfully. “That’s what they call me. What about you? For someone recently divorced, you seem to have a good handle on things.”

Isabel busied herself putting together another chunk of baguette. Tray watched as she piled brie, salami and a heaping of capers on the bread. He was starting to wish he hadn’t asked.

“I don’t mean to pry. It’s none of my business really.”

“No, it’s all right. The divorce is not so recent. Three years.”

“After how many together?”

“Eighteen.”

“Three years is recent.”

Isabel was pensive, gazing across the meadow. “When you get down to it, it really is. I remember standing in the grocery store one evening, in the frozen food section, unable to make a decision for dinner. I was incapable of choosing between a pizza and fish sticks. I was in so much pain I just stood there weeping.”

Tray put his hand on her knee, and she continued. “I remember thinking, if I’m falling apart after eighteen years, what happens to couples who’ve been together for twenty-five or thirty years? How do they cope when their whole life disappears?”

“I wrote a paper on that recently. I was looking at how many people die shortly after their lifetime partners. It’s as if they no longer have a reason to keep going. Or…”

“Or what?”

“Well, if I wasn’t a scientist, I would say that they already have a pact to meet again and don’t want to wait longer than they need to.”

“I like that idea.”

“I think it’s healthy to take the time you need to heal.”

“Yes.” She reached out and brushed his hair back off his forehead. His body responded instantly, desire coursing through him at her touch. “But now, it’s important for me to take time to play.”

“So,” he said, wrestling her back onto the blanket and covering her body with his own. “I’m your plaything?”

“Hey! You signed up for the job, boyo.”

Her blue eyes drilled into his and he licked his lips. He kissed her once on the mouth, on the tip of the nose, put dry kisses on her eyelids and trailed kisses to her ear. “I didn’t sign up for the job, Isabel,” he whispered, trailing kisses across to her other ear. “I begged for the job.”