Running the Numbers (6 page)

She was messing with him. Trying to get a rise out of him. A little payback for saying the last house wasn’t good enough.

Why hadn’t he said, “Sure, it’s great,” and been done with it? He’d be collecting his things in his rental car and pondering furniture right now. Then again, why should he let Sadie’s talent for making him uncomfortable cause him to lose sight of what he’d come here for? He wouldn’t play along in the head game. He wasn’t going to complain or object. He’d see the house on the side of the freaking mountain, he’d tell her thanks but no thanks, and they’d move on. Worse case, he’d choose the first house, after all. Like an episode of
House Hunters.

He bit back a groan as the truck climbed.
I did this to myself.
The story of his life.

They traversed two more switchbacks before the road widened and a few houses cropped up. The fronts were poised on high stilts so they sat even on the mountain face, with parking spots either carved into the mountainside or paved patches beneath the foundation of the house. The third turn was softer than the other two, rounded in a flat semicircle, framed by patches of tall grass and low shrubs.

There, sitting perfectly flat on a small strip of even ground, a small log cabin. Nothing too special. It sat back far enough from the gravel road so two vehicles could park parallel without impeding traffic. It faced north, thick pines filtering a killer view of the town far below. Two small windows flanked the front door, painted a dull red to match the battered shutters.

The deal slid neatly home when Blake spotted the nifty yellow
For Rent
sign staked into the ground. “Stop.”

Sadie hit the brakes, jostling them both against their seat belts. “Why? What? Is it a bear? Did you see a bear?”

“Right there.” He pointed. “The place for rent.”

She squinted past him, through his window at the sign, then turned an incredulous glare to him. “
That
place? No, no. Listen, there’s a place a little farther up, okay? It’s got three bedrooms, in case you have family come visit, a big stone fireplace, and a top-notch kitchen. Also, the rent sign isn’t handwritten.”

Blake opened the door and got out, drawn by a subtle tug of a deep secret desire realized. This was the place he’d seen in his daydreams of a simple life lived with simple pleasures. It was as far from the game as he could get. A place to hide away and rediscover who he was, rather than obsessing about the jerk he’d become. A place to heal.

“It’s perfect.”

* * * *

Sadie retrieved her jaw from its unhinged position and blinked.

Blake morphed before her eyes. His face alighted with childlike wonder, a genuine smile—the first she’d seen—played across his lips, and he bounced on the balls of his feet as he approached the cabin. In his fascinated stupor, he hadn’t bothered to close the truck door.

She climbed out and came around to shut it. Blake peeked through windows of the cabin, his smile growing with each inspection, even as he wiped away dirt from the panes with the side of his fist.

She didn’t get it. She found the cabin unimpressive and bleak. Blake made great money. He could afford something with more creature comforts. The other house had a big balcony with Adirondack chairs already set up, ready for prime coffee sipping.

His life.
She pulled her phone from her pocket.

Blake glanced at it. “If you’re calling my therapist, tell her the jacket’s not necessary this time. I promise I haven’t lost my mind.”

Oh, wow, a joke. Sadie thought back to the last week. She hadn’t witnessed any signs of an actual personality inhabiting Blake…until now. In fact, he was alarmingly similar to Amanda. But maybe he wasn’t dull and boring, after all
.
Maybe the guy was depressed.

Sadie cocked her head and peered at Blake. “I bet she’s been burned by that one before.”

He turned his delighted smile on her, and Sadie’s skin warmed. “I guess she can bring it along in case.”

Sadie shook her head. Damn if this guy wasn’t getting to her.

Blake looked back at the cabin and kept talking, as much to himself as to her. “I know, it seems crazy. Because I’m…whatever the hell I am.” His voice lowered some, and his usual starched tone colored over the small bit of happiness he’d had for a minute there. “I was partner in my old firm. Success never once made my life better, though. Ambition to be the best, to have the best—it only made me lose sight of my values. And when I lost those, I lost just about everything else. Ambition used to be a quality we frowned upon as a society, you know that? And I can see why. It’s why I have to step back and find a little humility. I can’t just think about it. I have to live it.”

An ambitious player in the game, Sadie took the dig personally. “Sounds to me like a personal flaw. Not everyone who achieves success, or has the ambition to strive for it, loses sight of their values.”

The stricken look on Blake’s face made her want to recall the words. She hadn’t meant it as an attack. A little paler than he had been a second ago, he nodded but said nothing. His awed, happy expression darkened.

Sadie felt it right in the gut. “Look, Blake, I didn’t mean—”

“Who were you going to call?”

She bit her lip. Blake had revealed depths she wouldn’t have guessed at. A past riddled with regrets and loss. She wanted to pry him open and steal his secrets; make him sing like a canary. But not today. She’d unwittingly compelled him to close the window, and now she’d have to wait for another opportunity to delve into his layers.

“The landlord.” Sadie hooked her thumb toward the sign. “There’s a number scrawled across the bottom.”

The wait for the old man who’d answered on the first ring was one of the most uncomfortable stretches of time Sadie had ever suffered through. Blake’s mood had fallen into dismal territory, and Sadie had no idea what to say to fix it. Finally, a dusty little pickup meandered up the hill and pulled in behind her Ford.

A round, gray-haired man with a tremendous scraggly beard and thick glasses approached. “Dale,” he grunted by way of introduction. “You want to see inside the place?”

Since he’d addressed Sadie, she pointed to Blake as he rounded the far side of the cabin, having inspected the whole exterior. “He’s your guy.”

Dale followed the line of her pointing finger. His face fell a little.

Sadie didn’t blame him for doubting the sincerity of a renter who looked like Blake. With his perfectly smooth face, stylish salon-grade haircut, and jeans that looked like they were purchased brand new this morning, he looked like money itself. The smooth vanilla type usually preferred the landscaped yards of the Aspens, an upscale community of condos near Teton Village, or a swanky downtown loft.

She waved Blake over. Dale launched into an introduction and unlocked the cabin for him to have a look around. “Two small bedrooms. Partially furnished, so you’d probably want to pick up a few things. Dishes, things like that. Kitchen’s there.” He pointed to the left. He stood just inside the door and let Sadie and Blake move past him into the cabin.

It wasn’t so bad. Cupboards lined the far wall, and a small square table was shoved into the corner next to the fridge. Not much counter space, but did Blake cook? Probably not. He struck Sadie as a takeout kind of guy. A faded green sofa backed up to the kitchen, serving as a barrier between it and the living room. Which was tiny; just large enough to squeeze in near the only heat source Sadie had spotted so far.

She smoothed a hand over the uneven mantle fixed over the wood-burning stove, pleasantly surprised when her hand came away clean, and turned to Blake, who was opening cupboards in the kitchen. “You’ll need firewood to get through the winter.”

On the right, two identical doors led to the two bedrooms, also identical in both size and shape. The sofa faced the bedrooms, which left just the small stretch of wall between the two doors to stick a television set if Blake were so inclined.

She expected the inside to be a let-down. Sparse hardly covered it. “What do you think, Blake?”

He’d moved over to study the wood-burning stove. When he faced her, she was struck by the simple happiness there. Her mind whirled back to Nina’s first description of Blake. So very good-looking. And so, he was. More so without inner troubles clouding his face. For now, he seemed to have escaped their grip.

This close to him, the individual colors in his eyes stood out with the starkness of a child’s crayon drawing. Green like summer grass at its lushest, with a swirl of amber dancing through the middle. The lines at the corners spoke to his age, as well as the scarcity of his smiles. A lively twinkle replaced his usual somber stare, and it was enough to stop Sadie in her tracks, like someone had hit the pause button.

Their gazes seemed caught together. He didn’t look away, and Sadie couldn’t if she wanted to.

Finally, he blinked, breaking the spell. “It’s exactly what I want.”

A few minutes later, the details sorted out, Dale led them to his truck, where he’d thoughtfully brought along a rental agreement.

He added an indiscernible squiggle beneath Blake’s neat signature. “You have any problems, call and I’ll take care of it. One last thing. The cabin’s called Fox Watch. There’s a den of foxes somewhere nearby, which is odd because they usually den down near the creek beds in the valleys, ya know. You’ll probably see one, but I always advise renters not to attempt to engage. After all, they’re wild animals, protected since we’re in a national forest, and probably on edge to begin with, since they’ll have young nearby during certain months. So, keep an eye out. And use good judgment.”

Dale lumbered away, waving over his shoulder without looking back, and Blake hit Sadie with his full, unhindered smile, once more jolting her into a new level of awareness. “Fox Watch. That’s cool. Sounds like something Quinn might like.”

Quinn, huh? Could be a man. Could be a woman. Sadie wouldn’t find out without asking. “You need any help getting moved in?” An easy excuse to hang out and worm a few details from those tight lips.

He paused and studied her.

She didn’t squirm under his scrutiny, but she didn’t particularly enjoy it, either.

Blake’s features settled once more into their normal flat state. The shades drawn, the hood down, and the door shut. “I think I’ve got it, thanks.”

* * * *

Sadie gulped wine, well past the sipping point. “I mean, what the hell is wrong with the guy? You know me. I’m not abrasive. Or offensive. I’m as chill as f—”

“Forget Blake,” Kennedy chimed in. “He’s hung up on Amanda, anyway.”

Sadie relaxed back into her pink chenille throw blanket. She had her favorite slippers on, a fire roaring in the massive stone fireplace, a comically large glass of wine in her hand, and her favorite people huddled nearby on the sofa. So, why was she so damn grumpy? “We were doing great today. He found that stupid cabin, and it was like another person emerged. Then,
bam!
He looks at me like I’m some kind of offensive
thing
and doesn’t want anything more to do with me. What if it’s that crappy comment I made about ambition? Of course, I’m sorry for whatever he did to himself on his climb up the ladder, but not every successful person in the world has a crumpled heap of bodies and burned bridges behind them.”

Nina sipped delicately from her glass and tucked her feet neatly beneath her. “Kennedy, you’re his secretary. Didn’t you learn anything last week? Aren’t you taking his calls?”

Kennedy studied her freshly painted fingernails. “The only personal call he gets through the office is from his son, Seth, who I’ve gathered is attending Purdue next spring because he stalled and missed the fall deadline.”

Sadie nodded. “Maybe he has empty nester syndrome.”

Kennedy groaned. “Do we really care? Again, Blake likes Amanda. I bet he’d have taken
her
up on the offer of help.” She directed a pointed look at Sadie.

Sadie narrowed her gaze, but Kennedy probably had it right.

Kennedy said, “You’re kind of obsessing, Sadie. You’re supposed to be finding out if he’s after Duncan’s job, not trying to be his girlfriend.”

Secretly, Sadie was attempting both. She was definitely developing something of a crush on Blake. Surprising, given how normal he seemed. Did he have a deep, dark secret like all the rest of the guys she gravitated toward? And just what about Blake drew her in? Boring, staid Blake. Could it be that he hardly looked at her, let alone with any sort of mutual attraction? What the hell did that say about
her?

That I’m abnormal, or I’m like every other woman on the planet? Say no to the dude who wants you, pine after the guy who doesn’t.

But the last person she wanted to know all this was either one of her friends, sadly. Kennedy was prone to attention-seeking and wouldn’t appreciate Sadie moving in on the new office hottie, and Nina didn’t corral her gossip for Sadie’s ears alone. In fact, she was quite friendly with Reba, who’d tell anyone anything.

Sadie decided a pinch of honesty might go a long way. “I know. And you’re right. But today, I saw a side of Blake I don’t think he even realizes exists. He’s so somber and serious all the time, but today was like a glimmer of someone else shining through. Someone different. He’s clearly troubled. I think he’s depressed. I really do.”

Nina shrugged.

Kennedy rolled her eyes. “So, help him out. Convince Amanda to go on a date with him. That’ll perk him right up.”

Sadie wiggled her toes and ignored Kennedy, even though she suspected her insightful best friend had nailed it. Blake definitely had Amanda on his mind. On the way back to the hotel that afternoon, Sadie had attempted to mine details from him about his life. He’d somehow turned it around, and instead, she’d spent the drive fielding questions about Amanda.

But she wasn’t ready to give in, not when she hadn’t really tried yet. “You’re right. Blake does need help.” She drained her wineglass and smacked her lips. “So, I’m going to help him. Whether he wants it or not.”

Her cell bleeped from where it rested on the arm of the chair. She plucked it up and stuck out her bottom lip in an exaggerated frown. Wine did weird things to her. “It’s Amanda. Why is she calling me?”