When I Fall in Love (Christiansen Family) (4 page)

Music from the local blues band, the Blue Monkeys, drifted out across the dock and the glistening water, mysterious and romantic.

If Grace simply stayed out here, swaddled in the night, babysitting, no one would notice that she hadn’t danced once and managed to eat dinner in the kitchen. It seemed a better option than sticking around for small talk.

She had no doubt someone would eventually ask her about her plans. Inadvertently surface her failures.

Yes, I’d planned to go to culinary school in July, but no, I didn’t get in. Which is okay because I like working at Pierre’s Pizza.

Really.

Most likely, they’d get stuck on the question “What kind of person gets rejected from cooking school?”

The kind that nearly burned down the folk school building.

She wanted to believe that in His kindness, God had looked down from heaven, seen disaster looming, and saved her from herself. From the dreams of others that said she had to leave Deep Haven to find happiness.

She’d looked around and discovered enough of it right here.

Even with her catering hopes in flames.

“Grace, honey, what are you doing out here? They’re getting ready for the toasts.”

Grace looked up into the worried face of her mother, Ingrid. She wore a long, flowing lilac sundress and a pair of sandals, her blonde hair short and caught back with a flowered headband. Sometimes Grace could still spot the seventies girl lurking inside her mother.

Ingrid slipped off her sandals and sat on the end of the dock with Grace. “He’s so cute when he’s sleeping. It’s the only time I see him still.”

“He reminds you of Darek.”

“So much. And Casper and Owen. All my boys seemed to charge full speed through life.” Ingrid brushed back Tiger’s hair. “You did a great job on dinner, honey. Absolutely delicious. You’re going to be a magnificent chef.”

Grace didn’t look at her, opting instead for the canopy of velvet above. “Tonight the stars seem so close you could pluck them from the sky. The vastness of the universe is breathtaking. Even scary.”

“And yet, God placed each one of them with purpose.”

Grace said nothing. Tiger stirred in her arms, shifting his position.

“Have you thought about when you might be leaving? You need to find a place to live in the Cities, maybe get a part-time job. The summer session starts in a month, doesn’t it?”

Shoot. Even her mother.

Across the inky water, the lights from the Coast Guard station dappled the surface of the waves and gleamed against the anchored sailboats. She often wondered how many truly left the harbor to explore the big lake.

A cool wind brushed over the water, raised gooseflesh on her skin.

She took a breath. “I didn’t get in.”

There. The words didn’t sting as much as she’d imagined. In fact, she could taste an odd swirl of relief inside. “I never heard back, so I guess that’s a no from them.”

Her mother stared at her, frowning. “Are you sure? Have you called them?”

“I’m not calling them, Mom. I’ll just sound pitiful. Or desperate.” She hitched Tiger up, relieving the pressure from her arm. “The truth is, maybe I don’t want to leave Deep Haven.”

Ingrid’s mouth had pinched to a tight line. Oh no. Grace knew that look.

“Mom, please
 
—I belong here. You and Dad are here, and Tiger.” She twirled one of his curly locks around her finger. “I’ve never been like all my other siblings. I like Deep Haven. I 
want
to be here.”

“I know, Grace. And a mother never really wants her children to leave home. But she lets them go because she sees how much more is waiting for them. There is more for you than Deep Haven. You need to let yourself discover it.”

“Can’t you trust me when I say I don’t need more?”

Ingrid considered her a long moment, then said, “Let me take Tiger. You’re missing the toasts.”

She couldn’t care less about the toasts. Jensen, Darek’s best man, would say something about how their friendship had somehow survived tragedy; then Claire would mention the miracle of Ivy, a former foster child, finally finding a family.

Casper would probably tell some joke about Darek as a child and hint at stealing the bride. Thankfully, they could all count on Eden, the journalist, to say something profound. Amelia, the youngest, would capture each moment with her camera.

And if they all got lucky, her youngest brother, Owen, former hotshot hockey player turned renegade, would put on a smile and try to make them all forget he’d shown up yesterday on a motorcycle, sporting an eye patch for the wedding photos, and informed the clan he was fighting fires with Darek’s old outfit, the Jude County Hotshots.

Just in case Mom didn’t have enough to worry about.

No, Grace had done her part, and now she just wanted to sit back and watch. Soak in the joy.

But her mother was reaching for Tiger, and what could she do? She surrendered his sleeping body to her mother’s embrace and got up, grabbing her flip-flops as she headed down the dock.

She heard her mother behind her, singing to her grandson.

Inside, the Blue Monkeys played a rendition of “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” and nearly all the guests had emptied onto the dance floor. Darek held Ivy in his arms, caught in her gaze, her smile. Ivy nearly floated in her simple strapless gown with the tiered layers of taffeta. She wore an orange gerbera daisy in her hair, matching her bouquet.

Grace spied Eden and her fiancé, Jace
 
—how could she miss him, really, with his six-foot-four hockey-star frame?
 
—taking up a corner of the floor. Eden twined her arms around Jace’s neck, holding on. Casper was making a spectacle in the corner with Amelia, who was laughing at his cornball swing-dancing efforts.

Owen seemed to be absent, as usual. Maybe he’d already left. She hoped he said good-bye this time instead of just sending a postcard from the road.

Grace turned to a table and began stacking plates. Her parents had hired a cleaning crew, but it didn’t hurt to start clearing. In fact, she might just head back into the kitchen, do some supervising.

“Grace! Where’ve you been?” Ivy came up behind her. “We were looking all over for you.” She caught her hand. “Come with me.”

Good thing Ivy had a firm grip on her hand, because Grace had broken the school record for the hundred-meter dash. “I don’t want to dance . . .”

Darek stepped up to the mic as the music died. The congregation on the dance floor stopped, eyes falling on him.

“A round of applause for my sister Grace, who pulled off tonight’s delicious dinner.” Darek smiled at her as the guests erupted into applause. “Someday she’s going to make an amazing chef. Who knows, maybe she’ll even open her own catering business.”

Grace smiled, something sharklike, as she looked at Darek. Stop talking, please
 
—

“Maybe she could even cater Jace and Eden’s wedding.”

She wanted to wince as Eden caught her eye with a dangerous spark of interest.

“Grace, to thank you for your talents tonight, the family put together a little vacation for you. How would you feel about a culinary trip to . . . Hawaii?” He grinned at Ivy, then at Grace.

Hawaii?

Grace waited for Darek to add more as she did the mental math.

Hawaii was two
 
—maybe even three
 
—airplane rides away. One of them across the ocean.

Alone.

Oh no.

She should smile
 
—she knew it. She even tried, but crazy tears filled her eyes. Maybe she could feign shock.

But Darek’s smile dimmed and it was all over. “Grace?”

“I . . .” Suddenly everyone was staring, watching. “No . . . I . . .”

Then she was pushing through the crowd, out of the building, and into the night.

What a basket case. But what if she got lost? Or her plane crashed and she had no one to reach out to as . . . ? Just the thought of leaving prickled sweat across her forehead, sent her heart crashing in her chest. She stalked away from the dock, where Ingrid still sat with Tiger, and into the darkness along the shoreline.

It wasn’t fast enough to stop Eden from spotting her or running after her. “Grace!”

“I don’t want to talk about it!”

But Eden was nothing if not tenacious. Grace heard the sounds of her sister’s footfalls behind her, stones scattering on the shore as she ran. “Stop!”

No.

But Eden caught up, touching her arm to stop her. “Grace, what’s the matter?”

Hot tears had licked her cheeks, and she didn’t bother to wipe them away as she turned to Eden. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be ungrateful. Really. It’s just . . . so far from home.”

Eden stood an inch taller and now looked at her, an older-sister concern in her eyes. “No one said you were ungrateful. But we hardly expected you to cry and run from the room. What’s the matter?”

“I know.” Grace pressed her hands to her wet cheeks. “I’m just being silly.”

“You don’t want to go to Hawaii?”

“Who doesn’t want to go to Hawaii? I mean, it’s a wonderful gift.”

Eden slid her hand to her sister’s. “We thought it would be fun
 
—and you’ll get back in time for your summer session to start, I promise.”

From ten feet away, she heard, “Eden, everything okay?” Jace’s voice, deep and solid and so kind, drifted through the night. Eden had picked a winner with her hockey champion.

“We’re good, Jace.”

He wasn’t moving away, however, and Grace caught a glimpse of him waiting, hands in his pockets, looking up at the stars.

Just in case Eden needed him.

She stared at that picture and a shadow went over her heart.

Everyone had someone. Or something. A future. Plans. Even broken, angry, bereft Owen had figured out how to land on his feet.

Maybe that was it. She didn’t even possess the courage to leap. Didn’t want to imagine a life beyond Deep Haven.

Yet she looked at Jace standing under the glimmer of the moon, and something inside her broke open, turned raw. Hungry. She
did
want more. A career of her own. A little boy to hold in her arms. And especially a man who might stand in the shadows, close enough to jump in if she needed him.

She could almost taste it welling up inside. Could almost feel the nudge.

There was more waiting for her.

She just didn’t want to travel halfway around the world, alone, to find it.

T
HE
C
HRISTIANSEN FAMILY
stored up happiness like stones on the rocky Lake Superior shore. They shouldn’t miss the tiny bit Raina had stolen for herself.

Not exactly stolen, perhaps. In fact, Owen Christiansen had made all the moves. He’d been the one to find her once she’d cleaned up after the wedding and found a lonely pocket of night away from the festivities. She’d been sitting at the end of the dock, letting the crisp waves of the lake nibble at her feet and nursing a glass of root beer as the last song of the night ribboned out into the air.

A perfect night to fall in love.

Owen had picked that moment to appear, almost as if by magic. He’d sat down next to her, and she was a goner.

Yes, she could fall in love with a guy like Owen Christiansen with that dark-blond curly hair, those blue eyes that lured her out of herself, those hockey muscles under his white tuxedo shirt. He’d taken off the jacket and folded the shirtsleeves up over tanned forearms. His tousled hair beckoned for her to touch it, looking spun from gold under the starlight. He appeared a prince, until he donned his eye patch. Then he turned into a bona fide pirate, ready to steal her heart and sail her away with him.

“Whatcha doing?” he’d asked, his voice slow and lazy as if he’d been eyeing her all night. “Are you new in town?”

“My name’s Raina. Raina Beaumont.”

“Oh, I know a Beaumont
 
—”

“It’s my aunt, Liza.”

His mouth lifted up to one side, tease in his expression. “The French are invading.”

She giggled. “American by birth. But our family hails from Quebec.”

If her heart hadn’t taken flight by then, it certainly did when he tapped his beer to her glass and said, “French enough. Welcome to town, Raina Beaumont. Can I show you around?”

“No,” she said, even though everything inside screamed yes. She hadn’t made a lot of friends since she moved to Deep Haven a month ago. Grace Christiansen, yes, but only because they worked at the same pizza parlor.

“Aw, c’mon. I’m harmless.” There went the smile again, and she didn’t believe him for a millisecond.

“Grace mentioned that she hoped you’d be coming back to town. Said you used to play hockey for the St. Paul Blue Ox?”

His smile dimmed a little, and she vowed not to mention it again. He took a drink, then lifted a shoulder as if shrugging away
memories. “I’m a firefighter now with the Jude County Hotshots out of Montana.”

A hotshot. Yep, that seemed right.

“How’d you end up working for Grace?”

“I answered her ad in the employee lounge at Pierre’s for catering help.” She glanced Grace’s direction, up the shore to where she’d bolted after her family presented her with their generous gift. “I don’t know her that well, but why is she so upset? If I’d been given a trip to Hawaii, I don’t think I would have freaked out and run away.”

“Yeah, well, Grace hasn’t left Deep Haven alone since . . . hmm. Probably since she went to summer camp when she was a kid. She’s a homebody. But she wants to be a chef, so we thought it might be a nice gift. Or they did. No one asked me.” He said it without emotion, just fact. “So you’re a caterer?”

“Uh . . . actually, I never really worked as a caterer before, but it just seemed like one of those things I could do. I was raised without a mom, had to cook for my brother . . .” Oh, wait. Too much information. See, she did that. Wanted people
 
—Owen
 
—to like her, so her mouth started spilling, babbling even.

She took another sip of root beer. “Your sister is the brains behind the operation, but I helped her plan and shop, and we worked together. I’m hoping she’ll hire me again.” In fact, by the time tonight rolled around, Raina had felt like they’d formed a kinship, that they had become partners. She felt at least a tad responsible for this night of romance they’d created.

“Darek and Ivy look so happy.” She’d stood for a long time watching the couple as they danced. She wondered what that would feel like
 
—to have a man look at her like that. Delight in his eyes, the future in his smile.

Owen picked at the label of his beer. “Yeah. He got lucky
 
—twice, actually. This is his second marriage. His first wife died, left him with Tiger.” He looked up, staring across the lake. “Most people don’t get second chances like that.”

The words settled over the water, washed to shore in the waves. Nope, most people didn’t.

She stared at the sky, at the full moon like a spotlight on the water, nearly skimming her toes.

“Want a ride on my motorcycle?”

Raina nodded and he took her hand.

He tooled her around town a bit, then out of Deep Haven, toward Paradise Beach. He’d taken off his eye patch, and she didn’t comment about the scars around his eye.

He pulled up, then parked the bike. But before she could get off, he swung a leg over and met her eyes. Something in them stole her breath
 
—a hunger, maybe, or a longing. Then he slid his hand behind her neck and kissed her.

She’d been kissed
 
—and more
 
—before, but this time felt different. Like this was the kind of guy she could relax around, be herself with. Not like the guys she’d grown up with, where she had to watch her back. Maybe Grace’s brother was different. Trustworthy.

The kind of guy a gal could start over with.

When Owen took her in his arms, it felt like that. A new beginning with someone . . . someone who could truly love her, maybe.

She kissed him back, more heartily than she should have, but it soon became the right thing as the stars fell from the sky. He drove her back to Liza’s, and that was when she started to make mistakes, especially when he leaned her up against the porch and
kissed her again, more ardor in his touch than she had anticipated.

He tasted good, like hot summer nights. And freedom. And happiness.

So Raina invited him in.

She knew better, of course. After all, her aunt Liza slept right upstairs. But she tiptoed inside, opened her bedroom door, and told Owen to slip in before her.

And then she’d fought the guilt, losing herself in his arms.

Now the sun peeked through the slats in the shutters as she lay quietly, listening. Listening to him breathe . . . or . . .

She turned her head. His side of the bed was mussed. Empty.

Then she heard the shower running. Oh. He hadn’t left.

She let that thought sink into her as she pulled the covers up to her head.
He hadn’t left.
Which meant that maybe he’d stick around today. Maybe he’d take her for another ride on that motorcycle.

Oh no. What if Liza saw his bike out front? Raina slipped out of bed, the wood floor cool against her bare feet. Liza had given her the guest room on the main floor, with the en suite bathroom and access to the tiny sitting porch on the side of the house. Raina pulled back the eyelet curtains and spied the bike across the street, as if he were visiting the neighbors, and remembered him parking it there.

Thank you, Owen. See? Trustworthy.

She reached for her robe, slipped it on. Spied his clothes scattered around the floor. She picked up his dress shoes and set them beside the wicker chair. His pants lay crumpled in a heap, so she folded them, then found his shirt on the back of the wrought-iron bed frame. She pressed it to her nose, inhaling his fragrance. A
touch of last night’s cologne, the sense of adventure in the wind-scented cotton.

What if he brought her up to the Christiansens’ Evergreen Resort, invited her into today’s family plans?

The scents of breakfast slid under the door. Bacon, possibly eggs. Aunt Liza would be in the kitchen, wearing a T-shirt and a pair of capris styled with splatters of paint from her pottery studio, her long dark hair tied back.

Her stomach clenched, but she couldn’t exactly join Liza at the counter, could she? Not with a guy in her room. When she moved in, she’d practically had to take a blood oath that she’d attend church with her aunt every week
 
—the one caveat to living here rent-free.

No. She’d feign sleeping in and wait until Liza left. Pray
 
—er, hope
 
—that her aunt didn’t know the bike outside belonged to Owen.

It wasn’t like Raina was going to behave this way again. She’d simply had a moment of weakness or . . . or love. Yes, love.

At least what could be love, someday.

The shower turned off. She heard humming and nearly rested her hand on the door. Instead she glanced in the mirror over the bureau, ran fingers through her hair.

The bathroom door opened. Owen emerged with a towel hitched low around his hips, the hard planes of his athlete’s body glistening with the remnants of water.

Raina felt her face heat and glanced away. So she hadn’t exactly come to terms with her behavior last night.

“Did you sleep well?” she said.

He advanced into the room, and for a second she thought he’d stop, take her into his arms. But he scooted past her, leaving the
fragrance of freshly showered male in his wake, and headed for his clothes. “I gotta run.”

“Oh.” She didn’t look at him, feeling naked as he climbed into his dress pants. “I thought we could have breakfast together.”

“I don’t do breakfast.”

She startled at his tone, something cool and detached in it. Then she slid her hand to the neck of her robe and closed it. “Okay, could we . . . um . . . ? When am I going to see you again?”

She nearly jumped when his hand touched her shoulder, and she looked up at him. Still bare-chested, his wet hair in dark, tantalizing curls around his face. He hadn’t shaved, of course, his whiskers blond and ragged across his chin.

“I had a good time last night, Raina,” he said with a smile. “Thanks.” He ran his finger along the base of her jaw, then leaned in and kissed her.

Pitiful her, she wanted to lift her arms, tangle them around his neck, but he made no moves to deepen the kiss. To hold on.

In fact, when he pulled away, he winked. “I’ll look you up next time I’m in town.”

Look her up . . . ? Oh.

She bit her lip, hating the tremble that began inside as she watched him pull on his shirt, button it, then slip into his shoes. It all reeled in front of her as if in slow motion, and a cold realization slid through her.

Then, as if to add to the surreal, raw truth, Aunt Liza knocked on her door. “Raina, sweetie, I’m not sure if you’re up, but I left you some eggs and bacon on the stove. I’m heading into work.”

Raina froze. Swallowed. “Okay! Thanks! See you tonight.”

Owen waited, his eyes hard, saying nothing until the front door closed. Then, “You live with your aunt Liza?”

She nodded, but not before he shook his head, running his fingers through his hair, turning away but not quite stifling a blue word. As Liza pulled out of the driveway in her VW Bug, he moved away from the window.

Hmm. Not quite as cocky as he had been.

But it didn’t erase the hurt when he rounded on her. “Sheesh, Raina, you might have mentioned that.”

“What?”

“We live in a small town. She knows my parents. If she’d caught us
 
—”

“That’s what you’re worried about?” She stood there a moment, shaking. “I thought . . . I thought we had something . . .”

“We did.” He glanced at the bed, found a smile. “Boy, did we.”

If he thanked her again
 
—

“Thanks.”

She found his suit jacket, her hands shaking. “Get out.”

He frowned. “Why are
you
so upset? I thought you wanted this
 
—”

“Get out!”

“Wow. Okay, fine. Way to turn a good time into something creepy.”

Her eyes burned even as she opened her door to him.

Owen strode past her. “Welcome to Deep Haven. I hope you enjoy your stay.”

She followed him to the front door, nearly slammed it, and locked it behind him.

Clearly she’d read Owen
 
—and his family
 
—completely wrong. If she never saw another Christiansen man again, it would be too soon.