Winter Interlude (51 page)

He frowned, slightly confused
.
“About an hour
.”

Still grinning, James continued past him toward the hallway and the bedroom he usually used
.

Before he was completely out of sight, Pa
ul couldn’t resist blurting out,
“Where’s
Kate
?”

“San Francisco, I presume
.”
James slowed and
looked
over his shoulder
.
“Why do you ask?”

“No reason.” Paul adopted a nonchalant tone and forced his attention back to his laptop
.
“When Judith mentioned you’d invited her, I just assumed you two would come up together.”

“Obviously, she had a change of plans
.”
James rounded the hallway and was soon out of his peripheral vision.

His eyes narrowed
.
Totally baffled, he
tried to make sense of it all
.
What was going on
?
Why hadn’t
Kate
driven up with James
?
Though curious, he had to tread lightly
.
James was sharp enough to latch on to the least little clue and figure out his interest in her
.

His shoulders slumped forward as some of the adrenaline drained from him
.
Without
Kate
’s presence, his original plan of confronting them was out
.
Oh well, he thought, refocusing on work
.
Maybe it was for the better
.
L
ook on the bright side
.
She wasn’t here, which had to mean something
.
Kate
was tenacious
.
If she’d still been interested in James, nothing would have kept her away this weekend
.

Suddenly,
Paul’s
confidence returned full force. He had all evening to glean some information about their date the other night.

His brother stepped into the room just then, drawing his attention
.
He looked up from his laptop, his nod indicating the kitchen
.
“There’s wine on the counter
.
”

“Thanks, but I think I’ll have a beer
.”

“I stocked up on the way here.”

James returned with a bottle of Samuel Adams and sat across from him, still wearing a canary
-
eating
-
cat’s grin that told him something was up
.
“I see that’s not all you stocked up on
.”

Nodding, he concentrated on
the
screen in front of him, trying to figure out what that something was
.

James then muttered a comment that sounded
suspiciously
like, “This is going to be too easy.”

“What?” Paul glanced up and met his brother’s eyes.

“The drive was easy,” he replied
.
With raised eyebrows, he held his gaze and took a swig, as if daring him to disagree.

Paul cleared his throat
.
“Glad to hear it
.”
He studied James for long seconds before standing
.
“I think I’ll have a beer too
.”
He started for the kitchen, wondering the best way to broach the subject of that last date
.

Finally, he opted to just ask a few leading questions
.
Considering their relationship
, his curiosity wouldn’t be out of line
.
“So why’d
Kate
decide to stay home, especially after Judith said you specifically invited her
?
And that brings up another interesting point. Why’d you invite her
?
I thought you were
in your avoidance mode again, dodging the marriage bullet
.”

James sobered and shrugged his shoulders
.
“I’d rather not discuss it.”

Paul blinked back his surprise
.
James was always complaining about
Kate
’s aggressiveness
.
Intrigued, he asked, “Why, what’s the problem?”

“Look, you have your screwed
-
up relationship with Judith, and I have mine with
Kate
,” he snapped
.
“Why don’t we drop the subject of relationships for tonight, okay
?”
Then he leaned back and took another sip. “You want to go out for dinner
?
I’m hungry.”

“I bought food to cook here if you want,” Paul said, as his curiosity flared brighter.

“No, I prefer to go out
.”
After taking a long drink, he set the bottle on the table
.
“
You joining
me?”

Paul closed down his laptop and set it aside
.
“Sure, why not,” he said
,
praying more would slip out at dinner.

“
You doing
okay
?”
James stared closely at Paul’s face
.
“How’s work going
?
Those dark circles say you’ve been burning the midnight oil.”

“Work’s fine,” he shot back, not wanting to talk about work or why he looked like he did
.
“I’m a little behind
.
I’ll catch up this weekend when we’re not skiing.”

James nodded
.
“So last weekend must have been pretty miserable
.
I really feel for both of you
.
I know
Kate
was dreading it
.
S
he hates your guts
, you know
.”

Paul’s eyes narrowed and he mentally scoured his brother’s choice of words, looking for a hidden meaning, while noting Jame
s’
mildly amused expression
.
The thought of
Kate
hating his guts didn’t sit well
.
Neither did the fact that she and James spent Tuesday night together
.
“We survived,” he murmured
.
“But I don’t think we hate each other quite so much.”

“I’ll bet
.”

Aside from that comment, something in his brother’s voice alerted him
.
He scrutinized his expression, searching for some hint, but James only grinned and added, “And it’s a good thing because your barbs were sure getting monotonous.”

Paul remained silent, now completely certain something wasn’t quite right
.
First, James sa
id
he
didn’t
want to talk about her
,
and then he
brought
her back up again
.
Time to withdraw
.

James chugged the last of his beer
.
“I’m ready to go
.
Are you
?
That way we can beat the crowd.”

There usually wasn’t a crowd on Thursdays, but
Paul nodded
.
“Let me grab my coat
.
Where do you want to eat
?”

“How about
t
he Lakehouse?”

Two hours later
,
Paul pulled into the garage and switched off the ignition. Dinner had been a total bust
.
He wasn’t able to learn anything more about what happened between
Kate
and James because whenever he tried to steer the conversation in that direction, his brother deflected his attempts
.
Finally
,
he’d given up and enjoyed Jame
s’
company for the rest of the night.

“I’m turning in,” James said, as they
got out of
the car
.
“I plan on being up bright and early for skiing tomorrow.”

Paul nodded
.
“I’ll be ready
.”
He headed for his bedroom
.
After slipping inside and closing the door, he glanced at the fireplace
.
Tamping down his frustration
, he grabbed the
Bic
and lit the newspaper
he was using as kindling
.
As the flames built, Paul thought back on his evening. Did his brother suspect that there was more to last weekend
?
He didn’t see how
.

No, something else must have happened
.
He only hoped for the patience to wait until James told him about it
,
because no amount of prodding or finagling was going to get James to open up sooner
.

~

“
T
he skiing is great,” James said, coming up behind Paul in the lift line
.

Paul glanced around
.
“Yeah, we’re lucky
.”
It was a beautiful, cloudless day where the sun was shining brightly, adding warmth to the brisk, clear air
.
As a bonus
, it wasn’t crowded
.
W
eekdays were dead, so this was as good as it got without more snow
.
The multitude of skiers who took to the slopes after a storm usually caused the mountain conditions to deteriorate
—
bumping it up and making the runs more treacherous
.
“I bet there’s still plenty of fresh powder to find if we look hard enough
.”