A Little Learning (9 page)

Well, too bad,
Seamus thought. Understanding the reason behind Rory’s coolness toward him had given him room for hope.

He glanced around the interior of the Victorian house with a new thought in mind.

Desert was selling it.

Furnished.

Of course, his kids still had ties to Telluride.

But Rory had made him believe that what they wanted most of all was the love and attention of their father.

She emerged at the top of the basement steps. “Well, let’s do it,” she said matter-of-factly and drew one of the kitchen chairs over to the refrigerator and stood up. She stroked the sleeping snake. “Lola, wake up.”

“They’re deaf,” her father said.

“But they feel vibrations, and I think she might know the vibration of my voice. She has certainly encountered my scent before.”

It was a simple and painless operation, Rory taking Lola’s head, Seamus her middle and Kurt the tail.

“This is really overkill,” Rory told them on the way down the stairs. “Two of us could have done it easily.”

“Or one,” Kurt said.

“Yes, but that’s not a good idea—at least not without someone else around. They’re very strong. Snakes.”

“What would an animal like this kill in the wild?” Kurt asked.

“I’m not sure. Lola eats frozen rabbits, as you know.” Because of the rabbits in the freezer at the Sultan Mountain School. Her feelings about Desert’s departure were mixed. Rory would miss her friendship, miss dancing with her, miss her sense of humor. She would not miss Lola, or Desert’s annoying habit of assuming that other people should understand why she did all the things she did.

Rory was envious of her housemate’s situation—no money worries, because of her wealth,
and
she was being invited back into her family. She was
needed
by her family. Also, Rory suspected that the experience of caring for her mother as her Alzheimer’s progressed would somehow
help
Desert, steady her, give her a sense of purpose and greater self-confidence, the kind of true confidence that comes from knowing one is useful, valuable. Needed.

She secured the door of the vivarium, leaving the Burmese python inside.

“She’s an impressive creature,” Kurt remarked, gazing through the glass at the snake. “I think I can see why your roommate’s reluctant to part with her.”

Rory made no answer. She doubted her father actually did see why. Desert
loved
Lola as one loved a pet. Finally, she said, “They can grow to twenty feet and two hundred pounds.”

“Wow!” exclaimed Kurt.

“Yes,” Seamus echoed. “My son Beau was quite worried about this one possibly eating our puppy. That was my fault. For mentioning the chance.”

Kurt smiled ruefully. He scanned the floor, as though looking for something, then eyed his daughter, and his expression was a bit troubled. “Will you get another dog?” he finally asked.

She was touched. She’d never mentioned Gandalf’s death to him, and yet he knew. “I don’t know. Desert is the one who was allergic. But I may not be able to stay in this house after it sells, and a dog needs a fenced yard.”

Seamus said, “Could we see... Maybe it’s not a good time.” After all, Rory hadn’t washed off her makeup or even so much as taken off her down jacket. “I’d love to see the whole house. Since it’s on the market.”

Kurt nodded. “So would I. Perhaps another day? Or maybe you’ll have an open house for prospective buyers.”

“Yes. Maybe,” said Rory, with sadness.

CHAPTER SEVEN

D
ESERT
DROVE
AWAY
from the house on the following Tuesday, with Lola carefully contained in her portable vivarium in the back of Desert’s Land Cruiser. She also pulled a U-Haul trailer, but she’d chosen to give many of her possessions to her friends upon departing. She’d given Rory several of her favorite hip belts for belly dancing and Samantha a metal cone bra made for her in New York. There were also earrings, rings from Africa, Bedouin bracelets, and many other personal belongings that had somehow been part of their life with Caldera.

“We’ll choose a new name,” Samantha had promised. “Because even if we can find another dancer or more dancers, the troupe won’t be the same without you.”

Minutes after Desert had left, Samantha and Rory decided on the name Turquoise Sky, a tribute to the fall sky over Colorado’s mountains.

The Realtor Desert had chosen loved the idea of an open house and chose Valentine’s Day as the date. If the house hadn’t sold by summer, they could host another one then.

All that was required of Rory and Samantha was to keep their own rooms clean. The Realtor’s crew took care of the rest, cleaning furnishings and floors, carpets and upholstery and polishing the antiques. On the morning of Valentine’s Day they would bring in flowers, food and wine.

Seamus’s family was a month into its course with the Sultan Mountain School. Beau had been promoted from intern to wage earner at the ski factory, and Lauren was teaching the tiny tots snowboard class every morning at eleven. Caleb was participating in junior avalanche school and competing in local snowboarding competitions. All the children had academic classes in the afternoon, now, with Sultan Mountain School teachers. Essays, creative writing, artwork and more were part of the program.

Rory noticed that with Fiona Murray on the premises, she saw less of the Lee children but more of Seamus. Fiona, clearly, made it possible for Seamus to distance himself from his children.

Seamus had taken to stopping by in the evenings, sometimes bringing her a cup of chai tea from the neighborhood coffee stand, sometimes just to tell her of something he’d seen in Sultan or something he wanted her to see. Or he’d use the excuse of the puppy, Seuss, whom Beau was taking to obedience classes at the Sultan Recreation Center once a week. There were only two dogs in the class, plus the instructor’s demonstration dog.

Seamus would always invite Rory to come for a walk with him in the evening. And Rory would always refuse, even as she felt herself being drawn to him in every way. The physical attraction was so overwhelming that she longed to ignore professionalism and let the relationship go wherever it would.

Finally, one evening when he’d invited her for a walk as usual, she tried to explain. “You’re a Sultan Mountain School client and I’m an SMS employee. It’s not...on. You know what I mean.”

He’d nodded thoughtfully and had stopped inviting her for walks, but he continued to approach her in friendship.

Rory told herself that he wouldn’t
always
be a client.

But when he was no longer a client, he and his family would return to Telluride, unless her father’s plans came to pass. She knew that Kurt would like nothing better than for Seamus, his family, his studio and his employees all to move to Sultan.

On Valentine’s Day, Rory worked as usual. She and Seamus went up to nearby Robin Mountain to telemark ski. They reviewed avalanche skills on the way, taking time to dig a pit that would indicate avalanche conditions in the area. Concluding that conditions were sufficiently safe, they skied for two hours. Rory realized while they were skiing that she had come to know his scent. Sometimes, he touched her, casually, appropriately, on the shoulder or back, to get her attention.

At home after skiing that day, Rory quickly showered and then dressed in black wool slacks and jacket with a white blouse. Samantha wore a batik dress with a metal belt. The Realtor and caterers were in place before five, when visitors began to arrive.

Carpenters had done a bit of work on some of the upstairs rooms and the house looked lovely. Old, but largely restored.

Seamus and his children arrived without Fiona. Rory asked after her, and Seamus said, “She actually left today to visit her daughter and grandchildren.”

Rory darted a look at him. “And you’re comfortable with that?”

He flipped a hand, indicating ambivalence.

Lauren came over to join them. “What is going to happen to your troupe without your friend?”

“Samantha and I will perform without her. We’ve changed the name. If we find new troupe members, we’ll add them. But we have a functioning duo in the meantime.”

“I wish I was good enough,” Lauren said.

“You will be. You have a natural gift for dance,” Rory told her. “I think you can do just about anything you want, Lauren.”

Seamus’s older daughter beamed. “If we lived here,” she said, “I’d want to work really hard at my dancing and staff spinning until I could be in your troupe.”

Rory envisioned this for a moment, and knew that she was really envisioning something more, some closer tie between her and this girl.
If I had a sister,
she thought,
I’d like her to be like Lauren.

Of course, if she and Seamus...

“Would you like to live here?” Seamus abruptly asked Lauren.

“Yes,” answered Lauren, so swiftly that Rory wondered if there was something going on in the girl’s life in Sultan that none of them knew about. Yes, Lauren liked to flirt with Bobby, the lift operator. And there were some other young guys around, as well.

But Lauren was only fourteen.

Suddenly, Rory felt certain that a boy was behind Lauren’s desire to live in Sultan. And this made her uneasy. Because Sultan boys of Lauren’s age were usually in school during the day. And Rory herself didn’t know all the kids in town.

The downside of Sultan’s economic reawakening was the number of new people in town. Many college-aged boys came to learn avalanche science, work for the ski areas in the mountains and simply bum around and ski the backcountry.

Somebody better find out what that girl’s up to,
she thought.

Seamus asked Rory, “Can I get you a glass of wine?”

“Sure... Thanks. Red.”

She saw her father come through the front door. She nodded to him. He had some people with him whom she didn’t recognize—perhaps these were more strangers he was helping to sell on the idea of Sultan as a place to live. Maybe investors.

Lauren wandered off. She was wearing expensive-looking Telluride clothes, hip-hugger jeans and a tight-fitting top that accentuated her figure.
She could pass easily for older than fourteen,
Rory thought.

As Seamus handed her a glass of wine, Rory said, “I wonder if Lauren has a boyfriend we don’t know about.”

“She’s dating someone I know about,” Seamus answered. “His name’s Silas. He’s new to the area, homeschooled, I think.”

“You’ve met him.”

“You’re worrying me,” Seamus remarked. “Yes, I met him. I haven’t met his parents, I’ll admit, but he’s come by the house twice to pick up Lauren. She comes home on time.”

Rory did not understand why she felt so suspicious of a boy she’d never met. But it was there, and it was her intuition.

She paid attention to her intuition. It told her when to avoid particular slopes, even if it looked like there was no danger of avalanche; when
not
to take that last run of the day. It had told her that Gandalf’s final illness was serious and would take him from her.

Too much to hope it was wrong now.

“You might...check up on things,” Rory said. “I don’t know anyone by that name, but you’re new in town, as well. It’s not as though you’ve lived here for years and know everyone.”

“Did you date when you were fourteen?”

“I never dated until college, Seamus.”

“Where did you go to school?”

“It was just one year. At Fort Lewis, in Durango. School wasn’t really... I tend to like jobs that I learn from experience. I’ve never been that successful in the classroom.”

“Why didn’t you date before college?”

She laughed. “I grew up here. Your schoolmates here are more like family. The biggest number of kids I ever had in my class was five.”

“Wow,” Seamus remarked. “Is it that way still?”

“It’s changing. There are lots of little kids now. But last year’s high school graduating class only had seven students.”

He looked alarmed, perhaps realizing how different the educational process would be for his children if they moved to Sultan.

He saw Lauren across the room, talking to a woman who looked as if she might be in college. As one, they laughed at some joke, both doubling over. Rory followed his gaze.

“Who’s that?” he said.

“I don’t know her name. She’s a barista at the coffeehouse. You know, she makes lattes and stuff.”

His lips twitched. “I know what a barista is. I just wondered how Lauren knew her.”

“I think she goes in there for coffee sometimes before teaching skiing lessons,” Rory said. “She said you let her drink coffee.”

“I do. I probably shouldn’t.”

Rory shrugged. “I’d be the wrong person to ask about this. I love the stuff. I don’t know if it’s worse for teenagers than it is for anyone else.”

The Realtor spotted Seamus. “There you are,” she exclaimed, stepping over and taking his arm. “We were just about to tour the second floor. Please join us.”

Rory noticed that her father’s entourage was waiting for the tour, as well. She said she’d remain downstairs, to give the others more room. In fact, she wanted to join Lauren and her barista friend and do some detective work regarding Silas. But before she could move in that direction, her father joined her.

“I’m going to wait,” he said. “Let them go up themselves. After all, I’m not in the market for a big Victorian.”

Rory nodded. She hoped that he thought she looked professional. She’d wanted to look refined for the open house, although the event had little to do with her or Samantha.

“I wanted to let you know...” Her father seemed to hesitate.

Rory glanced at him.

“You seem to be keeping Seamus within appropriate bounds. That’s what I expect from employees.”

Offended—even as she thought about her many impulses to yield to Seamus’s various invitations—Rory said, “It goes without saying.”

“Then I apologize for saying it. He’s taken with you. He’s wealthy, ambitious, a nice guy for all that, and I hope he moves here. But entanglements tend to produce a different result.”

Rory blinked once and thought of telling him that the question was moot, she wasn’t interested. But that would be a lie. Instead, she took umbrage at the word
entanglements.
She knew she should let it be. But
he
wasn’t a client. He was her employer, yes, but good grief, he’d brought this up.

“You think he’s interested in an ‘entanglement’?” she finally asked. “A casual fling?”

He took a quick breath, opened and shut his mouth. “I think even the best of intentions can lead to entanglements.”

“You think a man couldn’t have serious feelings for me?” She couldn’t stop because he
was
her father.

“Probably not that one,” Kurt answered bluntly.

The back of Rory’s eyes grew hot. With horror, she feared she was going to cry. Not because of anything to do with Seamus. But because her own father thought Seamus Lee was too good for her.
I can’t say anything. Nothing is the only thing to say.

“You just don’t have much in common,” he shrugged. “You’re an extremely competent outdoorswoman, but he’s an entrepreneur, an artist, a world traveler. He’s back and forth between here and Japan. I think for a long-term commitment he’s unlikely to pick someone who has spent her whole life in Sultan, Colorado.”

You jerk,
was all she could think.

“You’ve spent your life here,” she said.

“Yes. But your mother had a much broader experience, and it created some conflict. She was a world traveler, studying plants on nearly every continent.”

Rory was afraid to say more or ask more. It was the first time her father had ever even come close to discussing his relationship with her mother. Was he implying that because he and her mother had come from different backgrounds, that had somehow led to her mother’s infidelity?

She said, softly, “I’m sorry she was unfaithful. But it was never my fault.”

Her father didn’t answer at once. He stared thoughtfully at one of the antiques, a marble-topped highboy across the room. “She felt tied down by having a child. She did like to travel, yet she was also determined to keep nursing you. She used to leave you with your grandmother and go skiing. Every day. For hours. I thought she was just skiing.” His look was rueful. “You’re right. It wasn’t your fault.”

But Rory understood what he believed. It lay beneath his words. It hadn’t been her fault. And yet it had.

He said, “It was hers.”

Everything inside her shifted again, and it was like hearing Seamus speak about Janine.
It was her fault. It was her fault she died.

When would she ever have another chance to ask her father the things she needed to know? She couldn’t let him walk away, leaving this conversation unfinished. She couldn’t let him leave without asking one thing. “Is that why you didn’t want me anymore? Because you were mad at her?”

Kurt gazed into her face. “Rory Gorenzi, I
never
didn’t want you.”

“But you never came around to Gran’s house. You wouldn’t have anything to do with us.”

“I didn’t have the slightest idea what to do with a baby girl! But your grandmother did. And that was for the best.”

“How can you possibly say that?” Rory exclaimed, forgetting where she was, forgetting the so far untouched glass of wine in her hands.

Kurt Gorenzi gave a crusty mountain-man smile. “Because, daughter, you’ve turned out so well.” He met her eyes as he spoke, and she saw his sincerity.

Her heart sang. Her father moved away to speak to some newcomers, but she felt only joy. Her father was proud of her. He thought she’d turned out well. No, it hadn’t been nice what he’d implied in regard to Seamus. But he cared, and he admired who she’d become. She couldn’t remember ever feeling so happy. She couldn’t wait for her grandmother to arrive at the open house so that she could discuss with Sondra some of the things her father had said—steering away, of course, from the subject of Rory’s mother’s and Sondra’s daughter’s infidelity.