Listen to Your Heart (9 page)

“I understand there are some great
trails for cross-country night skiing.” She nudged him playfully. “Would you
like to try it sometime?”

He smiled, but it looked forced. “I
didn’t think you brought your skis.”

She shrugged. “I didn’t. But I can get
kitted out. Did you bring your gear?”

He nodded. “Yes.” He raised his head
slowly and there was no mistaking the pain in his eyes. “I did it to please my
father.”

“I don’t get it.” She really didn’t.
“Why should he care?”

His gaze roamed slowly over the mountain
and paused at the gondola. “I stopped skiing a couple of years ago.” His eyes
glittered behind his glasses. “I tried again just before I came over here. It
was too soon, but I could see how much it pleased my father, so I made a big
show out of bringing my skis.” He guided her toward the ramp leading down to
the basement. “One of these days I’ll try again.” He smiled at her and this
time it was a real smile. “When that day comes, I hope you’ll go with me.”

She could see how much the conversation
had cost him. “I’d be honoured,” she said quietly.

He led her to a Range Rover that was
parked in a Reserved spot.

“I’m impressed,” she said, climbing in.
“These parking spots are like gold.”

“There has to be some advantage to being
the owner’s son,” he said, tucking her coat in beside her. He stopped, one hand
on the open door. “Thanks for coming out with me tonight, Morgan. I enjoyed
it.”

“Me, too.” And she had. Maybe too much.

“You didn’t bring your gloves?” Chance
took Dale’s hands in his and tried to look stern. He rubbed them gently and
blew on them, brushing his lips against her fingertips. “What am I going to do
with you?”

They were standing in the soft glow of a
streetlight.

“Nothing.” She yanked her hands away
from him and shoved them into her pockets. Tears sprang to her eyes. “And stop
being nice to me.” She strode toward the parking lot.

He stared after her for a moment, and
then caught up. She glanced at him, anger flashing from her eyes, and kept
walking.

Snow had been falling while they were
inside and she stood at the edge of the parking lot, looking confused.
Everything was covered with a couple of inches of snow.

Snow melted in her hair as she surveyed
the rows of vehicles. “Where are we?” she said after a moment.

The despair in her voice almost broke
his heart. He reached out and pulled her into his arms. “We’re right here,” he
said gently, tilting her head. “I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

She looked into his eyes as he lowered
his head. He nipped gently at her bottom lip, running his tongue along it,
waiting to be invited inside.

He sensed the moment she gave in. She
closed her eyes and her body softened against him. A small whimper escaped from
somewhere deep inside and her arms went around his neck.

“Don’t do this to me,” she murmured, and
yet she didn’t push him away. He deepened the kiss, senses swirling. Nothing
about this woman made sense. He’d known her for less than a week and yet he
knew without a doubt that he was deeply, irrevocably in love with her. Love
like that didn’t just sneak up on a guy...did it? He pulled her even closer and
kissed her eyes before making his way back to her mouth.

She welcomed him as he slid his tongue
into her mouth, probing gently, trying not to frighten her off again. He pulled
back and looked at her. “Dale?” he said tentatively.

She shuddered and his protective
instincts kicked in. “Are you cold?” he asked, looking around the parking lot.
He’d made a note of the row he parked in.

“No,” she said with a smile. “But I
suppose we should get to the car instead of standing here making out like a
couple of teenagers.”

“I don’t know.” He took her hand and
grinned down at her. “I was kind of enjoying it, myself.”

He led her to his SUV, settled her
inside, started the motor, and then walked around the vehicle, brushing the
snow from the windows. Through the windshield, her eyes looked haunted, and he
wondered how to proceed; how to address what had just happened. One thing he
knew for sure; if they were going to talk, he didn’t want to be sitting in a
vehicle, where he couldn’t see her properly.

“Let’s go get something to eat,” he said
as he pulled slowly out of the parking lot.

“I’m not hungry,” she said. She stared
out the passenger window. “But okay.”

“Pizza all right?” he said. “There’s a
quiet little place near the Lodge. They do mostly takeout, but they have a few booths.”

She shrugged and he smiled to himself.

* * *

“Yes please.” Dale looked up as the
server approached with a carafe of coffee. She upended the cup that was on the
table and sat silently as the steaming liquid was poured.

Chance pretended to study the menu.
“What kind of pizza do you like?”

“Anything,” she said. “No, wait. I like
meat and no anchovies.”

“Then we’ll have that.” He handed the
menu back to the server.

She cradled the mug, warming her hands.
“You shouldn’t have kissed me.” She raised her eyes and he saw longing there.
It was all he could do not to crawl over the table and kiss her again.

“Why?” he toyed with his mug, but didn’t
drink.

“Because I liked it.”

“Well, that’s a relief. I thought maybe
I’d lost my touch.”

Her expression softened. “Hardly.” Her
gaze lingered on his lips, then she looked away. “I’m no good at this, Chance. I’m
no good at relationships.”

He ached for her. “We’re doing fine so
far, aren’t we?” He reached across the table and stroked the back of her hand
with one finger. “Aren’t we?”

She withdrew her hand.

Anger boiled in his gut. Anger at
whoever had hurt her. But he managed to control himself. “Have I done something
wrong?”  He sat back and spoke as calmly as he could. “I’m not going anywhere,
Dale, so you might as well get used to it.”

A tear rolled down her cheek and she
brushed it away absent-mindedly. She seemed to be studying the pictures of
Tuscany of the wall, but he knew she wasn’t actually seeing them. He waited for
her to gather her thoughts.

“It was when you warmed my hands,” she
said, her voice little more than a whisper. “You caught me by surprise.” She
raised her eyes. “My mother used to do that.”

He held her gaze.

The pizza was delivered. Chance thanked
the server, but it sat between them, untouched.

When she spoke, her voice seemed to come
from far away. “My mother was a crack addict,” she said finally. “I didn’t
realize that until I was in my teens. Until I started living at the Dempsey’s.”
She ran her finger around the rim of her coffee mug. “When I was small, she’d
get straight for a while and come home. In those days, crack was fairly new and
I guess the authorities didn’t understand the depth of her addiction, because every
time I asked to go back with her, they’d let me.” A faint smile crossed her
lips. “She’d make a big fuss over me and tell me how much she loved me. Things
would be great for a month or two, and then she’d disappear. I’d wait and wait
for her to come back, even though deep down inside I knew that wasn’t going to
happen.” She paused. “Children are far more intuitive than adults realize.
Anyway, I’d try to cover up when the neighbours inquired, but eventually they’d
call Child Protective Services.” She looked up at him. “I don’t know how many
times this happened but it was always the same. She’d apologize and hug me and
tell me I was the most important person in her life. You’d think I would have
learned not to trust her, but I loved her in spite of it. Soon it got so I
didn’t trust anyone who told me they cared. If the one person who was supposed
to love me would do that, why should I trust anyone else?”

She picked up a slice of pizza and
started to pull off the pieces of pepperoni and eat them. “Mrs. Dempsey was
always there for me.” She looked up. “Morgan’s mother.”

He nodded.

“Never once did she criticise my mom.
She explained to me that being an addict was a disease, and that Mom really
loved me, but by then I was really messed up. I don’t know why she didn’t give
up on me, but she didn’t. She was there for me when my mother finally took an
overdose and died.” She looked into the distance, nodding as though reliving
those days. “She fought to have me live with them. Now she’s my mother.”

Chance put a slice of pizza on his plate
and stared at it. “She sounds like a good woman.”

Dale smiled. “She is.”

They sat in comfortable silence while
Chance ate his pizza.

“Thank you,” she said eventually.

“For what?” he grabbed another slice but
waited for her to speak.

“For not saying all the trite things
that most people would say right now. Like you’re not my mother, that I can
trust you...yada, yada, yada.”

“Oh, that.” He smiled and took a large
bite. “What if I
had
said something like that?”

She glared at him. “Don’t go there,
Chance Larson. I may have to hurt you.”

He very deliberately wiped his mouth
with a napkin. It was disconcerting the way her eyes lingered on his lips, but
he rested his forearms on the table and leaned forward. “I’ll just repeat what
I said before. I’m attracted to you, Dale, and I’m not going anywhere.” He
lifted her hand and kissed her palm. “That’s a deposit until I can kiss you
properly.”

Her eyes widened. “You didn’t say you
were attracted to me before.”

“No? Well I am.” He kissed her hand
again, brushing his lips across her knuckles. “I intend to stick around and see
where this goes.” He gave her hand a gentle squeeze, let it go and reached for his
pizza. “I have a feeling I’m going to need lots of energy to keep up with you.”
He gestured to the pizza. “Eat up. I don’t want anybody saying I don’t feed my
girl.”

She smiled and started to eat. Chance’s
heart turned over; he’d won the first battle. If there were more, he’d win
those, too. This was a woman worth fighting for.

“I see Mr. Glasser arrived last night.”
Morgan looked up as Karen arrived at the front desk. They were expecting a
small group over the lunch hour and it would take both of them to handle the
check-in. “I can’t remember. Did you meet Mrs. Glasser yet?”

“She came to the desk the other night.”
Karen made sure Mr. Wynn-Jones wasn’t lurking around and rolled her eyes. “Very
demanding.”

“Maybe she’ll be different now that her
husband is here.” Morgan smiled. “Her little boy is a charmer, though.”

Karen nodded. “So I hear. I also heard
you got into trouble for taking him for ice cream.”

“No secrets around here, huh? Speaking
of which, how are things with Tyler?”

Karen shrugged. “Fine, I guess. I’ll be
seeing him on the weekend, but there’s no future there, Morgan. He’s working
his way around the world. He’s made that pretty clear.” She raised an eyebrow.
“How are things going with Adrian?” She glanced toward the concierge desk, but
he wasn’t there. “I hear you two went out last night.”

“Just for a drink after our shift.” Her
heart started to beat a little faster. “Why, are you interested in him?”

“No. Besides, I think he’s got his eye
on you.”

“Really?” A warm glow suffused her body.
“Huh.”

Karen laughed. “You look like you don’t
know how to take that. But it sure looks that way to me. In the meantime, I’ll
be happy to cover if you want an early lunch.”

“Good idea.” Morgan headed for the
restaurant.

She was ahead of the lunch crowd, and
the usual table was empty. She sat on the bench behind the table, lips curved
in a smile as she considered Karen’s comment about Adrian.

“Thinking about me?” startled, she
looked up to see Rob approaching the table. He slid in beside her and suddenly
she was having difficulty breathing. His thigh pressed against hers and desire bloomed
in the pit of her stomach.

“Hi, Babe.” He turned toward her, raised
a hand, and toyed with her hair. “I was hoping to see you here.”

She was afraid to look at him. Afraid
she might get lost in those blue-grey eyes. She pretended to study the menu.
“You were?”

He touched her chin with a finger and
turned her head. They were so close she could see the individual whiskers on
his cheeks and for one wild moment she wondered what they would feel like
against her skin. Would they be soft or scratchy? Would they...

“Yes. I wanted to invite you to the
party tonight.” He rubbed his thumb against her bottom lip and she was glad she
was sitting down. “Tyler says his latest batch is outstanding and we’re going
up top to try it out.”

“You mean from his still?”

He gave her that grin that was half
mocking, half intimate. “You got it.”

She couldn’t possibly. “Okay, what
time?”