Read Sweet Reunion Online

Authors: Melanie Shawn

Sweet Reunion (8 page)

BOOK: Sweet Reunion
8.49Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Besides, he smiled slyly to
himself, if he knew Lauren, Sam, and Karina at all, he was sure that he had
been a main topic of conversation all day today. May as well insert himself
into that conversation.

--- ~ ---

As Amanda moved the
bite-size chicken pieces and chopped vegetables around the sauté pan in front
of her, her head swam with conflicted emotions. Was it always going to be this
way? If Justin did decide to stay and run the adventure resort with her, was
her consciousness going to forever exist in such a state of unbalance?

Karina, Sam, and Lauren had
gone to visit Karina's grandmother, albeit reluctantly. They hadn't wanted to
leave Amanda alone, but Amanda had insisted, coming just short of physically
shoving them out the door.

“I need to get my head on
straight!” she had told them, “The only way I am going to accomplish that is
with some serious soul searching and contemplation. And, barring that, a little
'come to Jesus' meeting with myself. Trust me! An hour alone will do me a world
of good. I'll make dinner, and be a whole new woman by the time you get back.”

So, the rest of the Fabulous
Four had departed amidst skeptical expressions and admonitions to call if she
needed anything.

And now Amanda was by
herself, cooking and contemplating, and not a whole lot seemed to be moving
forward. She had started out feeling confused and vulnerable, and that was
squarely where she still found herself. It didn't help that she had had ZERO
hours of sleep the night before! Maybe it was time to try the 'come to Jesus'
meeting.

She heard a knock at the
back door which led into the kitchen, and turned around to see the very source
of her confusion and angst standing there, his handsome face framed in the
glass pane of the exterior door like a finely wrought portrait.

A tremor ran through her from
head to toe, but she quickly reminded herself that she could not show him her
weaknesses. She again thought of her sleepless night, and noticed how
well-rested he looked. She couldn't let him see she was coming apart at the
seams!

No, she was only going to
show him a completely strong and together facade. She quickly pasted a smile on
her face, striving for as natural an expression as possible, but truthfully not
even caring if it came off as slightly artificial – as long as her face didn't
betray the roiling emotions just below the surface, it could look as plastic as
a mannequin's for all she cared.

She crossed to the back
door, opened it, and stood aside, inviting him in.

“Is this a bad time?” he
asked as he entered.

“Not at all,” she assured
him. “The girls went down to see Karina's grandmother, and I'm just cooking
some dinner.”

“How is Renata doing?”
Justin inquired.

“Oh, you know Renata. As
indefatigable as ever. I think she'll outlive us all, and be working on twelve
different community projects as she does it.”

“She's a rock,” Justin
agreed, “Karina's lucky to have her.”

“True. All of Hope Falls is
lucky to have her, when you think about it. So, what were you up to today?”

“Oh, just cleaning out the
bunkhouse and getting it habitable. It brought back a lot of memories of living
there.”

“I bet.” Amanda said, and
sitting between them, making the air electric, was the unspoken memory of the
last time they had been in the bunkhouse together. The last time they had seen
each other at all.

She quickly turned back to
the stove and focused her attention on the chicken sizzling in the pan.

Justin moved behind Amanda,
close. So close that she could feel his ragged breath on her neck and in her
hair. The nearness of him paralyzed her. Her vision swam and her body felt on
fire, and he wasn't even touching her.

“Amanda...” he said, his
voice husky with emotion, with regret. With desire? Was that just wishful
thinking on her part?

“Amanda...” he started
again, and then trailed off again.

Slowly, so slowly that she almost
couldn't tell if she was really doing it or if it were only her imagination,
she turned her face up to his. She could barely breathe. Their mouths were less
than an inch apart, and their eyes were locked on each other. She felt as if
she would melt on the spot, or possibly explode.

 “Yes?” she whispered. With
the one small scrap of awareness of her surroundings that she had left, she
realized that her breathing had grown ragged as well, as if in answer to
Justin's.

“I...” he started, then took
a deep breath and tried to begin again, “I just...”

And then, displaying a sense
of timing so horrendous that it belied the flawless sense of rhythm she
possessed which was one of the factors which made her a brilliant musician,
Karina called from the front door, “Yoo hoo! We're home!”

Amanda drew in her breath
sharply as Justin retreated across the kitchen, but couldn't manage to access
her vocal chords to summon a response. She heard Karina's voice calling as she
came down the hall, “Did you hear me? Lucy, I'm home!” she hollered in her best
Desi Arnaz impersonation.

Amanda looked up as Karina
entered the kitchen and shook her head to clear it, but realized that the truth
of what had just happened must have been written all over her face when she saw
a sly smile spread across Karina's face. “Lucy, you've got some 'splaining to
do,” she grinned, drawing out the impression.

“What?” Amanda asked, doing
her best to maintain an innocent expression as Lauren and Samantha entered the
kitchen behind Karina.

As soon as Lauren laid eyes
on Amanda's face, she rushed over and took the wooden spoon out of her hand,
taking over the job of t sautéing the chicken and veggies. “Oh my goodness,
Amanda! I knew we shouldn't have left you to cook dinner for all of us right
now. Seriously, go grab a water, sit down and relax. Your entire face is
flushed, you're getting overheated.”

Karina continued to grin her
evil little grin, and added an eyebrow waggle for emphasis. “Oh, yes, it is
quite hot in here, isn't it? Very, very hot. On a completely unrelated note, by
the way, how are you today, Justin?”

Lauren looked up and
followed Karina's gaze to the opposite end of the kitchen, where Justin was
leaning against the counter. “Oh, hello,” she intoned flatly, “I didn't see you
there,” and turned back to moving the food around the pan, but with an added
degree of aggression that was clearly visible.

“OK!” said Samantha
cheerfully, taking the spoon away from Lauren, “Maybe I should be the one to do
this. Although, I think it's done.” She announced, cutting open one of the
chicken pieces and examining the interior, “And it smells delicious!”

“Thanks,” Amanda responded,
“There's actually three parts, and I didn't know what everyone's dietary
restrictions were – vegetarian, low carb, etc – so feel free to mix and match
any or all. Whole wheat pasta in the pot, chicken and veggies in the skillet,
and vodka sauce in the saucepan,” she finished, pointing at each in turn.

“And vodka in the freezer!”
Karina added, pulling the bottle out with a flourish. “Justin, are you joining
us for dinner?”

“Oh, yes,” Sam put in,
looking at Amanda, “You really should! It will be fun, like old times!”

Karina and Samantha looked
at Lauren until she finally shrugged and said, “It's a free country.”

But Justin had eyes for only
one person in the room, and no one else's invitation or approval meant anything
to him.

“Amanda?” he asked, “Do you
want me to stay?”

Now, Amanda felt a certainty
and a clarity she hadn't been able to achieve while solitarily searching her
soul. There was no confusion, no hesitation anywhere in her as she answered
firmly in the affirmative.

--- ~ ---

As the Fabulous Four – plus
one – sat around the kitchen table eating the pasta dish that Amanda had
prepared, the conversation turned toward catching up. Since the girls had
already had the opportunity to visit with one another the night before, their
curiosity naturally focused itself on Justin and what he had been doing in the
years since they had seen him.

“So, where have you been
living?”  Samantha asked.

“Well,” Justin began, “All
over the place at first, but I eventually ended up settling in Alaska. If you
can call it that.”

“Well, I've always heard it
called Alaska,” Karina quipped.

“If you can call it
settling, smart ass,” Justin shot back good-naturedly, “I originally went up
there because I had a lead on a job working on a pipeline crew, but I think
what attracted me to the area and why I ended up staying so long was because of
the transitory lifestyle. Once you get used to being a gypsy, it's almost
comforting, in a way. The constant change starts to be a rhythm that you can
depend on.”

“When you accept that
there's nothing you can count on, at least you can – ironically – count on
that,” supplied Sam helpfully.

“Exactly,” Justin agreed,
“But it's a lot easier when you're surrounded by other people who are also
travelers, as opposed to being the only lone wolf in a community of stable,
settled people.”

“So, you went up for a job
on the pipeline, but what did you end up doing?” Sam asked.

“Well,” Justin said, “It
turns out that I gained skills here at Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures that
served me well. My experience in the hospitality industry, as well as in the
outdoor adventure and sporting arena, really helped me. I was able to get lots
of different odd jobs working with tourists – taking them on tours, leading
them on short expeditions...and I actually did a fairly long stint, for me at
least, working at a place that was pretty similar to Outdoor Adventures.
Although, of course, it did lack some of the innate benefits that this place
has,” and with that he gave Amanda a sexy, suggestive wink.

Karina said, with a knowing
smile, “Enough of all this boring talk about your professional life, Justin.
Let's all just stop pretending we care, shall we? Moving on to what we really
want to know about. How about your love life? Anybody special?”

Justin shook his head
ruefully, “Nope. Nobody special.”

He gave Amanda that same
sexy wink again, “In Alaska at any rate,” he laughed.

Amanda flushed, whether with
embarrassment or excitement it was difficult for her to tell, stood and began
clearing the dishes as a way to escape the conversation.

“How long were you able to
get away from your job, Justin?” she asked, partially as a way to turn the
conversation back to his professional life and partially as a way to try to
find out how long he planned to stay in Hope Falls.

Justin looked up as a slow
smile spread across his face, “Gee, Amanda, now that you bring it up,” he said,
“I don't actually know that I'll be going back.”

Chapter 9

The pastor of Hope Falls
Community Church rushed up to Amanda, who was sitting on the front pew waiting
for her father's memorial service to begin, and Amanda had never seen him
looking more flustered. He was normally a jovial and easygoing fellow, but
right now, leaning toward her, he looked positively harried.

“Pastor Harrison, what's
wrong?” Amanda inquired. She really didn't want anything to happen that would
ruin the beauty of her father's memorial service. She wanted Parker to have the
perfect sendoff.

“Well, Amanda, it's
really...well, come with me, I think you'd better see it with your own eyes.” 
Pastor Harrison took her by the arm and began to guide her down the side aisle
of the packed church. Justin jumped up and quickly followed with a concerned
expression on his face. Eyeing Justin suspiciously, Geoffrey then got up out of
his seat and followed the group, as well.

The pastor led Amanda
quickly through the sanctuary doors, through the vestibule, and out onto the
steps. Amanda's eyes widened.

Behind her, Justin
exclaimed, “Holy cow!”

At the look Pastor Harrison
gave him, he amended his statement, “Or...um...I mean, holy...not cow...maybe
church...or something. Let's just go with
Wow
.”  He finished lamely.

Before them lay more people
than Amanda had ever seen gathered in one place in Hope Falls. The crowd was
dense over the lawn of the church, and continued into the street, which itself
was packed with people as far as Amanda could see in both directions.

She looked at the Pastor, “How
many people do you think are here?”

Pastor Harrison shook his
head. “The best I can do is hazard a guess, possibly a thousand. It could be
two thousand. It could be more. I can't see to the edges of the crowd. What I
do know is that our sanctuary holds 150 people, and there are far more than
that here. I don't want to turn away all of these people who came to honor your
father, but we certainly can't accommodate them here. I'm at a loss as to how
to proceed.”

Amanda instinctively looked
to Justin, “Justin, do you have any ideas?”

It was not lost on Justin
that, even with all the distrust she must feel toward him, her first instinct
had been to look to him when she had a problem that she needed help fixing. He
didn't want to fail her in this first test of his capability to help and
protect her.

BOOK: Sweet Reunion
8.49Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Numbers Game by Rebecca Rode
Project Paper Doll by Stacey Kade
The Dark City by Imogen Rossi
Kamchatka by Marcelo Figueras
Let It Ride by Jillian Burns
McNally's Dilemma by Lawrence Sanders, Vincent Lardo
Nil by Lynne Matson
Black by T.l Smith