The Mighty Quinns: Eli (14 page)

Buck stepped aside and Eli walked past him. The interior was a typical bachelor pad—dark wood, leather furniture and a large-screen television over the fieldstone fireplace.

“How's the knee?” Eli asked.

“I hope to hell you didn't come here to talk about my knee because I've got nothin' to say about that matter,” Buck said, lowering himself into his favorite leather recliner.

“I've been spending a lot of time out at the cabin.”

“I heard about the business going on out there. I'm not sure Trudie would approve,” he muttered.

“I don't agree. I think she'd like Lucy Parker. They're very similar.” Eli paused. “You'd like Lucy, too. Actually, she was hoping to interview you. I'm hoping you'll agree.”

Buck waved his hand. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Can I ask you a question, Buck? How come you and Trudie never got married?”

Buck didn't seem startled by the question. He just sighed and shook his head. “I've been trying to find an answer to that question since I met Trudie. I guess I missed my chance. I think there might have been a time she would have accepted my proposal, but somehow, I missed that time.”

“Did you ever ask her to marry you?”

“No. Never seemed like the right moment. Trudie was always off on one mission or another. We'd fight and then we'd come back together again. She just seemed happy with the way things were.”

“Were you happy?” Eli asked.

Buck thought about the question. “I reckon I wasn't. But I was willing to take what I could get. She was a powerful, beautiful force of nature. Like a summer thunderstorm.” He sighed softly. “I remember the day we met as if it was yesterday. I was nineteen. She was twenty-four. She said she liked the way I looked so she took me home and had her way with me. Nine months later, your mother arrived.” He paused for a long moment. “I did love that woman.”

“How did you know you loved her?” Eli asked. “Did it just hit you one day or did it come on gradually?”

“Both. It came on kind of slow, but then it hit me like a truck. I realized she was the only one I'd ever want and that was that. Why all the questions?”

“Lucy asked me about you and Trudie. I want you to meet her.”

Buck frowned. “What's goin' on with this girl? Are you sweet on her?”

“I guess I am,” Eli said.

“Well, take my advice. If you want her, you better put a ring on it.”

Eli chuckled and shook his head. There weren't many seventy-year-olds who could quote Beyoncé. “Well, that's about the best advice you've ever given me. Put a ring on it.”

“It's what I shoulda done,” Buck said.

Eli wasn't sure that Lucy was the marrying kind. From everything that he knew about her, she was as unconventional as the two other women in his life. But Buck was right. There would come a time when he'd have to tell her how he felt—that he wanted her in his life. If he said it too soon, he'd scare her away. And if he said it too late, she'd already be gone. But, if he managed to make his proposal at exactly the right moment, he and Lucy might be together forever.

 

7

November

“
I
T
'
S
FINALLY
FINISHED
.”

Lucy stood outside the rough log cabin, staring up at the facade. Eli stood nearby, the video camera trained on her.

“I wasn't sure how I'd feel when it was done,” she said. “I remember cutting down the first tree. It took me an entire day of chopping with an ax and then it was too heavy for me to drag over here, so I had to cut a smaller one.” She glanced over at the camera. “I know it doesn't look like much, but it's—” She swallowed back a sudden flood of emotion.

Why was she getting all teary eyed? Lucy wondered. This was the moment she'd been waiting for, the culmination of a lot of hard work and determination.

“How
do
you feel?” Eli asked.

She pasted a smile on her face. “Great,” she said. “Amazing.”

“Then why are you crying?”

“I'm not crying,” Lucy said.

“Your eyes are all watery.”

His gaze was fixed on the view screen of the video camera and Lucy held up her hand. “Just stop. Don't tape this.”

Lucy needed a moment to gather herself. But Eli continued to watch her through the camera. “Be honest,” he said. “Just say what you feel.”

She drew a deep breath. “Please, just turn it off.”

Lucy spun away and started toward the big cabin, trudging through the snow. Her breath clouded in front of her face and a tear froze on her cheek. She didn't want to cry in front of him. She'd done that once before and it had only made her feel silly and weak.

She ought to be more grateful to Eli. After all, he'd been the one who'd arranged for the helicopter to drop off the building supplies for the roof and the windows. Once she'd had plywood and cedar shingles, she'd been able to finish the roof. And the three windows had been surprisingly easy to install. The resulting cabin wasn't pretty, but it was something she'd done with her own two hands. It was a home—the only home she could ever claim as her own.

“Come on, Luce!” Eli called. “Come back. I'll turn off the camera.”

She brushed the tears from her cheek and walked back to him. Eli pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight. “What's going on?”

She shook her head. “I'm just a little sentimental,” she said. “It's silly.”

“Why do you always do that? Anytime you get emotional, you say that you're being silly. You're entitled to your emotions, Lucy. Why can't you just accept that? You don't always have to be so tough.”

“Old habits die hard,” she said.

“I can see that. Now, tell me how you feel about your cabin being finished. No cameras. Just us.”

She drew a ragged breath. “I thought I'd be happy, but I'm really sad.”

“Why?”

“This cabin feels like my home. The only home I've ever had. Except that it's not my home and I'm not going to live here.” She looked up at him, smiling through her tears. “I told you it was silly.”

“So, do you want to give me a tour?” he asked. “I haven't been inside since you put the doors and windows in.”

Lucy nodded, then took his hand. When they got to the front door, she paused. “It still needs some work. I'm thinking of bringing in a decorator. And the wall-to-wall dirt floor is the wrong shade of brown, but I'm going to have that refinished.”

“If I go home with you, will you promise to take advantage of me?” he asked.

“We'd have to do it standing up. I don't have any furniture.”

“I could handle that,” Eli said.

She pushed open the door but before she could step inside, Eli grabbed her waist and scooped her up into his arms. Then, with great ceremony, he carried her across the threshold. “What are you doing?”

“I'm carrying you across the threshold for good luck,” he said.

Lucy laughed. “Newlyweds do that when they move into their first home. It's luck for the marriage, not the house.”

Eli dropped her on her feet. “Sorry. I didn't know that. But I do have this.” Reaching into his jacket pocket, he withdrew a bottle of champagne. “This tradition is all right, yes?”

Lucy took the bottle from him then kissed his cold cheek. “Where did you get champagne?”

“I bought it last month. I thought we ought to have a bottle in case we had something to celebrate. Or christen. I guess we could do both with the cabin. What will it be? Drink it or smash it?”

“I think we should drink it,” she said.

Eli slowly circled the perimeter of the small cabin. Though the structure wasn't heated yet, it did provide shelter from the wind and the cold.

“As you can see, the place has central air,” Lucy said.

Eli chuckled. “It is nice and cool in here.”

“And it comes with this lovely roof, which will protect you from rain and snow, unless it leaks. Then it won't.”

“But then it would have running water and that's a positive, wouldn't you say?”

“True. We also have these wonderful windows, made of one hundred percent real, authentic glass. They provide this lovely all-natural and organic light.”

Eli slipped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. They stared out at the snow-covered meadow. Lucy drew a deep breath. “I don't care what's wrong with it,” she said softly. “I think it's perfect.”

“Let's sleep here tonight,” Eli said. “We can make a fire in the hearth and throw a canvas down on the dirt floor. The down sleeping bags will keep us warm enough.”

“No, it's all right,” she said. “It's enough that I've finished it. My cabin is done. Now, no matter what happens, I can walk off this mountain without any regrets.”

“You don't have to walk away,” Eli said. He grabbed her hand. “Even if they pull the plug on production, you don't have to leave. You can finish your year here. I'm not going to kick you out. You can still complete your goal.”

The prospect of losing their production funding had been looming over her since he'd mentioned it last month, though in reality she'd started to be concerned after the producers had visited the cabin in September. She and Eli had tried to come up with more exciting content. They'd documented the last phases of building the cabin, they'd focused on cooking and baking, they'd added more material from Trudie's journals. They searched out more flora and fauna. In truth, she and Eli had stayed up late into the night coming up with ideas that might appeal to network viewers.

The only feedback she'd received was that she should leave her hair loose while on camera because it was sexier, and they'd suggested that a small amount of makeup would help highlight her eyes. It was a small compromise to make just to keep the project on track, but it didn't give Lucy much confidence that she'd still be at the cabin by the spring. Or that the show would ever make it out of postproduction.

There was the other option that Eli had suggested, but Lucy couldn't quite bring herself to consider it. With Eli's windfall inheritance, he'd offered to continue funding the project if the producers and the network decided they didn't want it. Though it was a generous offer, Lucy couldn't bring herself to accept. If she couldn't make this work, then she needed to accept the fact that she'd failed. There was no shame in failure.

Yet, there was a small part of her that knew if she did accept his help, it would tie them more closely together, and that option was becoming more agreeable.

She'd tried to imagine her life without him—returning to Los Angeles, finding a new job, moving on with her career. He was the first real friend she'd had. And the first lover who'd made it past the one-month mark. There weren't men like Eli Montgomery standing on every street corner.

“I'm going to try the fireplace,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to her cheek.

She followed him outside to help him gather firewood and kindling from the stack against the west wall of the big cabin. They carried it inside, and Lucy sat down on the dirt floor to watch him stack the wood in his very precise way.

She'd learned so much about him over the past five months, but it all revolved around this specific spot, a place where he was entirely comfortable. A place where they didn't have to worry about money or jobs or all the other stresses of life. What would happen when they went out in the real world? They couldn't possibly be the same people, could they?

Eli sat back on his heels as the flames licked at the kindling. Before long, the smaller logs had caught and heat radiated out into the room. To Lucy's delight, the flue drew the smoke up the chimney perfectly, taking it all up and out.

“I have an idea,” he said. “I'll be right back.”

Lucy stared into the fire. It was so hard to imagine herself anywhere but here. She'd learned to love the soft light from a blazing fire, the smell of coffee on a cold morning, the call of an eagle echoing overhead. This had become her life and it was difficult to picture herself walking away from it. Trudie had found peace on this mountain and now Lucy had as well.

But was she prepared to give up everything she'd worked for to stay here? For the remote possibility that they'd be able to make a life here work? Eli returned a few minutes later, his arms full. He spread a canvas on the floor, then tossed the sleeping bags on top, making a comfortable spot for them to sit. Next he handed her a bag of giant marshmallows. “What are these for?”

“Dinner,” he said. He'd brought along a couple of long forks, then reached in his pocket and produced a couple of mugs for the champagne.

“Marshmallows and champagne?”

“Perfect combination. White and fluffy. Clear and bubbly. The happiest food and drink on the planet.” He sat down in front of the fire, then patted the spot beside him. Lucy plopped down on the ground. “Why don't you work on dinner and I'll pour the drinks.”

As he peeled the foil off the cork, Lucy began to stick the giant marshmallows onto the forks. “I always wondered what these forks were for,” she said. “I figured they were for spearfishing.” She pulled on the handle, then smiled. “I get it now, though. The handles are long so you don't have to be right next to the fire.

He turned to stare at her. “Haven't you ever roasted a marshmallow before.”

“No.” Lucy shrugged. “There are a lot of things I've never done. I had a strange childhood. I can't ride a bike. I don't know how to swim. I never went to the prom. When we went camping in the summer? That was the first time I'd ever slept in a tent.”

“We're going to have to work on all of that. There are a lot of things I haven't done, either, though. I never built a cabin with my own two hands. I never met a woman more beautiful than you. And I've never wanted a year to last forever.” With a smile, he handed her a mug of champagne.

It was the most unconventional celebration Lucy had ever had. Eli taught her the special skill of roasting a marshmallow, how to hold it far enough from the flame that it didn't burn but close enough that it didn't take too long to roast. How to slowly turn it so it browned evenly. How to find the very best spot in the fire for roasting.

They drank the entire bottle of champagne and fed each other marshmallows until late into the night. And when it came time to sleep, they zipped the sleeping bags together and crawled inside.

Facing each other, they held hands. “This has been one of the best days of my life,” Lucy whispered. “I'm glad you were here to share it with me.”

It had happened over and over again in the past few weeks, the urge to tell him how much he meant to her. The words
I love you
weren't that far off. She could nearly feel them on her tongue. And she almost believed the truth in them.

* * *

“T
ODAY
I'
M
GOING
to use the snowshoes I made last week to do some tracking in the woods.” Lucy doubted she'd run into a rabid porcupine, but she hoped the tape of this trek into the woods would excite the network people. “I don't have to walk far to find wildlife around the cabin, but to be able to identify animal tracks is something new for me. I'm using this book I found in Trudie's library—
North American Animal Tracks
by William Donaldson. I'm strapped into my snowshoes and I'm ready to go.”

Eli continued to follow her with the camera, but when she didn't move, he switched it off. “That was good,” he said.

She looked down at her feet and took a tentative step. “How am I supposed to walk in these? It feels like I have two giant frying pans on my feet.”

“You have to pick up your foot and place it down carefully. The snowshoes will distribute your body weight so you won't sink into the snow. But if you step on the edge of the other shoe, you'll fall down. Give it a try. One step at a time.”

“Don't you dare tape this,” she warned as she began to walk.

“Oh, don't worry. This won't be the only time you fall.”

“How do you know I'm going to—” Lucy pitched forward and her legs tangled beneath her. There was no way to catch her balance with the huge snowshoes strapped to her feet and the only choice she had was to collapse facedown in the snow.

Riley leapt off the porch and bounded through the snow, jumping on top of Lucy and digging in the snow around her until she rolled over.

She looked up at Eli, her face covered with snow, and he couldn't help but laugh. Lucy cleared her face and held out her hand for help. But Eli shook his head. “No, you need to be able to get up on your own. You built a log cabin alone, you can certainly get yourself up and out of the snow.”

“If you're taping me I'm going to throw that camera in the nearest snowbank,” she warned again. She struggled to stand and when she finally got upright, she bent over to brush the snow from her legs. But Riley jumped up against her and she lost her balance once more, this time falling sideways.