Dancing in the Dark

“Uh-oh, what?” Robin asked.

“Uh-oh, you guys will have to be very, very good while I take care of the gentleman heading for the desk. Mr. Collier,” he added, for Wendy’s benefit. “He checked in yesterday with his wife. Nice people but, uh, a little high maintenance.”

“What’s high main’ance?”

Clint laughed. “You’d think I’d have learned to watch what I say by now, wouldn’t you? Wendy, I hate to ask, but could you keep an eye on the girls? Not for long. Seth should be back in just another few minutes.”

“He’s coming back?” Wendy heard the edge of distress in her voice and smiled hastily. “I mean, I saw him at the door before. He said he was leaving.”

“He just went out to check his windshield wipers. One of them was sticking, and he figured it would be better to see what he could do about it now rather than later. They’re predicting heavy snow for...” Clint waved his hand. “Yes, Mr. Collier. I’ll be right there.” He looked at Wendy. “Are you okay with this?”

Was she okay, knowing she was going to have to see Seth again tonight?

“Of course,” she said, with what she hoped was conviction.

“You sure?”

“Positive. The girls and I—”

“They’re not girls,” a gruff voice intoned, “they’re monsters. And I’m a knight, come to break the spell put over them by the wicked witch.”

“Uncle Seth!”

Wendy swung around. Seth was coming toward them, his cheeks ruddy from the cold, his dark-brown hair tossed by the wind, and her heart thumped in a way she wished it wouldn’t. She didn’t want to feel this way, didn’t, didn’t, didn’t....

“Hi.”

She cleared her throat. “Hi.”

“I see you’ve met Doc and Grumpy.” Seth swept the twins into his arms as the children broke into giggles.

“We aren’t Doc and Grumpy!”

“No?” He furrowed his brow. “Well, then, who are you? Oh. Wait a minute. It’s coming to me..... You’re Goofy and Pluto.”

More giggles, punctuated by little fists pummeling Seth’s chest.

“You know our names, Uncle Seth.”

“Hmm. Mickey and Minnie? Ernie and Bert?” Hands tugged at his hair. “Ouch. Okay, I give up. They’re Robin and Randi, and if you’re not careful, they’ll run you ragged.”

“What’s ragged?” two voices said in unison.

Seth put the children on their feet. “It’s what happens to people when you guys don’t behave yourselves.”

“We always behave!”

“Yeah.” He ruffled the girls’ hair. “You do if you want a treat before you go to bed later. Like, say, your Uncle Clint’s chocolate chip cookies and milk.”

“Yum.”

“Yum, indeed.” Seth clasped the girls’ hands and looked at Wendy. “How’re things going?”

“Fine,” she said, and wondered if she was going to make a fool of herself and cry just because Seth was so good with kids. She forced a smile. “Clint walked me through everything and finally turned me loose so I could try making some coffee.” Why was he looking at her that way? She thumbed the hair back from her eyes. “Do I have a smudge on my face or something?”

“Or something.”

His voice was soft. It made her knees tremble, and that was the last thing she wanted.

“Do you need me?”

Trembling knees, and now a trembling heart. “Sorry?”

“Do you need me to help with the coffee? Fill the urn, whatever?”

“Oh. Oh, no. I can—I can manage.”

Seth nodded. “Yeah. Okay. Well, if you change your mind...”

“I’ll let you know.”

He smiled at her and she couldn’t keep from smiling back. “Great,” he said, still in that soft voice. Then he cleared his throat and looked down at Randi and Robin, who looked back at him with anticipatory glints in their eyes. “Okay, crew. Let’s go build that Lego city we talked about.”

“A castle,” Robin said, jumping up and down. “I want a castle with a drawbridge.”

“An’ a dragon,” Randi added excitedly. “Can we make a dragon, too?”

“We can make anything you want,” Seth said. His eyes met Wendy’s. “That’s the thing about Lego. You want to build a dreamworld, you can. Reality never intrudes.”

“What does that mean, Uncle Seth? Ree-al-uh-tee?”

Seth tore his eyes from Wendy’s. “It means that you can build all the castles you want, but that doesn’t guarantee you’ll ever get to live in them.”

“Oh,” Robin said softly. “That’s sad.”

Seth cleared his throat. “Yeah,” he said, and led the twins away while Wendy watched and blinked hard to keep back the tears burning in her eyes.

* * *

THE COFFEE MACHINE was easy to operate, once Wendy figured out its idiosyncrasies.

While the coffee dripped through the filter, she replenished the supply of tea bags, made sure the hot water urn was full, and got a fresh platter of cookies from the kitchen. A middle-aged couple came by and bombarded her with questions about the town’s craft shops.

All of it was pleasant and easy to handle, which was good, because Wendy couldn’t seem to keep her attention focused. She kept glancing over at Seth and the twins, sitting cross-legged in a little circle in a corner of the big room, a Lego castle rising before them.

A castle you could build, but not live in.

Blindly, she turned away. The coffee was ready; she filled a mug, blew on the hot black liquid and took a cautious sip.

“Good?” a man in a ski sweater and cords asked pleasantly.

Yes, she assured him, it was, and would he like some? She poured a cup for him, then for the people who’d inquired about the craft shops. A young couple who just had to be on their honeymoon came in, and Wendy chatted a bit with them.

Eventually, she was alone again. She l

ooked at the corner. The castle was taller. A wall was going up around it. Seth was talking to Robin, smiling at Randi...

He was so good with kids.

What was wrong with her tonight?

She walked to the brochure rack and straightened brochures that didn’t need straightening, trying not to pay attention to the children’s soft voices and occasional laughter.

What kind of B and B encouraged children to play in the gathering room, anyway? It was a ridiculous arrangement. Three-year-old kids belonged in bed at this hour, even if they were sweethearts....

Who was she kidding? The twins weren’t bothering anybody. Every now and then, someone looked up and smiled at the sight of those two burnished chestnut heads and that one dark one, bent over the Lego blocks.

The dark head that belonged to a man she’d once loved.

Oh, how she had loved him. With all her heart, all her soul.

Seth looked up and their eyes met. She felt as if he was looking deep inside her, past the false smiles, bitter words, anger and pain. That he was looking into the deepest recesses of her heart, where the truth lay quiescent, waiting to be awakened.

She loved him still. She’d never stopped loving him and never would. God, oh God. How could she have denied it for so long? She was still in love with Seth.

The sudden bleat of the telephone made her jump. She grabbed for it, clutched it with almost painful desperation.

“Good evening,” she said, though her heart was pounding. “This is Twin Oaks. How may I help you?”

Someone wanted a reservation for next weekend. Yes, she said, of course, and she checked the book the way Clint had shown her, wrote everything down, did it all right even though she was shaking, even though she’d just made the one discovery she hadn’t permitted herself to make in all these long, empty years.

She loved Seth Castleman.

She’d never stopped loving him, despite all her protests, her determined conviction that the Wendy who’d left for Norway wasn’t the same Wendy who’d come home to Cooper’s Corner.

Her body had let her down and now, so had her heart. How could it still belong to Seth? There was no future in loving him, not for her, certainly not for him. Even if there were, if by some miracle she could be the wife he’d once wanted, Seth didn’t love her anymore.