Timber Creek (Sierra Falls 2)

“I looked into the watershed thing for you. ”

“You did?” The words were out before she had a chance to temper the shock from her voice. Though, thinking about it, she didn’t know why she was so surprised. He’d remeasured the property lines when she’d asked him to do that, too.

“Yes,” he said, looking oddly insulted. “I told you I’d look into it, and I’m a man of my word. I’m sorry, Laura, the bond goes to identifying and protecting flood zones. Timber Creek has never flooded. There are no restrictions to building on that land. ”

“Of course there aren’t. ” Sudden emotion clutched at her throat, and she spun away to gather herself, acting as if she needed to get herself a drink. She forced her voice to steady as she said, “Next time, just shoot me an e-mail, okay?”

He was already walking back to the booth, and the wave of his hand was all that told her he’d heard. So why had he come to deliver the news? She stole a look at him as she filled a glass with ice. Was he there to rub it in?

And then there was the Dan thing. Dan was clueless, but she could tell how much Eddie was mocking him. It was like he was mocking her old life, and that mocked her. How could she take it any other way? So why was he even there if he judged her so much?

Why did she care?

Filling a glass with club soda, she stole another glance. Eddie was leaning back, jawing easily with Dan. That was how he acted—easy with everyone. Flirty with everyone. It wasn’t just with her. Those blue-eyed winks weren’t because she was special.

She’d need to shore up her defenses.

By the time she returned to the table, she’d schooled all emotion from her face. She gave Eddie a flat look. “I didn’t realize you were still here. ”

Something flashed in his eyes, and she waited for him to make a crack, but he only sighed and stood. “I’ll leave you to it,” he said politely. “And Laura, I really am sorry. ”

She let her eyes linger on his back as he left. Giving Eddie the cold shoulder didn’t feel as good as she’d hoped it would.

But she had no choice. She’d failed once before, because of a man. Patrick had become her fiancé, but he’d begun as her co-worker. Eventually she’d lost her job because of him, and hearing his name only reminded her of one crystal-clear fact: she couldn’t lose again.

Never again.

Nineteen

Damn. Eddie’s tires spun in gravel as he sped into the ranch’s lot and slammed his truck into park.

Damn that woman.

He hadn’t been able to get her out of his mind all weekend. Not even spending a couple of nights at Camp Richardson with a bunch of rowdy kids had tired him out.

But dammit, he wasn’t a bad guy. He was a good guy. The good guy, who was doing what he could to rein in this construction project.

Fairview could easily have given the contract to some other outfit, and they’d probably have razed the whole thing by now, erecting some postmodern glass-and-steel thing, with fake stone fountains and a giant Buddha in the foyer.

But they’d given the job to him and Jack instead, and he was the one running around, double-checking paperwork, resurveying the land, investigating watershed bonds, God help him.

He scowled at his reflection in the driver’s-side mirror. “Rough,” he muttered, and reached for the glove box to grab his electric razor. A couple of nights of no sleep would leave any man looking rough, but camping with a van full of kids from the Reno community center had to be the killing blow.

It was how he spent many of his weekends, leading at-risk youth on guided hiking and camping trips. Not many people knew about it—it wasn’t something he advertised. On the contrary, it was something that felt very private to him.

He’d been a screw-up, just like so many of these kids.

There hadn’t been a lot to do, growing up in a small town. His home life hadn’t been bad, but still, his parents had spent years tiptoeing on the brink of divorce. They’d focused mostly on their own needs, which had made it easy for a teenage boy in a big family to get away with some bad behavior.

As he’d gotten older, it’d only gotten worse. Temptations became more within reach. It’d only gotten easier to find someone to buy him booze before he’d been legal. And, most exciting for him, the girls eventually got older and filled out, and he had, too.

But it wasn’t just the partying. The youngest of four boys, he’d had big shoes to fill, following in the shadow of Mark, who’d become some fancy doctor in Silver City, and then there was Scott, who’d known practically from infancy that his vocation was to be a park ranger. Meanwhile, the only thing that’d called to Eddie had been the Gas-n-Go the next town over, where the attendant was always happy to overlook the fake ID and sell him a case of beer.

Only the strong hand of his oldest brother, Jack, had saved him. All Eddie had ever been good at was football, flirting, and fast driving, but when Jack realized the road his little brother was headed down, he’d made extra time for him.

Growing up in Sierra Falls, Eddie had always appreciated a blue-sky day or waking to a fresh blanket of snow, but it was Jack who really showed him what nature was all about. Fishing trips, hiking, camping, living off the land for days with nobody else for miles around…those things had shown him how deep was the connection he felt with the land.

It was the mountains that’d shown him what it was to be a man.