LITMIR.BIZ

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because Melanie knew Stephanie would want to call and check on the girls.

      Stephanie came out of the bathroom as soon as Melanie hung up the phone.

      “If I didn’t know better, I would think you were up to something. But I don’t know better, at least not today. So let’s just have lunch and enjoy ourselves before the girls come home. It might be fun just the two of us for a change. We can order junk food.”

      “Yes, and we will as soon as you get in the car.” Melanie practically shoved her out the door. “I told you my mother would be here just in case we ran a little late, and you’re going to have to trust me on this one.”

      “And you want me to trust someone who says she doesn’t trust people who say trust me?”

      “Did I say that?” Melanie asked, as they loaded into her Lincoln Navigator.

      “Yes, you did.”

      “Well, I’m telling you now that you have to trust me. You don’t have to like me, just trust me.”

      Stephanie took a deep breath. “Turn the heat on, it’s freezing. I really wish you would tell me what’s going on. I don’t like surprises.”

      “Tough,” Melanie said as she maneuvered down the long, winding drive. Evergreens topped with a heavy layer of snow flanked the sides of the drive. It never failed to remind her just how beautiful Colorado really was.

      Exactly twenty minutes later, they pulled into the main parking lot at Maximum Glide.

      Stephanie looked as though she were ready to do battle. “What are we doing here? This is the last place I want to be right now.”

      “Tough. It’s where you need to be. There is someone here who wants to talk to you. Now get out, or I will carry you over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes.”

      “I’m not sure I want the girls to see you like this. It might scare them,” Stephanie teased.

      “Right! They love me any way I am, and we both know that.”

      “Yes, they do.”

      As they trudged across the parking lot, snow crunched against their boots, the sound barely audible over the crowds on the mountain. The previous week’s blizzard conditions were long gone. In their place the sun was as bright as butter, the sky as blue as a robin’s egg, and the snow as white and clean as freshly beaten cream.

      They hurried inside the main offices because even though the sun was out, the temperatures were still in the teens.

      “We’re having lunch in Patrick’s office. I told him to order in from The Lodge,” Melanie explained.

      “I don’t know why I agreed to this, but remind me when we leave to wring your neck.”

      Melanie tapped on Patrick’s door, then opened it before he had a chance to tell them to come inside.

      Just as she had commanded, there was a table set for two, an exquisite crystal vase with one single yellow rose, and a bottle of Cristal chilling in a bucket of ice.

      Stephanie glanced at Patrick, then back at her friend turned harridan. “Tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”

      “It isn’t,” Melanie said. “Enjoy lunch.”

      She hurried out of the office before Stephanie even had a chance to ask what was going on. She saw the table, the rose, and the champagne.

      “Please, come in and have a seat.” Patrick motioned to the chairs, which Stephanie recognized from The Lodge.

      “Just so you know, I’m not here because I want to be. Melanie seems to think this is…I don’t know what she thinks, but let’s just get this over with.”

      “You sound like you’re headed for the guillotine.”

      “It’s probably not as bad,” she responded, then sat down in the chair Patrick pulled out for her. Surprise, surprise. She didn’t know he had manners.

      “You can tell me that when I’m finished with what I have to say. I took the liberty of telling Jack to wait on our food. You might not want to be in the same room with me when I say what I need to say, something I should’ve said a long time ago, and I would have if I’d had the guts to admit it to myself. But better late than never, so here it is.”

      “Look, if it’s about my job, I probably shouldn’t have walked out the way I did. I was just so worried about Amanda and Ashley, then you made that comment about…well, you know what you said. I was embarrassed and just wanted to leave. So if you’re going to apologize, then fine. I accept.”

      “Actually, this isn’t about your job at all. As a matter of fact, it has nothing to do with this place.” He took a deep breath, raked his hand through his dark locks, then took another deep breath. “I come from a very large Irish family. I have three younger sisters and four older brothers, and my sisters have three sons and two, uh, one daughter. My brothers have a number of children also, but this is about my sisters and their children and me. About how it’s my job to protect them.”

      “Okayyy,” Stephanie said, still unsure what this was all about.

      “This is hard, okay?”

      “Sorry.”

      “Two years ago, my sister and her husband lost their daughter, Shannon.”

      “I’m so sorry, Patrick, I had no idea.” Stephanie still didn’t know where this was leading, but she was calmer, knowing it had something to do with his family. Family she could handle.

      “She was seventeen…. She had this rare blood thing called TTP. She died the day she was supposed to graduate from high school. Our family hasn’t been the same since. I haven’t been the same since. It’s been a nightmare for my sister, and their younger daughter, Abby. It took about a year before the shock wore off. I…This isn’t coming out the way I want it to.”

      Patrick reached for her hand, and her first thought was to pull hers away, but when she saw the look in his blue eyes, she stopped herself. Sadness blanketed his face.

      “I swore that I would never allow myself to get in a situation that would make me suffer a loss as great as Shannon’s death. I saw what my sister went through, what she’ll go through for the rest of her life, what I couldn’t protect her and my oldest niece, my parents’ oldest grandchild from, and I decided that wasn’t the life for me. If I didn’t get too close to anyone, I wouldn’t get hurt. Typical cliché, but true. Then you and your girls came along. I tried not to like you, I tried not to like your daughters, but that’s impossible. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to tell you this without putting my foot in my mouth, or ticking you off, and as luck would have it, Melanie called and told me what I knew but wouldn’t admit to.”

      “When did Melanie become such an authority on everyone?”

      “She’s observant, and she’s smart. A little mouthier than usual, but I’m glad she chose me to use as an example. What I’m trying to say is I have very, very strong feelings for you, and your girls. Do you think it would be possible to give me another chance to do things the right way?”

      This was the last conversation she’d ever expected to have that day. And with Patrick, of all people. So there was a heart beating inside that massive chest after all. Stephanie grinned.

      “I suppose I could, but there would have to be conditions.”

      “Anything you say,” Patrick agreed, then squeezed her hand.

      “Anything?” Stephanie asked.

      “Whatever it takes,” he said, his eyes boring into her as though it were the first time he’d actually looked at her.

      “Let’s hit the double black diamonds, first,” Stephanie said, feeling more lighthearted than she had in years. She actually felt like having fun for a change. She didn’t worry about the girls because she did

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