She joined the rest of the staff and started her day.
* * * *
Michael wished he’d insisted on getting his vehicle before they came up the mountain. He wasn’t even sure why he hadn’t. Ty had mentioned he would drive him up and he hadn’t pushed back.
Probably because he was still thinking about the night before.
I love you, Lucy.
Watching Lucy and Ty together had done something he hadn’t thought it would. He’d been prepared to find it distasteful. He’d been prepared for jealousy. He’d been ready to admit that watching two other people got him hot.
He hadn’t expected watching them would make him long.
Ty put the Jeep in park and turned his way. “Maybe I should stop by the Trading Post and get some coffee. I know we can go down to the kitchen, but Luce is a badger before she gets some caffeine in her system. You’re not far behind her. At least I think that was a need for coffee this morning. It could be your usual morning grump.”
“Morning grump?” He knew he shouldn’t ask, but Ty often amused him. Well, he wanted to punch Ty less than most people.
Ty nodded. “Yeah, I’ve noticed you go through a daily series of grumps.”
“That’s not a word. I mean it is, but not the way you’re using it. Grump is a noun. I’m a grump. I can be grumpy. But I can’t have a grump.”
“Sure you can,” Ty insisted. “It’s a mood. It’s also something you do. Your morning grump seems to be cut off with shower sex, although that was so long ago. Did we slide back into the morning grump or are we pregaming for the afternoon session?”
“You’re an asshole.” But he was smiling as he got out of the Jeep.
No one joked with him anymore. Probably because for a long time he bit the heads off of people who did. Still, despite the fact that he came down off this mountain more often now, the people around town tended to give him a wide berth. It was kind of nice to have someone call him on his morose shit.
He didn’t have grumps. He had…moments of contemplation.
“Hey, Mike.” Ty had gotten out of the Jeep, and he nodded toward the side of the cabin. “It looks like you have company.”
Michael’s hand immediately went for his gun. And then he remembered he wasn’t carrying the sucker. He hadn’t wanted to scare Lucy, so he’d locked his semiautomatic in his gun case that was hidden in the floor of his cabin, and now that seemed like a bad idea. He held up a hand to ask Ty to go silent.
“You want a fist bump?” Ty asked.
He was going to have to train him better. He suspected Ty’s EMT training hadn’t included military signals. “Hush. I need to figure out who it is. Get back in the Jeep.”
Ty frowned his way. “I think it’s someone who rented a car. It’s got a sticker on it from the rental place in Alamosa. I’m surprised that sedan made it up the mountain.”
“Hey, I’m serious.” A whole bunch of scenarios went through Michael’s head, the worst being the assholes who’d turned Jessie against everything she’d believed in had come looking for him. She’d had a bank account with seventy thousand in it that he hadn’t known about until after she’d died. They might have come looking for their money since she hadn’t finished the job. “Get back. We don’t know who we’re dealing with.”
“I think we’re dealing with her.” Ty pointed. “Hi, lady. Are you planning to murder us or did you just get lost?”
“Hi,” a familiar voice said. “I’m looking for the guy who lives here. At least they told me he lives here. His name is Michael Novack. Have you seen him? I’m worried about him. Especially since he lives here.”
He gritted his teeth and thought seriously about running. He could sprint through those woods and never come back.
Then he wouldn’t have to face Trina Wilson. Jessie’s sister.
“Oh, he’s right here.” Ty ratted him out and pointed his way.
His past had caught up to him.
Fifteen minutes later, he sat down on the couch—if it could be called that—and faced the woman he’d spent two years avoiding.
Trina Wilson was the opposite of her sister in almost every way. She was blonde where Jessie had dark hair, and Trina was one of those women who would go to the grocery store in high heels and full makeup. He’d rarely seen her looking less than perfect, though she wore a worried expression now as she glanced around the place he’d been living in for years.
“I’m sorry. I know you wanted to never see any of us again, but I needed to talk to you.” Trina was two years younger than her sister. She’d been engaged when Jessie died, her wedding set for six weeks later.
He glanced down at her hand, expecting to see a wedding ring there. The only jewelry she wore was a watch. “You didn’t marry Tommy?”
Her fist closed as though trying to hide the fact that she no longer wore the one-carat diamond she’d been so proud of. “No. Tommy’s father was running for DA back in our hometown. He wanted to avoid the scandal that would have come if he married me. At first he told me we should postpone the wedding, and I agreed. I figured out it was completely off when the wedding planner sent me a bill marked final. Apparently even if you don’t get married, you still get a bill.”
Trina and Tommy had been together for a long time. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
He didn’t want to be here. There was a reason he’d ignored Trina’s calls. He’d finally shut off his phone and gotten a new one.
How many times had he and Jessie been out with Trina and Tommy? Even before they’d gotten together, he’d spent time with Jessie’s family. His own parents had split when he was a kid and they’d each moved on, forming new families he didn’t feel comfortable in. When he and Jessie had partnered up, she’d invited him back to her place that first Christmas and he’d met the woman in front of him.
“I don’t know about that.” Trina looked weary for a moment before her jaw went straight, an expression he’d seen a thousand times on her sister’s face. Pure Wilson stubborn. “I understand that you find me and my family distasteful.”
“I never said that.”
“Your actions speak far louder than words, especially since you haven’t actually talked to us in years.” She shifted on the love seat. The small cabin he’d been living in had a tiny front room that led to an even tinier kitchen and bedroom, if it could be called such. It was more of a cot room since all he had in it was a cot.
He kind of hated this place.
“Well, it turns out Mike has next to nothing in his pantry.” Ty walked back in with two cans of soda and a bottle of water. “And by pantry I mean a shelf over a sink that doesn’t actually work. I did get the generator on, though, so I can turn that space heater on. Mike might be warmed by the fiery depths of his rage, but the rest of us need some help.”
“This won’t take long, Ty. We’ll be out of here in fifteen minutes or so,” he murmured before turning back to Trina.
“Fifteen minutes? That’s all you’ll give me?” Trina asked.
“I don’t want to talk about Jessie. I’ve made myself clear. That part of my life is over, and I need to move on.”