Today, gauzy clouds hunkered low against hills arching into cold, pale blue sky. These Blue Ridge mountains were more than her literal home. They were the home of her heart. Though her family situation had long been hard, the place in which she’d been raised had always been right.
She spotted Connor before he saw her. He wore some of his new clothing. The beige twill shirt open over a black T-shirt. Jeans. His gray jacket.
Her heart tugged toward him even as her rational self tugged it back. She could not jump from a romance with Nate the Disappointment straight into a doomed infatuation with Connor. No thank you, self-destruction.
She recognized the man chatting with Connor as Ben Coleman of the Miracle Five. Ben had closely cropped black hair and a warm brown skin tone. He’d been a stand-out baseball player in high school and college. Nowadays, he taught eleventh grade science, yet he still carried himself like an athlete. His family was one of the most well-known in town. Large and loving and boisterous—the type of family she’d always wished she had.
Connor raised a hand to her in greeting and smiled with what looked like genuine pleasure.
She’d told him when they started this process that she was simply shining the diamond. The minor exterior changes she’d made so far had already shined the diamond to brilliance. She’d continue to help him to the best of her ability, even though doing so would lift him out of her league. By the time this was all said and done, she’d be the one asking him if he could be her consultant because she was going to be the one sitting at home on Friday and Saturday nights, and he was going to be the one using a cattle prod to keep women away.
“Shay,” Connor said when she reached them, “this is Ben Coleman. Ben, Shay Seaver.”
“It’s so nice to meet you,” Shay said to Ben just as a blond woman joined their group.
Ben’s posture tightened subtly.
“And this is Leah Montgomery,” Connor said, nodding to the blonde. “She teaches the school’s most advanced math students. Trust me when I say she’s very impressive. A genius.”
“If only my students found me impressive,” Leah said wryly to Shay.
Was this Molly? If Connor had fallen for someone at work, that would make sense. He spent a lot more time here than he did out in social situations. And Leah was lovely . . . very much so. Intelligent blue-gray eyes were the highlight of her delicate face. Side-parted hair fell in loose waves to her jaw line.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Leah said to Shay. “Connor has told us so much about you.”
“He has?” Shay asked with surprise.
“He has,” Ben answered. “Any friend of Connor’s is a friend of ours.”
“Very true,” Leah said.
“As long as I’ve known Shay,” Connor said, “and that’s a long time because we met in middle school, she’s been a fan of the Miracle Five.”
“I’ve read the books,” Shay said to Ben, “and countless articles. I’ve seen the movie a dozen times. Your story inspires me. It reminds me that miracles still happen, and that God is still as active as He ever was.”
“Amen.” Lines of kindness lightly marked the skin beside his eyes. “We spend too much of our time trying to control things that aren’t ours to control. The rescue taught me that God can be trusted. You’d think, seeing as how I lived through it, that I wouldn’t have to remind myself of that lesson so often.” He shrugged. “But I still do.”
Several teen girls passed, shooting Connor and Ben dazzled looks.
Shay asked Ben a few questions about his work and his family.
Ben was known as the optimistic one of the five and she saw evidence of that in spades.
The only off-key note? A faintly stilted vibe between Ben and Leah, despite their friendliness. Connor had told Shay that he’d worked with Ben and Leah for the past few years. They all knew each other well and liked each other a lot. So, why the undercurrent of stiffness?
When she and Connor parted from Leah and Ben, two young female teachers immediately waylaid Connor. The women made googly eyes at him and agreed with everything he said.
Just as she’d expected, Connor had a large fan club here. She couldn’t decide whether to feel smug or sad.
When the women moved off, they began walking toward their cars. “Is Leah Molly?” she asked outright.
His gait stuttered. “No.”
“Would you tell me if she was?”
“Yes. Leah loves Sebastian Grant.”
“What?” Sebastian was another of the Miracle Five.
“Yeah, Leah and Sebastian. They’re a couple.”
Leah wasn’t Molly, Lord be praised. “I could be wrong, but I noticed something strange between Leah and Ben just now. An underlying . . . hesitation.”
“Ben fell for Leah as soon as she came to work here. He and Leah are close, but her feelings for him have always been platonic. Then she met Sebastian and her feelings for him weren’t platonic.” He shot her a look, one eyebrow raised. “It got complicated.”
“Oh no.” It was widely known that Ben and Sebastian were best friends. “So Sebastian started dating Leah even though Ben found her first?”
“Only after Ben gave him full permission to do so. By that point, Ben knew that it wasn’t going to happen for him and Leah.”
“Has Ben and Sebastian’s relationship fractured? If so, I’m not going to be okay.”
“Their relationship’s intact. They all behaved honorably. They all care about each other. It’s just that this only went down less than two months ago so it’s still a little sensitive.”
“Has it been strange for you, to be in a friend group with Leah and Ben? Since they’re in a weird place?”
“At times, yes. I’ll be glad when Ben finds someone. He’s great.”
“Connor!” Yet another female teacher around their age flagged him down.
Shay hid a groan. It seemed Connor was already out of her league. Men did not stop her every thirty feet when she tried to walk from her job to her car.
Had Connor ever been in her league? He lived in Misty River because he was helping his mom through ALS. She was a skilled stationery designer, but he was a phenomenal painter. He was kind, a good listener, a man who worked with teens, a man who was seeking the advice of a dating consultant in order to win Molly’s heart.
• • •
Misty River’s temporary ice rink operated from the weekend before Thanksgiving to the weekend after New Year’s thanks to technology that kept it mechanically frozen even on warmer days. The rink’s short timeframe had never been a problem for Connor because he’d only skated twice before in his life. Both times had been a disaster. He hadn’t been tempted to skate since.
He’d hoped to make progress with Shay by spending time with her and by making adjustments according to her taste. She loved to ice skate and she’d advised him to invite Molly out on an activity Molly loved for their first date. So here he was.
Any chance, though, that he was gutting potential progress with Shay by trying on stretchy pants in front of her and showing her how bad he was at ice skating?
They carried their rented skates to one of the benches facing the rink and bent to lace them. The town of Misty River had installed the rink on a small parking lot, bordered on three sides by a park. On the parking lot side, they’d added a booth for tickets and skate rental, seating, area heaters, and a coffee truck.