Good for them. Kate sure wasn’t getting any. She was glad someone was.
She grabbed a stack of takeout containers and was halfway up the stairs when a female voice stopped her in her tracks.
“Oh, Luther! Yes! Yes!”
Kate quickened her steps, no longer concerned about making noise. She took the takeout containers to the kitchen, said a quick good-bye to everyone, and then grabbed her coat and the box of to-gos before leaving.
Less than ten minutes later, her phone rang. Through the wonders of Bluetooth, an automated voice informed her that Luther was calling. She ignored it and let it go to voice mail. He called twice more before she made her first stop. That was when she shut off her phone.
Kate was seething. Not because Luther had been with another woman—a leopard didn’t change his spots—but because he was lying to her family and making fools of their faith in him. She wasn’t sure what he was playing at or how it benefited him, and at that point, she didn’t really care. She just wanted it to stop.
If she was honest, she never had understood Luther’s sudden interest. It didn’t make sense.
In high school, he’d dated the entire cheerleading squad, plus prom queens—junior and senior year—and the homecoming court. It was quite a shock when, a few years after he returned from college, he started calling her.
Sure, his father had recently died, and as a result, Luther hung out at her parents’ place more. She was a good listener, but she was no dainty size two. She was a fit size ten, pushing precariously close to a twelve after the holidays. She preferred outdoors to indoors, loved camping and fishing, and could change a tire in ten minutes flat.
Not Luther’s usual type.
Her parents were thrilled with his sudden interest, however. They’d always liked Luther. And Kate was ashamed to admit, she was rather flattered, too. She even told herself that it was a sign of his maturity. That Luther had evolved to the point of looking beyond the superficial facade to see the person beneath.
She’d been so, so wrong about that. Worse, she seemed to be the only one who saw it.
Kate pushed Luther from her thoughts. She’d already wasted enough energy on him. Instead, she chose to think about a large, handsome man with a great smile who had purchased entire plates of brownies and tubs of cookies and tickets for a fundraiser he had no intention of attending. Those thoughts were far more pleasant.
As she left the last stop on her list, she saw a familiar figure waiting patiently beside her Jeep.
“Hey, Duke. Where have you been, buddy?”
He got to his feet and greeted her as if he hadn’t seen her in days instead of hours.
She opened the passenger door, and he jumped in. As she climbed in her own side and put on her seat belt, he lifted his nose and sniffed and then looked at her.
“You know, you speak better with your eyes than some humans do with their words. Yes, you smell meatballs, and yes, I have plenty left over.”
Apparently pleased with her answer, Duke smiled a doggy smile and got comfortable. He liked her heated leather seats, too.
Kate pulled out onto Main Street to head home, fully aware that Luther was probably there, lying in wait with some ridiculous story. As she’d decided not to waste any more thoughts on him, she really wasn’t in the mood to listen to his lame excuses, and so she hung a U-ey and went in the opposite direction.
Despite the dire predictions, the roads remained clear, and the snow had yet to start falling. She thought about the spaghetti dinners she had in the back and had a crazy idea.
“How do you feel about taking a little detour?” she asked her canine copilot.
Duke woofed, which she loosely translated as, Let’s do it.
“Well, all right then.”
She saw the first flakes falling as she was heading up the mountain, becoming heavier and steadier the farther she went. She wasn’t overly concerned. She had four-wheel drive and more than ten years of experience with driving snowy mountain roads. It was everyone else she was worried about. Thankfully, there weren’t a lot of people out and about.
Still, she breathed a sigh of relief when she spotted the turnoff to the old Winston resort. She popped the Jeep into 4WD High and made her way along the entrance road. Visibility was limited at that point, but she could make out tall trees on either side that kept her on the right track.
She continued until the long drive ended in a circular roundabout and parked in front of the stately-looking manor. Bright lights blazed, illuminating pine wreaths hung around the exterior and making the place appear both imposing and welcoming at the same time.
Now that she was actually there, she was second-guessing her impulsive decision to take a ride up and drop off the spaghetti dinners that Brian—uh, Mad Dog—had paid for. The old resort was now more of a compound of sorts, residence to an unknown number of former military men who might or might not take kindly to her uninvited presence.
While she was sitting there, pondering her next move, someone rapped on her window. She might have screamed a little. She tried to catch her breath and get a good look at the hooded figure beside her car, but she was only able to make out a dark silhouette in the glare of the spotlights.
Where did he even come from?
He was making a circular motion with his hand. It took her a minute to regain her wits enough to realize he was asking her to put down the window. She did, allowing a blast of frigid air into her toasty Jeep.
“Can I help you, ma’am?” The voice was polite but not friendly.
That answered her question about how these guys took to uninvited presences.
Duke leaned over into her space to check the guy out. She pushed him back.
“I’m looking for Brian Sheppard.”
“Is he expecting you?”
“No. I just wanted to give him something.”
The figure continued to stare at her. She couldn’t see his face, but she could feel his eyes boring into her. They were some powerful eyes.
“I’m just going to get out for a minute, okay? Don’t shoot me or anything.”
The scary guy chuckled—at least, she thought she’d heard a chuckle—and stepped back. Kate pushed Duke onto his side with one hand and slowly got out, careful to keep her hands where he could see them. Her heart was pounding double-time as she walked around to the back of her Jeep and extracted the box of food.
“Spaghetti dinners,” she said, holding it out to him. “Brian, uh ... Mad Dog—I mean, Mr. Sheppard bought tickets, and he didn’t come, so ...”
The scary guy pushed back his hood, revealing auburn hair and vivid green eyes. He looked far less lethal than the mental picture she’d concocted. His gorgeous smile didn’t hurt either. “You must be Kate.”
She’d contemplate how he knew that later—once she was safely on her way. “I am, yes. Would you give these to him, please?”
He glanced at the box she held in her ungloved hands, which were starting to get really cold, really fast.
“He’s inside. Would you like to come in and give them to him yourself?”
She realized how ridiculous she must look, standing there in the snow in her red-and-green plaid flannel, holding out a box of food. The last of her courage fled. “No, that’s okay. I don’t want to bother him. I really should be getting back before the roads get too bad.”