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Chapter 2
Zelda
BORING
Why? Why would people who know me, people I thought loved me, entertain this stranger? I don’t get it. Who is this man with his blond hair, just starting to gray at the temples, and his clear blue eyes that seem to see more than I want them to?
I didn’t know what to do when he wandered through my fields of refuge. For so many years I’ve found both solace and solitude in my fields. It’s where I go to think and to be. I’ve come to terms with life and loss there. Merritt even took her first steps in them.
One by one, I watched my girls grow up there and then leave me. Sure, they come back to visit, though Merritt has stayed close to home while Audrey and Parker left for far away, big cities and never looked back. After the life I lived before Alaska, Chicago and New York just seem too loud to me. I prefer to be right here in Bear Bottom, alone. Or as alone as I can get with this makeshift family of misfits and weirdos.
What I didn’t expect was to be startled by a mountain of a man with all his muscles, not to mention a deep voice with a smooth accent that made me feel things. Things like butterflies in my belly and a heart that beat wildly in both excitement and terror. Things I never wanted to feel again after that last night in Dallas more than twenty years ago.
So I did what any self-respecting woman in my shoes would do. I ran. It wasn’t like I’d ever see him again because I know everyone who lives in this little town. We all do, so it’s easy to spot the outsiders.
I ran right back up the hill, forgetting my favorite basket and its clippings where I dropped it. I slid my feet out of my rubber boots and into my sneakers while running through my house, grabbing my keys on the way, and I jumped into my old jeep, the one I bought on my way here all those years ago. I raced out of my refuge and into town, figuring I could give Pops a hand at the bar until the stranger had left my land. What I didn’t expect was to find that stranger sitting at a table with Wyatt Campbell.
Usually, when I see Wyatt, he’s lecturing my youngest daughter on her wild ways. Wyatt is a nice enough man, but such a rule follower that he can’t seem to understand Merritt’s restless soul and reckless nature. Merritt always looks like steam could come out of her ears at any moment and she never does manage to keep her cool where the SAR captain is concerned. While my momma’s heart would love to see her play it a little safer than she does, I can’t say I like the idea of anyone trying to change my baby girl from who she is. I changed too much, losing too much of myself to her father and it almost cost me that very child. Which is why I think I’ve let her run so wild. Now it’s much too late, not that I would change anything even if I could.
But he’s sitting with the very same man who stumbled upon my sanctuary. Wyatt smiles at something the mystery man says but it’s his piercing blue eyes I feel tracking my every move. I feel heat hit my cheeks and a shiver race up my spine at the thought of having this man’s attention.
And then the panic sets in.
I’ve worked very hard for twenty years to not garner any man’s attention, no matter how attractive he is. I know first-hand how dangerous a man’s attention can be.
I drop their meals on the table after picking them up from the kitchen and stomp away to the tune of male laughter. Why they would think irritating me is hilarious, I don’t know, but if Wyatt doesn’t act right, I’m phoning his mother tomorrow.
“Zelly!” Pops shouts from their table behind me. I feel my shoulders tense.
“Yeah, Pops?” I hold my breath while I wait for his reply. Please please please don’t call me back to their table.
“Come here, girl!” Fuck my life. Why can’t I ever catch a break?
I turn around and with a grimace that I don’t even try to fight, I make my way back to their table. One look at my expression has them all laughing again. Jerks.
“Don’t look like you’re about to face a firing squad, Zelly,” Pops says. “It’s not that bad.”
“I don’t know about that,” I mumble.
“Well, I do,” he replies. “Those are a real bitch and you never know who has the bullet… or if all of them do.”
“Jesus,” Wyatt mutters under his breath and I kind of think the same thing. The stranger looks amused. I want to roll my eyes but he’d probably like that too.
“Come meet Wyatt’s new friend,” Pops says, and the man stands to greet me. He’s even taller than I realized standing in my lavender fields. “This is Court Davies and he’s a regular celebrity.”
“Nice to meet you,” he says in his smooth, cultured voice as he holds out his hand to shake mine.
“Nice to meet you,” I whisper.
“Get a load of that accent,” Pops laughs. “Where you from anyway?”
“Devon,” he answers even though his eyes never leave my face and he doesn’t let go of my hand.
“I bet he even knows the Queen.”
“I wouldn’t say I know her,” he replies, “But I did meet her when she gave me my OBE.”
“What’s that?” I ask and I watch as his eyes flare at the sound of my voice. I want to open my mouth up and reel the words back in. Or better yet, let the earth open up and swallow me whole.
