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A couple of the machines went silent and the drop in the noise level was substantial, but she kept going. She was aware of nothing beyond the man staring at her as if she were speaking in tongues.
“You set this whole thing up, didn’t you? Right from the beginning.”
“Set what up?” He threw both hands in the air and let them fall to his sides again. “If you’ll tell me what you’re talking about maybe I could answer that.”
“The backside of the mountain,” she snapped. “My land. The land your folks deeded to me.” Her breath was hitching, her voice catching. “You want it for a new beginner run. Kevin told me he saw it in the paper this morning. Your secret’s out, Sam. I know the truth now, and I’m here to tell you it’s not going to work.”
“The paper?” he repeated, clearly astonished. “How the hell did—”
“Hah!” she shouted. “Didn’t mean for the word to get out so soon, huh? Wanted a little more time to sucker me in even deeper?”
“That’s not what I meant—never mind. Doesn’t matter.”
She gasped. “You son of a bitch, of course it matters. It’s all that matters. You lied to me, Sam. You used me. And damn it, I let you.” She was so stupid. How could she have been foolish enough to let him get into her heart again? How could she have, even for a moment, allowed herself to hope? To dream?
“Now just wait a damn minute,” Sam blurted out. “I can explain all of this.”
She took a step back and didn’t even notice when the last of the construction machinery cut off and silence dropped on the mountain like a stone. “Oh, I bet you can. I bet you’ve got stories and explanations for any contingency.”
“Just a minute here, Lacy...”
“How far were you willing to go, Sam, to get what you wanted from me? Marriage?”
“If you’ll just shut up and listen for a second...”
“Don’t you tell me to shut up! And for your information, I’m done listening to you.” She backed up a step, lifted her chin and gave him the iciest glare she could manage. “You want the land? Well you’re not going to get it. The one thing you want from me, you can’t have.”
He moved toward her. “That’s not what I want from you.”
“I don’t believe you.” She shook her head and her gaze fixed with his. “I know the truth now. I know the real reason you’ve been spending so much time with me, reconnecting.”
“You don’t know anything,” he said, moving in closer. “I admit, I wanted a new beginner run on the backside, but—”
“There. Finally. Truth.” She jerked her head back as if he’d slapped her. “Did it actually hurt to say it?”
“I’m not finished.”
“Oh, yes,” she told him, “you are. We are. Whatever there was between us is done.”
“It’ll never be done, Lacy.” His voice was dark, deep and filled with determination. “You know that as well as I do.”
“What I know, is that once I believed you when you said you would never leave me. You knew what that meant to me. Because my own mother left me. You promised you wouldn’t. You swore to love me forever.” Oh, God, this was so hard. She couldn’t breathe now. There were iron bands around her chest, squeezing her lungs, fisting around her heart. “And then you left. You walked away. Broke your word and my heart. You don’t get a second chance at that. Damned if I’ll bleed for you again, Sam.”
“You’re upset,” he said, his voice carrying the faintly patient tone that people reserved for dealing with hysterics. “When you settle down a little, we can talk this out.”
She laughed and it scored her throat even as it scraped the air. “I’ve said what I came to say to you—and I don’t want to hear another word from you. Ever.”
Lacy spun around and hurried to the ski lift for a ride back down the mountain.
* * *
Sam watched her go, his own heart pounding thunderously in his chest. Silence stretched out around him, and it was only then he noticed all the men had stopped working and were watching him. They’d probably heard every word. He turned his head and caught sight of Dennis Barclay.
“Seems you’re in some deep trouble there, Sam,” the man said.
Truer words, he thought, but didn’t let Dennis know just how worried he was. He’d never seen Lacy in a tear like that before. Even when she was furious when he first got home, even when she had yelled at him about past sins, there’d been some control. Some sort of restraint. But today there had been nothing but sheer fury and bright pain. Pain he’d caused her. Again. That thought shamed him as well as infuriated him.
