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Steeling her spine, she walked hastily toward where the man in question was working behind the counter, disinfecting and putting away the skates that had been used earlier in the day.
“Rudolph,” she said as she approached, positioning herself so that she was standing in front of the opening that led behind the counter. “We need to talk.”
“Busy,” he grunted, keeping his eyes focused on the pair of skates in his hands.
“I saw the picture,” Shelley blurted. “I know the truth. I know about Paula.”
His hands stopped moving as his knuckles tightened on the skates he held. Slowly, his gaze moved up to meet hers before his eyes narrowed.
“What do you think you know?” he asked, his voice hesitant and loaded with skepticism.
“I know that she was Valerie’s mother. And I know that you had some kind of romantic thing going back in the day.”
“Worked that all out for yourself, did you?” he murmured, placing the skates on their shelves and trying to move out from behind the counter, but of course finding Shelley barring his way.
“I’m not moving until you finally talk to me about this,” Shelley told him, making sure that he heard how serious she was in her tone. “You’ve been in a horrible mood ever since Valerie arrived in Snowy Pine Ridge, and I think I know why.”
“Oh, you know why, do you? By all means, enlighten me.”
“I think you’re Valerie’s father.”
Rudolph’s spine straightened as the words fell between the two of them. And then, the old man did something that Shelley hadn’t expected in the slightest. He threw his head back, and he laughed.
“You think… I’m her…father?” he repeated between guffaws, and Shelley just stared at him, waiting for him to get himself under control.
Slowly, his laughter petered out, with Rudolph swiping at his eyes to clear them of tears that had sprung up in the midst of his mirth.
“All right, Shelley,” he said, humor still dancing in his eyes. “You’re not wrong that this woman’s presence has thrown things off for me. I’ll admit that, especially since you aren’t really giving me a choice. But I hate to tell you that with the rest of it, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“So you weren’t romantically involved with Paula Bernard?”
Rudolph’s cheeks flushed. “I didn’t say that.”
A silence filled the air between them, and Rudolph began shifting nervously from foot to foot. He seemed to be waging some internal battle, and Shelley ventured a guess that he was trying to figure out exactly how much he wanted to tell her.
“If I move, are you going to go running toward your office?” Shelley asked. “Or would you go sit down with me in one of the booths and we can actually talk?”
Rudolph chewed the inside of his cheek, before shaking his head. “I won’t run. We can talk.”
Relief flooded through Shelley at his words as she stepped aside, allowing the old man to stride past her. She half expected him to take off toward his office anyway, but he didn’t. Instead, he stayed true to his word and strode toward the nearest booth, sliding into one of the seats and waiting patiently for Shelley to do the same.
When she did, he looked down at his hands where they rested on the table, studying them for a moment before he glanced up at her.
“I’m not Valerie’s father,” Rudolph began, a faraway look in his dark brown eyes. “But I was in love with her mother.”
“How did you two meet?” Shelley probed.
“She came to Snowy Pine Ridge, years and years ago. We met while she was here and it was a whirlwind. We had an instant connection. She was one of the loveliest people I ever met, inside and out.”
He grew quiet for a moment, seeming lost in his memories.
“She was here for several months, and I thought she might decide to stay,” he continued. “When she first came to Snowy Pine Ridge, she was estranged from her family, but they reached out to her and reconnected at some point. I was happy for her, glad she had that family connection back, but then they started putting pressure on her to return home for good.”
“I’m assuming she did?” Shelley asked, and Rudolph nodded.
“She did. Eventually. It was a few more months, but I could tell that her heart wasn’t here anymore. She missed Montana, missed her family, and ever since they’d started talking to her more, they’d also started getting in her ears about me.”
Shelley’s eyebrows shot up. “What about you?”
