All He Ever Dreamed (14 page)

Ten minutes into the movie, Katie found her attention wandering. The romantic leads had no chemistry and the plot was ridiculous. She consoled herself with the knowledge it was her turn to pick the movie next, and trying to narrow down the choices was a nice distraction. Something with action, she thought. And explosions. Less witty banter and more shooting.

She wasn’t even sure why she still showed up for these things, other than having an opportunity to hang out with Hailey. At least she and Josh had the same taste in movies, and she’d always enjoyed watching with him more than all the women, even before there was sex involved.

Katie dredged another chip through the dip to keep her focus from shifting to sex with Josh. All that would do was make the movie seem that much more endless. She should have texted him before she’d arrived to see if he was going to be busy later in the night, but she hadn’t thought of it then and now it was too late.

When her phone buzzed under her thigh, Katie looked around to see if anybody had noticed. They were all focused on the television and nobody even glanced in her direction. Reaching down, she pulled the phone out enough to read the text message from Josh.

Blow
off
the
movie
&
meet
me
at
your
place
.

Blowing off the movie was one thing. Blowing off Gavin’s buffalo-chicken dip was another. Keeping the phone down beside the pillow, she was stuck using only her right thumb to text back.
Can’t
.
It’s
movie
night
.

Only a few seconds passed before she got a response.
I’ve
made
you
come
on
the
office
floor
and
in
the
barn
.
Imagine
what
I
could
do
in
a
bed
.

Stop
.
There’s
a
no
texting
during
the
movie
rule
, she sent back. Fran had instituted the rule months ago when women texting with their men had ruined her something-hundredth viewing of
Breakfast
at
Tiffany’s
.

Tell
them
your
stomach
hurts
.

He was going to get her kicked out of movie night.
Stop
.
I
can’t
.

She tried to ignore the vibration when he responded, but she couldn’t.
Too
bad
.
I
wanted
to
see
how
many
licks
it
takes
to
get
to
the
center
of
your
Tootsie
Pop
.

Katie tried to disguise a quick snort of laughter as a cough, hoping like hell there wasn’t a tearjerker scene on the television at that moment.
Later
.

Limited
time
offer
. Sure it was.

“Katie’s texting,” Jilly said, and her voice was loud during a quiet moment in the movie. “And look at her face. She’s texting Josh.”

“Gimme the phone,” Fran said, pushing herself out of the rocking chair and advancing on Katie with her hand held out.

“I don’t think so.”

“You know the rules. You’ll get it back when the movie’s over.” When Katie crossed her arms, effectively hiding the cell phone in her armpit, Fran narrowed her eyes. “Katherine Rose Davis, you give me that phone right now.”

That had been the drawback to running with the Kowalski kids growing up. She’d gotten in trouble often enough that every woman of her mom’s generation knew her middle name. “Middle-naming me isn’t going to work, Fran. I’m an adult and I’m not giving you my phone.”

She yelped when Jilly reached under her elbow and snatched the phone out of her hand. Before she could get it back, Jilly tossed it to Fran. “Sorry, Katie. It’s a rule and, since it’s my house, I have to help enforce it.”

Unfortunately, when Fran caught it, she hit the button to wake up the screen—which was still showing the text messages—and she watched the older woman’s eyes get big. Katie was surprised she didn’t melt into a puddle and disappear between the couch cushions when Fran looked at her.

“Oh, honey, you have to go. I didn’t know your stomach’s upset.” Katie froze, wondering if it was a trap. But Fran’s eyes danced with mischief as she held the phone out to her. “You should definitely go.”

Katie stood up and grabbed her coat out of the pile by the end of the couch. Then she approached Fran, who was still holding Katie’s phone. She tried to take it, but the older woman resisted for a few seconds so she could lean in close.

“Katie, honey, there are some things a woman should never refuse.”

Her face burning, Katie took the phone and nodded, her cheeks burning. Then, with a small wave in the general direction of the women behind her, she fled while the fleeing was good.

Chapter Fourteen

The phone call from Mitch came out of the blue, while Josh was about to change the oil in his sled, and almost knocked him on his ass.

“We’ve had an offer to buy the lodge.”

It took a few seconds for Josh to wrap his mind what his brother had said. “An offer? To buy it?”

“I was surprised, too. I figured if we ended up selling it instead of hiring a manager, it wouldn’t be for a while yet.”

Josh put the gallon of oil back on the shelf and sat sideways on his sled. “I don’t get it. It’s not even on the market yet.”

“You had a married couple there two weekends ago. Older, plenty of money?”

“Yeah, I remember them. Asked a million questions about the house and they kept going for walks around the property. I didn’t think anything of it because a lot of people love the house.”

“They fell in love with the place and called a Realtor in the city to arrange making an offer. The real estate agent called the town office for contact info and they called me. And now I’m calling you.”

“I must have made it look too easy if the inmates think they can run the asylum,” Josh joked while he tried to wrap his mind around this development.

Mitch was silent for a few seconds, then he cleared his throat. “It wouldn’t be a lodging establishment anymore. Just a private home.”

But
it’s
been
in
the
family
for
four
generations
and
the
Northern
Star
Lodge
for
three
. The thought screamed through his head, though he managed not to say it out loud. He couldn’t very well tell his family he wanted to get rid of the place and then come undone when a chance arrived.

“We’ve worked so hard to connect to the ATV trails,” Josh said. “The access was going to help out other Whitford businesses, not just the lodge.”

“Like my wife’s diner, yes.”

Josh closed his eyes, trying to fend off the guilt. The Trailside Diner was doing really well. It wouldn’t live or die based on this decision. “I guess it must be a decent offer if you’re bringing it to the table.”

“It’s a generous offer,” Mitch agreed. “Although I have an obligation to bring it to the table even if it was only a hundred bucks. It’s a family business.”

“So…what now?” Besides figuring out why the possibility of having what he’d wanted made his gut twist into knots.

“We need to get together and have a discussion as soon as possible. And we’ll have to call Liz and put her on speakerphone or something, since we can’t make the decision without her. I’m going to send a group email so we can nail down a time to discuss it. Hopefully this weekend.”

He had a full house for the weekend, but the family had their own rooms, so it shouldn’t be a problem. “I’ll be here, so whenever.”

“You should probably tell Rose.”

That wasn’t something he wanted to do. “Okay.”

When the call was done, Josh got up and walked toward the house. He wasn’t into changing the oil now and there was no sense in putting off the conversation. Rose sometimes checked the lodge’s email account and if Mitch used that address instead of Josh’s personal one, it could be an unpleasant surprise for her.

He found her in the living room, dusting. When he sat on the couch, she gave him a questioning look and he patted the cushion next to him.

“You look unhappy,” she said, taking a seat. “What happened?”

“I’m not unhappy. I just…Mitch called. We’ve had an offer from somebody who wants to buy the lodge. They want to make it a private home.”

It broke his heart to watch her expression change. Confusion. The realization that, if they accepted the offer, she would need a new home. And the resolution—she’d deal with it when the time came because that’s the kind of woman she was. “So you haven’t talked to Ryan, Sean or Liz yet?”

“No. He wants us all to get together, with Liz on speakerphone. Sean, too, if he can’t make it here in person.”

“When?”

“Hopefully this weekend.”

“I’ll make a big lasagna, then, and put it in the freezer so it’ll be ready whenever they come.” Before he could say anything else, she stood and went toward the kitchen. “Speaking of which, I need to start the ham for tonight. And put some laundry in the dryer.”

He let her go because he didn’t trust himself not to be too choked up to speak. What kind of selfish bastard was he? The woman had pretty much devoted her life to taking care of the lodge and five kids who weren’t even her own and now she didn’t even get a say in what happened to her?

There was no doubt in his mind she was hiding her true feelings about the lodge being sold so he wouldn’t feel guilty. Not only would she not want to influence the family’s decision, but she knew him better than anybody. Even better than Katie. So she knew how he’d felt trapped by obligation for years, and she wouldn’t hold him back.

Josh leaned his head against the cushion and closed his eyes, hoping to ease the throbbing already starting at his temples. He wanted to go—no, he
needed
to go—but he loved Rose. He didn’t want to hurt her.

And what about Katie?

It had been easy enough to tell her, the day they’d gone to Brookline, that she and the lodge were two separate things, but they weren’t. Selling the lodge meant leaving Whitford. And that meant leaving her.

They’d always been friends. Granted, they’d fallen into a friends-with-benefits deal, but it wasn’t like they’d talked about marriage. She hadn’t even hesitated when it had come to moving back to her own place, and most women, if they were hoping for a ring, would have clung to living under the same roof. Even if he left, they’d still be friends.

But he didn’t know how he could look her in the face and tell her he was leaving town.

* * *

Katie was having one of
those
days. She’d somehow run low on small bills in the register, which was a problem since most people in Whitford still operated on a cash-only basis. After writing a note that she’d be back in fifteen minutes and the time she’d left, she’d locked up the shop and driven to the bank. Normally she would walk, but she usually did her banking when the shop was closed and she could take her time.

Of course there was a line at the bank and the minutes seemed to tick by on fast-forward, so she ended up rushing back. She was halfway there when the blue lights flashed in her rearview mirror.

“Please don’t be Bob Durgin,” she said as she put on her blinker and pulled as close to the sidewalk as she could get without being on it. Officer Durgin hated the Kowalski kids and she was close enough to be lumped in with them, as far as he was concerned.

Luckily it was Drew Miller who got out of the cruiser, and she rolled down her window as he approached her door. “Hi, Drew.”

He sighed and shook his head. “You guys are never going to catch on. You’re supposed to call me Chief Miller when you’re in trouble.”

“Even if it’s just a little bit of trouble?”

“You think seven miles over on the main street is a little bit of trouble?”

She gave him her best smile. “Sorry?”

“What’s really sorry is that I just busted your boyfriend on the other end of town doing the same damn thing.” It tickled her a little to hear Josh called her boyfriend. She could get used to that. “But he gave me a shitload of attitude, so I wrote him a ticket.”

Hearing that killed the tickle. She wasn’t sure what was going on with Josh, but his mood had definitely taken a turn for the worse and she didn’t know why. She’d called him a couple of days before and he’d sounded tired. When she’d brought up getting together, either at his place or hers, he’d put her off, claiming he had a lot to do. That was two days ago and she hadn’t heard from him since. Maybe she should give him a call later in the afternoon and drag him out for a burger or something.

“I needed change,” she told Drew, “so I thought I’d run to the bank real quick, but it was busy, so…I was speeding. Sorry.”

He pointed at her and gave her his stern police chief face. “Slow down. Next time, you won’t get off with a warning.”

Once he’d walked back to his cruiser, she pulled back into traffic and did the speed limit back to the shop. Of course she had a customer waiting on the sidewalk, looking unhappy.

The afternoon passed quickly as customers came and went, but she was thinking about calling Josh during a lull when the door opened and her mom walked in. “Hi, Mom. I didn’t know you’d be out and about today.”

“I needed a few things from the market and it’s been ages since I’ve sat and visited with Fran, so I decided to drive in myself instead of sending Josh.”

“I guess he’s in town anyway. Drew said he gave him a speeding ticket earlier today.”

Rose frowned. “He must have been speeding a lot to get a ticket from Drew.”

“Actually it was the attitude he gave him, I guess. Drew didn’t like it. And when I talked to him the other day, he was cranky, too. I don’t know what’s up with him. His mind’s definitely somewhere else.”

“Getting an offer on the lodge is a pretty big deal.”

“An offer?” Katie thought maybe she’d misunderstood. “To buy it? But it’s not even listed yet.”

“He didn’t tell you?” Rose pressed her lips together and shook her head. “I guess a couple that stayed there recently wants to buy it and make it a private home.”

Katie did her best not to show it, but her mom’s words made her stomach clench. So Josh’s mind
was
somewhere else. It was wherever he was planning to go when he was free of the lodge.

“No, he didn’t. Guess it’s none of my business.” The fact he hadn’t told her hurt so much she didn’t know what else to day. She was supposed to be his friend and he hadn’t even bothered to tell her about what had to be one of the most important things to happen in his life in years. So much for the word
boyfriend
meaning anything.

“Katie, don’t be like that. Maybe he can’t figure out how to tell you.”

“That’s a tough one. ‘Hey, got an offer on the lodge.’ I can see how that would be hard for him.”

“Maybe before, but now it’s different. By telling you he might sell the lodge, he’s also saying he might be leaving town.”

And therefore leaving Katie. She wasn’t stupid. She knew what it meant. “Has he made a decision yet?”

“They have to make the decision together. Ryan and Sean are both driving up tomorrow night, and Saturday morning they’re going to call Liz and put her on speakerphone.”

“So it’ll be two days before we know if he’s leaving us or not?”

When her mom walked over and pulled her into her arms, it was a struggle not to cry. “You knew this might happen, honey. So did I.”

“I can’t get over the fact he hasn’t told me.”

“It’s weighing heavy on him, Katie. You know Josh. He’ll talk about the weather and sports and snow and almost anything else you can think of, but not what’s going on in his head.”

Katie stepped back from the hug and shrugged. “Whatever. He knows where to find me if he wants to talk.”

Despite that, it wasn’t five minutes after her mom had left that Katie pulled out her cell phone. She got Josh’s voice mail after the second ring, which meant he’d seen her name on his caller ID and silenced her.

She wasn’t sure what the rules were now. A few months ago she might have jumped in her Jeep and driven to the lodge to ask him what had crawled up his ass. But now she wasn’t sure if that was too girlfriend-like and, despite being tickled when Drew had called Josh her boyfriend, she wasn’t sure
what
they were.

In the end, she settled for going to the diner and asking Ava to make her a massive hot fudge sundae. With chocolate and whipped cream came a little bit of clarity.

Being hurt that Josh hadn’t reached out to her wasn’t going to get her anything but misery. Josh had never reached out to her. He didn’t reach out to anybody. Even when he’d been miserable and on the edge of snapping, he’d kept it to himself until he broke his leg and finally told his brothers he wanted out.

The best thing she could do was wait and, when he was ready to talk, he’d talk to her. No amount of pushing or nagging would make that happen any sooner, so there was no sense in potentially driving him away.

And now that her mom had told her what exactly was weighing on his mind, she wasn’t really in a hurry to have that conversation with him, anyway. She knew feeling hurt that he hadn’t confided in her wasn’t going to hurt anywhere near as bad as hearing him say he was leaving.

* * *

Rose pulled a batch of oatmeal cookies out of the oven and closed the door with a snap. She wished she hadn’t told Andy to make himself scarce for the weekend. The tension in the lodge was almost unbearable and she could have used his comfort.

Instead she was baking cookies after her bedtime, waiting for Ryan and Sean to show up. Lauren had opted to stay home because they’d done so much running back and forth that Nick wasn’t even unpacked yet, and Sean was coming without Emma because she had a prior commitment. It would be just the kids, which was probably for the best. It wasn’t going to be an easy decision to make.

When Josh walked into the kitchen, she was thankful he grabbed a soda instead of a beer, at least. “Do you want a cookie? They need to sit a few minutes, but they’re fresh and hot.”

He glanced at the cookie sheet, disappointment all over his face. “No chocolate chip?”

“Not tonight. Sean’s partial to my oatmeal cookies.”

“Lucky Sean.”

She smiled, but didn’t bother to point out that Josh got to eat her baked goods all the time and Sean didn’t. Mary was a good cook, but the boys’ aunt wasn’t quite as good with oatmeal cookies as she was. And, from what she’d heard, cooking wasn’t very high on Emma’s priority list. After driving from New Hampshire, the boy deserved some of his favorite cookies.

“Have you told Katie about the offer?” she asked, even though she knew he hadn’t. It was the only way she could think of to open the conversation without sounding accusatory right off the bat.