Heartsong Cottage (5 page)

The sound of his name snagged his attention and he turned to see Cam Murphy approach with his hand outstretched. “You cut this one close, Garrett. Sarah and I were glad to see you slip into the church.”

Sarah Murphy gave him a hug and added, “Holly would have been brokenhearted if you hadn't been here to watch her be her aunt Gabi's flower girl.”

“I wouldn't have missed it.”

Cam motioned to someone behind Daniel, and he turned halfway, expecting to see the woman in the yellow dress. Instead, the twenty-something blonde who'd been seated next to Sarah in the church stepped forward, and Cam said, “Daniel, I don't believe you've met our daughter, Lori. Lori's in vet school at Colorado State. Lori, this is Daniel Garrett.”

“Oh, Mr. Garrett, you're Holly's hero. I'm so glad to finally meet you. I cannot tell you how much I admire you.”

Daniel forced a smile. He knew that the families he'd helped considered him a hero. He also knew how little he deserved that accolade. Daniel did what he did out of a complicated and not completely rational need for atonement. He hadn't murdered his son or driven his wife to suicide. Nevertheless, even almost ten years later, he still felt responsible. He'd let his family down. He hadn't saved them. He was nobody's hero.

“It's nice to meet you, too, Lori.” He diverted attention from himself by asking her about vet school and continued to scan the crowd for a yellow sundress. She talked about her interest in joining a large-animal practice as they joined the rest of the wedding guests who'd begun drifting toward the reception venue, the community center on the grounds of Celeste Blessing's enterprise, Angel's Rest Healing Center and Spa.

The renovation of the old Victorian mansion into a resort destination had revitalized Eternity Springs, breathing new life into a town that had been close to hanging out a
CLOSED
sign. It was an appealing place with a new coat of yellow paint, white shutters, and a huge front porch and upstairs verandah. Inside, first-class accommodations and a friendly, professional staff welcomed guests like family. As he crossed the footbridge over Angel Creek onto the estate grounds, Daniel experienced a brief pang of regret for having refused the opportunity for a room here this trip. This time of year he could have slept with the window open and fallen asleep listening to the rush and bubble of the mountain stream. He would do fine at Hope and Lucca's; being around Holly would be good for him. But maybe before he left town, he'd book a room here for his return trip in November.

He and Hope had spent the anniversaries of the days they'd lost their children together for years now. After Hope remarried and Holly was found, he'd tried to cancel the tradition, but his friend wouldn't hear of it. Spending November third with her last year in the wake of her remarriage and Holly's safe return had been bittersweet. Hope's happiness soothed him and rewarded him, but on that particular day, he hadn't been able to ignore a twinge of jealousy that shamed him.

He was glad of the distraction when Colt Rafferty sidled up beside him and said, “Garrett. Glad to see you made it. Last night at the rehearsal, Gabi and Hope fretted over the fact that you hadn't arrived yet.”

“Work,” Daniel answered with a shrug then quickly changed the subject. “I hear congratulations are in order. A girl?”

“Eight pounds three ounces of heaven.” Beaming, Colt pulled a cigar from the pocket of his jacket and handed it over. “Elizabeth Celeste. I'll refrain from whipping you with photos.”

“And how is your boy enjoying his little sister?”

Colt winced. “Racer wants to send her back. Immediately. Four-year-olds aren't exactly the most generous of creatures.”

A memory of a temper tantrum involving a package of animal crackers flashed in Daniel's mind. He turned toward the sounds of welcome as the wedding party arrived at the reception.

Holly ran toward him, her face alight with joy. “Daniel! Daniel! Did you see me? I was the flower girl for Aunt Gabi. Did you see?”

“I did see.” He opened his arms. “You were gorgeous. You did a fabulous job.”

“No I didn't.” She barreled into him and Daniel's arms went around her. As he picked her up and twirled her around, she said, “I wanted to die when everyone heard my whisper. Lucca said something called acoustics made it so loud, but Aunt Gabi told me not to worry, that she'd been wondering the same thing, and that I made it a special memory for her.”

“You do that for everybody. That's your gift, sunshine.” Daniel gave this precious little girl a hug, conscious of how much she'd grown. She filled his arms. She filled his heart.

Broken and battered though it was.

*   *   *

My, oh my, doesn't he have fine shoulders?
Broad and wide, just the way that always caught her eye. This particular set of shoulders attracted her gaze like a magnet.

They looked strong enough to carry even the heaviest of burdens.

Seated at a large round table draped in forest green and black with the Ciceros, the Raffertys, and the Murphys, Shannon forced herself to look away from the handsome mountain of a stranger who stood across the room talking to Maggie Romano. Why, she wondered, had she noticed him at the wedding and thought of Ted?

He didn't look anything like Ted Colby. Ted had been a compact, brown-eyed, long-haired blond computer nerd. This guy had blue eyes, dark hair cut military short, and he was tall and powerfully built. Romano family tall, but thicker than the rangy basketball athletes who were Gabi's brothers.
Must be a cousin.

Unable to resist, Shannon's gaze stole back toward the magnet a mere two minutes later. He wore a well-cut gray suit and blue tie that complemented his eyes. Sharp cheekbones, a square jaw, and a few fine lines etched across his face. Mid-thirties, she guessed. The hand wrapped around a pint glass was large. Was it something about his mannerisms? Did he stand like Ted or smile like Ted or maybe tilt his head that certain way when he listened?

Probably not. Probably the stranger reminded her of Ted because her fiancé had been on her mind all day. While channel surfing the previous evening, she'd stumbled across the movie she'd been watching when the call came about his “accident.” For some inexplicable reason, last night she'd set down her remote and watched
Apollo 13
through to the reentry scene. That had been the point seven years ago when her phone had rung and her world changed forever.

Yanking her thoughts away from troubling memories, she deliberately shifted her chair so that she couldn't see the stranger. She wished that Lori Murphy hadn't joined a group of younger friends upon their arrival at the reception. Her presence at the table would have added the eighth to Shannon's seventh. Ordinarily, she didn't mind attending events as a single. Tonight, however, she felt particularly alone.

Tuning into the conversation, she wished she hadn't. She loved her Eternity Springs friends. She truly did. But diapers and diaper rash ointment products truly didn't interest her. Pasting on a smile, she rose. “The bar is open. Who wants something to drink?”

“Busman's holiday?” Rose Cicero asked. “I thought Gabi and Flynn made you promise not to work the reception when they hired Murphy's Pub to supply the alcohol.”

“They did, and I'm not offering to mix drinks. I'm volunteering to play server.”

“I'll do it.” Hunt Cicero shifted his interested stare away from the buffet table and rose. “I want to breeze by the buffet table and see if I can't score one of those little egg rolls. I'm starving. So what's your poison, everyone?”

“Wine for me,” Rose said.

“Irish whiskey. Flynn is serving Bushmills 21.”

“Of course he is,” Cam Murphy said, standing. “Only the best for our boy. I'll help you carry, Cicero.”

“I'll go with you,” Colt said. “I'm going to try to snag an egg roll, too.”

When the men sauntered toward the bar by way of the buffet, Shannon watched Rose's love-softened gaze follow her husband. This was almost worse than hearing about butt paste. “Gee, Rose. I know you two are still newlyweds, but you really shouldn't look at him that way in public. You don't want the bride's brother to have to arrest you for public lewdity.”

“Lewdity?” Her friend's eyes twinkled. “Is that a word? I don't think that's a word.”

“If it isn't, it should be. It fits that gleam in your eyes to a T.”

“She's right,” Sage agreed. “‘Lewdity' is a perfect word for the way you look at Cicero.”

“He's hot.” Rose shrugged. “Anyway, I think ‘public lasciviousness' is a more suitable term. I've always wanted to be lascivious. However, you're one to talk, little sister. As your physician, may I remind you that you gave birth to a beautiful baby girl only a week ago. You still have a few weeks to go before you can scratch that itch.”

“You're not my physician,” Sage grumbled. “And I know exactly how long it's already been and exactly how long we still have to wait. It's just so hard when those two
A.M.
feedings roll around, and I stumble into the nursery to find my husband has beat me there. There's nothing sexier than a man in stubble and boxer shorts cooing at his infant daughter in the middle of the night.”

“I don't know, Sage,” Sarah Murphy offered. “A man in stubble and flannel pajama pants changing his son's diaper at two in the morning is pretty darn sexy, too.”

Shannon gave an exaggerated groan. “Hello! Can we please change the subject? All this talk about sex and sexy men is giving me a complex. I'm single, remember? I swear I should have told Cicero to bring me a double.”

The sisters and Sarah shared a significant look, then Sage said, “Oh, we remember. Weddings are great places to work on finding a special someone. I think that seeing a happy ending right before your eyes puts a person in the mood for romance. There are lots of eligible men here tonight—local and imported.”

Rose ticked names off on her fingers. “Brick Callahan. Logan McClure. Max Romano. Tony Romano. The cousins Romano—Sam, Nick, and Jake. Chase Timberlake.”

“Chase Timberlake!” Shannon exclaimed. “Ali's son? He's five years younger than me … and he's engaged.”

“More like two years,” Sage said. “And he obviously likes older women. I suspect it wouldn't hurt Ali's feelings if you busted up that relationship.”

“Or my feelings, either,” Sarah grumbled, her gaze stealing across the room toward Lori.

“Well, I'm no home wrecker,” Shannon declared. “And while I appreciate your concern about my love life, I'm not here looking for a man—of any variety.”

Colt approached and set a glass filled with two fingers of amber liquid in front of her. “Might as well give it up. I've watched these women work for years now. When they get matchmaking in their heads, there's no stopping them.”

“I'll drink to that,” Sage said, lifting her glass of lemonade in toast.

Shannon wrinkled her nose in mock disgust before grinning with genuine affection toward her friends. The Ciceros, Raffertys, and Murphys were good, kind people. Eternity Springs was filled with good, kind people.

She hated that everything she'd told them about herself was a lie.

Okay, maybe not everything. She'd told the truth about loving dogs and hating tofu. She'd been honest about her passion for music and chocolate and how fortunate she considered herself for finding a home in this small mountain town.

However, honesty and trust were two different things, weren't they? She wouldn't … she couldn't … trust these good, kind people with the whole truth.

Nor was she about to let them play matchmaker, either. Not anytime soon, anyway. As long as she might have to pick up and disappear at any moment, she couldn't risk a relationship. It wouldn't be fair. Maybe in a couple of years or five, if Eternity Springs remained safe for her, maybe then she could start to think about something with the possibility of permanence.

She took an extra big sip of the whiskey and savored the smooth, smoky flavor while she listened to the conversation taking place around her. Since the men's return, talk had veered away from her barren love life—thank goodness—and toward baseball, particularly the pennant races and the Rockies' chances of making it to the World Series.

Shannon allowed her attention to drift. She shifted in her seat, turned her head, and she wasn't surprised when her gaze found the magnet.

He was talking with a group of summer residents, the Callahans from Texas. He threw back his head and laughed at something one of the wives said.
Yum yum,
Shannon thought as she studied him. He wasn't as classically handsome as Lucca or his brothers, so what was it that made him so … magnetic?

The shoulders, she decided. Broad shoulders always did it for her. The square jaw, too. He gave the appearance of being substantial. Of being someone a person could count on. Depend on.

Yeah, well. Like they say, appearances can be deceiving. Look at me.

At that moment, he turned as if he'd tangibly felt her stare and their gazes met and held. His mouth lifted in a quick grin, and for just a moment, she thought he might head her way. Then the band played a fanfare and asked the crowd to greet Mr. and Mrs. Flynn Brogan. The beaming bride and groom danced their first dance, and then Flynn welcomed their guests and announced that the buffet was open. At that point, the party really got started.

Shannon dined, she danced, she visited with friends and touted the appeal of Eternity Springs to visitors. She accepted numerous offers to refill her glass of whiskey. She wasn't much of a drinker as a rule, but the Bushmills was a treat. It helped distract her from the ghosts that attending a wedding invariably brought to life.

She never found herself in the same group as Mr. Magnetic, and she refrained from asking about him as she moved from gathering to gathering. Sometimes a girl needed a little mystery for her fantasies, something to keep her warm on the cold winter nights that stretched ahead.