A Season to Celebrate Page 25

  Sort of like being saved from a bar snake by a handsome Australian chef, she thought. She hadn’t planned on meeting Hudson Walker, hadn’t planned on getting to know him, or starting to fall in love with him. But I think it’s turning out that way.

  “I wish I could be as confident as you,” she said, and meant it. “I’ve been in the work force for just a short time and have already bounced around more than I wanted to. I want to be settled. I want to work on building something that will last, I want to do work that helps people, I want to have pride in myself and in what I’m doing with my life. And for me, that means stability and continuity. I don’t know how else to be. You’ve made so much sense in suggesting that I don’t put as much pressure on myself to get it right on the first try. I can try to do that.” She smiled dryly. “Key word being ‘try.’ But I don’t think I can be like you, either.”

  “You have to start somewhere, though, right?”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  “Well, maybe Blue Hollow Falls has just the right amount of family,” he said, and she laughed. “And there’s the added benefit of being close to Turtle Springs, which I imagine sees a fair share of cases in its courthouse. Valley View isn’t that much farther out, which isn’t big-city, big-city, but a city, nonetheless.” He smiled. “Or you could hang out your own shingle, pick up where Judge Parsons left off. Of course, you’d have to start charging for your advice.”

  “Would I have to learn to fish?” she asked, wrinkling her nose and laughing at the same time. He made it all seem so easy, so doable. And maybe it was.

  “I don’t think having your own rod and reel is a prerequisite,” he said with a laugh. “But in lieu of crazy case stories, you have the added advantage of being able to tell embarrassing childhood stories about your brother to all of his friends.”

  She laughed outright at that. “Yeah, that would backfire in a spectacular fashion. He has far more ammunition, trust me. No one would ever want to hire me when he got through.”

  Hudson’s face took on a considering expression. “Does he now? Hmm.”

  She nudged his shoulder. “New rule. What’s said in your kitchen, stays in your kitchen.”

  He chuckled. “I can live with that.” He surprised her by pulling her close and tipping her face up to his. “I’m not so sure I can live without you, though.”

  “Hudson,” she whispered, her breath caught in her throat. She shouldn’t be so shocked that he’d just put it on out there. It was just like him. Jump off the nearest cliff, and hope things turn out okay .

  “Just being honest with you. I can adjust to anything, but I’d rather not have to learn to adjust to a daily routine that doesn’t include you sitting at my breakfast table, swooning over breakfast—formal attire optional.” He grinned, but she was still trying to get her equilibrium back. His voice quieter, his gaze steady on hers, he said, “Or racing me down a snow-covered hill.” He pulled her closer. “Or kissing me in my kitchen.” He leaned his head down and took her mouth, this time with more intent, and far more devastating results. At least where that already dangerously wobbly equilibrium of hers was concerned.

  “This is . . . a lot,” she managed, when he lifted his head.

  “Good,” he said. “Because I think it could be everything.”

  She stared into his eyes. “And if it turns out it’s not? If Blue Hollow Falls isn’t right for me, either?”

  “If it’s the Falls that doesn’t fit, then we go find a place that does.”

  “We?”

  “I love it here, but I can love it somewhere else, too.”

  She nodded, slammed by the very idea that he’d consider picking up and taking off if that’s what she needed to do. In a quieter voice, she asked, “And if it turns out that it’s you who isn’t right for me? Or me not for you? What then?”

  “Well, since I doubt either of us is the sort to out-and-out do wrong to each other, I suppose we’d hurt, we’d heal, then we’d respect each other enough to live and let live.” He smiled gently. “Or I’d pack up my shattered heart and take my train cars and head out.”

  “You’d take your train cars?”

  “I’d have to have something good to remember this place by. If you go and stomp my heart flat to the point I can’t bear to stay, I don’t think keeping my trains is too much to ask.”

  “No,” she said, matching his mock seriousness, “of course not.”

  “Good,” he said. “Now that we’ve got all that settled, we can just get started.” He lifted her off the table and held her hips until she was steady on her feet.

  “Started on what?”

  “Finding out if we get to live happily ever after.”

  He was a nonstop whirlwind. Would she ever be able to keep up? Could you bear not to try? “Hudson—”

  But he’d already taken her hand and turned toward the swinging doors.

  “Wait, where are we going?”

  “Do you have any pressing engagements for the rest of the day?”

  She shook her head. “No, but—”

  “I thought we could drive down to Turtle Springs and drop off the information we got about Taggert at the courthouse. Then I need to see a man about a caboose. I’d love to get your opinion on it.”

  Moira hurried to keep up with his long-legged stride. “Uh, well, sure. Why not?”

  Grinning like, well, like a kid at Christmas, he turned back and spun her neatly into his arms. “Why not indeed?” They were standing out in the mill now, and he leaned down and kissed her in front of God and everybody, until she quite literally swooned.

  Applause, several hoots and hollers, and one long whistle pierced the air when he finally lifted his mouth from hers. “In fact, that should be our new motto.”

  She blinked, still reeling from the kiss. “We have a motto?”

  “Every great endeavor should have a motto.”

  A giggle escaped her. “And ours is ‘why not?’ Seems a bit . . . wishy-washy, doesn’t it?”

  “Well, that’s just our first-stage motto.”

  “Oh, we have mottos in stages now. I see.”

  He took her hand as they walked through the mill, and it was the most natural thing in the world. Being with Hudson Walker. She rather liked it. Who are you kidding? You love it. It was true. Try as she might to schedule falling in love like she scheduled college courses, or client appointments, that’s not how this was going to go at all. Maybe she’d be okay with being a little more footloose and fancy free. Seeing as that’s happening anyway.

  Moira knew she should be concerned with all the happy faces of the artists and crafters they passed, who were giving them the thumbs-up and generally looking pleased as punch about this brand-new change in Hudson’s life. If things didn’t work out, that would make it all the more awkward. But she didn’t want this to be a secret, either.

  So . . . why not? She had to stifle another giggle.

  They slipped their coats on and stepped outside into a swirl of snowflakes and a world covered in white. She shivered and he took her hand in his, warming her slender fingers in his big, broad palm.

  “So, if stage-one is ‘why not,’ what’s the next stage motto?” she asked.

  He pulled her hand up to his mouth and kissed the back of it. “I have a lot of pent-up kisses I need to get out. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Why not?” she said, and made him laugh.

  “Stage-two motto,” he said, musing, then turned and lifted her up on her toes and kissed her soundly. Snowflakes had gathered on his eyelashes when she opened her eyes. “How about ‘we’ve got this,’” he said, and she liked his intimate smile. A lot.

  They broke apart and hurried more quickly to his old Range Rover, both of them shivering now. She raced ahead, wanting to get out of the cold, and called back, “And I suppose the final stage will be ‘we did it’?”

  He grinned at her and trotted to catch up, palming his keys and hitting the unlock button on the remote. “Works for me,�
� he said as he caught up to her and opened the passenger side door.

  She turned in his arms. “Even better!” At his questioning look, she said, “‘Works for me.’ Stage-three motto.”

  He laughed. “Done.”

  * * *

  They drove down to Turtle Springs and met with the local assistant district attorney to pass along the files that had come in via e-mail to Hudson’s phone while they’d been eating their burgers and talking. They didn’t take the time to review them first, but the ADA promised she would and then she’d get back to them. There had been multiple lawsuits stemming from that night, as it turned out, not the least of which was the hotel seeking compensation for the damage done to the place by the brawl begun by the group of photographers and journalists who’d started things up back when Sally had blown her whistle.

  Hudson had already sent the hotel a check for the cost of the table and glassware that had broken when Taggert had gone flying, and had offered himself as free labor doing other repair work, which hotel management had accepted. The ADA thought the tapes might help the hotel as well. Moira knew the lounge was still closed for repairs, which meant Sally was out of a job until it reopened. So she was pleased by Hudson’s forward thinking in helping more people than just himself with the video tape information they’d managed to dig up.

  The drive to West Virginia took close to two hours, including a stop for frozen custard at a little mom-and-pop trailer stand that proudly served “the best custard in Hawksbill County” all year round.

  “I’d never have thought of eating ice cream in December,” Moira had told him before diving into the frozen concoction.

  “That’s what the hot fudge is for,” Hudson had told her.

  The snow had stopped, so they’d laughed and enjoyed the sundae, sitting bundled up in front of the huge fire pit the couple kept stoked and burning bright all winter long. Hudson had walked her to her side of the car, opening the door for her, as he’d done when they’d left the mill and the courthouse. She’d liked the gentleman he was. She’d also liked it when he’d turned her to face him before she’d slid into her seat, so he could steal the dab of hot fudge on her chin.

  They’d spent the rest of the ride telling each other about their childhoods. His was so dramatically different from hers, but he thought her stories of growing up with five siblings and a huge extended family were equally unusual and fascinating. He told her about Australia and she told him about the Pacific Northwest, one of the few places he hadn’t been to. As yet.

  They even joked about how she should go about breaking the news to her family that she’d met a guy while on holiday, and how he had this amazing, killer accent. And, oh, by the way, she was packing up and heading to the Blue Ridge Mountains to see if that worked out for her. Because, oh, right, she’d forgotten to mention, she’d flunked the California bar, but that was okay, because it turned out California wasn’t really for her anyway. And neither was Seattle.

  Yeah, that’d totally work. They wouldn’t worry at all about her now.

  Hudson had said he thought her parents would ultimately just want their children to be happy and Moira was thinking about that as they passed the sign welcoming them to WILD AND WONDERFUL WEST VIRGINIA .

  “You know, it’s funny,” she said, “but I’d forgotten the whole story about how my parents met. I mean, not forgotten it. But in the context of my current life predicament, I hadn’t really thought about it.”

  He glanced over at her and smiled. “Good story?”

  She smiled. “The best.” Moira told him about how her mother won a college scholarship for volleyball—she was the first in her family to even go to college. Only she really didn’t want to play collegiate level ball. She’d enjoyed it as a high school sport, but didn’t think sport was going to be her future. The problem was, she didn’t know what was going to be her future, and in the end, she hadn’t wanted to disappoint her parents, so she’d taken the scholarship.

  However, rather than become a physical education teacher, as everyone assumed she’d be, she’d gotten her bachelor’s degree in business. She’d met Moira’s father her freshman year at the Irish pub where she and her friends hung out and studied. His family owned the pub and he was working to help support his parents and grandparents, who all lived together, along with his five other siblings, in the rooms above the pub. No college for him, or any of his five other siblings, but he loved what he was doing, was a natural when it came to running the place, and as the oldest son, had long since planned on taking over the pub full time when his parents retired.

  “Mom finished school, gave every last stitch of her volleyball gear away, and put her educated business acumen—which turned out to be her superpower and her passion—to work for her boyfriend’s family-run pub.” Moira grinned. “Thirty-nine years later, Stella and Mick Brogan still run that place.”

  “And they said it wouldn’t last,” Hudson said with a grin. “You’re right. Very good story.”

  “My mom’s mom and pop didn’t decide to like my dad until he and my mom started having babies. Mom told them that they either loved all of her family, or they’ d just let the Brogan clan spoil those babies rotten.” Moira grinned. “Things changed pretty rapidly after that.”

  “A woman who knows how to get things done.” Hudson looked over to her and smiled. “Why am I not surprised?” He slowed the vehicle and took a turn on what swiftly became a dirt and gravel road. “Did her family truly come to love and respect your dad?”

  “You saw them all at the wedding—what do you think?”

  Hudson chuckled. “Right, I forgot. You come from a small village of people, and that’s just your immediate family.”

  “They can be a lot,” she said with a laugh. “But you’re right in that we—meaning my brothers and sisters and I—have never once doubted that we are loved. And supported. Our parents do want us to be happy, and they want us to succeed in life like they have, and sometimes that means they put their own hopes and dreams on us, because they don’t know what else to do. Until we tell them what we want. Then we have the biggest cheering section west of the Mississippi.” She leaned back in her seat, shook her head slowly, still smiling.

  “What?” he asked, glancing at her, then back to the road.

  “I should have given them more credit. I’ve been so far up inside my head about all of this, I haven’t really stopped to think about who they are. Who they really are, I mean, outside of being my folks.” She looked at Hudson then, and wondered if she’d still feel flushed and a little giddy when she looked at him ten years from now, twenty years from now. Her pop loved to say that her mom still “made his heart rev like a brand-new Chevy.” She’d thought that was so corny and silly when she was a kid. She’d lost count of the number of times he’d embarrassed the daylights out of her by kissing her mom in front of his youngest daughter and her friends. “It’s funny, but I forget they’re people, too. I mean, with their own hopes and dreams, past failures and triumphs. I guess I just wanted to live up to that, to make them proud. We all do.”

  “That’s a measure of the respect they’ve earned, and a measure of how well they raised all of you.”

  She nodded. “You’re right. I should also give them more credit for loving us first and foremost, and not measuring us against some ruler of success.”

  Hudson laughed and Moira sent him a questioning look. “It’s a sign of how adorably nerdy you really are, that you’d think the parents of a woman who’d earned a scholarship to Stanford, and is now a practicing attorney, could ever be disappointed in her with regards to her success.”

  “Well,” Moira said, “when you put it like that.”

  Hudson chuckled, then reached over and took her hand in his.

  That felt nice, too, she thought. Solid, strong, dependable. She loved that they talked and shared their thoughts, and it didn’t matter if they agreed or saw things the same way. She respected his process as he did hers. And oh, did he make her laugh. She lo
ved that she made him laugh, too.

  “I think your past successes would indicate that you can do anything you set your mind to,” he told her. “Your folks won’t worry over-much if you take a little time to figure out what, exactly, that’s going to be, right?”

  He glanced at her again, squeezed her hand, but continued to hold it as they slowly bumped down the gravel road.

  “Thank you,” she said a few moments later. When he sent her a questioning look, she said, “For putting things in the kind of rational, bare bones perspective that speaks to me. I’ve been on what feels like a constantly spinning hamster wheel of confusion since those bar exam results came back. Who knows how long I’d have gone on spinning round and round, and you just cut right through it, put it all in perfect, rational, sensible order.”

  He wiggled his eyebrows. “It’s all part of my master seduction plan.”

  She giggled. “And how, exactly, do you envision that working?”

  “Simple. I plan to make myself so indispensable to you that you won’t be able to live without me.”

  She grinned at that. “And what do you get out of the bargain? Besides free legal advice whenever you decide to toss an entire bar to save my skin?”

  “Don’t downplay that element. I brought you along today partly because I’m assuming you’ll be a much better negotiator than I will on the caboose.”

  “Ah, now the truth comes out,” she said drolly.

  “It’s true,” he said. “I’ll get one look at it and the guy will know he’s got a sucker for the taking.” He looked at her, a baleful, puppy dog look on his face. “You’ll save me, right?”

  She burst out laughing, then covered the hand that still held hers with her free one and patted it reassuringly. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “See?” He grinned. “Perfect match.”

  He slowed further and turned up a long, narrow drive that was even more deeply rutted than the one they’d just been on.