Chapter Two
The sun had already dipped behind the Elk Mountains as Josh left the B&B. He rolled down the windows of his pickup and enjoyed the coming coolness of evening. He considered heading home, then remembered Will Sweet’s text about meeting up at Tony’s Tavern. He should go back to his workshop, but instead, headed across Valentine—all seven blocks of it, then turned down Nellie Street until he came to Tony’s near Highway 82.
From the outside it was a nondescript square building with a blinking sign advertising the name, but inside it felt almost as good as home. Tony De Luca, his hockey and softball teammate, stood behind the bar as usual, washing glasses and talking to customers. Neon beer signs decorated any space left over between mounted animal heads. Flat screen TVs let customers at the half dozen tables watch their favorite games, which this time of year meant baseball and the Denver-based Colorado Rockies in particular.
Tony gestured toward the back room with his chin. Josh tipped his Stetson, then raised his hand and took a sip of pretend-beer. Tony grinned and shook his head as if to say, You’re in my bar; of course you want a beer.
In the back room, a pool table was the main focus beneath lights at the center of the room, scattered small tables surrounding it. Chris and Will Sweet faced off across the pool table, and Josh groaned aloud. They were way too competitive for brothers. They looked alike, with different shades of blond hair, though Will was taller and had a daredevil streak, compared to Chris’s shy, serious nature. Their brother Daniel lingered nearby, a newly minted college grad, standing out in Valentine with his multiple tattoos and the stud beneath his lip. Daniel didn’t care enough about anything to be competitive for any length of time. He did whatever moved him at the moment. He was darker, like their mom, and the shadows suited him. His teeth flashed in a white grin when he saw Josh.
“Look who tore himself away from the lingerie chick,” Will called.
Josh rolled his eyes. At least his brother Nate wasn’t here to hear that crack, Josh thought—he’d never hear the end of it.
“Lingerie chick?”
Josh sighed as he heard his brother’s voice. Nate was seated at a corner table behind him, playing cards with Adam Desantis and Dom Shaw.
“You didn’t have a Robbers’ Roost meeting without me, did you?” Josh asked.
“Do we all look like we’re playing serious cards?” Adam asked dryly. “We’re passing the time—”
“Staying away from your women?” Josh interrupted, then glanced at his brother. “And you a newlywed?”
Nate frowned and looked down at his cards, and Josh couldn’t help wondering if he was embarrassed. His dark hair was disheveled from the Stetson he’d tossed on a nearby table, and his ever-present dimples were absent.
“Em’s working. She has a cheesecake order for a luncheon at St. John’s tomorrow.”
His wife owned the Sugar and Spice bakery, and although she had plenty of counter help, with their grandmother and her fellow widows, baking was a talent that she hadn’t seemed to trust to anyone else—yet.
“And you don’t look happy about her late hours,” Josh said, casually heading toward their table. He pulled up a chair, slouched down, and rested one booted foot on another chair.
“He’s been whining,” Adam agreed.
Adam was an ex-Marine who’d come home late last year to visit his grandma, took a temporary job at the Silver Creek Ranch, and ended up falling for Josh’s sister, Brooke. Josh was grateful for his commitment to the ranch, as well as his help with the leather business.
Business. It really was a business now, he mused, not all that certain he was happy about that distinction. Before, it had always been his hobby, what he did to relax. But he’d started to say “yes” to too many requests, starting first with Dom Shaw’s sister, Monica. She owned the flower and consignment shop where he’d first placed his work to see if there was any kind of demand at all. And there had been—a lot.
Dom was a tall, broad-shouldered black guy who was as at ease on a horse as the rest of them but had somehow wound up in the world of food, owning his own brokerage catering to high-end grocery stores. He traveled occasionally to search out new products for his clients.
Josh seemed to be meeting a lot of people who traveled, he mused, thinking of Whitney.
“I’m not whining,” Nate said, tossing a frown at Adam. “No insults from the guy who hasn’t made an honest woman of my sister.”
Adam sat back in his chair, eyes wide with pretend affront. “When did this become about me?”
“Never mind.” Nate’s smile faded. “I just wish I could help Em. I don’t suppose you want another part-time job?”
“Only if she wants everything burned,” Adam said solemnly.
“You let Brooke do the cooking?” Dom asked curiously.
“Hey, my sister has learned a thing or two since she almost burned down your house,” Josh said.
“When she was eight,” Nate pointed out.
Dom held up both hands as if to placate them, then whipped his hand around when he almost revealed his cards. “It’s a great memory, is all. It took weeks to get the smell of smoke out of the curtains. I remember the cookies were little charred lumps—the ones that didn’t flame out.”
They all looked at each other and grinned.
“Back to the lingerie chick,” Nate said, laying down a card and nodding for Adam to deal him another.
“I don’t think she’d appreciate that nickname.” Josh smiled up at Tony, who brought him a beer. “Can you join us? Let Nicole tend bar a bit.”
Tony nodded, then returned a few minutes later with nachos and bowls of mixed nuts. “A healthy dinner,” he said.
“How was the lingerie chick?” Nate asked.
“Let it go,” Josh said, trying to see his brother’s hand.
Nate pulled back.
“There’s nothing to say about her. We talked designs, and I’m going to draw some sketches. We’ll see.”
Will came near, both hands resting on his cue stick propped on the floor. “I checked out her website. I bet your leather will be… interesting.”
There was grinning and elbowing and even a hoot from Daniel, who saluted him with a shot of tequila, then grimaced as he downed it.
“Naw, I’m not doing anything crazy,” Josh said. “I’ve already told you—necklaces that women like to wear when they want to feel a little kinky, but not really.”
“I thought she put leather to other uses…” Dom said, giving a leer.
“And you went there today to find out?” Nate asked with interest.
“It wasn’t like that,” Josh said casually. “We talked business.”
“You drove her away for enough months after—whatever you two did,” Chris said. He, too, abandoned the pool table.
Josh was starting to feel surrounded, but he kept his voice light. “Hey, I came here to relax, not be interrogated.”
“We can’t help it,” Nate explained. “You don’t tend to drive women out of town.”
“So you’ve been telling me.” Adam crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not sure I believe it.”
“You two were alone together back before Christmas,” Nate pointed out. “Something went on. And I know you aren’t gonna brag, but you can’t blame us for being curious.”
Josh dipped a chip in the nacho cheese and savored it. “Look, when there’s something to report, I’ll say.”
“Damn, you really are tryin’ to get with this chick,” Dom said in surprise.
“The lingerie chick,” Daniel corrected. “Let’s use the correct title.”
“She’s got a name,” Josh said with exasperation.
“So if you’re not interested,” Daniel began, “can I—”
“No.” Josh was surprised at the cool firmness of his voice, and he tried to lighten it by adding, “You’re a pipsqueak compared to her.”
But it was too late. They all exchanged knowing looks, and Josh didn’t mind that they all knew where he stood. No one got to put the moves on Whitney but him. “Deal me in.”
Will elbowed his little brother in the side. “He put you in your place, pipsqueak.”
Daniel gave a good-natured scowl, and Josh just grinned at him. That gave him an excuse not to look at his brother, who studied him, smile fading.
An hour later, the others gathered to watch Dom destroy Chris at the pool table while idly discussing what you’d need to survive a zombie apocalypse.
Nate finally got Josh alone, took a swig of his Dales, and said, “So about Whitney…”
Josh sighed. “You just can’t leave it alone, can you?”
“Well, you spent a lot of last year telling me I was spreading myself too thin, trying to be all things to everyone. I took to heart what you said—”
“Not without a fight.”
“—and I changed stuff. I pulled back from some of the day-to-day ranch work and concentrated on the business end.”
“Which you’re good at.”
“Which I’m good at. But now maybe you need a dose of your own medicine. You’ve been making stuff for Monica’s shop, and belts for the feed store. You’ve signed up to do something for that boutique in Aspen and now Leather and Lace.”
“You knew that before she left.” Josh pointed at him with the top of his beer bottle. “And you and Brooke both agreed that it would be okay.”
“Of course we did. We’ll help you any way we can. That’s not why I’m bringing this up. I think you can’t decide where to put most of your time. For me, it was sort of a clear-cut decision once I focused. But you? I think you love every part of your life.”
Josh took a sip and squinted as he watched the pool game. “So?”
“And now there’s Whitney. I saw you before you went to meet up with her—I haven’t seen you this intrigued in… maybe never.”
“So?” he repeated.
“She’s not exactly the small-town girl you’re used to.”
“Neither was Em before she decided to stay here.”
“I just think…” Nate hesitated. “I just think you should remember that she had no problem staying away all these months.”
“So you’re warning me not to fall in love with her?” Josh asked dryly.
Nate blinked at him. “I didn’t say—”
“Believe me, I know where I stand with her,” Josh interrupted, grinning, “and she knows where she stands with me. If we hang out, then we’ll have fun. I’m not expecting more than that.” He set down his beer and tossed some bills on the table to cover the food. “I’m heading home.”
“Work?” Nate asked.
“Nope, back to my workshop.”
“Which has ‘work’ in the title.”
Josh smiled. “So it does. But it doesn’t feel like work, you know?”
“Hope it stays that way.”
Josh drove his pickup the couple miles home, the lights of Valentine piercing the darkness. As he turned onto First Street, the stone town hall pointed up into the sky, spotlights emphasizing it, the tallest building in Valentine. After he crossed the little bridge over Silver Creek, he was on Thalberg land, the land that had been in his family since the mid nineteenth century. If he took a left, he’d come to the Widows’ Boardinghouse, where his grandma and two of her friends, Mrs. Palmer and Mrs. Ludlow, lived, and beyond them was the renovated cabin that Nate and Emily called home. He left the last of the lights behind, and darkness settled in, but for the couple lights at the ranch, like beacons guiding him home. The sky above wheeled with millions of stars, and the mountains rose like black shadows to block some of them out.
Ahead of him was a thousand acres of prime ranchland, small compared to some of the big outfits in other parts of the state. Endless fields of grass stubble were all that was left of the hayfields. In another couple months, the herd would come back down. A lot of other ranches were gone now, sold off as Aspen expanded, or their rich residents wanted a bit more privacy. And the money they offered? Josh couldn’t blame many a poor rancher or farmer for selling out. But not the Thalbergs. Things had been tough until the last few years, when their father had turned his small investments over to Nate, the genius college boy, who had a knack for knowing what might pay off. Heck, Nate had even invested in a winery on the Western Slope and organic produce farms for Aspen markets. He’d stabilized their finances, which had allowed them to buy new some equipment.
Their father had sort of retired to spend more time with their mom, who had MS, and Adam had hired on full-time last year after leaving the Marines. With Brooke’s new riding school, both she and Josh had part-time jobs that needed to be worked around. Josh couldn’t help feeling guilty. Somehow, he had to find a way to make everyone—including himself—happy.
The red-roofed barn and ranch house seemed deserted in the night. His mom and dad had the house to themselves now that Brooke and Adam had their own apartment in town above Sugar and Spice. Adam had lived in the bunkhouse for a while, but now that was just a refuge for the two of them if they worked late.
Last winter, Josh had moved out of the main house, too, although not far. He parked near the barn and got out, and the two cow dogs raced toward him with joyous abandon. Nate’s dog Scout lived at the cabin with Nate and Emily, and another of the dogs, Ranger, had attached himself to Adam. He petted silky heads, rubbed behind ears, and finally made his way into the barn and up the stairs to his recently created loft apartment. He’d been spending so much time in his workshop on the ground floor that it made sense to live just above.
The loft was one big open room, with large windows added on all sides and several skylights above. The space was partitioned into separate areas by the furniture involved—a bed, dresser, and closet in one corner, with a door leading to the bathroom nearby, the kitchen cabinets opposite, with an island separating it from the rest of the space, a table and four chairs between the kitchen and the “living room,” another corner of the room with a large flat screen TV, a big overstuffed couch, a coffee table, and a couple chairs grouped in front of it.
Josh found himself standing at the window, where, just over the trees, he could see the faint lights highlighting the pointed towers of town hall and St. John’s Church. And past them? The Adelaide B&B, where Whitney had an evening of work planned, no doubt. He understood where she was coming from as he changed into his old jeans and a ripped shirt for some time in his workshop. It was a shame for such a beautiful woman not to enjoy herself. Josh planned to make sure she learned all about the beauty of Valentine Valley—and got to know him at the same time.