Chill Out (7 page)

“Hey, good morning.”

“Good morning.” Renata smiled back, determined to put on a happy face. “What are you making?”

“Blueberry muffins. Do you like them?”

“What’s not to like? If you’re baking, I’m eating.”

He poured batter into a muffin tray. “Good. I like a woman with a healthy appetite.”

“I have a very healthy appetite, unfortunately. It’s probably the reason I’m not a size two.”

“Why would you want to look like a stick?”

“I don’t want to look like a stick, but I don’t want to be shaped like a melon, either.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’re not shaped like a melon. You’re shaped liked a woman, a beautiful, desirable woman.”

Renata’s heart soared. Did he really think she was beautiful and desirable?

“Thank you. It’s nice of you to say that.”

“I’m not saying it to be nice. I’m saying it because it’s the truth.” He slipped the muffin tray into the hot oven. “I’m a doctor, remember? I know about stuff like healthy body weight. And you are very…healthy.”

“Right.” Her heart crashed back to earth. Of course. The doctor thing. Still, he’d called her beautiful and desirable. She’d hold onto that little nugget. Long after Noah was gone from her life, she’d remember his words and treasure them.

A change of topic was in order. “It sounds like the blizzard is over.”

Noah grabbed two cups and poured coffee, and after adding milk to hers, handed it to her. “Yeah, it is, but there’s a ton of snow out there. A huge drift is blocking the driveway. We won’t be going anywhere until a snowplow comes by.”

She hid her smile behind her cup. That was fine with her. She hoped the snowplow took its sweet time.

“I’m going to take Spike out after breakfast. Would you like to come along?”

“Sure. I can probably find some extra clothes of Caroline’s to wear.”

“You’ll need them. The temperature dropped to minus twenty-five Celsius overnight.”

She groaned in dismay. “Lovely.”

“I’m going to dig out our vehicles. As soon as the snowplow comes, we’ll be ready to go.”

He sounded anxious to leave, and once more she was reminded that their time together was drawing to a close. “Have you talked to your brother yet?”

“No, not yet. It’s a little early.”

Renata could feel his tension. She reached across the counter and grasped his hand.

“He’s going to want to see you. I’m sure he’s missed you as much as you’ve missed him.”

He hung onto her hand. “I hope you’re right.”

“I am. I have very good instincts.”

Noah laughed at that. “Then I guess I should trust you.”

“I guess you should.”

After breakfast, they dressed warmly and took Spike outside. The dog promptly did his business, then ran back to the door, crying to be let back in.

“Don’t you want to play in the snow, Spike?”

The dog whimpered, and Renata could see shivers racing through his body. She opened the door and let him into the cottage. “I guess he’s not used to this kind of weather.”

“Neither am I,” Noah said, rubbing his hands together. “I almost forgot what a Manitoba winter was like.”

Renata retrieved a couple of shovels from just outside the back door. She handed one to Noah. “Here you go. Nothing like a little shoveling to warm you up.”

They worked steadily for more than half an hour. Noah shoveled the snow from around the vehicles, and Renata cleared the walkway between the cottage and the cars. When she was done, she helped Noah remove the last of the snow and then stuck her shovel in a snowbank.

“I can’t let fresh snow like this go to waste.”

She let herself fall backward into the snow, then moved her arms and legs in a windshield-wiper fashion.

“What are you doing?” Noah asked.

“Didn’t you ever make snow angels when you were a kid?”

“Maybe when I was a kid.” His tone told her he thought snow angels were meant to stay in childhood. Didn’t he play anymore?

“Come on, give it a try. It’s fun.”

“Okay, but if one of my extremities freezes off, it’s your fault.”

With that, he fell backwards beside her. Renata laughed in delight.

“See? Isn’t that fun?”

Noah flapped his arms and legs in the snow with a huge smile on his face. “Yeah, it kind of is.”

“You know what else is fun?”

He turned to look at her. “What?”

Renata grabbed a mitt-f of snow. “Giving face washes.”

She pushed the snow into his face and then jumped out of his reach. He sputtered for a moment and brushed snow from his face before leaping to his feet.

“Now you’ve done it!”

Laughing, Renata ran toward the cottage, but Noah was too fast for her. He caught her around the waist and spun her around.

“I should dunk you in the snow for that!”

“But you won’t. You’re too much of a gentleman.”

“You’d be surprised at how ungentlemanly I feel right now.”

Her breath stopped at the look in his eyes. He crushed her against his body and lowered his head to kiss her. The cold skin of his face contrasted with the heat of his mouth. He tasted sweet, like blueberries and sugar, and she swept his mouth with her tongue to taste every bit of him. He devoured her like a starving man.

But then like before, he pulled away. Renata nearly cried in frustration.

“I shouldn’t have done that again,” he whispered. “I’m so—”

She put her wet mitten over his mouth. “If you say you’re sorry for kissing me, I’m going to wash your face in snow again.”

When she removed her hand, he smiled. “I’m not really sorry. It’s all your fault anyway. You keep tempting me.”

Her heart lifted at his words, but she decided to keep things light. “Tempting you? With what? My sexy ski suit? Or do you find my toque a turn-on?”

He leaned forward and kissed the tip of her cold nose. “It’s the whole cute little package. You’re a pretty good kisser, by the way.”

She feigned offense. “Just pretty good?”

“Okay, you’re a spectacular kisser. Is that better?”

She returned his smile. At least teasing was better than being sorry. “Much better. Now that we’ve established how wonderful I am, do you think we can go back to the cottage? I’m freezing!”

“Yeah, let’s go. It’s time for me to phone Dylan. I can’t put it off any longer.”

“It’s going to be okay. You’ll see.”

He nodded briefly, but she knew he didn’t believe her.

For his sake, she hoped she was right.

Chapter Eight

As soon as they got back into the cottage and removed their outer gear, Noah reached for his phone and dialed Dylan’s number. Renata went upstairs, with Spike following. Noah appreciated that she was giving him privacy, but a part of him wanted to hang onto her for courage.

Dylan’s voice mail clicked on. Frustrated at the delay, he swallowed past the lump in his throat to leave a message.

“Dylan, it’s Noah. I’m home, and I’d like to talk to you. I’m hoping maybe we can meet. Call me.” He left his cell number and hung up.

What did he do now? Would Dylan call him back? He hoped his brother would answer soon, one way or the other, because the waiting was going to kill him.

He called up the staircase. “Renata?”

She hurried down the stairs. “That was fast.”

“The call went straight to voice mail. I left a message.”

She touched his arm. “He’ll call back.”

“I hope so.”

“He will. I have a good feeling.” She dropped her hand and smiled. “In the meantime, I’m hungry. What are you making me for lunch?”

He couldn’t help but smile. Thank God she was here. “Didn’t I just make breakfast for you?”

“That was hours ago. I worked up an appetite shoveling snow.”

He was completely charmed by her. “Okay, fine. Let’s see what’s in the fridge.”

While he heated leftover soup, Renata set the table. Spike plodded down the stairs and sat on his haunches near the table, looking up adoringly at her.

“I think Spike is going to be brokenhearted when you leave here,” he said.

“I think I’m going to be brokenhearted, too.”

The note of sadness in her voice made him look up. Their eyes connected, a sizzle of awareness passing between them, until she looked away and broke the spell.

He ladled soup into their bowls and brought them to the table. He sat across from her, wondering if he should ask if she was okay. But then she smiled, and he thought he must have imagined that she’d actually miss him when the weekend was over.

“Isn’t it beautiful out there?” she said, gesturing to the view of the lake through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

“It’s also ridiculously cold out there.”

“Don’t be such a cynic. There’s not a cloud in the bright blue sky, and the sun is shining for all it’s worth. I can bear the cold as long as there’s sunshine.”

She was right about the view; it was breathtaking. A heavy blanket of immaculate snow covered the lake, and the snow weighing down the tree branches sparkled in the bright sunshine.

“It’s a Christmas card, all right. But it’s going to take me a while to get used to the cold again. I’m not sure I ever will.”

“Does that mean you’ll go back to Africa?”

“I haven’t decided what I’m doing next. It depends on what happens with Dylan.”

“Of course.”

She stuck her spoon into her soup and stirred it around. For someone claiming to be hungry, she wasn’t eating much.

Spike began to whine, begging for food. Renata looked up at him. “Can I give him something?”

“No, he’s already been fed. He’s going to be insufferable if you feed him every time he begs.”

“Aw, come on. Look at that face. How can you say no to those big sad eyes?”

“Like this: No, Spike.”

“Sorry, buddy. I tried,” she said to the dog.

With an indignant look at Noah, Spike headed for the sofa. He climbed up, turned around twice, and dropped. Within moments he was snoring.

“Your heart’s in the right place, but with a dog as big as Spike, if I don’t show him who’s the alpha male around here, he’ll walk all over me. Literally.”

“I suppose that’s true. I’ll try to be more of a disciplinarian.”

“I can’t wait to see that.” He wanted to know more about her. “How long have you known Caroline?”

She took a sip of her soup. “About five years, I think. We first met when we both worked at a big accounting firm. We hit it off right away.”

“And you decided to go into business together.”

“Caroline decided. If it had been up to me, I’d probably still be at my old job. She cajoled and nagged until I gave in.”

“What were you so worried about?”

“A lot of things. Not having enough business, not making as much money as we did before. Mainly just change. I’m not a person who likes to rock the boat.”

“And yet here you are playing hooky.”

She shrugged one small shoulder. “That’s different. My mother is trying to play matchmaker. I want to get married, but not at any cost.”

Renata looked away as if afraid she’d said too much. When she turned back to him it was with a smile.

“So when you came out here as a kid, what did you do on a rainy day when you couldn’t play outside?”

He gave her credit for deftly changing the subject. “Mostly drove Tyler’s mom crazy, I think. The Montgomerys didn’t have a TV in the cottage in those days. We played his mom’s records when she let us, and held wrestling matches in the living room. I think we broke a lamp or two.”

“No wonder you drove her nuts.”

“Sometimes we were good. We played card games and put together puzzles. We used to have some cutthroat Monopoly games.”

Renata got up from her chair, her soup forgotten. “There’s a bunch of board games around here someplace. You want to play? I have to warn you, I rock at Scrabble.”

The last thing he felt like doing was playing games. But he couldn’t sit around wringing his hands while he waited for Dylan to call.

“You’re on. But I think I should warn
you
. I was the Scrabble champion of this cottage back in the day.”

“Bring it on, Sunshine.”

****

“That’s a triple word score for me.” Renata smirked as she added up her points. “I appear to have beaten you once again.”

“Nobody likes a gloater.” Noah tried to look pouty, but the truth was he’d enjoyed the afternoon with Renata, even if she had beaten him four games out of five. He’d only won that one game because she’d let him use “biq,” the Klingon word for water. He suspected she was just humoring him.

She almost made him forget Dylan hadn’t called. Almost but not quite.

“I can’t help it if I’m brilliant. Would you like to play another round?”

“Sure. I’ll beat you this time.”

She snorted. “In your dreams.”

She gathered the tiles and put them in a cloth bag. “Would you mind turning on some lights? It’s getting dark.”

He stood and switched on the lamp next to the sofa, checking his watch as he did so. Almost five o’clock. If Dylan meant to call, surely he would have done so by now.

“He’ll call,” Renata said, reading his mind. “Don’t lose faith.”

Noah nodded, even though he had no faith left. Dylan had probably deleted his call the moment he got it. He wouldn’t blame him if he had.

“I was thinking of making tea,” she said. “Would you like some?”

“No, thanks. You go ahead.”

She got up from the sofa and went to the kitchen, filling the kettle at the tap and setting it on the stove. When the water boiled, she made herself tea and returned to the sofa with her cup and a plate of cookies.

“I thought you could use some sustenance,” she said with a smile. “And I have the munchies.”

Despite his disappointment, he couldn’t help but smile. She was adorable. He would have gone crazy without her. It hadn’t escaped his notice that she’d worked very hard to keep him from worrying about Dylan’s call. But it was time to face facts.

“Renata, it’s no use—”

His cell phone rang. When he picked it up, he saw his brother’s name.