Yeah, the pressure to do good sat like a granite boulder on his back, and he prayed it wouldn’t crush him.
His mother pulled in a breath. “Now for the sixty-four-dollar question: Is Ursula coming?”
Noah shoved his hands through his hair. If it had been longer, he’d have gripped it and tugged. Hard. “I didn’t invite her.”
“I’m afraid that won’t stop her. This town is too small for hernotto know, and she does enjoy being seen in the right places.”
He refrained from adding she didn’t shy away from the wrong places either. “I can’t imagine her missing out on the chance, so I expect she’ll turn up at some point tonight.”
A few silent beats ticked by.
“What exactly happened between you two at Wyatt’s wedding last January?” His mom’s question was delicately posed, a gentle probe.
The night of his cousin’s wedding came blasting up from a remote corner of Noah’s brain, where he’d stored the unwelcome memory.
“You don’t want details, Mom. Let’s just say things went so far south they hit Antarctica, and we broke up for good.” No need sharing the gorydetails that would make him look like a dupe of epic proportions and make Ursula appear to be a two-timing bed-hopper—which she was, but their moms had been friends since they were kids, and he saw no reason to inject that level of awkwardness into their friendship. His and Ursula’s on-again, off-again tumultuous … whatever it was … had made the relationship between their two families uncomfortable enough as it was over the years.
His mother pursed her lips in response.
“What?”
“I’m just wondering … You two have broken up and gotten back together so many times it’s hard to gauge how serious it is this time. I mean, what do I say to her mother?”
“How about you don’t bring it up? Ifshementions it, you can say you don’t know anything because I’m not talking. Which is the truth. Between you and me, though, the breakup was my choice, and it really is final.”
His mother’s eyes scanned his, appraising him. “Can I say I’m relieved to hear it?”
“To hear that I finally woke up?” he snorted.
She shook her head. “I just never thought she … You need someone who supports you, who’s your best friend. Not someone who manipulates everyone to get what she wants. I know our families go way back and it’s been practically expected that you two would wind up married, but I think that, just like this town is getting an infusion of fresh blood, it wouldn’t hurt for a little fresh blood to come your way too.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Are we talking about vampires here? I mean, with all thatfresh blood—”
“No,” she spluttered, “that’s not what I meant.”
He pulled her in and dropped a kiss on her head. “It’s a joke. I was trying to lighten things up.”
A familiar voice yelled from downstairs.
She slapped her palms against her thighs. “Sounds like the gang’s here—or at least Charlie is. I’ll head on down.”
“Give me a sec, and I’ll be right behind you.”
After she let herself out, he paced into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. “You can do this, Hunnicutt.” The exercise was strange, and he let out a self-conscious laugh. The next two attempts went no better.
“All right, let’s get serious.”
He closed his eyes and imagined himself at the top of Harakiri in Austria or Delirium Dive in Banff, ready to propel himself down a steep mountain chute. He did what he’d done to calm his fears back then, rolled his shoulders, popped his neck, and pushed three enormous breaths through his lungs.
“You can do this,” he repeated until his voice grew stronger and he could look at his reflection andbelieve.
Who knew that facing this reboot of his life was more frightening than hurtling down a vertical ski run that held a high probability of ending one’s life?
Chapter 2
Rumblings
Hailey Bailey craned herhead and peered through her cracked windshield. The steel-gray clouds bellied ominously above her, and she debated with herself. Should she look for an overpass? A grouping of ponderosa pines? Or would the thunderstorm brewing atop the peaks of the San Juans merely dump rain pellets that behaved like a car wash? At best, she’d emerge with a clean car. At worst, broken windows and dents from churning hailstones or her tired 4Runner smashed by whichever limb the wind ripped from a tree.
