Why had the scene been so poignant? It wasn’t as if she belonged here or had known these people her whole life. They were merely acquaintances brought into her orbit by a random snowstorm she’d survived with a random guy who’d taken up a corner of her heart.
So why had ditching them left her hollowed out? Guilt made a bid to flow in and fill in the gaps.
Hold on there just a minute.She reminded herself she’d already repaid Noah by working his tables tonight for free—she’d even dropped her tips inti the tip jar to be shared among the others. Her resolve grew steadier with more reminders: she had no room for cheaters in her life, and Dixie had promised to let her know how the pooch was doing. She would see Amy tomorrow. It wasn’t as if she would cut these people out of her life entirely. Well, not one or two of them anyway. With a shake of her head, she turned off her phone and let images and words swirl around her.
Ursula.Who gave their kid a Norse goddess’s name? The parents who’d brought her into this world, apparently. And goddess was a fitting descriptor for the stacked stunner. She was one of those flawless women with off-the-charts sex appeal. Every man in the tavern had appreciated that perfection by gluing his eyes to her. Not that Hailey wanted that kind of attention herself, but sheesh! How could you compete with the epitome of womanhood that had been plucked straight from the pages ofElle… or from the peak of Mt. Olympus?No wonder she had the power to lay claim to any man she wanted,includingNoah Hunnicutt.
Ursula. Simply rolling the name off one’s tongue gave it an exotic, sultry sound. It couldn’t help itself. And to top it off, according to Micky,thisUrsula was a badass fishing guide. A fishing guide who didn’t smell at all like fish and whose perfectly manicured hands didn’t show any signsof twisting nylon line or handling stinky, squishy bait at the end of razor-sharp barbs.
Hailey’s world consisted of a lonely apartment and a desk mounded with work.Yeah, let’s focus on that for a while. Except she couldn’t because a dark-haired bartender with a chiseled jaw kept popping up in her brain like an endless whack-a-mole. Good thing Dixie had interrupted them! God only knew how far Hailey’s out-of-control hormones might have taken her on the Noah train. Going any farther down that track would have merely addedmoreto her pile of troubles. Problems on problems, like Noah’s muscles on muscles.
Stop it! Do not think about his muscles.
Except they were such nice ones, especially when they’d been banded around her.
With a sigh, she loosened the stupid pigtails and got herself ready for bed. It was nearly 1:00 a.m., and she was exhausted. Sleep and oblivion, where she didn’t have to contemplate the cocktail of emotions pumping through her bloodstream, beckoned. She would have time enough for regrets at daybreak; they could keep her company on the drive back to Montrose.
Before she snuggled her tired bones under the mound of quilts awaiting her, she paused to shut down her computer. The new mail icon was lit, and when she clicked on it, she let out a curse. It was from Cliff, who hadn’t bothered responding to her until this evening when she’d been elbow deep in customers and cocktails.
Her frustration turned to alarm when she read his instructions to stay put. He would be arriving in Fall River tomorrow, and she would assist him on a few inspections that had fallen through the cracks. Would she please book them rooms close together—if not adjoining, with a winky face emoji—at the Majestic?
What?
Suddenly wide awake, she pulled up the department’s database but didn’t see where any establishment but Dell’s had been flagged for inspection. And it had been flagged sometimeyesterday, on Saint Patrick’s Day, which was only two months after its last passing inspection. The place wasn’t big enough to merit more than one inspection within the last few months, let alonetwoinspectors. But Inspector Cliff Meissner, whoconsidered himself above crawling around kitchens, had assigned himself the job.
She had some work to do.
Chapter 16
A Good Mechanic Is Hard to Find
Hailey groaned as sheeyed the obscene numbers on her phone—5:16 in the morning, and the world inside and out was steeped in a cold inkiness that made her want to pull the downy covers over her head. She’d awakened multiple times throughout the night, drifting in a twilight between sleep and alertness, which had left her fully fatigued.
As she hauled her weary self out of bed, Amy’s words from the night before danced through her head. They’d been rolling past Mountain Coffee’s darkened storefront, and Amy had pointed. “Stop by on your way out of town, and I’ll buy you a cup of coffee. I know the owner.” Amy’s proud grin had lightened Hailey’s mood.
With an unexpected morning off and time to kill, she took her time getting ready, looking forward to seeing her new friend again. She felt a kinship with the cheerful woman she couldn’t explain. Besides, she craved java, and the Loose Moose’s current state of remodel didn’t allow for brewing what she needed. Even if she had the tools, her body demanded the good stuff that could hold up a spoon on its own. But Amy’s placedidn’t open for another half hour, so she stepped outside in the crisp, icy air, intending to pile into her 4Runner and take it for a spin.
Snow glinted with millions of specks of reflected sunlight, nearly blinding her. The sky above was a vibrant cobalt, and the world around her dazzled with its brilliance. When her eyes adjusted to the brightness, she froze. In the Loose Moose’s front yard stood its namesake, all gangly limbs and a huge set of antlers. The moose eyed her before ambling behind the bungalow.
Must be a good omen, right?
Hailey was as superstitious as the next athlete. A breaching whale or a ray skipping over the water had always been harbingers of good fortune on surf days. A dead crab or a colony of beached Portuguese men o’ war, on the other hand, brought nothing but bad luck. Time away from the waves had lessened the omens’ impact on her psyche, but her receptors still tuned in to fortune’s many signs.
Like the presence of a real live moose.
The theory proved right when her SUV’s engine fired up on the first try, and she let out a squeak of happiness.
She tapped out the text she’d been composing in her head before easing the vehicle onto Bowen Street. She wanted to let the vehicle run for a while, so she drove the few blocks to the outskirts of the sleepy town, where she followed a wooden sign that pointed toward a rec center that resembled a woodsy lodge, complete with wraparound porch and rocking chairs that invited relaxing—when it wasn’t below freezing outside.
Another sign pointed to an outdoor ice rink, and she followed an access road that wrapped behind the building. The SUV’s tires crunching over hardpack created a strangely soothing sound, and she let her mind wander to how often skaters used the rink and whether they played games here. As she cleared the building, the sheet of ice came into view. She jammed on the brakes and blinked. A dozen or so cow elk nosed at the snow-covered grass beside the rink. One looked up but went right back to grazing, nonplussed by her presence.
They were big and healthy and majestic as they stood on the fluffy blanket of white, and Hailey leaned forward, taking in the view. She’d seen elk a few times before, but not so close and not in such a casual setting.
Beyond them, the sawtooth San Juans rose stark and jagged against a clear morning sky in varying shades of salmon and arctic blue. Draped in swaths of snow and ice, the peaks brought to mind the purple mountain majesties that had inspired “America the Beautiful.”
Hailey was caught off guard by a swell of emotion that caused tears to rim, and she gusted out a laugh. “Stop being a goof.”
A few feet off her back bumper, a car flashed its headlights, startling her, and she waved and guided the 4Runner toward the rink. The other vehicle pulled up beside her, and the driver rolled down the window. Blond curls capped with a colorful, striped beanie appeared, and Hailey lowered her passenger window and grinned.
