Any leftover thoughts of the best run of the year—yes, that’s what it was—dissipated by nine o’clock this morning when a torrent of ice like you read about belched out of the main lines. If anything indicates the end of the season, it is mucky pumps, tanks and lines.
—Colton Abbott’s sugaring journal, April 15
The next morning, Colton made an effort to get back to his routine on the mountain. He tended to some record keeping, hiked up the mountain to check on trees that had shown signs of a possible blight earlier in the summer and added another cord to the growing woodpile.
By noon, however, he was hungry and in bad need of someone to talk to about all the shit that was in his head. He gave careful consideration to several possible people, including both his parents, his sister Hannah and his brother Hunter, all of whom had opinions Colton normally trusted implicitly. However, Will had the best perspective on Colton’s situation, having recently been through it himself.
And since Colton needed perspective, he went looking for his second-oldest brother. He parked in front of the store and was halfway up the back stairs that led to the offices when he met Charley coming down.
“What brings you into town on a Wednesday?” his sister asked.
“I’m looking for Will, if you must know.”
“He’s across the street at the diner having lunch.”
When Colton heard the words diner and lunch, his stomach let out a huge grumble. “Okay, I’ll look for him over there.”
“So, you and Lucy, huh?”
“Yeah, what’s it to you?”
“Nothing.”
Charley could be such a pain in the ass when she wanted to be. “Great. See ya.” He turned to head back down the stairs.
“Are you going to move there?”
Colton stopped in his tracks and turned to look up at her. “No plans to move.”
“Then she’s coming here?”
“That’s not happening either.”
“So what’re you going to do, then?”
“Who knows? For now, we’re having fun and not worrying too much about the future.”
“Well, good luck with that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’d hate to see you get hurt when she gets bored and moves on to someone more convenient, Colton.”
Her words sent an arrow of fear straight to all his insecurities where Lucy was concerned, especially since she’d told him herself that losing interest had been a problem for her in the past. “Thanks for that cheery thought. Appreciate it.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be a downer. Just be careful, okay?”
“I will and thanks for the concern, but it’s all good. Nothing to worry about.”
“See you later.”
“See ya.” He trotted down the stairs, the weight of Charley’s worries accompanying him across Elm Street to the diner, where he found Will and Cameron having lunch with his grandfather. For a second he was torn about whether he wanted all three of them in his business, but then his gramps caught sight of him and waved him over.
Elmer slid over to make room for Colton on his side of the booth. “This is a nice surprise.”
Colton gave his grandfather a one-armed squeeze. Elmer Stillman was one of his all-time favorite people. “For me, too.”
“What brings you off the mountain on a Wednesday?” Will asked.
“Am I so regimented that I can’t deviate from the schedule without everyone wondering why?”
After a heartbeat of a pause, Elmer and Will both said, “Yes,” making Cameron giggle.
“I take it you’re kind of predictable,” she said with a kind smile.
“Clearly, I need to shake things up if everyone thinks they know me so well,” Colton said.
“What is that in your shirt pocket?” Cameron asked with a shriek that caught the attention of diners all around them.
Colton placed his hand over his chest and realized she meant the phone. He withdrew it from his pocket and placed it on the table.
“Oh. My. God,” Will said. “This is worse than I thought.”
Cameron picked up the phone and programmed her number into it before Colton had a chance to ask her what she was doing. “There.” She slid it across the table to him. “Now you have two numbers, interestingly, both of them New York numbers.”
Colton scowled at her, which only made her laugh.
Megan appeared at the table, casting a frosty glare at Cameron, who smiled sweetly at the waitress. “Something to drink?” she asked Colton.
“A Coke would be great, thanks, and a turkey club.”
Megan turned and walked away.
“Was it something I said?” Colton asked.
“Nope,” Cameron replied as she took a drink of her soda. “All her hatred is for me.”
“For you?” Colton couldn’t imagine anyone hating Cameron. She was so damned nice to everyone. “What the hell did you do?”
She used her thumb to point to Will. “I cast a spell on him and got him to fall in love with me.”
“Sorry,” Colton said, plopping a straw into the Coke the busboy delivered. “Still not getting it.”
“Apparently,” Will said, clearing his throat and seeming embarrassed by the whole thing, “Megan has had a, um, a crush on me for a, um, a while now.”
Cameron spun halfway around in her seat to stare at her boyfriend. “A while? More like forever, and it wasn’t a crush. In her mind, it was full-blown love.”
“Which I have never encouraged.”
Cameron leaned in. “And the kicker of it all is that Hunter has it bad for Megan.”
“Hunter as in my brother Hunter?” Colton asked, stupefied by this revelation. Hunter and Megan? No way.
“One and the same.”
“How does she know all this?” Colton asked Will.
“It’s her special gift. Abbott 101.”
“Damn, I need to get off my mountain more often. I miss out on all the good stuff up there.” He watched Megan hustle around the diner, interacting with customers and staff. “I’m not sure I see her with Hunter.”
“A wise man once said that a fool in love makes no sense to anyone but the fool,” Elmer said.
“I like that one,” Cameron said with a warm smile for Elmer. “Can I write that down?”
“It’s all yours, honey.”
Colton had so many things he wanted to ask them about his own situation, but the words were frozen on his tongue, stuck on the embarrassment of having to ask how he’d know if he was in love with Lucy. If he had to ask, maybe that was a good sign that he wasn’t.
“Colton?”
Cameron nudged him out of the contemplative state he’d slipped into. “Sorry. Did you say something?”
“We asked how the rest of your weekend with Lucy went.”
“Good. Great.”
“Ohhh,” Cameron said, “that’s what she said, too.”
“Is it? She did?” Ugh! Could he sound any more pathetic?
Cameron laughed at his distress. “Yes, she did. She said she really enjoyed seeing your mountain and learning about how you make syrup. She loved it.”
“That’s good,” Colton said, aware of Will watching him intently from across the table.
“She said you’re going there for a week on Friday.”
“Yeah.”
“Wait till you see New York, bro,” Will said. “It’s unreal. You won’t believe how crazy it is.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” He was far more looking forward to a week with Lucy, but he didn’t share that.
“So are you in love?” Cameron asked with a goofy grin.
The unexpected question knocked the wind out of him for a second. But he also recognized the opening Cameron had given him. “I don’t know.” He looked to her and then Will. “How would I even know that?”
Will laughed, and for a second Colton thought his brother was laughing at him. Then he realized he was laughing at himself and sharing the amusement with Cameron.
“Your brother had the same problem not all that long ago,” Cameron said. “He wasn’t recognizing the symptoms for what they were.”
“Give him your list,” Will said to her.
Cameron ticked the items off on her fingers. “She’s all you think about. You can’t wait to spend more time with her, and you can’t seem to keep your hands to yourself when she’s around.”
Colton’s palms felt sweaty and his heart beat fast as he realized all those things applied to him where Lucy was concerned.
“Oh boy,” Elmer said, taking a close look at Colton. “Looks like he’s caught the love bug.”
Cameron reached across the table to cover Colton’s hands with her own. “If it’s any consolation, I know Lucy is grappling with many of the same feelings.”
It was a huge consolation, but before Colton could say so, Megan appeared at the table carrying two plates laden with food. She stared at Cameron and Colton’s joined hands. “So one brother isn’t enough for you? Now you’re after him, too?”
“Ease up, Megan,” Will said somewhat sharply.
Megan’s face fell, and her eyes filled.
Cameron pulled her hands back so Megan could put the plates on the table.
The two plates landed with a clatter, and Megan scurried off. The busboy delivered the other two meals.
“You’ve broken her heart,” Cameron said to Will as she stole one of his fries.
“Enough is enough. She needs to leave you alone.”
As he devoured his turkey club, Colton was grateful for the diversion Megan’s jealousy had created because he was still reeling from hearing Cameron’s list and his grandfather’s comment about having been bitten by the love bug. Was that true? Did that explain the overwhelming sense of malaise that had overtaken him since she left?
Elmer nudged him. “You okay, buddy?”
“Yeah, just thinking.”
“Save a couple of minutes for me after lunch.”
Colton wiped a smudge of ketchup off his lip. “Sure.”
When they finished their lunch, Will swiped the check off the table and got up to pay. Colton noticed him speaking with Megan, who looked at him worshipfully as she nodded at whatever he was saying. “Looks like he’s making up with her,” Colton said, nodding toward the register.
Cameron turned in her seat to check it out and then quickly turned back around when Will returned to the table. “What was that about?” she asked him.
“I asked Megan to cut out the hostility toward you. I told her it was annoying me.”
Cameron’s eyes lit up with pleasure. “You really said that?”
“Yeah, I really said that. She’s got no reason to be hostile to you. There was never anything between us, which I just reminded her.”
“Whoa,” Colton said. “You came right out and said that?”
“Among other things.”
“What other things?” Elmer asked.
“I mentioned she might be directing her attention toward the wrong Abbott brother.”
“Oh, jeez,” Colton said. “Thanks a lot. Now it’s open season on the other six of us.”
“I meant Hunter, you fool,” Will said.
“Did you actually mention his name to her?” Colton asked.
“Um, no, I just said she ought to pay attention to one of my brothers.”
“Idiot.”
“I was trying to help him out,” Will said.
“Your intentions were good, William,” Elmer said with a patronizing smile.
“Exactly,” Will said with a pointed look for Colton.
“I’m out of here before she thinks you meant me,” Colton said. “Gramps, can I walk you to your car?”
“That’d be great. Thank you for lunch, Will.”
“Yeah,” Colton said. “Thanks, Will.” He hadn’t gotten the one-on-one time he’d wanted with his brother, but he felt a little less wound up than he’d been when he came down off the mountain. And of course, the food had helped, too. Food always made things better. “Where’d you park?” Colton asked his grandfather.
“Behind the store.”
They walked to the crosswalk in front of Nolan’s garage and waited for a chance to cross.
“Looks like we’ve got some company,” Elmer said, nodding to Fred the moose, who strolled down the middle of Elm Street without a care in the world. Accustomed to his frequent visits, motorists simply waited for him to pass before continuing on their way.
“He scared the living hell out of Lucy up on the mountain,” Colton said, relaying the story of her introduction to Fred.
Elmer laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes. “I suppose the old guy can be somewhat intimidating if you haven’t yet made his acquaintance.”
“Lucy was totally freaked out, to say the least.”
“I like her,” Elmer said, hooking his arm through Colton’s as they crossed the street.
“I like her, too.”
“I couldn’t help but notice at dinner the other day that you rarely take your eyes off her when she’s in the room.”
“Really? I do? I mean I don’t?”
“Uh-huh. After you left, your dad and I agreed that you seem positively smitten.”
“Smitten. Hmm, is that so?”
“Yep. And she seems equally so. Had her eyes on you much of the time, too.”
Hearing that, Colton was filled with unreasonable hope that was quickly dashed when he recalled all the reasons it might never work between them.
“I would’ve thought you’d be happier to have found someone special.”
“I am happy. When I’m with her. When I’m not with her . . . Not so happy.”
“Absence makes the heart grow fonder,” Elmer reminded him.
“So far all it’s done is make me crazy.”
“That’s because you’re in love.” When Colton began to protest, Elmer held up his hand to stop him. “You’re in love with her, or you wouldn’t feel so unsettled when you’re not with her.”
Colton sagged against his grandfather’s small pickup truck. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
Elmer replied with a loud bark of laughter. “Welcome to the club, my friend.” He stood next to Colton, leaning on the truck. “Did I ever tell you that when I met your grandmother, she was dating my cousin?”
“What? No!”
“Yep. You want to talk about torture. Here was this absolutely lovely gal who made my heart beat fast and my tongue get tied up in knots every time I tried to talk to her, and she was running around to dances and parties with my cousin. I’d always been close to him, but suddenly I was having murderous thoughts about him.”
“So what happened?”
“She told him she fancied me.”
“She actually said that to him?”
Elmer’s eyes shone with pride and pleasure from the memory of the wife he’d adored. “She actually did.”
“How did he take it?”
“He punched me in the mouth. That’s how I found out she’d chosen me.”
Colton couldn’t believe he’d never heard this story before.
“But then I told him I hadn’t encouraged her nor had I stolen her from him as he’d implied, and he backed down. I was her choice. There was nothing much he could do about that.”
“Did he still speak to you after all of this?”
“Oh yeah. We didn’t let it fester. He went on to marry someone he was much more suited to, and they were married for fifty-some years. The four of us were great friends.” Elmer seemed a million miles away. “I’ll never forget that day. I went to her house with my lip still bleeding to ask her if what he’d told me was true. Had she really chosen me?”
Colton hung on his grandfather’s every word, fascinated and riveted.
“She said, ‘Yes, I chose you, but I’m not going to keep you if you’re going to be working things out with your fists.’ I told her I had been on the receiving end of a fist in this case, and the fat lip was the price I’d had to pay to clear the way to her. She liked that. We were together from then on. Got married a couple months later.”
“I love that story, Gramps. Thanks for sharing it with me.”
“I love it, too. It’s proof that true love will always win out no matter what obstacles might stand in the way.”
True love will always win out. God, what a comforting thought that was. “I think I do love her.” For some reason, saying the words out loud felt incredibly freeing.
“Of course you do. She’s a great gal, full of spunk and personality and incredibly beautiful, too. Two of you have some things to work out, no question about that. But I have faith in you—and in her. You’ll figure it out.”
“You’re pretty good at this free advice thing, you know that?”
“I’ve been in this business a long time, son. I should hope I’m good at it by now.” His straight face made his grandson laugh.
“This helped. Thanks.”
“It always helps to air it out, and I’m always here to listen.”
Colton hugged him. “Love ya, Gramps.”
Elmer patted him on the back. “Love you, too, boy. More than you could ever know.”
Fortified by the conversation with his grandfather, Colton returned to his mountain with far more optimism than he’d had before. Now he just needed to get through the next few days until he could be with her again. He could do that. Couldn’t he?