CHAPTER ONE
Ten Years Later
Dammit, she knew better. Some chef she was.
Water boiled bubbled over the top of the pot and flooded her new stove’s pristine surface. The pot was too small for the amount of pasta Maggie wanted to cook, but the bigger pot was already in use and she figured she could get away with it, just this once.
Wrong again, Maggie.
She turned off the gas burner and yelped in pain as water splashed up and scalded her bare arm.
Damn, that hurt, but it served her right for being so careless and for thinking she could cut corners in the kitchen. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Suddenly, a man was standing next to her at the stove, sliding a heavy lid over the pot and pushing it onto a back burner. She’d been too distracted to notice his arrival in her kitchen, but now as she looked up into his face, her heart jumped into her throat. Though she hadn’t seen him in ten years, she remembered every angle of his face, every golden speckle in his grey-green eyes, every wave in his dark hair.
“Luke.”
The old resentment burned in her chest, surprising her with its intensity. She thought she’d put it behind her. Put him behind her.
Without a word, he steered her to the sink, turned on the cold water and pushed her arm beneath the stream. The water immediately soothed her scalded skin.
“Keep your arm under the cold water till the pain goes away.”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
The corner of his mouth turned up in the way her teenage self had always found sexy. Now, as a grown woman, it only made her angry.
“I’m here to apply for the job, but I wanted to talk to you first.”
Maggie’s mind went blank. She couldn’t think with him looking at her, touching her. She could barely breathe. She hated that he still had that affect on her. “What job?”
“The job as your hotel and restaurant manager.”
Her sister Harper and brother-in-law Ethan had been searching for someone experienced in the hotel business to handle the job. With the renovation of the fishing lodge Maggie and her sisters had inherited from their grandfather nearing completion, they needed help running the new and improved Solace Lake Lodge. Years ago, Luke’s mother Abby told her he’d gone out to California to work in a hotel, but Maggie didn’t know the specifics. She had avoided talking to Abby since she moved back to the lodge.
“I’ve been working at a boutique hotel in the Napa Valley for the last eight years. I manage the hotel and restaurant, and I oversee the wines we serve. I’ve taken special training in pairing California wines with food.”
Maggie turned off the water and dried her arm on her apron. As soon as her skin dried the burn stung again, but she ignored it. “That’s a very nice resume, but what I want to know is why you’re back in Minnesota. Tired of all the sunshine, are you?”
“My mother is sick. Her doctors say she’d dying.”
She stared at him in shock as guilt washed over her like a tsunami. Abby had asked to see her. Her sisters had visited and told her Abby asked for her repeatedly. But she’d been too childishly angry to go. After her grandmother’s death, Abby had been her friend and confidant. She’d helped her through sadness and loneliness, and moments when Harper forgot she was her sister and not her mother. Abby had been her only connection to Luke and even though she resented the way he’d left her, she still craved news of him.
But then Abby married Reese and moved away. The abandonment had devastated Maggie. Someone was always leaving her.
And now she was losing Abby again.
“She’s sick? How long…?” She couldn’t finish the question.
“When the doctors discovered breast cancer, she had a double mastectomy, but it had already spread to her lungs. Her doctors say she’s terminal, that she has less than six months, but I don’t accept that diagnosis.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve done some research, talked to cancer specialists. I’m trying to get her to continue treatment with a new doctor. I need to be here to help her. That’s why I’m applying for this job on a temporary basis.”
“Temporary?”
“I’ve taken a leave of absence, but I can’t afford not to work. I’ll go back to California when…when Mom has stabilized.”
“But what about Reese? He’s devoted to Abby. Surely, he’s done everything possible for her.”
“Reese is a good man, but he’s accepted what the doctors here have told them about my mother’s health. I think we need another opinion from someone who isn’t going to give up on her.”
Luke turned away on a deep breath. His pain reached out and touched her like a living thing. He’d always been close to his mother. Years ago, Abby had told her how Luke had been conceived during a brief affair she’d had in her twenties. She’d said she couldn’t regret the affair because it had given her Luke, and he was the light of her life. It had been the two of them against the world—three counting her mother. They’d lived with Abby’s widowed mother Phyllis in the small town of Minnewasta all through Luke’s childhood and adolescence.
“Before I have my interview with your sister, I needed to talk to you. We have a history, and the way I left you…wasn’t fair. If my being here is awkward for you, or makes you uncomfortable, I won’t apply for the job.”
She snapped to attention at his words. Abby needed Luke right now, and Luke needed to be with his mother. Her petty concerns meant nothing. “Don’t be ridiculous. That was years ago and we were kids, or at least I was. Whatever happened back then doesn’t matter anymore. Abby’s care is all that matters now.”
He nodded, but a look of anguish marred his handsome features. “Yeah. That’s all that matters.”
An hour later, Maggie heard voices in the lodge’s main entry as Harper and Ethan walked Luke to the front door. She stood behind the staircase where she could listen unobserved.
“How soon can you start?” Harper asked.
“I can start right away, but I want you to phone my references before you make any decisions,” Luke said. “Don’t give me the job because you feel sorry for me.”
“Luke, please. Let us help.”
“I’m serious, Harper. I want you to know for certain that I can do this job for you. I want to be an asset to the lodge while I’m here.”
That was the Luke she remembered, the boy with so much pride and so determined to go his own way.
Without her, as it turned out. She closed her eyes, pushing down the anger and pain. She hated that his rejection mattered even now.
“We’ll phone your employer in California if that’s what you want,” Ethan said. “I’ll call you as soon as we’ve done that.”
“Thank you. I appreciate your kindness.”
They said their goodbyes, and Maggie heard the front door open and close. She ventured out of her hiding spot. “So, you’re going to hire Luke?” she asked.
“Probably.” Ethan put his arm around Harper’s shoulders. Her sister leaned against her husband, looking as if she was about to cry. “I’ll call his employer as a courtesy to him, but if the information on his resume is true, he’s exactly what the lodge needs right now.”
“Why didn’t you tell me Luke was coming for an interview? I didn’t even know he was back in Minnesota.” Seeing him so unexpectedly had been a shock, one she’d wished she could have prepared for.
“We didn’t know. He phoned shortly before showing up here. He said he’d seen our ad on an internet job site.” Harper dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “I can’t believe Abby’s doctors say she’s terminal. She’s never given any indication how sick she was.”
“Luke said he’s trying to convince her to see a new doctor and try another treatment.” Maggie prayed this doctor could perform a miracle.
“Reese never said a word,” Ethan said. “He must be going out of his mind. I know I would.”
He pulled Harper into his arms and held her close, murmuring something in her ear. Maggie retreated back into the kitchen to give them privacy. Harper and Ethan shared a close, loving bond. Her sister had all but given up on the idea of finding love, but then Ethan swept into her life and changed everything for her.
No one deserved to be happy more than Harper. But sometimes, especially now that her other sister Scarlet was about to marry, Maggie wondered if that kind of happiness would always elude her.