An Engagement in Seattle - Debbie Macomber [139]
Once he had the key to his room, he glanced longingly at the coffee shop. He hadn’t eaten since breakfast and that had been a quick cup of coffee and a blueberry muffin.
He’d eat later, he decided, after he’d spoken to Lesley, after he’d explained, if that was possible. He couldn’t stand it if she left. She already meant too much to him.
He let himself into the stark hotel room and after dumping his overnight bag on the bed, sat on the edge of it and reached for the room phone. His hand was eager as he punched out the number.
She answered on the second ring.
“Lesley, hello.” Now that he could talk to her, he didn’t know what to say. The need to explain had burned in him the entire flight into Fairbanks, and now he was speechless.
“Chase?”
“I just got here.”
“How are you? Did you have a good flight?”
“I suppose so. How are you?” He needed to know that before he proceeded.
“Fine.”
The way she said it told him she wasn’t. “I realize it’s probably not a good idea to have this conversation over the phone.”
“We’ll talk later,” she said, but Chase was afraid that might be too late.
“I didn’t want this misunderstanding to ruin what we have.”
“And what do we have, Chase?” she asked, her voice a mere whisper.
“A marriage,” he returned without hesitation. “A fledgling marriage, which means we need to learn to communicate with each other. I’m going to need help.”
“We’ll learn,” she said, and there was a new strength in the words that reassured him.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you more about Twin Creeks. There always seemed to be other things to discuss and…it didn’t seem all that important.”
Lesley had no comment.
Chase pressed his hand to his forehead. “That isn’t true,” he said in a voice so low, he wondered if she could hear him. “I was afraid that if you did know you’d change your mind about marrying me.” He was taking one of the biggest risks of his life admitting it, but that was what made honesty of such high value. It was often expensive. But Lesley deserved nothing less.
“There’ll never be a teaching position for me here, will there?”
“No.” Once more the truth stabbed at him.
“What did you expect me to do with my time?”
“Whatever you want. You can take correspondence courses, teach them if you’d like. Sometime you might want to start a business. The internet’s created a lot of possibilities. Whatever you choose will have my full emotional and monetary support. More than anything else, I want you to be happy.”
“That all sounds good in theory, but I don’t know how it’ll work in practice.”
“Time will show us.” He felt as though he was fighting for his marriage. Either he convinced her here and now that he was serious or he’d lose her. Maybe not now but later, sometime down the road.
He couldn’t bear to think of his life without her. It seemed impossible that she could own his heart after so short a time. “Give us a chance—that’s all I’m asking.”
“All right,” she agreed in a whisper.
Chase scowled at the phone. He didn’t know if what he’d said had made a difference or not. All he could do was hope that it had.
Chase had told her there was beauty in every part of Alaska but that some of it wasn’t immediately obvious. The beauty around Twin Creeks was dark—that was how she’d describe it. Lesley stood outside his four-wheel-drive vehicle. She couldn’t shake the feeling that life was very fragile in this part of the world.
The colors she saw thrilled her. Wild splashes of vibrant orange, purple and red covered the grassy and lichened meadows. Pencil-thin waterfalls traced delicate vertical slopes, pooling into a clear lake. The valley wasn’t like the rain forest of western Washington, but it was filled with life.
A moose grazed in the distance and she wondered if the great beast was plagued by mosquitoes the same way she’d been. Pete wasn’t teasing when he’d warned her. These were the most irritating and persistent variety she’d ever encountered.
She’d found the keys to Chase’s truck in a kitchen drawer. After less than twenty-four hours