Cold River - Carla Neggers [68]
“The Robinsons have enormous respect for you and your accomplishments. I trust their judgment.” Vivian gestured toward her sprawling farmhouse on the hill. “Do you have time for coffee or tea? We’ve a fire going. Lowell’s filled the wood box to the brim. He loves his country chores.”
“Thank you, but I can’t stay.”
“Another time, perhaps.” Vivian smiled at Sean as he came closer. “I imagine you can’t wait to be back in California, given this cold weather.”
Hannah didn’t wait for his response. She lost her footing on a slippery section of the walk but didn’t fall. She was used to ice. Cold. Long winters. This was her world, she thought as she headed to her car. Sean was from Black Falls, but it wasn’t his world any longer.
She half expected him to have blocked her in with Elijah’s truck, but he hadn’t. She yanked open her frozen car door. How much did Sean know about her father? How much did all the Camerons know and not say? Drew undoubtedly had been aware of Tobias Shay’s multiple arrests.
“I’ve done a lot of stupid things,” her father had told Hannah when she was eleven. “I’m not proud.”
“Then why don’t you be good?”
“I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
He hadn’t been an alcoholic, a drug addict or a sociopath. He’d been a man who’d made some very bad decisions and had never quite been able to keep his life together.
“I wouldn’t trade your father for a Prince Charming,” her mother had said.
Then again, maybe that hadn’t been a good decision on her mother’s part. Hannah had loved them both, just as she loved her brothers, who were now about to go off to California. She shivered, the cold wind downright painful.
Why did it feel as if Sean Cameron were stealing her brothers from her?
She knew it was ridiculous. Devin and Toby were doing what they wanted to do. Sean was just helping them.
He was suddenly behind her. “Your hands must be cold,” he said.
“Frozen. I should have worn gloves.”
“You were in a hurry.”
“I wasn’t thinking.”
“I shouldn’t have let you come out here alone.”
“And how would you have stopped me?”
He smiled, the cold having no apparent effect on him. “Would you like me to count the ways?” Before she could respond, he touched a thumb to her injured cheek. “Looks better today.”
“It feels better. My wrist, too. I see you’re not wearing gloves, either.”
“Serves us both right if we get frostbite. Bowie’s injuries look bad, but he’s just cut, scraped and bruised. And oblivious.” Sean eyed her a moment. “He wouldn’t tell me what you two talked about.”
“Stonework,” Hannah said. “He’s a stonemason. I’m the daughter of a stonemason. We often talk about stonework.”
Sean’s eyes narrowed as he stood back from her. Finally he said, “Go on. I won’t keep you out here in the cold. I’ll see you in town.”
“Sean—”
“It’s okay. Go.”
She climbed into her car. She could see Vivian Whittaker shuffling gracefully on her skis down to the little duck pond, covered now in snow, below the guesthouse. Hannah didn’t blame the woman for being suspicious. Who wasn’t, after the events of the past year?
As she backed out onto the road, she noticed Sean didn’t get into the truck and figured he’d go back and try again with Bowie. Would Bowie tell him about her questions about Drew and stonework and old cellar holes? Would he invite more Cameron scrutiny?
“I never should have come out here,” Hannah said to herself.
Her car had lost most of its heat. By the time she got it warm again, she’d be back at the café, with the same questions she’d started out with and no answers.
Seventeen
Vivian paused in the soft snow on the bank of the pond. The ducks that had been there all summer and through the fall had vanished. She supposed it was because of the ice and cold, but maybe