In the Firelight (8 page)

“Nice to meet you, Michelle,” Rhys smiled with a nod at Michelle. Then he turned to Shea who looked positively nauseous… and pissed. Even more pissed than when he had outed her in the little grocery store. “Well, hi, sweetheart,” he smiled as he leaned up against the kitchen counter, one leg crossed over the other and his arms crossed against his chest. “Fancy seeing you again so soon.”

“Rhys,” she scowled at him.

Oh yeah, she was pissed, alright.

Michelle looked back and forth between the two, and it was like a metaphorical light bulb exploded in her head. “Rhys, it’s, um… very nice to meet you also.” Looking over at Shea, and without a subtle bone in her body, Michelle’s eyes went wide as she mouthed an
Oh my God.

Shea looked as though she wished a hole would open up in the floor and suck her right out of the room.
Oh she was fun.

Poor Robert looked horribly confused by the tension in the air. Rhys continued to smile. Oddly, Shea’s reaction made him damn near giddy as she buried her face in her hands.

A little boy, about three years old, came running into the room. “Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy!”

“Hey, little man,” Robert smiled as he picked up his youngest son. “What’s the matter?”

“Daddy, Jenna called me stupid!”

“Jenna,” Michelle chastised the girl who stood sulking in the doorway. “Don’t say things like that to your brother.”

“Well, he is,” Jenna pouted.

“That’s not nice, honey,” said Robert. “How would you like it if someone called you stupid?”

Jenna only huffed a laugh. “Well,” she said with her little girl nose in the air, “I’m
not
stupid.” Rhys struggled to keep a straight face at the little girl’s indignant retort.

“Jenna, go to your room. And stay in there until you can be a little nicer,” Robert commanded in his stern, fatherly voice.

Rolling her eyes, the young girl did as commanded, stomping up the stairs. Moments later came the sound of a slamming door.

Robert looked apologetically at Rhys. “Sorry, that kid is six going on sixteen, and she’s a bit of a diva, kind of like her mom,” he smiled with a wink at his wife who stuck her tongue out at him. In his arms, the little boy turned his attention on Rhys, and leaned his head close to his dad.

“Who’s that guy, daddy?” the little boy whispered loudly.

Robert smiled. “Rhys, this is our son, Joey. That was our daughter, Jenna, and our older boy, Sam, is around somewhere. Joey, this guy is Rhys. He’s here to learn some stuff about our town.” Looking over at his wife and Shea, Robert continued to explain. “He’s working with the survey office to determine how much of an impact there will be from the resort that McHugh Corporation wants to build. To help figure out its effects on the community, the area—both environmental and socioeconomic. He’s coordinating a couple different studies.”

Shea was instantly attentive, the scowl gone and replaced with a nervous interest.

“Do you work for McHugh?” she asked with a guarded voice.

“I’m independent. Non-biased,” Rhys said smoothly. Over the last few years, he’d gotten to where the little lies didn’t even bother him anymore. He’d told so many, and things always worked out in the end. He always managed to charm the situations into a resolution.

“Well, we don’t want it,” Shea quickly responded.

Robert looked over at Rhys. “Shea’s a little opposed to the idea.”

“Because it’s a bad idea. Really, really bad.” Shea looked at Rhys again. “Really, we don’t want it.”

Rhys contemplated her sudden change in demeanor. Gone was the angry frustration. The aggravated tension. She suddenly appeared pleading and anxious.
This might be the key.

“We’re about to head in for a town meeting so I can meet some of the locals and get some feedback,” Rhys said, looking hopefully at her. The turmoil of the situation, her realization that he might play a role in the future of her town, evidently had shaken her. “Would you like to join us?” He threw in an extra charming smile as she bit her lip in indecision.
Oh yeah, this was it.

“It’s at the Fire Hall, Shea. In about an hour.” Robert looked over at Michelle. “Do you want to go, babe?”

“Honestly, honey, I’d love to. But what about the kids?” she asked.

“Bring ‘em,” Robert responded. “They won’t be the only kids there, and there’s room for them to run around in the garage. Plus, you know that a get-together around here always turns into a big potluck thing, so you could bring that awesome smelling soup.”

“Okay, let’s load up. Did Rhys come here with you, hun?” After an affirmative nod from Robert, Michelle grinned widely. “Since our pickup will only seat five,” Michelle smiled at Rhys. “would you want to ride into town with Shea?”

Rhys smiled widely at the conflicted look on Shea’s face. “I’d love to…”

Chapter 6 ~ The Meeting

The ride to town was torture. As she drove, Shea’s mind was riddled with all the ways she’d been a bitch to this man. It was infuriating, the way he got under her skin. But she had to find a way to convince him, to show him, just how badly this resort would be for her little town.

And, at the same time, she was so aware of him. He had her completely on edge. She was incredibly aware of his large frame sprawled out on the passenger side of the truck. The clean, heady scent of pine and fresh air that followed him around.

She looked over at him in the passenger seat of the pickup. “So, why didn’t you tell me last night that that’s why you’re here?” she asked quietly.

“Well, honestly, at first, you kinda pissed me off,” Rhys replied. “You weren’t exactly nice and welcoming when you found me in the snow bank.”

Shea grimaced as she remembered. “I’m sorry. I was tired and grouchy after a long, difficult meeting. I just wanted to go home and curl up in front of the fire… alone.” She chewed her lip as she thought. Looking over at him, she asked, “But later… why not then?”

Rhys turned his gaze to her, and she had to force herself to tear her gaze back to the road, away from his captivating blue eyes. “I don’t know, really. I’m trying to be unbiased, I guess,” he shrugged.

“Is that why you kissed me?” she spoke at just over a whisper now, her eyes trained on the road. “To stay unbiased? Seems a bit counterproductive.”

Rhys turned to look out at the little community around him. Shea veritably held her breath until he spoke. “I’m not sure why I kissed you,” he said with what almost sounded like wonderment. “I probably shouldn’t have.”

A pang of rejection coursed through her, reminding her that she didn’t want this pull towards him or anyone else. Her short marriage to Gavin had been about all the rejection she could take. He hadn’t wanted her either. Not really. It had seemed so perfect at first, but, before long, his desire turned cold and critical. And, of course, there had been the old flame that had so quickly reignited. Nothing tears down an ego faster than knowing you’re not enough… unwanted.

But this pull towards Rhys was difficult to fight, and, for some reason, it did nip at her ego that he regretted kissing her. It confused her because, later in town, he’d been about to do it again.
He’d been right there
. So close that she could almost taste his lips.

There was something about him that wormed its way through the cracks of her isolationist façade. Being angry at him helped her hide, but the anger also drew a heated ache. Almost as though the passion that fueled her ire was masking the real fire behind it. It was uncomfortable. Strange. She needed to get control of it.

“Well, we won’t worry about it,” Shea murmured, drawing in a deep, fortifying breath. “It’s not like it will happen again anyway.”

Almost the entire town had showed up for the meeting. Robert had been spot-on about the potluck, and it seemed everyone in town brought something to share. Crock pots of hearty soups and chilies, pasta dishes and fresh-baked bread, cookies and pies. It was almost like it had been planned out all along.

Many of the women tittered and giggled at Rhys as he meandered through the Fire Hall, offering him tidbits of their specialties, encouraging him to taste their delectable desserts. Their overt attention elicited many an annoyed huff from Shea.

Off to the side in the garage bays, a few kids were running around giggling and playing. Right after Rhys and Shea had arrived, Robert and Michelle walked through the door led by a slightly older kid in a Darth Vader mask who raced into the fray. Jenna followed with a disgruntled frown, clearly not pleased with her task of guiding little Joey towards the other kids.

“…and you be nice,” Michelle was chiding at her, heading towards the long food tables to place the soup among the other dishes. “I’ll call you in a few minutes when we start dishing up dinner.”

As the evening progressed, Rhys looked around at the small community, listening carefully to the conversation facilitated by the mayor, to all the little side discussions going on around him. McHugh had been correct in that not many people had totally decided, although most the ones who were unsure leaned towards Shea’s way of thinking. Very few actually seemed open to the idea… at all.

Frankie, the somewhat odd guy that had showed up at Shea’s to pull his car from the snow, argued that the resort could bring jobs. Jobs that had disappeared when the housing market crashed and the pine beetles decimated the forests nearby. It had been a perfect storm that had rocked the local economy, so reliant on logging. So reliant on the wood and paper mills in the area.

But, just as McHugh had said, Shea was a squeaky wheel. A very
loud
squeaky wheel, at that.

“No, Frankie,” she said with firm conviction, “see, there’s something that you don’t understand. McHugh Corporation is coming in and telling us how much this will improve our economy, how they’re giving us jobs. But, you know what? The jobs are crap.” Rhys watched her, oddly feeling a sense of pride and awe by her words. She stood before the room, unafraid. Passionate and determined.
Beautiful.
And she did know what she was talking about. “Maids. Cooks. Bartenders. And as for bolstering up the economy here, if we start getting these big spenders showing up here and building their multi-million dollar log mansions on the mountainsides, every person in this town will lose the land that has been in their family for generations. Property taxes will skyrocket, and none of us will be able to afford that hike.”

“Shea, don’t be ridiculous,” Frankie scoffed. “Nobody is going to come in here and take our land away. We just need to stay current.”

“Frankie, how much do you pay in taxes right now? Your land is worth, what, forty thousand?”

Frankie nodded.

“Would you be able to afford it if that tripled? Quadrupled?” Shea looked back over to the mayor. “You don’t see poor people living in Big Sky. And the poor people are being run right out of Red Lodge. They can’t afford to stay.”

“Shea, you’re being overly dramatic,” the mayor counseled. “This could revive things around here with the tourism it would bring. Sure, Frankie’s income isn’t high right now, but the town only has about five hundred people, and even that is spread out. If we had visitors coming in, especially people driving in conditions they aren’t used to, it would probably triple his income.”

Shea’s was so clearly frustrated. Rhys watched her forehead pull tight in annoyance as she fired back. “Mayor Duncan, with all due respect, you and your bank are relatively new here. You’re not one of these families who grew up in these mountains, who really doesn’t know any other life. You have more money than half the people in this room. And this will ruin their home.”