Rock and A Hard Place (Cascade Brides Series) (13 page)

And if he was really, really, lucky, she might even forgive him.

***

Faith arrived home that evening, filled with guarded optimism. She'd
taken the GED test and felt she'd done well. At least it had been
easier than she expected. It would be a few weeks before she learned
of her score. But for now, she felt a weight had been lifted. She'd
tackled an old obstacle and it felt good. Of course she'd been
prodded by Shane.

Shane
.

Every time he came to mind, her heart constricted and her
temperature went up a few degrees—not from desire, but angst. She
didn't know why, but he had the ability to burrow his way under her
skin, all the while wearing a smile. And what did he mean about
Merle being concerned about her? Pshaw. She'd worked with the man
for several years. Surely she'd have noticed if he was off-kilter.

Pulling open the freezer section of her refrigerator, Faith frowned.
Another TV dinner loomed in her immediate future. Blah. Even
take-out Chinese was preferable to this. Her shoulders sagged as she
closed the door.

Her doorbell suddenly rang in the silence. She jumped a little in
surprise, then crossed her living room and peeked out the sidelight.
She saw Shane's Jeep and almost choked when her heart took up
lodging in her throat. What was he doing here? Either he was ready
for round two of Bait Faith or he noticed she wasn't at church or
work and Merle had sent him to check on her.

She angled herself towards the window and could just see the side of
him—and the fact he was holding a grocery bag. Her anger had
dissipated somewhat over the last couple of days, helped along
perhaps by taking action on her lack of a diploma. Maybe she should
see what he wanted.

Faith's hand shook a bit as she pulled open the door while
maintaining an impassive expression.

Shane's smile was hesitant. “I was worried you might be sick.”
He peered at her face. “Are you?”

“I'm not contagious, unless you think pessimism is catchable.”

His smile deepened. “I'm pretty much immune to that these days.”
He held up his bag. “Have you eaten? Because this rotisserie
chicken and all the fixings is ready to go.”

She blinked. Chicken sounded heavenly. And it smelled pretty good,
too. “I was just contemplating dinner,” she admitted, growing
weak against the aroma.

“I wanted to bring a peace offering.” He shifted from one foot
to the other, his smile fading. “Faith, I'm sorry I leaned on you
like that Saturday. I had no right.”

She released a breath she hadn't known she was holding. “Oh.”
Finally she remembered her manners. “Come on in. It's chilly out
there.”

His concerned expression morphed into a grin. “Thanks.”

When he stepped into her small house, she was struck anew by his
height and good looks so close up. Her imagination had conjured him
to be only average looking and well,
ornery
.

“Should I put this on the table?”

Red-faced, Faith tore her attention from him and waved him to the
dinette set in her kitchen. She followed him with measured steps,
wondering at his true motives.

He turned to her. “If you'd prefer I leave, just let me know.”

She looked away and went to the cupboard. Pulling out two plates,
she set them on the small table by way of an answer.

His mouth twitched and he shrugged out of his jacket, hanging it on
the back of the chair.

Faith stayed busy collecting glasses, napkins, and silverware. Now
that he was here, her thinking was muddled. A residue of anger
remained, but it had spurred her to do something about her
situation. She had to admit a slight lessening of generalized
mortification.

“Faith.”

Turning, she regarded him, hoping her face didn't reveal too much.
“Yes?”

Shane walked over to her, his dark eyes serious. “I really am
sorry for my behavior. Can you forgive me?”

She moistened her lips, swayed by the contrition in his voice. “Of
course.”

His expression lightened. “And I promise to keep my opinions to
myself...or at least try.”

Faith crossed her arms over her chest. “What, and leave me to
wallow in my pessimism?”

Her small joke caused a smile. “That's why I modified my promise.”

The desire to tell him about her afternoon swelled within her, but
she held back. Maybe she'd flunked the test. Best not to count her
chickens before they hatched. Speaking of chicken... “How about
that dinner?”

After everything was laid out, they sat down. Shane reached for her
hand and enclosed it in a warm grip. “Dear Lord, please bless this
food and this friendship. Amen.”

Faith stared at him, offering up an inner 'amen'.
Friendship
.
That had a nice sound to it. If she could behave herself.

They shared a mellow meal time interspersed with simple
conversation. Faith experienced an incremental easing of tension.
The reality was she would be running into Shane a lot while he lived
in John Day. Being able to feel comfortable around him was
necessary, and tonight went a long way to making that a possibility.
And if she was brutally honest, she knew she was the one with the
problem.

Shane leaned back in his seat and wiped his mouth with a napkin.
“So, do you want to look over the shots from Saturday?”

The mellow vibrations fled. Surely this would just lead to more
upset. When it came to photography, they rarely agreed on anything.
But what could she say? This was to be a co-op project. Time to grin
and bear it.

As she rose to clear off the table, Shane jumped up to help and
together they put the dishes in the sink. He even initiated washing
up. After that, he followed her into the living room where her
laptop sat on the side table next to the couch. Before she could
come up with a seating arrangement sensitive to personal space
issues, Shane grabbed her laptop and sat in the middle of the couch,
patting the cushion next to him.

Struggling against the need for a paper bag to control her tendency
to hyperventilate over every little thing, she sat next to
him—making sure there was at least a few inches between their
bodies. It ended up a pointless attempt as he slid close and leaned
closer so they could both see the screen. Faith might've suspected
him of flirting, but his smile was just too open and friendly. He'd
probably never
heard
the phrase 'personal space issues'.
Inwardly calming herself, she pulled up the file containing
Saturday's pictures.

“Put them in a slideshow format.”

Faith looked up from under lowered brows. “That's what I was going
to do.”

He smiled. “Great minds think alike.”

Faith struggled to maintain equilibrium. He had said a prayer after
all. She needed to play nice. After setting the folder to slideshow,
she leaned back and watched as each image appeared. Her throat
clogged as she tried to guess Shane's thoughts about what he was
seeing.

“These are really great, Faith.”

Her eyes flashed up to him, wanting to measure his words against his
expression. She squinted. He seemed sincere. “Thank you.”

He leaned forward. “Oh, can you pause on that one?”

Faith clicked the photo.

“Let me make note of the most promising images for our project.”
He fished a pen and paper from his pocket and wrote down the image
number. When he was done, she restarted the slideshow, stopping when
he wanted an image number. By the time they were through all the
images, he'd chosen a dozen or so of the best, many of which were
the ones taken from the vantage he'd suggested on Saturday. But they
really would be better for the effect they wanted. She bit her lip
and looked up at him.

“Shall we narrow it down?” he asked, meeting her eyes.

“What about figuring out what we want on each striation first, so
we know what will fit?”

“Okay. Any ideas?”

Faith surveyed at the selected photos. “Well, it should naturally
reflect Oregon's history—the biggest of which is the Oregon Trail.
We could have an image of a covered wagon for starters.”

“Sounds good. I'm not really up on all the history stuff yet.”

“And what you do know you probably got from a book.”

He grinned. “Exactly.”

She tried to resist the sparkle in his eyes. “I think we should
also do something with timber. Then maybe salmon, mountain peaks,
and the Portland skyline...”

“Okay, what about the mountain peaks at the top striation, then
timber the next level down, then the covered wagon, next salmon, and
the last something beachy.”

“That's great! That way we cover history, industry, and
geography.”

“And by having the sun to the right of the hill, it's showing a
dawning on the state.”

Faith began to feel excited. “Wow, this is a great concept.”

Shane bumped her shoulder with his. “See, told you great minds
think alike.”

“We know we can enter altered images, right?”

“Yep. I double-checked the rules.”

She lowered her gaze. “Do you want to supply the other images?”

“Sure. I'll play around with it then get your opinion. Should we
get together on Saturday?”

Faith looked up at him, her heart pounding for an entirely different
reason. Her feeling of camaraderie dissolved into a new worry.
I
am so not going to start crushing on this guy. My boss's nephew!
That's got to be illegal! Or something
. “Yeah, okay.”

If Shane noticed any difference in her demeanor, he didn't let on.
She cleared her throat. “Well, I'm sure you'll be wanting to get
home and started on that.” When he raised a brow, she continued.
“And getting ready for work Monday—I have to do that too, so...”

“All right, I get the hint.” He stood up and looked down on her
with amusement. “Thanks for giving me a second chance, Faith.”

Faith got to her feet, wishing she could back up slightly but the
couch hampered her efforts. Shane was way too close. “Well, uh, no
problem.” She swallowed hard. “But, just so you know, it's
because we're friends, right? Friends forgive each other and it's
all good, and—”

Shane took her hand in both of his own making her swallow turn into
a gulp. “Is that what you want? Friendship?”

She stared at him in a daze, wondering what he meant. Was she being
presumptuous? “If you don't want to be friends, I get that, I
really do. Especially after everything that's happened.”

His eyes widened under furrowed brows. “Girl, you are something
else.” He smiled suddenly and dropped her hand. “If I don't see
you during the week, I'll see you Saturday.” He leaned an inch
closer. “I'm looking forward to it.”

Faith nodded like a marionette. “Uh, yeah. Sounds good.” She
pulled in a shaky breath. “And thanks for dinner. That was really
sweet.”

“Anytime.”

She watched as he crossed the room and grabbed his coat. With one
last smile, he walked out the front door. Faith stared at the panels
for a moment, then flopped onto the couch.

Get a grip...
girl
.

Chapter Twelve

The rest of Faith's week should have been angst free. After all,
she'd seen hide nor hair nor beautiful brown eyes of Shane. No quick
visits to the office or offers of dinner. So why was she twitchy and
anxious and having a hard time concentrating?

Faith scowled at her computer screen, wondering why the text on the
latest brochure wouldn't behave. Editing copy wasn't her forte on a
good day and trying to extol the glories of alpine meadows when all
she could think about was the warmth of Shane's smile, well, meeting
her deadline would be a challenge.

“How are things going, Faith?”

Faith jumped at the sound of Merle's voice. She smoothed her
expression before turning around in her chair. “Okay, I think,
although my descriptive powers seem to be waning at the moment.”

The older man peered at her face while smiling. “Maybe it's
because today is Friday. I remember having a hard time concentrating
if I had weekend plans.”

“Then I guess I don't have an excuse. I don't really have weekend
plans.”

“Oh, I thought Shane told me you were working on the photograph
tomorrow.”

Faith thought of what Shane had said about Merle thinking she spent
too much time alone. “He mentioned it, but at the point we're at
with the image, he doesn't really need my input.”

Merle's gentle smile faded a bit. “I see. Well, will I be seeing
you at church then?”

“Yes.” She hoped her smile was reassuring. “I'm looking
forward to it.”

“Think you might even make it into the sanctuary?”

She chuckled. “Definitely.”

“Good, that's what I hoped to hear.” He patted her shoulder then
returned to his office.

Faith watched him go. If anything, she should be the one worried
about him. Maybe while she was in church, she'd spy for any single
ladies she could encourage his way. With a new plan to set in
motion, she returned to her edits, determined to finish before five.

***

Faith burrowed out of the blankets at the insistent sound of the
phone ringing. She groped the nightstand, located the phone, then
pulled it under blankets. “Hello?”

“Hey! I didn't wake you, did I?”

Shane.

“Uh, no comment.” Faith shoved the blankets back and pushed her
hair out of her face. Why was she not surprised Mr. Positive was
also a morning person? She glanced at the clock. Seven thirty. On a
Saturday. Ugh.

“I know it's a little early to call, but I have to pick up a
friend's shift later, and I was hoping to get together before that.”

“For what?”

“He just called in sick.”

Faith closed her eyes. “I didn't mean your co-worker, I meant why
do we need to get together?”

“We agreed to last week.”

“Oh, well, I thought it was kind of a tentative thing, like if you
ended up needing my help, which I'm sure you don't.”