The Last Bride (DiCarlo Brides #6) (9 page)

Jonquil glanced at the clock on her computer screen. Fifteen minutes. Then she could get out of the office for the rest of the day. Her eyes nearly crossed as she looked at the numbers swimming on her order form, then clicked back to the spreadsheet she used to figure out what she would need for the upcoming orders. She used a finger to trail along the line to double-check the information. Yes, 675 white carnations was right. She felt like a dunce doing inventory and compiling orders—she was not made for this kind of work. She much preferred designing and creating the bouquets.

There was a knock at her door. “Jonquil, your sister is here to see you.” It was Tara, her assistant manager. Tara wore her dark hair back in a ponytail as usual, exposing her entire face, which was far less wrinkled than her forty-something years would suggest.

Jonquil leaned back so she could look out the office window to the main work area. Angela was flirting with a high school guy who came in to help part time. Jonquil wondered if Angela realized the boy was so much younger than herself. How long was this going to take, and did she need to let Gage know she would be late? “Thanks. Tell her I’ll be right out.” She flipped back to the order form, saved it and sent it to Tara for one last look. One more glance. She checked her email to be sure she didn’t have anything new then shut down the computer and headed out for the day. She smiled in greeting. “Angela, I didn’t expect to see you today. How’s it going?”

Angela sent the teenager one more flirty look before focusing on Jonquil. “Rehearsal was pushed back to this afternoon. There’s a gas leak at a nearby building or something.”

“Oh. I hope no one is hurt.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Angela waved it away. “I hoped you haven’t eaten lunch yet and we could grab something.”

Today of all days? And didn’t her phone work? “I’m afraid I have an appointment this afternoon and can’t. Sorry.”

“But I thought you were going rock climbing,” Tara said as she played with the bouquet in front of her.

Angela shot Jonquil a look that clearly said “Busted.”

That was the last time Jonquil was telling Tara anything about her plans. “But I’m meeting someone. You shouldn’t rock climb alone, you know, it’s too dangerous.”

Angela’s brows lifted. “Oh?”

“So I don’t have time for lunch today. But maybe we can get together for an earlier one tomorrow before your rehearsal.” She turned to the orders for the next day, even though she knew them by heart already. “I couldn’t make it a long lunch, but I could break away for half an hour or so. We have a busy weekend ahead of us.”

“Who are you rock climbing with?” Angela asked.

There was no way Jonquil would tell Angela in front of her staff. “Walk me out? Do you need me to drop you somewhere?”

She shook her head. “One of the guys will pick me up from home.”

“That’s nice.” Jonquil called goodbye to her staff and entered the hall. The outside door where she parked was close by. “How are rehearsals coming?”

“Fine. Who are you rock climbing with?” Angela asked.

“A friend.” Jonquil wasn’t looking forward to being teased over nothing.

Angela’s eyes narrowed. “It must be a guy if you won’t tell me. Who is it?”

Jonquil sauntered out into the June heat—which wasn’t very hot yet, but felt good on her head and shoulders. Not telling Angela was making it into something bigger than it was. “Gage. He’s going to show me a great place to climb.”

Angela stopped walking and gasped. “Gage?
My
Gage?”

Jonquil wanted to correct her and say he was
her
Gage. But he wasn’t. And he’d made it very clear that he never would be. “Just because he flirted with you once doesn’t mean that he’s
your
anything.”

“Twice. We had lunch twice.”

Jonquil’s chest tightened with jealousy, but she fought to keep a straight face. “Good for you.”

“So now he’s dating both of us?” Angela asked, hands on her hips.

“I’m not dating him. I’m just using him as a rock climbing partner.” Jonquil opened her car door and turned to Angela, wanting the conversation over with. “You want a ride back home?”

“Yes.” Angela slid into the passenger’s side. “Do you think Joel and Sage would let me have a pool party at their place? It’s a cool pool.”

“You’ll have to ask them. Joel doesn’t bite, so you’ll probably come out of the conversation unscathed even if he says no.” Jonquil grabbed her sunglasses and slid them onto her nose, glad for the excuse to hide her eyes. It really was just her that Gage objected to a real relationship with, then. Great. It wasn’t like she was looking for anything, either.

“You’re trying to be funny, aren’t you?” Angela asked, a little put out. “You never were very good at that. You weren’t very good at a lot of things.”

“And you’re good at everything, which is why you never settle on anything for long.” Jonquil couldn’t help by snap back.

Hurt crossed Angela’s features. “I’ve been a drama major for two years.”

Really?
“Has it been that long? I guess I’ve been busy.”

“It’s better than
you
managed. And you call me a flake.”

Jonquil managed not to grit her teeth. “I’ve never called you a flake.” She’d thought it a few dozen times, but she’d never said it aloud.

“Why are you so prickly?”

“Why do you intentionally say things to make me feel like crap?”

Angela crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the passenger side window. “I thought coming here would help us bond, get to know each other better. You haven’t even given me a chance.”

“You haven’t exactly been the poster child of good manners.” Their mother’s words about how Angela needed her big sister echoed in her mind again and Jonquil sighed as she pulled into the driveway at home. “Look, I do want to spend time with you, see if we can be the friends I would have liked us to be growing up. I’m having trouble getting over myself. And so are
you
.”

“This isn’t my fault at all.”

Jonquil nodded. She didn’t expect anything different. “Here’s your stop. Tomorrow whenever works for you, call me for lunch and I’ll come get you.”

“Sure.” Angela shoved her way out of the car, slamming the door behind her.

Jonquil sighed. She thought of Gage and Angela going out for lunch twice and wondered what she was doing spending time with him. Was she really that masochistic?

She considered canceling their outing, but it seemed a little bratty at this point—especially considering he’d already stated the ground rules. And she really wanted to climb that rock. She pushed her personal feelings aside and drove out to the ski resort.

Gage was walking down the hill to the front parking lot when she pulled into a spot a few minutes later.

“Hey, there. Glad you could make it,” he said. “I almost called to see if you had changed your mind.”

She checked her watch. “I’m only two minutes late.”

“Yes, but usually you’re early.” He grinned. “Get held up at work?”

“Yes.” She didn’t want to bring up Angela with him. It would be too weird. It was already too weird, so she put it aside.

“Are you ready now?”

“Let’s go.” From her trunk she pulled a backpack full of gear, with treats, drinks and some basic first aid supplies in it. “How tall did you say the rock face is?”

“About a hundred feet. There’s a natural ledge about halfway up, which is where most people stop. If you’re still feeling adventurous when we reach there, we can go all the way.”

“I’m an all-the-way kind of girl.” Jonquil caught herself right after she said it. That came out wrong. She glanced sideways at Gage. He didn’t react to it, so maybe he didn’t catch the unintended double entendre.

“Cool. Looks like we have a perfect day for a climb.” He smiled up at the sky like there was nothing he wanted more than to be out there in the sunlight and cool breezes.

She had to admit that it sounded pretty good. Time to put her conversation with Angela behind her and focus on what she was doing.

It took nearly forty minutes to drive up to the rock face. They talked about when they started climbing and some of their experiences. They joked about mutual friends and just generally had a good time.

When he stopped the car, they still had to hike for ten minutes to reach their destination. One glance at the rock face and Jonquil understood what he meant about people stopping halfway up, but she was more determined than ever to scale the whole thing.

“You think you can tackle that?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah.” She got out her harness and stepped into it, buckling it in front and doubling it back on itself for security. “Do you rappel too?” she asked.

“Every chance I get. You ever bungee jump?”

“No, but I’ve been skydiving a few times. It’s awesome. I definitely want to go again.”

“I’ve always wanted to skydive. I checked into it last year but the business doesn’t let me have much time off. It kind of sucks up most of my life.” He shrugged, apparently not bothered by it.

“Tell me about it.” She glanced over and they shared an understanding look.

They secured their rope and began hooking it through everything and into their harnesses with a couple carabiners for security. She checked her pack for the anchors and bolt gun for the climb, then zipped it closed.

“Ready?” he asked.

She tightened the strap on her helmet and nodded. “Let’s go.”

For the next half hour Jonquil focused most of her energy and attention on the stone in front of her. There was something primal that called to her, luring her back to rock climbing, skiing, mountain biking. It was a high, her against the mountain, calling her to do more, be better. She sucked in a breath of fresh air, brushed the sweat from her forehead with her upper arm, and pushed herself farther.

She heard Gage breathing harder than usual beside her. They helped each other here and there, double-checked each other’s safety lines and pushed on with only a few comments back and forth as they scaled the wall.

When she pulled herself up onto the ledge—and it could barely qualify as that, she looked over at him. “You game to finish the run to the top?”

“Bring it on.”

They shared a grin and turned back to the rock again.

When they got to the top, Gage climbed over and reached down to help her the rest of the way up. “Come enjoy the scenery.”

He steadied her as she stood on the top, his arm around her back, pulling her near him. “Take a look.” He gestured behind her.

She turned and faced the valley below. Evergreens speared through groves of aspens. Clouds dotted the horizon and she could see a bit of one of his ski lifts poking up through a clearing on the left. And down in the valley she thought she saw a shimmer of blue. She pointed at it, intensely aware that his hand had come to rest on her hip. “Is that a lake?”

“Yeah. The waterfall where Jeremy took Delphi flows into the creek that feeds it. It’s not exactly accessible by car, but it’s a beautiful place. You should go sometime.”

She turned to look over her shoulder at him and realized he was a lot closer than she had thought. Only inches behind her. Their eyes met and she felt the breath back up in her chest. “I bet it is.”

“Maybe I could take you out on ATVs later this summer. When the snow is all melted and the ground dries up a bit more.” His gaze never left her face.

When she was tempted to lean into him, she looked away, breaking the strange bubble that had surrounded them. “Yeah, we’ll have to see how that goes.”

He lifted his hand from her hip, as if just realizing it was there, and moved away to sit on the grass a few feet back from the edge. A light breeze ruffled his hair. “Have you driven an ATV before?”

“No. But I’ve been trying to get Delphi to give me lessons on her motorcycle.”

He chuckled. “Good luck with that. She’s very possessive of her machine.”

“So I’ve noticed.” Jonquil took a spot beside him on the rock, glad for a chance to cool down a little. The sun felt hotter with the rock reflecting it back at her.

“An ATV is easier than a motorcycle any day. You’ll be fine. I get the feeling you’re a quick study.”

Jonquil turned her face away so he wouldn’t be able to see the red burning on her cheeks as she thought of how untrue that was in many circumstances. “I hope so.” If he only knew. Did people say things like that all of the time, but she only noticed them more now because Angela was around?

“You know, you’re not anything like I thought you would be.”

“Glad to hear it. You’re not bad yourself when you’re being you.” She glanced back at him. “This is the real you, right? Not some fake, charming version of you that’s going to disappear the moment you take me back to my car?”

“This is me.” He tipped his face back into the sun. “Sometimes I forget that I can be like this—just relaxed and living in the moment. Real life doesn’t allow much time to sit back and enjoy nature. At least it hasn’t lately.” His eyes were closed, a look of weariness on his face. She noticed that the furrows between his brows seemed deeper, there were dark smudges under his eyes and his face had looked a lot more pinched when they began than it did now.

“What’s going on? You’re stressed about something.”

“A lot of things.” He pulled his feet up in front of him and rested his elbow on his knees, creating a circle with is arms.

“But one or two things in particular,” she insisted. “I know we don’t know each other well, but I’m a good listener.”

“And we’re friends, right?” he asked.

“Yeah. I think we are.” The question was whether that was a good thing, or if once established she would be stuck in the friend zone forever. Then she remembered the way he’d talked about them just being friends and decided it was inevitable. She’d have to take what she could get. And hope it was enough.

Gage shrugged a little. “It’s been a stressful week. I found out I have to do some expensive repairs to the ski lifts before the summer is over. We figured out that issue after a little juggling, and then my sister came to me with a personal problem she wants me to solve for her. But I can’t. She doesn’t want to do what she needs to fix the problem herself, wanting a quick fix that doesn’t hurt her lifestyle.” His tone was light, but the frown on his mouth said he was having a hard time of it. “It sucks being the big brother who runs the world.”