“Who said anything about a rut?” she demanded, standing up so she was more on an even keel with him. It hadn’t taken long for the two of them to start an argument. And maybe it was better this way, she thought. Maybe if they kept fighting, then it wouldn’t hurt so much when he left.
But, even as she thought it, Keira knew it for a lie. She liked fighting with Nathan. So this would be just one more thing to miss.
“Please. Your rut is so comfortable, you’ve hung curtains and had it carpeted.”
“Excuse me?”
“Come on, Keira. Admit it. You’re stuck here in this little town, and the only reason you keep talking about how wonderful it is, is to keep yourself from feeling cheated out of the life you wanted.”
“Is that right?” Incensed, she poked him in the chest with her index finger and seriously thought about kicking him. But she wasn’t wearing shoes so she’d probably break her toe. “Just so you know, Mr. Fabulous World Traveler, I do not feel cheated. If I wanted my life to change, I’d change it. I’m not the one who’s too afraid to try something new.”
“Afraid?” He snorted a laugh. “Is that supposed to mean that I’m afraid of something?”
She blinked at him. “Duh.”
“This should be good.” He folded his arms over his chest, tipped his head to one side and waited, a smirking half smile on his face. “Fine. Tell me. What am I so afraid of?”
“I don’t know,” Keira admitted, wishing she did. Because then, maybe she’d have half a chance to fight through the walls he’d built around himself so many years ago.
“Hah!”
“But you know,” she added quickly. “You might not admit it to me, but deep down inside, you know damn well there’s a reason you’re constantly moving on.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I like it.”
“Liar.”
He blew out a disgusted breath.
“You spend your whole life running so fast that nobody can catch up,” Keira said, more thoughtful now as the temper that had spiked within her slowly drained away. “The question is what’re you running from, Nathan?”
“I’m not running from anything.”
“Well,” she mused. “I guess you’ve said that often enough that even you believe it now.”
She walked around him, careful not to brush against him as she headed for the doorway leading back to the great room. When she reached it, she paused and looked back at him, standing alone in an elegant kitchen. This is how she’d remember him best, she thought. Stubbornly aloof. Alone.
Her heart ached, almost in preparation for the coming pain, but she held it inside as she said, “Someday, I hope you figure it out, Nathan. Before it’s too late to stop and let somebody catch up to you.”
She avoided him for the rest of the day and Nathan told himself he didn’t care. He appreciated having some quiet time to work uninterrupted. God knew, since he’d met Keira, he’d had little enough peace and quiet.
And after an afternoon of it, he was going quietly insane.
He kept looking for her, expecting her to run into the room and trip over a table or something. He kept listening for the sound of her voice. But there was nothing. The big lodge fairly echoed with a stillness that was starting to really grate on him. Disgusted with himself, he finally realized that his satellite phone could connect him with more people than the citizens of Hunter’s Landing.
Grabbing it, he hit the speed dial and called the one person on earth he knew would understand exactly what he was going through.
“Barton.”
Nathan smiled at the sound of his old friend’s voice. They hadn’t really seen each other since college, but Luke Barton was one of the Seven Samurai he’d managed to keep in touch with, however loosely.
“Barrister here,” he said and stalked to the wide windows overlooking the white stillness covering the front yard of the lodge.
“Hell, Nathan.” Luke laughed. “Good to hear your voice. How’s life in the wild?”
“Not as wild as we might like,” he grumbled and turned his back on the view of Mother Nature. “Glad to say my month is almost up and yours is coming.”
“That bad?” Luke asked, dread clear in his voice.
“Small-town America at its coziest.”
“Jeez. Sounds horrifying.”
Nathan laughed and felt better. Good to know he wasn’t the only person in the world who preferred big cities to quiet reflection. “Exactly. I got your e-mail last week,” he said. “How the hell did Matthias convince you to switch months at the cabin with him? Are you two speaking again?”
“Not likely,” Luke admitted.
The Barton twins had been at war for years, ever since their father had cooked up a competition between the two of them for the right to run the family business. Matthias won, but Luke was always sure his twin had somehow cheated him. Not that Luke was starving or anything. He’d built his own fortune—one to rival the legacy that Matthias had inherited—by starting up Eagle Wireless, a tech company that had pretty much taken over the world.
Still, old rivalries would never die.
“So, how’d Matt get you to switch?”
“Bastard couldn’t do his month—some business emergency or other. Not sure, really. His assistant talked to my assistant.” Luke blew out a disgusted breath. “The only reason I agreed to the damn switch was so Hunter’s last request wouldn’t be ruined.”
Nathan wandered the great room while he listened. The house was crouched in quiet, and he was as cut off from the outside world as neatly as he would have been if he’d been on Mars. Talking to Luke took the edge off, and he wondered why the hell they didn’t talk to each other more often.
“How bad is it?” Luke asked. “Have you at least been to Tahoe? Stateline?”
“No,” Nathan answered. “I can see the lights from the casinos in the distance though—when it isn’t snowing.”
“Snowing?” Luke echoed. “It’s March, for God’s sake.”
“And I’m talking to you from the middle of a blizzard.”
“God, if Hunter wasn’t gone, I’d kill him myself.”
Nathan laughed again and dropped onto the couch. “Just what I was thinking when I first got here.”
“But not now?”
“Don’t get me wrong,” Nathan said, “I can’t wait to shake this place. Get the jet fired up and leave Hunter’s Landing in the dust.”