The Rockwell Legacy (Books 1-3)

Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Just as Kai finished chatting with the staffers he hadn’t seen in fifteen years, Gracie came flying across the lawn and launched herself into his arms. He staggered a little as she hit him full in the chest.

“I can’t believe you’re here!!!!” she kept saying. He hadn’t seen her since last summer, when he’d flown her to Yellowstone for a camping trip. He made sure to see Gracie at least once a year, and according to Jake, those trips were her only real exposure to the outside world.

With her baby-duckling hair and crooked smile, Gracie was made of pure delight, in his biased big brother opinion.

He couldn’t stop grinning at her. “Crazy, huh? I must be nuts. Does Dad know I’m here?”

“He’s taking his mandatory afternoon nap right now. Not to be disturbed.”

“Good. That’ll give us a chance to catch up.” He ruffled her hair, the blond wisps catching static and clinging to his hand. She swatted him away as they headed for the entrance.

“You’re not allowed to mess with the hair of anyone over twenty,” she scolded. “But I’ll give you a pass just this once.”

“Appreciate it. Because I just can’t help myself. You’ll have to send me to hair dungeon.”

She giggled as he pulled open the big oak front door to the lodge. It swung open with a squeak; the ironwork hinges needed some WD-40.

Not that he was going to mention that around his father. Max took all criticism of the lodge as if it was directed at him personally. Or at least he used to. After fifteen years, who knew?

“The place seems so empty,” he said as he dropped his bag next to the front door in the reception area. They walked into the lounge, with its high rafters and stonework fireplace. It used to buzz with guests helping themselves to coffee, or snuggling up with a book. Now it practically echoed, it was so deserted.

The parking lot had been the same way, come to think of it.

“Ten percent occupancy, by choice. Dad’s trying to avoid stress, remember?”

“Right. But what about the bills?”

“Every time I ask, he says we’re fine. Fewer guests means lower costs, I suppose. I can’t tell if he’s just not worried about it, or if he’s too proud to admit he’s worried.” She flopped onto one of the long comfy couches arranged around the fireplace.

Which was a mess, he noticed. Ashes everywhere, kindling in a disorganized pile. “Who’s been taking care of the fires in here?”

“Joint effort. Whoever remembers.”

Did anyone remember? It didn’t look like it. He grabbed the whisk broom from the stand of fireplace tools and crouched down to sweep up the mess.

Gracie propped a pillow behind her back and snuggled her bare feet into the couch cushions. “Well? Tell me everything! How are all the ladies in your life?”

“My love life is about as cold and dead as this fireplace.”

“Really? Things didn’t work out with Meg the Leg?”

“Stop it.” Meg was a dancer who liked to show off her toned and perfect legs. She’d come to Yellowstone with them and Gracie kept walking in ballerina posture behind her back. “That’s an off-limits topic.”

The smell of the old fireplace ash mingled with a hint of smooth tobacco from someone’s cigar butt and the cold air from the chimney. Such an achingly familiar scent, and suddenly he was fourteen again, cleaning out the fireplace as instructed by the captain of the volunteer fire brigade. Mom was sitting right where Gracie was now. She kept laughing at the ash drifting into the room, and Kai’s efforts to corral it.

“You need a butterfly net,” she’d joked.

He shook off the memory as he swept the pile of ash into a dustpan. It looked as if no one had paid any attention to this fireplace recently. Big oversight in a remote place like this. Old Mad Max must be really distracted.

Probably by his new “stress-reducer.”

“So fill me in on this nurse chick who’s working for Max. What’s she like?”

“Are you talking about Nicole? That’s not a very nice way to refer to her.”

“Three words. Meg the Leg.”

Gracie laughed and crossed one leg over the other. “Fine. But Nicole’s different. I don’t know a lot about her, but she’s good for Dad. I call her the Max-Whisperer.”

His hackles rose. What exactly was she whispering into Max’s ears? “Why don’t you know a lot about her? Didn’t he vet her before he hired her?”

“He did. His heart doctor put the word out with a network of home health aides. He interviewed several on the phone but Nicole was the only one he could stand. She was also the only one under fifty. So she came up for an interview and hit it off with Dad right away. You know that never happens. Dad doesn’t like anyone.”

“Jake says she’s young and cute. I suppose that’s why.”

“I think it’s that she doesn’t take him too seriously. She jokes with him, and he likes that. He doesn’t scare her. He’s a lot more calm when she’s around. She has this way of heading him off before he gets that steam pressure going.”

An ashfall of cinder cascaded onto his head, making him cough. He shook it off. “So she knows how to handle Max, which makes her one up on me. But why don’t you know much about her?”

“She’s mostly with Dad, not me, and she doesn’t talk about herself a lot.”

“Have you asked?”

“Isn’t that why you’re here, Mr. Suspicious?” She pushed his shoulder with her big toe. “What’s the worst case scenario? There’s no way Dad will give the lodge away, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Worst case scenario…hm…well, she could be a manipulative, secretive, money-grubbing, legacy-stealing gold-digger who found a lonely old man to latch onto.”

“Kai,” Gracie said in a warning tone. “That’s not—”

But Kai was on a roll now. “I mean—the Max-Whisperer, seriously?” He switched to a high, breathy whisper of a voice. ’Oh Max, l’d really love to reduce your stress, whatever it takes. Oh Max, does this outfit make your heart race? Let me just take it off for you. Oh Maxidoodle, this lodge is soooo much work, why don’t you let me take it off your hands—“

“Kai!” Gracie yelled.

He startled, bumping his head on the stonework of the fireplace. Pain lanced through his skull, which didn’t improve his mood as he rose to his feet, still holding the whisk broom and dustpan.

Scowling, he turned and found himself face to face with a woman. An unfamiliar woman with indignant blue eyes and a heart-shaped face and a goddamn dimple in her cheek. Who looked like she wanted to tear him to shreds. s**t.

“I’m guessing you’re Nicole Davidson.”

Nicole had never experienced quite this level of fury in her life. Not even when her ex-fiancé had double-crossed her. How dare this stranger assume such horrible things about her and Max? It was unfair, outrageous, absurd. He hadn’t even met her and he was thinking the worst.

Of course, she was guilty of something else, but not that. She wasn’t a gold-digger trying to scam an elderly man. She would never hurt Max.

It didn’t help that despite the ash in his thick hair and soot smudging his face, this man was outrageously attractive. Even holding a whisk broom, he was pure rugged testosterone. And with those stormy green eyes, he was clearly a Rockwell.

She clenched her trembling hands into fists. Just because he was a jerk didn’t mean she had to respond the same way. She could rise above.

“That’s right. You must be Kai Rockwell. Welcome back.” She even managed a sweet, if sketchy, smile. “That must have hurt when you bumped your head. Would you like me to take a look at it?”

One dark eyebrow lifted. “No, that’s okay. I deserved that whack on the head. Just to be clear, I wasn’t saying that you were those things. I was…aw hell. Can I just rewind and start again?”

She clenched her jaw tight to hold back the hot response she wanted to fling at him. “So you don’t think I’m a money-grubbing gold-digger?”

“Of course not. How could I, when I don’t even know you yet?” He offered her a ridiculously charming smile, then dumped the dustpan full of ashes in a hammered metal box that usually held the kindling—which was now stacked in an orderly pile. “Luckily, that’s about to change.”

She swallowed back her automatic response, which was something along the lines of “think again, buster.”

Gracie was looking from one to the other with alarm. “Let’s start over here. Kai, this is the very kind and wonderful Nicole Davidson. Nicole, this is my very loving and protective oldest brother Kai Rockwell.”

Protective? That was one word for it.

Kai hung the whisk broom on its hook and wiped his hands on his jeans. He stepped forward to shake Nicole’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry for before, I really am. I was way out of line. It’s a Rockwell thing, we make bad jokes out of everything.”

His hand enveloped hers, rough and warm. She wanted to take a step back, to flee back to her room, but there was no way she was going to let him scare her away. Whenever she felt unnerved, her invisible armor went on lightning-fast, like a superhero’s high-tech costume. She stood her ground against his nearly overwhelming charisma. Storm front? She’d probably say “volcano.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Kai. Welcome back to Rocky Peak.”

Their handshake ended, his hand dropping away. Her palm still tingled and she resisted the impulse to wipe it against her skirt. That would reveal how much he affected her, and she refused to do that.

“Where are you from, Nicole?” His tone was friendly enough, but she could hear the suspicion behind it perfectly well.

“I don’t have a permanent address at the moment.” Oops, that sounded fishy, even though it was the truth. She’d let her Seattle apartment go when she came to Rocky Peak, to save on expenses. “But I’ve mostly lived in the Pacific Northwest,” she added quickly.

“That covers a lot of territory.”

“You want my birth certificate?”

His eyebrows lifted again. “Driver’s license would be fine.”

“Kai!” Gracie shoved him again. “Why are you being like this?”

“I’m just asking basic ‘get to know you’ questions.” He gave her another of those charming smiles of his. She noticed a dimple forming, then realized it was a scar. “How do you like Rocky Peak so far?”

“It’s been wonderful.” Carefully chosen words.

He grimaced ruefully. “Until today, is that what I’m picking up?”

“I didn’t say that. Every day is beautiful here. The trees, the sky, the mountains.” She left out “the people.”

A pause while they assessed each other. It felt like that moment in the boxing ring when the combatants circle each other, looking for weaknesses.

Gracie gnawed on her thumbnail.

“It seems wise to know as much as possible about anyone working for Max. Are you married?” Kai asked. “Divorced? Engaged?”

She bristled again. “None of the above. I mean, I was.”

“So you’re divorced now?”

“No.” Why were they even talking about this? He was throwing her off balance. “I was engaged, but that ended. And it has nothing to do with me working here.”

“No family then? No one waiting for you back in…?”

“Seattle. No. I mean, yes.”

He c****d his head, catching yet another suspicious answer. What was wrong with her? If Kai started digging, he might find out too much. And from the look in his eyes, he intended to dig all the way through to China. She should just walk out of here right now and maintain her dignity.

But Kai brought out her stubborn side. She decided to give him a taste of his own medicine. “You must have missed it here all these years. It’s been what, fifteen years since you’ve been back?”

His jaw flexed, and she knew she’d hit a sore spot.

“Roughly. Where did you work before you came here?”

She set her teeth. “I already interviewed for this position.”

“Yes, I heard. Sounds like Max picked you out of a crowd of older candidates.”

He said it mildly enough, but there was something in his tone that rubbed her wrong. “I’m twenty-eight. That’s not exactly young.”

“Younger than him.”

“It’s not about age, it’s about experience.” That didn’t strike the right note, somehow, but it was too late to take it back.

“And here we are, right back where we started. Got that resumé handy?”

Resentment rushed through her again. She’d faced this same kind of attitude during her engagement to Roger, as if she was some kind of fortune-hunter. Which was just weird. If she actually was one, she would have married Roger and his hedge fund and she wouldn’t be here today.

She marched toward him until she was only a few inches away. And those few inches were filled with pulsating, sizzling energy. “I’ll show you my resumé after you show me one solid reason why you haven’t been back here in fifteen years.”

His eyes narrowed, their color intensifying. “None of your business, and nothing to do with this.”

“Why not? You claim you’re looking out for Max. Then where have you been? Maybe I ought to be giving you the third degree!”

A muscle tensed in his jaw. She’d landed a clear shot. Yes! Victory!

Then she remembered that antagonizing Max’s oldest son probably wasn’t the smartest move to make. Like stirring a hornet’s nest. Or poking a bear. Or one of those other wildlife things she’d read about but never experienced.

He stepped closer, eyes narrowing.

“You know something, Nurse Nicole? On the way here, I kept telling myself to keep an open mind about you. Maybe she’s good for him, I thought. Maybe she’s exactly what he needs. Give her a chance, I thought. Well, that ship has sailed.”

“Oh, now there’s a cliché that has me shaking in my shoes,” she snapped back. All her usual restraints had disappeared into vapor. Now it was no holds barred.

“You’re critiquing my word choice? With another cliché?”

She stared at him blankly.

“‘Shaking in your shoes’ is kind of a cliché,” Gracie interjected. She was hovering near them, watching like a guest at a tennis match. Nicole had literally forgotten that she was in the room.

“Oh my God, I’m losing my mind here.” She clutched at her head, which had started to pound. “We’re arguing about clichés? Freaking clichés?”

The almost-F bomb? Seriously? Appalled at herself, she clapped her hand over her mouth.Where had that come from? She didn’t use that kind of language, at least not here, in the serene setting of Rocky Peak Lodge.

“Don’t hold back,” Kai said. His eyes blazed. “Not on my account. I’m guessing you never swear around Max. You’re a perfect angel around him, a sweet hovering angel whispering words of healing and calm—”

“Shut up!” she snapped. God, he was maddening. He was lucky she was hanging onto her control by a thread, lucky she didn’t kick him in the—

“Nicole? Kai?”

She whirled toward the sound of Max’s rumbling voice. Sure enough, her patient was standing a few feet away, mouth ajar in an expression of pure shock.

“Max. I…uh…was just getting introduced to Kai.”

“Yeah, I heard. All the way in the family wing. Bet they can hear it in the souvenir shop. Pretty sure a flock of waxwings just fled in terror.”

She pressed her hands to her burning cheeks. “I’m so sorry. I…he…” She couldn’t blame this on Kai. That would be immature. “I don’t know what got into me. I apologize.”

“No need.” Max’s whiskered mouth quirked up. “Reminds me of old times. Welcome back, Kai.”

Nicole was so mortified that she could barely look at Kai. But when she did, his shamefaced expression made her feel marginally better. He’d lost his cool too. After fifteen years away, this probably wasn’t the first impression he wanted his father to get.

He scrubbed a hand through his hair and squared his broad shoulders. Why did he have to be so mouthwatering? “Max, Nicole, I apologize to you both. This is all my fault. Max, don’t blame her for this. You know me, I can rub people wrong without even trying.”

She blinked at Kai in surprise. Nice of him to say so, but unexpected.

“You should apologize, Kai,” Gracie burst out. “You promised you wouldn’t fight. Dad’s not supposed to have any stress at all. You can’t come here and make things worse.”

“I know. And I’m sorry.” Kai hauled in a long breath. “I did make that promise, though technically I meant that I wouldn’t fight with Max.”

Max let out one of his booming laughs. “Is that right?”

“Yes. I didn’t come here to fight. And that includes with you, Nurse Nicole.” Kai turned back to face her, and sketched a funny little bow. “I hope you can forgive me. I promise to behave better from now on.”

She had to behave better from now on too, or she was going to blow this whole opportunity. “To be precise, I’m not a nurse, I’m a nurse aide. Just want to make that perfectly clear. I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot. Maybe we can start over. Not right this second,” she added quickly. “You and your father probably have a lot to talk about now.”

“I’d appreciate the chance,” he said, almost formally. A short silence fell, during which she wondered how quickly she could make her escape. From under his bushy eyebrows, Max was looking at Kai with a kind of hooded eagerness.

What must it be like to see your son for the first time as an adult? Especially when he’d grown up to be such a magnificent specimen of a man? Was Max noticing his strength, his hard muscles, his lean and striking face, the air of power and charisma that clung to him? Was he seeing someone who made him proud? Or someone who’d been gone too long?

“Why are you covered in soot, kid?” Max asked Kai gruffly. “Did you come in through the chimney, like a thief in the night?”

Gracie drew in a quick gasp. For a moment, tension reigned in the nearly empty lounge. Then Kai threw his head back and let out a howl of laughter.

“It’s good to be back,” he said. He strode toward his father and the two of them embraced, almost as if they’d surprised themselves by the gesture. Gracie clapped her hands together with a delighted hop.

Nicole seized the opportunity and slipped from the room.

Breathe in, breathe out. Inhale, exhale. This was a total disaster. She’d pissed off Kai, she’d embarrassed herself in front of Max and Gracie. She had to fix this or she was going to ruin everything.