Starlight Magic

Chapter 1-3

“Lucky me.”

“Have you seen your cabin yet?”

“Just the outside. Ty and Shannon took me up to it right after we landed in Northstar. That road is pretty steep, and I’m not sure my little two-wheel drive car will be able to handle it if it snows too much. They weren’t sure if it’s plowed.”

“Only by yours truly. Even so, it can still be snotty.”

“Why don’t you park your car down at the ranch,” Ty suggested, “and use one of our trucks while you’re here?”

Celeste’s brows dipped into a scowl, but it was gone in a flash, replaced by a flicker of despair. “Ty, I—”

“You can and you will,” Shannon interrupted. “Because you’re practical and you know one of the trucks would be a lot safer to drive.”

Celeste snapped her mouth closed and pressed her mouth into a thin line, visibly suppressing whatever annoyance or anxiety gripped her. “Sorry,” she whispered. Then she affected a too-bright smile that was clearly forced. “That’d be great. Thank you.”

Brodie glanced between the two women, noting the concern evident in Shannon’s eyes and the wincing regret in Celeste’s. He suspected Celeste was fiercely independent, and the fact that she had yielded and accepted assistance made him believe something bad had happened to her, and it had backed her into the untenable position of needing help. Just like when he came across an animal needing help, his mind immediately started working out the logistics of how he could give her a hand without provoking her pride.

“It’s probably presumptuous of me to say you’ll like the A-frame,” he said, pushing aside his natural inclination to scoop her into his arms and hold her until that defiant hopelessness left her eyes, “but I think you will. I wanted to buy it when I bought my place, but the owner wouldn’t sell. Very cozy and airy with that open floor plan downstairs.”

“From what Ty’s told me, I’d say you’re right. He says it has a great view of the mountains with big windows and a lot of light. That’ll be great for my work.”

“You’re not here on an extended vacation?”

“Well, I am, but I’m fortunate to be able to work from anywhere I can set up my computer and work space.”

The catch in her voice was curious, but Brodie figured now wasn’t the time to ask her what the downside of her arrangement was. “What do you do for work?”

“Freelance design and a few paintings, jewelry, and whatnot I sell on Etsy. What about you? I know you work at your family’s ski hill, but that’s only a seasonal gig, isn’t it?”

“I ramrod a construction crew for a contractor in Devyn in the spring, summer, and early fall.”

She eyed him again, lingering on his face and shook her head. “You’re not the ramrodding type.”

“You caught me. But I do run the crew.”

“What do you build?”

“Residential mostly. Houses, barns, sheds, shops. That sort of thing.”

“Shall the rest of us leave you two alone to chat?” Ainsley inquired. She glanced between him and Celeste with copper brows lifted.

“If you’re offering,” Brodie quipped, “be gone, wee lass.”

Ainsley splashed him, nailing him right in the face with a wall of water. Then, with a smug gleam in her eyes, she kissed his cheek. Grinning, he sluiced the water from his face and rubbed it out of his eyes as his sister bid everyone good night and headed for the changing rooms inside the pool house.

“Wee lass? What are you, Scottish?” Celeste asked.

“Half plus a few drops from Mum’s side. Dad’s family has raised sheep and cattle on the same croft above the cliffs near Durness in northwest Scotland for generations. We hop the pond to visit the family over there every other year. When we don’t go there, they come here.”

“With that classic Scottish red hair, I should’ve guessed.” A faint smile brightened her face. She glanced toward the pool house. “Your sister is beautiful. She has such delicate features, and I love her freckles. They make her look so elfin, like a sprite straight out of an enchanted forest. And you’re not so bad yourself.”

“Thanks. Ainsley is beautiful. She’s also a pain in the arse sometimes,” he said. How curious that Celeste should use the exact term he’d called his sister by most of Ainsley’s life. “You have any siblings?”

“No.”

“Lucky you.”

“Maybe. Maybe not.”

He liked the way she held his gaze when she said that, calling him out on his lie. He chuckled. “Caught me again. She is a pest at times, but even when she is, I still love her. I’d give my own life to keep her safe and happy.”

“I bet you would.”

That gentle assertion so sharply contrasted the audaciousness that he leaned back with brows raised. This girl had more layers than a bristlecone pine had rings, and he was suddenly keen to peel them back. But not tonight. Not for a while yet, he deduced.

Glancing around the pool, he realized that Ty and Shannon had sequestered themselves over by the pipe gushing hot water straight from the spring into the pool. “I’d best let you get back to your friends. It’s getting late and I need to get home to feed my critters.”

“It was good to meet you.” The sudden warmth in her eyes surprised him and lent a genuineness to her words that told him she wasn’t merely being polite. Then it was gone, and when she spoke again, her voice held a potent and sultry entreaty. “Don’t be a stranger, Brodie. We will be neighbors for a while, after all.”

That was another idea he wasn’t going to investigate tonight. Smiling, he said, “Stop by the ski hill any time with your skis and board, and we’ll get ‘em waxed for you. See you soon, Celeste.”

Ainsley was already waiting in his truck by the time he walked out of the pool house again fully dressed with his swim trunks rolled in his towel. He tossed his wet swim gear in the bed of his truck. As cold as it was tonight, they’d undoubtedly be frozen by the time he dropped Ainsley off at her cabin at the foot of the road up to his. That’s what a dryer was for, though, right?

It wasn’t until he’d started his truck and backed out of the parking spot that he noticed her sad, contemplative expression as she stared at the stars.

“What’s wrong, sprite?” he asked softly.

“It’s been almost thirteen years,” she murmured, “and I can barely remember her anymore.”

He didn’t have to ask for clarification; he knew exactly what she was thinking about. This time of year, it was a topic never far from her mind or his or their mother’s. “Well, you were only twelve. It’s been more than half your life since she died.”

“You still remember her pretty clearly, don’t you? You were eighteen, and you were a lot closer to her than I was.”

“The edges are beginning to dull now,” he admitted. “But she’ll never fade away completely because we won’t let her. Any particular reason why you’re thinking about her tonight?”

“Shannon’s friend, Celeste.”

“What about her?”

“Do you think maybe Inez is trying to tell you something? I mean, you have this giant soft spot for wounded things, and here comes this woman who’s obviously been hurt worse than any animal you’ve taken in… and her name is Celeste.”

A heavenly name, for sure. And it was under a starry sky like this the night before Inez died that she’d made him promise to never let a hurting creature suffer alone. As if I could.

“You follow me?” Ainsley asked.

“I follow you,” he murmured, “but people aren’t like animals, Ains. I can’t fix her simply by offering her a warm home and kind words.”

“Can’t you? Seems to me like that’s exactly what she needs.”

He glanced sideways at her. “Didn’t you just call me gallus not half an hour ago for thinking like that?”

“Yeah, but….” She tucked her legs against her chest and folded her arms around them. “Did you see her face when she was sitting on the steps by herself before Shannon introduced her? She looked so lost.”

“I saw. I’d bet the ski hill that’s exactly why she’s here.”

He also recalled the woman’s blatant appraisal of him and the solicitous way she’d told him don’t be a stranger, but he didn’t bring that up, certain his voice would reveal how the idea of taking her up on that offer made his heart pound. Layers, he thought again. Lots of ‘em.

As he turned onto Lightning Ridge Road at the base of the ski hill and pulled up in front of Ainsley’s cabin, he reached over and gripped her shoulder with his hand in as much of a hug as he could manage with her sitting across the cab. A sprite straight from an enchanted wood, Celeste had called Ainsley. She’d nailed it. And like the pure-hearted sprite she was, Ainsley couldn’t stand to see anyone in pain any more than he could. It gave her an innocence that, at times like this, made her seem a lot younger than twenty-five.

“Good night, sprite,” he murmured. “Stars guard your dreams.”

She took his hand and squeezed. “And yours. See ya tomorrow.”

He waited until she was inside the cabin before he headed up the road toward home. Lightning Ridge Road turned sharply just past Ainsley’s house, then climbed up the side of the ridge that jutted out from the southeast flank of the ski hill. As the road crested the ridge, it broke out of the trees onto a flat opening with a breathtaking view of the eastern Northstar Mountains currently awash in the light of a waxing gibbous moon. His cabin sat just beyond the tree line down a sixty-foot driveway. The road curved back toward the western ridges, ending another tenth of a mile above his house at the A-frame Celeste would be renting for the next two months. He could see her temporary home from his front door, dark tonight but with its windows reflecting the moon. It would be nice to see light glowing from within and smoke curling from the chimney again.

That’s what I can do for her.

The owner of the A-frame, a single, older gentleman from back East, had been out for a couple weeks in late October and had had the propane tank filled before he’d left for home but hadn’t had time to restock the firewood. Brodie still hadn’t unloaded his firewood trailer from last weekend, so it’d be no trouble to haul it up there tomorrow when Celeste moved in.

Satisfied with that plan, he climbed out of his truck and headed into his cabin. Two bouncy Labrador retrievers and a pair of yowling cats greeted him. He kicked the door closed behind him and reached down to pet each in turn. Even with them here to greet him so enthusiastically, the house felt empty without Brendan. It did every weekend when the boy was with his mother in Butte, and though he’d encouraged the arrangement, Brodie still missed the little bugger.

Sensing the dip in his mood, Jake, the yellow lab, whined. His foster sister, the black lab, Charlie, c****d her head and wagged her tail.

“I know you miss him, too.”

The two cats—the white, tailless Moon and the black Binx—bumped against his legs, meowing. “And you two. You’re just hungry, aren’t you? You couldn’t care less about Brendan or me as long as your food bowl is full.”

He let the dogs out to do their business while he prepared dinner for the critters. Once they were all back in, fed, and adequately acknowledged with pets, Brodie wandered into the living room to the front window to admire the view. He wondered if Celeste liked animals. He hoped so, because not liking animals was a deal breaker for him. It never ceased to amaze him the unconditional love given by even an abused dog like Charlie, an abandoned Christmas puppy like Jake, a homeless stray like Binx or a tortured cat like Moon, whose tail had been so cruelly mangled after she’d been tied to a stake by it that it had needed to be amputated. It was so pure and so healing, that love, and he would never understand how people could take it and throw it away… or worse, crush it. If he taught his son nothing more than to treat animals with the same love they gave, he’d consider himself a success as a father because that compassion would carry over into the rest of his life. It might not make him a rich man, but it would make him a good one, and Brodie couldn’t ask for anything more than that.

His mind drifted back to Celeste, something he had a feeling it would be doing a lot over the duration of her stay in Northstar. From what he’d gathered about her tonight, she wasn’t much different than his rescues—wary and unsure of herself with her confidence shaken. Had someone taken her love and crushed it or cast it aside? She was just as wary as Charlie, Moon, and Binx had been at first.

With his hands in his pockets, he stood at the front window and lifted his gaze to the glittering night sky, thinking back on his conversation with his sister. Celeste. A name inspired by the beauty of the heavens. He could almost see the watchful gaze of his half-sister in the stars.

“What are you trying to tell me, Inez?”