Allison Leigh - Montana Passions

Katie picked up the phone in midring. “Hello?” No one spoke. She asked again, more urgently, “Hello?”

“Katie, darling? Oh, thank goodness.”

She felt the huge smile burst across her face. “Addy.”

“You’re there…you’re safe?”

“Oh, Addy. Yes. I’m fine. Justin and I got stuck here, at the museum. But we’re okay. We’re safe. Buttercup’s even okay—though she’s getting pretty cranky, trapped in the shed out back with only hay to eat.”

“You’re safe.” The relief in Addy’s dear voice was achingly clear. “We’ve been so worried…”

“I’m fine. Really. And so is Justin. Don’t worry anymore. Everything’s great, but what about you? And Caleb? And Riley?”

“Safe. We’re all safe.” A gentle chuckle followed. “Riley made it home from the hall before the snow got too bad. Caleb and I and Mr. Sy Goodwin got stuck in that office in town.”

“The ski resort office?”

“You know Caleb. Sy’s visiting from Billings. He expressed interest in the project and Caleb wanted to take him right over there to show him what a good investment he’d be making. I tagged along. By the time we realized we needed to get home, it was too late. But we all three made it back to the hall, and spent Sunday and Monday and three endless, uncomfortable nights there, with the others who didn’t make it home. It was an adventure, I’ll tell you.”

“Where are you now?”

“The snowplows started working last evening. Thunder Canyon Road was cleared by seven this morning.”

Katie looked at the clock on the wall—ten thirty-five. “So you’re at the Lazy D?”

“That’s right. Home safe and sound.”

Katie clutched the phone tighter. “Oh, I’m so relieved. I was worried about everyone.”

“Nothing to worry about. We’re all safe, and Caleb wants to talk to you.”

“Okay, I—”

Before she finished her sentence, Caleb’s deep voice was blustering in her ear. “Katie. Honey, you’re all right?”

Katie smiled all the wider. “I’m fine. Really. Safe and warm, and we had food to eat, sandwiches left by the Historical Society ladies. We’re pretty tired of ham and cheese, but it all worked out. Truly.”

“Justin Caldwell?”

The sound of his name on Caleb’s lips made her blush, for some silly reason—or maybe it was the memory of last night. “He’s here, with me. Safe. I promise.”

“All right, then. Katie, honey, you’ll be out of there in no time. I’m making a few calls to see that plow gets to you right away.”

“Caleb, that’s really not necessary. We’re perfectly safe and we can wait.”

Caleb wouldn’t hear of that. “I’m getting you out of there, and I’m doing it quick. Just sit tight now and hold on.” He spoke to someone—Addy, no doubt—on his end of the line. “Addy wants you to come on out to the ranch for dinner tonight. We’ll celebrate how we all got through the worst blizzard of the century—so far, anyway—safe and sound. She says to invite Caldwell, too. Can’t have an out-of-towner thinking we don’t know how to treat a guest.” He chuckled again. “Especially one who happens to be my business partner.”

Nice idea, she thought. Lovely idea. “I’ll ask him.”

“Good. I’m going to let you go now. I want you to call me if that plow doesn’t show up in the next hour.”

She wouldn’t, of course. She and Justin could wait as long as it took. But Caleb always enjoyed pulling strings for the people who mattered to him. “Thanks, Caleb. I love you—Addy, too.”

He made the usual, gruff, blustering sounds. “Well, now, who’s my girl?”

“ I am. Always. Bye now.”

She hung up and turned to find Justin leaning in the doorway to the central room, one bare foot crossed lazily over the other. Her heart set to pounding and her breath caught at the sight of him—at the memory of last night that seemed to shimmer in the air between them.

“That was Caleb and Addy.” She sounded breathless. Probably because she was. “They were worried. I told them we were fine. And they said everyone else is safe, too.”

“Good.” He straightened from his easy slouch and came toward her, the predatory gleam in his eyes causing her knees to go weak and something low in her belly to go soft as melting butter.

She suffered dual urges—to back away from him; and to throw herself against him and lift up her mouth. In the end, she did neither. She held her ground, waiting, as he stalked toward her.

He reached her, his eyes still burning into hers.

A nervous laugh escaped her. “Justin, you look so…” The sentence trailed off. She didn’t know quite how to finish it.

He lifted a hand. With a light finger, he guided a stray coil of hair behind her ear. A little shiver went through her. “Cold?”

“No. No, not at all. Justin, are you okay?”

His hand dropped to his side and he stepped back. “So, today we’re really getting out of here.”

She nodded. “If we’re lucky, the plow should be here in the next few hours.”

He turned from her, abruptly. “Let’s get the coffee going.”

She caught his arm. “Justin…”

He swung back, his eyes dark. Turbulent. His bicep was rock-hard with tension beneath her hand. “What?”

She let go, fast. “I…well, you almost seem angry. I just don’t get it.”

He kept staring at her, giving her that strange, hot, dark devouring look, for an endless, tense moment and then…

His eyes changed. Softened. His wonderful, sensual mouth went soft, too. “Hell.” And he reached out and pulled her into his strong arms, squeezing the breath right out of her.

“Justin, what—?”

“I don’t want to lose you.” The rough, whispered words seemed dredged up from the deepest part of him.

“Oh, Justin.” She held on, tight as he was holding her. “You won’t. Of course, you won’t.”

A low, pained sound came from him and he crushed her so close, as if he would push himself right into her, meld their separate bodies into one undividable whole.

An image flashed into her mind: of the boy he once was, a boy all alone when he shouldn’t have been, standing at a wide window, watching the snow come down, wondering what was going to happen to him.

“You can count on me,” she whispered, meaning it with every fiber of her being. “You can hold on to me. I’ll always be here.”

He held her close for an endless moment more and then, with a shuddering sigh, his arms relaxed. She raised her head to meet his eyes and a rueful half smile lifted a corner of his mouth.

“Damned if I wasn’t kind of getting to like it here.”

She surged up, pressed a kiss on his beard-shadowed jaw. “Me, too. Oh, Justin…me, too.”

Over morning coffee and the inevitable sandwiches, she relayed Addy’s dinner invitation.

His eyes shifted away for a split second, and then he shook his head. “Wish I could. But I need to get back to Bozeman, ASAP. In my business, there are a hundred issues to deal with on a daily basis. I’ve been away since Saturday morning and that’s three days too long.”

She set down her stale sandwich and resisted the urge to work on him to stay. The guy had a demanding job and if they were going to get anywhere together, she’d have to learn to live with that—and on second thought, there were no ifs about it. The way he’d held her, as if he’d never let her go, out in the reception room a while ago, had banished all doubts on that score.

“I’m disappointed,” she said, matter-of-factly. “But I do understand.”

“Will you thank Adele for the invitation—and express my regrets?”

“You know I will—and it could be tough to get home at this point. You realize that?” Well, okay, she couldn’t help hoping that maybe bad road conditions would keep him in town tonight, after all. He could stay at her place.