a woman if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s not that kind of a place.”
She was young and innocent, he thought. Too bad the world wasn’t that way. “Every place is that kind of a place.”
She shook her head, amused, as she took another long sip. “Spoken like a man from the big city.”
“No, spoken like a man who’s been around, who knows that human nature isn’t always as kind as we’d like it to be.”
There was more, but it wasn’t his place to tell her about Alison, about the way a trusted family friend had, under the guise of comforting her over her father’s death, gone too far and scarred her so much as a young woman that it became almost impossible for her to ever be intimate with a man. That had it not been for Luc and his overwhelming gentleness, his sister might still be alone and hurting. It would have proved his point, but he had no intentions of revealing Alison’s personal business to do it.
Finishing her beer, she set her glass down on the bar and then looked at him. A slight frown played on her lips. “Why do you do that?”
He didn’t follow her. “Do what?”
Her brow furrowed with impatience. “Why do you talk as if you’re an old man?”
He wasn’t aware that was what he was doing, only that he was trying to make her a little less trusting. Better safe than sorry. “Well—”
“You’re not, remember? I thought we settled that on the plane.” She cut him off before he could offer an explanation. She didn’t want one, all she wanted was for him to realize that he was still in the prime of his life.
He looked around. It was hard to judge how old most of the men in the area were. But he felt it safe to venture that they were closer to his age than to hers. “Maybe not if you consider the men in the bar.” And then he looked pointedly at her. Funny, she made him feel old and young at the same time. But chronology was chronology. “But I am, in comparison to you.”
She was very, very tired of being thought of as the baby in the bunch. She’d already run her own business and sold it at a profit and was now engaged in a second career. What did it take to get through to these people that she was a grown woman?
“I’m not a child.”
He smiled at her. “I didn’t say that.”
She didn’t care for the indulgence she saw in his eyes. She didn’t like being humored or patronized, only acknowledged. “And I can take care of myself.”
He nodded. “You already said that.”
Annoyed, she blew out a breath, trying not to lose her temper. “So, what is there left to say?”
She reminded him a great deal of his sisters when they were being particularly stubborn. “Anything you want.”
Somehow, through the ebbing and flowing of the crowd, they’d managed to be moved toward the door again. She took a deep breath of the outside air that had found its way into the establishment and calmed down a little. “All right, why are you so sad?”
He could only shake his head. “You don’t mince words, do you?”
She knew she was outspoken and made no apologies for it. “We live life at a different pace up here. We don’t move fast, but we don’t miss an opportunity to say what we mean, either. We’ve got earthquakes, avalanches and cabin fever, and there might not be another chance, so we don’t pass them up when they come.” She fixed him with a penetrating look. “And you’re avoiding the question. Why are you so sad?”
When she looked at him like that, he found he had trouble focusing his thoughts. “I’m not sad.”
“Now you’re lying,” she said with equal bluntness. June shrugged. “That’s okay, you don’t have to answer my question. To you, I’m just a nosy stranger.”
He didn’t want her to think that was the way he saw her. Or that he was deliberately shutting her out. June was family, even if just extended, and family was the most important thing in the world to him. It always had been. “My whole family’s up here. I miss them.”
The answer was simple from where she stood. “Then stay.”
She was very, very young, wasn’t she? “Things are more complicated than that.”
She decided she liked him. Really liked him. And as such, she decided that he needed her help. The man had to lighten up just a little or he really was going to become old before his time.
She placed a hand on his shoulder, commanding his undivided attention. “Things only get as complicated as you let them, Kevin.”
Chapter Four
June paused for a moment, letting her hand drop to her side, as if suddenly aware of crossing some personal line that needed to remain uncrossed. “You have a woman back in Seattle?”
“What?” Kevin was thunderstruck by the question.
Amusement curved her mouth. “A woman. A female companion. A softer version of you,” she added when he made no response. “Do you have one of those back in Seattle?”
He had no idea why he had to keep blocking the urge to touch her. “No, what makes you ask?”
She would have thought that was obvious. Kevin was looking at her oddly. Did he think she was interested in him? It certainly wasn’t meant to be a personal question on her part.
“Well, that’s the only complicating factor I can think of. You sold your business. You just said that everyone you care about is up here.” She connected the dots for him. “That means that you’re perfectly fancy-free if you want to be.”
Oh, when had life ever been that easy for him? He couldn’t think back that far. “You’re twenty-two, aren’t you?”
Because he was Lily and Jimmy’s brother, she fought her natural tendency to take offense. Instead, she kept her voice calm, even. “That has nothing to do with it. I was born old.”
Wasn’t that always the mantra with people who were too young? he mused. His eyes swept over her face. Her perfect, smooth, heart-shaped face. “You don’t look all that old to me.”
“I could say the same about you.” Her smile flashed, casting a spectrum like the northern lights. Mostly within him. “Of course you might need to take a little closer look at me. It’s daylight out here, but your eyes can still play tricks on you.” As if to underscore her point, June stepped closer to him, raising her face up for his inspection.
He doubted if he’d ever seen a complexion so flawless. Or compelling. The woman could have easily done commercials for soap.
“No, no tricks,” he murmured. Other than the one his own pulse was executing by vibrating faster than he could ever remember it having done before. “You still look as if the dew hasn’t come off your life.”
There it was again, that unintentional patronizing attitude. “You’d be surprised, ‘old man’.” The grin entered her eyes and then slowly, enticingly, faded as she looked up into his face. From out of nowhere came the feeling that everything had stood still and was holding its breath within her. It took her a second to find her voice, another to dig up her bravado. “So, do I kiss you, or do you kiss me?”
He suddenly couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than to do just that. To kiss her, to feel her lips against his.
But that would be as wrong as wrong could be.
He smiled for her benefit. “Neither. If I kissed you, I’d be robbing the cradle. If you kissed me, there’d be a riot scene.” He nodded toward the men standing just inside the Salty, many of whom were looking at them and trying hard to appear as if they weren’t.
The stillness within her left, to be replaced by the pounding of her heart as it tried to