They live on the east coast of Florida.”
She stuck the key in the lock and turned. “Let me guess. They live on the beach too?”
Jack laughed. “How did you know?”
“Surfer dude. Plenty of beach knowledge and almost no mountain knowledge. You had to have gotten it from somewhere.”
He followed her into the house and looked around. “Wow. Not what I expected.”
Mira peered at the interior of her parents’ old home and tried to see it through his eyes. Rustic on the outside, the house was modest but modern. Hardwood floors ran throughout the cabin, and her dad had done most of the work inside himself, from the plank walls to the oak trim. There were so many memories attached to this place. Some of them good. Some of them not so good.
“Not quite as swanky as the lodge, is it?”
“It’s not that.” He moved over to the oversized fireplace. “Does this work?”
“Dad keeps the wood box in here filled with split logs. The bigger chunks are outside. You’d be surprised how well it warms the place. Do you want to start a fire while I take our lunch into the kitchen?”
Mira took the basket and headed for the space across the room. The cabin was built on an open concept, so the dining and kitchen areas were all visible from the living room. And as she set the box down and gazed across the space, she couldn’t help but admire Jack’s strong back as he gathered wood from the compartment behind the wall and knelt in front of the fireplace.
By the time he had the fire going, she’d unloaded lunch, which consisted of fried chicken, potato salad, baked beans and some cheese and crackers. All hearty picnic food that would do well on the cold trip over here. She got out a pan for the beans and set it on the stove. “Do you want me to heat up the chicken, or do you prefer it cold?”
“I’ll like whatever you do.” His voice came from right behind her, making her jump.
She spun around. “You scared me.”
“Join the crowd. You scare me too, lady.” Something about the way he said it made her think he wasn’t talking about being startled but about something a little deeper.
No. No deeper allowed. She’d lectured herself on this very thing. They’d only known each other for less than two weeks, but she was already feeling much too close to this man. It had to be the sex. Women felt an emotional response to sleeping with a man, right, whereas men could just shrug it off? At least, that’s what she’d always heard. But maybe that wasn’t always the case. Maybe Jack was struggling with some of the same issues she was.
She forced her voice to remain light. “Well, one thing that isn’t scary is this lunch. Marie always makes a great fried chicken.”
“Marie?”
“The chef at the lodge. She’s been there ever since I was a teenager.”
“You’ve lived here your whole life?” He unzipped his coat and moved around the bar, perching on one of the stools.
“My whole life. I lived with my mom for a year or two after the divorce but, yeah, I grew up here. Once I finished college and med school, I came back.”
“Wow. I’ve always lived near the ocean, but my parents moved around quite a bit. My dad was in the service. He retired in Florida.”
Mira put the burner on low and turned around to face him. “My friend Ellory—the one from the resolution—likes to travel as well. She’s been all over the place. But she grew up here too, her mom worked at the lodge when she was little.”
“You can’t see yourself doing that someday? Traveling?”
The funny thing was, lately she’d been thinking about that very thing. About whether it was time for her to spread her wings and move away from her childhood home. Make her own memories somewhere else. Maybe she’d stayed for so long to make peace with her dad. Now that she had, something inside her was itching with discontent.
“I went to college and medical school away from here, obviously. I don’t know. It’s certainly something to consider, but I’m not to that point yet. Maybe I just need to find a reason.”
His jaw got tight. “Make sure that reason has to do with you, Mira. Not someone else.”
Was he speaking from personal experience? Had he resented moving around as a kid?
She turned to stir the beans, the heat from the burner as well as the fireplace beginning to warm her. Shrugging out of her coat, she laid it over the bar behind her, deciding to ask. “Was it hard, moving from place to place when you were young?”
“What? Oh...” He shook his head. “No, that was just part of normal life—it didn’t bother me. Anyway, you were right. The fireplace does a great job.”
He picked up her coat and moved away from the bar, hanging their outerwear on the hooks her father had installed next to the door. Then he poked at the fire with his back to her.
Frowning, Mira gave the beans another couple of stirs as steam began to rise from the pot.
Make sure that reason has to do with you. Not someone else.
If he hadn’t been talking about moving around during his childhood, then what? Had he moved as an adult because of someone else? No, he was a sports medicine doctor. He’d obviously taken the job in Texas because he’d wanted to—because he’d loved football and his team—not because someone had made him. But his coach had made him go on this vacation in the first place. Why?
She reached up to one of the overhead cabinets and pulled out two plates and wineglasses, rinsing and drying them. She did the same with the silverware in the drawer before setting everything on round twig placemats on the bar. “I think we’re about ready.”
When Jack joined her, she helped dish everything up and poured them each a glass of wine. “That fire feels good. Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” He pushed the food around on his plate for a minute or two. “You asked about it being hard to move. That wasn’t what I meant about making sure you did it for yourself and not someone else.”
Mira tensed, wondering where he was going with this and not sure she really wanted to know. “Okay.”
“Did I tell you I was married at one time?”
Her eyes widened. She’d asked whether he was married and when he’d said no, she’d just assumed he’d been single all his life. “No.”
“I was. Paula was a pediatric oncologist with a thriving practice in California. She loved her patients. Her staff.” He paused, staring at the handle of his fork as if it were suddenly fascinating. “Four years ago, I was approached by the Hawks and asked if I’d be their doctor. At the time I was working with a smaller team in California, so it would have been a big promotion for me. I asked Paula to go with me. Told her that with her skills she could open a practice anywhere in the U.S.—could keep helping sick kids, just like she did where she was.”
Had the strain been too much, and they’d divorced over it? “Did she decide not to go?”
He shook his head. “Oh, she decided to go. But it would have been better if she hadn’t.”
“I don’t understand.”
Dropping his fork back onto his plate, he turned his stool to face her. “My wife got on the plane to fly out to Texas and never made it off.” He took a deep breath. “It crashed in the Gulf of Mexico. Her body was never recovered.”
MIRA WAS SHOCKED.
He saw it in her face. But was she shocked at the fact that he’d been married or that his wife had died because