Virginia was silent for a long moment. “You had.” She lifted her chin and spoke in a brusquer tone. “But then you found a way to mess it up.”
“I made a mistake,” Jed said. “One I’ve regretted ever since. There’s a reason I stood you up at the homecoming dance, you know.”
“Homecoming dance?” Stella turned a wide-eyed glance Steel’s way. This was part of family lore—a mystery no one but Jed and Virginia knew the truth of.
“You were a fool. You didn’t know what you had until you lost it, and anyway, you know that topic is off limits.” Virginia refused to show it, but Steel thought he read traces of her sorrow there. He’d heard rumors about Jed standing her up at a dance years and years ago, but he didn’t know why.
“You’re right; I was a fool, but I think it’s time to talk about why. It’s time, Virginia,” he repeated.
Virginia was silent a moment, then gave an almost imperceptible nod of her head. “Maybe it is.”
“Thing is, I believed what Foster Crake told me,” Jed said earnestly.
“Foster?” Virginia blinked. “That redheaded idiot? You know he asked me to the homecoming dance that year, too. But I saw the way he treated his sister—pushing her around every chance he got. Making her cry all through school. You know he stole all the money she’d saved up to buy a dress for that dance. Gambled it away. I wanted no part of that.”
Jed heaved a sigh. “He told me you were setting me up. Said you’d been seeing Roger Dickons for weeks. That you were going to dump me and waltz into the dance on his arm.”
“Why the hell did you believe him?”
Steel exchanged a look with Stella. He wasn’t sure he’d ever heard his aunt swear before, but before Jed could answer, Virginia’s expression changed and she answered her own question.
“Because I spent every day after school with Roger leading up to the dance. Oh, you stupid oaf, I told you we were studying. He was failing science, Jed—he had to pass to keep his scholarship to Montana State.”
“I got jealous,” Jed said simply.
“And you stood me up for that? Because Foster Crake whispered lies into your ears? You didn’t ask me for the truth of it, Jed?” A half century of pain went into her question. Steel found himself holding Stella’s hand. Stella was blinking back tears. Everyone knew Jed and Virginia had been halfway to engaged when they’d split up at the end of high school. No one knew what had happened.
“I tried to talk to you later. You threw things at me—”
“Of course I threw things at you!”
Other people were looking. Jed noticed and touched Virginia’s shoulder. “Maybe we should sort this out—somewhere we can really talk.”
For one long, awful moment, Steel thought Virginia would object—or possibly hit him with her umbrella, which she wielded with unswerving accuracy in his experience. When she finally nodded, he let go the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
Virginia walked at a dignified pace around the corner of the lodge. Jed hobbled after her. Everyone else around them had gone back to their own conversations, but Steel followed them, Stella close beside him. When he reached the corner of the lodge and peeked around, he saw Jed and Virginia heading for where he knew the old greenhouses stood. He hesitated a moment, then curled his fingers more firmly in Stella’s and led her to the back of the lodge.
“Do you think they’ll finally patch things up after all this time?” Stella asked, watching them go.
“I hope so.”
“They let a little misunderstanding get between them for so long.” She looked away but not before Steel saw her eyes had filled again. “Our whole family is like that—both our families,” she asserted. “Holding on to old grudges, old pain. Why can’t we get free of the past?”
“I think we’re close.”
“Do you?”
God, he hoped so. It was why he’d stepped away from his family, why he was working so hard to find Sue’s killer.
“I do.”
“Where are we going?” Stella asked when he pulled her around another corner, out of sight of anyone else, and stopped. Jed and Virginia were long gone. They were alone.
“I just needed a little of this.” He bent down to kiss her. Stella waited until his mouth was just an inch away from hers and closed the gap. As her hands twined around his neck, Steel encircled her waist with his arms. This was what he needed—to be alone with Stella. To be pressed up against her. Kissing her. Drinking in the possibilities of what could be between them.
When they drew apart again some time later, Stella smiled at him, her gaze searching his.
“What?” he asked when he began to feel like she was trying to peer straight into his brain.
“I don’t understand why this works so well. You and me,” she clarified. “But it does. You’re like a drug, Steel. The more I have of you, the more I want.” She dropped her gaze. “I probably shouldn’t tell you that.”
“You can tell me anything.” He rested his hands on her hips. “Stella—” He broke off, not knowing what he meant to say. “I wish I was already finished—”
“I know. Me, too. But you said you’re working on it, right? Whatever it is you’re doing? So someday…?”
“Someday,” he agreed. “For now this will have to be enough.” He pulled her close and kissed her again.
“That’ll never be enough,” she complained when he let her go again.
A series of shrill whistles interrupted them, and Stella sighed. “Time for the competitions to start. I’ve got to go,” she explained.
“Go ahead. I’ll follow in a minute. Don’t want to give people ideas.”
“No, we wouldn’t want that.” She bounced up on her toes to kiss the underside of his chin. “To be continued.”
“Definitely.” Steel stepped back and watched her walk away. A minute later he followed and came around the front
