"That's true." If she skied on Ajax, she must be a decent skier; that mountain was for intermediate to expert levels. The thought of going skiing with her . . . She wanted him to go with her? He hated how he was grinning, alone in the truck like a loon. Jesus, he was like . . . smitten. Shit.
"It'd be my treat," she continued. "You took me out the other night, paid for everything on our friendly non-date . . . Now it's my turn."
"You're on. Plus, I can keep an eye on you. Wouldn't want you falling all over yourself on your own, now would we?"
"Oh good." She sounded amused. "My schedule is wide open, but you have work hours to consider. So tell me when would be good for you, and I'll set it up."
"Um . . ." He ran through his week's schedule in his head. Lighter than usual, at the moment. And Mom didn't have radiation again until the fourth . . . "I can do tomorrow afternoon. I'm free after twelve thirty. That's enough time before it gets dark, right?"
"Absolutely! So I tell you what. I'll set it all up, you just meet me there. Ajax at one o'clock, then?"
"Sounds good."
When the call ended, Logan sat for another minute in his truck, thinking over the invite. This budding friendship, or whatever this was, budding between him and Tess, gave him more of a rush than he wanted to admit. She was like a breath of fresh air, yet tangled him up in knots at the same time. Spending time with a gorgeous, smart, nice woman wasn't the worst thing that had happened to him lately, that was for sure. And just as friends, no pressure? He'd try to get out of his own way and enjoy it.
* * *
Tess yawned as she lay back against the couch. Her eyes were tired from staring at her laptop for three hours straight, and she rubbed them gently to soothe them. The house was quiet, save for the Jack Johnson music playing off her sound system. After her call with Logan in the morning, she'd gone to her yoga class, then spent the rest of the day doing more research. By the late afternoon, she'd made the all-important call: She had an appointment with a doctor at the Garrity Fertility Center for the day after tomorrow. The Garrity, located on the outskirts of Aspen, was a highly touted fertility and reproductive medicine clinic, and the doctor she'd requested was on several Best Of lists. Time to get the party started. It could take months until she conceived . . . if she did at all. She didn't think she'd have a problem, but she was almost thirty-eight already, so who knew?
No more waiting. She knew she wanted a baby. She longed for one, ached for a little boy or girl to share her life with and lavish her love upon. Maybe, if the first time went well, she'd even be able to do it a second time. She'd always wanted more than one child . . . she'd been so glad to have siblings growing up, and wanted the same for her own family.
She took a few deep breaths and kept her tired eyes closed. Peace and quiet settled over her, even as a spark of excitement hummed through her bones. This time next year, she could be pregnant. Or even, if she was extraordinarily lucky, she could be a mother already. Smiling to herself as that thought warmed her, she tried to decide what to have for dinner.
Her phone rang, shattering her serenity. Bubbles barked at the sound. Mildly annoyed by the intrusion, Tess leaned over to pick up her phone and glance at the screen. The annoyance increased tenfold. With a little huff, she answered the call. "Hello, Mother."
"Happy New Year, darling!" Laura Dunham Harrison Evans Bainsley's voice was full of overexaggerated affection.
"It's January second," Tess pointed out.
"Oh, don't be such a stick-in-the-mud," Laura said. "This is the first chance I've had to call you. I was in Saint-Tropez, on a yacht, on New Year's Eve. It was fabulous. Wish you'd been there with me!"
"Sure you do," Tess said. She rolled onto her side to gaze at the flames that burned in the fireplace. "Glad you had a nice time."
"I did, I always do. So how are you? What did you do for New Year's?"
"I'm at the house in Aspen."
"Oh! That's great. Spending a week there at the holidays is always nice."
"Actually, I'm going to be staying here for a while. Couple of months, I think. I'm playing it by ear." Tess had no desire to let her mother in on her plans . . . yet at the same time, a tiny bit of yearning snuck in, deep inside. She wished, as she planned to have a baby on her own, that she had a mother she could talk to, confide in, lean on for support.
But she and her brothers had never had that. Not since they were small kids. Tess had been ten years old when her father threw her mother out and banished her from seeing the children on a regular basis. Not that Laura tried very hard to fight him on that. She'd taken her hefty settlement and left to travel the world. She'd remarried and divorced two more times, left a trail of spurned lovers in her wake . . . and now, showed very little interest in her grown children or young grandchildren.
Charles and Dane still maintained basic contact, calling their mother on holidays and her birthday. Tess and Pierce had given up on her, the same way she'd given up on the four of them. The resentment and hurt Tess had swallowed because of her mother had made her sick in her teenage years . . . until she'd gotten to a point of no return. At nineteen, Tess had an emergency appendectomy; if she hadn't gotten to the hospital when she did, she would have died, and as it was she stayed in the hospital for an extra few days to fight off an ensuing infection. Her mother never even called, much less came to see her. Realizing, at last, how little she meant to her mother . . . something in Tess broke away then, never to rebound. Only one person on the planet really mattered to Laura: Laura.
"Are you there?" Laura asked tersely. "Tess?"
"I'm here." Tess had zoned out, lost in her thoughts. "Sorry, what'd you say? I switched ears and didn't hear you," she lied.
"I asked why you're staying in Aspen for so long. Got a hot ski instructor hidden away there or something?"
"No." Tess cringed. She'd never be a man-eater like her mother. The very thought made her vaguely sick. "Just wanted a change of scene for a while."
"For that long?" Laura paused, her tone changing. "Why? Is everything okay?"
"Yes, everything's fine."
"You sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure," Tess asserted. Going to start playing the concerned mother now? It's a little late for that. "So are you still in Saint-Tropez?"
"Yes, for the rest of this week. Then I'm going to Saint Bart's for the rest of January."
"Tough life you lead," Tess quipped. "Well, enjoy."
"Why don't you come join me for a few days?" Laura asked. "Three whole weeks in paradise, plenty of room in the villa. We could have a mother-daughter getaway!"
A part of Tess's heart leapt. Laura hadn't invited her along on her travels in years. The little girl in her who'd always longed for her mother's attention experienced a quick flash of happiness. But she hadn't been a little girl in a long time, and her mother hadn't been a regular part of her life for a long time either. Tess did what she'd done over and over since she was nineteen: shut her mother out. "Thanks for the offer," Tess said, "but I've got some things lined up here. I'm staying put."
"Seriously? I can understand going to ski in Aspen for a short trip, it's a gorgeous place. But why the hell would you want to spend more than a few days in the cold during wintertime?" Laura asked with a mixture of confusion and irritation.
"Just call me snow bunny," Tess wisecracked.
"Ugh. That is so not for me," Laura said in a haughty tone. "Well, enjoy your freezing temperatures and snow. I'll be hopping from beach to beach until May."
"I expect nothing less," Tess said flatly. "Well, I have to go feed Bubbles."
"Oh, all right. Can't believe you still have that dog. She must be old by now."
"She's only six."
"I don't know anything about dog years. Is that old or not?"
"No," Tess said, not wanting to bother with the conversation any longer. "Thanks for calling. Glad to hear you're fine. Take care, Mother."
"Oh, you too, darling. Happy New Year! And listen . . ."
Tess braced herself.
"Go find yourself a nice, strong ski instructor to keep you busy while you're in Aspen. Or a wealthy older man. Plenty of those around, I'm sure." Laura sighed. "You're not getting any younger, sweetie. Gotta get your first husband out of the way!"