He stared at Claire. He didn’t think she would make up a story but he could hardly believe such a thing could be true. “How could someone as great as Mary Ella be married to such an ass?”
She laughed. “That is a darn good question, Sam. Actually, he was a good husband and great father through most of Alex’s childhood. He was really funny and nice. I used to love going to their house because it was so...different from my own. They were always laughing about something.”
“What happened? Why would he just walk away from that?”
“What makes any man decide to make choices that end up hurting people he is supposed to care about? Ego? Narcissism? Who knows? I haven’t ruled out a brain tumor, as crazy as that sounds.”
Claire looked pensive and sad and her hand automatically went to her abdomen. Her husband, Alexandra’s brother, had been affected by the same thing, he realized.
“Alex took it hard. All of them did, but Alex and James had been really close. She was the youngest daughter and was really a daddy’s girl. For a long time, she shut everybody out. I’m not sure she’s ever really gotten over it, if you want the truth.”
That explained so very much about Alexandra. He had asked her once if she was blaming him for somebody else’s sins. Her father’s abandonment must have devastated her at such a crucial point in her adolescence when she had most needed the example of a good, strong man in her life.
“I love Alex dearly, don’t get me wrong, but she can be the most stubborn person on the planet,” Claire continued. “I mean, why can’t she see that by running away now, she’s only repeating her father’s stupid mistakes?”
It took a moment for her words to penetrate his thick skull. “Whoa. Wait a minute. What did you say? Who’s running away?”
Claire stared at him. “Alex. I’m sorry. I thought you would have heard by now. She’s all but accepted a job to run a restaurant in Park City.”
The ground seemed to shift under his feet and he almost swayed with it. He couldn’t have heard her right. She couldn’t be leaving! “What about Brazen? She loves that place.”
“She does,” Claire agreed. “None of us can figure out what’s going on. She’s been so excited about the restaurant opening. Her whole life, all her years of preparation and training, have been devoted to that goal. And the restaurant is doing great, exceeding even Brodie’s expectations, with almost universally glowing reviews. Now, just a month after it opened, all she will say is she’s ready for the next challenge.”
“You’re not joking. She’s really leaving.” He couldn’t comprehend it.
“She says she is. I don’t know what she thinks she’ll find in Utah that she can’t have here in Hope’s Crossing.”
Once when he was in Afghanistan in a house-to-house raid for insurgents, a flash-bang grenade had gone off about three feet from him, leaving him nauseous and unable to see or hear or think for a good two minutes.
Yeah. This was worse.
Through his shock, he looked at his relaxed, happy son talking to Owen, at the town that had welcomed them with its clean streets, well-kept houses and historic streetlamps, all sheltered by the magnificent mountains.
“You don’t know why?” he managed to ask.
“Not really. I don’t know if it’s because of Caroline’s death or if something else happened. For all I know, it could be a combination of things. She won’t say. I’m her best friend and she probably tells me more than anyone else but she still keeps part of herself separate. All I know is that she told Brodie she would work at Brazen for another month while she trains one of her sous-chefs to take over and then she’s leaving. She’s even started looking for a renter for her house.”
She loved that house. She loved her restaurant, this town, her family. Why would she walk away from all of it?
He didn’t want to be a narcissistic idiot like her father but he had to wonder if it had anything to do with him and the way he had pushed her so hard to open her heart to him.
He released a heavy breath.
He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he was responsible for driving her away. He had no idea how but he was going to have to find her and make her tell him the truth.
What, exactly, he would do then, he had no idea.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
SHE WOULD MISS these quiet walks along the creek, just her dog and her thoughts and the silvery water rippling in the moonlight.
Friday evening, nearly two weeks after Caroline’s death, Alex headed out on her usual path to the fence where the Forest Service land began, with Leo sniffling along just ahead of her.