“All right, all right. I’m coming. Let’s go home.”
The dog gave a cheerful little bark and started off. She walked behind with the flashlight.
When the trail reached the houses on Currant Creek Road, the path ended and she moved onto the road. Sam’s house was dark, she saw. Good. On the way past it earlier, she had seen lights and shadows moving around inside and had just about had to reach up a hand and physically yank her face around to keep from staring.
She quickened her pace and had just reached the edge of his lawn—neatly mowed now and beginning to green up—when his voice rang out.
“Alexandra!”
She closed her eyes. A few more seconds and she would have been safe. Damn it. She opened them and turned to find him trotting down his steps toward her.
Her heart gave one quick burst of joy at seeing him again, big and strong and wonderful, before her head reminded her how foolish a feeling that was since she wasn’t the one for him.
She had a couple choices here, none of them pleasant. She could sprint to her house and slam the door or she could muster her nerve and talk to the man for a few minutes.
Sprinting won out by a long shot but he reached her before she could put that particular plan into action.
“Lovely night for a walk.”
“It was. We’re heading home now. And yes, I have bear spray.” She held up the canister attached to her flashlight.
“Smart girl.”
Oh, no. She was very, very foolish. “Is Ethan in bed?”
“Yeah. He has been for the past few hours. He runs pretty hard all day. By bedtime, he’s ready to drop.”
She forced a smile, ignoring the pang in her heart. She still owed Ethan some brownies. Maybe she could fix them for him before she left.
“Well, good night,” she started to say, intending on a quick escape, but he spoke at the same moment and missed her words.
“I had a very interesting conversation with your friend Claire this afternoon,” he said.
Her stomach clutched and she wondered what Claire might have told him. “Did you? She’s an interesting person. You should ask her about the time Riley fished her out of Silver Strike Reservoir in the middle of a blizzard. He saved her life. The kids, too.”
“Fascinating. We didn’t cover that particular story but I’ll be sure to ask her about it next time. No, today she was busy telling me some other disturbing news.”
She couldn’t meet his dark, intense gaze. “Oh?”
“She told me you’re leaving.”
Darn it. Why couldn’t Claire have kept her big mouth shut? And why would she feel the need to discuss the subject with Sam, of all people?
She shifted her weight, wondering just how much of her feelings Claire might suspect. Probably all of them.
“Care to tell me why?”
She wanted to tell him it was none of his damn business. But a heated response like that would only make him suspect that perhaps it was.
“I was handed an unbelievable opportunity. One of those chances you have no choice but to grab when they spin your way.” She tried to make her voice cheerful and excited, though it took all her limited acting skills.
“My sister Rose has a friend who owns one of the top-rated restaurants in Deer Valley, with great visibility,” she went on. “He’s looking for a new chef, heard about Brazen from Rose and stopped by to check things out when he was in Colorado a few weeks ago. He was impressed enough to ask me if I would consider moving.”
“And you said yes.”
Not at first. She had initially turned him down flat. After taking a few hours to think about it, she had realized this was her best chance to leave Hope’s Crossing. Maybe it was a sign, coming as it did at this particular juncture in her life.
Though it scared her to death and she was very much afraid she was making a terrible mistake, the alternative—staying here with the status quo—was worse.
“How could I say no?”
“I don’t know. It shouldn’t be that tough for you. You’ve had plenty of practice saying it to me.”
She blinked but his expression was unreadable in the light from the moon and the streetlights.
“I can’t believe you’re leaving only weeks after opening Brazen. Shouldn’t you be savoring the challenge of making your own restaurant top rated, not taking over what somebody else has already accomplished?”
His words sliced right to the bone. It was ridiculous, really. She knew it was. Giving up her hopes, her dreams, her life, because of a man.
Why did he have to come to her town and ruin everything?
“This way has a great deal less pressure. Brazen is doing well right now—”
“Amazingly well, from what I’ve heard. People are driving up from Denver just to say they ate there.”