Currant Creek Valley - By RaeAnne Thayne Page 0,85
how to deal with Dylan.”
“Oh. Of course. Good idea. How is Dylan lately? I haven’t seen him around.”
“Still struggling.” Charlotte’s eyes filled with sorrow. “He’s moved into that awful cabin in Snowflake Canyon. All he does is sit around collecting his veteran benefits and drinking and slamming the door on us when we try to go talk to him.”
“I’m sorry.” Today, with her emotions so close to the surface, she wanted to cry for all that wasted potential. Dylan had been smart and fun, a natural leader.
Why did there have to be so damn much pain in the world?
Life was so much easier when she could shut it all out, keep herself from caring.
“He just doesn’t seem to be getting better, you know? He needs some kind of purpose. I don’t know, I thought maybe Sam might have some advice for how to shake him out of it. Soldier to soldier, you know? He agreed to introduce himself.”
“Did he?”
She wanted to tell Charlotte right now to stop talking. She didn’t want to hear more about the wonderful Sam Delgado, but at the same time she wanted to know everything.
Charlotte nodded, her smile soft. “He managed to track him down at the liquor store and struck up a conversation. And, get this, he offered Dylan a job on his construction crew! Can you believe that? A one-armed, half-blind carpenter?”
“Of course he did.”
Alex began to laugh and once she started, she couldn’t seem to stop. Charlotte was giving her a very concerned look, probably ready to call for the paramedics and a straitjacket, but the laughter still bubbled out.
She couldn’t tell her friend she was only laughing to keep from bursting into sobs.
What could she do with a man like Sam Delgado except love him, whether she wanted to or not?
“Dylan turned him down, of course,” Charlotte said after a moment when Alex’s laughter subsided. “Quite rudely, from what I understand. I have a feeling that won’t stop Sam.”
“He’s all about persistence, isn’t he?”
“Yes.” Charlotte nibbled her lip again. “Just so you know, I’m the one who invited him to go to the gala tonight. Sort of my way of thanking him for going out of his way to reach out to Dylan and, I don’t know, maybe help Sam settle in to Hope’s Crossing. And, to be honest, because I like him.”
“What’s not to like? He’s a wonderful guy.”
Charlotte pushed a stray lock of hair from her face and Alex wondered at the self-control it must take for her friend to run the best handmade candy store in Colorado and still lose all that weight.
“I do like Sam but...the thing is, I care about our friendship more. I’m new to the whole dating world, yeah, but I’m pretty sure poaching a good friend’s man is a no-no.”
With a few words, she could break up this budding relationship. Charlotte would probably still keep her date for tonight—at this late hour, it would be too rude to break it—but she certainly wouldn’t go out with Sam again.
She thought about it. For a few moments, she was unbelievably tempted. If she told Charlotte she had feelings for Sam, she knew her friend would back off and slip out of the picture without a second thought.
But because she did have feelings for Sam and loved Charlotte dearly, too, she couldn’t do it. She cared about both of them. If they had a chance to find happiness together, she couldn’t be the one to interfere. Even if it seared her insides.
“You’re not poaching anything,” she managed to say without a single quiver in her voice. “Sam is his own man, free to go out with anybody he wants. I’m just thrilled he has the good taste to recognize how fantastic you are.”
“Are you sure?” Charlotte asked, her brow still furrowed with concern.
What more did she need, for crying out loud? A freaking lie detector test?
“Positive,” she answered, with as much sincerity as she could muster. She was trying to come up with something else she could say that might convince Charlotte she had no claim on Sam when her cell phone rang.
Normally she wouldn’t have considered answering it in the middle of an important conversation like this one, but sudden fear clutched at her.
Caroline.
“Hello?” she asked, her stomach suddenly roiling.
“Alex, it’s Helen.”
She had known. Somehow, she had known.
“Caroline is slipping in and out of consciousness,” the hospice nurse said. “You need to come now if you want to say goodbye.”