Currant Creek Valley - By RaeAnne Thayne Page 0,89
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.
She no longer left him on the leash when they walked along this trail, confident now that he would return to her. He never moved far ahead of her and would circle back frequently, almost as if he felt the need to protect her.
If the trail curved in a way that took them out of sight of each other, she would round the bend and he would be there with his haunches planted in the dirt, waiting for her to catch up.
Tonight he seemed content to pad along beside her, probably as happy as she that she had managed to leave the restaurant before midnight, for once.
Nan, the sous-chef she intended to train as her replacement—though she didn’t know that yet—wanted to practice closing the restaurant and Alex had left her to it. She had been able to leave before it was even 9:00 p.m., something of a miracle.
Nan would do fine, she told herself. She was creative and organized, a rare combination, and a natural leader. The staff already listened to her. Brazen would do well with her at the helm—assuming she agreed to take over. Alex had talked to Brodie about it and the two of them planned to approach her sometime midweek about the transition.
Everything was coming together. She had a family interested in renting her house and was already scouting online to find a place in Park City that would allow her to have a dog.