Husband In Harmony

“Sam was raised in the city, as I was,” Adam said after the briefest of hesitations. With that, he looked back out at the lake and let the subject drop.

Jane frowned. To her, his short statement only brought up more questions. One major question, at any rate: why was he set on bringing his city-raised son to a place the boy might not even like? Although this time she won the battle with her curiosity and didn’t ask, something told her that there was more to the matter.

“Well, you’re welcome to have him come with you,” she said, “if you decide to stay here.”

Adam ran his tongue over his teeth, realizing it was time to make up his mind. If he didn’t have his own agenda to consider, he might tell Jane Pitt thanks but no thanks. For all that he’d been raised in a well-to-do family, he’d never been leery of working hard and tackling a challenge in the process. In fact, he had worked damn hard to get where he was in the business world.

Nevertheless, while his bid for success had paid off for himself and his clients, the blunt fact of the matter was that Glory Ridge Resort just might prove to be the exception. Despite his past track record and the substantial money the current owner was ready to invest, could the place ever be counted on to turn a consistent profit given the increased competition she’d indicated had sprung up in the area?

It would take more than money, he suspected. If he was right, it would take an idea, a pitch, a twist on the usual, to grab the public’s attention and draw people to this place. Hell, maybe it would take a miracle.

Whatever the case, since he had his own reasons for spending some time in a quiet, out-of-the-way spot—and he couldn’t think of a quieter, more out-of-the-way spot than this pine-strewn mountain—he felt compelled to give helping Jane Pitt with her objectives a try.

“Okay, I’ll take you up on your offer.” He turned his head and dropped his gaze to look straight at the woman beside him. “I’ll be back the day after tomorrow, with my son.”

She stared up at him, her calm expression betraying little of her feelings at that news. “Good,” she said after a moment. “I’ll get your cabin ready for you.”

He’d be living in a cabin called Squirrel Hollow. Adam suppressed a wince at the thought that it was probably as far from his upscale modern condo in Phoenix as he would ever get. “I don’t imagine it has a telephone hookup,” he said as they started back the way they’d come, feet crunching on the gravel path.

“Nope. Only phone line is at the office, but as the crow flies we’re near enough to Harmony for cell phones to work. I assume you’ve got one.”

“Yes.” He didn’t go on to say that he also had all his important contact information programmed into his Palm Pilot. No matter where he was, he could generally reach his clients and business associates with little trouble. “I was thinking more of a place to hook up my laptop,” he explained. “I’ll need to do some research online while I’m here. I guess I’ll have to tie up the office line to get it done.”

She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Well, it’s not as if people are phoning nonstop to make reservations.” Her mouth drooped at one corner. “I just have to hope the situation changes down the road.”

“I intend to do my best to accomplish that,” Adam said, and meant it.

“Looks as if we’re about to join forces,” she replied in a voice that held more than its share of irony, as though she were reflecting on the fact that they made one odd couple indeed.

He could hardly deny it. The truth was, he’d never met a woman quite like Jane Pitt. He knew he ruffled her feathers, just as he knew she’d come to the conclusion that she needed his help in spite of it. They said that politics made strange bedfellows, but so did other situations.

Not that he was planning on luring Jane Pitt into his bed. Even though he hadn’t taken advantage of the comforts only a willing female could provide in a while, he’d have to be a lot dumber than he was to make a move on Jane. Handling a woman as prickly as she was, even on a business basis, would take some doing. On a private basis, a man who attempted a false step with her could wind up getting his head wrenched off and handed back to him for his trouble. Jane Pitt might be on the small side, but she’d pack a wallop when she wanted to. After less than an hour’s acquaintance, he was sure on that score.

“I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know what time I’ll be here,” he told her minutes later on reaching the spot outside the resort’s office where they’d first met.

“All right.” Again her calm expression revealed little. “Have a good drive back.”

He started to extend his right arm for the handshake they’d foregone on his arrival. Then he stilled completely as he caught sight of an animal ambling out from between two trees. He might not be an avid outdoorsman, but he knew what it was. And that knowledge had his breath catching in his throat.

“Don’t move,” he said in a rough whisper.

“Why?” Jane asked, and then turned her head to follow his gaze. “Oh, it’s only Sweet Pea.”

“It’s a skunk, for Pete’s sake.” And it was coming closer as he watched, strolling along as though it had plenty of time to get where it was going.

“A full-grown female skunk, as it happens,” Jane said mildly. “Don’t worry. She’s by and large harmless. My great-aunt found that out when she stumbled across her one day and didn’t get sprayed. Apparently, Sweet Pea started life as a domesticated animal. At least, that was the vet’s opinion, since she’d been descented and neutered before she somehow wound up here. Anyway, she settled right in and became more or less a pet.”

A pet skunk. Jeez, it was time to leave. Adam whipped around and started for his car. He got in, snapped the gleaming door shut and pulled out with a final wave. His last sight of Jane Pitt was in the rearview mirror as she watched him depart, her slender hands planted on her hips. He’d soon be back, he thought, negotiating a narrow mountain road. And heaven only knows what he’d have to deal with then.

“I MANAGED TO WAIT until he was out of sight before I started hooting,” Jane confided to her companions the following day. “Sweet Pea had Adam Lassiter moving his long legs toward his sleek sports car at a fast clip, let me tell you.” The memory had her grinning widely.

Jane’s younger sister, Ellen, who’d always been the pretty one in the Pitt family, met her sibling’s eyes in the long mirror stretched across one wall of the Cuts ‘N Curls beauty salon. “Are you sure he’ll be back?” she asked, her lips curving with clear amusement.

“Yeah, he’ll be back.” Folding her arms over the front of her well-washed white T-shirt, Jane propped one denim-clad hip against the round work island holding her sister’s tools of the trade. “He called this morning and said he and his son should get to Glory Ridge shortly after lunch tomorrow.”

“I remember Adam Lassiter as a boy,” Ellen’s current client offered from her seat in a high chrome swivel chair.

Neither Ellen nor Jane expressed any surprise at that news. Unlike many people born and raised in the area, the sisters had never been members of Hester Goodbody’s first grade class at the biggest of Harmony’s elementary schools. Nevertheless, it was far from a secret that the now-retired teacher recalled her past students with a memory still sharp at the advanced age of eighty-plus.

“What kind of boy was he, Miss Hester?” Jane’s curiosity had her asking. She’d used both the courteous title and the respectful tone most people summoned when talking to this woman.

“A charmer,” Miss Hester didn’t hesitate to reply. “But intelligent, as well. I’m hardly amazed that he went on to achieve success.”

Jane couldn’t honestly say she’d seen the charm. But the intelligence? Yes, she had no doubt that her new consultant was smart and shrewd. “We’ll see if he can put all that brainpower to good advantage and come up with something that will help the resort.”

Miss Hester’s blue eyes, framed by gold-rimmed glasses, sparkled with good-natured humor. “It should be interesting to see how you two get along.”

Ellen gave her customer’s wispy silver hair a final pat. “We’re done,” she said, removing a cream-colored cloth cape that fit right in with the peach and cream décor chosen by the salon’s original owner. Although the shop hadn’t been around as long as a few of the oldest businesses in downtown Harmony, it had nonetheless occupied its prime location on Main Street for some time.

Miss Hester viewed her reflection in the mirror. “A wonderful job, as always,” she told Ellen. The petite woman, who was inches shorter than even Jane’s slight height, hopped nimbly off the chair.

“Best of luck on your project,” she added to Jane before following Ellen to the front desk to pay her bill.

Jane’s nose wrinkled at the smell of the permanent-wave solution another operator was using on a customer farther down the room. The long-ago summer she herself had earned extra money as a shampoo girl in this very place had been pure torture, Jane recalled. Her sister, on the other hand, was at home here, pursuing a career she was both good at and genuinely enjoyed.

“You messed with your bangs again, didn’t you?” Ellen accused as she returned, sliding tip money into a pocket of her bright peach smock. A frown of exasperation marred a smooth forehead topped by a shiny crown of frosted blond curls.

“I whacked a little off last night,” Jane admitted. She glanced at her handiwork in the mirror. “They don’t look too bad.”

Ellen’s sigh was long and heartfelt. “They’re crooked.”

Jane shrugged. “They’re out of my eyes, and that’s what counts.”

Shaking her head, Ellen said, “Why do I even bother caring?”

“Because you love me,” Jane replied with a smile, sure of her words. She had no doubt that she’d loved, and been truly loved by, three women in her life: her gentle mother, her straight-talking great-aunt and her only sister. She’d lost two of those women, but Ellen, who now had a husband and a growing son, could still be counted on to care—always.

Confirming it, Ellen dipped her chin in a quick nod. “Which means I’m not going to stop trying to whip you into shape.” She picked up a bottle of styling mousse. “If you’ll just let me fluff your hair out a little and put some spray on, it’ll help.”

Jane took a swift step back and held up her hands. “I hate that stuff. It makes me sneeze.”

Ellen stepped forward. “Sometimes you have to suffer in the name of beauty.”

Again Jane backed away, her boots scraping softly on the checkered tile floor. “I wouldn’t wind up anywhere near a beauty if you sprayed the whole can on me.”

Her taller and curvier sister raised a well-arched brow. “As I’ve told you I don’t know how many times, you could look better—a lot better—if you’d take some pointers from me.”

“I’m happy as I am,” Jane said firmly. Maybe there were times she couldn’t help but wish she bore at least a passing resemblance to some of the models featured on the covers of glossy magazines like those strewn about the salon’s waiting area. But seeing a model’s face in her own mirror was a fantasy, she realized. The reality of the situation—her reality—was that nature had dealt her a far different hand.

Ellen set the can down. “Defeated again,” she grumbled.

“You’ll survive,” Jane told her in a bolstering tone.

“Uh-huh.” Ellen met her sister’s gaze. “But how will you fare tangling with a good-looking consultant?”

It was Jane’s turn to frown. “I didn’t say he was good-looking.”

“You didn’t have to,” Ellen said with a knowing glint in her deep green eyes, “because I remember what you told me before you even got a glimpse of him—that he’s related to one of Harmony’s founding families. His last name might be Lassiter, but he’s also part Hayward, and all the Haywards are attractive.”

“Maybe he’s the exception.”

“Is he?”

“No,” Jane had to concede. “He’s attractive enough…if you like the dressed-for-success type.”

“The type you’ve never had much experience dealing with before,” Ellen pointed out.

“Which doesn’t mean I can’t handle it—and him.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Ellen murmured, her expression becoming thoughtful. “I do believe Miss Hester was right. It’ll be real interesting to see how the two of you handle each other.”

Privately, Jane thought so, too, and despite her outward show of bravado, inwardly she wasn’t quite so certain of being able to hold her own. It was a good thing—a double-darn good thing, she told herself—that she had one big advantage. However much time she and Adam Lassiter spent together this summer, they would spend it on her turf. Not his. Still, for as much comfort as that brought, her worries remained centered on one question.

Would Glory Ridge survive?

Chapter Two

Adam flicked off the air conditioner and rolled down the windows of the blue hatchback sedan he’d rented. “Smell that pine-scented air,” he said in a hearty tone. It sounded a little forced, but at least he was making an effort to hold a conversation, which was more than his son had done since they’d left busy Phoenix behind them.

“Uh-huh,” Sam said, and scrunched lower in his seat.

Even then Adam noted that his son’s head, topped by short, light-brown hair, came up higher than it had a year earlier. That was the first thing he’d recognized on picking Sam up at the airport less than two weeks ago—how he’d grown. Not long afterward, the second truth to hit was that their mostly long-distance relationship was taking its toll. He and Sam were losing the connection that had been uniquely theirs from the day Adam had first held a red-faced baby in his arms.

That realization had shaken him badly. He could still recall the chill it had sent sliding down his spine.

“I know you’re not thrilled about postponing Disneyland to come up here,” Adam said, deciding to tackle the issue before they got to their destination. “The thing is, we’ve been there more than once, and spending some time in the mountains will be a first for you.” Plus spending some quiet time together instead of the usual round of summer activities I turned to in an effort to entertain you might do us both some good, he thought.

“Uh-huh,” Sam muttered again, patently unenthused by the prospect of a get-acquainted session with the great outdoors.

Okay, so maybe his son wasn’t the only one who was failing to work up much enthusiasm in that regard, Adam conceded. They were both roughing it anyway. He might be wrong about this being his best chance to reestablish a closer bond between them, but it was worth a shot. Right now, he had to believe that.

“What did your mother have to say when you phoned her this morning?” Adam asked in another bid to keep the conversation going. He had no intention of mentioning that he’d spent a good part of the past several nights staring up at the ceiling and wondering if his ex-wife’s recent remarriage could somehow be a factor in the wall his son had built around himself.

Sam tapped the heels of his running shoes together. “She said I should be careful playing in the woods.” He paused. “She didn’t sound so good.”

Adam frowned and glanced toward the passenger’s seat. “What do you mean?”

Shrugging, Sam said, “Like maybe she was a little sick or something.”

“Well, she could have caught a bug, I suppose.” Adam slowed to negotiate a sharp turn in a road winding steadily upward. “You know you can call her on my cell phone whenever you want to while we’re away, but I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. Your mother’s always taken good care of herself and eaten healthy foods, even when she’s dieting.”

“I think she eats more than she used to,” Sam offered after a beat. “I heard her say something about buying bigger clothes.”

Ariel? Letting her model-slim figure go? Adam had a hard time imagining that. Still, he said nothing. What he’d really like to discuss was Sam’s relationship with his new stepfather, but something told him he wouldn’t win any real confidences, not yet, and the last thing he wanted was pat answers.

“Speaking of clothes,” he said, “how do those jeans feel?”

“Okay, I guess.” Sam looked down at one of three pairs of blue jeans bought during a whirlwind trip through the mall the day before. “They’re sort of stiff.”

“They won’t be once they’re washed,” Adam assured him. The same applied to his own dark Levi’s and black denim shirt, he imagined, both of which bore little resemblance to the knit shirts and cotton slacks he favored as casual clothing. His new boots would need some breaking in, too. But a few days of trekking through the pines would take care of that, even though he had always preferred jogging on the track at his health club to hiking anywhere—much less through a forest. Nevertheless, he would do it—with his son at his side.

“Once we get our bearings, we’ll be glad we added to our wardrobe. We’ll hike our way through the woods and do a fine job of it,” Adam contended with a determined set of his jaw.

“Uh-huh,” Sam muttered one more time with clear misgivings as they reached the faded wooden sign pointing the way to Glory Ridge Resort and Campground.

In a matter of minutes Adam brought the sedan to a stop in the gravel lot next to the resort’s office. Only feet away stood the dusty red pickup belonging to the resort’s owner, which had been parked there on his earlier visit. “We’re here,” he said.

Sam sat up straight and glanced out through the windshield. In the next breath, his jaw dropped like a stone. “Dad, there’s a skunk on the porch!”

Dad. For a silent moment Adam closed his eyes in sheer gratefulness at hearing that word from his son’s lips—a word he’d been waiting for ever since Sam had stepped off the airplane looking more wary than happy to see his father. Right this minute, he could only be glad—damn glad—that he’d made the decision to come to a place so foreign to both of them.

“It’s okay,” he said. “The skunk is basically harmless, I’m told.”

Moving with caution despite that assurance, Sam stuck his head out the car window. “I don’t smell nothing.”

“You don’t smell anything,” Adam said, automatically correcting his son, “because the skunk doesn’t have the usual equipment.”

“You mean he’s lost his stinker?”

“Actually, it’s a she,” Adam explained, “and yes, she’s lost her, uh, stinker.”

“Boy, the guys in school will never believe this.” Sam looked back at Adam. “Can I take a picture?”

“Sure.”

The one thing Sam seemed genuinely enthusiastic about these days was the camera his father had sent him for Christmas. At least you did well there, Lassiter, Adam told himself. He got out of the car, then walked around to open Sam’s door. The little boy grabbed his camera from the back seat and hopped to the ground.

The skunk calmly waddled down the steps and approached the new arrivals. “Her name is Sweet Pea,” Adam said dryly.

Sam carefully aimed his camera and took a picture, after which Sweet Pea gave both males a brief sniff and strolled off toward the trees. “You were right,” the eight-year-old whispered, watching the animal’s departure, “this place is like nowhere I’ve ever been.”

Adam didn’t add that Sam was about to meet a woman who probably bore little resemblance to anyone he’d ever met, either. He set a hand gently on his son’s shoulder and urged him toward the cabin. “Let’s see if the owner is in her office.”

Sam glanced around him as they climbed the porch steps. “Does she like living all the way out here?”

“Yes, she does,” Adam replied, sure of his words.

“Why?”

“Because she’s different from the kind of people who prefer living in towns and cities.”

Sam sighed mournfully. “Maybe she thinks it’s okay, but I bet there’s nowhere close around to even get the kinda hamburgers and fries I like.”

Adam recognized this reference to his son’s favorite fast-food restaurant, where they’d stopped for lunch before heading for the wilds of the mountains. “No, I’m afraid not,” he said.

Sam’s dark mood, lightened by the unexpected sight of Sweet Pea, seemed to return as he sighed again.

JANE STOOD IN THE rear of the cabin, surveying what she considered a job well done. She’d just completed rearranging the furniture to transform the room into an office for two. One of twin swivel chairs that continued to creak despite her liberal use of oil stood behind the small desk that had been cleared of everything but an antique brass banker’s lamp. The other chair sat behind an old card table, set up to face the desk and hold the combination answering machine and phone. Her consultant now had a desk at his disposal and could hook up to the phone line whenever he needed to, she thought with satisfaction, turning to welcome her guests with a polite smile when the cabin door opened. Her smile swiftly widened as she took in Adam Lassiter dressed in an obviously brand-new outfit, looking a long way from comfortable in crisp black denim.

Out of his element, she reflected with amusement.

Not that he wasn’t still attractive. He was. But he no longer appeared so self-assured, and that somehow pleased her, honesty forced her to admit.

“I was expecting you about now,” she said. For a moment her gaze met his across the room. Then she dropped it to the boy standing at his father’s side. Stepping forward, she held out a hand. “I’m Jane Pitt. We don’t waste much time using last names around here, so feel free to call me Jane.”

“I’m Sam,” the child replied after a beat, and placed his hand in hers for a brief handshake. Although his hair was shades lighter than Adam’s, his gray eyes were a duplicate of the man who had fathered him. “I already met your skunk. I heard she lost her stinker.”

Jane nodded. “That’s right. Only thing to smell around here is the pines.” And a whiff of men’s cologne, she added to herself. The fancy suit might be gone, but he still wore an expensive sandalwood scent. Taking a short step back, she studied the two males staring at her. “I’ve got your cabin all ready for you.”

“I never stayed in a cabin before,” Sam confided.

And he didn’t seem too happy about staying in one now, Jane noted. She didn’t miss the fact that his jeans were as brand-new as his father’s. They’d probably gone on a hasty shopping trip to get ready for their visit to Glory Ridge.

Why, she had to ask herself one more time, had Adam decided to bring his son here? Again no ready answer came to mind. Yet, whatever his reasons, they’d arrived as promised—which suited her purposes, Jane reminded herself. So there was no sense wasting time puzzling about it.

“Staying in a cabin could be fun,” she told Sam. “You can pretend you’re back in an earlier time.”

Sam’s mouth drooped at the corners. “They didn’t have any rockets or spaceships back then.” And rockets and spaceships were what fired this boy’s imagination. Both his expression and the colorful images on his Star Wars T-shirt testified to that.

“Well, let’s get unpacked,” Adam said, his deep voice underscored with resignation, as though he believed Jane was fighting a losing battle in trying to put an upbeat slant on the situation.

Abandoning her effort, she followed them out the door. She smiled wryly when her gaze landed on the car parked in the lot. “No sleek black sports model today, hmm?” she murmured to Adam as Sam headed down the porch steps.

“I thought it would be smarter to rent something else. Besides, there wasn’t room for our luggage and the rest of the stuff I had to bring.”

She recalled yesterday’s phone conversation, during which she’d reminded him that he’d have to provide for his personal needs while he was at the resort. Glory Ridge had plenty of sporting equipment for guests to use, but… “I hope you remembered that meals aren’t a part of the deal.”

He looked down at her. “I brought some food to cook—don’t worry.”

She raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Can you cook?” She’d willingly bet that this man had grown up with a housekeeper to fix the family meals.