Radclyffe - Homestead

“I should be back by this evening,” Ella said. “If—”

“It’s your day off,” Clay said again. “You don’t need to be back until tomorrow morning.” She grinned. “In fact, if I were you, I’d try very hard not to be back until lunch tomorrow. I hope you’ve got something more interesting planned than watching them set up for the balloon festival in the morning.”

Ella smiled. “Actually, I’m getting a guided tour of Lake George.”

Clay’s expression shuttered closed. “Oh? Who’s the guide?”

“Tess,” Ella said.

“Tess.” Clay glanced from Ella down the hillside toward the farmhouse. A few seconds passed, and Clay jumped into the cab of a small backhoe they used to clear scrub before taking a core sample. “Well, she’ll be a great guide.”

“I didn’t think that would be a problem,” Ella said slowly, keeping her voice down so those around them wouldn’t hear. The day after Clay and Tess had had dinner, Clay had explained they’d known each other in the past but hadn’t kept in touch. She’d made it sound as if they were old friends and nothing more, and Ella had been glad. They were likely to be here three or four months, and Tess was intriguing. “Because if I’m misreading—”

A muscle in Clay’s jaw jumped. “Ella, you asked Tess out. Presumably, she said yes.”

“That’s right.”

“Then that’s between the two of you, isn’t it.”

Ella respected Clay, more than respected her, liked her very much, and there was more to the story than Clay had told her. All the same, she had no reason not to take Clay at her word, that Clay and Tess had no current relationship. “Okay. I’ll have my cell if you need me. Kelly will—”

“Go, Ella.” Clay started the engine, the grinding gears nearly obscuring her words. “I’m fine.”

Ella didn’t argue. She wanted to spend time with Tess and didn’t think she was mistaken about the interest she’d seen in Tess’s eyes.

Tess ended the call and slid the phone into the pocket of her blue and yellow plaid shorts. “Leslie said they’re at her parents’ lodge—about five miles up on the right. Her parents are out of town for the weekend, and Leslie and Dev are watching the place. You’re sure this is okay?”

“It’s beautiful up here,” Ella said, smiling over at Tess. “I can’t believe how undeveloped it still is. And I’m looking forward to meeting your friends.”

Tess looked out the window as Ella drove north on the twisting two-lane road skirting the west side of the lake. Once past the village of Lake George proper, bordering the extreme southern end of the thirty-six-mile-long lake, the tourist areas quickly gave way to less crowded stretches of lakeside homes, cottages, and lodges. Intermittent breaks in the pine forest allowed teasing glimpses of the wide lake with its deep blue waters and hundreds of islands. The temperature was easily fifteen degrees cooler than it had been at home, and the air smelled of wind, water, and pine. Tess’s heart ached at the timeless familiarity. “It never seems to change.”

Ella glanced away from the road for a second, her gaze sliding over Tess with gentle warmth. “Do you spend a lot of time up here?”

“I worked at Leslie’s parents’ most of one summer,” Tess said. “The place we’re going now.”

“Did you live there too?”

“Yes, along with a couple of other girls. We’d just graduated from high school. It was pretty exciting at the time.”

“I can imagine. Just out of school, alone in a place like this—oh yeah.”

“You sound like you would have enjoyed it.” Tess grinned.

Ella’s expression changed and the calm composure drifted into sadness. “I probably would have. My father died suddenly the summer after high school, so I don’t remember a whole lot before I finally looked around and I was in college.”

“Oh, Ella. I’m so sorry.” She brushed Ella’s bare arm. “That’s so hard.”

“Thanks. It was pretty awful—he was a great guy, a fireman. It was on the job—” Ella cleared her throat and her features lightened as she breathed in slowly. “I was lucky to have had him for a dad.”

Waiting for the sadness to drift away on the breeze, Tess finally said, “Well, I was a little too green to really take advantage of being up here, and working too damn hard, but I managed.”

Ella laughed softy. “Is this where you met Clay?”

Tess tensed. Ella was very perceptive and maybe Clay had told her more about their past than she thought. “Yes. How did you know?”

“Just a guess. Clay doesn’t talk very much about her past, but I know once she graduated from Stanford, she hit the ground running with NorthAm. I don’t think she’s stopped for a real vacation since.” Ella slowed for a long line of motorcycles pulling out of a roadside tavern. “Since the company doesn’t have any interests up this way—or didn’t use to—I just assumed she’d met you during college.”

“Before that. Right before…she left.”

“You two do go back a ways.”

“So long ago, I don’t really know her anymore.” Tess tried to keep her tone light. She didn’t want to discuss Clay or the past with Clay’s colleague. Especially this afternoon, when what she wanted to do most was escape the activity up on the hill behind the house and the constant wondering if one of the figures etched against the sky was Clay.

“I suppose none of us really changes too much, do we?”

“I hope you’re wrong.” Tess smiled wryly. “I hate to think I’ll keep repeating my mistakes.”

“I don’t think we’re destined to repeat ourselves over and over again, but who we are at the core?” Ella shrugged. “I’m not sure we can do much about that except maybe make better choices when faced with similar situations.”

“I like your optimism.”

Ella shot her a smile. “Good.”

Tess studied Ella as she drove. She appeared relaxed behind the wheel but was so clearly aware of everything around her. In control, she radiated strength. Everything about her was attractive. Tess recognized her attraction and sensed Ella’s interest. What she wasn’t sure of was what she wanted to do about it. “You should know I don’t have any real experience dating.”

Ella’s brow lifted and she glanced in Tess’s direction. “I find that pretty hard to believe.”

“Why?”

“I would have thought you’d been on plenty of dates. You’re smart and interesting and quite beautiful.”

Tess laughed softly. “I was thinking something very similar about you.”

“Thank you,” Ella said quietly, her eyes on the twisting road again. “But having established that you’re not a big dater, are you uncomfortable?”

“I’m only uncomfortable because I’m not more uncomfortable.”

Ella grinned. “I don’t usually make women uncomfortable—at least I don’t think I do.” She reached across the console and took Tess’s hand. “And I certainly don’t want to make you uncomfortable. So if I do, just say so.”

Tess looked down at their linked fingers. Except for brief exchanges with friends a lifetime ago, she’d never held anyone’s hand but Clay’s. Ella’s hands were different than Clay’s. Her fingers were longer, slimmer, but just as strong. Just the week before, she’d held Clay’s hand in the restaurant. Her skin didn’t tingle now the way it had when Clay touched her, but Ella’s hand was warm and gentle and confident, like her. Tess tightened her fingers through Ella’s. “All right.”

“All right, what?”

Tess laughed. “All right, I’ll tell you if something makes me uncomfortable.”

Ella drew their joined hands onto her thigh and held them there as she drove. She nodded. “That sounds like a perfect plan.”

* * *

“We don’t have to stay,” Ella said softly.

Tess stared at the lodge, frozen on the front seat of the SUV. Lost in time. She was seventeen again, on her own, out of place, unsure of her welcome. She gazed down the long slope to the lake, where the huge two-story boathouse with its big square windows opened wide reigned over the beach, and she was there on the dock in the moonlight, waiting for Clay. Anticipation and excitement made her giddy. The roar of a motorcycle engine set her heart racing. She looked past the log lodge and its wraparound porch to the cabins nestled in the woods and heard Clay come in behind her while she cleaned. They’d tumbled onto the just-made bed and she’d let Clay—

“Tess!” Leslie raced across the porch, her smile electric. The door behind her opened and Dev, older, more handsome than Tess remembered, followed Leslie with a welcoming smile on her face.

“You all right?” Ella murmured.

“Yes,” Tess said and stepped out. The scent of the water, the cool fingers of breeze trailing over her skin, the glint of sun on the lake’s surface were so familiar, she half expected to turn and see Clay coming down the twisting drive on her motorcycle. Her heart ached at the memory. And then Leslie was down the stairs, calling her name again, arms open for a hug.

Ella stepped up beside her and Tess took her hand. Ella squeezed her fingers, and the past disappeared.

* * *

“She seems very nice.” Leslie stood next to Tess at the railing an hour after lunch.

“She is,” Tess said, watching Dev and Ella tinker with the outboard motor on one of the boats moored at the long dock next to the boathouse. “Thanks for letting us barge in on your day.”

“I couldn’t be happier.” Leslie squeezed Tess’s shoulder. “I wasn’t sure you’d ever come for a visit.”

Tess tightened her hold on the railing, struggling to keep the past from invading the present. While the four of them had sat around a picnic table under the trees sharing the sandwiches she and Leslie had thrown together in the big kitchen in the lodge, she’d let the easy conversation sweep her along like a boat drifting in the current. “I didn’t think I would, either, but I’m glad that I did. I had some great times here, and it’s nice to remember that.” She turned, rested her shoulder against the thick porch post hewn from a massive pine, and smiled at Leslie. “You were one of my best friends. Probably my best friend. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you that summer.”