Christmas Blackout. Maggie K. Black

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       THREE

      To his surprise, Piper blinked. Her hand rose to her lips as if his question had somehow caught her off guard. “Oh. Sure. Of course. I’ve only got three guests staying right now. I can definitely house one more.”

      Okay, and what was he missing now? It had seemed like a pretty straightforward thing to ask. After all, she ran a bed-and-breakfast, and it was unlikely a mechanic would get him back on the road before morning. He turned off the truck and climbed out. “Well, as long as it’s no problem and won’t cause you any extra trouble.”

      “No, no trouble at all.” She wasn’t meeting his eye. “It’s the least I can do, considering you probably saved my life.”

      Alrighty, then. Benjamin yanked a tarp out of the backseat and began tying it down over the missing windshield to keep the worst of the snow out. Truth be told, he’d feel a whole lot better staying close by in case Kodiak was still lurking around. Something told him that memory of Piper down in the snow with a bag over her head would haunt his nightmares for a long time. There was a tug on the tarp. He looked up. Piper had grabbed the other side and was tying it down on the passenger side.

      Her eyes cut to the National Hockey League team logo on his bag. A smile curved on her lips. “You’re just lucky you saved my life before I remembered you supported our hockey rivals in Montreal.”

      He chuckled. Yeah, he hadn’t forgotten just how passionate she was about cheering on Toronto. “Well, as long as you don’t high stick me, I promise to leave all conversations about Stanley Cup history at the door.”

      She rolled her eyes. They started up the steep, narrow path through the trees. Harry ran beside them for a while then disappeared on ahead. Benjamin tried to hitch his duffel bag higher on his shoulder and just barely managed to keep from knocking into her.

      “That’s a pretty big bag for visiting a few friends,” she said. “I thought you believed in traveling light.”

      “I do.” He swung it around to the other shoulder. “Actually, this is everything I’m taking with me to Australia. Passport, airline ticket, travel money—if it’s crossing the world with me, it’s in here.”

      The sun had set behind the snow. Motion sensor lights wound through the trees ahead of them, flickering on as they neared. He reached the top of the hill and looked out. Snow-covered trees flowed down the slope behind them, spreading all the way out over the lake. It was breathtaking.

      “On a clearer day, you can see the American shoreline,” Piper said. “Uncle Des and Aunt Cass married in the south of England. He had what he thought was a temporary job at a company in Niagara and they moved out here. Aunt Cass named The Downs after the South Downs, this range of hills near the village she’s from. They got the property in a foreclosure sale actually. Took them years to sort through all the junk the previous owners left behind.”

      “But sadly no illegal rum in the cellar or stacks of secret cash in the wardrobe?”

      She shook her head. “Nope.”

      He turned toward the house. The Downs was three stories tall, with lead piping on the windows, peaked roofs and shuttered doors opening onto small balconies. Christmas lights wrapped around the windows and balconies, and looped around the fire escape that ran all the way from the ground floor to a round window high in the roof peak. “So this would be your fairy-tale castle?”

      She stopped walking. “What did you just say?”

      “I seem to remember you telling me that you were born in England, too, but that you and your mom moved here to live when you were really little. So, you used to pretend you were secretly an English princess and The Downs was your castle.”

      She paused for a moment then shook her head. “I can’t believe I told you that.”

      If anything, she sounded disappointed with herself. But why? They’d talked for hours during those four days last summer. She’d told him all sorts of things about herself. He in turn had confessed stuff about himself that nobody else knew. Like how he’d decided he was never going to have a wife or family.

      “I was one when I moved in here actually,” she said. “We were pretty broke. My father left us a couple of weeks before Christmas and my mom had no way to pay the rent without him. The British expression is ‘he did a runner,’ so for the longest time I thought he’d literally leaped out a window and ran. Our flight landed Christmas Eve. We were the first two wanderers to be welcomed at Christmas Eve at The Downs.”

      He followed Piper past a towering woodpile, through a small back door and into the garage. His eyes ran over racks of ice-hockey equipment. A kayak, canoe and two surfboards lay on beams above their heads, and there was camping equipment on wall shelves. Steel-toed hiking boots hung on a peg by the door, next to two pairs of boxing gloves, some climbing gear and what looked like a heavy wool cloak. All of the gear looked high quality, well loved and as if it hadn’t been touched in ages.

      “So, if you keep the bed-and-breakfast open over Christmas, when do you take your own holidays?”

      “I don’t really.” She pulled off her coat, then pushed her foggy glasses up onto the top of her head. “The Downs is open and running 365 days a year.”

      Okay, he heard what she was saying, but there was something wrong with this picture. They were standing in a garage surrounded by incredible sports equipment. Sure, living in the Niagara region meant she could probably get in a bit of skating or cross-country skiing. But there were only so many times a person could hit the same patch of earth before wanting to try something new. And she could hardly surf or camp without taking a day off.

      “Yes, but the whole reason we met is because you were on holiday on Manitoulin Island this past summer—”

      “No, I was on the island for four days while my uncle was here helping movers pack up their things so they could move into the seniors’ home. My aunt’s health is poor, and a friend of hers who lived on the island invited her to stay for a few days. She wasn’t able to make the trip alone so I went with her.” She shrugged. “I’m going to need to run this place nonstop at capacity if I have any hope of starting the renovations by this summer. Even once they’re done, my uncle and aunt are going to need me around on a daily basis. Like I said, they have health problems.”

      “Okay, but what kind of health problems?”

      “My uncle has arthritis in his hands and arms. Not too bad, but he’s also seventy-two. My aunt’s a lot younger but she has mobility problems. She needs help doing things and getting places.” She wiped her glasses on her shirt and then slid them back on. But she still wasn’t looking at him. “If it’s okay with you, I’d rather not go into it right now.”

      He ran his hand through his hair. Why did it feel as if this conversation was one wrong sentence away from turning into an argument? His sister’s anxiety disorder had kept him from pursuing his own dreams for way too long, so he should be the last person СКАЧАТЬ