Her eyes danced. “Growing up here must have been very special.”
Special?
“It didn’t look anything like this back then.” He leaned back against the railing, remembering. “This place was a wreck. Perfect for playing pirates. We used to scoop up spiders to take to Mom.”
“Poor Elizabeth. It is a wonder she is sane.”
“She’s good with spiders. We taught her to be.” Looking at the Boathouse, he saw that its position was perfect. Nestling in the sunshine on the edge of the lake, the wooden structure blended with the forest so that at a single glance you might not even notice it. It had been beautifully restored, the work in keeping with the original structure although hardly any of that remained. But the real charm was the wide deck that almost circled the Boathouse, allowing for alfresco eating. The wide deck that wasn’t finished.
He dropped to his haunches and ran his hand over the planks, feeling the grain under his palm and hearing the gentle lap of the water beneath. “He’s using marine grade wood. It’s a nice job. Zach has improved since the days when we built your lodge.”
“You built Heron Lodge? I didn’t know that.”
“The five of us, with the occasional intervention from Gramps.” But never his father.
His father had vanished on one of his many trips and when he’d returned the job had been done. Sean frowned, wondering why of all the memories he’d banked, that was the one to come to mind.
“You three and Zach makes four. Who was the fifth?”
“Brenna.” Sean straightened, pushing away thoughts of his father. “She pretty much did everything we did. I guess she was the little sister we didn’t have. She climbed the same trees we climbed, scraped her knees right along with us and skied down everything we skied down. She and Tyler were inseparable. The two of them were so close it was impossible to find one without the other.”
It seemed ironic to him that the one relationship that wouldn’t have needed sacrifice and compromise had never happened. Tyler and Brenna both shared the same love of Snow Crystal and the land around it. They were both athletic, outdoor types, perfectly matched. Both of them had built a life around lakes and mountains.
There had been a time when they’d all assumed their relationship would naturally progress, but then Janet Carpenter had come along and all that had changed.
And now Tyler had Jess living with him, which narrowed his life choices more than his damaged knee. With a thirteen-year-old daughter, he’d had to give up his party lifestyle.
That had to be the ultimate compromise for love.
“So now that I know you all built Heron Lodge, I need to know if I should be nervous.” Élise finished her coffee. “When I lie in my bed at night, should I worry that the lodge will collapse under me?”
“It’s a sound structure. Tyler tested it out on the first night by kicking a football around the bedroom. We had to replace the window but the rest of it survived.”
Smiling, she took his empty cup from him. “Thank you.”
Distracted by the tiny dimple that appeared at the corner of her mouth, he lost focus. “For what?”
“For cheering me up. And now I need to go home and take a shower and then make those calls to cancel the party. I can’t put it off any longer. Merde—” She ran her fingers through her hair, the sweet smile fading and the dimple disappearing. “I keep hoping for a miracle.”
“Why can’t you just fix another date?”
“Apart from the fact we’ll have to pay cancellation fees to the band that we can’t afford, the date was set months ago. It was my mistake.” Her shoulders drooped and she looked utterly beaten.
His car was parked a few steps away. His keys were in his pocket. His plans didn’t include hanging around Snow Crystal any longer than was necessary. His grandfather had made it clear he didn’t want him here. He’d looked at the test results himself and could see he was making a good recovery.
His brothers seemed to have everything under control. There was nothing to keep him.
Nothing except his conscience and the look on Élise’s face.
Sean tried to move, but his feet were glued to the deck. The part of the deck that was finished. The unfinished part of it glared at him accusingly.
“How is Walter?” Élise smoothed her hair behind her ear, making a visible effort to be cheerful. “Any change overnight?”
“He’s doing well.”
He tried to kill the idea forming in his mind.
No.