Love Storm (10 page)

Just me.
 
“Don’t fall asleep in the hot tub.”

“Check.
 
Anything
else?”
 

“Nope, I think you’ve got a pretty good handle on everything
else.”

He wasn’t so sure about that.
 
He had a feeling that letting Brooklyn go was
going to be even harder than he’d imagined.

“Don’t forget to call me when you get back to Denver, so I
know that you made it home safely,” Ryan reminded her as he stood beside the
driver-side door of her Tahoe twenty minutes later.

“I will.”

“And don’t drive too fast going down the mountain.
 
I’m sure the road is still slick in spots.”

She couldn’t help smiling.
 
“Don’t worry, I’ll be careful,” she promised.
 
His obviously genuine concern was extremely
touching.

Pulling the door shut, she smiled at Ryan one last time
through the window glass.
 
Then, putting
the Tahoe into reverse she backed slowly from the drive.

Raising his hand to wave goodbye, Ryan watched her drive
away.
 
He stood there for several minutes
then, long after she was gone from sight, with his hands shoved into the
pockets of his jeans and his breath clearly visible in the frigid air, as he
fought the overwhelming urge to go after her.
 

Over the next several days, Ryan fought the urge to go after
Brooklyn on more than one occasion.
 
He’d
erroneously thought that the first night, lying alone in his bed would be the
worst, but he should have known better, for the following nights had been just
as tough.
 
He was finding sleep
increasingly hard to come by as his thoughts returned time and again to her,
and unfortunately the days weren’t any easier.

Going after Brooklyn would mean that he was in it for the
long haul, he knew that.
 
With her, it
was going to be all or nothing.
 
It had
to be; she deserved nothing less.
 
Recognizing that, he forced himself to ponder some difficult questions
in the days following her departure, about the direction he wanted his life to
take.
 
Surprisingly, the decision really
wasn’t nearly as hard as he’d thought it would be.

Standing with two other female interns near the back of the
room, Brooklyn watched excitedly as the pieces from the auction catalogue went
up for bids, one right after the other.
 
She’d been studying the catalogue for the past three weeks, and had
painstakingly memorized the details of each and every item.
 
She had even taken it with her to the cabin,
reviewing it now and then when she’d had a quiet moment.
 
She’d gone over it with Ryan as well,
pointing out some of her favorite pieces and listening with avid interest to
his views on those particular works, as well as the collection as a whole.
 
Much to her delight, she had quickly
discovered that he was even more knowledgeable about the art world than he’d
implied.
 
She wished he was here now,
knowing that he would enjoy the auction, but of course she wished it for other
reasons as well.

When her favorite piece was eventually brought to the front
of the auction house, Brooklyn couldn’t help feeling a momentary twinge of
melancholy.
 
It was a small canvas,
painted by a lesser-known nineteenth century Italian painter named Vincenzo
Bertalini.
 
The detailed watercolor
depicted a breathtakingly beautiful winter landscape that she’d admired long
before her trip up the mountain, but she loved it even more now, for it
reminded her of the beautiful vista she and Ryan had stopped to view, just
before they’d had their snowball fight along the mountain trail.
 
It was estimated to sell for between fifteen
and twenty thousand dollars, and if she’d had that kind of money she would have
been sorely tempted to bid on it herself, for sadly, it wasn’t one of the
pieces the museum intended to purchase.
 
It was really too bad, for it would have been nice to be able to stop
and admire it now and then as she’d gone about her work.

Ultimately the piece sold to an online bidder for
twenty-three thousand dollars, but before it was packaged up, she took one last
look at the beautiful painting that brought to mind such wonderful
memories.
 
Gazing at the delicate brush
strokes, her thoughts once again turned to Ryan, as they so often had since
she’d left the cabin.
 
She had only
talked to him once since she’d returned to Denver, when she’d called to let him
know that she had gotten home safely, as she’d promised.
 
Their conversation had been light, casual and
relatively brief, ending with Ryan telling her that he would get in touch with
her, once he too was back in Denver.
 

“That was fun, wasn’t it,” Rebecca, one of the other
interns, said as she walked up to stand next to Brooklyn.

Turning her head, she smiled at the petite brunette.
 
“Yeah, it sure was.”

“You know, Shelly and I were talking about going out for
drinks after we wrap things up here.
 
Would you like to come along?”

She considered the offer for a moment.
 
She knew that Julia was having dinner with
Ben later, and a night out with the girls would be a lot better for her than
sitting home alone in her apartment, thinking about Ryan.
 
“Sure, I’d love to.”
 

“Great, let’s hurry and finish up so we can get out of
here.”

Casting one last wistful glance at the breathtakingly
beautiful landscape, Brooklyn turned to follow Rebecca.

By the time Brooklyn forced herself out of bed on Saturday
morning, it was already past ten.
 
Unlike
usual, she wasn’t looking forward to the weekend ahead and she’d deliberately
slept in.
 
During the week, at least
between the hours of nine to five, she’d been able to focus on something other
than how much she missed Ryan.
 
But now,
with two full work-free days ahead of her, she was afraid that she wouldn’t
have nearly enough to occupy her mind and keep her restless thoughts at
bay.
 
She supposed she could call Julia
and ask her to go to a movie with her later; that would kill a couple of hours
at least.
 
Swinging her legs over the
side of the bed, she wondered if there were any decent comedies playing as she
made her way to the bathroom.
 
She could
certainly use a good laugh.

Once she’d slipped into a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved
cotton shirt, she walked into the kitchen and put a couple of pieces of bread
into the toaster.
 
As she waited for them
to brown, she grabbed a knife and butter, poured herself a glass of orange
juice and then pulled a stool up to the narrow overhang that sat atop the short
wall that separated the kitchen and the living room.
 
Her apartment wasn’t large, and a far cry
from the lavishness of Wade and Kate’s cabin, not to mention their sprawling
home in the suburbs of Richmond, but it was tastefully decorated and had that
warm, cozy feeling she loved.

Glancing toward her cell phone plugged into the charger at
the end of the counter, she couldn’t help wondering for perhaps the
one-hundredth time, if Ryan would actually call her when he got back to Denver,
as he’d said he would.
 
Yes, of course he
would call, she told herself once again.
 
She knew that Ryan wouldn’t just leave her hanging.
 
He wasn’t like that.
 
She was just going to have to be patient
until he returned home.
 
It was stupid to
keep torturing herself with what ifs.
 

Grabbing the toast when it popped up, she quickly buttered
it and plunked it onto her plate, before casting one last lingering glance at
the phone.
 
She’d called her sister
earlier in the week, but she hadn’t said anything to Kate about the intimacies
she and Ryan had shared at the cabin.
 
The last thing she wanted to do was to cause problems between Ryan and
Wade if things didn’t work out, and she knew her sister had a hard time keeping
secrets from her husband.
 

Julia however, had been given a full account of all that had
transpired,
well nearly
, and her
best-friend was beyond ecstatic.
 
Jules
was completely convinced that when Ryan returned to Denver at the end of the
month, they would pick up right where they’d left off, and ultimately live
happily ever after.
 
Brooklyn wasn’t
nearly as confident, but then again, if Ryan felt for her, even a tenth of what
she felt for him, there was hope, and for now she would hang on to that
hope.
 
To do anything else would surely
break her heart in two.

Pulling into the parking lot of Brooklyn’s small apartment
complex, Ryan parked his Escalade in one of the visitor spots, and then reached
over to grab the brown paper-wrapped package that sat on the passenger seat.
 
Since returning to Denver just over an hour
ago, he’d made only one stop.
 
All the
way down the mountain the only thing he could think about was her, just as he’d
been doing nearly every waking moment of the past week.
 
Finally he’d given in and packed his bags,
unwilling to spend even one more minute on that solitary mountain top without
the woman who had come to mean more to him than he’d ever thought possible.

Minutes later, as Brooklyn nibbled on her second piece of
toast, a soft knocking at the door drew her attention.
 
Who
could that be
, she wondered, sliding from her seat on the barstool.
 
She wasn’t expecting anyone, and her friends
usually called before they came over.
 
Walking over to the door, she looked through the peephole, her eyes
going wide and her heart nearly leaping from her chest when she saw Ryan
standing on the other side.
 
Opening the
door, she struggled to find her voice.
 
“Hi,” she finally managed.

“Hi.”

She tried to collect herself.
 
“What are you doing here?
 
I thought you weren’t coming back until the
end of the month.”

“I missed you,” Ryan replied honestly.

His tender smile nearly melted her heart.
 
“You did?” she whispered softly, a pleased
little smile tugging the corners of her lips upward.

Her delighted expression made him wish he’d come back even
sooner.
 
“Can I come in?”

“What, oh, of course,” she said with a slight laugh,
stepping back so that he could enter her tiny apartment.
 
“When did you get back?”
 

He pushed the door closed behind him.
 
“Just now.”

“You came straight here?”
 
Her heart once again seemed to flutter within her chest.

“Well, I did make one stop first.”

She eyed him curiously.

“I’ve got something for you, but I had to stop and pick it
up.”
 

She glanced at the package he held.
 
“What is it?”

“It’s a present,” he clarified.

She’d just gotten the most wonderful present in the world,
the man now standing in her living room.
 
And though she wanted nothing more at that moment than to throw herself
into his arms and press her lips to his, she did her best to appear interested
in the small parcel wrapped in thick brown paper that he held in his
hands.
 
“You stopped to get me a
present?”

Ryan nodded and held it out to her.

She took it, and then grabbing his hand, she led him over to
the small upholstered couch that sat against the rear wall of her living room,
pulling him down to sit beside her.
 
Casting a quick sidelong glance at Ryan, she then turned her attention
to the flat package that now sat in her lap.
 
Carefully removing the twine and brown paper, she saw that whatever was
inside was enclosed in a thick layer of bubble wrap.
 
Pulling it apart, she gasped aloud.
 
She stared at the painting for several long
seconds, tears welling in her eyes as she gazed once again upon the beautiful
mountain scene.
 
Clearly, he had been the
online bidder.
 
“Oh Ryan,” she breathed,
overcome with emotion.

“I remembered how much you liked it,” he began softly, as
she turned toward him.
 
“And it reminded
me of that spot, you know, the one we stopped at along the trail.”

Her heart seemed to swell within her chest.
 
“But, it’s too much,” she said, shaking her
head in disbelief.

“Considering how I feel about you, it isn’t even close to
enough.”

No longer able to hold them back, tears of joy began to
slide down her cheeks in tiny rivulets.
 

Pulling the painting from her lax grasp, Ryan set it onto
the floor and then took her face in his hands, brushing his thumbs lightly
across her tearstained cheeks.
 
“I love
you Brooklyn, with all of my heart.”

Unable to restrain herself a moment longer, Brooklyn threw
herself into his arms, knocking him backward onto the sofa as she landed on top
of him, kissing him until they were both gasping for breath.
 
“I love you too,” she said, when she finally
managed to tear her lips from his.
 
“More
than you’ll ever know.”
 
Looking once
again into those glorious green eyes of his, she realized with a touch of
amazement that dreams really could come true.