Mountain Song (4 page)

“What exactly was that
promise?”

“The night you went
back to New Jersey...well, let’s just say that you left behind quite a mess to
clean up. Did you give any thought at all to how that poor boy was going to
react?”

Claudia had. She’d
thought about it a lot, in fact, but unfortunately that was long after the taxi
had taken her to the airport, after she’d cried in the bathroom and boarded the
flight back east. At the time, all she could think about was getting away, back
to what was familiar, back where she might be able to forget that Andy Woods
just hadn’t loved her quite enough.

“I...know I didn’t
handle that well,” she said. “And I guess I’ve owed you an apology for quite a
long time, Bea.”

“Yes, my dear, and I
accept.”

“But you didn’t even
give me a chance to tell you how sorry I am.”

“I know you’re sorry,
Claudia.” Bea still hadn’t opened her eyes, and Claudia noticed that her face
looked paler than ever. “I know a lot of things without you having to spell
them out in detail. Let’s just say that you’ve been doing a lot of growing
these last few years. You’ve become a woman in many ways.”

Many ways. That was
true, even if some of it had come a terrible price. Not that she had any
regrets. The legacy of her romance with Andy, both more powerful and more
costly than either of them could ever have guessed, had changed her life
completely.

“I was such a pain
then, Bea,” Claudia said softly, leaning her elbows onto the mattress and
resting her chin in her hands. “How could you stand me?”

Bea smiled, the lines
around her eyes crinkling into a complex map of lines and paths. “You forget,
my darling, that I too was once a spoiled young heiress. You might say I have a
soft spot for beautiful, impetuous girls who just happen to be my own flesh and
blood.”

“Was I...that awful?”

“No. You were never
awful. You were so lovely and charming that no one could ever stay mad at you
for long, even when you were a two year old in the thick of a tantrum. I
suspect you drove your poor folks crazy, but complete strangers were forever
coming up just to adore you. And you just drank it in, gave them that million
dollar smile and that precocious little curtsy.”

Claudia wrinkled her
nose. “You make me sound absolutely dreadful.”
 

“And then when you got
a little older...lands, how the boys used to line up.”

As Bea chuckled at the
memory, Claudia frowned. “I’m not sure that’s quite accurate,” she said.

“Don’t you remember
all those suitors?”

“I remember a lot of
boys, yes, Bea. Beastly ones at the country club who liked to try to see how
far they could get with a Canfield girl.”

“I guess it was lucky
that Brenda and Tina came first, then.”

“Yes...no boy ever let
his hand stray too far with them, that’s for sure.” Claudia laughed
affectionately. Her sisters, excellent tennis players, good in school, exuded
an air of all-American success, pure and sweet and untouchable. They’d married
men cut from the same cloth, nice handsome men who could mix a mean martini and
hold their own on any golf course. “Still...that didn’t seem to keep anyone
from trying with me.”

“Well, you were
different.”

“How, Bea? Mom dressed
me in those same horrible jumpers and knee socks that Brenda and Tina wore when
we were kids. I went to the same expensive private college and I lived in the
same sorority that my sisters did. So why did the boys...”

“...come after you
like sharks after blood? Face it, my darling, you just had that look about you,
that sensual wild streak you couldn’t cover up even with a hundred of those
hideous peter pan collars.”

Claudia sighed and lay
her head down on her crossed arms. “That’s not a very grandmotherly thing to
say,” she chided wistfully.

“Well, I’m not just
any
grandmother, am I? The truth is,
sometimes I wished I could just slow you down a little, keep you a little girl
until you’d matured into the face you were born with. But you were a famous
beauty, from a well-known family. And then you lost your mama when you were
barely a teenager. With three strikes against you, it’s a wonder you didn’t go
any wilder than you did.”

It was such a relief
to rest next to her grandmother that Claudia felt she might drift off to sleep.
If the bed had been a little wider she would have been tempted to lie down
herself, just for a little while.

“I wasn’t
that
wild,” she murmured.

Bea stroked her hair,
just as she had when Claudia was a girl with long blonde tresses gone twisted
and knotted from play. “Let’s see,” Bea said softly. “Flunked an entire
semester at college, nearly thrown out of your sorority for your shenanigans—”

“All I did was miss a
few of those stupid chapter meetings,” Claudia objected half-heartedly.

“Brought home dreadful
boys I know you picked just to frighten your poor father.”

Claudia giggled
softly. “That was funny, wasn’t it? Remember Jed? With those four earrings and
that tattoo—”

“Oh, I’m sure your
father won’t forget that for quite some time. Of course...”

Bea was silent, though
she continued her soothing caresses, and Claudia was sure she knew what her
grandmother was thinking. The biggest shock of all, the one that struck her
father speechless for a week. The one that shook the foundations of the
Canfield family.

But she hadn’t known
it would end up that way when she ran from Lake Tahoe. Andy hadn’t been about
that. She never intended him as another escapade, a ploy meant to raise her
sisters’ eyebrows and provoke her father’s ire while giving all those boring
old society ladies something to talk about back home.

Ever since the first
time she saw him, she wanted Andy just for herself. He was different from any
boy she’d ever met. No, not a boy: he was a man, had been a man for quite some
time, you could see it in his eyes, in his quiet determination, the way he did
his work.

There were a lot of
good-looking guys who worked at the ski resorts, but when Claudia poled to the
front of the lift line that first brilliant, cold November morning, it was Andy’s
eyes that locked on hers with a power that made her feel as though the wind
rushing off the mountains might carry her along with it.

She hadn’t even told
anyone about him. No one, that is, except Bea. She’d come to stay with her
grandmother for an indefinite holiday, several months in the mountains after
the summer in Europe and the fall visiting friends all over the country. After
traveling from place to place, Claudia was happy to stay in one spot for a
while. There was still plenty of money left from her father’s graduation gift,
and she wasn’t expected to start working until June. A full year’s delay after
college before starting her new job, that’s what she’d asked for, and the
fashion design house where she would be working didn’t seem the least bit
hesitant to grant her wish.

That’s how the world
worked when your father was Jack Canfield.

“Bea,” Claudia said
slowly, “did I drive you crazy when I was staying with you?”

“No,” Bea replied
without hesitation. “But then again, I’m a free spirit too, just like you were.
I’ve never been one for itineraries and schedules. I didn’t know if you were
staying a day or a week or months, but I was just happy to have you around. That
old cabin can get kind of quiet.”

“I thought you liked
it that way.”

“I did,” Bea said, her
own voice going soft and dreamy. “I mean, I do. But ever since your grandfather
died...it can get a little
too
quiet
now and then. With just myself for company.”

“Well—then I
wish I had been better company.”

“Oh, you did your own
laundry, and your share of the housework, if I recall.”

“Yeah, but I mean—I spent all my time away—”

“You spent all your
time with Andy,” Bea corrected her. “There’s a difference, you know. When you’re
in love, time doesn’t mean the same thing as it does for the rest the world. You
have to take every chance you have to be together. I remember.”

“You do? You mean,
with Grandpa?”

“Yep. But that’s
another story. Claudia, honey, I know we have to talk more, but I really wasn’t
exaggerating. I’m so exhausted. Poor Andrew, I didn’t mean to give him such a
hard time. I really must apologize later.”

“I’m the one who
should be sorry, Bea,” Claudia said, straightening up immediately. “I shouldn’t
have—I’m such an idiot. Of course you’re tired. I’m leaving right now. But
I’ll be back in the morning and we can talk more then. I’ve missed you.”

She bent to kiss her
grandmother’s cheek, the skin soft and dry and powdery all at once, her rose
water scent faintly present even among the chemical hospital smells in the
room.

“I love you, sweet
pea,” Bea said, fluttering her eyes open just for a second before allowing them
to sink shut again. “I’m glad you’re here. Things are looking up now.”

“Andy? Hey, man, you awake in there?”

A low-pitched voice
intruded on his thoughts, and Andy laid down his pen, rubbing his temples. That
headache had only worsened as he completed his rounds and began plowing through
his paperwork for the day.

“Sorry. Didn’t hear
you come up.” Andy swiveled his chair around, motioning Rick to one of the
other chairs in the office. Lake Tahoe’s only hospital had outgrown its space
as the town grew over the years. Meant to house one person, three physicians
were sharing one windowless room, and the desk units were piled high with books
and stacks of paper.

On the other two
desks, framed photos and children’s artwork broke up the monotony. The only
keepsake on Andy’s desk was a rock, an unexceptional piece of shale through
which a trace of coal ran. His father had mined rocks like these for more than
a decade, and Andy intended to never forget the hardships his parents had
undertaken to ensure a better life for their son.

Rick Martinez, Andy’s
best friend and Lake Tahoe General Hospital’s only male nurse, settled his
lanky form into the chair Andy offered. “Thought I might be able to talk you
into a beer, seeing as it’s Friday and all.”

“Not tonight.”

“Aw, come on. I know
for a fact you aren’t on until noon tomorrow.”

Andy just shrugged,
reaching into the mini-fridge wedged into the corner for a can of mineral
water.

“Sooooo.” Rick
balanced his feet carefully on the edge of a desk and leaned back precariously
in the chair. “Who’s that woman I saw you talking to, down in Bea’s room?”

“No one,” Andy said
much too quickly. Catching the slight tilt of Rick’s eyebrows, he sighed and
amended his statement. “Her granddaughter. In from the East coast”

“‘Cause word is, you
and she used to have quite a thing.”

Andy shot his glance
up at Rick. Saw the feigned innocence on Rick’s handsome face. “Who told you
that?”

“Well, this is a small
place. Word gets around.”

“It was Fletcher, wasn’t
it,” Andy muttered, naming the affable sixty-ish department head. Dr. Rudy
Fletcher had not only helped Andy land the job here at Lake Tahoe General, but
had tried hard to ease his grief when Andy’s own father was pronounced dead on
arrival to this very hospital. “That guy couldn’t keep his mouth shut to save
his life.”

“Aw, the old man just
said you and she used to have a thing.”

“It was before you
were around,” Andy said. Better to give Rick the bare facts than suffer through
his best friend’s endless baiting. Rick’s zest for gossip was just one of the
many traits Andy and he didn’t share. “She came out for a winter after college—she
was a trust fund brat—and we spent some time together.”

“Trust fund, eh? Yeah,
she looks it. That outfit of hers probably cost more than I pull down in a
week. Not your usual style, though, is she?”

“What the hell is that
supposed to mean?”

Rick laughed,
satisfied no doubt at getting a rise out of him. “Hey, calm down. All I meant
was, seems you usually go for more of the, how shall I put this, no-frills,
get-down-to-business type.”

Andy glared at his
friend, but as usual, the trace of impishness in his broad, innocent face was
well-hidden.

Get-down-to-business. That
was no doubt Rick’s way of saying that the ladies in Andy’s life came and went
quickly. They were nice enough women, attractive enough. Probably all of them
exceptional in some way or other, but Andy never got around to finding out.

He felt the stirrings
of an old, tired, defensiveness. Not everyone had seemingly effortless success
with women, like Rick did. Nor his appetite for the whole wine and roses
routine.

“I’m not looking for
much,” he said carefully. “And I make sure they aren’t either.”

Rick shrugged
agreeably. “No harm, no foul, right? No problem with me, man.”