Hidden Summit

on.
    “We’re finishing up bathrooms this week,” Dan said. “We might take a couple of days next week, but that shouldn’t hold up work on the exterior. Paul mentioned a remodel in Redway that he wants to tackle next. What did he say to you?” Dan asked.
    “He said we’re moving the trailer pretty soon. He’s got a sixty-five-hundred-square-foot custom home northeast of Virgin River ready to pour.”
    Conner knew what that meant. It would be a long time before he’d be working on the interior of that custom job. Probably months. He might even be back in Sacramento to testify before it came time to do the custom house on the same property as the trailer. He wouldn’t be running into Leslie unless he drove to wherever that trailer was located to pick up his check. Even that wasn’t necessary. Paul would readily bring paychecks to Jack’s.
    “Things have really improved since you’ve been here, Les,” Dan said, nodding at the big plate of cookies covered with Saran on the plywood table.
    “I know,” she agreed. “Cookies and moderate cleanliness.”
    “And paperwork on time, like estimates and contracts. I’m so damn glad Paul finally got around to hiring full-time office help.”
    “It’s nice to work with Paul again. Even for a little while.”
    “A little while?” Dan asked.
    She ripped open her yogurt. “I don’t mean to make it sound like I’m leaving tomorrow. It’s just that my parents are in their late sixties and one of these days… Maybe I should say one of these years they’re going to need me. Right now they’re in great health, never slow down for a second, and Grants Pass isn’t very far away so we can visit each other frequently. But they’re sixty-eight, I’m their only child, I assume I’ll have to return to Oregon.”
    “What’s your best guess?” Conner blurted out. “Months or years?”
    “I promised Paul six months, maybe more,” she said. “Unless there’s an emergency back home, of course. And…excepting emergencies…I’m not going to leave him high and dry. Vanessa would kill me.”
    Conner flashed his dimple in a smile, but he looked down at his sandwich. That gave him something to work with. Yes, sir.
    Six months. He was a patient man. Most of the time.
    “Didn’t I hear you’re planning a wedding?” she asked Dan.
    “Not exactly. What we’re planning is a marriage. Cheryl and I have been together a couple of years, this past year dedicated to finishing our house together with a little help from friends. We’re in now, though still finishing things, and should be done by June. Then Cheryl wants a nice, quiet, private ceremony while we’re on our way up to the San Juan Islands for some serious fishing.” He laughed. “Gotta love a woman like Cheryl. She’s not only pretty and practical, she’s more fun than I deserve.”
    “What about your families?” Leslie asked. “Won’t they want some kind of wedding?”
    “That’s just it—our families are gone now and it’s just us. I think our friends will help us celebrate the new house with a housewarming, but we want to go off alone for the rest.”
    Families gone…that turned over in Conner’s head a bit. His family was gone temporarily, but he’d get them back. At least until Katie met someone who would take over as husband and the boys’ father, and then it would be time for her to make a new life. And while they were very close, it wasn’t as though Conner told her everything that was happening in his life. Back in the day, if he dated, he didn’t run the details by his sister. He was more likely to mention it after the fact. Even with his wife, Katie hadn’t met Samantha until they were talking about marriage.
    But somehow the idea that he might never tell Katie about Leslie ate at him. Bothered him. Leslie was the kind of girl you showed off to your family.
    “You’re very quiet,” Leslie pointed out to him.
    He chewed and swallowed. “Good cookies,” he said. Then he gave enough of a smile to cover his discomfort. When he looked at her, his cheeks felt warm. He hoped he wasn’t blushing like a boy.
    He went back to work with Dan and conversation focused only on the work they were doing. Below the chatter, Conner thought about his next move—he was helpless in fighting the idea. Finally he decided—he was going to ask Leslie when she had that yoga class again because he might drop by that coffee shop at about the same time. They could sit on those girlie chairs and