Deep River Promise, Jackie Ashenden [large ebook reader .TXT] 📗

I could spare a couple of days after all,” he said casually. “So I figured I might as well stick around and have a look at these tourism ideas, check out the financials, help with business plans, that kind of thing.”

Silas gave him a narrow look. “So nothing at all to do with the mayor, then.”

Shit. Was that what Silas thought? That he was here for Astrid?

And you’re not?

Hell no. This was all about Connor and Damon’s promise to Cal. An inconvenient attraction to Astrid was something he could easily ignore.

“No,” Damon said firmly. “Nothing at all.”

Silas’s suspicion in no way lessened. “Be careful, Damon. She’s a woman with a difficult past, and she really doesn’t need a difficult future, okay?”

Interesting. What did Silas know?

“Difficult past, you say?” he asked, ignoring Silas’s suspicion for the moment.

Silas shook his head. “I don’t know anything for certain, but even if I did, it’s not my story to tell. Hope’s mentioned a couple of things about her is all, and it sounds to me like she’s had enough bad crap in her life without anyone else adding to it.”

Damon didn’t take offense. He liked women and that was well-known. Silas was only looking out for a fellow townsperson. Still, he didn’t need to worry. Damon wasn’t in the market for anything more than casual, and that ruled Astrid out completely.

“Hey.” He raised his hands. “I hear you. No dick moves, I promise.” And he meant it, yet his brain kept circling around the words difficult past as he remembered that lost look on her face and that air of fragility…

He wanted to know what had happened to her, because something had. Something that would have had an effect on Connor, that perhaps had prompted the kind of behavior the kid was displaying now.

Silas eyed him. “Damon…”

Damon met his friend’s gaze squarely. Silas had a white-knight streak in him and that was commendable, but sometimes the guy went tilting at the wrong windmills.

“Give me some credit,” he said without heat. “The mayor’s attractive, sure, but I’m not here to hook up. She’s not interested anyway, she made that clear.”

His friend let out a slow breath, his harsh features relaxing. “Okay, fine. Well, I can’t say I’m disappointed you’re offering advice. Like I’ve been trying to tell you, Deep River could use it. We need to make sure everything’s rock-solid when it comes to taking on these oil assholes.”

Silas had already told him about the oil company executives who’d been calling people in town, trying to get them to sell their leases and/or hand over their mineral rights. The town had voted not to sell, but the money had been a strong draw. People in the town didn’t have much, and everyone had families to support. Having alternative sources of income would strengthen people’s resolve against the oil companies and hopefully keep them out of Deep River for good.

A little arrow of guilt pierced him. He’d been difficult over the past few weeks and he knew it, complaining about being stuck in Juneau and hassling Silas about staying in Deep River, wanting to walk away from his responsibility to the town. And it had been made even harder by his mother’s insistence on no one knowing about her illness.

Yeah, but you told Connor.

That was true, he had. And Silas was owed some truth, especially considering what a dick Damon had made of himself. Silas didn’t know his mom and Damon didn’t have to be specific about what kind of illness she had.

“About the past few weeks,” Damon said slowly. “I wasn’t deliberately trying to be an asshole about selling up and going back to LA. I do actually have some good reasons for it.”

“I figured.” Silas’s gaze was measuring. “But if you didn’t want to tell me about them, then I wasn’t going to force you.”

“Okay, so the truth is that my mom isn’t well and she needs some help. I’ve got a housekeeper coming in a couple of hours a day to keep an eye on her, but she doesn’t like having a stranger in the house, so it’s not a great permanent solution.”

Silas’s expression turned sympathetic. “Ah. Well, that’s crappy.”

“Yeah, it is.” Damon shoved away the inevitable tight feeling that filled his chest whenever he thought about the situation with his mother. She didn’t like Rachel being around but never liked it when he looked after her either, which was going to make the future difficult. “What about Zeke?” he went on, changing the subject. “I presume you’ve told him about all of this?”

Silas shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “I haven’t been able to get ahold of him since Cal’s funeral.”

That was weird. Then again, given Zeke’s whole “wild man” schtick, not completely out of character. The guy would take off into the bush for a few days, sometimes a few weeks, before turning up and acting like nothing had happened. He’d been the same way in the military, though with less disappearing.

He wasn’t a man who explained himself, so Cal, Damon, and Silas never knew why he kept leaving, despite having asked him on numerous occasions. However, he was always around when he was needed, so while his disappearance wasn’t out of character, the fact that he was needed right now and wasn’t around made Damon wonder.

He’d been the one meant to do the cargo run that had ended in Cal’s death and hadn’t been able to go at the last minute for reasons he wouldn’t disclose to anyone else. He hadn’t said anything, but Damon and Silas both knew the accident had hit him hard because he’d up and left the minute Cal’s funeral had ended.

Damon frowned. “Any idea where he went?”

“Nope. I’ve left a ton of messages on his phone. I texted him, emailed him, and got nothing back, so who knows?”

Worry turned over inside Damon’s gut, but that was another feeling he didn’t let take root. Vague concern was fine, but nothing deeper, not these days. Anyway, sometimes a