“I didn’t . . . well, I lived too far away from one to attend regularly,” she finally said, not meeting his eyes.
Hale looked away, shutting his eyes briefly in frustration with himself. How was it possible to keep choosing topics of conversation that made Isabella uncomfortable?
“Oh!” she said, thankfully interrupting his thoughts. “What is that place? I saw it yesterday from the depot, but I forgot to ask Tansy about it.”
Hale turned to see Isabella pointing at the hotel on the hill that overlooked all of the other buildings. “The Crest Stone Hotel,” he said. “It’s the finest in town.”
“It’s lovely.” She breathed out a sigh, and Hale was grateful for something to talk about that wouldn’t cause Isabella to blush. He began regaling her with the stories he’d heard about the Gilbert hotels like this one, and how this hotel had come to be built. She nodded enthusiastically, and he went on to show her the town’s newest—although more modest—hotel and the other boardinghouse he and Tansy did their best to differentiate the Darby Boardinghouse from.
“You’ll find all sorts in that place,” he said. “Regular folks who don’t have much money to spare, but also gamblers, thieves, and worse.”
Isabella swallowed noticeably as she looked across him at Fred Polson’s Boardinghouse. He’d made her nervous. He could have smacked himself. Just because she was forthright in sharing her thoughts and asking questions didn’t mean she lived without fear.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She eyed the boardinghouse for a moment longer, looking as if she were in another place altogether, before finally dragging her gaze away to meet him. “I’m not frightened. Everyone here is too nice for that.”
He couldn’t keep from grinning. “Well, don’t trust every person you meet immediately.”
She lifted her own mouth in a little smile. “I’m far too wise now to do that.”
That was a curious answer. Hale watched her as a hundred new questions tumbled into his head.
“You’ve told me so much about Crest Stone. Tell me something about you.” Isabella drew slightly closer as she looked up at him.
Hale had the strongest desire to tug at his collar but settled for clearing his throat instead. “What do you want to know?”
“Anything. For instance, where were you born? You strike me as someone who came from a city.”
Hale didn’t know whether she considered that a good or bad thing, but it was true. “Tansy and I are from Philadelphia.”
“You carry yourself like someone used to living in a city,” Isabella said. “Why did you choose Crest Stone?”
“We didn’t, not really. Our parents ran a small boardinghouse in the city. A few years ago, there was a fire, and . . .” His throat constricted from the emotion that rose every time he thought of his parents. It had been impossible to remain in Philadelphia after what had happened. “We decided to take the money we inherited out West with the idea that we’d open our own boardinghouse somewhere. When we arrived in Denver, we asked around and one gentleman mentioned Crest Stone as a possible location.”
Isabella was watching him, her mouth slightly agape. “I’m sorry you lost your parents.”
“Thank you.” He didn’t dare look at her again. If there was any trace of sadness or pity in her expression, he wouldn’t be able to keep himself together. “Where are your parents?” he asked, eager to leave discussion of his loss behind. “In Cheyenne?”
“Oh . . . no. I lost my mother some time ago to a fever. We had a small homestead in the territory then.”
He snuck a glance at Isabella, but she was looking away from him. And he understood. The memories of loss were too much sometimes. He gave her arm a gentle squeeze, hoping to communicate that he’d wrestled with similar grief. “But you still have your father?”
“Yes,” she said, a hint of hesitation lacing her voice. “He’s . . . away. I haven’t seen him or my brothers in a while.”
“Sometimes you have to travel for good work,” Hale replied. “It makes sense then that you’d want to marry.”
She glanced down, frowning just a little before raising her head to look at him. The frown was gone, replaced with that genuine smile. “I’m very happy not to be alone any longer.”
Because she had him. She also had Tansy and an entire town of people now, but Hale liked the soft warm glow that flooded through him when he thought she meant only him.
“Thank you again for the walk and the conversation,” Isabella said when they reached the boardinghouse.
“Maybe later this week I can show you the creek that runs to the west near the mountains?” A hopeful note crept into Hale’s voice, and he hoped Isabella didn’t notice.
She beamed at him as they stopped outside his office door. “A creek? Is it good for fishing?”
That was the last question he’d expected her to ask. “I . . . I don’t know. Perhaps?”
