by Shannyn Leah
Drunk driving? Riley wasn’t having any part in that again.
He rammed his kickstand out and followed Abby. “What are you doing?”
Her fingers couldn’t even get the key in the slot. “Nothing,” she spat.
“You’re not driving.”
“I’m not stupid.”
That was debatable.
“Do you need something out of the car?”
She glanced up at him and snarled, “What are you still doing here?”
They were like hot and cold. Fire and ice. The opposite in every aspect of their lives and it was infuriating.
Riley took a deep breath to calm his growing anger.
Anger? He hadn’t felt anger like this since the night he fought with Dani. The anger that night bordered exasperation from the same repeated fight about signing her record deal. Dani had just given birth to their daughter and wasn’t in any place to start an album. It had escalated from there, as usual, and when she threatened to leave for the last time, he told her to go back home to her mommy. He’d called her a cab and walked away. He hadn’t known that she would take their child and climb into a car intoxicated and wrap it around a tree.
Tonight’s anger blended with fear of the consequences of driving drunk. He wouldn’t let that happen to Abby.
When she wouldn’t answer him, Riley snatched the keys away from her.
Instead of grabbing for the keys, Abby just screamed, “No, no, no!” She kicked the car door with her toe, no doubt leaving marks on both the door and her heels. Her fight finished by punching both her fists down on the hood.
“I’m not going in there!” she yelled at him.
“In your house?”
“It’s not my house. It’s Gran’s house. Everything in there is Gran’s and you know what else is in there?”
A bed. A pillow. Sheets.
“Kate. Kate’s in there,” she whispered. “And she’s just waiting for me to show up drunk so she can unfold into Mommy Mode and pick up where she left off. Guess what?”
Abby was losing it? Hadn’t she talked to her sisters and sorted her shit out? Apparently not.
He remained quiet.
“I don’t need a mommy. In fact I need a break from her. And you know where there’s a break?”
He didn’t want to know.
“At the hotel where Gran reserved each of us an all-inclusive getaway, that’s where.”
What the hell was she talking about?
“I’m going. Kate doesn’t want to go while she finds herself. Peyton can’t go because she has work. Sydney wouldn’t dare leave the comfort of her happy home to vacation with me...” Abby pointed a finger. “...but she vacations with her mother-in-law and daughter all the time and Avery...he didn’t even come to his own grandmother’s funeral. But me, I’m going. Just as soon as this alcohol wears off.” Her face squished into a cute confusion. “Can you open the car so I can go to sleep?”
In below zero temperatures? No, he wouldn’t.
“Riley?”
Through gritted teeth, knowing this was a bad idea he said, “You can sleep on my couch.”
“Then can we go on vacation?”
We? We! There was no we.
“No.”
Abby slumped against the car and pouted up at him. “Because you don’t like me.”
“I’m not having this conversation with you again.”
“Just say it. Shoot me in the foot and put me out of my misery.”
Shoot me in the foot?
Abby slid down the vehicle and sat on the ground.
As Riley sat beside her, he tried not to notice how high her already mini dress went further up her thigh.
“Let’s go to my apartment and get out of the cold.” he said.
She shook her head and he watched her eyes beginning to shut. “I’m not going with you if you don’t like me.”
He could have tossed the remainder of his supper in the microwave and been sleeping right now−alone−the way he liked it.
“I like you,” he said.
She tilted her head up so she could look at him. “Because of Mrs. Calvert?”
He shook his head.
“Because of Gran?”
He shook his head again.
Her lips lifted into an exhausted drunken smile. She laid her head on his shoulder. “I like you too, Riley. I don’t know why. You are by far the crankiest person I have ever met and you insult me to my face. But you’re honest. I like you too.”
She was by far the craziest, most unstable person he’d ever met...but he liked her too.
Damn it.
This was not how he’d envisioned his night going.
“Will you come with me tomorrow? As friends?” she asked. “If you say yes, I will sleep on your couch.”
Riley didn’t see how either of those options benefited him. Her bargaining tools needed improvement, but he was forced to say yes, and promise to drive her to whatever hotel she was talking about. If Grace had really reserved an all-inclusive stay for her. It sounded a bit odd to him.
When Riley felt her grow still beside him, he knew she was asleep. He scooped her up in his arms and carried her to his apartment where he laid her on his sofa and pulled a blanket around her cold body.
Abby didn’t budge. For a long while Riley stood above her and watched her.
What was she going to do without Grace? How was she going to get back on track? But mostly, why was he making this his business?
Instead of retiring to his bedroom, he collapsed on the chair beside her, and closed his eyes. He couldn’t let her go alone in the morning. She was bound to get herself into trouble.
Riley fell asleep trying to ignore the feeling of pleasure he was getting from knowing that when the morning sun came up he was going to spend a week alone with Abby...but how was he going to tell Mrs. C?
Chapter Eight
BEFORE LUNCH THE next day, they stepped through the doors of the hotel, escaping the snowstorm they’d hit as they drove north. An unexpected white-out snowstorm that doubled their time on what should have been no more than a three-hour trip.
“I hate snow.” Izzy’s sharp voice went right through Riley. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Izzy, he didn’t even know her, but he was learning quickly that Abby’s wild side doubled in her best friend’s presence.
Alone his ass.
Izzy Caliendo had been waiting in front of her family’s resort at the edge of Willow Valley surrounded by more bags then Riley and Abby had brought combined.
“You’re such a baby,” Abby teased, coming up beside Riley and lugging half of Izzy’s brightly colored luggage. “I hope you packed a hat and mitts because we’re going to check this town out. A little night time clubbing. There has to be some great bars there. Maybe afterwards we can have a snow fight and then curl up in the hotel with some warm cocoa and sweets.” Abby held up the bag of desserts she’d smooth-talked Mrs. C into giving her before they left.
Abby smiled up at Riley. Now sobered up and having napped halfway there, Abby was back to her overly-pleasant, chatterbox self. It was exhausting.
“Do you like the snow Riley?” she aked.
“I don’t have anything against it.” Besides the brutal drive.
“See Izzy, Riley’s ready to play cold and snuggle warm.”
Play cold? Snuggle warm? How did she get that from his answer?
“Are you two shacking up?” Izzy asked.
“No!” Abby and Riley answered at the same time, so loudly they attracted attention from other guests in the lobby.
“Mmhmm,” Izzy said, evidently not believing either of them and eyeing them suspiciously. “Calm down, and get your story straight while I go check in.”
There was no story.
“I know how to charm us to an upgrade,” she added before leaving all her bags with them and slinging only her designer purse over her shoulder.
“There is no story,” Abby called after her.
Izzy just waved
her off.
“Get us two rooms,” Abby continued.
Another wave.
“Alone, huh?” Riley questioned. He could have stayed at home and reorganized his head for the week and prepared himself to deflect Abby, instead of leading her on and letting her believe there was the possibility of something between them. Whatever it was, it would have to end.
“I didn’t know she would actually come.”
“That’s a lie isn’t it?”
Abby grinned. “It’s totally a lie. I knew she would come. But I wanted you to come too. You like me.”
Abby made it sound like they were going to be shacking up. He needed to end that right away. “You’re using that in the wrong context.”
“I’m using it in the right context. You like me as a friend.” She said the words but her smirk suggested otherwise. Either way, he wasn’t ready to put a title on them.
“I’m not friend material.” That was the truth.
“How about friends with benefits?”
Been there. Done that. It only led to a pregnant woman he didn’t love and a child that he didn’t know how to incorporate into his life. No, friends with benefits was out for him.
“No.”
Abby wiggled her eyebrows at him. “How about just benefits?”
“Abby...”
“What?” she asked innocently. “I’m trying to get our story straight.”
“There is no story.”
“There could be...”
Riley didn’t have a chance to reply as Izzy, back from the reception desk, overtook the conversation, bragging how she had upgraded them to a top-of-the-line premium suite.
It was better the conversation between him and Abby ended sooner anyway, before one of them said something else they regretted. Like Riley. He regretted admitting to her that he liked her, but what choice did he have? She was prepared to sleep outside and freeze to death. He didn’t want that hanging over his head.
On the elevator up to the top floor Abby asked, “How did you get us premium suites?”
Izzy grinned deviously. “Daddy’s credit.”
“Izzy!”
“Abby!” Izzy mocked.
Riley should have gotten his own room.
The room Izzy reserved for them was incredible. It reminded him of the exact ones he would have booked during his successful years in the music industry. Riley had walked into dozens of rooms just like this one with a woman on each arm, but this was completely different circumstances.
Riley was an entirely different man than he had been back then and now he had no interest in women...let alone two women.
Riley’s eyes followed Abby as she moved around the room.
“This is gorgeous!” Abby dropped her bags and moved around the luxurious room fit for the rich. Modern and sleek with a circular structure above with highlighted spotlights. There was a kitchen to the right and a living room overlooking the gorgeous city. It was an even more beautiful view when Abby stepped into the picture.
Whoa! No. Enough of that. Thank goodness Izzy was around to...well...babysit the two of them. Abby offered him a no-strings attached relationship and now he was noticing how gorgeous she looked...he was doomed for a repeat in his life. He would not repeat his past.
“I’m going to freshen up and I will see you two in like an hour?” Izzy asked, heading back out of the room.
Abby spun around. “Where are you going?”
“To my room.” Izzy managed to collect all her luggage. Bags strapped over both shoulders and her hands clutching multiple handles from the suitcase. “This room is yours and Riley’s. I reserved my own.” Izzy lowered her voice as if Riley wasn’t standing in the center of them. “I really didn’t think he could afford his own room,” she whispered.
She had no idea.
“Besides I figure you two needed some space to sort out the sexual tension between you. So an hour? Is that enough time to...” She looked between the two, assuming they were going to rip each other’s clothes off the second she shut the door behind her.
“Get out,” Abby ordered.
Izzy did as she was told with a little chuckle and left the door wide open.
Riley walked over and shut it.
When he turned to Abby she was brightly smiling. “See...alone.” She winked at him then walked toward the french doors left wide open exposing the bedroom and the king size in the middle. “Friends. Friends with benefits. Only benefits. Who knows what the week will bring us.” She said, walking straight into the bedroom and not bothering to close the doors behind her.
Riley groaned and dropped the bags. He should have booked his own room.
Abby’s energized voice echoed from the bedroom. “Damn Riley, come and check out this Jacuzzi tub! It’s so big we could have a party in it! A party for two...”
Riley turned toward the kitchen. The opposite direction of Abby’s indecent proposal.
If he was a drinker he would have opened one of those overpriced bottles of alcohol and downed a shot. Instead he got a glass of water and vowed he wasn’t going anywhere near that Jacuzzi.
THE DAY TURNED OUT exactly like Abby had planned: a fun day on the town with Izzy and Riley. They did as much as they could cram in from the touristy stuff to shopping and taking pictures everywhere. It was a blast.
For the first time Abby witnessed a new side of Riley...a happy side. Okay, maybe happy was pushing the limits, but the straight face and frown he usually wore, with the condescending word or two, was temporarily replaced with more frequent half smiles.
The evening however was a different story. Kate, Peyton and Sydney were waiting in the lounge when they arrived back at the hotel. Followed by a slew of questions including, Why did you leave without telling us? As if Abby had to give them every single detail of her life. If she wanted to go hang out with friends she would. She hadn’t told them what she’d been up to for the last six years. Why would she start now?
It was Kate. She was stepping back into Mommy Mode and working up her sisters. Having them at the hotel hadn’t turned out to be all that bad though. After eating a delicious grilled chicken penne together, her sisters decided to stay for the week. They settled in the bar around a high pub table. Music rolled over them from the live band playing at the far end for the dancing crowd. Abby was going to get onto that dance floor before the night was done...maybe she would take Riley with her.
She almost laughed out loud at the idea. Izzy made her way back to the table with a tray of drinks for everyone. “Holla! Pass these around.”
Abby sipped her wine then looked at her worrying sisters and said, “You three overreact. I was fine. I just wanted a break and threatened Riley that I was going to drive up here on my own.” She glanced over her shoulder in the direction Riley had disappeared towards the men’s room.
“Are you two a thing?” Sydney asked.
Abby wished. Did she? If they were a thing, then it would be use and throw away. Abby didn’t like the idea of whatever was going on between her and Riley suddenly ending. But she also didn’t want to try and explain their relationship to her sisters when she wasn’t sure what it was.
“No! Oh my gosh, he is not interested in me at all.” She waved her hands through the air to get her point across.
“You wish he was,” Izzy teased, elbowing her in the side.
Abby glared at her.
“You’re interested in him?” Sydney asked.
Who wasn’t?
Abby grinned at her sister. “He’s easy to look at.”
Laughter broke out around the table.
“He’s delicious,” Izzy drooled. “I could stroke that beard forever.”
Abby laughed at Izzy and swatted her shoulder. “You’re so strange.”
Izzy caught her hand mid-air. “Oh, don’t give me that. I bet you ten bucks you’d like to stroke that beard right now.”
Who wouldn’t?
“You are the daughter of a multimillionaire and you bet me ten bucks?”
Abby cried insulted.
Izzy shrugged. “I would do it for ten bucks.”
Abby’s sisters joined in on the laugher.
“Oh get out of here!” Abby hit her again.
“He’s not easy to look at,” Sydney said.
Abby raised her eyebrows at her sister. “Are you kidding me? Jake is tattooed from top to bottom and his mother was actually in a biker gang and he has a bad ass, scary edge to him. This one...” she jerked her finger in Riley’s direction, wondering what was taking him so long. “...is harmless.”
Sydney glared at Abby. “First of all, Jake is harmless and second, it doesn’t matter because I’m not interested in Jake.”
Yeah right. Abby had been watching a back and forth game between Sydney and Jake her entire life. Denial.
“Sure you aren’t,” Abby said mockingly.
Sydney’s defensive walls went up around her like a pop up tent. “I’m not. And we’re not talking about me.”
Kate smacked Sydney and nodded behind Abby. She glanced over and saw Riley on his way back.
“Do it,” Izzy chanted in her ear. “Stroke it,” she repeated.
“Don’t let her play you like a violin,” Kate told Sydney. “That’s how we ended up here, remember?”
“I didn’t plan this,” Abby said yanking the defensive walls from her sister and popping them up around herself. “I can’t help it you all think I’m crazy.”
Peyton rubbed Abby’s arm as Riley slid into his seat with his virgin cola. “Abby we know you’re crazy,” Peyton said.
Abby yanked her arm away and slapped her sister. “Get away,” she said.
“But we love you unconditionally,” Peyton added.
Abby slanted a look at Riley as he sat beside her. “See what I have to deal with?”
Riley smirked and Abby loved it.
“Since I’m officially out of a job I suggest we get that shop up and running,” Peyton said.
The shop. Abby had forgotten all about the commercial building that Gran had left to them. No one had even known that she’d owned the run-down vacant building across the alley from Mrs. Calvert’s bakery. Peyton was referring to the five second conversation they’d had earlier that week about opening a soap shop in the location. It was an absurd idea that none of her sisters would go along with.
