by Shannyn Leah
“I’m in,” Kate said.
What?
“I’m serious. I just had a major falling out and I’m quitting my job, so I’m almost officially out of a job too.”
What?
Abby watched her sister’s reactions. Peyton’s face beamed. Sydney’s face drew very serious.
“Kate, have you thought this through? It’s going to be so expensive,” Sydney said.
Kate shrugged. “Peyton is the brains behind this operation, so don’t look at me. Are you in Syd?”
Sydney shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Are you in Abby?” Kate asked.
Peyton was nearly bouncing in her chair with excitement.
This was crazy. This was awesome. This was something Abby wanted to be a part of whether it succeeded or failed. “It is my soap you plan on reproducing, so hell yeah, I’m in! I want my cut.”
“Woohoo!” Peyton cried. “Sydney, Sydney,” she started chanting. As the others followed, Abby was thinking maybe her sisters were a tad bit on the tipsy side.
“Guys, I can’t just decide out of the blue like this. You need to have a plan, an outline...and money,” Sydney said.
“Sydney. Sydney!” They cheered.
Sydney rolled her eyes. “What choice do I have? Two out of three of you are unemployed and Abby only works part time.”
The table cheered.
Kate held up her glass. “It’s official. The McAdams sisters are opening a shop downtown in Willow Valley.”
They all drank to that.
Abby clicked her glass against Izzy’s and then Riley’s. He was stone sober and probably thought they were crazy. Abby thought they were crazy, but she was ecstatic they were crazy together.
An hour later, Abby noticed she’d barely touched her drink and wasn’t the least bit interested in it.
“Let’s dance,” she said to Riley as a slow song came over the speakers.
He shook his head, as she had suspected he would. Abby didn’t take no for an answer and excused them while pulling him onto the edge of the dance floor. The opposite side of the dance floor and out of her sister’s view.
Riley knew how to dance. He took over after she slipped one arm around his neck and held his free hand.
“You dance,” Abby observed.
He shrugged.
When he moved her with perfect grace around the dance floor she said, “You dance well.”
Another shrug.
Abby laughed.
She didn’t jump into the deep conversation she brought him here for not right away. She enjoyed half the song, before she stepped away from his body and said, “I wanted to get our story straight before we get back to the room.”
“Alright.”
That wasn’t entirely true. She figured he wasn’t looking to go any further than a friendship between them, but there was one question plaguing her. “Did you mean what you said last night? About liking me? As a friend of course,” she clarified. “Unless there’s more.” She didn’t want to miss her chance if he was interested in more with her. “Either way, I just want to know where we stand and whether this all about Mrs. C and Gran?”
Riley didn’t stop dancing as he contemplated what she asked. He’d been quicker to talk today, but now he was taking his sweet time. When he finally spoke, Abby prepared herself for the worst.
“Abby, I honestly don’t know. I like you, but I don’t want you to take it the wrong way. By that, I mean I honestly don’t know if I can be friends with you, let alone anything more.”
No friends with benefits or even just benefits. That was too bad when his body felt like a magnificent mountain under her arms that she wanted to climb.
“Okay. So this week let’s just consider ourselves on friend trial.”
“Friend trial?”
She nodded. “Yes. We will see how good we are together as friends and if at the end of the week we are still interested in a friendship then we will pursue it. We will have absolutely no sexual contact, but of course I can’t guarantee I won’t tease you for it. But I will never expect it. Friend trial.”
He didn’t respond right away, seemingly thinking it over.
What was there to think about? It was a great idea. This gave them the chance to relax without being conscious of wanting to bang the other one and if that the end of the week one of them wasn’t interested in a friendship, it was over. This was perfect.
“Commencing friend trial,” he said and Abby didn’t realize how exciting a friend trial could be.
AFTER THEY CALLED IT a night, Abby slept for a whole of three hours before she suddenly awoke.
For a brief second she could have sworn she’d heard Gran’s sweet voice. She sat up and listened. But she wasn’t there and Abby was under a silky soft sheet in an oversized king bed of the hotel. Alone. And hungry.
Abby threw the covers back and slipped into a pair of jersey shorts, pulling the hem of her tank over top.
The suite was silent. No sound of Riley.
Did he snore? Was he sleeping?
Unfortunately his couch faced away from her as she crept across the open space to the kitchen where she left snacks.
A plate of munchies and a bottle of water later and she tiptoed back toward the bedroom. But curiosity got the best of her.
Maybe it was her nosey personality, but mostly it was because she was intrigued with the little bit of humanity Riley had shown today. She was curious what type of man he really was...behind the mask and under the cape.
Biting her lower lip, Abby peeked over the back of the couch. Riley was lying on his back. One hand under his head, the other over his middle...his naked middle. The blanket was only pulled up the waist of his black pants then left his shirtless torso uncovered.
He was gorgeous.
She’d already known he was gorgeous. His long hair and beard− that she would love to stroke−didn’t make him look grubby like it might on others. Riley kept his facial hair groomed and most often when his wavy thick hair wasn’t spilling down his shoulders it was in a bun. A man bun. Abby loved it.
But right now, it was apparent this man worked out. Is that what he did in his spare time?
The tiny light that sprayed through the window ran across his tight muscle physique. Amazing.
Friend trial. That was beginning to sound like the worst idea ever.
Abby continued her journey to the bedroom thinking about Gran, but also thinking about what tomorrow would bring. All her sisters together, a little on the crazy side, with Izzy and Riley...this could lead to some interesting moments.
Chapter Nine
BY MIDWEEK EVERYONE had grown restless and a case of cabin fever had taken over.
It had been an active few days. On top of her sisters arriving at the hotel, Marc also showed up with Izzy’s Uncle Carl for a night.
Marc and Kate had disappeared together one morning and gotten themselves stranded at a cabin. Uh huh. Stranded...that was convincing.
Abby had to admit, she enjoyed experiencing the relaxed side of Kate the short time after Marc arrived. Unfortunately, the time spent in the cabin between old flames was short lived. Kate returned the next morning bringing forth a whole new side of herself that Abby had ever seen: a wild side.
An amused smile stole across Abby’s lips at the thought of Kate being wild, just as Kate went strutting by wearing her black one-piece bathing suit designed with purposefully missing material along the sides and exposing Kate’s curvy waist.
Unlike the rest of them−and most of the crowd−Kate was headed toward the edge of the beach without a towel wrapped around her body to ward off the below zero temperatures.
This was crazy.
Polar bear dipping in November, up north where they were in the middle of an unforeseen snowstorm was crazy and it was all Kate’s idea. Abby loved it!
“Come on wimps.” Even the tone of her voice was untamed. “Stop standing around. Let’s get front row and make this count.”
Abby laughed.
Izzy took a step back.
“This is your brother’s fault,” Abby told her. “Seems like a little broken heart payback.”
Abby didn’t have to go into details with Izzy about Marc and Kate’s past and the sad truth that Kate left Marc heartbroken like she had left Abby. Now Abby was watching Kate rebel against Marc’s rejection comparable to Abby’s reaction when Kate had left six years ago.
“Marc didn’t act like this when Kate left,” Izzy said. “He was all, I’m going to find her. This is dads fault...which is probably was. Then he just left and didn’t come back until before Dad died this year.”
Izzy pulled her blanket tighter around her body covering the string bikini she wore. Izzy wasn’t a winter person. Abby was surprised Izzy had left the hotel knowing their plan. Even more surprisingly she climbed out of the car when they arrived. Not surprisingly she’d dragged a blanket with her instead of a towel.
It was freezing outside.
Abby shivered under only a thin terry cloth towel from the hotel.
“I like her better this way. She’s way more fun,” Izzy said.
They watched Kate grab Peyton and Sydney’s hands and drag them to the front row at the edge of the beach.
Begin polar bear dip anytime. I am freezing.
Abby recognized, from mastering the technique herself, that Kate’s attitude change was only a front she was using to mask her pain. How come her other sisters weren’t aware?
Izzy groaned unhappily and gave her notice for their afternoon activity. “That’s it for me. This is the stupidest idea ever. Your sister might be more fun but this idea sucks! I’m out.” She didn’t wait for Abby’s reply and turned quickly running back to the car, just as Riley stepped beside Abby.
Abby glanced up at him. He was wearing nothing more than his swim shorts. No towel. No blanket. Just his swim shorts hugging low on his abdomen.
It was hard to pass by his gym abs or weight lifting arms and make it to his dark eyes, but she did it...eventually.
He angled a disapproving look for her obvious gawking. Could he blame her? He was hot. Like H. O. T. Hot.
Watching him at night was nothing compared to his stripped down body at the indoor pool or like today practically naked under a hazy sky. And she couldn’t even think about when he was stretched out sweltering droplets down his firm abs in the sauna. Ripping her eyes away was next to impossible.
But spending intimidate time with him this week was helping her to uncovering more about him than just his mysterious eyes and exquisite physique. In the past few days he’d unveiled that Riley Boyd was more than a pretty, expressionless face. While he unwound in her presence, mostly the times when they were alone in the hotel, Abby also found herself loosening up in the same moments. She’d never had the opportunity judge him from any more than the outer layers he exposed and Abby discovered she didn’t want Riley to think her intentions with him were solely based on his appealing appearance. She wanted more than that from him. What the more was, she didn’t know, but she didn’t want to scare him off because he thought she was a horny, sex-driven woman.
Friend trial. Friend trial operation back in action.
“I like your tats,” she said. It wasn’t a lie. Riley had incredible tribal tattoos up his arms, across his chest and down his back.
Riley’s eyebrows arched up telling her he didn’t believe her, but he said no more and instead nodded toward her sisters.
“Ready?” he asked.
He talked more too, which wasn’t difficult coming from a simple yes or no vocabulary.
He talked the most when they worked out at the gym every morning. He helped her set her weights and counted her pumps. Abby loved to run and didn’t understand the weight training he pounded away at, but she enjoyed it...until hours later when her arms felt like rubber and her legs could barely keep her standing. That first workout taught her not to aim to impress.
When they were out with the group, Riley was quiet. He wasn’t rude or mean to anyone, but he sat back observing and listening rather than talking. Jake was the same way, so there was no judgement from her sisters...okay...there might be a little judgement.
Abby pumped her fists in the air. “Hell yes I am,” she answered him.
Her eyes fell on the lake. Damn, that water looks cold.
They pushed through the eager quivering crowd.
“We are going to regret this,” Sydney was saying as they arrived beside her sisters.
“Regret is a heavy load to carry. Don’t regret the small stuff,” Kate said. The look her sisters shared told Abby they were fully aware of Kate’s transformed outlook.
“I’m just here for the guys,” Peyton said, eyeing up the crowd and landing on Riley.
Abby didn’t like that. Nor did she like the appreciative look across her sisters face. Peyton and Abby had always bantered playfully, like siblings should, but right now Peyton was crossing a line.
Abby stepped into her sister’s vision. “Not your eye candy,” she said, surprised how possessive she sounded.
Peyton’s eyes creased together. “Riley? Or the guy standing behind him...” Peyton leaned toward Abby and whispered, “...The one I’m actually checking out. I don’t steal a sister’s man candy.” Peyton kissed Abby’s cheek before pulling away and changing the topic with a hoot of encouragement for the polar ice dive, leaving Abby with her back to Riley and feeling his judging eyes burning through her.
How could being friends be this difficult? Why did the desire between them keeping popping into the platonic relationship they were trying to form?
It was irritating.
Maybe this was why a man and a woman couldn’t be friends.
Did she really believe that?
She hoped not because Riley wanted no more than a friendship and if that was all he offered, than that was all she wanted. Abby wasn’t even sure how to be friends with a guy like Riley. Friends with Marc and Jake were easy because, like Peyton said, they didn’t steal another sister’s eye candy. Besides, they’d been around so long that Abby thought of them more as brothers. They’d taken so many steps forward to remain platonic and now this was double that many times back.
What was Riley thinking right now? He was probably already running back to the car.
The announcer came over the speaker and started pumping up the crowd. Their quivers about the weather turned into cheers to dive into the water.
Thank goodness her feet were ready to follow Izzy into the warmth...or out of Riley’s sight.
Abby slowly turned to Riley hoping to find his attention on the entertainment.
It wasn’t.
His eyes didn’t drift down her body like she had his, nor did they seductively tease. Nope. They silently told her that he wasn’t her man candy. So, he’d perfected platonic, while she struggled.
Abby did what she knew best to defuse a situation: she put her guard back up. Carefree with humor she said, “Not my eye candy either.” She winked at him before turning around giving her attention to the announcer. She blew out a lungful of air she’d been holding.
Talk about making it awkward.
That was the last time she checked him out. The last time she showed her hunger for him.
Who was she kidding?
It wouldn’t be the last, but it would be the last time she sounded jealous or possessive, no matter who gave him attention. Riley wasn’t hers. Platonic. Platonic.
The buzzer sounded and the eager crowd sprinted into the ice cold water.
Abby needed a cool down, but as the chilly water rose up her legs she decided there could be much better ways. The water was beyond freezing.
Squealing and screams turned to laughter and shouting invaded the beach as the participants ran in, out, or lingered for the required time.
The water washed away her current reflections and she found herself laughing. It seemed the polar bear dip had the same effect on Riley. For the first time ever, he laughed.
&nb
sp; The deep rumble intensified her desire to stick to the friend trial plan. Was this week helping him to overcome the demons he was fighting? Was this what it felt like to be his friend? If so, then Abby was at the front of the line with a Riley ticket.
Chapter Ten
LIKE CLOCKWORK, AT three in the morning, Riley heard the bedroom door open and Abby’s feet scamper softly across the floor to the kitchen. The cupboard and fridge doors opened, followed by tussling around and soon enough he heard her stop above him. She was eating something crunchy and he waited for her to finish before saying, “I thought we were past the staring.”
At the sound of his voice cutting into the silence he heard Abby jump and scream.
“Riley!” She reached over and slapped his bare chest. He tried not to notice how warm her palm felt against him. He’d been spending the week confirming he wanted no more than a friendship...if that...so he couldn’t let her know that just her touch ignited desire throughout his body.
Riley caught her hand.
He was getting slapped for stating the obvious, she was the stalker.
Opening his eyes, he found her balancing on the back of the couch and bent over him sending him a glare. Glaring at him!
“You scared the hell out of me, you jerk,” she shrieked in her feisty and teasing Abby way.
“You don’t sleep,” he said. “This is the third night you’ve a crept over here and watched me.”
“Get over yourself,” she said trying to yank her hand away. No doubt to run away and hide without giving a reason why the early morning hours stole her sleep.
“What’s wrong with you?” he asked.
Her tiny button nose squished all up. It was adorable. “Let go of my hand.”
“Come sit with me.”
“Why?”
Did this woman ever just do what someone said without questioning them? “Come sit with me and I will let go of your hand.”
They played a game of who was going to obey who and quite honestly Riley wouldn’t have been surprised if he lost. Abby didn’t take orders. But she said okay so he took her word and let her go.
