by Liz Isaacson
Colton searched her face, not quite lining up all the dots yet. “Okay,” he said, expecting more.
She opened her mouth, but words didn’t come out. She took in another lungful of air and pushed it out. She tried again, adding, “I’m willing to wait until you’re in the same place as me, so we can move forward together.”
Colton’s hands stung from the cold, and they started to shake. He couldn’t think.
“That’s all,” she said. “That’s all I have to give you. Time. If, in the future, you just can’t get to the place where I am, and we can’t take the next step together, so be it. But I’d like to see if we can try, and I’m hoping you’d like that too.”
Colton absolutely did want that. He found himself nodding, his voice suddenly on vacation.
“Yes?” Annie asked. “You want that too?”
“Yes,” he said, his voice almost a croak. “Yes, I want that too.” He stepped into her again, easily slipping his arms around her waist. “I’m sorry I said so many hurtful things to you.”
She closed her eyes and laid her forehead against his chest. “You didn’t.”
“I’ve felt bad for days, and you didn’t text, and I thought I’d messed everything up.”
“I’m the one who did that,” Annie said. “And I’ve been so mad at myself, and so embarrassed, and I didn’t know what to do.”
“So you had Eden drive you here and drop you off?” Colton actually looked over his shoulder. “Did she really leave?”
“She really did.” Annie lifted her head and looked back at him. “So I kind of need a ride home.” She smiled, the gesture starting out small and timid and growing over the next few seconds.
“I think I can give you one,” he said, grinning back at her. “But we’re having a family party for New Year’s, so I hope you don’t need to be home for a few days. I think Wes will kill me if I miss it.”
“I’m in no hurry,” she said coolly. “In fact, that’s my new motto.”
Colton blinked and then started laughing, relieved when she giggled with him. “I’ve missed you,” he said, sighing as he brought her flush against him again.
“Will you come to Coral Canyon?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said, his mind working again, thank goodness. “I have things here I have to do with HMC. But as of February seventh, I’m unemployed, with nothing to do.”
“I can put you to work,” she teased, and Colton chuckled.
“I’m looking forward to some time off,” he said.
“Yeah, right,” Annie said, pulling back and gazing up at him again. “I seem to remember someone telling me that a man has to have something good to fill his time with.”
“Really?” Colton asked. “Whoever said that must be really smart.”
Annie laughed, tipping her head back and lighting Colton’s soul with joy. He slid his hand along her neck, and she quieted instantly.
“Your hands are cold,” she murmured.
“I need you to warm me up.” He leaned down to kiss her, and hallelujah, she met him halfway. Colton could kiss Annie forever, and he’d never been happier for a pop-in visit than he was right now.
He pulled away after several seconds, and said, “So, do you want to meet my family?”
“Oh, I’ve met some of them,” she said, and Colton’s heart stopped again.
“You did?”
“I went to the door,” she said. “Your SUV is here.”
“Oh, right,” he said. “How long have you been here?”
“About fifteen minutes. I saw two brothers go in as I came out, so I haven’t really met them. But I met your mom and dad, your grandmother, and a brother named Ames. They all seem very nice. Lovely.”
Colton scoffed, wishing he’d been able to introduce Annie to his parents. “Ames is going to be thrilled when I tell him you said he was lovely.”
“He was nice,” Annie said, giggling.
“Was he wearing the leather jacket?”
“Yes.”
Colton rolled his eyes. “He never takes it off. Thinks he’s some kind of motorcycle cowboy.”
“He did have a cowboy hat on too,” Annie said, stepping with him as he led her toward the house.
“Wait until you meet Cy,” he said, going up the stairs.
“When will he be here?”
“Tomorrow,” Colton said. “So you have some time to acclimate to everyone. Although, you came from the Whittakers, and there are a million of them. There will be eight of us total. You make nine.”
“Nine is nothing.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” he said as he opened the front door.
“I did almost leave when Ames asked me to submit to a background check.”
Colton froze. “You’re lying. Please tell me he didn’t say that.”
“He did.” Annie looked into the house. “Is that normal?”
“For Ames, yes. For normal humans, no.” Colton would have words with his younger brother later, that was for sure. “Sorry about that. I hope you said no.”
“Oh, your grandmother swooped in and said, ‘don’t ask her that. She’s not a criminal.’”
“Thank goodness for Gramma,” Colton said, his nerves vibrating through him. “Here we go.”
He took her down the hall, and all conversation stalled mid-sentence. “Guys,” he said, pulling his courage close. “This is my girlfriend, Annie Pruitt. Annie, this is my family. I think you’ve met my mom and dad, Chris and Beverly.”
“Bev,” Annie said. “She told me to call her Bev.”
Colton watched his mother practically melt, and he had to look away from her before he started laughing. “You’ve met my grandmother, Opal. And one of the very obnoxious twins, Ames. I think you passed my oldest brother, Wes.” Wes raised his hand, thank goodness. “And the next oldest, right above me, Gray.”
“And Gray is Hunter’s father,” Annie said with a smile. Everyone beamed back at her, and Colton experienced a rush of love and gratitude for his family.
“So are you two all good?” his mother asked.
“Yes,” Colton said, squeezing Annie’s hand. “We’re good.”
“Good,” his mom said. “Now come sit by me, Annie, and tell me everything about yourself.”
She laughed, but she did go sit next to his mother on the couch. Colton shot a look at Ames, who didn’t even flinch. He went into the kitchen and got out a couple of water bottles.
“She’s great,” Wes said.
“You haven’t even said two words to her,” Colton said.
“She has a good air about her,” Wes said. Colton paused and watched Annie with his mother, and he couldn’t argue with that.
He felt like the luckiest man on the planet in that moment, and he realized what a blessing he’d been given when Priscilla had left him without marrying him.
“How many different kinds of M&Ms do you have?” Annie asked, surveying the long row of bowls on the kitchen counter. She looked at Colton with wonder in her eyes. “I’ve never even seen this many M&Ms.”
“My dad loves them,” Colton said with a smile. “You know how they’ve been doing all those different flavors? He gets a bunch of them every time they come out with a new one and saves them for New Year’s Eve.” He went down the counter until he got to the coconut ones. “These are my favorite.” He picked up a handful of them and took her several.
She ate them without complaint, but she almost immediately puckered up her lips and shook her head. “No. Those are a no.”
Colton laughed, beyond glad to have her here in Ivory Peaks with him. They’d had a great afternoon together, and she’d even done well with the twins. They currently sat at the kitchen table with cards in their hands, eyeing each other. They liked to dress tough, and Ames currently wore a pair of sunglasses backward on his head, though the sun had set five hours ago. Cy had walked in wearing full leather, with spurs on his motorcycle riding boots. Spurs. Colton had teased him until he’d taken them off, replacing them w
ith real cowboy boots.
Then he’d gone out on the farm with Gray and Hunter to do the afternoon chores, while Wes disappeared down the hall with Dad, and Colton and Annie had visited with Gramma Opal and his mother.
Gramma Opal had gone to bed thirty minutes ago, and they still had ninety minutes until the New Year. Colton wanted his kiss, and he wasn’t going to bed without it.
“We’re getting out the sherbet,” Wes said, coming into the kitchen. “And then we’ll put on the concert before the countdown.” He opened the freezer and started pulling out cartons of sherbet.
“I want lemon,” his mother said, joining them. “Do you like sherbet, Annie?”
“Sure,” she said, watching Wes put more and more cartons on the counter. “Do you have every flavor of that too?”
“Yes,” Colton said. “We don’t know when to stop in the Hammond family.” He picked up the closest container. “This one’s raspberry.”
“Lime,” Wes said. “Lemon. Orange. Raspberry. Pineapple. Piña colada.” He tapped the top of each one as he said it. “Peach and blood orange.” He looked at Annie and Colton. “And you can make a float with it by pouring Sprite over the top.” He turned and pulled out a couple of two-liter bottles of the soda.
“This is incredible,” Annie said. She moved down and picked up the pineapple sherbet. “I love pineapple sherbet. So does my father. This reminds me so much of home.” She beamed at Colton, Wes, and their mother, and said, “I want a float.”
“A float you shall have,” Wes said, getting out cups and spoons and dishing up the pineapple sherbet for Annie and pouring soda over it.
“I want lemon,” Mom said again. “No soda.”
“I’ll take raspberry and lemon,” Colton said.
“Oh, mixing it up,” Annie said. “I like that.”
Colton scooped his own sherbet while Wes served their mother. “Okay,” Wes said. “Let’s put the concert on.”
They all retreated to the living room, and Colton sure did like how close Annie sat to him.
“This is ridiculous,” Cy said a few minutes later, plenty of disgust in his voice. “I’m done.”
Colton caught him tossing his cards on the table and getting up. He filled a massive bowl with at least six scoops of variously flavored sherbets and practically stomped into the living room. “Did he win?” Colton asked.
“He always wins,” Cy said darkly.
Ames took his time at the table, putting the cards back together. He left the sherbet on the counter and came into the room too. He sat by Mom and smiled at her. “Hey, baby,” Mom said, and Ames played right into that, snuggling into her side and smiling at her.
Colton rolled his eyes. He loved the twins, because they were family, but he didn’t understand them. They seemed determined to make sure everyone knew they were present—and different. Colton wondered when they’d outgrow that, as they were thirty-eight-years-old now, and didn’t need to jockey for positions in the family anymore.
Ames was a good cop, though, and he worked with drug dogs and kept the highways coming in and out of the city clean. He had to look like the bad cop, he claimed, or he didn’t inspire the right kind of fear in the criminals he was trying to catch. Colton got that; he did. He just didn’t understand why his brother couldn’t wear a pair of jeans and a T-shirt to the family New Year’s Eve party.
Cy loved motorcycles—both twins did—and he’d taken his inheritance and founded a custom bike shop that provided new motorcycles to veterans returning home from time in the service. They also built custom motorcycles for people who’d lost everything they owned in natural disasters, and he’d started a foundation that granted bucket list items for people suffering from terminal illnesses.
He just liked to look like the big, bad boss. Underneath, his roar was more like a meow.
The concert played on, and Colton kept one eye on Wes as he texted, and texted, and texted. “He must be getting along with Bree,” he murmured to Annie, who looked at him with questions in her eyes.
“He’s got a thing with Bree.” Colton nodded toward his brother.
“Oh, you did say you set them up.”
“Well, kind of. I know it’s still new.” And Colton hoped it would lead somewhere, as Wes hadn’t had a real relationship in a while.
Finally, the countdown began, and Colton squeezed Annie’s hand. He counted backward with everyone else, and when they got to zero, he shouted, “Happy New Year!” with his parents and brothers before turning to Annie.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” he said, grinning at her. He kissed her, hoping and praying this year would hold something amazing for him and Annie. As she broke the kiss with a laugh, a warmth Colton hadn’t felt too often in his life covered his shoulders like a comfy blanket.
And he knew his prayer would be answered.
Chapter Thirty-One
Bree sat on the couch in her cabin, her fingers actually starting to hurt with how much she’d texted Wes that night. He’d called earlier to detail the meeting, and he said everything had gone really well. He expected the board to agree to the transfer, and he should be out of the role of CEO sometime in February.
A pleasant warmth filled the cabin from the roaring fire nearby, but Bree didn’t have the TV playing, and she was all alone. Elise had stayed at the lodge for the countdown, and Bree had walked back to their house by herself. She’d been there for hours, talking with Wes and texting Wes. If there ever was a lull, she entertained herself with a game on her phone, or the Singles Spark app.
She still hadn’t swiped right on anyone, but she got several swipes each day on her own profile.
Wish you were here, Wes said. It’s almost midnight. You don’t have anyone there to kiss, do you?
Bree scoffed, her fingers already flying across the screen. For him being someone she hadn’t met face-to-face yet, she sure was attracted to him. Her smile came instantly when his name popped up on the screen, and her heart beat fast at the thought of kissing him.
“You’re doing it again,” she muttered to herself as she sent him a reassurance that no, she didn’t have anyone here to kiss. All the cowboys I know are married, she sent as an added explanation for why she was alone tonight.
Are you only interested in cowboys?
Bree paused at the question, because she hadn’t really thought about it before. She knew what she liked in a man, sure. And a cowboy hat and a strong moral ethic was definitely part of that. Not only, she said. You aren’t a cowboy? Your brother wears the biggest, brightest cowboy hat I’ve ever seen.
I’m maybe halfway, Wes said. I own a hat, and maybe now that I won’t be in the office every day, I can actually wear it.
She’d spoken to him on the phone several times now, and Bree knew he spoke with more polish than the men in Coral Canyon. She knew he was a CEO. She should’ve been able to put the two together and come up with a businessman, not a cowboy. But maybe he could be both….
Bree liked the idea of that, and she smiled to herself again. Anyone nearby for you to kiss? she asked.
Just Annie and my mom, he said. No danger here.
Who’s the last woman you went out with? Bree studied the question, giving herself a minute to think about sending it. In the end, she did, because she wanted to know. Wes could choose not to answer.
Oh, wow, he said. Let’s see…. He didn’t put a name on the screen, or say how long it had been. Bree waited and waited, and she hadn’t anticipated the question being so difficult.
Moment of Truth, he said, and Bree grinned at the game they’d created between them. Her neck hurt from looking down so much, and she leaned back into the couch and held her phone above her face so she wouldn’t miss a moment of this conversation.
I haven’t been out with anyone in a while.
You haven’t? Why not?
Not interested.
You aren’t interested in dating? Or you haven’t met anyone you were interested in?
MoT:
Bre
e pulled in a breath and held it.
Both.
She let her phone drop to her lap, the four letters burning her eyes. “Both,” she repeated, her voice so loud in the quiet cabin. So Wes hadn’t met anyone he was interested in, and he wasn’t interested in dating.
Then what were they doing?
Her phone buzzed against her leg, but she didn’t lift it to look at the messages. She suddenly felt so tired, and she wanted to go to bed whether she’d welcomed in the New Year or not. Until those texts, she’d anticipated a New Year full of possibilities. Full of excitement for the unknown, for what might happen with Wes.
And now she knew he wasn’t really interested.
Her phone vibrated, and an alarm started to ring. Bree flipped over her phone and silenced the alarm, saying, “Happy New Year,” to herself and the empty cabin surrounding her.
Wes had texted four more times, and Bree couldn’t help reading the short messages.
So no one for a while.
I’m hoping this upcoming year is different.
5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1…
Happy New Year, Bree!
A wave of foolishness rolled over her, and she disliked that she’d jumped to the worst conclusion possible. But her dating history had taught her to do just that, and she needed to learn to slow down a little bit.
Happy New Year, Wes, she sent to him.
Her phone rang, and Bree swiped to answer his call. “Hey,” she said.
“Definitely doesn’t sound like a party there,” he said.
“I told you I was in my house by myself.”
Cheering sounded behind him, and Bree smiled. “I wish I was by myself,” Wes said, almost under his breath. “Give me a sec.” He moved, the noise coming through the line getting louder and then quieter. “Okay, I’m headed to my room.”
“How long will you be at your parents’?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” He exhaled. “I’ll probably go back to the city tomorrow night. Maybe the day after that.”
Bree nodded, not sure what else to say.
“Bree?” Wes asked, and she liked the way he said her name. She wasn’t sure why, only that no one had said it with quite so much care in such a long time.
