The door clanked open and she automatically called out, “Welcome to Sugar ’n’ Spice.”
A man swaggered in. For a second, Summer’s heart caught. Chance. But then she realized the man was a little taller than Chance, his hair was longer on top, more styled, and his eyes were dark brown instead of the beautiful blue-green she’d come to love on Chance. They could be brothers, though. She shook her head. No, it couldn’t be. Chance’s brother was in North Carolina.
The man approached the desk, smiling at her.
“Can I help you?” she managed to get out, feeling increasingly uncomfortable.
He nodded and kept coming until he was in her personal space. Summer stood and backed around the desk. “I think you can,” he said. His grin broadened, and she noticed he didn’t have Chance’s dimple.
“Are you Byron?” she couldn’t help but ask.
“Yes.” His eyes sparkled. “Did my reputation precede me?”
“A wealthy womanizer?”
His smile faltered for half a second, but then a mischievous gleam came in his eyes. “Aw, I’m wounded. That’s not really what my brother tells his girl about me.”
“I’m not his girl.” She jutted out her chin.
“That’s a pity. If anyone deserves a girl as beautiful as you, it’s Chance.”
“You’re both scum as far as I’m concerned.” Summer tucked her arms across her chest and tilted her head confidently.
“Ouch. What did we do to deserve that?”
“Just being yourselves.” She inhaled and forced a snarky smile. “Forcing my dad to sell his company to the highest bidder, who fired me and stole my designs.”
“I’m unbelievably sorry the deal didn’t go as planned. Sometimes the little people get hurt, but we never intend for that to happen.”
“Thanks. So condescending and dismissive.” She tapped her fingers on her arm. This guy had a skewed sense of right and wrong. “Plus, I love being referred to as ‘the little people.’”
Byron chuckled. “You know I didn’t mean it like that, but I do like your spice. Summer, please. Give my brother another chance. He’s one of the best guys I know, and he really is crazy about you, like old-time romance movies kind of crazy. I flew in last night to make things right, but I couldn’t stand to be around him at the rental house moping anymore.” He laughed easily, like they were sharing a great joke as friends.
Summer didn’t know what to think about any of Byron’s words. Of course his brother would try to defend him, but had Chance really told his brother that he was smitten with Summer?
“I can see by the look in your eyes that you’re considering it.”
Summer stomped from behind the desk and yanked the front door open, her hand trembling on the handle. “Not even for a second. Don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.”
Byron approached her with a gleam in his eye. “You’re feisty. I really do like that, but you’re breaking my brother’s heart and that’s unacceptable.” He rested a hand above her on the doorframe, and it reminded her of Chance doing the same thing. When Chance had done it, she’d wanted a kiss. She just wanted to boot this guy out and never see him again. “You’re going to at least talk to my brother or I’ll convince Marissa that her new toy designer will never work out.”
Summer’s breath caught. “Why would Marissa listen to you?”
“We’ve been friends for years. She trusts me.”
“Her loss,” Summer spit out.
“You know who got you your job.” Byron leaned closer. “So what’s it going to be, Summer? You can have the job and the guy, and we all live happily ever after.” He glanced around the shop. “Or you can keep working as a shop girl.”
Summer bit her cheek to keep from screaming at him. How dare he threaten her?
Byron chuckled and brushed some hair from her cheek. She shivered from his unwanted touch. “I’m not saying you have to marry him, Summer, just give him a chance to talk to you.”
Byron was yanked away from her, spun around, and had a fist in his jaw before Summer could do more than gasp.
“Stay away from her!” Chance yelled, knocking his brother to the ground with a second hard punch.
Summer jumped back, her hand flying to her mouth as the door swung closed. She’d never imagined Chance could look so scary, but at the same time protective of her. It warmed her, even though she didn’t want to experience any good feelings toward this man.
Byron scowled up at him. “Dude, have you lost it?”
Chance glanced over at Summer. His blue-green eyes penetrated into her heart that she thought had cooled of any affection toward him. “I love her.”
Summer’s breath hitched and the world tilted.
“And you’ve ruined every hope I had of being with the right woman for me.” Chance’s voice caught and he cleared his throat, glancing away from Summer. “She’s not one of your empty-brained bimbos, Byron. She is soul mate material.” His broad shoulders heaved from the emotion as he focused on her again.
Summer couldn’t hold his gaze, and no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn’t be his soul mate. She side-stepped away from him.
Byron climbed to his feet and put his arm around Chance. “Hey, I’m sorry. I wasn’t hitting on her. I was trying to help.” He glanced back at Summer for reaffirmation.
“Your version of helping is sorely twisted,” Summer spit out at him.
Byron winced. “Hey, I’m sorry if it didn’t come out right, but you need to listen to Chance. If you had any idea how good of a man my brother is, you wouldn’t hesitate for one second to be with him.”
Chance gave his brother a forced smile. “Thanks.”
They both looked at Summer. She was sorely tempted to at least talk to Chance, especially with those blue-green eyes beseeching her. Instead, she retreated another step. “I’m sorry, but I can’t …” She shook her head. “It’s just too hard. You lied to me.” She tripped as she tried to rush away while moving backward, hitting the wood floor with a thump and barely catching herself with her hands. Her palms stung, but her pride took a worse hit.
Chance was there before she could stand up. He wrapped an arm around her and helped her to her feet. Summer felt warm all over from his touch and the look in his eyes, but the betrayal over him being the man who’d wrecked her family’s business, her creative outlet, and her lifestyle, and then lying to her about it wasn’t going to abate.
“Please, Summer,” he whispered roughly, pulling her in closer. “Please forgive me.”
Summer clung to him for a few wonderful seconds, but then a sob worked its way up her throat as it all crashed around her again. Why did he have to be Mumford’s Sons? “I can’t.” She ripped from his arms and ran to the storage room, locking the door behind her. Leaning against the metal door, she sank to her rear and let the tears roll.
Byron waited for Chance with the most sympathetic expression he’d ever seen on his brother’s face. He hated it worse than any of the smug and cocky looks he’d become accustomed to throughout the years.
“Sorry, bro.” Byron wrapped an arm around his shoulders again. “Come on. I’ll buy you dinner.”
“Not hungry,” Chance mumbled.
“I know, but it’ll get better, I promise.”
“Like you’ve ever had your heart broken.”
Byron tilted his head and studied him. “I never told you about why Marissa from KJ’s Fun Zone is such a good friend?”
“She broke up with you?”
“The one and only time it’s happened. It hurt.” Byron’s lips tugged down, but almost instantly he seemed to shake it off and his smug expression returned.
“And she’s the only one you stayed friends with?”
“You gotta respect a woman who could reel me in and dump me before I had the chance to end it, right?”
“I guess so.” Chance was miserable. Absolutely. He may never get Summer back. But for some reason it did help that his brother was here by his si
de, especially when he noticed Byron’s jaw swelling. Punching him had helped a lot too.
Chapter Fourteen
Summer fell into her new work and routine quickly. She couldn’t say she was ecstatically happy, but she was fulfilled, and Hudson, Ohio, was a beautiful town with a classic downtown that she enjoyed walking around after work each day. There were lots of trees, but no mountains. She missed the majestic rising mountains of Crested Butte. She missed a whole lot more in Crested Butte, but wouldn’t let herself think about that.
Her phone rang as she left her apartment for her nightly walk downtown. Maybe she’d buy herself a cookie from Great Lakes Baking Company and then go sit in the gazebo on the green and watch people go by. Or maybe a brownie instead.
“Hi, Dad,” she said.
“How’s the new job, sweetheart?”
“I love it.” She strolled slowly along, in no real hurry. She didn’t have any friends here or any huge rush for anything. She’d sketched and worked on so many different designs on her laptop over the month she didn’t have a designing job that she’d spent most of her first two weeks just working with the design and production teams to sort through and implement what she already had ready to go.
“I got an interesting call today from my friend, Byron Judd.”
Summer stopped walking in the middle of an intersection. A car honked, and she rushed to the other side of the street, where she leaned against a light pole for support. “Your friend Byron Judd?”
“He told me an interesting tale about my beautiful daughter and his brother. I guess Chance is so heartbroken he’s making Byron nuts.” Her dad chuckled.
“This is not some funny story, Dad. Mumford’s Sons ruined your company and my lifestyle. How can you think of either of those two as friends?”
“Sweetheart, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes, I do.” She unsteadily walked to a bench and sank into it.
“You weren’t even in the country when the deal went down,” he reminded her.
“All I know is one day I have my dream job designing toys from my laptop, making fabulous money, and traveling the world. Then you partner up with those two jokers and my life is in the crapper.”
“They helped me sell my business for much more than I could’ve dreamed. Usually companies like the one owned by those ‘two jokers’ buy companies outright, take them apart, and sell them. But Byron and Chance are different. They helped me through the entire process, built my company up, and made it so I sold for twenty million more than I expected to clear, and that’s after their fifteen-million-dollar fee.”
“Fifteen million?” she stuttered out. Chance had said five.
“Because of them I have my dream retirement, and your mother and I can travel to all those spots you’ve told us about.”
“What about Jake?”
“Byron is the one who recommended Jake to iFrogz. He’s doing great. He wouldn’t have wanted to keep working for the new owner of Magical Dreams, and neither would you.”
“Yeah, but they stole my designs.” My Mini-Me Dolls. She’d loved those stinking dolls.
“That was unfortunate. Chance wanted to go after them, but there wasn’t a lot of legal recourse. We did sign over the designs as part of the deal with Lillywhite.”
“I know.” She sighed.
“Can I be honest with you, sweetheart?”
She wanted to say no, but she muttered, “I guess.”
“You’re one of the best toy designers I’ve ever worked with. Lillywhite would’ve been smart to keep you on staff, but I was relieved when he let you go. You would’ve butted heads with him about not being American-made, not using natural products, overcharging for the toys. Most of his philosophies and practices would’ve rubbed you wrong. You know what I’m saying is true.”
Summer didn’t respond because he was right. Mr. Lillywhite wasn’t her idea of an ideal boss, and she was very grateful to be with Marissa and KJ’s Fun Zone now.
“I knew that you would land on your feet, and I was glad you had some savings to give you time to get there,” her dad continued.
She winced at that. She’d burned through money quickly traveling the world, but her dad didn’t know she hadn’t ever looked ahead. She was saving some now and had negotiated royalties on her toys as well. It was comforting to know she wouldn’t have to work as a clerk again, even if she lost her job.
“You always have some new idea, so I knew you could be successful on your own,” her dad said. “But I also knew it was time for you to stop living the privileged wanderer life and find a way to settle down. Maybe this is the wakeup call you needed.”
Summer’s temper flared. “I’m an adult, Dad. I think I can decide when I’m ready to grow roots.”
“That’s true, but I love you, sweetheart, and sometimes when you love someone you have to realize when it’s time for them to go through something hard, no matter how difficult it is to watch.”
Summer sucked in a breath. She didn’t like her dad’s words, but she could recognize the truth in them, all of them. She hadn’t been around when the buyout had happened, so how did she know that Chance and Byron were some money-suckers? And though she hadn’t wanted to settle down, she felt like she’d grown more in the past two months than she had in the years previous, even with all the amazing experiences she’d had. She could be objective enough to realize that she’d never had to be responsible for much. “I love you, Dad.”
“No response to any of this, though?”
“I need some time to process.”
“I understand. I love you too.”
Summer hung up her phone and stared out at the cars crawling along Main Street, not sure if she was growing up or not. A grownup would forgive Chance and be on the next plane to Crested Butte, but she still wasn’t sure how to let all her frustrations go that quickly. She sighed and stood. A cookie and a brownie from the Great Lakes Baking Company were definitely in order tonight.
Chapter Fifteen
Chance waited for Byron to crest the hill. His brother grinned, pedaling past him and whooping as they descended. It was bittersweet to be on a bike ride in the beautiful mountains surrounding Crested Butte and not be with Summer. He thought he’d savored every minute with her, but it wasn’t close to enough. He stared at the few pictures he’d taken of her on his cell phone far too often.
Luckily, Byron had stayed with him the past two weeks and they’d had a good time together, working through projects remotely, mountain biking, and talking like they never had. Byron admitted to him that he’d fallen in love with Marissa Yates, Summer’s new boss, but she’d broken his heart, run from him, and never explained why. It explained why his brother burned through so many women, but Chance had no clue how to help him either get over Marissa or make her give him a chance. Chance was in a worse situation with the woman he loved.
Byron stopped at the top of the next hill. “Hey. I just got a text from Summer’s dad.”
“Excuse me?” Chance was already out of breath from the climb, but now he was hyperventilating. “You’ve been talking to him?”
“Yeah. I called and explained the whole situation.” Byron grinned at him. “Even though you don’t deserve Summer, I figured I should get in the middle of it.”
“And?” Chance wanted to grab him and shake him. He couldn’t handle being teased right now.
“He said he’d talk to her.”
“And the text said …?”
“He talked to her. He thinks there might be a possibility of her softening.”
Chance stared at his brother for a few seconds, then let out a whoop and pedaled down the hill.
“A small possibility,” Byron yelled at him.
“You better keep up or I’m taking the Land Rover and you’re riding all the way back to the house,” Chance called back.
Byron’s loud laughter chased him down the hill. Chance had never been so happy to have a brother.
Chapter Sixteen
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br /> Summer came out of the industrial building of KJ’s Fun Zone and headed for her car. It was a muggy day and she only wanted to go home, put on a swimsuit, and climb into the pool at her apartment complex. She crossed the parking lot, but came up short when she saw a man leaning against her Nissan Altima. Her eyes widened and her heart thundered in her chest.
“Chance?” she whispered. It had been two long weeks since she’d seen him, and he looked even better than her memories. She’d cursed herself many a time for not taking pictures of the two of them on her phone. Luckily, there were some shots of him on Google that had helped satiate her when she got missing him too much. His fault for being so wealthy and good-looking.
He straightened when he saw her, but didn’t come toward her. Summer gritted her teeth. Was he really going to make her cross the distance? She’d gradually forgiven him for his role in her losing her job—it was impossible not to, after what her dad had revealed to her—but he’d still lied to her. If she was honest with herself and reversed the roles, she probably would’ve hidden her identity too. There would’ve been no opportunity to get to know each other otherwise. She could find it in herself to forgive him, but she hadn’t been humble or brave enough to go find him. Now he’d come to her. How should she react?
She steeled her spine and stomped toward the car, preparing herself to deal with him without flinging herself into his arms. Clicking the unlock button, she was twenty feet away and doing everything in her power not to look at him when she heard one of her favorite songs by none other than Mumford & Sons. Should’ve figured he loved them, too, with a business name like that.
Summer’s steps faltered and she focused on Chance. He was singing along to the words, which was kind of dorky and absolutely adorable.
“‘These days of dust,’” he belted out, “‘which we’ve known, will blow away with this new sun.’”
The Daring One: A Billionaire Bride Pact Romance Page 10
