by Hart, Taylor
Nick’s strategy of avoiding a conflict had worked. “The party’s nice, Luke.”
Unspeakable anger flashed in his eyes, but he kept his jaw tight. “Yeah.” A bit of a forced laugh came out. “So what brings you back to Park City?”
Damon smiled, knowing the word he’d purposefully avoided was home. It wasn’t his home. It wasn’t the place he’d been loyal to. That’s for sure.
Damon let out a breath and tried to relax.
Before he could say a word, Nick filled in. “He got on with the fire department here, and he’s living in one of his cabins.”
Luke’s eyes shot to Nick’s, and something passed between them. Damon could only imagine all the crap he’d missed in the last ten years. He was surprised to see something forceful about Nick. Something that said, I’m not giving in on this.
Which made Damon feel stupid. More stupid than he’d felt at the station when he’d gone in after the accident and had frozen up, staring off into space for who knows how long.
It’d been strange.
But the past week, getting back into the groove of just being at the fire station, had done wonders for him.
Yeah, he was a jerk with an attitude. He knew it, and he knew it was the only way he could survive at the moment.
Luke gave Damon an evaluating look. Damon knew he was wondering the same thing Damon was wondering: when would they come to blows? Could he take him? Damon smiled. It always came to blows, and they’d always been pretty well-matched in a fight, but they wouldn’t be now. From the look on Luke’s face, he knew it too. He took a step closer to his brothers so they were the only ones who could hear. “There was unfinished crap with dad, and you spilled it into our laps when you left.” He scowled. “This is not the end of this.”
Then he stepped back and moved on to other people. “Mr. Wilkinson, welcome. So glad you guys came out. You get to meet the staff tonight, and you can ask any question you have about your estate.”
Damon felt all the air go out of him.
Nick picked up his drink and took a swig. “Not too bad, huh?”
Damon picked up his drink and grunted. “Yeah, too bad the tsunami is coming.”
Nick leaned back into the deck. “Naw, I think it’s more of a hurricane. He’ll rise up, crash, try to break everything, and recede. It’ll be fine.”
Damon grunted, unsure of being back in this new Park City world with his brothers. Brothers he truthfully hardly knew anymore. Figuring he had to start somewhere, he asked, “So how’s work?”
Nick relaxed even more. “Had an incident today with some punk kids trying to light some fires in the campgrounds. It would have turned into your problem if we hadn’t been called in.”
“How old were the kids?”
“Aw, I don’t know, fourteen or fifteen. We took ’em back to the station, shook ’em up a bit, and called their parents.”
Damon smiled. “Were they as bad as we were with fire?”
Nick stopped, and a slow smile played at his lips. “Man, we’re lucky we didn’t burn down the whole town.”
Damon smiled widely, thinking about all the times they had messed with fire at the cabins his dad owned. There had been lots of weekends when they stayed up there, especially after their mom died and Dad was so busy. They had campouts and would chase out all the raccoons from beneath the boards and bring up some canned food, and they had always lit fires at night. He thought of the one cabin that had burned.
“That was a crazy night.” Obviously Nick was also thinking of the night the fire department was called.
Damon laughed. “I can still remember Captain Castro’s face when he indentured us to twenty hours of community service cleaning the fire station.” Damon shook his head. “That’s when I got to know him really well.”
Nick nodded. “I know. I was banking on the fact that he’d still like you.”
Damon hadn’t said it since he’d been back, so he finally did. “Thank you.”
Nick stared at his shoes. “You’re welcome.”
“Ladies and gentlemen.” Everyone at the party turned to Luke, who had situated himself at the center of the large, expansive deck. “I want to introduce you to newest addition to Freestone Law. We’re lucky to have her. Please join me in officially welcoming Samantha Worthington.”
Damon’s heart almost stopped as she moved into the light.
All Damon could think about was her red hair. Not the way it was now, straightened to perfection and combed gently around her heart-shaped face. Though it did frame her almond-shaped eyes nicely.
No, he thought of how when it was wet, it began to curl, and how when he’d kissed her, it had smelled like strawberry. Or rather, when she’d kissed him.
Her green eyes swept the audience and landed right on him.
Their eyes held, and he thought he felt surprise and a bit of interest in them, but she looked away and shook a hand before he could tell for sure.
“Dang, she’s pretty.” Nick whispered into his ear. “I call dibs.”
“I’ve already called it, bro.” Damon shot back, surprised at himself.
Then he noticed Luke looked like he might be already calling dibs. He had his hand lightly on her lower back as he guided her to the next group, introducing her and then moving on to another group. Finally, when they had to go past Damon and Nick to get to the next one, ever the politician, Luke kept his face pleasant. “Let me introduce you to my two brothers.” He nodded to Damon and Nick and introduced them. He kept up the act and turned to them. “This is Samantha Worthington. She graduated at the top of her class at DU. We’re putting her in our real estate projects at the moment.” Swiftly, calculatingly, he gestured to Damon. “You’ll be working closely with Damon because he’s back in town, and he’s overseeing the cabin estate we’re redeveloping and getting ready to sell.”
“Sell?” Damon didn’t know what else to say.
Luke clenched his jaw. “Unless you want to take care of them?”
He held his brother’s eye. Luke had made his move, but gave nothing away.
Samantha put her hand out to Damon, and he looked into her eyes, seeing worry. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Freestone.”
Damon took her hand, pretending like the other day hadn’t happened.
When their skin touched, he felt a spark and wondered if it was just in his head.
She gently, carefully pulled back her hand and then shook Nick’s hand. Nick, ever the suave and annoying one, pulled her in closer, a stupid grin on his face. “When you’re tired of taking my brother’s crap, you can find me, and we’ll go out for a good time.”
Luke pushed him back into Damon’s chest and let out a dismissive snort. “Ignore him. He’s an ape.”
Nick laughed, but Luke was already pulling Samantha away.
All Damon wanted to do was talk to her. Which was weird for him. He wanted to check on her foot and ask her why she’d kissed him that day. If he were honest, he wanted nothing more than to kiss her again and feel her in his arms. It’d been a strange thing that had happened to him since that day. He’d been thinking of her constantly. The red hair that looked curly and frizzy. Not this perfect straight hair that looked too put-together. He wanted to find a way to talk to that woman and mess her hair up again. It was ridiculous. And impractical. And wouldn’t be good for either of them.
Nick elbowed him. “Okay, I’ve put you through enough family reunions today. Do you want to hit Pineapple’s?”
Even though he would have leapt at the offer earlier, Damon knew he was glued to where he stood until she left. “Uh, nope, I think I’ll just have a drink and watch the sun set.”
Nick gave him a disbelieving look. “You want to stay at this stuffy party?”
He looked at Luke traipsing all over with her. Then he saw her stumble a bit in the heels she was wearing and shook his head. She was probably ripping open the cut she’d hopefully been taking care of.
“Hello?” Nick snapped in front of his face.
&nb
sp; “I’ll meet you there in an hour.”
Nick still waited.
Finally, Damon looked at him.
Nick leaned into him. “News flash: Luke likes her. The smart thing for you to do would be to leave.”
Damon glared at his brother. “When did you ever know me to do the smart thing?”
Nick laughed. “Catch you later, bro.”
Half an hour later, Damon found himself standing next to the waterfall that led to the hot tub. Man, his brother had done more than fine for himself. Even though he wanted to talk to her, he didn’t want to be a creeper just watching her all night, so he’d decided to distract himself.
He’d done construction part time in Boston. Started doing it to pay the bills and then realized he truly liked creating stuff. Taking a step closer to the hot tub, he rubbed his hand on the rock wall and surmised it had to be custom made. It was nice work.
“Are you gonna jump?”
He heard her voice and knew exactly who it was. Unable to stop himself, he smiled as he turned. The air was immediately charged between them.
She wore a professional, lawyer-like pantsuit, with a pink shirt and a snug jacket that gave her figure all the right curves. He frowned when he got to her feet, seeing the two-inch stiletto heels.
He shook his head and took a swig of water. “You gotta get out of those shoes.”
Shrugging, she crossed her arms. “I’m fine.”
Liking the pride in her eyes and the way she pushed her chin up, he felt that attraction to her again. “I saw that cut. You need to take care of it.”
“Did you bring your suit?” she asked in a flirting tone.
He didn’t say anything. Their eyes stayed locked.
Before he could say anything, she got in his space and was closer to eye level with him than any other woman had ever been before. “Just so we’re clear, there is nothing between us.” Her eyes got wider. “I’ll be working with you on your project, but there’s nothing. Got it?” She pointed back and forth between them.
He thought he might be able to smell that shampoo again, but she had some other scent on too. It was light and lemony. He wondered if she applied it behind her ears in the morning after a shower.
“Did you hear me?”
Knowing he could not get into a relationship at the moment, he brought himself back and focused on the fact that she’d slapped him. “I didn’t deserve the slap, and you know it.” He leaned back onto his heels, giving her space.
Her cheeks reddened, pleasing him immensely.
“I …”
He pushed past her. “I know it didn’t mean anything. That’s why you didn’t have to smack me.” Then he turned back and smiled at her, liking that she was all out of sorts.
She cocked an eyebrow, and a grimace filled her face. “Luke told me you flunked out of Harvard and you might be bitter that he was the top dog around here.”
Ire rose up inside him. It had always amazed Damon that brothers could do that, could say one thing, give one look, and you just wanted to pound them. Luke had clearly done the petty thing. He’d displayed all the family crap in front of a woman. Damon exhaled and shook his head. Luke would pay later. “For one thing, let the record show, counselor, that I didn’t flunk out.” His voice was controlled, but that was the only thing in control at the moment. “I dropped out because I didn’t want to end up some know-it-all jerk that likes to tout around their lawyerly education.”
This made the smirk go off her face.
But he knew he was done too. More than done. Without saying another word, he turned and moved for the inside door that led up the stairs from the hot tub and to the front door.
If things had gone his way, if the stars would have been aligned, he would have been able to slip out of the house without it going badly. But the stars hadn’t aligned, and right before the front door stood Luke.
He was talking with someone, doing his fake political smile and laugh, but when he saw Damon bearing down on him, he told the guy he’d see him later and opened the door before Damon got there. “Night, Damon.”
Damon stopped and sized him up. “You like to go around telling people I flunked out, huh?” His fist clenched, and he wondered if this was the time to teach his younger brother a lesson for running his mouth.
Luke’s nostrils flared, and he shook his head. “Don’t think, big brother, you’re going to come into my home and teach me something. I’ll tell whoever I want, anything I want. Remember, I’m the boss. That’s what happens when you abandon your family.”
They stood in a face-off for a few seconds. Damon had worked so hard the past six months to get back in control of himself, but at every turn he felt himself spiraling. Reigning himself in, he knew he wouldn’t do the thing he wanted to do. Pound Luke’s face. Turning away, he rushed out the door and down the steps. Instead, he would go home and go for another run.
4
She woke with a start, gasping and halfway sitting up. Sam felt the sweat on her forehead, and her heart was racing. This time she’d been going through a jungle, a machete in her hand, but the harder she hit the vines coming up to get her, the faster they grew. She could hear a voice calling to her. It was Zoey. She knew it.
Sam’s mother had told her from a young age she was clairvoyant. It hadn’t really meant much then. She could tell when someone was going to call before the phone rang. She knew when someone was going to knock at the door, and then five minutes later, they would be there. It became abundantly clear she had some special sense when she could always tell where her sisters were. Her mother never had to call them if Sam was around. Sam had also always known exactly where they were in the house. As they got bigger, it was kind of a joke in the family. “Sam, go get your sisters,” her father would say. Never “go find them” because everyone assumed Sam would know. Even if it was after school and one of them had stayed late for something, she just always had a vision of right where they would be.
It had never freaked her out. She had it with her parents, too. She’d had it on that night they hadn’t come home from the concert. The night she forced herself not to think about. The same night they’d taken her youngest sister away from she and Janet.
The social workers had separated them. Then, when she and her sister Janet had been declared emancipated, the courts wouldn’t let Zoey go because she’d only been fifteen.
So they’d kept her in the system, and the people had been horrible.
She could still remember that night—Zoey screaming frantically.
It was the sole reason she’d gone into family law. To make sure it didn’t happen to other children.
Pushing it out of her mind, she pushed the covers off, grabbed her blanket, the one her mother had made her when she was ten, and padded through the cabin.
The mountain air was cool, just the thing for chasing away the heated dreams. She went to the kitchen and poured herself a glass of water then went to the front deck. Even though the cabins were older, this one had been fixed up. The wraparound porch was nice. It was two in the morning, and the night seemed to smother her. But the stars were bright, so she sank into the swing on the porch. Holding her phone, she pressed Zoey’s number.
“What?” Zoey answered too loudly.
“Hey.” A million worrying thoughts went through her head, and just like so many times before, Sam knew where Zoey was.
“Why are you calling me at this hour?”
Even though Zoey had lived with her all through college—not that Zoey had really gone to college—the damage that had been done to Zoey emotionally seemed to never have been fixed. She’d started using drugs during the last year she was in foster care. Sam petitioned to be allowed to take over as guardian, and nine months later it worked, but the old Zoey had been gone. Even now, she wasn’t the same. But she was Zoey.
“Are you high?”
Zoey snorted. “Is that why you called, sister of mine who abandoned me?”
Ouch. Well, she had certainly played the
pity card early. “You know I had to take this job. The bills don’t pay themselves.” Heaven knew Zoey wasn’t paying bills.
“Whatever.”
Right before Sam had left Denver, she talked to Janet and asked if she would help with Zoey, but Janet had a new husband and a new life and she’d been too busy.
Zoey, meanwhile, had insisted on not moving.
“Zoey, are you okay?”
“If you ask me that again, I’m hanging up. I know you probably had one of your dreams. That’s why you called.”
Zoey knew her so well too. Even if she was a screw-up. “Yeah.”
Zoey sighed, and Sam could see her walking into another room at some party and flopping down onto a bed. “Tell me about Park City.”
So what if their sisterly relationship wasn’t perfect? They were sisters, and it was nice to talk to her. “It’s okay.” She stood and moved back to the kitchen where she’d set up her easel and paints.
“Are you going to paint?”
It was like Zoey had read her mind, and Sam smiled. “Why not? I’m awake.”
“Oh, do one of your cool flowers.”
Methodically, Sam opened the paints and then went to the sink for water.
“Talk.” Zoey ordered.
She sighed. “I don’t know what to make of my boss. He put me in real estate projects where I manage his holdings and his partners and make sure all the contracts work.”
“What? I thought you were going to be with moms and babies and all that.”
“I did too.”
“Did you ask him about it?”
“He told me he needed me on this and that it would give me experience.”
“Forget experience. Tell him you want to do your passion.”
If only things were as simple in real life as they were to Zoey.
“I know.”
“But you’re not going to tell him.”
“He told me I would get a chance to get experience doing everything, so I have to be patient, Zoey.” Zoey sighed, and Sam could see her taking a drag on a cig. “Would you please quit smoking pot?”
