by Maisey Yates
She nodded thoughtfully. “That makes sense. But it doesn’t have to. Catering to the tourism industry isn’t about changing it, it’s about highlighting all of the wonderful assets. It’s about making sure that other people know why we love this place. And that supports everyone who lives here.”
She wrinkled her brow. “It’s interesting, and I never really thought about it before. My dad does bring a lot of people into Copper Ridge when they come to look at horses for purchase, or for possible studs for breeding. But it’s a certain type of person. It doesn’t necessarily benefit every business at every level. But if broader tourism becomes more of a thing then we’ll have people with all budgets visiting town. And the really great thing about that is it opens up the opportunity to have all different kinds of businesses see an increase in their profits. Your bar will have more visitors, the little crab shack down the street will have more visitors. And your new brewery will be popular, too. It’s all about having variety.”
“You really are kind of something,” Ace said, marveling at her.
Her cheeks turned pink and he tried not to analyze the warm feeling that created in his gut.
There was a lot more to Sierra than he had originally imagined. Yes, he had known that she had some kind of a degree, and that she was theoretically not stupid. Still, so much of him had dismissed the knowledge. Thinking that because her education had come from her father’s bank account, that her first job had come from her connection to him, it didn’t really count for much. But he could see that Sierra had a good head on her shoulders in her own right.
He was even sure that he wasn’t just being mentally charitable to her because they’d had sex. That was how convincing her little speech had been. He felt a little more like a tool, though. Because obviously all of his bad feelings about her were completely unfair. They were based on his own issues.
He had superimposed the face of another woman onto her from the moment she had walked in. Putting all of his negative feelings for Denise, and for the dissolution of their marriage, on to Sierra, just because they had a common background.
He was a dick. And he’d allowed all of that pent-up frustration to turn into some kind of weird sexual tension, which he had acted on when she had been pretty vulnerable.
He owed her an apology.
He remembered when she’d first walked into the bar asking for a job, and how he’d embarrassed her by forcing out an I’m sorry. He was a dick, but he’d be damned if he was so big a dick he couldn’t admit when he’d done wrong.
Denise had beaten a hell of a lot of his goodness out of him. Had squeezed his money and his morals right out along with the rest. But there was something good left. He was sure.
“You’re doing a really great job of ignoring everything that happened between us last night,” he said, “and believe me, a huge part of me would like to keep on ignoring it. But I feel like I owe you an apology.”
She ducked her head, but not before he could see that her cheeks were bright red. “For what? The screaming orgasms?”
“Yeah.” His throat felt tight, his skin prickly and hot beneath the surface.
“Why? I think we both got everything out of it that we wanted.”
“I’ve just been kind of an asshole to you. Let’s not pretend otherwise.”
She blinked, crossing her arms. “I wasn’t going to argue.”
“Well, good. Don’t argue. I haven’t been nice to you. I’m going to be honest and say that I really only helped you because of Jack Monaghan. He promised to invest in my brewery if I helped you out and I agreed. But I didn’t really want you here, and I treated you like I wanted you gone. That was unacceptable. You’ve done good work. You helped me out. And I have a feeling that the way I treated you kind of contributed to last night’s explosion.”
She frowned. “Well, I guess that could be true. It was a lot of...fireworks. And feelings.”
“Right.”
She cleared her throat again. “It kind of makes sense that it happened. Just kind of built up so much that it had to...go somewhere.”
“Right.”
For some reason, it was all he could really think to say. Probably because in the middle of him trying to be contrite about what happened, he kept seeing flashes of what had passed between them last night, and it was scrambling his brain. And making him hard. All over again.
It was difficult to learn from mistakes when the result of the mistake had been so momentarily rewarding.
“So, I think we can both agree that it shouldn’t happen again,” he said, immediately wanting to punch his own face for saying it.
His cock didn’t agree that it shouldn’t happen again. His cock thought it should happen again right now. And then again. And again thereafter. It had been the best sex of his life. Mind-blowing, teeth-busting, backbreaking sex. And he was telling her it had been a onetime thing.
Why the hell had his conscience shown up to the party now?
He hated that bastard.
“I agree,” she said, her words landing hard and solid down in his gut.
“Great. We’re on the same page.”
“We are. That’s good.”
“Really good.”
“I don’t see any reason we can’t act normal around each other. Or maybe we shouldn’t act normal. Normal for the two of us is kind of mean. Maybe we should act like we’re just getting to know each other now.”
He found himself nodding, even though he wasn’t sure he agreed. Then he extended his hand, trying not to feel foolish. “I think that’s a great idea,” he said. “I’m Ace Thompson. I’m happy to have you working for me.”
His hand was just kind of hanging there. It was such a stupid thing, shaking hands with a woman you’d had sex with. She seemed to think so, too, because she was just looking at him.
But finally, she stuck out her own and curled her fingers around his. “Sierra West. Thank you for hiring me. I will do my very best to do a great job for you.”
It was just a handshake. But it felt like touching lightning. Her soft skin against his was everything he remembered it could be and more. He wanted to strip her clothes off again. To bend down and kiss those sweet lips. To taste her a little more deeply between her legs. But he didn’t do any of that. Instead, he released his hold on her hand and shoved his hands in his pockets, keeping them trapped so that he didn’t get carried away.
“I guess I’d better go finish stocking,” she said.
“Yeah. I appreciate it. And the menu help. And the commentary on tourism and businesses. And I’m being serious. I’m not being ironic.”
She smiled, a genuine smile, the kind he so rarely earned from her. “You’re welcome. I actually find it really interesting. So anything you need. Anything at all, with the business, just let me know.”
“I will.”
She turned, milk crate in her arms, and bounced away from him. They might have started over, but his body remembered everything that had come before.
And she still fucking bounced.
CHAPTER TEN
IN THE THREE WEEKS since Sierra had started over with Ace, things had been a little bit tense, but more or less friendlier than she had thought they could be.
So there was that.
Sure, she lay awake at night imagining what it would be like to have him kiss her again. To have him touch her again, but otherwise, it was fine.
Completely fine. She was fine, they were fine. Everyone was fine. And if she had been avoiding Madison so her sister wouldn’t immediately guess that something was up, it was only because she didn’t really want to talk about it, because she was doing such a good job of forgetting it. So, if Madison wanted details, Sierra doubted she would even be able to recall them.
She was super Zen like that.
But after dodg
ing calls for a few days, and returning texts with sullen, one-word replies, her ability to avoid Madison had come to an end. She’d received a shrill call rightfully scolding her for the avoidance, and avoidance had become much more suspicious than the alternative. So she had agreed to meet her sister at Beaches for a light lunch. Since she wasn’t paying rent or anything, her waitress’s salary was more than enough for her to have a fancy little lunch. She inwardly sighed. That was something she was going to have to deal with eventually. The fact that she was still sponging off of Colton. It wasn’t really going to be independence until she figured that out.
She adjusted her purse on her shoulder and walked into the white two-story building that overlooked the sea. The structure was old, and drafty thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the waves across the street, with ample outdoor seating for days when it didn’t seem like it would drizzle. Today was a little bit drizzly, though Sierra honestly didn’t mind.
The mist and the gray was all a part of the charm of Copper Ridge. As was the way that it mixed in with the deep green of the trees and swirled around the base of the mountains as they rose above, their sharp peaks touching the cloudy sky.
She liked the way the air smelled when it was like this. The way the ocean seemed to float up and mix with the breeze, settling over her skin.
She could easily understand why not everyone could live in a place that had so many moments of gray. But there was something about it that touched her soul.
She let those calming thoughts wash through her as she walked deeper into the restaurant and started scanning the tables for Madison.
Thinking about Ace right before she sat down with Madison was a recipe for insanity. So, she wasn’t going to think of him. She was going to think of mist, and the sea, and the salmon salad she was about to eat.
Salmon salad was a very happy thought. She would probably get clam chowder to go with it.
Yet more happy thoughts.
She saw her sister sitting at a table in the middle of the room. She was scanning the room, looking for Sierra. There was something strangely heartwarming about that.
“Hey,” Madison said, “I was starting to think that you were dead, or avoiding me. Or avoiding me by being dead.”
“Neither one,” Sierra said, sitting in the chair across from Madison and tapping the front of her menu. “I’ve just been really busy. I mean, I guess it really changes things when you don’t work in the same place as your sister anymore.”
“Yes, we did used to be on the same campus, so to speak.”
“How are...things?”
“I have a student that I would like to do bodily harm to. She does not know how to handle her horse, and she doesn’t seem interested in learning. She’s going to give that animal bad habits, and then punish her for them. I’m not super thrilled. I might have to drop her.”
“Oh, sorry, Maddy, that’s rough.” Madison took her dressage training very seriously, and she was intense about the treatment and care of the animals she came into contact with. It was a much easier subject for Sierra than all of the stuff happening in her world, and her sister was passionate about it.
Madison lifted her shoulder. “I don’t really mind being the bad guy. I’m kind of past caring whether or not people like me.”
Sierra knew that wasn’t true, but she appreciated that her sister firmly believed it. She also knew that Madison was a lot more sensitive than she let on.
“And... Everything else?”
“Mom is going to give herself some kind of medical event trying to keep track of the details for Colton and Natalie’s wedding.”
“They have months until the big event. And isn’t Natalie handling most of that?” This was just giving her another reason to feel irritated at her future sister-in-law.
“She is. Trust me. Natalie is a lot of things, but able to let go of details is not one of them. So she’s killing herself trying to figure out all of the minutia for the event, which I am convinced is a Cirque du Soleil performance, and not a wedding. Mom is going crazy trying to think of things that Natalie hasn’t thought of, even though there aren’t any things. So she’s adding things.”
“What?”
“She was asking me how much I thought it would be to get ahold of some live doves.”
“Please tell me she was joking.”
“Not joking, but under the influence of Valium.”
Sierra’s stomach sank. “So she’s...about the same.”
“Yeah. Honestly, I think she just blocks out Dad’s bad behavior. I think she’s been doing it for years. I don’t really know if she ever believed he was faithful. I don’t know if she ever thought that she had a perfect marriage. I just think she’s very good at pretending the problems aren’t there. I think she excels at putting her head in the sand and keeping things the way that she wants. I mean, it’s kind of strange. To be able to believe firmly that you have the life you want even when you don’t.”
“Sure, but a lot of us don’t want to live in Narnia. We want to live in the real world.”
“I don’t know. I would take Narnia. Maybe I could get myself a castle.”
“You would have to fight in battles.”
Madison laughed and lifted her glass of water to her lips. “I’ve already fought a few.”
The server came by and took their order—they both got the same thing—and after that they fell into easier conversation, avoiding talking about the state of their family. They kept it to celebrity gossip and whether or not they thought neon nail polish was a trend that had any staying power.
“So how are things going with your boss?” Madison asked just as Sierra was taking one of her last bites of salad.
“Fine,” she said, which wasn’t really a lie. But she had a feeling she looked like she was lying. If only because she was holding back a wealth of information.
“Uh-huh. Is it just me, or is he really hot?”
Sierra froze. Full-on, deer-in-the-headlights froze. “Yeah, sure, he’s hot. If you like older, cranky men.”
“I don’t,” Madison said. “Anymore.”
“I know. So why do you think I do?”
“I didn’t say you like him, I didn’t say I liked him, I just think he’s hot. There are two different things at play here.”
“Yes, then. He is,” Sierra conceded.
“But he’s cranky?”
Sierra let out a harsh breath and put her fork down. “He’s not really. I mean, he can be. He was. But he’s better now.”
“He was cranky with you?” Madison was leading the conversation. Sierra could sense it. But she didn’t know how not to be led. The only option was avoidance and that would be suspicious, too. “Surprising. I’ve always heard he was...uh...good with women.”
She waved a hand. “It has something to do with his ex-wife. I guess I remind him of her, lucky me.”
Madison frowned. “That’s dodgy.”
“Yeah.” Of course, none of that would have been a problem if they weren’t also attracted to each other, but she wasn’t going to say anything to Madison about that.
“But he’s been nicer to you lately?”
Had he been nice? He’d been more than nice. She thought of how he’d touched her. How he’d kissed her. Madison’s words brought their late night in the bar back into hot, sweaty focus in Sierra’s mind. “Yeah,” she said.
Dammit. She was bright red.
Madison’s eyes narrowed. “This is why you’re avoiding me, isn’t it?”
“No,” Sierra said, her face turning even redder. She could tell she was glowing, because her cheeks were so hot she was sure she was radiating warmth like a furnace. Not only that, she could feel a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. She was the world’s worst liar. For some reason, every time she lied it made her
grin, a kind of borderline grimace that was blatant advertisement of the fact that she was uncomfortable.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re a liar. You are a liar who lies,” Madison said. “You’re the color of that cherry tomato you left on your plate, and you look like you want to slide underneath the table.”
“How do you do this?” Sierra asked. “I didn’t say anything. It was just an innocuous conversation.”
“I’m your older sister. I’m magic. Evil magic.”
“You’re terrible. And inconvenient.”
“You’re not the first person to say that to me. And I’m unrepentant. Tell me your sexual shame.”
“I don’t... I don’t have sexual shame.”
Madison let out an exasperated sigh. “Do I have to drag this from you piece by piece or are you going to come clean?”
“If I make you drag it from me will you get bored?”
“No. There is zero percent chance of me getting bored. This is the most interesting thing I’ve had to focus on for weeks. I haven’t had you to hang out with or talk to, there are mind-numbing wedding incidents happening all around me, and I don’t have a love life of my own. So. There is no chance that I will be bored. I will needle you until you break. And when I break you, I will break you into the tiniest pieces imaginable.”
“Fine. There’s a little something.”
“Little?” Madison asked, arching a brow. “That doesn’t sound very promising.”
“That wasn’t little. I meant the...that was big. I don’t... Something happened and it was good.”
“I knew it,” Madison all but crowed. “Tell me now.”
Sierra frowned. “You can ask nicely.”
“I’m not going to. I don’t care for your delicate sensibilities, or niceties. I care for details.”
“We might have...” Sierra let out a harsh breath. “We had sex.”
Madison slapped a hand on the table. “I knew it.”
“How?”
“I have a sense for these things. You’ve been avoiding me. And you don’t do that. So, I knew there was something you didn’t want me to know.”
