by Debbie Mason
“No!” Ty, Autumn, and Adam yelled.
The sound of crunching metal cleared up Sophia’s why-are-they-yelling-at-me mystery. She’d put the gear into Drive, not Reverse. Swearing in Spanish, she corrected her mistake and put the car in Reverse.
“No!”
The teeth-grating sound of metal meeting metal explained why they yelled at her again. Only this time it was more of a ripping-apart sound than a crunching one.
Her door opened, and Adam leaned past her to turn off the engine and grab the keys, his large body pressing her back into the seat. His jacket was cold where it brushed her cheek. He smelled like suede and fir trees.
“Hey, Red,” he said to Autumn in his deep, panty-melting voice, and then he turned his head to look at Sophia.
His blue eyes stood out in his handsome, tanned face. The California sunshine was no doubt responsible for his golden skin and the caramel streaks in his dark brown hair. He worked as a US Marshal in the northern part of the state. She wondered if it was the job or the sun that deepened the lines at the corners of his eyes and the ones that bracketed either side of his mouth. “I see your driving hasn’t improved, Dimples.”
Sophia’s gaze jerked from his mouth to his eyes. He’d stopped calling her Dimples the day Bryce announced their engagement.
Adam straightened to stand by the open car door, and her cheeks warmed like they used to whenever he was near. Even though his big body no longer held her hostage, he made her nervous, and that made her as angry as his dig about her driving. “My driving is not the problem. It’s the road. And you and your monster—”
“It’s great to see you, Adam,” Autumn intervened, then winced. “I mean, the circumstances aren’t great, but it’s really nice to see you. Logan and the kids…” She glanced at Sophia, who stared at her, aghast.
Not only was her BFF fawning over Adam like when they were young and stupid and enamored with his rugged good looks, but the way she mentioned Logan and his children told Sophia everything she needed to know and didn’t want to. Ty hadn’t been exaggerating.
Sophia had ruined her car and her New Year’s Eve for nothing. She didn’t need to see Autumn and Logan in the same room to know their relationship was more than casual. She could just as easily devise a breakup plan at the Penalty Box as she could at the lodge.
At least if they’d gone to the local sports bar, she wouldn’t have to worry about the couple sneaking off somewhere to share a kiss on one of the most romantic nights of the year. And she wouldn’t be mere inches from a man she had hoped never to see again. A man she’d once admired and whose opinion had mattered to her more than most.
Autumn continued. “I mean Calder and Nell will be glad you made it.”
“I know I am, and you should be too, Gloria, because he is so your Joe,” Ty said next to Sophia’s ear. Then he leaned the upper half of his body across the seat to offer his hand to Adam. “Hi. I’m Ty. I’m Red and Dimple’s—”
“Boyfriend!” Sophia blurted in hopes of stopping Ty’s matchmaking before it got started. Then she realized what that sounded like. “Not both of our boyfriend. Just mine. He is my boyfriend.”
No sooner had the words come out of her mouth than she realized she’d wasted the perfect opportunity to throw a monkey wrench in Logan and Autumn’s budding relationship. She shouldn’t have corrected herself. She should have said Ty was Autumn’s boyfriend. Except most people in town knew Ty dated men, not women.
Ty and Autumn stared at her. Adam did too, and in such a way that suggested he also knew Ty was gay.
Ty gave Sophia a hug so exuberant it knocked her faux-fur hat off her head. “Good try, but I’m not letting you ruin this,” he whispered in her ear. Then he lifted his head to look at Adam. “Isn’t she adorable?”
Thankfully, he didn’t give the man a chance to respond. The last thing Sophia wanted was for Ty to hear what Adam thought of her. “She’s trying to protect my feelings by playing my beard. It’s probably that alpha-man vibe you give off,” Ty told Adam. “She’s afraid you might hurt my feelings if you knew I was gay. And trust me, you don’t want to put Gloria between me and a homophobe.”
“She knows me better than that,” Adam said, then frowned. “Who’s Gloria?”
“He did not say Gloria. He said—”
Ty talked over her. “You know, Gloria from Modern Family? Sofía Vergara?”
The corner of Adam’s mouth tipped up. “Yeah, you’re right. There’s a resemblance.”
“Resemblance? They’re twins.” Ty pulled out his phone. “Here, you have to get the full effect.”
Sophia grabbed Ty’s phone before he could pass it to Adam. “He does not have time to watch your silly video.”
“Um, are we just going to sit in the car all night?” Autumn asked.
“Yes. Yes, we are. Why? Did you have somewhere you wanted to go? Someone you wanted to see?”
“Why are you mad at me? It was your idea to go to the lodge for New Year’s Eve.”
“No. It was his idea.” Sophia jerked her thumb at Ty, who tried to free his phone from her fisted grip. She tightened her fingers around the gold metallic case. “But you are the reason he had the idea. You”—she stared down her BFF—“and Logan.”
Autumn’s eyes went wide, and Sophia nodded. “Yes. I know you’ve been sneaking around with him behind my back.”
Autumn turned on Ty, who’d managed to free his phone from Sophia’s fingers. “I told you not to tell—”
Sophia cut off Autumn at the same time as she undid her seat belt in an effort to get the phone back from Ty. “You told him not to tell me, the sister of—”
The voice of Gloria from Modern Family filled the car. “See? Twins, right?” Ty said, holding the phone out of Sophia’s reach.
As she practically climbed over the seat to get the phone from Ty, Adam’s arms went around her from behind. “Okay, guys, I hate to break up your fun, but the tow truck I called is here.” Adam half lifted her from the SUV.
He was exactly like she remembered. Strong, decisive, the first to step forward and take charge of a situation. He’d been the laid-back, even-tempered Dane. He could defuse a bar fight with a single word or a single look. No one messed with him, and no one had been surprised when he’d ended up in law enforcement.
He set her on her feet beside him, opened the door for Ty, and then leaned in to grab Sophia’s white fur hat and purse off the floor. His eyes glinted with amusement as he carefully fitted the hat on her head, his gloved hand brushing her cheek when he tucked away some wayward strands of hair. “You really haven’t changed, have you?” he said, handing her the oversize purse.
It didn’t matter that the words were said lightly and without sarcasm; they felt like an insult. “You do not know me, Adam Dane. You never did.” She turned away, blinking the watery sting from her eyes.
He leaned in to her, his warm, spearmint-scented breath fanning her cheek. “Yeah, I did, Soph. I knew you better than you knew yourself,” he said, and then jogged toward the tow truck, which was at that moment sliding off the road.
Autumn and Ty came to stand beside her in the glow of the emergency lights, the three of them watching Adam take control of the situation.
“Please tell me that man has brothers and at least one of them is gay.”
“Ty, that’s Adam Dane. Logan’s…Logan and Bryce’s brother.”
“Wha-at? Why didn’t you tell me?” He wrapped an arm around Sophia’s shoulders. “I’m sorry. If I’d known who he was, I wouldn’t have teased you or been nice to him. I would have defended you. I’ll do that right now.” He tossed an end of his scarf over his shoulder with a flourish and started off in Adam’s direction.
“No!” Both Sophia and Autumn grabbed on to an arm and reeled him back. Sophia narrowed her eyes at Autumn. “I know why I don’t want him to make a scene. Why don’t you?” As the reason came to her, she gave her head a slow, mournful shake. “It’s already happening, isn’t it? You’re protecting
Logan, not me, not us.”
“Of course not. I love you, Soph.” Autumn reached for her hand and gave it a soft squeeze. “I know you’re hurt I didn’t tell you about Logan and me, and I’m really sorry I kept it from you. It’s just that I knew you’d be upset, and I didn’t know if anything would come of it.”
“Has it? Has anything come of it?” Sophia asked, afraid of the answer but desperate to know.
“Maybe. I’m not sure. It’s complicated. There are children involved, so…” She lifted a shoulder, looking up when someone called her name. A man wearing a beige cowboy hat stuck his head out of the open window of a silver Range Rover that idled on the road to the lodge. The cowboy waved Autumn over. It was Logan Dane.
Autumn nibbled on her bottom lip.
“Go,” Sophia said, feeling optimistic after Autumn’s admission that the children were a complication. To her that sounded like the couple would soon be uncoupling. Besides, there wouldn’t be much they could do tonight with the children around. The party was a family affair.
“You and Ty come too. I’m sure Adam called Logan to get us.” She nodded at Adam, who’d pushed the tow truck out of the snowbank and was now standing off to the side, guiding the driver, who slowly backed toward the accident scene.
“I can’t leave until I know how bad the damage is to my car.” She caught Ty gazing longingly at the Range Rover and sighed. “Go with Autumn.”
“Really? You’re sure?” Before she got yes out of her mouth, he hugged her. “Thanks, ba…bunny.” He grinned. “It’s better than poop, right? And don’t worry. I’ll keep an eye on Autumn and Logan until you get to the lodge. You are coming, aren’t you?”
She glanced from the monster truck eating her bumper to its owner, who’d gotten behind the wheel. “The way my New Year’s Eve has gone so far, I think I’ll go home and read by the fire.”
“Are you crazy?” Ty said, holding up a finger when the Range Rover’s horn blasted. “Have you never heard that what happens to you on New Year’s Eve is a harbinger of your year to come?”
“No, but—” She was going to say she wouldn’t mind spending next year reading by the fire.
Ty cut her off before she had a chance. “I can tell you from personal experience that it’s true. And your night has been Bad with a capital B. The last thing you need or want is to hit repeat for 365 nights next year.” As though she didn’t understand how truly bad her night had been, he listed the high points for her. “Lousy sales, BFFs lying to you, car crashes, and the first man I decide to match you with turns out to be the meanie from your past.”
Since he put it that way…
“Trust me, Gloria. You have to turn this night around, and you have to turn it around fast.”
Chapter Three
Adam glanced at the woman sitting in the passenger seat of his truck talking on her cell phone. He was surprised she’d taken him up on his offer for a ride to the lodge. Sophia made no secret of how she felt about him.
She hadn’t always hated him though. There’d been a time when her dark eyes followed his every move. When he’d walk into a room and she’d welcome him with a smile that lit up her gorgeous face and showed off dimples that made him smile in return. Smiling, teasing, and keeping a protective eye on her had been as far as he’d allowed the mutual attraction he sensed between them to go. She’d been too young, and he hadn’t been ready to settle down.
Back then that was the only future he’d envisioned for Sophia—a house with a white picket fence and kids as beautiful as the girl who’d captured his attention the first time he’d seen her. He’d kept his feelings for her to himself until it was too late to do anything about them.
He’d walked into his grandfather’s living room in the middle of Bryce announcing his engagement to Sophia. Overcome with shock and an anger like he’d never felt before, Adam had lashed out. His inability to control his jealous rage had shaken him. He’d said things he regretted to this day. His relationship with his brother and with Sophia had never been the same. As he’d learned, time healed many things, but some things it made worse.
“Were you able to get a loaner from the body shop?” he asked when she disconnected.
“Yes. Jake takes good care of me.”
“Boyfriend?” Brilliant, Dane. It was none of his damn business who she was dating. It should have been of no interest to him either. She was his brother’s widow. Off-limits to him just like she had always been.
She snorted. “I am too old for a boyfriend. Jake is a friend.”
He wasn’t sure if that meant Jake was her boyfriend or not, but he refused to give in to the temptation to ask. “Thirty-three isn’t old.”
“You say that because you are old.”
He laughed. Classic Sophia. She never did have a filter. Except when she and Bryce were married, he amended. She’d reinvented herself to fit his baby brother’s image of the wife his agent, fans, and his family expected. Adam was happy to see the old Sophia back. “Thirty-eight isn’t old,” he told her.
The irony didn’t escape him. At twenty-three, their five-year age difference had felt insurmountable. The thought annoyed him, and he refocused his attention on the winding road to the lodge instead of on the woman beside him. But his mind wasn’t on board with his plans. The warm, seductive scent of her perfume filled the truck’s cab and his mind with memories. Over the years he’d done his damnedest not to think about her, and now his head was filled with regrets, thoughts of what might have been.
“I thought you were older,” she said.
“Thanks a lot.”
“I meant when we were young. You were always more responsible than us, more serious.”
“You make me sound like an old man. All I did was try to keep you out of trouble. It wasn’t easy.” She stiffened beside him, and he winced. He’d stepped on a land mine. There were so many between them that it was only a matter of time before he did.
He should have gone with his gut and said no when his grandfather and brother insisted he attend the grand reopening of the lodge tonight of all nights. With Autumn dating Logan, the likelihood Sophia would be here had been good. The two women were inseparable.
“Oh, yes, I was the wicked, wild woman who was not good enough for your brother. The woman who would lead him astray.” There was more than anger in her voice; there was hurt too.
“You know what? It’s long past time we got this out in the open.” He pulled to the side of the road and put on his hazards.
“There’s nothing to get out in the open. I know everything you said about me when you dragged Bryce outside the night of our engagement. He told me after you left. But even if he hadn’t, it was obvious how you felt. How your family felt. I’m surprised you didn’t all stand up at the wedding and object.”
Adam clenched and unclenched his fingers on the steering wheel. He’d had no idea Bryce had told her what he’d said that night. Their mother and Logan had reacted as badly, albeit for different reasons. Unlike him, they’d had no problem sharing their opinion with Sophia. His mother had tried to buy her off the next day. Adam had heard about it secondhand. He’d headed back to California the night they got engaged.
“I’m sorry Bryce told you what I said.” Sorrier than she’d ever know. When his brother had taken his own life, it had felt like the ultimate betrayal; this came a close second. At least he’d been able to protect her from learning Bryce’s death hadn’t been an accident.
From the moment his grandfather had called to break the news of Bryce’s fatal accident, Adam had begun searching for answers. It didn’t make sense to him. He couldn’t understand how his brother, a world-class skier, could die on Blue Mountain. A mountain he knew like the back of his hand.
As soon as Adam made it back to Christmas, he headed for the mountain to check out the scene for himself. There’d been no reason for Bryce to be up there after midnight or to crash into a tree. The conditions had been good that night and the runs were clearly marked.
&nb
sp; Some people would also say there’d been no reason for Adam to visit the coroner, an old friend from high school, a few hours later. Though the people who knew him best wouldn’t be surprised at his need for answers, his need for the truth.
The toxicology report confirmed his suspicions: his brother’s blood alcohol was three times over the legal limit, and opioids were found in his system. Still, with no additional evidence and no suicide note, Adam’s old friend the coroner ruled it an accident and agreed to keep the findings from the family as a favor to him. Adam spent the days leading up to the funeral digging into Bryce’s life, uncovering evidence that served to confirm his suspicions.
Afraid Sophia would blame herself for his brother’s suicide, and even if she didn’t, his family might blame her, Adam had kept the truth to himself. It was an easy decision to justify. He was protecting Sophia, his family, and his brother’s memory. He owed him that at least. After Bryce married Sophia, Adam hadn’t been much of a big brother. As a result of his investigation, he’d learned that Bryce had needed him more than he’d ever let on.
It was easier to push back the guilt and regret that accompanied the memories knowing that Bryce had told Sophia what he’d said that night. “I didn’t mean for you to hear what I said. Bryce had no business telling you something he had to know would hurt you. I was angry at him, not you.”
“You said I would make a terrible wife.”
“No. I said you were too young to get married. You both were.”
“You said I was a ski bunny and only wanted him for his money and our marriage would never last.”
Logan had called her a ski bunny. His mother had called her a gold digger. “I did. I said your marriage wouldn’t last.”
“Because I was an attention-seeking party girl who couldn’t be trusted.” Her eyes flashed, and her accent thickened.
