“You gave my sister a speeding ticket?” Jase asked, his tone almost unnaturally calm.
“Not exactly,” Cole answered. He’d planned to share with Jase the details of his morning run-in with Sienna but now the words wouldn’t come. As reserved as she pretended to be, he knew Sienna had been humiliated by her cheating ex-boyfriend. He doubted that was information she’d appreciate being used as her calling card in Crimson. “More like a warning.”
Emily raised a brow at Cole as her hand tightened on Jase’s arm. “Is that what this is?”
“I thought you’d want to know she was here,” Cole told his friend. “I got the impression she hadn’t called first.”
“Hardly,” Jase said with a small laugh. “I haven’t talked to Sienna since the night my mom drove away with her.”
“Because she refused to see you when you visited your mom last Christmas.” Emily came around the desk and laced her fingers through Jase’s. “She made it clear she wanted nothing to do with you.”
“I wonder what changed,” Jase murmured, almost under his breath.
Her whole world from the looks of it, Cole wanted to answer. It’s what he should have shared. But instead he only shrugged. “I don’t know her plans but thought you’d want to know, and your dad...”
Jase groaned. “This is going to rock his world.”
“She has no business showing up out of the blue.” Emily reminded Cole of an Amazon warrior getting ready for battle or a grizzly mama standing between a pack of coyotes and one of her cubs. “If she upsets Declan—”
“I’ll take care of it.” Jase wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Don’t get riled up, Em.”
Emily only rolled her eyes. “I love you, Jase Crenshaw, but you know me better than that. Telling me not to get riled up is like telling a retriever not to fetch the ball.”
Cole laughed, then tried to cover it with a cough when Emily gave him one of her looks. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “But you compared yourself to a dog.”
“No more free coffee for you,” she said, but her lips twitched as she said it.
“Thank you, Cole,” Jase said. “I appreciate the heads-up.”
“You bet. I’ve got to check in at the station. Call if you need anything.”
He placed his mug on the cart and walked out of the office, rubbing a hand over his jaw as he stepped into the warm June sunshine. Several people waved and Cole forced himself to smile and greet them in return, even though the sick pit in his stomach was growing wider by the second.
He didn’t owe Sienna Pierce a thing. So why did he feel like she was the one who needed protecting in Crimson? Jase had Emily and his dad and the whole town in his corner. From what he could tell, Sienna had no one.
Cole could relate, and the strange connection he’d felt to her this morning had somehow taken root inside him and refused to let go.
Ten kinds of trouble, he’d told her, but wondered if he’d underestimated even that.
Chapter 3
Sienna stared at the house tucked amid the pine trees, then checked the GPS on her phone one more time. She’d made a reservation at The Bumblebee Bed and Breakfast at 1 Ivy Lane on a whim after picking up an adorable business card at the counter of the grocery store next to the rental car agency.
Normally Sienna stuck to luxury hotel chains. She gravitated toward sleek decor and modern conveniences. But something about the colorful flowers and cheerful bees drawn on the card appealed to her. She needed some color and cheer in her life.
But she also wanted a hot shower and a toilet that flushed. Nothing about the plumbing van sitting in the driveway of the dilapidated house at the end of the long, winding drive gave her confidence she’d find either at The Bumblebee.
If her mother were here, she would have been happy to enumerate the ways Sienna had managed to mess up her life—all of them in one day. Dana Pierce loved making lists.
The only thing on Sienna’s to-do list right now was getting back in the compact car she’d rented and finding a decent hotel.
“Sienna!”
She turned back toward the house, surprised to hear her name shouted out like a long-lost friend had just spotted her.
“You’re Sienna, right?” A tiny pixie of a woman ran toward her, appearing from the trees like a woodland sprite. “I’ve been waiting for you.” The woman stopped, clasped a hand over her mouth. “Scratch that last part. It sounds like the start of some creepy horror movie.” She waved her hands in the air as dark curls bounced around her face. “I’ve been waiting for you,” she repeated in a deep, melodramatic voice. “You know what I mean, though. I’m excited you found us...me, rather... The Bumblebee, that is.”
“You must be Paige,” Sienna said, reaching out a hand.
“Who else?” the woman asked, bypassing her outstretched hand to give Sienna a tight hug. The innkeeper might be small, but she was strong, practically squeezing all the air out of Sienna’s lungs. “You’re my first guest. We’re going to have the best week.”
“This isn’t summer camp,” Sienna said quietly, making Paige laugh.
“I know, silly. But I just got the sign up today.” She pointed behind her to a hand-painted piece of cardboard that read The Bumblebee B&B. It leaned against the edge of the porch rail. “Not quite up,” Paige admitted. “But you still found me.” She scrunched her winged brows, emerald green eyes zeroing in on Sienna. “How did you find me anyway?”
“The business cards you left at the grocery.”
“I remember now.” Paige nodded. “I picked them up from the post office on my way to buy food for dinner. I told Rodney—he’s the manager at the Shop & Go—not to put them out until next week.”
“Apparently he did anyway.”
Paige squeezed Sienna’s arms like they were best friends. “Lucky for both of us.”
“Are you sure?” Sienna inclined her head toward the plumbing truck in the driveway, then pointed to the various pieces of furniture sitting in the front yard. “It looks like you might need a bit more time to get ready.”
Paige gave her a brilliant smile. “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”
Terrifying, Sienna thought to herself.
“Then why the plumber?”
“A leak in the first-floor bathroom,” Paige said, spacing her first finger and thumb a tiny width apart as she held them up to her eye. “But your bedroom is upstairs.”
“That’s good.”
“Only now,” Paige said, wrinkling her nose, “I’ll be sharing it because mine is downstairs.”
“Not so good.” Although Sienna had a brother right here in Crimson, most of her life she’d been an only child. Her mother liked to tell her she wasn’t good at sharing, and Sienna had no reason not to believe it because she’d never had to.
“It will only be for a day or two.” Paige flashed a bright smile that only wavered slightly. “Maybe.”
“I don’t mind finding a normal—I mean regular—hotel in town.”
“Good luck with that. The rodeo’s at the county fairgrounds this weekend. Everything’s booked from here to Grand Junction. Unless you want to stay in Aspen.”
Sienna shook her head. “I don’t.”
“Huh. No offense, but you look like the Aspen type. Other than the mustard stain on your blouse.”
“Why would I take offense to that?” Sienna picked at the dried mustard on the front of her shirt.
“Did you get a hot dog at the Shop & Go?” Paige asked instead of answering the question. “They’re yummy.”
“It was tasty,” Sienna admitted. The hot dog had been the best thing she’d eaten in ages. Normally she stuck to a high protein, low-carb, all organic and very little fun diet. The hot dog had been another small act in the process of reclaiming her life. Or claiming it for the first time, since it had never truly felt like hers.
; “Do you have luggage?”
“Yes, but not here.” Sienna had left her suitcase with the hotel’s bellman in Aspen this morning. She supposed it was still there and figured she’d have to drive back over at some point to retrieve it. But she wasn’t ready for another potential confrontation with Kevin. “I picked up toiletries at the grocery store.”
“I can lend you some clothes.”
“That would be interesting.” Paige was at least four inches shorter than Sienna and curvy like some throwback pinup girl from the forties. “Since you’re new at this whole innkeeper thing, I should tell you that in normal circumstances you wouldn’t offer your clothes to a paying guest.”
“Not to assume too much,” Paige said, inclining her head, “but do you think these are normal circumstances for either of us?”
Sienna blew out a breath. “No.”
“Please stay,” Paige said, then gave a nervous laugh. “That sounded desperate. I don’t mean it like that.” She laughed again. “Except I sort of do. This was my grandma’s house.” She gestured to the ramshackle but still charming lodge with faded rough-sawed logs notched together and deep green shutters bordering the windows on the front. “My mom inherited it when Grammy died last year, and I convinced her to let me get it up and running again.”
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Sienna said automatically.
“Thank you,” Paige whispered. “It’s beautiful out here...but also quiet.”
Sienna nodded, looking around the cul-de-sac. There were a few houses at the top of the street, where she’d turned onto Ivy Lane, but The Bumblebee’s property was clearly the largest and most private.
“Grammy had five acres,” Paige said, as if reading her thoughts. “It borders the old ski resort in back. We even have a view of the main chairlift. It hasn’t operated for years, although some developer bought the property recently. My grandma fought like crazy with the old owner about selling this place and making it part of the resort. I’m hoping the new owner will be more friendly and that The Bumblebee will be in the right place to cater to skiers or families vacationing in Crimson.”
“Smart move,” Sienna murmured.
Paige beamed at her. “Thank you for saying that. My family thinks I’m crazy. I’m not exactly following the path they expected me to take.”
There was something in the woman’s gaze—a combination of hope and fear with a healthy dose of uncertainty and pride mixed in—that Sienna imagined she might see in her own eyes when she looked in the mirror.
“I’ll stay,” she said. If Sienna was going to forge her own way in life, she had to start taking some risks in order to figure out what she wanted that life to be. Somewhere between Kevin’s butt and the ride in Cole’s Jeep, she’d decided the time had come to take charge of her life on her own terms.
And Colorado, far away from her mother, seemed like a better place to spread her wings than in Chicago, tethered by the constraints of her regular life. Maybe she’d actually forge a relationship with her dad and brother instead of the awkward face-offs she imagined. The thought made panic spike in her belly, and she pressed a hand to her stomach. One step at a time.
Whether a risk or an adventure, coming to Crimson as the inaugural guest at The Bumblebee B&B seemed like the right move on her new journey. It would be interesting to see where it took her.
* * *
“One more refill.”
Sienna grabbed the red plastic cup from Paige’s hand and filled it to the brim.
“Too much.” Paige grimaced, shaking her head. “You could put a Russian under the table with the amount of vodka in that.”
“It’s mainly lemonade,” Sienna argued, then hiccuped. “I swear.”
Paige rolled her eyes but took a sip. “It’s good.”
“Told you so.” Sienna took a long drink from her cup. “An added bonus is that it makes this place look a lot better.”
“True,” Paige agreed and both women turned from the long butcher-block island in the kitchen to survey the house.
The kitchen opened onto a cozy family room in which all the furniture was shoved up against one wall. Half the wood floor had been ripped up after the plumber found a slow leak that had caused damage to the foundation. The Bumblebee’s minor plumbing project now looked like it would stretch out at least a week, if not longer.
Paige had immediately started hyperventilating when she’d been given the news this afternoon. Sienna had shoved the novice innkeeper into a chair, found a paper bag for her to breathe into, then gotten a contractor recommendation from the plumber.
“You’re the guest,” Paige had said, wheezing into the bag. “You shouldn’t be—”
“I’ll manage,” Sienna assured her. Besides, the more she focused on Paige’s problems, the less time she had to think about her real reason for this impulsive trip to Crimson—confronting her dad after twenty years of no contact between them.
Plumbing issues were way less trouble than family drama.
Once Paige had calmed down, she’d insisted on making dinner, which consisted of an array of surprisingly delicious frozen appetizers heated in the oven. Sienna had searched through the cabinets until she’d found a decent bottle of vodka.
“Grammy liked a little nip before bed,” Paige explained.
Sienna had concocted a hard lemonade drink, and no matter how much vodka she added it still seemed to go down far too easily.
They’d watched a few episodes of a reality TV show about pampered pets, then Paige had pulled a disco ball strobe light out of a closet.
“Dance party!” she’d shouted and Sienna had been too blissfully numb to argue.
They’d danced for what seemed like hours, avoiding the caution tape that roped off the hole in the floor. When Sienna realized she was a sweaty and thirsty mess, she made another pitcher of hard lemonade. She smiled as she watched the bright flashes of color on the bumblebee wallpaper in the kitchen.
“This has been the funnest night ever,” Paige said, then yawned.
“Ever,” Sienna agreed without hesitation. She’d never had a night like this, one filled with laughing and dancing and ignoring all of her worries. Paige had asked a few subtle questions about what brought Sienna to Crimson but hadn’t seemed to mind Sienna’s vague answers.
Both women jumped when a loud knock sounded on the front door.
“Stupid neighbors,” Paige muttered, stumbling a little as she hopped off her stool. “I bet they called the cops again.”
“The cops?”
“The grumpy couple down the street has the local department on speed dial. If I so much as put my trash out too early, they report me. I’m guessing they think colored lights from a disco ball are the devil’s handiwork.”
A sinking pit opened in Sienna’s stomach. It was highly unlikely Cole would be the one to respond to a call like this but with the way her luck was running...
“I’m going to head upsta—”
She got up from her stool just as Paige turned toward her. Sienna’s arm jostled the cup Paige held, and vodka lemonade splashed all over the front of Paige’s pajamas.
“Yuck,” Paige cried. “I’m going to be a sticky mess. You get the door while I change.”
“I can’t—”
Paige’s eyes widened. “Don’t make me answer it when I’m practically bathed in vodka. A plumbing problem is bad enough. Who wants to stay at a B&B where the lady who runs it is a stinking drunk?”
The knock sounded again, more forcefully this time.
“It’s not like potential guests will hear about it,” Sienna protested, shaking her head.
“This is Crimson.” Paige threw up her hands. “Everyone will know.” She made a kissing sound toward Sienna. “I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
Sienna sighed as Paige disappeared into her bedroom. She turned down the music, flipped off the di
sco light and padded to the door, trying to ignore both her hammering heart and the fact that she was wearing a set of Paige’s tie-dyed pajamas.
She wet her lips with her tongue, said a silent prayer that some low-level officer had gotten stuck with this call and opened the door.
Cole Bennett stood on the other side.
Chapter 4
“Seriously?”
Sienna’s blue eyes burned like the center of a flame as she glared at him.
“The neighbors called,” he said, like he owed her some sort of explanation. “Mrs. Morrison saw lights flashing through the trees while she was walking her dog before bed tonight. She was convinced they were a result of some sort of unlawful activity.”
“I heard about the neighbors,” Sienna muttered. “Paige and I were having a dance party.” She glowered at him like he’d put the older couple up to making the complaint. As if he didn’t have anything better to do than show up to check out the situation—like he’d been looking for an excuse to see her again. The latter might be slightly true, even though he’d never admit it.
“Don’t you have deputies or something?” she demanded, crossing her arms over the faded tie-dyed tank top she wore. She had matching pajama pants, and with her blond hair tumbling over her shoulders and the pink glow to her cheeks, she was even more beautiful now than she’d been earlier that morning.
“I wanted to check on you.” The fact that he admitted it obviously surprised her as much as it did him.
“How did you know I was here?”
She moved back and he stepped into the house, gently closing the ancient screen door behind him. He didn’t bother with the front door. It was a perfect Colorado night, about ten degrees cooler than it had been when the sun was out, and Cole needed the fresh air to remind him to keep his self-control in place.
“Rodney mentioned you picked up one of the business cards for The Bumblebee. There aren’t many open rooms in town because of the rodeo, so I assumed this is where you ended up. Once the call came in, I had no doubt you were here.” He inclined his head. “You and trouble and all that.”
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