Don’t Date Your Brother’s Best Friend: Strong Family Romances

by Checketts, Cami

  Don’t Date Your Brother’s Best Friend

  Strong Family Romances

  Cami Checketts

  Copyright

  Don’t Date Your Brother’s Best Friend: Strong Family Romance

  Copyright © 2019 by Cami Checketts

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  Don’t Fall for a Fugitive

  Her Loyal Protector

  About the Author

  Also by Cami Checketts

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  Chapter One

  Ella Strong drove her new Camry down the mountain pass that led to her Colorado valley and sighed with relief, “Home.” The little town of Lonepeak was all there like a postcard in front of her. Downtown still boasted wide tree-lined streets and quaint little shops, all cookie-cutter with a faux wrought-iron railing on the second story and their own light post. Houses and farms were spread throughout the valley. Honest, hardworking people she’d known and loved her entire life occupied those spots just like she’d remembered—and, in her mind, just as they should be.

  She strained for a peek at the spot she loved most in all the world, without running her new car off the road. There. Straight across the valley, she could make out the lodge rising above the pine trees, with ski lifts and runs twisting up the mountain behind it. In June, the lifts were used for mountain biking instead of skiing, but she loved that too.

  The Strong family had owned and operated Angel Falls Retreat since before Ella was born. Her mama’s family roots were here, and they’d owned the property and a small ski lift and bed and breakfast. Her parents had met snow-skiing in Aspen as college students. They’d both dreamed and schemed of making the mountain into something incredible. Many years and hours of work later, it was a thriving year-round retreat. Her oldest brother, Gavin, mostly ran the resort now. Ella’s second-oldest brother, Heath, had even expanded the concept and had resorts of his own in Utah, Wyoming, Connecticut, and West Virginia.

  Ella pushed the pedal down. The car responded, and she bypassed town and made it home in record time. She pulled into the main lodge parking lot. There were smaller villas scattered away from the main lodge, and the newer spa and ski and bike shop was to the east. Her family’s home was west, in a smaller canyon. Their canyon was private and gated, hidden from the resort, but she knew Gavin was a workaholic. She’d find him here and maybe Austin and Mama, then go see her papa.

  Sliding into a parking spot, she jumped out and hurried toward the lodge. A man whizzed through the parking lot on a mountain bike. He must not have seen her, as he almost buzzed her.

  “Watch out!” Ella called.

  “Excuse me,” he said, braking to a stop. He spun around and pedaled back to her. Stopping right in front of her, he leaned over his handlebars. His eyes swept over her, letting her know he was interested, but it was a little over the top. She didn’t even know him, yet he gazed at her like he had paid for the right to gawk. “I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

  “Apparently,” she sassed back, putting one hand on her hip and tossing her long, dark curls.

  He grinned. “Can I gain your forgiveness by buying you dinner?”

  Ella took a quick inventory, not sure if she wanted to spend more time with this guy or not. He was a built dude and his bike was top of the line, Emonda. His high-end bike clothes reeked of wealth. Not that she was opposed to wealth, as long as the guy had earned it. Hardworking and fun were qualities at the very top of her list for the man who would snag her heart.

  “No, you can’t,” a voice said at her shoulder.

  Ella knew that voice. She loved the depth and timbre of it. Quite often, she heard it in her dreams. She turned slightly, and there he was. Trey Nelson. The man who had defined everything that she’d wanted in a man since the day she’d realized boys and girls were different creatures.

  Unfortunately, Trey had never wanted her in return. He was the best friend of her oldest brother, Gavin, and since he was six years older than her, Trey had always treated her like his little sister. He was protective of her, liked to tease her, and had probably never once envisioned dating her like she dreamt about daily. Correction: used to dream about.

  She was a successful college grad now, all finished with Stanford and three months into her first job, a marketing specialist at a fabulous start-up company based in Salt Lake City. They specialized in electronic billboards and were growing like mad. Her job was to get them even more contracts, and she was killing it, if she did say so herself. Her boss seemed pleased, and she enjoyed the work, though the sprawling Salt Lake valley was too populated for a backwoods girl like her. She’d come home for Labor Day weekend to enjoy family and her mountains, and then she’d be back to the real world. At least the mountains east of Salt Lake had some great hikes and bike paths she could escape to after work and on the weekends, after she navigated through traffic for a miserable hour.

  “I think the lady can decide for herself,” Rich Guy said.

  “Back off, Marcus. This one’s mine.” Trey’s eyes swept over her, and for a second, she really thought he meant it, really wanted her to be his. Then he acted like the annoying, possessive big brother, putting his hand on her lower back and escorting her toward the lodge without giving her a chance to choose for herself. She’d choose Trey every time, but she was an independent woman and he needed to know that.

  The Richie—Marcus, she supposed—grunted something annoyed and not very appropriate behind them, but Ella was having a hard time focusing with Trey’s warm palm on her back, seeping through her thin shirt, and his words. “‘This one’s mine’? What kind of bull crap is that?” she asked.

  Trey smiled down at her, but his blue eyes had something different in them than she’d ever seen. It was almost like he was finally seeing her, but that was probably just wishful thinking on her part. “It’ll get that loser to leave you alone. He’s with a corporate retreat out of Denver, and most of them are stand-up guys, but Marcus Traegger thinks he owns the world and every woman in it.”

  “Maybe I prefer guys like that.” She arched a challenging eyebrow. The truth was that no man had ever compared to Trey, but he didn’t know that. Hopefully, he would never know that. How humiliating would that be?

  He opened the lodge’s door and ushered her inside. “I’d say too bad for you, because Gavin and I are not letting it happen.” He glowered down at her. It was odd to see anything but a smile on Trey’s handsome face. He was just one of those contagiously happy people. Add to that his good-looking face with the slightly longer curly golden-brown hair and the bright blue eyes she couldn’
t resist and she could understand why every woman flung herself at him. No matter how jealous it made her.

  Ella stopped just inside the door, taking in the huge open room welcoming her and a pretty blonde she didn’t know manning the front desk. They were far enough away that they still had a small measure of privacy. She whirled on Trey, ready to give him a piece of her mind. He had plenty of women after him, and she could choose if she wanted to go to dinner with some rich yahoo.

  A deep voice said, “What aren’t we letting happen?”

  Ella pushed away her frustration with the bossy, too-handsome Trey and turned. Her oldest brother, Gavin, was striding down the grand staircase as if he owned the world, or at least owned this corner of it. He pretty much did, though her mama still had her hand in everything. From what Ella had seen on her brief trips home, Gavin was taking over more and more. He was brilliant at it, though it had always baffled her that he’d never left the valley. He’d had a full-ride scholarship to Texas A&M, planning to play cornerback and get his undergrad before going on to law school. Ella had only been twelve at the time, so her memory was a little fuzzy, but she did remember her parents going from thrilled and proud to withdrawn and sad. Papa’s accident had happened around the same time, so Gavin never went away to college; he just got his degree online and worked night and day to make the resort even better than anyone could’ve dreamed. Stetson, their twenty-year-old brother, was fulfilling Gavin’s dream, playing defensive end for Purdue and making everybody proud.

  “Gavin!” Ella rushed to the stairs.

  He met her at the bottom and lifted her off her feet, swinging her around. “Hey, Cinderella,” he teased. “Come home to clean the chimney?”

  “Yes, sir. Put me to work, big brother.”

  He released her from the hug and looked her over. “You’re too pretty to be working.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Trey said from behind her.

  Ella caught a glimpse of a warning in Gavin’s eyes before she rounded on Trey. “Like you’d ever look at me as anything but a sister,” she hurled at him.

  Trey’s eyes widened, and she almost faltered. The color of his eyes could go from teal-blue to a more true blue depending on what he was wearing or his mood. His eyes had always mesmerized her.

  “He’d better not,” Gavin growled. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders. Protective and in charge of everybody, that was her big brother. She adored him, but she quite often balked at him telling her what to do. She was very unlike her twin, Cassandra, who was obedient and sweet. If Trey had any inclination to realize she was a woman, she didn’t want Gavin scaring him away.

  Trey said nothing, and that frustrated her even more. So he gave a secondhand compliment, but then when she called him out, gave him the chance to say he didn’t think of her as a little sister anymore, he clammed up. What did she expect? She’d been around Trey all of five minutes, and of course she’d imagined something different in his eyes; she’d been praying to see a glimmer of interest for years. The fact that he’d probably never see her as anything but a little sister made her want to punch him in the gut, but that was unfair. This was all on her.

  “What are you doing here, anyway?” she demanded of Trey. “Don’t you have Instagram videos to shoot for your admirers to gawk over?” Trey was an Instagram and YouTube hotshot. He made videos showing and instructing how to do insane, borderline idiotic tricks on mountain bikes and snow skis. Ella followed him. How could she help it? But she’d noticed that most of his followers seemed to be female and were enthralled with his perfect face and tough body more than learning how to do any of his tricks. She didn’t blame the women, but she could still admit it annoyed her.

  “I hired him,” Gavin said.

  “You can afford him?” Ella asked. It sounded more like something their brother Heath, would do. His four resorts were even more lavish than this one, and he was always doing some kind of interesting promotion.

  Trey chuckled. “I gave him a discount.”

  Gavin cracked half of a smile. “You’d better not have, you idiot.”

  Trey just gave them a self-satisfied smirk and stepped closer. “To answer your question, beautiful Cinderella, Gavin hired me to impress a bunch of corporate yuppies who have booked the resort this weekend to teach them tricks so they can impress their friends when they go home.”

  “So you’re only here for the weekend?”

  “Not long enough for you?” Trey arched an eyebrow.

  No, it would never be long enough for her. She’d be happy to spend the rest of eternity with Trey, but she clamped a lid on that fantasy. Trey was no Prince Charming, and she was better suited to clean the chimney than campaign for Trey’s affections. Judging by the way he appeared to flit from one gorgeous woman to the next, she should be glad he wasn’t interested. He’d reel her in, maybe finally kiss her like she’d always dreamed about, and then he’d dump her and move on. She’d be in a worse position than ever.

  “I’m only here for the weekend also, and it doesn’t matter to me one way or the other.” She stood on tiptoes and kissed Gavin’s cheek, right above his beard, and then asked, “Where’s my baby boy? Is he at school?” It was Friday morning.

  “No. They started in early August and made today a teacher in-service for an even longer weekend. He’s upstairs.”

  Ella lifted a hand to Trey, ducked under Gavin’s arm, waved to the receptionist—who was much more focused on studying the two handsome men in the foyer than doing any kind of work—and ran lightly up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, there was a large, open area with couches, fireplaces, and lounging areas. There were also conference rooms on this level. The third and fourth levels were all single hotel-style rooms, and the fifth and sixth levels were fancy suites. The main level had more lounging areas, the restaurant, and picture windows that were two stories high so they could be viewed from this lounging area as well.

  It was pretty quiet this afternoon, with most people out enjoying the beautiful end of summer weather, but there was one little boy lying upside down on a leather couch, focused intently on the iPad in his hands.

  “Austin!” Ella yelled. She’d missed the little squirt horribly.

  Her youngest brother—ten years younger than Stetson, to be exact—looked up, and his eyes lit with excitement. He tossed the iPad on the couch, flipped onto his feet, and ran toward her. Ella picked him up and swung him around like Gavin had done to her. She kissed his soft cheek several times, then kissed the adorable freckles on his nose before he protested, “C’mon, El. I’m not supposed to like kisses.”

  She giggled. “You’re supposed to like your favorite sister.”

  “Well, sure, but don’t tell Cassie you’re my favorite.” He winked broadly. Cassandra was Ella’s twin, and she was so sweet and thoughtful that she was everybody’s favorite.

  Ella set him down and asked, “What’ve you been up to?”

  “Work, work, work, all the time.” He pushed out his bottom lip. He was so cute with those rounded cheeks and freckles, his big brown eyes, and his naturally highlighted golden hair. The rest of the family had similar eyes but dark hair. Austin was adopted, though, so it made sense he didn’t look like all of them, yet Ella had always thought he did. “I’m the only one who works in this joint,” he said with a wink.

  Ella chuckled.

  Gavin had climbed the stairs and now had his arms folded across his broad chest, surveying Austin. “That’s right, little man, the rest of us are slackers.” His dark eyes, so like Austin’s, always had an uncharacteristic softness when he was around the little boy. Ella still had no clue how they’d been blessed with Austin, but one day, when she was almost thirteen, her mama came home with the fattest, cutest baby boy and told the family and neighbors they had adopted him. They all fell instantly in love, and though Ella knew the rambunctious little man wore her parents out, he was the light of all their lives.

  Ella tilted her head to the discarded iPad. “You playing video gam
es now?”

  “You aren’t?” Austin said in the most smart-alecky tone a ten-year-old had ever used.

  “Austin,” Gavin warned.

  Austin sighed. “Just kidding, sis. It’s free Friday, so I get to play today.”

  “Free Friday? And you get to play video games all day if you’re not in school?”

  “Anything I want. No football practice today, either, so I get to eat all the junk food I want—not just one serving—stay up late, play video games, and chase women.” Austin ticked the list off on his fingers.

  “Chase women?” Ella had to fight not to giggle. She didn’t win, and laughter bubbled out.

  Gavin ruffled Austin’s mop of hair. “We’ve had some issues with him wooing the women who stay here, so Mama limited him to flirting on Fridays.”

  “Mama’s getting soft in her old age. Playing video games all day? Eating all the junk food he wants?”

  Gavin nodded. “She’s always been soft for the little man.”

  Her mama was a loving woman but very strict. She’d raised them all with lots of hugs, dedicated her life to making the resort succeed and helping her children reach their goals, but there was never any leniency on rules and family expectations. Austin, being the caboose, had a very different mother than any of them had. A very different father, too, as her daddy had been paralyzed ten years ago in a skiing accident. He was still his fun-loving, happy self, but he couldn’t get out and enjoy the slopes or the hiking or biking trails with them like he used to.

  “Where is she? Where’s Papa?”