by Darcy Burke
She touched the long, dark strands. “Yeah, I change it up from time to time. This is more my normal color,” she muttered. She shifted her weight between her feet and the silence grew. The sounds of laughter and enjoyment carried from the tent area, providing stark contrast to the tension swirling around them.
Tori fixed him with an apologetic stare. “Look, I don’t want to hurt you, but this . . . ” She gestured in front of her as if something tangible was lodged between them. “Us. This marriage. It’s done. I e-mailed you a while ago about a divorce.” She looked away, as if she simply couldn’t bear to see him anymore.
Sean’s gut tightened. He didn’t want to feel a reaction, but it slammed into him nonetheless. He wanted to rail at her for not even giving them a chance, but again, that wouldn’t help him. Besides, his feelings didn’t matter. His primary goal had to be keeping his job. Saving the marriage—not that there was anything to save—seemed hopeless, so he’d do better to focus on what he could salvage. And God, he hoped he could.
“Yeah, I got that. But I don’t agree that we’re done.” He kept his tone light and risked another step toward her. “I think we owe it to each other to see if there’s still something here.” He was careful to make it about both of them and not her, even though she was the one who’d created this chasm.
She shook her head. “There isn’t.”
He took another step, slowly, in case she decided to run. She did look a bit like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights. “May I make a proposition?”
She frowned at him. “I guess.” Her dismissive tone said she wasn’t even going to consider it.
He swallowed against his rising frustration. “Let me spend a week here.” She opened her mouth—likely to protest—but he held his hand up. “Hear me out? I think you owe me that much.” It was a risk, saying she owed him something, but damn it, she did. And she ought to be smart enough to realize that. Or maybe she was right, and he didn’t really know her at all.
She mashed her lips together until they disappeared, which only made her look supremely irritated. Oh, she was making this so enjoyable. “Fine.”
“I’m asking for a week in which we spend time together, as friends if you prefer, and just see what happens.”
“As friends? How’s that supposed to work?”
Not very well, given your current animosity. “You said you didn’t want your family to know about me. I’ll agree to that.” Even though it grated like sandpaper against his bare arse. “I’m just a friend who’s been dying to visit Ribbon Ridge after all of the great things you’ve said about it.”
Uncertainty lurked in the depths of her gaze and in the measured delivery of her speech. “My family is going to wonder why I didn’t tell them you were coming.”
“Just say it was spontaneous. That I got back from my assignment in Europe, had a little time off, and decided to surprise you.”
“A surprise makes it sound like we’re together or something.” She shook her head. “No, that’s not going to work.” Given the distaste in her tone and the tense set of her shoulders, she was clearly dead set against anyone thinking they were romantically linked at all.
“Why? I’m not asking you to say we’re married.” Though that would’ve been nice. “Who cares if they think we’re an item?” Unless . . . Every muscle in his body constricted. “Is there someone else?”
Her gaze snapped to his in surprise. “No. In fact . . . never mind. I’ll introduce you as my friend. Let them draw their own conclusions. I’d prefer you simply say we’re just friends—no subtext. Will you do that?”
She was actually going to agree to it. He was nearly speechless. “Yes, provided you give me the week and an open mind.”
Her brows pitched down over her eyes, making her look thoroughly disgruntled. He could scarcely recognize the vivacious, electric woman he’d met and fallen head over heels for. “I can’t promise anything, Sean. Things are different now. I’m different now.”
“I can see that.” He let his gaze travel over her slowly, but he wasn’t seeing her as she was now. He envisioned her nude, lying tangled in the sheets of her bed in Kuala Lumpur, the morning light making her skin glow like pale, polished gold. She might feel different, but somewhere in there was the woman he’d married. The woman he’d fallen in love with.
The question was, did he love her still? He had a week to find out. And to determine if she felt the same. Though he was fairly certain he already knew the answer to that.
He internally slapped himself out of his lust-addled haze. Right now she was a means to a very valuable end—keeping his job. He honestly didn’t expect anything else to come of this, and for that he felt sorry. Again, his competitive nature surged within him, but he tamped it back. Eye on the prize, Hennessy, and it’s not her.
“So it’s settled then?” Sean rubbed his hands together.
“Why are you still wearing that?” Tori’s gaze dipped to his left hand, where his platinum wedding ring glinted in the lamplight. “You can’t wear that.”
Right. He’d actually meant to take it off before arriving, but he barely even noticed it anymore. He’d worn it since they’d taken their vows, and it had, quite frankly, become part of him. He slid the band over his knuckle. It fit snugly, so he had to straighten his finger and wriggle it a bit to work it off. Then he tucked it into the pocket of his jeans. “Better?”
She grabbed his hand and held it up in the light. “I don’t know. Does it look like you were wearing a ring?”
He tried to ignore the flash of awareness her touch wrought. “Does it matter?”
She pursed her lips and dropped his hands. “I suppose not. I can’t believe you were still wearing it.”
“Why not? We’re married, aren’t we?” He glanced at her bare left hand.
She wrapped it around the beer mug and covered her fingers with her right hand. “You know why I had to take it off. I couldn’t wear it home. Not . . . not that day.”
He did, but he still didn’t understand why she’d never put it back on.
“Hey, Tori!” A man walked toward them, his arms swinging as he picked up the pace upon seeing them. “I’ve been looking all over for you. Rob wants a picture with everyone.” He stopped a few feet from them and looked at Sean. “Hi.”
“Evening, mate.” Sean recognized the man from pictures Tori had shown him. He was Derek Sumner. The Archers had taken him in at the age of seventeen after his mother had died of brain cancer, leaving him an orphan. Best friends with Kyle Archer, he had already been considered part of the family by Tori’s parents. Welcoming him as one of their own had been a no-brainer, according to her.
Derek cast Tori a curious glance. “Am I interrupting something?”
She smiled, though it seemed to carry a touch of nervousness. “No, just catching up. Derek, this is my friend Sean Hennessy. He’s been wanting to check out Ribbon Ridge for a while now, and Oktoberfest seemed like the perfect time.”
“That and I had some time off.” Sean offered his hand. “Pleased to meet you.”
Derek shook his hand. “Same. But why don’t you have a beer? You need a beer.”
Sean grinned, liking Derek immediately. At least someone would make the next week palatable. “Now you’re talking.”
Tori threw Sean an irritated glance that seemed to scream Knock it off! Sean only smiled in return. He ought not to annoy her, not when he had to figure out a way to get her to agree to this Christmas special, but he couldn’t help himself. After months of feeling iced out, he rather enjoyed causing her agitation. It seemed only fair.
As they walked back toward the tent, Derek said, “You didn’t come all the way from the UK, did you?”
Sean chuckled. “No, but I get why you’d think so. I’ve lived in LA for going on five years now.”
“And how do you know Tori?” It was a polite question. And maybe Derek actually did care how they’d met, but Sean sure as hell wasn’t going to answer it. Plus, he was looking forward
to seeing what Tori came up with.
“I work with a good friend of Sean’s. We met a while back at a work thing. He’s a beer connoisseur, so we hit it off. I gave him some Archer beer once, and he’s been dying to come up here ever since.” She actually sounded quite convincing, almost as though they were friends. But that was one thing he wasn’t sure they’d ever had time to be.
Derek grinned. “You’ve come to the right place for sure, and you’re with the right people. We’re a beer lover’s paradise.”
Connoisseur was perhaps overstating things, but Sean did enjoy a good ale. “It certainly looks that way.”
They moved into the tent, and Derek looked to Tori. “Everyone’s over near the fondue table. The photographer wanted that as the backdrop with Kyle in his chef’s hat.”
Tori nodded before casting a guarded glance toward Sean. “I’ll catch up with you later, ’K?”
“Nah, come along,” Derek said. “That way you can meet everyone else.”
Tori’s nostrils flared, and Sean swore her flesh tinged green, but she said nothing. He could practically feel her discomfort crawling up his own spine.
Sean, on the other hand, could barely contain his glee as he contemplated watching her squirm. He pinned her with a jolly grin. “Sounds good.”
THE BACK OF Tori’s neck pricked with anxiety as she walked toward her family in the corner by the fondue table. Everyone was there: Mom; Dad; Sara and her fiancé, Dylan; Kyle and Maggie; and Chloe. Well, everyone who was in town. Her three other brothers were scattered hither and yon, seeing to their own lives. Something she ought to be doing—and would, once The Alex was done.
She felt Sean walking behind her as if they were somehow joined. It wasn’t a physical thing, she told herself. Well, maybe it was, but whatever it was, it didn’t bear thinking about. Except she had to spend the next week with him.
Scratch that—five days. She’d purposely neglected to tell him that midweek she had to go down to San Francisco for some work meetings, which would take her out of Ribbon Ridge all day Wednesday and a good part of Thursday. Too bad for him.
She cringed at her mercenary attitude. She wasn’t being terribly fair. So he was trying to make something out of their hasty marriage. Could she blame him? No. But that didn’t mean she shared his sentiments. They’d made a mistake getting married so fast.
If she were honest with herself, she’d admit there was more to it than the speed. Would she still think it was a mistake if Alex hadn’t died? The quickie wedding without her family would’ve created drama in the best of circumstances, but after Alex’s suicide, it was something she wanted to simply go away, as if it had never happened.
Sara’s gaze landed on Sean, and her brows shot up. She looked to Tori in question, and Tori knew she’d have to deflect a million questions later. No problem. She’d handled Derek’s inquiry just fine.
“Let’s do this thing,” Tori said, forcing herself to smile at everyone.
Mom turned from talking to Chloe. “There you are, dear. I was afraid you’d left.”
“Not yet, but soon.” Tori looked around for the photographer and found him chatting with Dylan. “We ready?”
“Yes, yes.” The photographer scrambled to arrange everyone while Sean stood off to the side and looked on.
“Who’s that, dear?” Mom asked as she was positioned next to Kyle, who stood in the middle with Dad on his other side.
“Just a friend,” Tori said, angling herself and tucking her hair behind her ear. She was too aware of Sean watching her—and no one else. Did he have to be so effing obvious? If he kept looking at her like that, there was no way anyone would believe they were just friends. But it was more than that. His looking at her like that showed he was interested in being more than just friends. Seeing that firsthand was far more unsettling than him saying he was here to ascertain if there was still something between them.
No, there wasn’t. At least not for her. The thought of being with him, of going back to that idyllic—yeah, she could also be honest about that at least—time was out of the question.
“He’s a very good-looking friend,” Mom said with a smile in her voice that softened Tori’s edginess. It was good to see and hear Mom enjoying herself. She’d been so much better since she’d come back from spending a few months in France with Hayden. She’d felt so good, in fact, that she hadn’t gone back with him after Derek’s wedding.
Instead, she’d thrown herself into planning the gardens at The Alex with Maggie. It was an odd pairing, to be sure—Alex’s former therapist and Mom working together and forming a close bond. But then, even Tori acknowledged that Maggie was special. Tori had wanted to hate her at first. Surely anyone who’d failed to see that Alex was suicidal was an imbecile. Except Maggie wasn’t. She’d been as devastated by his death as any of them and had actually been instrumental in helping Kyle determine how Alex had illegally obtained the prescription drugs he’d used to kill himself. That she’d cared so much about Alex and had fallen in love with Kyle showed just how extraordinary she was. Archers weren’t easy, and anyone willing to tangle with them deserved a medal.
She snuck a glance at Sean. Was he included in that summation? No, because he wouldn’t be here for the long haul.
“On one, two, three!” The photographer snapped several pictures. Tori settled into the sparkling smile she’d used less and less over the past several months. Her facial muscles felt tight, out of practice. “And that’ll do it. Thanks, everyone.”
“Thank you,” Dad said, clapping Kyle on the back. “Can’t wait to see the headline about the Willamette Valley’s newest culinary star. The Arch and Fox is going to be booked solid for months.”
“We have to get it ready to open first,” Dylan said, ever the pragmatist. As general contractor of The Alex, which included Kyle’s restaurant, The Arch and Fox, he was careful not to jinx anything regarding the schedule. On second thought, maybe he was superstitious instead of practical.
Sara punched him lightly in the arm. “Everything’s on schedule.”
“Today,” he said drily, but there was a hint of a smile about his mouth as he looked down at Sara and put his arm around her shoulders, giving her a squeeze. They were so in love it was painful. At least for Tori. She looked away, and once more her gaze collided with Sean’s. He was still watching her with curiosity, and she felt like she was under a microscope. Ugh, when had that become a bad thing? She used to like being in the spotlight, craved it even.
Mom went over to Sean, and Tori hastened to join her. She trusted him not to spill any secrets, but she wanted to hear their conversation. They had stories to keep straight.
“Hi, I’m Emily Archer, it’s nice to meet you.” Mom shook his hand.
“Pleasure.” He flashed his disarming smile, and Mom, like every other female, was not immune.
Mom laughed—nearly a giggle really. “How do you know our Tori?”
“We met through a mutual friend,” she said, sticking to the story she’d given Derek earlier. It wasn’t necessarily untrue. They had met at a work thing of hers through mutual acquaintances. Sort of.
Mom slid her a questioning glance, and as with Sara before, Tori was certain she’d have to answer a bunch of questions later. A dull pain rooted behind Tori’s temples.
“This is your first visit to Ribbon Ridge?” Mom asked.
“Yes, and it’s incredibly charming. It reminds me of home.”
“And where is that?”
“Western England—the Cotswolds, actually.”
Mom’s eyes sparkled with warmth. “Such a lovely place. Rob and I visited there years and years ago. We took a two-month trip around Europe before we started fertility treatments. It was a good thing, because having six babies at once ensured we didn’t take a vacation for a very long time.” She laughed softly, but there was a sadness lurking in her eyes that Tori knew stemmed from the loss of one of those babies. It was a loss Tori felt in every bone and sinew of her body every day.
“I’m a television producer in Los Angeles. The draw of Hollywood was too great to ignore.” His smile broadened.
“Do you plan to live there permanently?”
Sean glanced at Tori. “I hope to. It depends on several things.”
“I imagine. You have a visa, right? Do you have to renew that regularly, or is it permanent? Oh, listen to me talking about nonsense. I just went through all of this in reverse with Hayden when he took a job in France last spring. He’s my youngest; Tori’s probably told you about his new adventure, right?” She looked at Tori.
“Sure,” Tori said, though she actually hadn’t told him anything about Hayden. She’d told Sean precious little since she’d last seen him in March. Keeping him at a distance was the only way she’d been able to function. Thinking about him brought Alex to mind and the fact that she hadn’t been there for him. And those thoughts spiraled her into despair. Her headache spread across her skull.
“Yeah,” Sean said, spearing her with a WTF look that said, I have no idea what you’re talking about, so don’t leave me hanging.
“Sean was just in Europe filming a show,” Tori said, her head throbbing. “I’d hoped he’d have time to visit Hayden at the winery in France, but it didn’t work out. He wasn’t close enough to Bordeaux.”
Sean’s lips twisted, and his subtle reaction led her to believe he’d been smack dab in the middle of Bordeaux, but he didn’t say anything. He smiled at Mom. “I’ve been there before, however; it’s gorgeous.”
“I spent three months there with Hayden,” Mom said. “It was just what I needed to feel more like myself again.” She didn’t say anything specific about Alex, but he was as present in the conversation as if he were standing with them. It was both comforting and trenchant.
“I can think of few places as restorative as the French countryside,” Sean said, “though I’d say your Willamette Valley comes very close. The similarities are astounding.”
“True, but our wine is superior,” Kyle said, inserting himself into the conversation. “Hi, I’m Kyle.” They shook hands.