Rocky Mountain Home

by Hayes, Cassie

  She snorted ruefully. “Not a one, other than to hide under the covers for a few months.”

  Zach bumped his shoulder into hers. “And deprive the world of the wonder that is Mike Roberts? Uh uh, no way, chickadee.”

  A surprised grin lit her face at his old nickname for her. “I haven’t heard you call me that in forever.”

  “Get used to it. Now that you’re home, you’ll be hearing it a lot, I’m afraid.”

  She bumped him back. “Oh, I could get used to it, but then you’ll have to hear me calling you dorkus malorkus, just like when we were kids. You cool with that?”

  He threw his head back and laughed. “I’ve been called worse, sadly.”

  “I bet you have, you little devil,” she teased.

  Mike grew contemplative and went back to staring at the moths again. Zach wondered what she was thinking, but let her be. She’d talk if she needed to. He always had been and always would be, a sounding board for her, regardless if things sparked between them or not.

  “I’m lost, Zach,” she finally whispered into the darkness. “I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have someone telling me what to do — parents, teachers, trainers, managers, sponsors. Now I’m out here flopping around on my own like a dying fish on a river bank.”

  His heart ached for her. After a lifetime of following a very singular focus, that focus had vanished. A woman as driven as Mike needed something, anything to pour her energy into. But he had to correct her on one thing.

  “Mike, you’re not alone. You’ll never be alone. Not only do you have a gigantic — albeit certifiably insane — family, who love you to the stars and back, but you’ll always have me. Always.”

  “Promise?”

  The moment her eyes connected with Zach’s, his stomach cramped with excitement. He’d planned on giving her some space and time to sort things out before officially asking her out on a date, but his resolve was no match for the vulnerability in her gaze.

  “Cross my heart and hope to die,” he murmured, a cold sweat breaking out on his brow. Summoning every ounce of courage, he opened his mouth to ask her to have dinner with him.

  “There you are! “ Jack Roberts burst out the back door, dragging his pretty new wife with him. “Mike, did you hear I married Erin?”

  “I did, congratulations you two,” Mike said. “Zach and I were just talking about what I’m going to be when I grow up.”

  Jack slapped Zach on the back. “You couldn’t have picked a better life coach, cuz. He’s one smart cookie.”

  The man’s mischievous smile was worrisome, but the utterly evil glint in his eye just plain terrified Zach.

  “In fact,” Jack said, his gaze darting back and forth between Zach and Mike, “you should make him take you out to dinner to the River House tomorrow night to talk about your future.”

  Zach gaped up at Jack, who winked and grinned. This wasn’t exactly how Zach had planned it, but now that he had a second to think about it, as long as the end result was the same, he didn’t care how the invitation was made.

  Mike laughed and turned to him. “That sounds perfect, doesn’t it?”

  It most certainly did.

  2

  “Finally,” Emma Roberts said with a sigh as she locked the door behind the last customer to leave her coffee shop-bookstore, Books ’N Beans. She taped a “Closed for Private Event” sign on the glass and turned to the gaggle of Roberts gals settling in for a gabfest.

  “Hey, don’t look a paying customer in the mouth,” Mike’s sister, Ally, reprimanded, looking perplexed by her own comment. “Or something like that.”

  Emma laughed as she went behind the counter and poured coffee into nine cups. “I love my customers, but I’ve been dying to catch up with Mike without the parental units listening in.”

  “What else is there to catch up on?” Mike grabbed one of the cups, then snatched a cookie off a platter sitting on the counter. “Mmm, peanut butter, my fave!”

  “If you give me some gossip, you can have seconds,” Emma said, rounding the counter and plopping onto one of the shop’s well-worn couches.

  “Seriously,” Mike said, sitting next to Spike’s girlfriend, Amy. “There’s not much to tell. Other than that time I watched as Bode Miller grabbed this—“

  “Who?” Amy interrupted.

  Mike gaped at her. “Bode Miller? Olympic gold medalist? Two-time World Cup champ? Only the most successful alpine skier of all time?”

  She looked at the other women sipping steaming cups and contentedly nibbling on cookies. None of them looked as if they had a clue who she was talking about. “Come on, you guys! Bode Miller!”

  Bekah tipped her head and narrowed her gaze at her sister. “Did you date him? Because if you didn’t, I don’t give a rat’s patootie what he did…unless it was you.”

  Mike felt her face flame red. Just like every other girl on the US Ski Team, she’d once harbored a schoolgirl crush on the handsome skier, but she’d moved past that years ago.

  “Of course not! Pretty sure he prefers gorgeous, leggy blondes over petite brunettes.”

  “Whoever that dude is, he doesn’t know what he’s missing,” cooed Mike’s cousin, Bri Roberts— No, it was now Bri Black. All the other brunettes in attendance — which was most of them — cheered in agreement.

  Mike’s heart swelled at the casual intimacy of the group of women, like they’d been besties forever. In reality, most of them had, but the non-Roberts ladies — Amy, Sam’s fiancé Lina, and Jack’s wife Erin — had clearly been welcomed into the family as sisters. Mike was rocked by how much she’d missed them all. Her short visits home had never afforded enough girl time for her taste.

  “Besides,” Mike said, looking around the room, “it seems as if you guys have a lot more gossip to share than I do. I have just one question: Did they add some wacky love potion to the water supply or something? It’s like an epidemic!”

  Everyone giggled as if they’d drunk the Kool-Aid — except Emma and Molly, the only other singletons in the group. They merely looked amused.

  “Bri started it!” Lina laughed, pointing at her soon-to-be cousin-in-law, if that was even a thing.

  Bri shrugged and grabbed a second cookie. “Couldn’t help it. Anthony swept me off my feet. I mean, the man started jogging just for me. How could I resist?”

  “It certainly sounds like a match made in heaven,” Mike conceded, then turned toward Amy. “What I really want to know is how my no-good brother got so lucky to find such an awesome lady to put up with him.”

  Amy’s cheeks pinked up prettily and she couldn’t stop the smile that brightened her face. “I’m the lucky one. Spike’s faith in me has never wavered. And my son simply adores him.”

  “Ethan, right?” Mike asked, remembering the boy from the previous night’s party. “He’s adorable.”

  “Just don’t challenge that kid to a farting contest,” Molly interjected, waving a hand in front of her face. “Trust me. You will lose!”

  Laughter filled the cozy coffee shop. Suddenly, Mike couldn’t remember why she’d taken so long to return home. Despite having five roommates with whom she shared a three-bedroom apartment in Park City, Utah, she’d never had a particularly close circle of girlfriends. Most of her roommates — other pro skiers — traveled year-round, always chasing the snow. That made it hard to forge solid relationships. But the ladies sitting around her now, the same ones she’d barely seen over the last ten years, were not only family, they were her friends.

  “Enough with all the happy, sappy love stories already,” Molly said, leaning forward with a rapt expression. “I’m not buying your story about never dating, Mike. I want all the gory details. Spill!”

  “Yeah, let us poor single gals live vicariously through you,” Emma added.

  “I’m serious, there’s not much to tell,” Mike started, not allowing herself to dig too deep. “Pro skiers are constantly traveling, and if they aren’t, they’re either training or working odd jobs to pa
y the bills.”

  “Wait, what?” Ally asked. “I thought pro skiers were paid bajillions.”

  Mike barked a harsh laugh. “I wish! I was a top-earning female in the sport, but I never came close to earning any amount that ended in -illion. I definitely was lucky I didn’t have to work side jobs though.”

  The life of an average professional skier was really the life of a poor ski bum, hitchhiking to hot spots and working construction during the summers — even the women. Skiing was not an inexpensive sport, even if it was your job.

  “That’s not to say I haven’t had my fair share of crap jobs though. I remember this one summer having to clean houses so I could—“

  Bekah cleared her throat pointedly and jerked her head toward Amy. Right, Spike’s girlfriend owned an office cleaning business!

  Frick!

  “I’m so sorry, Amy,” Mike stammered, embarrassed at her faux pas. “I didn’t mean to—“

  “Don’t be sorry!” Amy laughed. “I don’t think anyone loves cleaning houses — or offices, in my case. That’s why there’s such demand for cleaners. And let me tell you from experience, it really can be — quite literally — a crap job. Now continue, please.”

  “Okay, anyway, you’re never in one place for very long. Just when you start to kind of like a guy, one or the other of you is jetting off to Japan or Washington or Russia.”

  “Ooh, how exciting!” Erin, Jack’s wife, gushed.

  “It was,” Mike agreed, “but it was also exhausting, and certainly not conducive to finding a long-term boyfriend.”

  “What about that one guy?” Bri asked. “Tucker? Tyler? Something like that.”

  “Trevor?”

  “That’s the one! You guys used to be a mainstay on the gossip sites. Next thing I know, he’s escorting some model all over the place. What ever happened with him?”

  Anger, pain and humiliation bubbled up inside Mike, even after three years. She did her best to hide her emotions, though it was probably futile with this group of very perceptive women.

  “It ended…badly. I really liked the guy, thought we were solid. But the first time you saw him on the gossip sites keeping company with another woman was the first time I learned about it too.”

  Her gals gasped in unison, some reaching out to touch her in sympathy. Emma simply shoved the plate of cookies into her hands, drawing a laugh from Mike. But she didn’t put the plate down either.

  “Turns out he only dated me to poach one of my sponsors.” Mike shrugged and stuffed another delicious cookie into her mouth. “They dropped me for him, and then he was gone.”

  “Asshat!”

  “Buttmunch!”

  “Douchenozzle!”

  Mike loved these women more than she thought possible. Sure, they were family — mostly — but they had her back, no matter what.

  “No big deal,” she said, even though it had seemed like a very big deal at the time and still had the power to humiliate her. Quite honestly though, she’d forget what he looked like if his chiseled mug wasn’t on the cover of a different sports magazine every month of the year. “I found a new, better sponsor, and part of my contract stipulated they couldn’t sponsor him while I was under contract. Let me tell you, he didn’t like that very much!”

  “Good job, sis!” Ally grinned, giving Mike a high five.

  Emma set a fresh pot of coffee on the table in front of them. “What about, ya know, a normie?”

  “Normie?” Mike had no idea what her cousin was talking about.

  “A normal guy. You know, an accountant, an insurance salesman, a contractor? Someone who’s not in the public eye.”

  Mike sighed heavily. “Tried that too. At the beginning of my career, those guys didn’t last long because I was never around. Later though, the ‘normies’ were after something I couldn’t give them.”

  “Gonorrhea?” Ally asked with a perfectly straight face.

  It took a full five minutes for Mike to be able to breathe again, much less speak without giggling. Marriage had apparently really loosened up her tightly wound sister.

  “Seriously though,” Mike finally continued, “I’m not sure how to describe it without sounding conceited, but they all had some image of me I never seemed to be able to live up to. They liked the idea of me more than the real me.”

  “Like Rita Hayworth,” Lina said with a knowing nod.

  “Who?” asked Bri.

  “Rita Hayworth. She was a famous actress back in the day. Her biggest role was a vixen named Gilda. She said something like, ‘Every man I knew went to bed with Gilda…and woke up with me.’”

  “And gonorrhea!” Ally laughed.

  Mike snitched one last cookie and watched her new posse as they cackled at her sister’s joke. Maybe living in Silver Springs wouldn’t be so bad after all. She had her family, her gals, and her best friend. And who knew? Maybe she’d even meet the love of her life here.

  Heck, in a town this small, she probably already had.

  * * *

  Zach could barely swallow the frog in his throat as he answered his door. He’d been nervous for almost twenty-four hours, and it was only getting worse.

  “Hey, man,” Spike said, thrusting a thin garment bag into his hands and brushing past him into his house. “One dinner jacket, as requested.”

  “Thanks.”

  Spike flopped into an overstuffed leather chair and kicked his feet up on the coffee table, before turning an inquisitive look toward Zach. “Should I ask why you need a dinner jacket? Wait, I phrased that wrong. Should I ask why you need a dinner jacket?”

  Zach had been worried about this conversation since Jack had basically asked Mike out on a date for him. The Bro Code dictated that one never date a buddy’s ex or an immediate family member — daughter, mother, or sister, in order of unforgivability. But since Spike was dating his buddy’s ex, maybe his dedication to the code had eased. Time to find out.

  “I’m taking Mike out to dinner at the River House tonight.” Zach squeezed his eyes shut and grimaced in a preparatory flinch, readying himself for the inevitable punch in the nose.

  When nothing happened, he peeked open one eye. Spike sat leaning forward, a look of concern — not fury — on his face.

  “Really?” he asked.

  Zach let out a sigh of relief that his business partner didn’t seem as if he was going to attack. He kept his guard up though, just in case this was a fake-out.

  “Yup.”

  “Like a real date? With Mike?”

  “Yes.” Zach huffed in irritation to hide the fact he wasn’t entirely sure if Mike thought this was a real date. He hung the coat in the hall closet and sat on the couch across from Spike, out of arm’s reach. Just in case.

  “It’s just…” Spike shook his head, then caught Zach’s gaze. “I’m surprised this is all happening so quickly, I guess.”

  “Quickly?” Zach snorted without thinking. It’d been a decade and felt like forever, but he’d never told anyone about Mike’s promise — not even his best friend. Maybe it was time. “I’ve been waiting ten years for your sister to finally keep her promise.”

  “What promise?”

  Zach stood, scrubbing a hand across his mouth and pacing around the cozy living room. “I never told you this, but remember when Mike’s boyfriend, Tommy-Whatshisname, dumped her a few weeks before prom?”

  Spike rolled his eyes. “Boy, do I! That was a nightmare. She didn’t stop crying for a week.”

  “And then one day she perked up, right?”

  “Yeah…” Spike conceded, suspicion tinging his voice and his eyes.

  “Well, that’s because I asked her to go with me instead.”

  Zach chanced a glance at his friend, who simply stared open-mouthed and sat silently.

  “Okay…” Spike finally said, shaking his head in disbelief.

  “She said yes and… I dunno. We kinda started…ya know.”

  “No, actually, I don’t know,” Spike said through gritted teeth. “
Why don’t you enlighten me?”

  “Not that! We just started hanging out a little. I liked her. And I’m pretty sure she liked me back. But it never went anywhere, because three days before prom, she found out she’d be trying out for the next Olympics.”

  The disappointment Zach felt back then resurfaced, as fresh as ever. He cleared his throat to hide his emotions before continuing.

  “You know as well as I do she left for Park City the next day to start training. Before she left though, she promised we’d pick up where we left off when she came back home for good. Now she’s back.”

  Zach remained silent while Spike processed this new treasure trove of information, and remembered the way Mike’s eyes danced with excitement when she broke the news to him. She couldn’t have been more apologetic about breaking their prom date, but he’d always known her dream was to ski in the Olympics. What kind of man would he have been — even as a clueless teen — to put up a fuss?

  Instead, he’d congratulated her and pulled her into a hug. But instead of merely returning the embrace, Mike had quickly turned her head and kissed him full on the lips. He still could taste the honey-sweetness of her Burt’s Bees lip balm, not to mention the sweetness of her. When she’d finally pulled away from him, her eyes had taken on a hazy, slightly drugged, look. His own expression, no doubt, looked the same.

  “Mark my words, Zach McCormick,” she’d sworn in a breathy way that still revved his engine, “this isn’t the last you’ll see of me. I swear to you, when I come back to Silver Springs after the Olympics, we’re going to start back up from right here. Got it?”

  “Got it,” he’d replied with a hopeful grin.

  But she’d never come back. Not really. Certainly she’d come home occasionally for holidays and special occasions, but they couldn’t very well start up a serious romance with her traveling the world for ski competitions.

  To fill his time, Zach had traveled too. He hadn’t wanted her to come back to find him stagnant, just waiting for her. So he’d gone off to college in California, got his degree in business, and immediately set off to explore the world, which had been surprisingly easy, because his outdoor skills had earned him a job at a world-renowned adventure tour outfit. He’d ice climbed in Switzerland, base-jumped off cliffs in Norway, and kayaked whitewater rivers in Patagonia. But nowhere in the world had ever compared to Silver Springs.