Colt whips around to give Wes a hard look. “What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?”
I punch his thigh. “Pay attention. Light’s green.”
He glares at me but turns around and gets us moving again, still shooting glances over his shoulder at Wes.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Wes says. He looks out the side window, and I watch him out of the corner of my eye for a minute. There’s a struggle playing out on his face.
When he turns back to us, his expression is somber. “I like our cabin, and I like living there, but I just like it better when Addie’s around.”
“I think we all agree on that,” I say.
Colt’s real quiet for a long time, staring at the road as we pick up speed in pace with the traffic, all of us racing toward the next intersection. When we come to a stop at the red light, his shoulders slump a little, and he sighs. He keeps his eyes fixed on the car in front of us as he talks.
“You guys ever felt like it’s not really our place, so much as it’s still Granddad’s and we’ve just been living in his cabin, working in his shop?”
“Yeah.” I nod. “I get that feeling sometimes.”
In the backseat, Wes nods. “We haven’t changed much since he passed, either.”
“Well, I couldn’t sleep last night—” Colt starts.
“Shocking,” I cut in, “given what a pleasant mood you’re in today.”
Colt gives me a quick narrow glare before fixing his eyes straight ahead again. “What I’m trying to say is I realized something while I was lying awake. I love it, but that place has never really felt like our home to me, no matter how many years it’s been — not until Addie slept there.”
The three of us get quiet again, staring out the windows as we continue through the city on our way to the first stop of many on this trip. The place we’re headed to now is a small outfit that makes specialty lacquers and resins for us. They don’t ship it during the winter, because the temperatures can play havoc with the finishes.
As we drive, Colt’s words run through my head. I’d not really given it much thought before, but it’s true.
We might have added to the acreage, modernized the workshop a little, and remodeled the bathroom, but sometimes it still kinda seems like it was when we were kids — the three of us just crashing at our Granddad’s place.
Addie’s presence has made it feel like so much more. Something about her being there with us, it’s felt more like a real home, not just a collection of buildings handed down to us.
But the problems we argued about in the parking lot of Silverthorne — right before Brad showed his ugly mug — those still remain. Even if we didn’t live in the middle of nowhere, how’s it going to work, her living with all three of us? This isn’t the goddamn Waltons.
I run my fingers through my hair, tugging on the ends in frustration. “That would just put the feather in the cap, wouldn’t it? The Stone brothers, all sharing one woman. How would she be treated when she went into town?”
Wes is quick to answer. “I’d break the teeth of anyone who says a goddamn word about her.”
Colt shakes his head, his eyes glued to the road. “You know from experience that words aren’t the worst part. It’s the way they look at you. The way they avoid you.”
Anger is rising in Wes’s voice now. “Look, assholes like the Elliotts will always be assholes. But for every person like them, there are people like Tank and Natalie. They know we don’t want anything to do with Frank’s fucking drama. And they’ll be good to Addie.”
“Wes, you’re talking like she wants to stay,” Colt says. “She has a job and a life in the city and... who knows what the fuck else. What if she doesn’t even want to be with us?”
“You know what?” Wes leans forward and grabs the front seat. “That sounds like a question we need to ask her. What if the answer is yes? What if we let her go — let her walk right out of our lives and disappear — and the whole damn time her answer might have been yes?”
“I said my piece about this the other day.” Colt shoots a sharp look at Wes through the rearview mirror. “Has anything changed since then?”
Wes mumbles something filled with profanity under his breath and slumps back against his seat. He returns to looking out the side window, and I rub my forehead as silence descends between us once again.
We drive the rest of the way without uttering another word except for me giving Colt terse one-word directions. Finally, we turn down the familiar side-street that leads to the specialty finishes shop run by a local family.
From the backseat, I hear Wes quietly say something I don’t quite catch.
Colt glances in the rearview mirror. “What?”
Wes straightens up and leans forward again. “The other day you said it wasn’t fair to ask her to stay with us and give up life as she knows it, unless we’d be willing to do the same for her.”
“Yeah... I did.” Our oldest brother nods slowly, eyeing Wes cautiously in the mirror.
“Well, I’ve been pretty pissed at you for that,” our youngest brother admits. “But you had point. So I’ve been thinking about it, a lot.”
Colt pulls into the tiny parking lot of the shop, but he doesn’t maneuver into an empty space. Instead, he just stops the truck at the edge of the lot and lets it idle.
“Okay,” he says, his eyes still trained on Wes in the mirror. “And?”
Wes looks out the window again, his eyes moving over the tall buildings packed tightly against each other, the traffic zipping by on the main thoroughfare ahead. He takes a deep breath and turns to Colt.
“My answer is yes. I’d move to the city for Addie. I’d give up living in the cabin. I’d give up having space and waking up to see the sunrise in the mountains. I’d deal with the traffic and the noise and not having privacy. If that’s the difference between having a chance at being with her versus just letting her go, I’d do it, for her.”
Colt’s real quiet, his chest barely moving as he breaths slow and shallow. My own breath is caught in my throat as he turns to me.
He doesn’t have to say a word, I see the question in his eyes. As he looks at me, I realize he’s known the answer for himself for a long while.
And if I’m being honest, I’ve known what choice I’d make, too. I’ve just been too damn stubborn to say it. But now that Wes has put it out there...
I swallow hard. “Yeah, same. Not my ideal arrangement, but then again, not seeing Addie again is worse than anything the city has to offer.”
“Well, I’ve been hoping to fuck you guys would say that,” Colt says, his voice breaking. The relief in his expression damn near has me choking up.
He glances at the entrance to the little shop then back at us. A tense moment passes between the three of us as he looks at us one at a time, checking that we’re on board.
Wes and I both nod.
That’s all the confirmation he needs.
Colt slams the truck into gear. He hits the gas and turns the wheel hard, the bed of the truck spinning around. “Let’s go have ourselves a Christmas with our girl.”
13
I SHUT OFF THE SHOWER and reach for my towel with a heavy sigh. Normally I love a quick, steamy shower to help wash off the day and start the evening fresh, but today everything I’ve done has me thinking about the guys.
Even a brief shower is missing something now. It doesn’t feel right without one of them in here with me, a beard tickling my shoulders and neck, muscular hands trailing soapy bubbles across my skin.
This entire, massive suite of rooms is too big without them. Too empty. By far, the best time I’ve had at this resort is when they slept here with me. Well, we didn’t exactly sleep much, but the place finally felt truly inviting for the first time all vacation.
I’m going to miss it here. Not the resort. I could do without this place. It’s the guys and their world — their confident sexiness, the way they bicker with one another, and that gruff sweetness they try to hide. All t
he privacy I could ever want with those never-ending acres of land. And even that drafty cabin of theirs.
While I dry off, I think about their place, tucked away in the mountains. It’s like a different world up there, on just about every level. It’s a much more rugged existence for sure, but also, so wonderfully uncomplicated in the ways that matter.
The cabin is the opposite of this penthouse — small, modest, and simple. Quaint. They hate it when I call it that, but it’s the perfect word. For me, at least.
A few weeks ago I never would have thought I’d choose a secluded rustic cabin over a luxurious high-rise suite, but there’s no question now. I’d rather be there, with them, than the fanciest palace on earth. Than anywhere else, really.
When I leave here, I know I won’t just be saying goodbye to Meadowbrook and the Stone brothers. My heart found its forever home in those mountains, and it’s damn sure not ready to leave.
Somehow over the past few weeks, I’ve fallen hard for the guys. I’m irrevocably, impossibly in love with all three of them. It seems like sheer insanity, but it’s the truest thing I know.
My actual tumble down the mountainside led to me falling straight into the depths of an emotional whirlwind. The connection I feel with them is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
The butterflies in my stomach swirl into flight every time they look at me. Not in an anxious, palm-sweaty way, but in this beautifully exhilarating way that’s strangely calm and comforting, too.
Like the thrill of feeling wonderfully alive — it’s breathtaking and exciting, but also peacefully centering. I never had that with Jason, or any other man. It was either chaotic and messy or predictable and uninspired.
Never that sweet spot in between. And something tells me that’s where love truly exists — the everlasting kind, anyway. The kind I feel for the three of them.
I’ve grown to adore all the things they love, too — their beautiful land, their simple, unassuming way of life. And Daisy. I’m head over heels for that adorable, sausage-begging, snow-loving dog.
So, no. My heart won’t be coming with me when I head home.
After my shopping excursion with Natalie, I returned to this spacious suite, every sound echoing off the floor-to-ceiling glass windows and marble tile, reminding me of its emptiness.
With nothing else to do — at least nothing that interests me — I began packing up my stuff. Christmas is just around the corner, and then the guys will be back from their trip. I know after they return and we have our final goodbye, I won’t be in the right state of mind to gather my things. It’ll be all I can do to get into the cab and let it carry me away to the airport.
That’s exactly why my bags are mostly packed now, with a few final changes of clothes laid out on the padded bench in the bedroom and one here on the bathroom counter. My vacation is almost over, but I hope this won’t be the last time I’m in Meadowbrook — maybe I can make moving here a reality at some point in the not-to-distant future.
I thought about it the whole time I showered, how to approach the guys about that possibility. I’ve vowed to bring the subject up before I leave, even as much as it scares me.
Natalie’s words keep running through my mind, but I need to hear it directly from them. There’s so much up in the air until that happens. I can’t get on the plane without knowing for sure. I just can’t. Even if it’s not the reaction I’m hoping for, I have to know.
All dried off, I hang the towel up and reach for my bra and panties lying on the counter. I finish pulling on a pair of worn-in jeans and a big, soft hooded sweatshirt. I’ll dress up to go to Tank and Natalie’s for Christmas dinner, but for the next few days, I’m chilling in my favorite comfy clothes.
There’s no one to impress right now and even if the guys were here, they seem to like me just fine dressed down. Hell, I think they’d prefer me in boots and overalls over a little black dress any day.
While Natalie and I were out, I picked up a bunch of paperbacks from a cute little bookstore, and there are a few bottles of wine in the suite’s well-stocked kitchen that I’ve been eyeing. For the next couple days I plan to settle in and read my heart out — hopefully, that’ll make the time pass faster and next thing I know, it’ll be time for Christmas dinner with my new friends and then the guys will be back in town.
I stare at myself in the mirror for a moment, in awe of everything that’s happened over the past few weeks. In awe of myself. Kinda proud, too.
Adeline Spencer, you are a woman of mystery.
Who knew I was capable of loving three men at the same time? Not me. A month ago I would have laughed if someone had predicted this as my future. But I came here wanting an adventure, and hell, did I get one. The experience of a lifetime. I just hope it’s not actually coming to an end—that somehow, the guys and I find a way to make it work.
If they’re interested, that is.
A bout of nervousness spreads through me, thinking again about the conversations we need to have—how they feel about me, whether they want this to be a long-term thing, the situation with their dad.
Also, I’m desperately curious to know the reason why they don’t do Christmas anymore, even though I’m pretty sure the story behind that isn’t full of jolly memories and good times.
So many things.
None of them lighthearted, easy topics.
I tease my fingers through the tangles of my wet hair and head back into the bedroom.
My eyes go wide, and my feet come to a full stop just two steps through the doorway. I freeze as a shot of adrenaline speeds through my veins, my heart pounding as I stare in surprise.
What the hell...
“Jason?”
“What are you doing, Addie?” He doesn’t even look up as he speaks, a strange calmness in his voice.
Anxiety bubbles through me at the sight of him sitting on the foot of the bed, scrolling through his phone.
“Uh...” I stumble through a dozen responses in my head, none of them making their way to my mouth.
His sudden appearance has me rattled, and it takes me a moment to pull myself together, but once I do, I straighten up and cross my arms.
“I’m on vacation. You know — the one you promised me before you turned out to be a douchebag? The better question is what are you doing?”
He still doesn’t look up, instead he keeps staring at his phone, frowning as he scrolls his thumb against the screen.
I glance out the bedroom doorway, half expecting to see someone standing there. “What? Did you feel the sudden urge to bring McBitchface skiing?”
Finally, Jason raises his eyes to me. There’s a cold fury brewing in his expression that makes my heart pound harder, but I’m not about to let him see how unnerved I am.
“You haven’t been answering my calls,” he says.
I blink in astonishment. “Of course, I haven’t. I have nothing to say to you. I thought I made that crystal clear when I caught you fucking another woman.”
“You know, it’s interesting...” he says slowly, looking around, studying every inch of the room.
He doesn’t continue, and a flash of irritation rises through my nervousness and I shut my eyes for a moment, willing him to be gone when I open them. But he’s still sitting there, his gaze roving over the outfits I’ve laid out.
“What’s interesting?” I ask through clenched teeth.
“When I saw the charges on my credit card from Silverthorne, I didn’t think much of it at first — then I remembered this reservation was non-refundable and had already been paid for in advance, so why would there be new charges?”
I snort. “So you flew all the way out here to investigate?”
His gaze lands back on me, and there’s a spark of something hard and dangerous in his expression that frightens me. My stomach spirals into a knot as he stares at me.
“I’ll pay you back for every penny,” I tell him, a lump forming in my throat. “It might take me a little while, but I’ll cover every char
ge.”
Jason smiles, but it’s not friendly. It’s twisted, like the way Death would smile when he finds his victim.
“That’s the thing, Addie,” he says. “It’s already been taken care of. All the charges were reversed, wiped off my credit card.”
My breath goes shallow as my anxiety boils over into panic.
Oh, shit.
The resort’s going to have me arrested for theft or credit card fraud or impersonation or something. I tense, waiting for cops to stroll into the bedroom any second and slap handcuffs on me.
“I thought perhaps it was just a mistake,” he continues, rising from the bed. “I thought... maybe they’d accidentally billed me for someone else’s stay and then fixed it. But my curiosity got the better of me, so I called the resort. Do you know what I found out, Addie?”
I stare at him warily, waiting for the other shoe to drop. I truly have no idea what the resort told him, but I know it’s not good.
When I don’t reply, Jason tilts his head, his eyes still fixed on me. “They told me the entire bill — the meals, the shopping you’ve charged to the room, even the reservation for this suite — had been paid for by someone else. That’s why they reversed the charges on my card.”
My eyes widen with surprise, but I remain silent. There must have been a mix up, because he’s not making any sense.
I keep my face masked with dispassion as he studies me, looking for... what, I’m not sure. In return, I search his face just as thoroughly, waiting for any hint of the feelings I once had for him to spring forth.
There’s nothing.
Not even anger — at least, not about him cheating on me.
I’m pissed off that he’s invaded the suite and that he’s had the gall to show his face at all. But I don’t even care enough about him anymore to still be upset over what he did.
If anything, he did me a favor by bringing our relationship to a quick and permanent end. We weren’t a good match, and no amount of time was going to change that.
As I stare at him, it dawns on me that I never loved him.
Not really.
Mountain Cure (Stone Brothers Duet, #2) Page 11