by Marie Force
“Don’t be a smart-ass. You know this is my business. It affects Cameron, so it affects me.”
“It doesn’t affect Cameron, and it doesn’t affect you. It’s got nothing to do with either of you.”
“You’ve lost your mind. That’s the only possible explanation for such an asinine statement. Maybe it’s all the years you’ve spent in isolation on the mountain. You’ve forgotten how the real world works.”
“I haven’t forgotten a thing. I’m perfectly socialized despite my isolation.”
“Then how can you possibly think this has nothing to do with me or Cameron? Who do you think will have to mop up the mess if you break Lucy’s heart?”
Holding a mug of steaming coffee and wishing he had a shot of something stronger to add to it, Colton leaned against the counter. “Who’s going to mop up the mess if she breaks my heart?”
Will huffed with aggravation. “You’re not taking me seriously.”
“Oh, I am. And for your information, I have no intention of breaking her heart. I quite like her heart and everything else about her. If I have any say in the matter, she and I will be messing around, as you put it, for a good long time to come. So no need to get out the mops and buckets, no intervention needed. It’s all good. In fact, why don’t you get the hell out of here and leave us alone? We were having a perfectly nice time until you showed up.”
“I’m not going anywhere. Dad gave me the house for the weekend.”
“Funny, he gave it to me, too.”
Will stared at him, disbelieving. “He totally set us up.”
“Looks that way.”
“Unreal,” Will said with a laugh. “What’s his deal?”
“Clearly he wanted to know who I was hanging out with, so he sent you to find out.”
“What a conniving pain in the ass he is. Did you hear he and Gramps messed with Hannah’s car on a day when all of us were going to be out of town? She had no choice but to call Nolan.” Their sister was now engaged to the mechanic who’d come to her rescue.
“Are you serious? Where did you hear that?”
“Nolan told me. He couldn’t figure out why her relatively new battery was suddenly failing. After Dad and Gramps kidnapped him—”
“Wait. They did what?”
“The day after Homer died,” Will said of Hannah’s dog, “Mom and Dad found Nolan asleep with Hannah on the sofa. Apparently he’d stayed with her so she didn’t have to be alone after such a sad loss.”
“That was nice of him.”
“I thought so, too. Anyway, that same day, Dad picked Nolan up at work, took him to Gramps’s house and they grilled him about his intentions over pastrami sandwiches. He was laughing about it when he told me, and I think he sort of appreciates the nudge they gave her, but still . . . At the time? Not so funny, especially when Hannah showed up in the middle of their lunch and wanted to know what he was doing there.”
Colton shook his head even as amusement warred with annoyance. “I’m sure they played all sorts of dumb and acted like they hadn’t done anything wrong.”
“Something like that.”
“One of us needs to give them a taste of their own medicine. You should go home and tell Dad that my ‘girlfriend’ is a stripper and I didn’t want him to know about it.”
“We’ve got to come up with something better than that.”
“Maybe you report back that I was here but really just fishing like I told him.”
“That’s a possibility, too.”
“Either way, you can’t tell him the truth.”
“Why not?”
“Because . . . I wouldn’t want to get his hopes up. He likes Lucy. They both do. Hell, I like her, but she insists it’s not going anywhere, so . . .” Colton shrugged. “Not really worth starting an Abbott family furor over it.”
“Who you trying to sell that to, bro? Me or yourself?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re trying awfully hard to convince yourself it’s no big deal with Lucy.”
“It’s not. We’re just having fun. That’s why we didn’t see any need to involve the whole family. It’s just . . . Fun.”
“Hmm.”
“What’s that supposed to mean? Hmm?”
“You and me, we go way back.”
“Oh for Christ’s sake—”
“Hear me out. I’ve never seen you like this before.”
“Like what?”
“The beard, for one thing. It was your trademark. Your signature. It’s on the syrup bottles, for crying out loud. A couple of weekends with her, and it’s gone? Just like that?”
Colton tried hard not to squirm under the glare of his older brother’s shrewd gaze. “I’d been thinking about getting rid of it for a while now.”
“Really.”
“Yes, really. Why do you find that so hard to believe?”
“No reason.”
“You don’t need to be all smug and sanctimonious. Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”
“I know you as well as anyone does, and you’ve been different lately. I’m not the only one who’s seen it. Everyone has noticed.”
“So what? I mix up my routine a little and suddenly I’m different?”
“It’s more than that.”
Right then and there, Colton hit his limit. He put down his mug. “Look, Will, this has been a nice visit. Glad we had the chance to catch up. But I’ve got better things to do with the limited time I get to spend with Lucy than try to defend myself to you, when again, it’s none of your business what I’m doing or who I’m doing it with.”
Will stood up straighter, prepared to engage.
Colton held up a hand to stop him. “I’m done. You’re my brother and most of the time I love being around you. This is not one of those times. Take your lady and hit the road. I was here first, and I’ve got other plans for this weekend than arguing with you.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’ve got plans for this weekend that don’t involve you.”
“You’d better find somewhere else to have these plans of yours.”
“Why? It’s a big house. We can coexist. You won’t even know we’re here.”
“No way. There’s no way you can make yourself disappear enough for my liking.”
“Unless you were planning to get it on in the kitchen—and you’d better not do that or I’ll tell Mom—you can have the downstairs. We’ll take the upstairs. You won’t even know we’re here.”
“Will—”
“We’re not leaving. Cameron needs this weekend away from it all. She’s burned out big time, and she’s exhausted. So . . . Live and let live?”
“Will you stay out of my business?”
“To the best of my ability.”
“That’s not good enough.”
“That’s all I’ve got.”
“Wait, where’re you going?”
“To get our stuff from the car and to let in the dogs.”
“You brought your dogs?”
“Hell yes, I brought them.”
“Great,” Colton muttered under his breath. “Four dogs and two extra people. Just the romantic weekend I had in mind.”
“Did you say something?” Will asked on his way out the door.
“Nope.” What was the point? Will wasn’t going to budge and neither was he. Somehow their romantic weekend for two had just turned into a not-so-romantic weekend for eight. The dogs counted. Of course they did. As if she had read his mind, Sarah nudged at his hand. He ran his fingers through her silky hair. “You feel my pain, don’t you, girl?”
He thought she was going to agree with him until Trevor and Tanner came barreling through the front door and all bets were off. With Elmer hot on her paws, she galloped toward her littermates, delighted to see them. “Traitors.”
* * *
Cameron emerged from the bedroom, looking for Will and hoping to figure out what their next move should be. This whole thing had come as a total shock to her, but w
ith hindsight she couldn’t believe she hadn’t figured it out sooner. Both Colton and Lucy had been acting strangely, disappearing on the weekends, giving vague answers when asked about their plans and generally being evasive.
The old Cameron, the one who spent most of every day in close proximity to Lucy, would’ve picked up the scent of gossip weeks ago. The new Cameron, the one who was caught up in her new life with her new love, hadn’t been paying close enough attention to her best friend. That realization pained her.
She came upon Colton in the kitchen and stopped short. She had a few things she’d like to say to him, but in the interest of preserving family harmony, she kept quiet.
“What?” he asked when he saw her studying him with all-new interest. “Have you got something you want to say to me, too? Your boyfriend already gave me an earful. Feel free to pile on.”
“No desire to pile on. I’ll just say she’s important to me, and I hope you’ll be kind to her.”
“Jeez. What do you take me for?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to insult you. It’s just . . . She hasn’t had an easy time of it, and all I want is for her to be happy.”
“What does that mean? She hasn’t had an easy time of it?”
Cameron shook her head, furious with herself for speaking before she thought it all the way through. “I’m sorry. I said too much. It’s her business and up to her who she wants to tell.”
“You can’t just drop something like that on me and then walk away. Where is she anyway?”
“She wanted a couple of minutes to herself.”
“What aren’t you telling me, Cameron?”
Thankfully, Will picked that moment to come in with their bags. She took her computer bag from him.
“We’re upstairs, babe. Come on, I’ll show you our room.” With a pointed look for Colton, Will added, “It’s on the far opposite side of the house from their room.”
With a smile for Colton, Cameron followed Will upstairs and down a long hallway with several closed doors. At the end, he opened the door and stepped into a spacious room that had an amazing view of the vast lake. A king-sized bed occupied one side of the room. “This is beautiful!”
“Isn’t it? I love it here.”
“I can see why.” She sat on the end of the bed, which was covered with a denim duvet.
He sat next to her and linked their hands. “What do you make of all this?”
“I don’t quite know what to make of it. Lucy seems very involved yet hesitant and uncertain, too. What did Colton say?”
“Sort of the same thing. Mostly he doesn’t see how it’s any of our business.”
“I guess it’s not, unless it goes bad, and then it’ll be our business.”
“Exactly. That’s what I said to him.”
“So we’re staying, and they’re staying?”
“Looks that way.”
“I’m really happy to see her.” She leaned her head on his shoulder. “I’ve missed her so much.”
Will put his arm around her and kissed her temple. “I haven’t forgotten our conversation on the way over here, but that’ll keep if you want to spend some time with Lucy.”
“You’re sure you wouldn’t mind?’
“I’m positive. We have the rest of our lives to spend together.”
She loved when he said things like that. After all the changes she’d made in her life to make their relationship possible, he made it worth it every day.
* * *
Once he’d dispatched Cameron and Will, Colton returned to the bedroom and began throwing clothes into his bag. Some of the clothes were his, some were hers, but it didn’t matter because he was taking her with him.
Lucy emerged from the bathroom, where she’d apparently dried her hair, but thankfully she hadn’t straightened it. He loved those curls. “What’re you doing?”
“We’re leaving.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to be alone with you, and I can’t be alone with you with them here. I’m doing what I should’ve done from the beginning and taking you to my mountain, where there’s no chance we’ll be bothered.”
“Colton, wait. I’d like to see your mountain, but there’s no reason we can’t be here with them and do our own thing while they do theirs.”
He shook his head. “I’ll know he’s here and he’s listening and taking notes so he can report back to my family. I can’t do it.”
She pinched her lips with her fingers and seemed like she was trying not to laugh. “You really think he’s going to report back to your family?”
“Yes! And the reason I know that is because it’s exactly what I would do if the roles were reversed. It’s how we roll, and it’s important to you that people don’t know about us, so I’m trying to respect that.”
She came over to him and wrapped her arms around his neck, making his mind empty of every thought that didn’t involve the feel of her pressed against him. “I think the proverbial cat is now out of the bag. While I appreciate that you’re trying to respect my wishes, it seems we’ve lost control of the situation.”
“This isn’t what you wanted.”
“But it’s what’s happened, so now we have to deal with it. As much as I’d like nothing more than to be completely alone with you, I’ve missed Cameron, and now that she’s here, I’d kind of like to spend a little time with her, too.”
Colton gritted his teeth as aggravation battled with his desire to please her. “Fine. We’ll spend tonight with them, but tomorrow we’re going to my place and we’re staying there until it’s time for you to go home.”
“Isn’t that logistically complicated? Two cars, a couple of hours . . .”
“We’ll leave your car here, and I’ll bring you back on Tuesday morning.”
“That’s kind of crazy, Colton. Driving two hours to bring me here so I can drive six hours home.”
“I’ll take your rental to the airport and turn it in and you can fly back. I’ll buy the ticket.”
“You’re being crazy. You know that, don’t you?”
“I’m fully aware of that, and I’m fine with it if it means I get to have two more days alone with you.”
She placed her hands on his face, a gesture that calmed and soothed him. That she could do that with only the press of her hands against his skin was just another reason to hold on tight to her. “Okay then, mountain man. We’ll do this your way, as crazy as it is.”
He leaned his forehead against hers. “If we were doing this my way, we’d still be naked in that bed having the time of our lives.” Sure enough, his blunt words made her cheeks turn pink. “Instead it appears we’re going to be spending some time with my brother and his girlfriend.”
She pressed a lingering kiss to his lips. “I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”
Hugging her tightly, he said, “I’m so going to hold you to that.”
CHAPTER 10
The wait is over. Out-of-doors it was a storybook sugaring day. Inside the sugarhouse it was, to quote a neighbor who stopped by to help stoke the fire, “like ski racing in the world championships without any practice. Ready, set, go.”
—Colton Abbott’s sugaring journal, March 9
They spent an enjoyable afternoon at the beach in front of the house with Will and Cameron. Lucy loved the way the brothers bickered incessantly but with an underlying affection that was reminiscent of her relationship with her sister, Emma. There was nothing she and Emma wouldn’t say to each other and nothing they wouldn’t do for each other. She sensed the same sort of bond between Will and Colton, even if they were annoyed by the other’s presence at the house.
“I should tell Dad we caught you with a guy,” Will said, sending the girls into fits of giggles as Colton scowled at him.
“If you do that, I’ll tell him you drank all his scotch.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Do it and you’ll find out.”
Even though Colton was clearly pissed off by the turn of
events, Lucy couldn’t help but laugh at his distress. She wondered if he knew how adorable he could be, and seeing him with his brother gave her an all-new perspective on his personality. It was a good perspective that only made her like him more than she already did.
She ran her finger around in the sand, stopping only when she sensed him hovering over her shoulder.
“That’s amazing. You just sat there and drew that?”
Lucy snapped out of her musings to take notice of what she’d drawn. The man in the sand looked an awful lot like him. She’d drawn him without even thinking about what she was doing.
“That’s awesome, Luce,” Cameron said.
“You totally captured him,” Will added.
Lucy felt like she’d exposed her private thoughts through the image that had appeared at the end of her index finger. She swept her fingers across the sand, erasing the drawing. “Just scribbling.”
“Will you do that again sometime on paper?” Colton asked her.
“Maybe.”
“Have you shown her your drawings yet?” Will asked.
“No.”
“You can draw, Colton?” Lucy asked.
“His drawings are amazing.” Will stood as the sun headed for the horizon on the far side of the lake and the temperature began to cool. “Let’s make a fire. Do we have hot dogs?”
“We have hot dogs,” Colton said.
“That we’re happy to share with you guys,” Lucy said with a pointed look for him.
“We’ll get them,” Will said, reaching out to help Cameron up.
“You may as well get the s’mores stuff, too,” Colton said begrudgingly.
“Yay,” Cameron said as she and Will headed for the house with all four dogs following them.
“It’s very nice of you to share with your brother,” Lucy said.
“Whatever. He didn’t give me much choice.”
“You never told me you could draw.”
“You never told me you can, too.”
She smiled at his reply. “Today was fun. Being here with them . . . I haven’t gotten to spend a lot of time with them together. It’s nice to see how good he is to her and how much he loves her. It makes me happy to see her happy.”