Why do you get to be best man and I get to be matron of honor? I should be best woman. Matron of honor makes me sound old and boring,” Sophia grumbled from the passenger seat of Adam’s truck.
They were on their way to the lodge for Spring Fling, the final weekend of events before the ski runs were closed for the season. It was also the weekend they put Operation Happy Ever After in Christmas into action. Sophia’s idea, not his. She said they needed a code name for their plan. At that point, he’d been ready to agree to just about anything to get her to stop crying.
“You are the best woman, a gorgeous best woman, but right now we have more important things to think about. Like how we’re going to convince Autumn she loves you and her friends and Christmas too much to leave. And—”
“You think I’m gorgeous?” she asked with a teasing smile, because the woman was nothing if not confident in her looks. All she had to do was look in the mirror or go to her Facebook page for confirmation. Today she was stunning in a body-hugging, cream-colored ski suit with a pink vest and pink fur boots.
“Yeah, and I think you know I do. You always did,” he said, his eyes on the narrow mountain road. Traffic was heavy as everyone made their way to the lodge for the cardboard box race. Tonight they’d be dining under the stars with live music.
He glanced at Sophia when she didn’t say anything. She was staring at him. He frowned. “What?”
“I didn’t know you thought I was gorgeous back then. I didn’t know you looked at me that way.”
“Come on, you had to know. And how was I supposed to look at you? I was a guy. You were a girl.”
“I didn’t know, Adam. If—” She broke off and looked out the window.
“You had to know I was attracted to you, Soph. All the guys were.”
“I didn’t care about all the guys. I only cared what you thought about me.”
“I thought you were beautiful and incredibly sexy and funny and sweet, but I was enjoying being single and free, and you were too young for me.”
“And now?”
He wasn’t sure how to respond. He was as attracted to her as he’d always been, maybe more so. But there was a part of him that still thought of her as his brother’s wife. And even though Bryce had been gone, and gone a long time, Adam found it difficult to get past that. “I still think you’re the most beautiful woman in all of Colorado.”
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Yeah, I do.” He reached for her hand, brought it to his mouth, and brushed his lips over her knuckles. The same hand that had worn his brother’s ring. He lifted his gaze to hers, and the thought must have shown in his eyes because she nodded and drew her hand away. “Soph, look at me.”
“It’s okay. I understand. I don’t know if I can get past it either.”
“We’ll talk, okay? But right now we have a job to do.”
“Yes, convince Autumn and Logan that they belong in Christmas, not Switzerland.”
He’d returned to San Francisco the day after Logan and Autumn’s engagement party to get cleared for work, so he and Sophia had done their strategizing by phone. They were planning to show the couple that not only would Autumn miss Sophia and her friends, but that his brother and Sophia had things in common and could get along. Then they’d pull out the big guns Easter Sunday. They’d show his brother what his kids would be missing if he took them away from their extended family.
“If they’re anything like Zeus, that shouldn’t be hard. He missed you this week.” If he was honest, so had he. Even though he’d talked to her every day, sometimes twice a day.
“I missed you too.”
He thought she was talking about him and was just about to admit he’d missed her too when he glanced over and realized she was talking to Zeus. “Hey, stop feeding him,” he said when she gave the dog an iced cookie. “You can’t give him human food, Soph. It’s not good for him.”
“He’s skinny, and I’m not stupid.” She dug a Sugar Plum Bakery bag out of a purse the size of a suitcase. “Grace is making doggie cookies now.”
“Okay, but don’t overdo it with the treats.” Adam pulled into the parking lot. It was filled beyond capacity, so he drove around to the back of the lodge to take advantage of family parking.
“I’m sorry for thinking you didn’t know what you were doing, Sophia.” She mimicked a man’s voice. “I should have known that just because you have big hair and big boobs doesn’t mean you’re a bimbo with no brains.”
“I don’t sound like that, and trust me, I know better than anyone that behind that big hair and body lies a devious little mind.”
She cocked her head.
“A mind as big as your other assets.” That earned him a look from both her and the dog. “Okay, I’m sorry. I know you’d never do anything to endanger Zeus.”
But an hour later, the same could not be said for Operation Happy Ever After in Christmas. From Logan’s expression, his brother definitely did not feel like he had anything in common with Sophia…or Ty.
“Adam, I’m not sure putting Logan on Team Diva was a good idea,” Autumn said, glancing to where Sophia and Ty were hard at work blinging out the pink car they’d fashioned out of cardboard while his brother stood watching them with his arms crossed. Twenty-five vehicles—cars, boats, tanks, planes, and trucks—fashioned out of cardboard had been entered in this year’s race. Prizes would go to the best-looking and the fastest time down the bunny hill.
“Yeah, Soph kinda forgot to mention their entry’s theme,” he told Autumn.
“It’s Sophia and Ty. What did you think they’d be entering in a race?”
He laughed, and then he saw Zeus. “What’s he doing over there? He’s supposed to be on our team.” Autumn, Jill, Nell’s nephew Gage and his wife, Madison, were on his team. Since three of them were law enforcement, they’d made a police cruiser three times the size of Sophia and Ty’s car. Zeus was their mascot. Just five minutes before, he’d been wearing a vest with a badge and sheriff’s hat, which had been replaced with a pink tutu and crown.
“Soph, you stole my dog. And in case you forgot, his name is Zeus. He’s—”
“Stop while you’re ahead,” Gage warned Adam as he affixed a cardboard headlight to the front of their cruiser.
“Did the dog tell you its name was Zeus, Adam? No, I didn’t think so. Just like I don’t think it told you its gender identity,” Ty said.
“The—” Adam was about to point out what did identify Zeus as male when Gage said, “Geezus, don’t go there.”
And maybe because Sophia also could tell where he’d been going, she decided a distraction was in order. “I did not steal your dog, Adam. I cannot steal that which is already mine.” She gave him a smug smile and Zeus a cookie.
She’d added a pink fur hat to her outfit and looked so adorable that all he could do was smile back at her like an idiot. Well, he was smiling until Ty decided his brother didn’t fit the Diva theme and sprinkled him with pink glitter.
Autumn yelped and ran over to save the day, but not Adam and Sophia’s plan. At least not the part in which his brother and Sophia became lifelong friends. Autumn suggested she and her fiancé change teams.
Logan managed to crack a smile when Team Diva came barreling down the hill, Zeus in the front of the pink cardboard car with what could only be described as a doggie grin, while Autumn, Ty, and Sophia were hugging one another and laughing hysterically behind him. They didn’t win for best-looking car or fastest down the bunny hill, but that didn’t stop them from celebrating as if they had.
Logan wasn’t smiling several hours later as they stood by the outdoor bar, watching Sophia, Autumn, and about ten of their girlfriends, including Ty, dance to live music under the stars.
Adam had finally had enough. “I don’t get it. What is it about Sophia that you don’t like?”
“Everything,” his brother muttered, and Adam wanted to punch him.
Instead, he tightened his grip on his glass of soda. He was the designated driver tonight.
Logan must have sensed Adam was ticked because he rolled his eyes. “Start thinking with your other head and put yourself in my shoes for a change. I’ve loved Autumn since we were in grade school. There was no one else for me but her, and she’d always felt the same. Until she went off to college and met Sophia. Every weekend she came home, Sophia tagged along with her. So instead of hanging out together like we used to, the two of them were the life of every party.”
They were the life of the party again, Adam thought. He glanced at Zeus, who paced the perimeter of the outdoor dance floor, keeping a watchful eye on Sophia.
“But you married her, so obviously you guys worked through it.”
“I thought we had. And then about a week after Bryce died, I got the offer for my dream job. Travel, great money, everything we had talked about, but she wouldn’t go. She wouldn’t leave Sophia.”
“So you left her.”
“I was tired of coming in second.” He glanced at Sophia and Ty, who were now performing in the circle of their clapping and laughing friends. “Soon I won’t have to.” His brow furrowed, and then he pointed at the man videoing the women on the dance floor. “What’s Rick doing here?”
He’d had a feeling today might be a bust and had a backup plan. “You’re leaving, and like I’ve been trying to tell you, I’m not taking your place. Which means, if Gramps won’t step in, Rick will.”
He wouldn’t let it go that far, and he certainly hadn’t broached the idea with Rick. His cousin had come to him the morning after the engagement party with a business proposition. Rick had once owned the town’s local newspaper and had an interest in photography and videography. He’d proposed offering it as a service to the lodge’s guests. Adam had been impressed that Rick had gotten his ego in check and wasn’t asking for a handout. He also believed in second chances and that family should help out family when they could. So he’d decided to give him a trial run, albeit with security keeping an eye on him.
“Good try, but I know you too well. And this is an offer of a lifetime that I can’t afford to pass up. It’ll be good for the kids. It’s the chance for a new beginning for the four of us. Please don’t stand in my way, brother.” He looked at the two women hugging and laughing on the dance floor. “And maybe you can make Sophia understand that if she loves Autumn, she has to let her go.”
“Maybe if you gave her a chance and sat down and talked to her, explained where you’re coming from, she would. But from where she’s standing, her best friend, business partner, and co–home owner is moving to the other side of the world with a man who is an asshat.”
“I’m not an asshat.”
“No, not to most people, but you are to Sophia, and it ends now.”
“That’s how it is, is it? Can’t say I’m surprised. I always thought you’d end up with her. But then you went to California and Bryce came home.” He looked up at Blue Mountain. “If he were still here, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. He was always Gramps’s first choice to manage the lodge.”
Sophia’s too, he thought, no matter what his brother said. No matter what he once believed.
“I’m going to take Autumn home. You mind sticking around?”
“No. I’ll look after things here. Soph’s with me, so you’ll have a couple hours before she gets to the house.”
“You’re a big boy, so I won’t warn you to be careful. Besides, if anyone can handle her, it’s you. She was too much woman for our little brother.” He raised his hand. “Okay, I’ll shut up.”
“Yeah, you do that. And for the record, Bryce loved her, and she loved him. You know it, and so do I.”
“You weren’t around. Things weren’t good after the accident. Bryce—” His brother glanced at the people waiting for drinks and must have realized it wasn’t the time or place for this conversation. Adam would be just as glad to never talk about it again. “I better go get Autumn. Appreciate you closing up for me, Adam,” Logan said before walking toward the dance floor.
Adam was keeping an eye on Sophia when he felt someone watching him from the other side of the bar.
The guy was about six foot one with dark hair and tattoo sleeves. “You Adam Dane? US Marshal who got shot in San Fran?”
“I am. Who’s asking?”
“Jake Callahan. Callahan Automotive.”
“Ah, the man who keeps an open bay just for Sophia.” He smiled and offered his hand as he sized up her Valentine’s date.
“Right, and you’re the guy who ruined my shot with the woman of my dreams.” He grinned. “So, you heard of me. Good. At least it’s not one-sided.”
“You’ve lost me, man.”
“She’s in love with you. Thought she might be when she called me Adam a couple times during our date. Knew it for sure when she got word you were shot.” He glanced to where Sophia danced by herself. “You going to stand here all night, or are you going to dance with the woman?”
Adam moved to put his glass on the bar and then clapped the other man on the shoulder. “I’m going to do something I should have done a long time ago.”
Jake lifted his beer bottle. “Good luck.”
Adam thought he might need it when Sophia saw him coming and stopped dancing. “It didn’t work, did it? Your brother still hates me.”
“We have Sunday. But I don’t want to talk about Autumn and Logan right now.”
“No.” She looked down when he put his hands on either side of her waist and drew her toward him. “What are you doing?”
“I was hoping to dance with you.”
She smiled like she used to, and he smiled in return, fighting the urge to kiss her adorable dimples.
“I didn’t think you could dance. You never did. All you did was watch,” she said as she moved into his arms, looping hers around his neck.
“You were fun to watch, but I don’t want to watch anymore. I’m tired of sitting on the sidelines.” He glanced over his shoulder at Jake, who saluted him with his beer bottle, and then Adam looked into Sophia’s eyes. “I’m afraid if I do, someone else will come along, and I’ll lose out on my chance with you.”
“That would never happen.”
“It did, Soph. It happened more than a decade before.”
“I…I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything. It’s time to let go of the past. Nothing we do or say will change anything.”
“I can think of something that will change everything.”
“What’s that?”
“Dance with me, and then kiss me.”
“Happy to.” But as they began to move to “The Keeper of the Stars” by Tracy Byrd, Adam knew he couldn’t wait and bent his head to kiss her. Almost from the moment his mouth closed over hers, he knew it was nothing like the kiss they’d shared at New Year’s. It wasn’t friendly, and it wasn’t brief. It was deep, and it was real and hot and tinged with regret for all the years wasted. There was also a hint of nerves, because this kiss felt like a promise.