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My lips curled into a smirk, and I shook my head in exasperation. “All I’m saying is to be open to the possibility that this could lead to more than a few fun nights.” Pausing, I turned to face my friend, whose brows were pulled in tight as he stared off into the distance. “She’s different. You’re different with her. That’s enough for me to want to push this further than what we’ve had before.”

“She won’t want that,” Miles said with a hard shake of his head. “Not with me, anyway. I have too many issues for a woman like her to want to be with long-term.”

My shoulders slouched and rounded forward, defeat sinking in. “Just give her a chance, please.” I’d fall on my knees where we stood in the middle of the damn road if it meant he’d actually open himself up to the idea of a real future with someone. The fucker was so closed off, I worried about him feeling he had to shoulder the weight of his past and residual pain all on his own. If anything, I wanted Aspen and us to work out because she was strong, resilient, and maybe, just fucking maybe, could be the one to help me save my friend from himself.

Miles’s lips pressed into a tight line as he rubbed at his jaw. “I won’t stop you if she’s who you want to pursue something more… permanent with. I’ll be okay.”

“And what if she wants us both?” I questioned. “For more than a few orgasms and checking a ménage off her bucket list.”

“You think it’s on her bucket list?” he asked, a slow smile peeking through, making his beard and cheeks bunch. “Or anyone’s, for that matter?”

“A wild ménage night is for sure on everyone who needs air to breathe bucket list.”

He nodded and wrapped a hand around the back of his neck, massaging away the tension as he stretched side to side. He parted his lips, ready to respond to our strange turn of conversation, but snapped them closed. Taking two steps, he moved to the edge of the road and scanned the area, clearly having heard something out of the ordinary. Before I could ask what was up, a bike with a familiar dark-headed beauty riding it rounded the corner from the road that led to Anchor Bay. Neither of us moved as she slowed to a stop, stepped off the bike, and took in the row of cabins with a look of wonder on her face.

Miles’s shoulders dropped, and his normally stiff posture softened. The woman he was denying he wanted for more than a good time was yards away, yet she still had an instant calming effect on him in all the ways that mattered.

“Just keep an open mind,” I mumbled, starting in the direction from where Aspen hadn’t moved.

With his confirming nod, we strolled down the road, acting like we weren’t speed-walking just to get to her as quickly as possible. My heart raced in my chest with excitement and anticipation of finding out her thoughts on her and Miles’s conversation the night before about us sharing her.

I had a feeling Aspen would be the one to shake us out of our rut, that she was everything we never knew we needed to not only survive but live. Though it didn’t matter what I thought and felt—those two had to jump on board too. And I only had six days to convince her and Miles that this, us, could be the happily ever after we’d all been looking for.

9

MILES

During the short walk to where Aspen stood in the middle of the street, smiling as if in awe of our small community setup, I studied every detail, unable to look away from the woman. Her long dark hair was pulled back in a high ponytail that swished as she spun in a slow circle, taking in every inch of her surroundings. Scanning her face, I couldn’t help the burst of worry that had me pressing my lips into a tight line at the visible purple circles under both of her large eyes. Her fair, smooth skin made the dark smudges even more prominent.

Even exhausted from the lack of sleep, she was breathtakingly gorgeous. Her beauty was natural, effortless, and even though she was overwhelmed the night before, she looked at peace, or at least comfortable with herself. Confidence radiated off her.

That alone was captivating to me. I never put emphasis or focus on how someone made themselves appear to the world, but instead, I concentrated on the core of who they really were. It was crazy how the world could claim certain women were beautiful and flawless despite the constant malice that came through in social media or the news.

As we approached, Aspen’s lids slowly fluttered closed, her chest rising with a deep inhale that turned into a wide yawn, which she tried to cover with a loose fist. The urge to fix the problem for her, to protect her from the exhaustion clearly weighing on her, made my fingers twitch at my side, eager to do something immediately. Though not even I could control or change the tilt of Earth this time of year.

An idea wormed into my thoughts, refusing to let go of a way to take care of two of the problems that I needed to solve. Almost to where she waited for us, smiling and waving at having noticed our approach, I cleared my throat to get Aiden’s attention.

“I bet Caroline has an eye mask in her cabin that she wouldn’t mind loaning to Aspen. You know none of the stores in town will have one.”

Aiden’s brows furrowed, a deep line forming between them before shooting up his head, no doubt reading between the lines on why I suggested Caroline and not the other women in our community. “Oh, yeah. Right, right. No stores will carry what she needs. You’re right about that. We should totally go break into her cabin—I mean pop by her place to see if she has one. If the cabin is locked, you can always accidentally run that battering ram you call a shoulder into the door.”

A huffed laugh escaped. “Or I could use the key we both know she keeps stashed beneath that ugly-ass stone frog she painted while drunk on cheap wine after book club that one night.”

“Or that. But then you wouldn’t be able to impress the pretty lady.” He gestured toward Aspen, who started to close the distance, walking beside the borrowed bicycle from The Nest.

Barking a laugh that had the corners of Aspen’s lips curl upward, I shoved my friend, making him stumble to the side.

“This is really where you call home?” she asked, gesturing around us with one hand.

Starting at her broken-in hiking boots, I trailed my gaze up her cuffed, loose, water-resistant pants to her tight white tank top worn under a thick cotton red-and-black-plaid long-sleeved shirt that she’d left unbuttoned. Fingers wrapped around the edges of the cuffs, she shot us a hesitant smile.

“We do. Amazing, right?” She nodded, her ponytail swinging with the quick movement. “You found us okay?” Aiden asked, shoving both hands into the front pockets of his jeans and rocking back on his heels. His smile was so damn wide I could see every one of his straight teeth.

She looked at me. “The directions were very… detailed. Thank you. I even appreciated the suggestions on what to wear for today’s weather.”

Aiden laughed at that while I just dipped my chin in acknowledgment. At least she appreciated it and didn’t find it too overbearing, considering I hadn’t even known her for twenty-four hours but had given her outfit suggestions.

“It was a beautiful ride here.” Leaning the bike against her hip, she dug into her satchel, pulling out her massive, expensive-looking camera. Pressing a button, she waited a second before turning the screen our way. “I stopped a few times to grab some amazing shots of the peaks in the distance. The lighting was perfection.”