Page 5

CHAPTER 4

CLAY

PRISSY LITTLE BLONDE

“Seriously man, congratulations.” I raise my beer and reach across the hot tub to tap it against my older brother’s. “It’s about time.” I’m wearing an ear to ear grin that doesn’t feel forced for a change. Tanner deserves to be happy and I’m glad it’s with the girl, the woman, he’s been in love with almost his whole life.

“Thanks,” he says, smiling back at me.

When my brother called me and confirmed he was coming to town with his girlfriend, he invited me to hang out because he had something we’d need to celebrate. My brother isn’t one for sharing feelings, so if he asked I knew it was important. But I was not expecting it to be his engagement .

“So are you ever going to find a nice girl and let her tie you down?”

I nearly spit out my beer laughing. “Ok, bro. Very funny. You know I’m not the get all emotional and attached type. But I’d let one tie me up,” I add with a wink.

Sure. It would be amazing to have someone in my life. But that sounds like opening myself up to a level of hurt, of vulnerability that scares the living shit out of me. “For real though, I can’t believe you finally did it. You’ve only been in love with her since…” I put my fingers to my lips, pausing for emphasis. “Oh, I don’t know. Since before I could even walk?”

He snorts and punches me in the shoulder. I look over at Collin, sitting across the hot tub from me and next to Tanner. He’s just palming his face and shaking his head. I haven’t seen him in ages either. He’s always been like an older brother to me because of the time Tanner and him spent together. With all the holiday breaks and summers that the Perry twins would spend at their grandparents’ condo in Wyoming when we were growing up, it felt like they were always around.

“And you.” I point at him. “How on earth did you not see this for decades ?”

Collin shrugs his shoulders, humming an I don’t know under his breath. “I guess I was just oblivious. Chap’s never really been one to pour his feelings out.”

I take a sip of my beer and let out a huff of laughter. “Speaking of your fiancée though, where are the girls?”

Collin reaches out of the tub, grabbing a couple more beers from the mound of snow he was using as a makeshift cooler. “Oh, they’re upstairs getting some snacks and probably cracking a second bottle of Champagne. They’ve been non-stop giddy today since Chap popped the question.”

“Yeah, I bet. So it’s Grace, V, and her friend whose condo you’re all staying at?” I ask, noting that there are only three open spots left in the hot tub.

“Yep. Should be a chill night.” Tanner turns to face Collin, grabbing his fresh beer.

Looking around the hot tub on the snow covered patio outside the Aspen Grove Club, I can’t help but relax a bit watching the steam rise off the rippling water. The hot tub is doing wonders for my sore body after working all day. It feels good to be with my brother, seeing him so happy. He lives almost five hours away and I don’t get to see him enough since we’re both busy with work. I take a deep breath, relaxing back into the jets and it’s almost enough to shake the thought of my mystery girl from last night.

She isn’t the distraction I need right now in my life.

I have two job sites to manage. I’ve got condo renovations and expansions in the exact condo complex I’m at right now and then the project over at the Grand Lodge. Thankfully, that is wrapping up soon, but this one here is demanding. And ever since I got promoted, it feels like I have even more pressure on me. This is why I don’t obsess over random girls I’ll never see again. Tourists like her come and go. And I don’t do girlfriends. I don’t get attached.

Normally that’s perfect because it never ends well for me when I get attached to anyone, to anything. But how is that prissy little blonde already under my skin so much? We talked for maybe five minutes and we made out. Somehow though, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her. Her smell. The taste of bourbon on those red lips.

I’m pulled from my thoughts by a pair of familiar laughs. I look over to the patio door, seeing Grace and V come out in fluffy white robes with plastic wine glasses of Champagne in hand.

“Hey ladies!” I shout. “You two finally ready to be real sisters?”

Grace is almost six feet tall and V isn’t far behind. They even have the same long, brown hair, minus Grace’s streaks of purple, pink, and orange. She’s always felt like family. It’s going to be awesome having her around more, especially if it means my brother isn’t moping around like a lovesick puppy and she makes him visit more often.

“You came!” V’s eyes go wide and she grins. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen her, just like Collin.

She steps towards me, away from Grace. And that’s when I make out the golden blonde pony tail of the shorter girl behind them. When V gets further from Grace and I can see all of her, my lungs stop functioning and I can feel my heart pound into my rib cage.

Fuck.

Her big, blue eyes meet mine and I freeze.

This must be Lizzy. My future sister-in-law’s best friend.

And my mystery girl.

Everyone’s hugging and joking and bullshiting. But I can’t focus. I can’t hear what they’re even saying. I’m pretty sure my brain has short circuited. The girl I’ve been obsessing over for the last twenty-four hours is here, in the hot tub with me, in an absurdly tiny pink bikini. I knew she was a smokeshow last night, but fuck, this is too much.

My mind is a tangled mess. She ran out of the bar, looking like a deer caught in the headlights. After obsessively playing last night out in my head all day, I remembered it was after I tucked her hair back that she froze. I realize now she must have seen the tattoo on my wrist. So I take it she’s seen that tattoo before, a pretty specific one. We all have it: Tanner, Collin, and now I realize V has it with that bikini. It was our badge of honor, a little inside joke, after skiing Corbett’s at Jackson Hole.

So she recognized me and freaked out?

But she didn’t even try to talk to me. She just ran and left me feeling like an asshole. And now, she’s sitting across from me looking anywhere but at me. Like I don’t even exist.

So I didn’t do anything wrong after all. But also, this is definitely not what I need. She’s Veronica’s best friend. This can’t happen.

Two can play this game I guess. I’m just going to pretend she doesn’t exist either. I need to keep distance between us.