Page 58 of Snowed In with her Mountain Men

It was one thing to run into one of your brother’s best friends on some distant Greek isle, during a spur-of-the-moment vacation. But to have them both show up together, so far from home?

Well, that just didn’t make any sense.

“How the hell did you find me?” I demanded.

The two men just looked at each other and smirked.

“It wasn’t that hard,” said Kayden, nonchalantly scratching his beard. “We asked around for the tallest, most desperate-looking girl in the Eastern hemisphere.”

I frowned at him and crossed my arms.

“Or we could’ve just followed the stack of broken hearts,” joked Bishop. “That would’ve worked too.”

The setting sun lit them up now, turning their sun-bronzed skin a beautiful gold. I wondered how long they’d been here, hopping the Greek islands. If the whole thing had been simple coincidence, or—

“It was my brother, wasn’t it?” I said, glancing down at my phone. “He tracked me.”

Kayden bit his lip and looked away. It made him look annoyingly sexy.

“That’s the boring answer, but yes,” he admitted.

“Figures.”

“He sent us to see how you were,” Bishop went on. “In light of… well…”

Right on time, the bad memories began flooding back. My frown deepened.

“He also demanded we take you to get a decent dinner.”

I laughed, nodding downward. “I already ordered dinner.”

Kayden pointed and smiled placatingly. “That’s not dinner.”

“Oh, no? Then what is it?”

“I don’t know. But you’re sure as hell not eating it.”

Almost on cue, my stomach growled.

“You sure? I’m kinda hungry.”

“Very sure,” said Kayden. “A million percent sure.”

“Because I know you’re a fancy chef now, and all that—”

“Executive chef,” he interjected.

Bishop caught my own hazel eyes with his. He rolled them dramatically, and I laughed.

“Executive, huh?” I grinned back at Kayden. “I remember you turning hamburger patties into hockey pucks in my backyard, whenever Jase let you take over the grill.”

“Yeah, well your brother always set the flame too high,” Kayden responded. “And the ground beef your mother bought was way too lean.”

“Sounds like a whole lot of deflection,” Bishop quipped, confidentially.

“Yeah. Sure does.”

“Especially since we’re both chefs now,” he went on. “And I could outburger this asshole with one hand tied behind my back.”

The look Kayden shot his friend was almost deadly. Far too deadly for a simple rivalry.

“What do you mean you’re both chefs?” I squinted, turning back to Bishop. “Last time I saw you, you were still in the Marines.”

The shorter of my brother’s two best friends remained uncharacteristically silent, as I gave him the usual once-over.

Bishop still stood at a solid six feet, and only an inch taller than me.

Right now though, his body was packed with delicious acres of lean, striated muscle.

Even more than the last time I’d seen him.

“Yeah, well, I’m finally out,” he said, by way of explanation. “And right now, the two of us are working together.”

The pencil-thin high school lacrosse star that had tormented me throughout most of my childhood had enlisted straight out of high school.

Each time he came home on leave, he looked bigger, stronger, more capable.

He still took pleasure in torturing me whenever he could, but over time we developed an underlying flirtiness to our banter.

The last time he came back, Bishop had looked so hot it made me utterly furious.

But not so furious that I still didn’t fuck with him.

“You’re working together?” I eventually laughed. “Where?”

“Right here. In Greece.”

My eyebrows knitted together in disbelief. “No fucking way.”

“Actually, we’re staying on a private island,” he smiled. “Not far from here.”

“What?” I blinked. “How?”

“Well, next week we’re working this special event—”

“Bishop…” The sternness in Kayden’s tone was lined with incredulity, as he cut him off.

“It’s very exclusive, very private,” Bishop went on. “We’re here scouting ingredients, and ordering proteins for—”

“Bishop!”

Kayden kicked his friend while clearing his throat. But I had to know.

“Is he talking shit?” I asked.

“Unfortunately, no.”

“Alright then, prove it.”

Kayden blinked. “Prove it? Prove what?”

“Well, my dinner’s cold,” I pointed downward. “You owe me a hot meal.”

“And we’ll take you to one,” he agreed. “In fact, there’s a place right around the corn—”

“I don’t want something from some stiff, uppity restaurant,” I countered. “I want something you made.”

“Me?”

“One of you, sure. Or both. You did say you could outcook each other.”

Kayden’s handsome face broke into a grin.

It reminded me of all the fun times we’d shared, ragging on my brother, taking Jase verbally apart as we played board games, or soaked in the hot tub, or camped on our big leather couch, just shooting the shit.

Kayden and I both had sharp tongues, and knew how to use them.

Together, we were a force to be reckoned with.

“Are you kidding? Me versus him? ”

I shrugged. “Why not?”

“Because I’d bury him. It wouldn’t even be close.”

Bishop laughed, leaning in. “Is he serious?” he jerked a thumb. “After all those hockey pucks we suffered through?”

“Besides,” I went on, “If I know my brother, he sent the two of you here to cheer me up. And eating something exquisitely delicious, prepared by a pair of executive chefs—”

“He is not an executive chef!” grunted Kayden.

“—might be just the thing,” I finished, ignoring him.

The two men stared at each other, communicating silently for a moment before sharing a nod. Bishop fished a few colorful Euro notes from his back pocket, then tossed them on the table.

“Hope you like getting wet,” he winked at me.

A ball of heat suddenly coalesced in my stomach. “Wet?”

“Sea-spray,” Bishop smiled, jerking a thumb. “Our kitchen’s on another island, remember? And this asshole’s gonna hit every bump and wave on the way there.”