Page 244 of The Friends and Rivals Collection

DEREK

Sometimes you have to take chances.

Last year, I took a chance to be with Perri.

And this past week, I took a chance for Shaw.

Even though there were risks. Like pissing off the woman I love.

Perri marches up to me, slams her hands on my chest, and quietly hisses, “What did you do?”

But I’m not worried. I know how to smooth things over with this fiery woman I adore to the ends of the Earth and back. I smile and run a hand through her hair. “Kitten, it’s all good. I knew he was in love with her.”

She squints. “How did you know that? I didn’t know that.”

I scoff. “You didn’t want to know that! But I’ve been trying to tell you for months. He’s so damn crazy about Vanessa. I could barely handle him mooning over her every time he saw her.”

“So you did what exactly? Arranged a snowstorm?”

I wiggle my eyebrows, pleased at my machinations. “I’m good, but I’m not that good.”

Her eyes don’t let go of mine. “So what did you do, McBride? Don’t make me cuff you and bring you in for questioning.”

I loop my arm around her waist and raise my eyebrows. “That might not be so bad. But you won’t, because I’m not the bad guy in this story. There is no bad guy. I’m one of the good guys, and I did a good thing for everyone by making all this love happen.”

“And how did you do that, Mr. Matchmaker?”

I smile, pleased as the dickens. “I talked to Miriam at the library when I was there with my niece. We chatted about a bunch of things. Her son, Vanessa, Shaw, and oh yeah, someone else.”

“Who?”

I whisper in her ear.

“What?” Shock covers Perri’s face when she draws back.

“Indeed. And look, Vanessa and Shaw needed a kick in the pants to get together. So I gave them one.”

“What if it had gone south?”

“But it didn’t. Because we engineered it brilliantly.

And besides, these two,” I say, gesturing to the new lovebirds, “are so in love that it simply couldn’t go wrong.

So Miriam and I arranged the whole Jamie-Vanessa thing to get the two of them moving.

It worked. I knew Shaw would only get his butt in gear if someone serious seemed to be going after Vanessa.

I also knew she was crazy about him.” I run my fingers over Perri’s cheek, giving a smile just for her. “And I knew you’d forgive me.”

She breathes out hard. “That’s a lot of assumptions.”

“But you forgive me?”

“Hmm.” She’s softening. “Why should I?”

“Because I pushed all the right buttons to engineer true love.”

She turns to look at Shaw and Vanessa, who seem sickeningly happy, then she turns back to me. “Fine. I forgive you.”

“Good, because I fucking love you, and I also knew you’d be happy if Vanessa was finally with the man she wanted.”

Perri sighs contentedly. “She does seem to like him.”

I shift my gaze to the hallway. “How many bedrooms does this cabin have?”

“At least two, I think.”

“What do you say we claim one for the rest of the day?”

“I’d say that’s a deal.”

Shaw

Later, we tromp outside in the snow for a snowball fight, and the ladies make snow angels as the sun shines brightly on a carpet of white.

With my phone, I snap a picture of my very own snow bunny, then I tug her up from the ground and press a kiss to her cold nose.

“Hey, you,” I whisper. “So this is kind of nice.”

She stares down the bridge of her nose. “Kind of?”

I shrug nonchalantly. “Kind of totally fucking awesome.” Then I sniff. “Also, it smells like juniper out here.”

“That’s the juniper tree,” she says, waving behind her toward a thatch of trees. “And thanks a lot. Now I’m craving a juniper latte.”

I hold up one finger. “I promised to treat you like a queen. Be right back.”

I grab Derek, take off in my truck on the newly plowed road, and return a little later with a quartet of juniper lattes.

“Told you I’d treat her right,” I say to Perri as I hand the beverage to my woman.

Vanessa taps her fingernail against the side of the cup. “This is pretty good treatment.”

That evening, over a simple dinner and snacks, the four of us play Monopoly, then we go to our separate rooms. All I will say is thank God they’re on opposite ends of the cabin.

Because Vanessa and I make use of ours.

All. Night. Long.