Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

T en minutes later Ivy crammed herself into the passenger side of Aspen’s two-and-a-half seater Chevy—if you counted the small space where the gear shift stuck up from the floor. She made quick work of tossing aside her warm slippers for a red pair of rain boots and barely managed to clasp her jeans before Gran shuffled them out the door.

It was that or venture out with reindeer attached to her feet and wearing mistletoe-printed pajamas and a see-through top. Having all of Dixen looking at her nipples didn’t appeal. At least her rain boots didn’t have bells and she managed to grab a bra.

She had packed smart shoes and boots made for snow and ice, but no luggage meant no shoes. She opted for yesterday’s dark jeans with one of Gran’s black sweaters and her own red scarf and gloves. Her other options were her gran’s yoga pants.

She shuddered. Only so many people could pull off candy cane stripes, and she wasn’t one of them.

The inn sat on the edge of town down a half-mile-long drive that wound along the calm lakeshore. On the opposite side, apple trees greeted comers and goers. Now they stood bare, but in the springtime, their sweet smell filled the air and pink blooms made the short drive magical.

At the end of the drive going left led to the mountains and camping grounds. Aspen turned the truck right, which would take them to town with Ms. Lucille’s place positioned in the middle, with only a couple of miles between them according to Aspen.

Even with town so close by, the snow stayed crisp and white and the pine trees stood guard like wooden soldiers over visitors passing through the switchback roads. In the spring and summer, lush green branches bowed over the road and provided a canopy of shade.

In the autumn, pine mingled with the broad oak to turn the mountainsides into gold with dots of red, green and purple. But now everything looked like a winter wonderland. She loved it.

For the first couple of minutes they rode in silence, but she couldn’t stand the unease anymore.

“I see you refurbished your dad’s old truck. I love the tan leather.” She rubbed her gloved hand over the seat. Cars and trucks were not her forte, but she could appreciate the amount of dedication and work it must have taken to make the classic look authentic.

“Dad was going to haul it to the dump. I couldn’t stand to see such a classic thrown away.”

He patted the wheel. “She does well in cold weather.”

Ivy fiddled with a loose string on the cuff of her sweater before turning to Aspen. “I’m sorry about this morning. I don’t know what has gotten into Gran. She’s a little weird right now.”

“You mean more than usual?” He smiled a lazy grin that pulled one from her as well.

“Got me there,” she shrugged. In the small cabin space, Aspen’s masculine scent seeped into her senses.

“Nothing new. She keeps the town on its collective toes and stirs the waters when things start to die down. Last month she hosted a bingo night down at town hall and it ended with everyone singing Copacabana and a conga line from the pictures on Facebook someone must have spiked the punch bowl because a few lost their shirts at some point.”

“You’re kidding!” She turned in her seat.

She felt her shoulders start to relax and she slipped her gloves off since the cabin was toasty warm.

“Nope.”

“I bet Gran planned the whole damn thing.” Laughter bubbled up and she rested a hand on Aspen’s thigh.

“You would be right.”

His came to rest on top of hers as he took a turn in the road. “The next day Dixen’s Facebook page blew up with pictures from the so-called Frat Party Senior Style, as Mrs. Winters labeled it.”

“Did she take responsibility?”

“She didn’t have to. She damn near took the mic from the preacher’s hand the next Sunday to make sure everyone had their Christmas lights up before Dec twentieth rolled around. Their little impromptu shindig resulted in a lot of tourists coming through town.”

“Who knew Gran was a mastermind marketer?”

In light of that, Ivy couldn’t ignore the fluttery feeling in the pit of her stomach. No, not fluttery. What she felt from the simple contact was hot. From head to toe. “You don’t think she’s up to something now, do you?” Her gut made her question the entire morning. “She practically pushed us out the door. I barely grabbed my coat in time before losing a finger.”

Ivy slipped her hand from Aspen’s and pressed her hand to the heater vents. The warm blast of air felt heavenly and she wiggled her fingers until she could feel them again, unable to shrug off the awkwardness of the whole morning.

“With her, who knows.” He slowed around a particularly sharp curve that caused her to fall into his lap. Moving fast, he caught her to his chest before she face planted in his lap.

Righting herself, he held her gaze for the briefest of seconds.

Her heart lurched to a stop and she jerked back. Ivy swallowed hard. Sparks, the kind that zinged through the skin and pelted the heart with warm fuzzy feelings shot up her arm in a flash of surprise.

Aspen’s attention swung between the road and her. Had he felt it too?

“There’s nothing to be afraid of, Ivy.”

“I’m not afraid. I’m just…”

“Lost?” he offered.

Her face screwed up in denial. “Lost? Where did you get that? Um..no,” she stammered, thrown off track. “Try cautious.”

His sharp gaze slid to hers. “We’re just old friends. Let’s leave it at that. Sound good?”

She nodded. “You’re like ice. Here.” He guided her hands back to the warmth of the vents. “Let me turn up the heat some more.”

First, she would not lose her cool. Second, a rush of heat started in her toes and traveled to her face in record time and had nothing to do with the vents.

Lightning. The kind her momma told her about that meant the one had been found zapped between them the second her bare hand landed on his. He had to have felt it too. This was not good. Not good at all. People touched gazillion times a day. Didn’t mean anything and this didn’t either.

Steel strong enough to withstand the weight of a skyscraper replaced the wet noodle holding her resolve together.

He smelled so good! Felt good too. Had he always had those calluses? In the small space, Aspen’s masculine scent seeped into her senses. Tempted to lean closer she roped her wayward thoughts back from the edge of dangerous territory and eased back to her side. “You’re not cold?”

“Nah. Kind of used to it, really. Missed it while I was in Cali.”

The muscles in her face tightened into a smile.

A few minutes went by and when she didn’t say anything, he cleared his throat and acted as if nothing happened. “After you do the upgrades and repairs on the B&B is it back to Seattle? Think you’ll have enough time before Christmas to finish?”

“With Gran’s help, we’ll be able to do the few touch-ups quickly, so I hope. I can’t stay here long. Honestly, if all goes well, I should be on a plane to New York City Christmas night.”

He whistled long and low. “That fast. They need you to start so soon?”

“It’s what they said in the interview. Of course, I agreed. Getting this job is the most important thing right now.” She scrunched her nose. “I don’t mean to sound rude. Sorry. It’s just that.” She fiddled with the ends of her scarf and bit her lip. “There’s a lot going on now. Helping with the B&B, the guests, the new job interview.” All her squashed plans, her house and the end of her engagement, but she didn’t want to add any negativity to the moment. Or break down in tears at the crushing pain in her chest at everything she had lost recently.

“I understand. It’s how things go. I hope you get it.” Did she hear a hint of disappointment in his voice?

Ivy couldn’t stay here any longer than she needed. The insurance checked out and she should receive the payout any day now. She hoped. It would go a long way in helping her rebuild the ruins of her life. She spent all her time doing for others, making sure everyone else’s life was tip top and pretty while hers fell apart and was literally in ashes.

Aspen leaned her way, eyes on the road. “It’s good to see you again, Ivy Sunday. I’m glad you’re here.” He took her hand in his and squeezed. His voice raked over her in a husky tone. She also noted a pang of nostalgia with a chaser of sincerity. As though he really missed her.

It had been a while since she’d heard the latter. Her fiancé thought telling the truth resulted in hives. Who knew slimy pigs wore such expensive suits and polished manners? In the last two months she found out more about him through newspapers and the evening news than she ever did living with him. She didn’t know how she missed what he did behind her back.

On the other hand, maybe she did. Long hours of single-handedly building her business into something that could support her had come with a hefty price. Dealing with a constant rotating door of clients in a large city was good for the portfolio, but not for her private life.

Ivy turned her attention away from the passing pines and bare, craggy oak trees to look at Aspen. Really look at him. Handsome down to the strong line of his jaw and the shape of his mouth. She and her sisters liked to call such perfect lines Superman perfection.

While she was no Lois Lane. She barely had enough time to brush her teeth and pass a comb through her hair this morning. Forget lip gloss and her favorite mascara. The best she could manage was a sloppy ponytail that pulled too far to the right before her Gran rushed her out the door.

She looked at Aspen. Yep. If GQ offered a fireman edition, he’d be on the front cover. The man looked as if he rolled out of bed wearing sexy while she could be the poster woman for how not to land a man. She feared all those cat memes she laughed at online would one day resemble her life.

She shrugged that thought away. Crazy cat lady territory was still a ways off.

Eight years and it didn’t look as if five of those years even touched him. No, she took that back. It only made him a finer version of his younger self. Fine lines creased the soft skin around his deep brown eyes. Probably created by the stress of his job, but it didn’t take away from the handsome set of their welcoming warmth.

A dark shadow of stubble brushed the length of his jaw that made him impossibly more handsome. And severed as proof he didn’t take the time to shave that morning before heading out to protect those that couldn’t fight back the cold. He took care of his people. Always had. She’d liked that about him back in high school too. At one time, she thought they would be one of those couples that married right after graduation and be sweethearts forever.

Then fear set in. What if she didn’t want the same thing at twenty or twenty-five that she did at eighteen. He’d asked her on the eve of graduation and of course, she fool-heartedly said yes before thinking.

Then she broke both their hearts.

Reality never turned out the way one planned, she surmised. A hard lesson to learn when you have big dreams and a soft heart.

Ivy pictured her younger self and the way he used to look at her, the depths of his eyes filled with unbound energy. Now there was a harder edge to his features that she accounted to life’s less-than-gentle experiences.

She imagined she didn’t look the same either. She sure didn’t feel like the optimistic and energetic teenager about to conquer the world. “It’s different. Being back. I wasn’t expecting to...” She paused to think about what exactly she did expect.

“See me?” Aspen jumped in, lending words to her thoughts, no hesitation at all where she would have obviously tripped over every syllable.

A million times yes. “No.” She nearly rolled her eyes. Instead, she worked the ends of her scarf and bit her lip to keep her mouth out of trouble. If her gran and momma heard her now they would be shaking their collective heads at her. One trait all three shared was that they preferred the truth, even when it made you cringe. Well, she just blew that all to hell.

Ivy steered the conversation back to more neutral territory.

“Gran mentioned you moved to California with your brother after I left for college. She never mentioned you guys returned.” Not that she didn’t try and pry for every piece of information she could bribe, con or coax out of her Gran. Tired of filling her in on every single detail of Aspen’s life, she messaged Aspen’s Facebook profile link to Ivy one morning and in bold letters wrote:

NO MORE. DO YOUR OWN STALKING.

Pshhh. Yeah right. Looking backward meant you couldn’t move forward and Aspen Kennedy and his sexy dimples had no business in her present, and surely fate didn’t mean for them to be in her future. But there were times when curiosity took over.

That first Christmas away at college she learned a truth that set her on a path she, at first, never planned for.

Without her in the picture, Aspen had moved on.

It took her three solid months to pull her heart out of the gutter and resign herself to another truth. She was the one who ended it, not him.

To drive her thoughts home, she had met her fiancé in her second year and her love for Aspen slowly faded into the recesses of her heart. Only now, she was minus the fiancé, too.

“It wasn’t that easy,” Aspen continued. “Jace and I had a lot of plans, like you and me at one time.” She felt the hurt of his words deep in her heart.

“Things didn’t turn out the way either of us planned,” he continued.

True on all accounts, she supposed.

“What do you mean?”

Aspen sighed heavily. “I thought you knew.”

She turned to him slowly. “Knew what?”

“Jace didn’t make it back home, Ivy Sunday. It’s almost four years now since the accident.” His expression turned solemn as though all the happiness seeped from him in an instant.

A SPEN LOOKED OUT OVER the hood of his truck and then back at Ivy Sunday.

If he didn’t know better he’d think she was a mirage. Better yet, an angel sitting in his truck.

Her brows pinched at the mention of his brother and he hated seeing her sweet smile faded to a frown. He wished he could steer them off the topic, but he could tell she wanted to know more with how she worked her lower lip, her eyes brimming with confusion and worry.

“What accident?” she asked cautiously.

“You didn’t hear?” Aspen downshifted and took the curve at a steady glide.

Sadness plagued her expression that was happy only moments ago, making his chest tighten. She reached out and pressed a hand to his. “Tell me what happened, Aspen?”

“Two boys out to conquer the world, only the world bit us back.” And that was an understatement. He’d been unanimously selected as the eldest to take over the family business despite his own wishes of being a firefighter while Jace had received the scholarship for football.

When it didn’t work between him and Ivy he shoved dreams aside and went for practicality.

Instead of going for his dream, Aspen took business classes in Vancouver in order to be close to home.

Their parents owned the only grocery store in Dixen with the hope to pass it down the line. Out of their six children, everyone assumed it would be him, and Aspen had gone along with it at first.

“Jace had an accident, and after that, it was all over for him on the field. He couldn’t play pro ball anymore. After that disappointment, he came home and decided we both needed a new plan. I was game and as it turned out our parents were totally fine with me picking a different path.” He chuckled lightly. “The things we assume.”

“Ain’t that the truth. My dad wanted me to be a lawyer and he thought Jon would be an architect. But Jace a pro ballplayer? Now that I would have loved to see.”

“He was good. Real good. After his injury, he and I talked about what I always wanted to do. One thing led to another and that year Chief Matthews took us under his wing. But that wasn’t enough.”

Ivy nodded. “Small town like this had no adventure for the Big Dix boys, huh?”

He huffed. “We wanted bigger so we went to California where the real danger was.”

Aspen paused. Four years and the words still tied his tongue into knots along with his guts. “Jace died in a wildfire in upstate California a little over three years back. And now, here I am.”

Ivy gasped, a delicate sound but it struck a nerve just the same.

“I am so sorry. I didn’t know.”

“That’s okay. Plus, how could you?” He drew out the words, hoping as time went on it would help lessen the pain. “We kept the funeral low-key. Just the rest of the Kennedy crew. A few people from town. Simple like he would have wanted it.”

By crew, he meant his three remaining brothers, a bull-headed sister, more cousins than he could remember and enough aunts and uncles to fill the Winters’ inn three times over.

“Your gran held the service at the B&B. It was nice.”

“And your other brothers? Julie? Are they doing okay?”

“It hit them hard. Julie and Jace were closest so it hit her the hardest, I think. They all come home now more than they used to, which is nice especially for Mom and Dad. Kade recently returned and is the rookie down at the station and Ryder took over the grocery store. Thank God! I dodged a bullet on that one.” He knew all too well how draining the place could be, needing constant care, but his brother was good at balancing numbers and people loved him.

“Yeah, after high school we all went our own ways too. And… you know, what happened between us. Only a few of us ever come back for holidays and birthdays. Jon was the first of course, being the oldest, Carol followed next with her record deal in Nashville. No one saw that coming.” She laughed softly. “But Mom and Dad handled it well, I guess. They travel a lot to see her.” She watched the ends of her scarf as she threaded her fingers through the fringe rather than see Aspen’s hurt expression at what she said next.

“But no matter how busy our lives were or what happened between us, we—I—should have been there for you and your family.”

She leaned forward and the scoop neck of her sweater dipped to reveal creamy swells of her breasts that would make any man drool.

Damn she was pretty. No, she was pretty in high school, but now she was stunning. Fully grown into the woman he knew she would be. Long wavy brown hair pulled back in a tight ponytail revealed her delicate neck he used to love kissing. Light brown eyes that caught every detail and right now watched him with a hint of hope, for what he didn’t know yet but he recognized it from when he was up against the world and looking for a thread that would lead him back to the path he should be on. He wasn’t arrogant enough to think it would be him.

Not anymore.

But nothing said it couldn’t be either.

So maybe he was arrogant enough.

Seeing her again, smelling her, feeling her skin against his did his heart good.

“It’s okay, Ivy Sunday. Really. You have your own life now. You don’t owe me anything.” He wanted off the topic as quickly as possible but didn’t want to hurt her feelings in the process. Truth be told, losing his brother damaged a part of him he didn’t like revisiting and the more they talked about it the more his chest hurt.

He rubbed at his jaw considering what to say to cut the mounting tension and bring back her bright smile and bright gaze.

Ivy turned to him from where she was looking out at the white scenery passing by. “You know, I’m glad I am here.” She caught him off guard with her admission. With how long it took for her to return, he would have staked everything he owned on never seeing her sweet, sincere face again.

Eight years seemed like a long time and it was. The day she walked out of his life, his brothers said she’d be back. To give her time to figure out what she wanted in life. He didn’t believe them. But he’d waited all the same. For a while anyway.

He slid a glance her way. Soft hair fanned around her face and it took everything he had not to reach out and stroke the back of his hand along the soft skin of her cheek. Or slide his hand over hers and link their fingers together just to see if they still fit together.

“Those reindeer slippers made my morning. The guys back at the firehouse will love to hear all about them.” He chuckled and marveled at how easy it was to laugh with her. Her eyes widened and her mouth formed a big O in surprise. “You wouldn’t dare!”

The gasp leaving her lips had his dick hardening. Last time he heard that sound from her they’d been celebrating their engagement at what would have been their first apartment over his parent’s store.

“Depends.” he teased, reminding himself to stay in the present and away from the haunting memories of their past.

Ivy turned with a narrowed-eyed gaze that made him want to laugh and tease her more.

“On?” She braved the water with her question with how she fiddled with the ends of her scarf and shot him a worried look.

“Don’t worry, I won’t dare you to strip and streak through town naked. We’ve already done that,” he winked just to see that pretty red tinge hit her cheeks. His cock thickened and pressed against the back of his zipper when she groaned a sexy little sound.

Damn.

“Why don’t I stop by the inn this evening and pick you up for dinner? Just the two of us. Tonight,” he added, while he was on a roll. “Just friends. We can catch up.” Hopefully that last part would help smooth out the rough edges of her crinkled-eyed squint and earn him a yes for his efforts.

“I can’t.” Her face went white with a look of dismay.

The knee-jerk answer took him by surprise, but the way her eyes sort of glossed over was a dead ringer he hit a nerve.

“Then you leave me no choice.” He didn’t mind playing dirty when the occasion called for it. Being the oldest came with a few perks. Like knowing how to tip the scales in his favor.

She turned in her seat, small as it was, narrowing her eyes until they were tiny slits of warning daggers. “Aspen Kennedy...” She dropped each syllable of his name like a grenade as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You tell anyone about my slippers and I’ll tell the mayor it was you who crashed into the town’s gazebo back in senior year.”

He scoffed. “You mean us, sweetheart. It was you climbing onto my lap while I was driving. I recall a short, sexy skirt, kissing and the promise of the ‘best, mind-numbing blow job’ that had me swerving and hitting a patch of ice. The gazebo was your fault as much as it was mine. And we only took out a corner.”

He belted out a laugh at the wide-eyed look on her face.

A devious smile replaced the surprised look and the sweet kitten sitting beside him turned wicked. “Sure, go right ahead and blame it on me. You’re the one that said you wanted to do something nice for my eighteenth birthday. If I recall, you didn’t complain.”

Her smile broadened and he liked the way it lit her eyes and flushed her cheeks a pretty pink.

He took in the way she drew her lip between her teeth and had a hard time holding his gaze, but he felt the second she realized the effect she had on him.

“Aspen,” she whispered in a raw, hungry voice.

Fuck.

He needed to stop and get his head straight, but Son-of-a-bitch. Was he crazy? Lose his mind somewhere between hearing Ivy Sunday would be back in his town and waking up this morning? This is the last thing he needed right now, but his dick didn’t care. It tried to pound a way outside his pants just to get to her.

He reached for her and tipped her chin up. “One of the best nights of my life, Ivy Sunday.”

She grinned. “Mine too. So is this a truce.”

“You make it hard to blackmail you so yeah, kitten, truce.”

“We were definitely a little on the wild side and definitely stupid.” She sat back, a victorious smile curving her lips.

Hell, if he didn’t like that smile. He was tempted to pull off on one of the many backroads right now and giving them both some new memories.

Deciding they both needed to focus, he cleared his throat and turned down a gravel road.

“We’re here.”