Chapter 8

8

C andace woke up early to Jessica banging on her door with concern all over her face. She hadn’t found out until breakfast that morning that Candace had been injured. Candace thought Brent had told everyone, but apparently he had only updated his parents. Jessica and Travis hadn’t been around anyone once they had arrived on the mountain, so no one told them what had happened.

“Are you okay?” Jessica asked, coming into the room and then immediately resting a hand on Candace to see if she needed help back to her bed.

Candace crutched back to her bed and Jessica took the crutches from her, leaning them against the closest wall. Once Candace was settled back in her pile of pillows with her ankle propped, she smoothed her wild bed head down.

“I’m all right.”

“What happened?”

“Brent ran into me on that cat track where we were supposed to meet.” Guilt flashed across Jessica’s face. Candace waved her hand in the air. “It was an accident. But my ankle is sprained, with the possibility of some torn ligaments.”

The color drained from Jessica’s face. “This is all my fault.”

“No, it isn’t. You couldn’t have predicted it, and you didn’t force me to go skiing.”

Jessica tugged her lip between her teeth, the guilt still evident. “I’ll hang out with you all day today. To keep you company.”

Candace chuckled. “That’s not necessary. You just got married and should spend time with your hubby. Don’t let me hold you back.”

“You aren’t. I want to do this.”

“But I won’t allow it. Seriously, Jessica, go spend time with Travis. Have fun on the mountain for the both of us. We both know I’m not athletic and skiing isn’t something I care to do. I’m fine staying behind.”

Jessica stared at Candace, the war playing out on her face. Candace smirked.

“Please, just go. I know you want to, and we haven’t been able to spend time up here in a long time. I think it’ll be good for you. Go do one of Dad’s favorite runs.”

Jessica smiled. “Okay. I’ll go, but I expect you to call me if you need me at all. I’ll get off the mountain as fast as I can.”

“I’m good. Go!” Candace waved her hands in the air to shoo her away.

Jessica stood and held her hands in the air in surrender. “Okay. I’m going. I’m going.”

They said their goodbyes, and Jessica let herself out. Once she was gone, Candace looked around her room, wondering how she planned to occupy herself over the next few days.

She picked up the remote off the nightstand and clicked on the television. This was one way to do it.

Candace spent most of the day in her room and ordered room service. She considered venturing out to the hotel restaurant, but dismissed the idea when crutching to the elevator had her winded and her foot throbbing. It wasn’t until Jessica and Travis got back off the mountain that they came by her room and convinced her to come to the bar to meet up with everyone.

Travis and Jessica helped Candace get down to the bar where Rick, Jan, and Brent were already seated. Everyone ordered drinks, Candace’s being the only one that was non-alcoholic.

As the conversation droned on around them, Candace’s eyes strayed across the table to where Brent was sitting, swirling ice around his glass and staring at her. She raised an eyebrow and took a sip of her own drink, staring at him straight on.

Apparently, all the friendly genes went to Travis. She had always thought Brent wouldn’t know how to treat someone properly if his life depended on it. Except him helping her on the mountain and at the urgent care weren’t things expected of him. Maybe she had it wrong this entire time.

Candace knew her deep-seated disgust for Brent was based on something that happened long ago, but there was no way he changed that much during the last several years. He was the same person. Wasn’t he?

Confusion swirled around in her belly. Deep down, she knew something was different, but she couldn’t quite pinpoint it.

It didn’t take long before Jessica and Travis excused themselves, feigning exhaustion. The looks they gave each other were a different indication of what would happen in their bedroom later. They asked Candace if she was okay to get to her room, and she nodded, assuring them she was fine.

Rick and Jan were the next to go, also excusing themselves because they were tired. Despite Jessica and Travis faking it, Rick and Jan weren’t.

Then sat two.

Candace looked around, considering faking exhaustion herself, but didn’t have the chance before Brent moved around the small table and sat in the chair once occupied by Jessica next to her.

“Why is it you hate me so much? I thought we were getting along,” he asked.

He was right. They had gotten along a few times over the last few days, but being in a bar with him brought back bitter memories.

Typical man. Couldn’t even remember. She shook her head. “Think about it. I’m sure you can figure it out.”

He leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed. The fabric of his long-sleeved shirt tightened around his muscles, and she had to tear her eyes away before he could catch her staring.

“I’ve been trying to figure it out since the day I met you.”

She laughed out loud. “You’ve been trying to figure it out for eleven years?”

His eyebrows merged. “Wait, what? Eleven years? We met when Jessica and Travis started dating.”

“No, we met in college.”

Confusion crossed his face as he thought for a second. “At UCLA? You went to UCLA?”

Her mouth dropped open. How fucking rude. He couldn’t even remember that he stood her up. What bullshit!

She stood up and tipped her head back to drain her glass of ginger ale before setting it back down on the table. “I’m going to bed.”

Her plans for a quick getaway were foiled when she remembered she still had crutches to deal with. She tried to hurry away, but he fell into step beside her.

“I didn’t know you went to UCLA. We’ve met before?”

“Wow. Really, Brent? You can’t even remember that you stood me up?”

He stopped walking but caught up to her when he realized she would not slow down. “Candy, I seriously do not know what you’re talking about.”

“You’re unbelievable!” She whirled on him and lost her balance. He stepped forward and caught her, righting her before stepping back and acting as if nothing had happened. Her cheeks flamed.

“Fill in the blanks for me. Tell me when it happened.”

“Oh, my God, Brent. You’ve stood up enough women that you can’t even remember you did it to me?”

He threw his hands up. “Candy, I’ve never stood anyone up.”

“You can’t say never when you stood me up.”

He pressed his hands to his face briefly and then dropped them. “Candace. Please. Tell me when.”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “We met at the bar on First Friday, our senior year.”

First Friday was an event that took place at their college. The first Friday of every quarter, the students who were of age all went to the bars and partied. It was there that Candace first met Brent.

The elevator dinged its arrival, and they stepped on alone.

“And I asked you out?” Brent asked.

She nodded slowly. “You came up to me at the bar and asked if you could buy me a drink.”

As if a light turned on, Brent’s eyes slightly widened, and he nodded.

“That was you?” he asked, but it was more of a rhetorical question to himself, so she didn’t respond. “I remember. I asked you out on a date for that Saturday—the little Italian place. But I didn’t make it.”

She shook her head. The elevator arrived on their floor, and she crutched her way down to her room, stopping in front of it.

“Candace, I’m truly sorry. I, uh—“ He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “I was in a car accident that morning.”

Her head snapped up to look at him. He pressed his lips together as if he were trying to keep in his emotion, and a dark look crossed his face before it quickly disappeared.

“You were in an accident?”

He nodded. “I was in the hospital for a few days. I got pretty banged up.”

“You never called me.” She blushed after the words left her mouth. It was a selfish comment to make, and she knew it. He was laid up in a hospital, and she was asking why he didn’t bother to call. “I’m sorry. That didn’t come out right.”

“My phone broke in the accident. I didn’t have your number. I tried looking for you, but never saw you again.”

“I transferred to a college closer to home after that.”

The truth was, even if Brent had shown up for their date, she would have left the school shortly after. Nothing would have come of a relationship if it could have gone down that road, except that she wouldn’t have held resentment toward him when she realized he was Travis’s older brother.

“You didn’t get your degree at UCLA?”

She shook her head and shifted her gaze to the floor. “I had to move home to take care of Jess.”

“To take care of Jessica?”

“After our parents died. They died a few weeks after I met you.”

He stood there confused before a slight understanding crossed his face. “Wow. I’m sorry.”

She shrugged. “Jessica was a junior in high school, so there wasn’t much raising left to do. She just needed a guardian, and I didn’t want her to have to leave all her friends to go live with a relative.”

“So you gave up your dream to give her a normal life?”

Tears sprang to her eyes. Leaving UCLA was a hard blow, but losing her parents was worse. Transferring to a local college wasn’t a big deal in order to finish her degree, but she had given up a full-ride scholarship and her senior year of college all to give Jessica some normalcy. She would do it all over again in a heartbeat, but she always wondered what would have happened if she had stayed.

“She was young. Her whole life changed suddenly.”

His fingers touched her chin and tilted her face up to his. “So did yours.”

And to her horror, she burst into tears.

Brent tugged her into his arms and rested his chin on her head while she sobbed into his chest in the middle of the hallway. She didn’t know how long they stood there, but once she realized what a mess she was, she pulled back and hastily dried her eyes.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

“No need to apologize.” He reached out and swiped a stray tear from her cheek.

She turned to move toward her door, but his hand clasped around her arm.

“Hey, how about we go get a drink?”

She laughed. “We just came from the bar.”

“We did, but you didn’t actually drink. Let’s go have some fun.”

She furrowed her brows. “How did you know I didn’t drink?”

“Because I heard your order. And you never drink. You haven’t once since we’ve been here, aside from a sip of champagne at the wedding after the toasts, and then you never touched it again.”

She was surprised he had noticed that much about her. She certainly had never paid that close attention to him… aside from noticing that he enjoyed alcohol, usually whiskey. If he drank beer, it was usually a dark beer. He didn’t like wine.

She frowned at herself. Apparently, she knew more about him than she thought.

“Did I offend you?” he asked.

She glanced up. “Oh, no. I’m just surprised you noticed.”

“I notice a lot of things.”

She wanted to ask him what else he noticed, but didn’t want to answer the question when he would undoubtedly ask it of her. She could always lie, but didn’t feel right about it.

“A drunk driver killed my parents, so I don’t like drinking. I don’t like that it makes people reckless.”

He leaned toward her. “I’m sorry, Candace. I didn’t know. Surprisingly, considering how long we’ve known each other.”

She shrugged. “Jessica and I don’t talk about it much with others. Usually people don’t ask either, since it makes them uncomfortable.”

“Are you worried you’re going to drink too much and make the same mistake?”

“No. I know my limits. I know how much I can drink without impairing myself.”

“So you never get drunk?”

“I didn’t say that,” she said. “I get drunk occasionally if I’m in a safe space and don’t have to drive.”

He looked around. “You don’t have to drive now. Pretty sure you couldn’t even if you wanted to.”

She glared and opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off.

“Because of your ankle and the roads being closed. I’m sure you’re an excellent driver.”

She couldn’t help the smile that tilted the corner of her mouth. “I am.”

He bumped her shoulder with his own. “So let’s have fun.”

She pulled a lip between her teeth and chewed on it for a few beats. He was right. They had nowhere to go and didn’t have the option to leave. She hadn’t let herself unwind in what felt like forever.

There was always something in her life that kept her tightly coiled—whether it be her job or her life. It was as if she always had a reason to be stressed. Now that the wedding was over and she couldn’t even leave Wintervale to go back to real life, what could she stress about now? Absolutely nothing except the fact that she was badly injured and would have to deal with it eventually, but that was a problem for another time.

“Okay. Let’s have fun.”