“No, dude. You’re a famous skier,” she insisted, emphasizing her point with her index finger. Her nails were coated in Kelly green fingernail polish. “I remember you.”
Her two friends leaned over to check me out now that their friend had claimed me someone worth recognizing.
“I’m a skier but not famous,” I corrected. “I run the ski school in Vail.”
“No, but… you race. Or you did at one time. I remember. You did this killer move the crowd went nuts over. A wicked twist hop thing on the moguls.”
She was right. That was me. It had started out as me clowning around but had quickly become a signature move I did on runs where I could afford to lose time or points. “Did you by chance go to Colorado State?” I asked.
She snapped her fingers and pointed at me again. “That’s it. Yes. But you went on to ski professionally, right?”
I nodded and set the empty pitcher on the bar, raising my hand to get the bartender’s attention. “I did for a short time, but now I’m an instructor.”
She smiled at me, flashing straight, white teeth in a pretty face. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a long ponytail with loose wisps framing her face. She and her friends were definitely attractive, but it didn’t do anything for me at all.
Maybe there was something wrong with me. Or maybe it was normal not to be attracted to anyone after being jilted so recently.
I made friendly conversation with the three of them while waiting for the beer refill, but when the bartender handed me the full pitcher, I gave my polite goodbyes and turned to go back to my friends. The man who’d been eying Julian stopped me.
He was a good-looking guy, maybe my height or a little taller, and his smile was friendly and a little hesitant. I hadn’t realized before now that he seemed to have no interest in the three beautiful women sitting close to him at the bar.
“Hey. Look, I’m sorry to bother you, but do you mind if I ask about your friend? He’s kind of gorgeous, and I’d like to buy him a drink.”
“Finn?” I asked, deliberately being obtuse.
“Is that his name? The one in the Tom Ford sweater.”
Normally, I wouldn’t have known a Tom Ford anything from a hole in the wall, but in this case, Julian had lectured me about not getting near his Tom Ford with my “nasty lotion hands” after I’d helped myself to his fancy hand cream earlier. I’d made a joke about cream on my hands that he hadn’t found remotely funny.
“Oh, no. That’s Julian,” I said, feeling my jaw tighten.
“Would you mind giving me an introduction?”
I felt a flapping panic in my chest. “Um… well…”
What the hell was wrong with me? Why shouldn’t Julian enjoy a hookup the same way everyone was encouraging me to? Just because I didn’t want to pick someone up didn’t mean he couldn’t. I needed to get over my selfish hang-up about Julian hooking up with other men—
Whoa, wait. Other men? Where had that come from? I meant with men, period.
Any men.
Because obviously he wasn’t hooking up with me.
I swallowed hard.
The man sensed my hesitation. “Is he into guys?”
“Oh, yeah, totally. He’s gay.”
His face lit up. “And is he open to—”
“He’s mine,” I blurted, not knowing where the fuck that came from. “Mine, um… like… my man? So, no. No, he’s not open to…”
The guilt clawed at me. This was wrong, unfair. And completely unacceptable. Tell him you lied. Tell him Jules is available.
I cleared my throat. “I mean… yes, he’s available, but…”
The man held up both hands and took a step back. His face still held a friendly smile. “Hey, man. No worries. Sounds complicated. I didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s fine,” I said, scrambling. “I was kidding. I meant he was my best man. You see, I was supposed to get married last night. To a woman. But that’s not important. Come on, I’ll introduce you. He’s really great. Truly.”
He shook his head good-naturedly. “Nah, it’s fine. Clearly I touched a nerve. I don’t want to mess with that. Besides, I have an early day tomorrow. I’m just going to head out.”
I wanted to slap myself. “He’s sexy as fuck!” I said in desperation. If Jules found out I’d lost him a potential hookup, he’d be pissed. “He’s got a great body. You would not believe the tattoos. Hngh. And look at his hair. It feels even better than it looks. He’s also smart. An attorney! Top of his class in law school. And a great skier!”
The man walked away laughing, as if my panic wasn’t important to him at all. I glanced over to the table where my friends were and found all of them staring at me. The look on Julian’s face was terrifying. He was clearly livid.
“What did you just do?” he asked in a low voice that nevertheless carried through the sudden silence.
“What? Nothing. I was talking about someone else.” I quickly slopped beer from the pitcher into a fresh glass and threw back a giant slug, nearly choking myself.
“Someone else who was top of his class in law school and whose hair you’ve touched,” he said flatly.
Someone at the table added, “You do have lovely hair, Julian. I’d touch it.”
“You don’t know whose hair I’ve touched,” I said with a sniff. “It’s none of your business anyway.”
“Were you trying to get me laid?” he hissed. “You found some random dude at the bar and tried convincing him to give me a shot?”
“What? No! It was the opposite.”
Fuck.
I knew when Julian’s eyes narrowed that much, trouble was coming.
“Explain.” Jules had a certain tone he used sometimes with me that was bossy and demanding. It made me shudder.
“I just… well, he… you see,” I began. “It started when I thought he was interested in Finn.”
“Fucking Christ,” the sheriff muttered, draping a possessive arm over Finn’s shoulders that belied his easy tone. “You should have told him he could have him. The man doesn’t know how to take out the trash or wash a dish.”
“Hey!” Finn scoffed. “It’s not my fault I’ve had housekeepers all these years.”
“Ignore them,” Julian said. “And tell me what happened.”
“The guy was interested in you, and I said the wrong thing by accident. Then I tried to correct myself, but it was too late. And I feel bad because he seemed nice.”
Tiller looked like he was enjoying this way too much. “What was the ‘wrong thing’ you said to turn the guy away?”
There wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to admit to this table full of men that I’d accidentally given the guy the impression that I, of all people, was dating Julian. They’d never let me live it down.
I scrambled to think of an alternative, but in the meantime, I was pretty sure I looked like I was trying to concoct a bold-faced lie. I wasn’t. I simply needed a meek-faced one.
My mouth opened and closed on a whole lot of nothing while Julian’s eyes bored into me.
“I’m sorry,” I breathed, reaching out to run fingers through his hair. It really did feel amazing to the touch. Nothing stressed me out more than Julian Thick being upset, and if he was upset at me? Worst thing ever.