“I know you have,” I said with a sigh. “Valentina is amazing and I adore her. But, I owe Walker a favor. If he needs a date to that wedding, I’ll do it. It’s totally platonic, so don’t read anything into it.”
Lucas studied me, his gaze speculative. I crossed my legs, my thumb reflexively reaching to my opposite wrist to trace over the silver bracelet I wore there, the very bracelet Walker had rescued for me.
“I thought you didn’t date,” he said with a subtle lift of his chin and the hint of a dare in his tone.
I lifted my own chin in return, meeting his gaze head-on. “I don’t. Like I told you, this isn’t a real date. It’s not like that.”
He angled his head to the side, staying quiet just long enough that I shifted my shoulders and uncrossed my legs only to cross the other leg over the top again.
“You know, you had an opinion on my lack of a love life before I met Valentina,” Lucas commented, his tone casual.
“So what if I did?” I managed in reply, clinging to the steely defiance that got me through most situations when I felt uncomfortable. Unfortunately for me, my brother wasn’t intimidated and knew me better than just about anyone else.
“I’m just sayin’,” he drawled, “you gave me a lecture on how I should give someone a chance. Think you said something about keeping my options open, or some other nonsense like that.”
“And? Look where it got you. You found Valentina. She’s amazing and we all adore her.”
Lucas smiled slowly. “I did. And I just might be the luckiest man in the world. My love life isn’t the topic of conversation right now. Yours is. Or lack thereof, I should say.”
I took a breath, willing the churning in my gut to stop. “I’m perfectly fine without any love life. Society places expectations on women, and I’m happy without anyone. I don’t need any pressure, much less from you,” I snapped.
Lucas’s gaze sobered quickly. “Hey, I didn’t mean to hit a sore spot. You know I’ve got your back.”
Few people knew much about one spectacularly shitty event in my life. Lucas was on the shortlist. He did have my back. I loved him all the more for it.
The silver bracelet on my wrist was warming up with my thumb sliding over it mindlessly. My foot bounced, discharging all that restless energy hanging around inside me.
“Walker is a good guy,” Lucas said, out of nowhere as far as I was concerned.
“I know. He’s been around town long enough. All of you in the crew sure like him, so I trust him. You don’t need to go all big brother on me.”
My brother’s far too piercing green gaze held mine. “I’m not going big brother on you, whatever the fuck that means. I just didn’t know what to think when Walker saw fit to tell me he was taking you away for a weekend. Case you were wondering, he explained it was a fake date. Or, as Jackson put it, a real fake date,” Lucas said.
I didn’t want to think about why Lucas made the point that Walker was a nice guy. Nor did I want to contemplate just how sexy Walker was. Which I did every single time he came to mind. He was all man wrapped up in a package of tall, dark, and broody.
If I had a type—which I totally didn’t—it wasn’t him. No matter what my body thought when he happened to be in proximity.
Chapter Six
Walker
Jade lived right down the street from me. I knew this because I’d given her a ride home once last winter after she got a flat tire. I’d forgotten just how electric the small space in my truck felt for those roughly fifteen minutes from Stolen Hearts Lodge to her place.
I told myself that was probably a fluke, something to do with the weather and the fact I’d been in a melancholic space right before the holidays. Last winter had been my family’s first holiday season without my father since he’d passed away. He went in the best way possible. According to the doctor he had a massive heart attack in his sleep. Mind you, I’m not saying heart attacks are a good thing. Just making the point that he lived a full life and if he was going to go, why not go like that? Quick and clean. No matter what, we all missed the hell out of him.
I forced my thoughts back to the present as I turned the steering wheel into Jade’s driveway. She had a cute little house, practically out of a postcard. It was a small two-story house with gabled windows upstairs and a peaked roof with bright purple shutters. It was late spring with the flowers in full bloom in her yard. The scent of honeysuckle drifted around me as I walked past a cluster of it running along the side of her driveway.
Through text, we’d agreed I would pick her up this afternoon. The wedding was north of here at a winery and hotel in the mountains. We needed to arrive with enough time to prep for tonight’s wedding rehearsal dinner. Jade had assured me she was more than ready to pull off an “epic” performance. That was her description, and I didn’t even know what to think. Beyond the question about just what the hell we were doing, I’d begun to wonder if this was such a good idea.
Stepping onto the small porch, which had flower boxes on the railings, I knocked lightly on the purple door. I distantly heard Jade calling in return, “Be there in a sec!”
As I waited, I let my gaze scan the mountain range in the distance. We had roughly an hour and a half drive ahead of us into Virginia where the landscape would be similar. The Appalachian Mountains stretched all the way up the East Coast. For now, the legendary blue haze over the mountains was shot through by the late afternoon sunshine, giving it a silvery halo. Although I hadn’t grown up specifically in Stolen Hearts Valley, I’d grown up a mere hour away in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and these views were home to me.
At the sound of the door opening behind me, I turned back. The moment my eyes landed on Jade, my body tightened. To my point of wondering if this was a good idea. I was seriously doubting the wisdom of spending a weekend with Jade.
Her midnight hair fell loose around her shoulders. Her rich green eyes met mine, a sly glint in them. “Are we ready?”
My confusion must’ve shown on my face because she clarified. “You know”—she circled her hand in the air—“to go to the wedding and make your ex look like the bitch she is.”
Jade appeared a little too excited about this, but I couldn’t help but laugh. I shrugged. “You know, it doesn’t have to be a big deal.”
Jade rested a hand on her hip, tapping the toe of one of her cowboy boots on the hardwood floor in her entryway. “Oh, yes, it does. I get your point. You’re over her, but there’d be more questions if you showed up alone while she’s there with the groom’s brother. I just prefer to make her regret it.” This was punctuated with a hard roll of Jade’s eyes.
I chuckled again. “Yes, I’m ready. Do you need me to carry anything?”
Jade shook her head, turning to fetch a bag to the side of the door. She stepped out, shooing my hand away when I reached for her bag. “I got it.”
She walked at my side along the slate flagstones to where my truck was parked in the circular driveway. Her small hatchback was parked in front of the garage doors. She stopped in the gravel driveway. “Should I put my bag in the back?” She gestured toward the covered back of my truck.