Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 97724 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97724 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 489(@200wpm)___ 391(@250wpm)___ 326(@300wpm)
“I like the new display by the front door.”
She nods, lets out a gusty breath, then props her hands on her curvy hips. “I don’t want things between us to be awkward.”
“It’s glad I am to hear you say that because I don’t want that either. It would be the worst thing ever. Do you need me to disown him? I could probably piss him off somehow. Make life hard for him, at the very least.”
She smiles, and her shoulders sag in relief. Then she lets out a big laugh and pulls me in for a hug, and I know that everything will be okay.
“The moment I saw him at the recital was maybe one of the most surreal moments of my life,” she admits as we walk over to my favorite chairs and take a seat. Riley curls up on the dog bed next to me. “I kind of wanted the floor to open up and swallow me.”
“I can only imagine. I suspected when you first told us about it that it could be Connor from the way you described him, but I swear to you, Bee, as far as I knew, he’d left that previous afternoon.”
“I think he was supposed to, but then we got that snowstorm, and he ended up staying another day.” She bites her lower lip and stares outside.
“Was he an arse when he pulled you outside?”
She doesn’t immediately answer. Instead, she looks down at her hands, then over at me, and her cheeks flush again.
“I don’t want to know this, do I?”
Bee laughs. “I’m absolutely not starting something with your brother.”
Bristling at that, I square my shoulders. “Now, why not? He’s handsome, and successful, and you said the sex was decent—”
“Not decent.” She shakes her head. “I think he pulled my soul out of my vagina.”
I press my lips together, then double over laughing. “That paints a picture.”
“I kind of like keeping him in that little one-night bubble. A happy memory that I can pull out and look at once in a while, then tuck back away. I have a business, and a family, and all kinds of things to see to here, and while your brother is all of the things you described, he’s also not here.”
Connor never confirmed to me whether he was going to buy the ski resort to rebuild, so I don’t want to say anything out of turn to my friend.
“He’s not here,” I confirm.
“So now I just know who it was.” She shrugs and changes the subject. “Now, tell me about you and Beck.”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
“And what’s wrong with my brother?”
An image of Beckett and his lust-filled eyes dropping down to my mouth fills my mind, and the zing zips down my spine, just as it’s done the previous million times I’ve thought of it.
“I don’t know him at all, but from what I can see, there’s nothing wrong with him.”
“I know him very well,” she says. “And aside from being a little—and by a little, I mean a lot—alpha and bossy, he’s a catch. Then again, he has to be bossy because he owns the ranch, runs a dairy farm, and has guest cabins. It’s good he’s an expert in controlling things.”
I nod, taking that in. “A dairy farm, is it then?”
“Yep.”
“Does he get up and milk the cows while sitting on a stool in the wee hours of the morning?”
“No.” Bee laughs at that and tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “It’s a modern operation with milking equipment. But if that breaks down for any reason, he does do the milking by hand. Or he has his employees do it. He supplies Millie with all of her cow and goat milk for the coffee shop, and you can buy it, along with ice cream, cottage cheese, and sour cream at the local grocery stores.”
“That’s fascinating.” I mean it. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who owns a dairy farm. “No cheese?”
“Not enough cows for the cheese. And he’d need a bigger processing system.” Billie uncrosses and recrosses her legs. “Now, I won’t push Beck on you ever again. But he likes you.”
She winks at me, and my cheeks heat.
Because the truth of it is, I like him, too.
I need to dance. I have an hour before my first class for the afternoon, so with Riley on his bed by the door, I cue up my favorite music from Giselle and begin stretching. Using the barre, I dip into a plié and sigh when my body loosens. The muscles take over as if they have a mind of their own. Pulling my leg up until I’m one smooth, vertical line, I point my toes and stand here for a few long seconds.
Lost to the music, I move, watching myself in the mirror. I need to raise my chin and straighten my left arm a little more.