Chapter 3
THREE
Ten minutes later, Shaun pulled into her older sisters’ driveway.
Shaun knocked and waited, and then a bleary-eyed Jodi opened the front door, her long, curly dark brown hair a sleep-tousled mess as it tumbled over her shoulders.
She was still tugging one arm into the armhole of one of her fiancés t-shirts, which made Shaun smirk.
“Shaun?” Jodi mumbled, blinking several times. “What are you doing here? What time is it?”
“Early. Sorry. Got any coffee?” Shaun asked sheepishly.
Jodi groaned but opened the door wider to let her in. “Let me go put on some pants.”
Shaun walked into the kitchen as Jodi disappeared down the hallway, flipping the toggle on the coffee maker that sat on the counter, knowing her sister already had it prepped and ready to go.
She heard Free’s deep voice from the bedroom, then a startled squeak and a giggle as the bed springs creaked.
Shaun smiled. She was innately happy that her sister had finally found her happily ever after.
She deserved it after leaving her abusive, douchebag ex-husband.
Several minutes later, Jodi reappeared just as Shaun was pouring a cup of steaming hot coffee into a mug, coming around the corner into the kitchen.
Her hair was slightly more tousled than it had been before, and her cheeks were flushed.
Shaun wiggled her eyebrows, and she laughed when Jodi blushed a deep crimson, hugging the folds of her long-sleeved cardigan over her middle.
Jodi reached into the cupboard and plucked a coffee mug off the shelf, then poured herself a cup before lightening it with a dash of French vanilla creamer.
Turning, she settled her back against the counter and held the mug between both of her hands.
Shaun sat at the little peninsula on a barstool, leaning on her elbows on the counter.
“What brings you out so early?” Jodi asked, and Shaun shrugged.
“Couldn’t sleep and then my coffee maker took a shit this morning,” she said, nodding in hello as Freeman walked around the corner, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that fit snug across his chest and shoulders.
He’d already tugged on well-worn, black cowboy boots, ready for his workday to begin at Blue Haven, Shaun and Jodi’s parent’s ranch.
His dark hair was worn slightly longer, and the lower portion of his face was covered in a well-trimmed beard.
Shaun had to admit that Freeman was Fine, with a capital F.
And if what Jodi had let slip was true, their love life was far from lacking.
“Morning,” he murmured, crossing to the coffee maker and pouring himself a cup before leaning his hips against the counter next to Jodi, their shoulders nearly touching.
“That dream again?” Jodi guessed, and Shaun nodded, her eyes slicing over to Free before dropping back to her coffee. She would die if Jodi had told Free about her recurring dream, or that it centered around his arrogant, pain-in-the-ass cousin.
“Jodi has this recurring zombie nightmare,” Free murmured, bumping his shoulder into hers, and then grinned down at her when she glared at him out of the corner of her eye. Shaun laughed out loud.
“You’ve been having that nightmare since we were in high school!” Shaun cackled as she remembered the night she’d conned Jodi into watching World War Z.
“Well, why did they have to make them so fast?” she exclaimed, laughing too, then shuddered. “Urgh. Zombies are supposed to be slow! Those ones are terrifying!”
Shaun laughed as Free leaned down to press a smacking kiss to Jodi’s lips before pushing his hips away from the counter. “I’ve gotta go. You girls behave. No margaritas this early in the morning.”
“No promises,” Shaun called as he left the kitchen, and she heard him chuckle. A moment later, the front door opened and closed, and Jodi hopped up into the barstool next to Shaun. “You haven’t told him about the dreams, right?”
“Of course not,” Jodi said and waved her hand dismissively. “He might be my fiancé, but I don’t share everything with him. Your secret is safe with me.”
“I didn’t realize he was coming to the engagement party this weekend,” she said, taking a drink of her coffee.
“Free said he was trying to make it,” Jodi said and nodded around another sip of her own coffee. “I hadn’t heard if he was able to.”
“Oh, he definitely did,” Shaun muttered darkly. Jodi’s dark brows pulled together in confusion and Shaun sighed. “I had the unfortunate displeasure of running into our favorite arrogant Nascar driver already this morning.”
Jodi’s jaw dropped open. “What? Really? Where?”
“Well, after I realized my coffee maker kicked the bucket this morning, I needed coffee, so I went down to Ted’s.
And who should I run into—literally ran into—but Kasey fucking Corcoran.
Arrogant bastard.” Jodi cackled over her coffee cup and Shaun glared at her.
“It’s not funny! He spilled my coffee because he was standing so damn close! ”
“I’ve never met two people that antagonize each other the way you two do,” Jodi said, still chuckling as she shook her head. “Even from two thousand miles away, he still ruffles your feathers.”
“If he ever stayed two thousand miles away, I’d be fine,” Shaun muttered sourly, then stood to cross to the coffee pot, filling her cup and then held it up in silent inquiry.
Her sister shook her head, and she slid it back onto the hot plate before returning to her seat.
Pushing her cup out of the way, she folded her arms on the counter and buried her face in them, rolling her forehead back and forth as she let out a long, frustrated groan.
Speaking into her arms, her voice was muffled as she grumbled, “Urghhh. He just drives me insane, Jodi! And this dream! Ugh!”
Twisting her head so that her cheek lay on her folded arms, she looked up at her sister, who just smiled knowingly, her sapphire blue eyes mischievous as she took a sip of her coffee. “Is it always the same?”
“For the most part, yes. It replays that night at Shane and Cassie’s wedding.
I remember seeing him across the room for the first time, and then dancing with him.
” She heaved a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut.
“The way he held me against him while we were dancing, like he wanted to imprint his body on mine, or maybe vice versa… and then Tommy shows up and sees us—” Shaun’s voice cracked slightly as she stumbled over his name, and she swallowed past the lump of emotion in her throat before continuing, “—and I remember walking over to him and kissing him so Kasey would see it and leave me alone. But in the dream, when I pull away, it’s not Tommy who I’m lip locked with.
It’s Kasey. Kasey, every single time. But the worst part is when I wake up, I hate that it ended.
Like I wanted it to keep going… I can’t stand him, Jodi.
I don’t get it and I don’t understand why my brain keeps doing this to me. ”
“Maybe you just need to get laid,” Jodi said and shrugged, though she smiled behind another sip of her coffee.
Shaun groaned, rolling her head so she could bury her face in her arms again. It had been a very long seven months. And a vibrator only did so much. She missed the real thing.
“I still remember the night he came up for a visit… shoot, was it New Years Eve?” Jodi asked out loud, but Shaun knew exactly what night she was referring to. “It had to be, because we were at the party out at the Mountain…”
She knew exactly when he walked in.
Shaun stood at the bar in the Snowflake Lounge at Boyne Mountain Resort a town over from Petoskey.
The lounge was decorated in black and gold and silver everything, the lighting low and the music was just loud enough to make conversations difficult to hear, and the room was crowded with other New Years Eve celebrants.
But she knew the moment those gray-blue eyes landed on her from across the room.
She’d recognize him anywhere. Even if she hadn’t seen him in four months, if they’d only spent a handful of minutes together.
That incredibly tall, lean body. That sandy blonde hair that always looked like it was just a tad too long.
Those dangerously sexy hands with those long fingers that looked like he knew exactly what to do with them, no matter what he was doing with them.
She knew exactly what that body felt like as they danced, pressed together from thighs to chest.
He was dressed in dark navy slacks and a light, dusty blue dress shirt.
There was no tie around his neck, and the top three buttons of his shirt were left undone at his throat, revealing several inches of deeply tanned skin in the V formed there.
The sleeves were rolled up to his forearms, and a watch was strapped around one wide wrist where his hand dangled at his side.
The other hand was tucked into his pocket as he shifted his gaze away from her.
Leaning to the side, she hissed through her clenched teeth, “You failed to mention he was going to be here!”
“Huh?” Jodi asked, glancing around the room, her blue eyes widening when she spotted who Shaun was talking about. “Oh. Uhh, I didn’t know either.”
While the two women waited for the bourbon neat and vodka tonic that they’d ordered, Shaun brought the champagne flute in her hand to her lips and took a long swallow, finishing what was left in it before sliding it across the lacquered bar for the bartender to refill.
Kasey made his way across the crowded room, stopping at the table where Freeman sat with several other members of her family, including Tommy Chandler. Her fiancé.
His eyes drifted back to her more than once in the time he stood there speaking to the others at the table.
From where she and Jodi stood at the bar, she couldn’t hear what was being said.
Tommy glared daggers up at him, though he seemed totally unaffected by it, paying the other man little to no attention.