Chapter 1
JOSIE
Of all the places I might have expected to find my supposedly dead ex-boyfriend, a candy shop in a small town in the middle-of-nowhere Colorado never would have even cracked the top-ten list.
And yet, here he is, larger than life. Emphasis on larger. When did he get so jacked?
While he was hiding out in the Colorado wilderness with you back at home crying over his empty casket.
At that thought, anger overrides the shock that’s kept me rooted to the spot in front of him.
“You asshole!” Planting my hands on his chest, I shove as hard as I can. But to my growing fury he doesn’t even budge. All around us, the shop falls silent, every eye in the place turning toward us.
“I deserve that,” he murmurs, his soft voice full of what I can almost convince myself sounds like regret. He reaches for me, and for a fraction of a second I’m tempted to go to him, to let him comfort me the way he once did.
Twenty fucking years ago.
But at the last moment, I jerk out of his grasp, tears blurring my vision. “You deserve a hell of a lot worse than that, Bennett Kin—”
“Bram.”
The single syllable cuts off my tirade and I can only blink up at him. “What?”
“My name is Bram. Bram Thorne.”
No. His name is Bennett Kincaid. The boy I’d loved since I was old enough to know what a crush was.
My middle school obsession turned college sweetheart.
The boy I once gave every piece of myself, body and soul—and then mourned with a heart shattered beyond all repair when I thought I’d lost him forever.
But I suppose that name died with him. And while there is a part of me that is desperate to demand answers, I hold myself back. Because nothing will change the fact that losing him broke me, and it was all apparently a huge fucking lie.
“Whatever your name is, I never want to see you again. As far as I’m concerned, you died twenty years ago and you can fucking stay dead.”
Turning on my heel, I storm out of the candy shop to the waiting Jeep I rented when I landed in Colorado.
And away from the ghost of the only man I’ve ever loved.
Bram
Half of Forbidden Pines is watching me with far more interest than is safe.
But I don’t fucking care.
All that matters is Josie. Sweet, bright, light-of-my world Josie. Here, in the last place on Earth I ever would have expected to see her.
My chest feels as though someone has dropped a giant boulder on it and I can barely drag in enough oxygen to fill my lungs.
Ignoring the stares and whispers around me, I force a smile for Janet, the cashier at the front of the store. Her father owns the candy shop and together they’ve kept it running for nearly a decade thanks to the slow trickle of tourists Forbidden Pines sees during the year.
Janet’s eyes are wide in her pale face as she rings me up, but she doesn’t ask a single question about my altercation with Josie and I don’t offer any explanation. The less the citizens of our chosen home know about what happened here today, the better.
Clutching the candy I picked out for Axel’s Little girl, I head out to my SUV, deliberately keeping my movements unhurried as I climb inside and start the engine.
The entire way home I stick to the speed limit, refusing to give Sheriff Donnelly any more reasons to hassle us than she already feels she has.
But my patience has worn thin by the time I walk in my front door, and I make a beeline for my brother’s office in the hopes of avoiding the rest of the family.
And, thankfully, it works. Colt is there, hunched over some report or another on his desk. When he looks up, it’s my own face staring back at me, though there’s a bit more mischief in his smile. “Bram. What brings you to my inner sanctum on such a lovely day?”
“Josie is here.”
That’s all I have to say, and the change in my brother is as drastic as it is immediate.
Every bit of playful mischief flees from his expression, leaving behind the calculating tactician I know him to be.
Rising from the desk, he hurries over to shut the door behind me, closing us off from any curious ears—Little or otherwise.
“Josie is here? Like here at the cabin?”
“No. I ran into her at the candy store in town.”
“Did she see you?”
“Yes. And yes, she recognized me. She called me Bennett.”
“Fuck.” Agitation pours off him as he paces, and I don’t need our twin connection to feel what he’s feeling. “We have to tell the others. And we have to find her. If she goes back to New York and tells everyone she saw you here…”
“I know.” For nearly two decades we’ve managed to fly under the radar, even as we built our logging empire out here in the mountains of Colorado. And with one impossible coincidence, the lives we’ve fought tooth and nail to build could unravel in a fingersnap.
“All right.” Pausing his jerky movements, Colt closes his eyes and breathes deep. And when his eyes open again, he’s calm, at least on the surface. “First things first, we need to call a family meeting.”
“Gray’s going to lose her mind.”
Colt’s face twists into a grimace. “Yeah, she is. But she deserves to know. They all deserve to know what we’re up against.”
He’s right. I know he’s right. But the thought of facing my family, of telling my baby sister that we might have to uproot our entire lives once again has my stomach twisting itself into a knot.
As if he can sense my distress—which he probably can—Colt claps a hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “I’ll gather everyone. You make the hot chocolate. Nobody can be pissed at the person who brings them hot chocolate.”
The attempt at humor loosens some of those knots in my stomach, at least a bit. “All right.”
With another reassuring squeeze, Colt opens the office door and disappears into the hallway. I give myself another minute to allow my system to settle before following him.
The kitchen is surprisingly empty. Usually Elias is in here, working on dinner or baking some kind of sweet treat for our “niece” Lanie. But fate must feel guilty for fucking up my life, because I have the kitchen all to myself as I work on whipping up a fresh batch of hot chocolate.
None of the powdered stuff in the Thorne household. All of our hot chocolate is made from scratch with fresh milk and melted chocolate. And, much to my eldest brother Axel’s consternation, enough marshmallows to choke a horse.
“Uncle Bram! You’re back!”
Turning from the stove, I fix Axel’s Little girl with a stern glare as she comes racing into the kitchen. “Melanie Brynne, what have you been told about running in the house? Especially the kitchen?”
At the sound of her name, Melanie skids to a stop in front of me, her big blue eyes round with hurt and her bottom lip poking out in an impressive pout. “But I was just excited to see you.”
“Uh-huh. And I’m sure your excitement has nothing to do with the fact that I said I’d bring you home a treat?”
She doesn’t look the least bit chagrined. A wide smile stretches across her pretty face as she lifts a shoulder in a shrug. “Well, you did promise me.”
“I did. But your Daddy will have both our hides if I give you candy this close to dinner. You’re going to have to settle for hot chocolate.”
“But you promised,” she whines, her lip somehow pushing out even further.
Fuck me, she’s adorable. When Axel first rescued her from that snowstorm, I wasn't sure about keeping her. But now I can’t imagine our lives without our sweet Little Lanie—even when she’s being a complete and utter brat.
“I promised to bring you a treat. I did not promise to let you ruin your dinner, little girl.”
“What’s this about ruining dinner?” Axel steps into the kitchen, pinning his Little girl with a look that has some of the color leaching from her cheeks.
“Umm…” Looking every bit like a naughty Little girl, Lanie drops her gaze to the floor, her sock-covered foot twisting against the tile.
“She knows I brought her a treat from town and I told her it’s too close to dinner for candy, especially when we’re going to be having hot chocolate soon. But a certain Little girl isn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer.”
“Uncle Bram is right, Melanie Brynne. And you know better than to keep whining like that to try and get your way.”
“Yes, Daddy,” she responds with a dramatic sigh.
Pulling a chair out from the kitchen table, Axel sits and pulls her to him to unbuckle the straps of her overalls. With the efficiency of a Daddy well-practiced in giving his Little girl the discipline she so often needs, he strips her overalls and diaper from her before pulling her over his knee.
“When an adult tells you no, that means no, little girl.”
The sound of his palm cracking against her bare bottom fills the kitchen, along with my niece’s howls of pain. “Owie, owie, Daddy, I’m sorry!”
Grinning at the familiar sight playing out in front of me, I snag one of Eli’s many wooden spoons from the crock on the counter and hold it out to my brother. “While you’ve got her there, she was also running in the kitchen.”
“Thanks,” Axel grunts as he takes the spoon, snapping it against his babygirl’s bottom, leaving behind a perfect round circle as she kicks and cries over his knee. “You’ve been very naughty, Melanie Brynne.”
“I’m sorry, Daddy!”
By the time Axel finishes, Lanie’s bottom is a bright pink all over and she’s crying loudly. Lifting her into his arms, Axel cradles her against his chest while she sobs.
“Apologize to Uncle Bram for not listening when he told you no, and then we’ll go get a fresh diaper on you, little runaway.”
Sniffling, Lanie sits up and rubs at her streaming eyes. “I’m s-sorry, Uncle Bram.”
My heart twists in my chest at how fucking cute she looks all red-faced and teary-eyed. And for a moment, it’s not her but my Josie staring up at me through tearful eyes and it feels as though my heart may actually leap out of my chest.
But then I blink and it’s Lanie again, and I have to force myself to smile for her sake. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I know you didn’t mean to be naughty.”
Rising from the chair with his babygirl in his arms, Axel meets my gaze, his expression serious. “I’m going to get her a new diaper and then we’ll be down for the family meeting. Colt said you have something to tell us.”
“I do.”
Axel holds my gaze for several long seconds before giving a single decisive nod. “All right. We’ll be back down in a bit.”
He disappears from the kitchen, his sniffling Little girl cradled against him, and all I can think is I hope he can forgive me for ruining both their lives.