Meltdown (Ricochet Ridge #1)
Chapter 1
Damon
After finding my best friend’s father balls-deep inside my twin brother’s ass, I didn’t think things could get much worse. But as it turns out, I was wrong.
The aftermath of that discovery has been a disaster. The wreckage that has prevented me from speaking to my brother, Taylor, for almost a year has also left me walking on eggshells around my best friend, Liam.
However, I’ve recently been told the truth about not just that night, but the relationship between Patrick and Taylor as a whole…
and what I learned makes me so angry I could spit fire.
While the relationship itself was disturbing enough, considering Patrick has known us our entire lives, the lies he told to protect himself made everything much worse than it needed to be.
When Patrick came clean to my family, I told him I would give him until the start of Liam and I’s annual two-week vacation to Ricochet Ridge to tell Liam the truth, but the coward has yet to do so.
Which means, instead of enjoying our post-holiday trip, I’ll be stressing over when and how to tell my best friend that his father, the only family he has left, is the villain in his own fucked-up story.
A liar who cost me ten months of silence with my twin brother, just to save his own ass.
Although, considering I’ve been keeping secrets of my own from Liam, I’m not much better. And yes, I understand the hypocrisy. The difference is that the only person I’m hurting with my secret is me.
“Sick ride!” Liam shouts from the passenger side, opening the door to the Range Rover I rented for the trip. “Of course, I’d expect nothing less from your bougie ass,” he taunts.
We both grew up with successful parents, but while I’ve followed in my father’s footsteps and gone to work at his cybersecurity firm, Liam has floundered a little since his mom’s death.
He’s always found it hard to commit, but it’s definitely gotten worse since her passing two years ago.
Now, he bounces around from job to job and hookup to hookup.
Hell, he won’t even sign a lease for more than six months at a time.
The first thing Liam does when he gets into the rented SUV is connect his phone to the vehicle’s Bluetooth, and I chuckle to myself at his predictability.
He already has his Mountain Vibes playlist downloaded in case we lose signal driving up to the resort.
The man can’t decide what to eat or where to live, but he can curate a playlist for any occasion.
Next, he turns the air down to sixty-nine degrees on his side, taps the button for the seat warmer, opens the glove box just to see what’s inside, and plugs his phone into the USB charging port.
I know his routine like the back of my hand—hell, I know him like the back of my hand—so I sit and wait patiently, enjoying my cup of overpriced airport coffee, simply happy to be in Liam’s presence after several months apart.
I was bitter when Liam moved to Boston, and I’ve been trying to get him to move back home since the day he left. I know he feels like he needs to prove something with the distance…I just don’t know what it is.
I watch in silence as he strips off his jacket, tossing it haphazardly onto the back seat before finally clicking his seatbelt into place, signaling the end of his chaotic introduction to every rental car he’s ever been in.
“You good?” I ask, trying to keep my lips from turning up into a grin before putting the SUV in drive.
Liam nods stoically, as though he just finished an extremely important mission. “Yup. Let’s roll.”
Li and I have been best friends for over twenty years, which is rather impressive since we’re both only twenty-four. We’re the kind of friends who took our first steps together, took all the same classes in high school just so we’d always know someone, and we’d vacation with each other’s families.
Which makes the shit between his dad and my brother so much fucking worse.
I look over to find Liam staring out the window.
He’s easily distracted and very excitable, but that’s just part of his charm.
Liam is the smile to my frown. The light to my darkness.
Which sounds crazy because I have an identical twin, for fuck’s sake, but it’s true.
While Tay and I complement each other, we have nothing in common, whereas Li and I have as many similarities as differences.
Tay and I are close, but I need Liam.
“Oh, man!” he exclaims, pulling me from my thoughts. “Look! I forgot you can see the slopes from all the way over here!”
“Sick,” I reply, using his lingo, trying to sound cool.
I give Liam a sidelong glance before turning my eyes back to the winding road.
He looks like a ski bum. His shaggy curls could use a cut; he has a permanent five o’clock shadow, and his clothes are so wrinkled it looks like he slept in them.
Granted, he did just get off an airplane, but I have no doubt his clothes looked like that when he got on the aircraft, too.
I am the exact opposite. I’m most comfortable in tailored suits—like the one I have on now—expensive shoes, and expensive watches. Hell, I even wear silk boxers.
I’m more ‘ski the French Alps, and let’s meet for Scotch afterward,’ while Li is more ‘watch my moves at the terrain park right after I shotgun this Bud Light.’
But somehow, we’ve always worked.
“So, I was looking at the trail map,” he starts, pulling my attention back to him again. “The eastern side looks dope as shit.”
I laugh. “Just remember, I’m not a natural athlete like you, Li. I’m going to need a few warm-up runs.”
“Oh, yeah, no problem. Anything for you,” he says with an ease that makes my chest tighten.
“Hey!” he blurts suddenly, reaching over and tapping my thigh with the back of his knuckles.
“I’m hungry. What are you in the mood for?
I mean, we have time to stop because we can’t check in until three anyway, right? ”
My thigh tingles where he touched me, and although the touch isn’t new, it still catches me off guard.
Liam offers his physical affection freely, and he often pays no attention to personal space or boundaries, especially where I’m concerned.
I, on the other hand, do not like to be touched beyond a handshake… except by Liam, of course.
Herein lies the problem.
“How about that taco place we stopped at the last time we came out here?” I suggest.
“Sounds good to me.”
Anything would sound good to Liam so long as he doesn’t have to make a decision.
I pull into what is actually a decently sized restaurant, despite its name carrying the title shack, about an hour later.
As soon as we enter, Liam wanders off to find a table, leaving me to place his order.
It didn’t require a conversation, because it never does.
Liam’s default setting when we’re together is to let me make all the choices.
I’ve never been able to figure out if it’s because he truly doesn’t care or if he’s afraid of choosing something he won’t like.
Mostly, though, I think it’s because he doesn’t know what he wants, and that rings true in just about every aspect of his life.
When our tacos are delivered, Liam rubs his hands together and then pulls back one of the shells slightly to see what I chose.
“No onions,” I say with a smile.
He narrows his eyes in a teasing manner, and I already know what’s coming next. My stomach tightens as the familiar words fall from his lips.
“You wouldn’t lie to me, right?”
“No, Li. I wouldn’t lie to you.”
Except for the part where I am lying because I’ve led Liam to believe I’m straight, and that I’m not interested in a relationship because I’m married to my job.
In reality, I’m in love with him, and I can never tell him because I can’t risk losing him.