Chapter Eleven
Drew
The diner was a combination of fluorescent lighting and worn red and white vinyl.
The tabletop of our booth was clean while still being somewhat sticky, a contradiction that implied decades of spilled soda and bad decisions.
The air smelled like bacon grease and old fryer oil.
The menus were laminated with the changes to them written on adhesive tape.
I would have bet my life Bella had chosen this place spontaneously. There was something intriguing, even flattering, about that. Not that she was giving off even a hint that she might have spent the last few days thinking about me the way I’d been thinking about her.
Which was also intriguing. Most women were obvious about what they wanted. I honestly couldn’t tell if Bella had asked me to meet her because she wanted to thank me for the gift or threaten my life for daring to send her one.
If the noise around us or the questionable cleanliness of the furnishing bothered Bella, she wasn’t showing a hint of that, either. She was pleasant with the waitress, ordered a BLT and bottled water, and had been civil to me when I’d joined her at this booth.
After I ordered a soda, burger, and fries, the waitress left us on our own. I sat there, fighting back the urge to ask Bella if she’d liked the candy. Her expression was serious and drawn, so I did my best to match her vibe.
Our drinks arrived and Bella still hadn’t spoken to me. I sipped at my soda and waited.
Without looking me in the eye, she said, “Thank you for the gift.”
“You’re welcome. The apology was sincere.”
She slow blinked. “And I accept it, but I didn’t ask you here to talk about us.” Her gaze rose to meet mine. “Brady and Nora are going skiing together,” she said. “In Vermont.”
My eyebrows rose at the pitch of her voice. She was nervous. Worried. I leaned back, taking her in. The tightness around her mouth. The slight circles beneath her eyes. “How do you know?”
“Brady told me.”
“Even if they are together, why is that an issue?”
The food arrived while she was still glaring at me. “Don’t pretend you don’t know.”
I watched her for another beat, long enough for her to start bristling, then took out my phone.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
I let my mouth twitch. “I’m checking.” I typed Nora’s name into a text, my thumbs moving fast.
Drew: You alive?
Nora: Clearly.
Drew: Where are you?
Nora: Vermont. Skiing for a few days with a friend. Don’t make it weird.
Drew: Which friend?
Nora: Brady Holliston.
Across from me, Bella went very still. The shift was so subtle some people would’ve missed it, but I didn’t. I’d spent my entire life in rooms where the smallest shift in someone’s posture could mean the difference between an agreement or a war.
Nora’s next message came through before I could type again.
Nora: And before you start—he’s never been anything but nice to everyone. Tap your brakes and don’t lecture me. We’re just friends.
Drew: Don’t let him do anything that makes me have to kill him.
Nora: Drew
Drew: Are you on the trip alone?
Nora: No. Stace, Chris, and Theo are here. And I’ll share my location with you if you’re that worried.
Drew: Next time just tell me when you take a trip.
Nora: I love you, Drew, but you need to lighten up. Go have fun, please, and stop worrying about me.
Drew: I love you too.
I set the phone down and lifted my gaze to Bella.
“Well?” she asked impatiently.
It struck me then that she really was worried about Brady and Nora. This wasn’t a ploy to see me again. “She confirmed it,” I said, keeping my voice low. Neutral. “She’s with Brady. They’re there with a group of friends. People I know.”
“Who?” she asked.
I listed the names.
She shook her head. “I don’t know them.”
Her concern did something unexpected . . . it had me feeling . . . protective of her. Not Nora—Bella. And that didn’t make sense. “I do and they’re good kids.”
“Why is Brady with them?” Bella asked in the same tone as someone might ask why someone would want to handle a poisonous snake.
“My sister is an amazing person.”
Bella frowned. “I’m not implying she isn’t. What I am saying is that I don’t like the idea of my brother on vacation with her. Add alcohol. People I don’t know. This isn’t good. Brady trusts everyone.”
It was my turn to frown. “Nora wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
Throwing her hands up, Bella said, “This is bad. Why . . . why are they doing this?” As she reached for her water, her hand trembled. “We have to get ahead of this.”
I leaned forward. “Why? Is there something you know that I don’t?”
For just a moment I thought she might tell me. Our eyes met and her mouth parted. I held my breath. Then she looked away as if reminding herself that I wasn’t someone she could trust with the truth.
And that bothered me.
More than it ever would have before.
On one hand, I didn’t like the idea of her brother being with my sister any more than she did, but Nora was a senior in college and asking to be treated as an adult. I wanted to honor that.
On the other hand, Bella was reaching out to me for help again.
I hadn’t been receptive to that the first time.
At The Beacon, I could only see the situation through the lens of our rivalry.
But, if I put that aside—if I stopped being a Burke dueling with a Holliston—we were two people sitting in a diner talking.
And she was just a woman, worried about her brother, reaching out to someone she hoped could help her help him.
“What are you afraid might happen in Vermont?” I asked gruffly.
One of her shoulders raised and lowered before she answered. “Brady was never a drinker, but in the video I saw of him and Nora, he looked drunk. Things are already complicated enough between our families. We need to stop them before they make it worse.”
If I hadn’t watched Brady grow up, summer after summer, I would have had serious concerns about Nora being with him.
But everyone in Firebrook Valley and even in my social circle considered him to be the nicest of the Hollistons.
He’d cheerfully worked more than one summer at Mabel’s restaurant. I considered him harmless.
My father would flip if he heard that Nora was spending time with a Holliston, but he also needed to start respecting Nora’s choices.
Dad was a good man, but sometimes he seemed uncomfortable with how much Nora took after our mother.
After the accident, he’d wanted to sell every last one of our horses, but Nora hadn’t let him.
She said she loved them, even the one my mother had taken her deadly fall from.
Suffice it to say, things were tense between Nora and our father now. And I didn’t know how to fix it.
Rather than continuing down that mental tangent, I turned my attention back to the beautiful, but stressed, woman across from me.
I could end this right now. I could tell her Nora was capable of taking care of herself.
I could remind her that Brady was an adult.
I could tell her to go back to Manhattan and let things play out.
And we could both walk away from this.
Back to our cities. Back to our roles. Back to being on opposite sides.
I didn’t want that.
I made a decision.
Bella, no matter how hard she tried to pretend otherwise, was not my adversary. She was a temptation. A dangerous one. The kind that a man leans into despite the warning bells going off in his head.
“So,” I said, letting mock seriousness settle over my tone like a suit I wore well. “What do you think we should do about that?”
She blinked once, as if she hadn’t expected the question. Then her chin lifted. Defensive. Determined. Bella in full command of her own narrative. “I think we should go up there,” she said.
My eyebrows rose. Okay, now she had my full attention.
The corner of my mouth twitched before I could stop it. “Go where?”
“To Vermont.”
“To ski?” I asked, because I couldn’t help myself.
Her eyes flashed. “To see what’s actually happening.”
“Like spies?” I asked and let my amusement show because I wanted her to feel it. Not as ridicule—Bella was too smart to tolerate that—but as an invitation.
Bella bristled. “No. Like two caring older siblings who want to ensure their families don’t make mistakes they can’t undo.”
She was worried about the consequences.
“And what exactly is the plan, Bella?” I asked, for once not calling her by her surname. It did something to her, as if she recognized the shift. The slightest pause. The faintest tightness at the corner of her mouth as if she were annoyed or intrigued.
I didn’t mind if she was both.
“We go up there, Drew,” she said. “We see what they’re doing. If they’re actually meeting friends. How they seem together.”
“So, we stalk our siblings across state lines and hope they don’t see us.”
Her glare sharpened. “Forget I suggested it. You’d probably blow our cover immediately.”
The idea was ridiculous.
It was reckless.
And also, so fucking entertaining to imagine. “I will have you know I absolutely would not blow our cover. I can be stealthy.”
In business as well as life, some offers were win/wins. And this seemed to be one. Not only would going to Vermont allow me to ensure that Nora was, in fact, safe. But it would also give me time alone with Bella and that was something I was beginning to realize I wouldn’t mind.
“We can’t stay at the same resort,” I added, already working through the logistics. “They’ll recognize us the second our helmets come off.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “If you’re making fun of me—”
“We need a place nearby with access to the same mountain.” I tapped the tabletop once, like I was laying down terms. “A place where we can come and go without being noticed. A place with enough distance to deny we’re there together.”
“We are not staying together,” she snapped, sharp and immediate, like she’d been waiting to draw that line.
I held her gaze. “Of course we’re not.”
Something flickered in her eyes . . . disappointment? That was a good sign. I pulled my phone out again.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
I didn’t look up. My thumb moved across the screen with ease. One of the perks of having money was that you could solve problems in under sixty seconds.
I tapped twice.
Then once more.
And smiled.
“I just booked a ten-bedroom home next to the resort,” I said.
Bella froze. Actually froze—like her brain had momentarily shut down in protest. Her mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.
And I thought, with alarming honesty, I’d never seen a woman more beautiful than she was in that moment: furious, flustered, and completely out of words.
“First of all,” she said finally, voice cutting sharp, “I am not agreeing to that. Second—why ten bedrooms?”
“In a ten-bedroom house,” I said smoothly, “there’s plenty of room for us to pretend we’re not on a trip together.”
Her cheeks flushed a deep, beautiful pink.
“Plenty of places for you to hide if you don’t want to see my face.” I leaned back, letting the booth creak. “What did you think I was going to do, Bella? Book a one-bedroom and claim it was an accident?”
“Of course not,” she snapped, which told me she had, in fact, at least considered that.
I let my smile widen enough to make her squirm. “This is about making sure our siblings are safe,” I said, and my voice dropped a fraction lower without trying, “and not about us spending time together.”
“Exactly,” she whispered, eyes fixed to my mouth.
I couldn’t have looked away if the building around us had burst into flames. “Then we’re doing this,” I said, sliding my phone into my pocket. I leaned forward a final inch, just enough to test if the air would still sizzle from the proximity. It did. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning.”
She sat there, the unflappable Bella Holliston finally speechless.
The urge to kiss those pursed lips of hers was nearly undeniable, but I held back, because some things were better when not rushed.
I smiled, though, as I wondered what Nora would think if she knew I had decided to take her advice.
I was, indeed, lightening up and hopefully going off to have some fun.