Chapter 2
GISELLE
I stared across the bar watching Thayer and some snow bunny chatting it up.
It was like a train wreck I couldn’t tear my eyes away from.
I wanted to believe it was the sisterly way I’d looked after Thayer for the past eleven years that had taken over my body.
Or, maybe it was the liquor I’d consumed that made me want to go over there and tell him to stop.
To tell him the only reason she was paying him any attention was because he could snowboard like a freaking rock star. But I had no right to do that.
I had Gino. He took care of me. I planned to spend forever with him.
I just couldn’t understand why some shaggy-haired snowboarder had this hold on me ever since he tried to kiss me last year.
I knew his emotions that night were a mix of drunkenness and losing his mother, so I didn’t want to make it embarrassing for him.
I thought distancing myself would’ve worked, but I’d been fooling myself.
He was Kason’s best friend. He was always around.
And, even though we’d barely spoken since the almost-kiss, he still invaded my thoughts for some godforsaken reason.
“Hey,” Shay said, stepping up beside me.
“Hey. Where’s Mr. Gold Medal?” I asked.
“Showing it off.”
I smiled. I couldn’t have been happier for my little brother. He deserved every good thing that came his way—including Shay. She had his back. She had changed him for the better.
Shay yawned. “Do you think I’ll be able to get him out of here before the sun rises?”
“Not likely.” My phone buzzed, and I checked the screen.
Gino
Hey Babe. Your bro killed it. Congratulate him for me. I miss you.
I released a small sigh, hating that Gino had business meetings that made traveling to see me nearly impossible.
“You okay?” Shay asked.
“Just texting with Gino.”
“Did you make any plans to use that plane ticket yet?”
I shook my head. Kason and Shay had given me a ticket for Christmas to visit Gino, but I hadn’t booked anything yet. Since the boutique was still busy after the holiday rush—with shoppers using gift cards and returning incorrect sizes, it was impossible to skip out on my store.
“Go see him,” Shay urged. “I can cover at the boutique for you—as long as you trust me enough to leave me in charge.”
I laughed. “Of course I trust you. But as you know, I’m a control freak and…”
“And what?”
I worried my bottom lip, considering what excuse I had to not go see Gino. He signed the lease on my condo. He helped me open my boutique when I was still a college student and didn’t have enough money to do it alone. He was the guy I planned to spend the rest of my life with.
“Are you two not together anymore?” Shay asked.
“What? No. I mean, of course we are,” I answered quickly, needing to hear myself say it more than answering Shay.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked,” she said.
“It’s fine. I can see why you’d think that. It’s not like we’re ever together,” I said, my eyes scanning the unfamiliar faces in the bar.
“Why do you think that is?” she asked, her eyes inquisitive not implicating.
“He’s in one state, and I’m in another,” I explained, but even I knew it was a lame excuse. If you loved someone, you made time for them. You yearned to see them at any chance you got.
“Any plans to move to Florida to open a boutique there?” she asked.
“Maybe someday,” I said, though it was unlikely since I never planned to move away from Colorado.
“Your family would miss you,” she said.
I nodded, knowing that was part of the reason I couldn’t go.
Jesse, one of my brother’s friends, squeezed between us. “We’re doing shots! Some tequila shots for me and my friends,” he called to the bartender before looking to me. “Your brother fucking crushed it today.”
We’d already had the same conversation earlier, so I knew he was pretty wasted. “Did you expect anything less from the great Kason McCloud?”
“The guy always delivers.” He glanced to Shay. “But you already know that, don’t you?”
Shay and I both groaned at his insinuation.
Jesse laughed as he handed his credit card to the bartender who placed the shots in front of us. “Take a shot,” he urged us.
Shay waved off the shot, but I grabbed one and lifted it with Jesse.
“To Kason…” He looked around the bar. “Wherever the hell he is.”
We downed the shots—Jesse doing his and Shay’s. The liquor burned its way down my throat, warming my insides.
Jesse took off in search of more people to do shots with.
My head began to swim with the effects of the alcohol.
“Hey!” Kason stepped up to us and draped his arm with the cast over Shay’s shoulder, his medal dangling from his neck.
“You just missed Jesse. He’s toasting to you,” I said, a slight slur to my voice. Dammit.
Kason laughed. “Any excuse to get wasted.” He pressed a kiss to the top of Shay’s head. “We can head out in a few.”
“Take your time,” she said. She knew he deserved to celebrate his first-place finish after all of the hard work he’d put into preparing to compete.
“This is why I love this girl,” he said to me, though his eyes never left Shay’s.
Tears pricked my eyes. The way my brother had changed in less than a year was truly remarkable.
He went from putting himself first to worrying about someone else.
He’d always been a good guy deep down, but the fame had definitely gotten to him.
Shay made sure that that Kason was long gone.
Now, he was replaced by a guy I was proud to call my brother.
Jesse approached now that Kason had joined us. “Shots!”
Shay and I rolled our eyes as Jesse ordered more shots. Once they arrived, I grabbed one, joining Kason and Jesse in another toast. We raised our glasses.
“To the baddest motherfucker on the mountain!” Jesse yelled.
The bar erupted into cheers.
Kason grinned before slamming his shot back. I followed his lead, downing my shot just as his theme song from his last run blared from the speakers. Everyone began jumping around to the music. I threw back my head and laughed, the whole scene like something out of a feel-good movie.
“Let’s do this!” Kason pulled Shay and me out onto the packed dance floor.
Shay looked uncomfortable, but I embraced the music and the night. We were there for Kason, so if my brother wanted to dance, I was gonna dance my heart out.
I crossed the hotel lobby to the bank of elevators, feeling bad for Shay who was still stuck at the bar.
I waited for a few seconds before the doors split, and I stepped into the empty elevator.
Just as the doors were about to close, a hand shot in between them, reopening the door.
A group of girls squished inside, forcing me into the back of the elevator as they talked amongst themselves.
“He’s so hot.”
“Looks like he has a girlfriend.”
“That won’t last. Athletes can’t stay loyal.”
“Especially with us hanging around.”
They laughed, and the sound turned my stomach.
The elevator stopped on the fourth floor—my floor. The girls piled out and turned right—the same direction I was heading.
I followed them, though I wasn’t walking as straight as I would’ve liked to. Damn shots.
They stopped, knocking on the door to room 406 as I kept walking to my room.
“Hey, ladies,” a familiar voice said.
I stopped, unable to get my legs to move no matter how much I willed them to. Then, I slowly turned around to see the girls filing into the room.
Thayer poked his head into the hallway, making sure he hadn’t missed anyone. His eyes widened when he saw me standing there.
“With Kason off the market, you seem to be picking up right where he left off.” I hated that I couldn’t keep the thought to myself.
His eyes narrowed. “Wow. Judgmental much?”
“Just calling it like I see it.”
“You know what…” He stepped into the hallway and walked toward me. His plain white T-shirt showed off the sleeve of tattoos on his right arm that he’d been adding to since he was sixteen. His jeans—that would’ve looked sloppy on any other guy—hung perfectly on his hips.
Why was I even looking?
“For someone who’s ignored me for an entire year, you have no right to comment on what I do or who I do it with,” he said.
“I wouldn’t dream of it. You’re a big boy. You can make your own stupid decisions.”
He scoffed. “Unless someone else is making them for me.”
My eyes tightened. Was he seriously making a dig at me for rejecting his stupid kiss? “Oh, please. Get over it. Like you said, it was almost a year ago.”
His head hitched back as if I’d slapped him across the face.
Okay. So, maybe it was my embarrassment over said kiss. Or, maybe I was just pissed he had a roomful of girls waiting for him, but I kept spewing. “Don’t let me keep you. Those girls couldn’t get up here fast enough. They’re all ready for you.”
“There you go again. Judging.”
“So let me get this straight,” I said, crossing my arms. “What are you all going to do in there? Watch a movie? Play a game? Have a pillow fight?”
His lips twitched in the corners. They fucking twitched. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were jealous.”
“Jealous?” My voice squeaked at the absurdity.
He shrugged. “Sounds a lot like it.”
“You think I’m jealous of a bunch of groupies in your room?”
“Yes,” he deadpanned.
“Why would I be jealous? I have a boyfriend, and you’re not him.”
“Oh, you’ve made that abundantly clear.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “Fuck you, Thayer.”
“Are we done here?” he asked, annoyance in his tone.
“Are you dismissing me?”
“Giselle?” a deep voice interjected.
I froze as Thayer spun around. It was Gino, decked out in suit pants and a sweater vest, holding a carry-on bag.
“Gino?” I said, stunned he’d shown up.
“Everything okay?” he asked as he approached, his eyes jumping between Thayer and me.
I shook off my surprise and hurried toward him. “What are you doing here?”
He pulled me into a hug. “I jumped on the first flight, hoping to catch at least one of Kason’s runs. I texted you from the airport. Even though I was too late, I wanted to come celebrate anyway.”
“I just left the bar,” I said, stepping out of his hug. “We can head back if you’d like. Kason’s still there.”
He looked to Thayer who lifted his chin at him. “’Sup, dude?”
“’Sup,” Gino said, the word sounding so unnatural coming from him. “Was I interrupting something?”
“Just schooling your girl,” Thayer explained. “But now I gotta bounce. Got a room full of willing snow bunnies, if you know what I mean,” he said, clasping Gino on the shoulder. “And a monster pillow fight waiting to happen,” he added for my benefit.
With that, he walked into his room and closed the door. The click of the lock echoed in the now quiet hallway.
“To be single,” Gino mused.
I looked to him, annoyed. Was it his words? Or, was it the fact that Thayer was in a room full of drunk girls? What would happen behind closed doors? Was my imagination worse than reality?
I guess I’d never know.
Nor did I have the right to.