CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Garrick
“Let me get this straight,” Mav says over a beer at the locals-only secret bar. I’m behind the bar, tending it, and he’s seated on a stool on the customer side. “You signed a petition to get her recalled as mayor to help her?”
“It’s gonna happen anyway,” I say. “The council won’t pass anything she’s in favor of and everyone in town sees her as an outsider. It’s not like it’s her dream job .”
“She tell you that?” Mav asks. He’s been a huge help with Evergreen Expeditions. He’s still learning all the trails, but he’s a good guide and great with our clients. Plus, he’s been helping me figure out how we can make this corporate trip happen.
“Not in so many words, but—”
“Sort of like how Mom and Dad didn’t ask you before they invited Avery to Christmas without consulting you first.” He points at me with his fingers in a gun shape like he’s just hit me right between the eyes.
It feels like it. His words knock me back a step. “I’m not trying to manipulate her into doing what I want. I’m pushing for her to do what’s right for her or what I thought was right for her when I thought…” I finally hear myself and the room spins. “Holy shit. I’ve turned into Mom and Dad.”
“Happens to the best of us,” Mav says. “You want to have a relationship with someone, you gotta communicate, not go behind their back.”
“I agree with your brother,” Xavier says. I didn’t even think he was listening. He’s been watching the dart game intensely. “It was a shitty thing to do. And you know it was or you wouldn’t have been hoping so hard she never saw that petition.”
Mav points at Xavier with his beer. “Exactly my point.”
Xavier shrugs. “Blue’s tough, though. And you two are enemies, anyway, right? Why are you stressing about it?”
“Because the big dummy went and fell in love with her,” Mav says.
Xavier spins around on his bar stool and stares at me, mouth agape.
“I’m not in love with her. Why are you here alone anyway, Xavier? You and Cherry have a fight?” Hell, yes, I’m trying to distract him.
He lifts his chin. “That’s my business. What the hell’s going on with you and Blue?”
“Nothing is going on,” I say at the same time my brother turns toward Xavier and says, “she’s his girlfriend or she was until Garrick fucked it up.”
Xavier narrows his eyes at me. “Blue doesn’t date.”
I glance at my brother, in no hurry to admit I was faking the whole thing with her at our parents’s house. “It’s new and not that serious.”
Xavier’s jaw shifts. “You’re the reason my wife is in Las Vegas and not here with me.”
An angry Xavier is a frightening Xavier. He used to be angry a lot more often before he and Cherry got together. I take a reflexive step back. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Blue is in Vegas looking for a new place to live. I thought it was just because of the mayor thing, but now it all makes a lot more sense. You broke her heart.”
That stupid spot in my chest that’s been sore since Blue walked away from me, aches like Xavier’s just shoved a sword in and twisted. Blue’s leaving. “I didn’t break her heart. As you pointed out, Blue doesn’t do relationships.”
“She wouldn’t be leaving town unless you hurt her pretty bad,” Mav says. “Is your business really bad off enough that the only way to save it is to end her career?”
Xavier leans in. They’re way too invested in my answer.
And I don’t love the truth. After Blue left, I looked over the books, determined to prove I was in the right. The numbers didn’t support that theory. I’m doing just fine leading tourists around the mountains. What’s hurting my business is everything I’m doing to bring in the larger corporate clients and buying more equipment so we can take more people out and I can hire more guides.
If I just trucked on with my business as it is, I’d make a fine living. It’ll just never be enough to impress my parents.
It took two sleepless nights for me to realize even if I own a billion dollar business, my parents will still want me back in the fold and they’ll probably never recognize my success.
And, more importantly, I’d rather have Blue back than my parents’ respect or approval.
“I may have overestimated how badly I need those permits,” I mumble.
“What was that?” Xavier cups a hand to his ear, his biceps flexing.
“I said I fucked up, okay? You happy?”
Xavier sits back and grins like he’s thrilled. “Blue’s a good person. You get her back, you’ll be a very lucky man.”
“She’s never going to take me back.”
“Do you want her back?” Mav asks. “You told me before you aren’t ready for a relationship.”
Xavier laughs. “No one’s ever ready for a relationship. Do you want her back?”
I stare at the glass I’m drying and imagine my life without Blue’s smiling face or her wise ass remarks. “Yeah, I want her back.”
Xavier whoops just as Nick Grove walks in and sits down next to him. “What are you so happy about?” Nick asks.
“We’re going to help Garrick win back Blue.”
“Win her back? When did he have her?”
I wait on other customers while my brother and Xavier fill Nick in. For the first time in days, I feel something other than broken-hearted and sad. I feel hope.
But by the time I’m closing down the bar an hour later, that hope is dwindling. Blue doesn’t want a relationship, and she’s never going to understand why I did what I did.
She thinks she can do everything on her own. She won’t understand me wanting to take care of her.
And, yeah, I get maybe I didn’t go about it the right way, but I can’t undo what’s already been done.
“You almost done?” Mav asks. “I want to hit Jack Frost’s before it closes. I don’t want to go home alone tonight.”
Thankfully, my older brother is renting a condo downtown and not staying with me. “You go on without me. I’m beat.”
“Nope.” Mav’s eyebrow piercing winks in the overhead lights. “I’m taking you with me. You need to be reminded there are other women in the world than that Blue chick.”
My hackles rise at him talking about her that way. “What happened to me winning her back?”
Mav snorts. “Man, you don’t really believe those guys, do you? You tried to get the woman fired. The chance of her taking you back is about as good as you ever speaking to mom and dad again.”
He’s only saying what I’ve been thinking, but he’s my brother. He’s supposed to believe in me no matter the odds. “I have to at least try.”
“Fuck that, brother. There are a million hot women in the world. Why waste your time moping over the one you’re never going to have? You’ve never been the settling down type, anyway.”
My brother doesn’t know me any better than the rest of my family, not really. I know he’s just projecting his own view of the world onto me, but I’m also not sure he’s wrong. “I’m not ready to hook up with anyone new.”
“Now’s the perfect time. Getting onto a new woman is the best way to get over the last one.”
There’s no way in hell I want to even look at another woman, but going home sounds worse than hanging with Mav as his wingman. I’m sick as shit of this ache in my chest and the awful feeling that I’m the one who broke my own heart. And who hurt the last person in the world I ever wanted to hurt.
Mav must see it on my face, because he grins. “That’s the spirit.”
I finish up with the nightly closing procedures and join Mav by the door. Outside, the wind blows hard and the cold is bitter.
Jack Frost’s is packed, even though it’s after midnight, and there are beautiful women everywhere I look. None of them appeal. I’m scanning the bar for pink hair.
The last time I was here, Blue was trying to pick up a tourist.
Does she have the same idea tonight? Is she out looking for someone else to take home in Vegas? Or has she already found him? Are his hands on her naked body? Is his cock in her mouth?
My stomach roils at the thought. How quickly will she move on from me? Has she already?
I grab onto the nearest table to steady myself, my knees going weak at the thought. I don’t want her to be with anyone but me, and I sure as hell don’t want to be with anyone but her.
I catch up to Mav at the bar. “Sorry, man. I’m heading out.”
He shakes his head in disgust, but I don’t care. I’m not going to do anything that might risk my chances of winning back Blue. Because winning her back is the only option. I’m going to try, even if I’m doomed to fail.
Mav grabs my arm and stops me. “Just know,” he says. “I told them not to come.”
He must be drunker than I realized. I have no idea what he’s talking about. “Make sure you get a ride home, man. Don’t drive.”
Clear-eyed, he grins and shoves me away from him. “Try not to be a total dick.”
I leave, brushing off his words as the ramblings of inebriation.
***
There’s an SUV parked in front of my house. A very large, very expensive SUV. Not exactly the type of thing burglars drive.
For one brief moment, hope flares bright that Blue is the owner of the SUV and is waiting for me inside.
But Blue doesn’t drive anything that fancy or that expensive.
“Please let it be Hudson,” I mutter to myself. It has to be Hudson. He’s the only one who’s ever visited me.
But Mav’s gibberish is making sense. He said 'them’, not him, and he warned me not to be a dick.
I glance back over my shoulder at the driveway that could take me out of here and away from whatever is waiting for me inside, but this is my house.
They don’t get to chase me out of my own home.
I park and turn off my truck. Then I just sit for a little while and stare at the house. I have no idea what they’re doing here, but I know it can’t be anything good.
I could spend the night in my truck and give myself some more time, but I can’t leave Barry alone with them all night. Not that they’d be mean to her, but Barry might think I’ve left her and she’d certainly sense the tension as my parents waited for me to show my face.
Feeling like I’m slogging through mud, I get out of the truck, cross my front lawn, and let myself into my house.
My parents are sharing a couch with Barry, already dressed in their pajamas.
Neither of them gets to their feet when I step inside and shut the door. Barry hops off the couch and trots over to me, tongue out.
I kneel and pet her. I’d rather hang with her than listen to whatever lecture my parents have for me.
“Mav said you might not be coming home tonight,” Dad says, his tone hesitant.
I look up to see him frowning, his brow creased. “I wasn’t in the mood for a late night,” I say.
“You and Blue having problems?” To her credit, my mother doesn’t appear to gloat. She looks genuinely concerned.
“I meddled with her life when I shouldn’t have.” I get to my feet, staring them down, anger pulsing in me hot. “Sound familiar?”
“Calm down, Garrick,” Dad says. “Have a seat and chat with us.”
I sit in the armchair across from them, because I’m exhausted, not because my father asked me to. “Generally, people call before they visit.”
“There aren’t any hotels in Yuletide,” Mom says. “And if we asked to stay here for a night, we knew you’d say no.”
“Or I could have just not come home tonight. Would you have been gone tomorrow, or are you planning to stay until you make whatever point you can’t make over the phone?”
“We’re leaving tomorrow.” Dad leans back, grinning like nothing can bother him. It’s such a rare expression I barely recognize him. “Your mother and I are going on a European cruise.”
That surprises me almost more than them being in my living room. “During ski season?”
Dad shrugs. “The slopes will still be there when we get back.”
“You’re really doing it.” I shake my head, not bothering to hide my disbelief. “You’re really retiring.”
“We’re also going to stop meddling in your life,” Mom says. “We went too far bringing Avery to the house, especially with Pink there—”
“Her name’s Blue,” I say between gritted teeth. “You know that.”
“Shut up and accept your mother’s apology,” Dad says in a gruff tone. “If you want to throw your life away out here in a town with no decent skiing, we’ve given up on stopping you.”
“Gee, thanks,” I say, all sarcasm.
“We really are sorry,” Mom says. She actually sounds like she means it. “We may not be happy with your choices, but we love you and we don’t want to lose you. If we promise to stop interfering in your life, will you consider visiting after we get back from our cruise?”
“Any chance you can also stop telling me things like I’m throwing my life away?”
“We’re allowed to have opinions, Garrick,” Dad says. “You can’t expect us to keep quiet about how we feel.”
“But we won’t do anything to force your hand.” Mom straightens her robe and doesn’t meet my eyes. “We’ll accept this as your choice for now and simply hope you may change your mind someday.”
“And that you’ll bring your brother home with you when you do,” Dad says. “When I suggested you work with him, I meant in Sugar Valley. I didn’t mean for you to bring him out here.”
“You were right about him,” I say. “He’s working out great.”
My dad huffs and shakes his head, but doesn’t argue.
I could rage at them about not seeing things from my perspective or explain to them not all opinions need to be vocalized, but what they’ve already given me is huge for them. I know them well enough to know that. And, maybe with time, they’ll change those opinions about me.
“Okay. I’ll visit when you get back.” I hold up a hand. “But if you pull anything like what you pulled with Avery again—”
Mom leaps up from her seat and wraps herself around me in a hug. “Thank you, Garrick. We promise we’ll behave.”
I hug her back, my eyes burning for some inexplicable reason. Maybe because it feels good to have them back in my life. I didn’t really want to have to cut them out completely.
Mom steps back, her eyes lighting with her smile.
“Do you think there’s any chance we can forget the past?” I ask. “Forget the kid I used to be and see me as an adult who’s grown and changed?”
Mom’s brow creases. “You’re our baby boy, Garrick. Why would we ever want to forget that?”
“Enough talking,” Dad says. “We need to get to bed. We have to be on the road early for our cruise.”
Oh, well. It was worth a try. I hadn’t really expected them to develop selective amnesia on my behalf. “No time to see the headquarters of Evergreen Expeditions before you go?”
“We’ve seen it,” Mom says. “Lindsay gave us a tour while you and Mav were out. It’s a lovely little business.”
Dad wraps an arm around her shoulders and pulls her toward the back of the house. As they pass, he slaps my shoulder. “Good work, kid. It’s a nice place you’ve got.”
He doesn’t even look at me as the two of them make their way back to the small guest bedroom, but the compliment feels like the best gift he’s ever given me. He didn’t have to say it. He wasn’t trying to get something from me.
Those compliments from both my parents fill me with so much warmth, I almost don’t mind it the next morning when they make me late to work. They don’t cook, and what kind of son would I be if I let them leave without breakfast? Was the guilt trip they laid on heavy.