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“You mean there’s something you can’t do?” She gasped.
“I can’t do a lot of things. Ski, propose, land CEO.” He said it with a self-deprecating smile and followed it with one of his signature knee-weakening winks. Maybe one day when he did that, her knees wouldn’t weaken. #Goals.
“I’ve only been there once. Joe’s family brought us. I don’t like skiing—it’s cold and hurts when you fall down. But he was an amazing skier.” That trip with the Harts was eons ago and mentioning it made her miss Joe anew. This weekend promised to be full of old memories that were hard to think about.
“Who’s Joe?” Bran glanced over. “Old boyfriend?”
“We were friends.”
“Ah, so he had a thing for you and you shot him down.”
“Nothing like that. Our families were friends.” Emphasis on the were. Her parents blamed her for quitting her position at Hart Media and “driving a wedge” between them and their wealthiest friends. Emphasis on the wealthy part. She’d always wondered if her parents were enamored more with the Harts’ financial status than them as people. They were billionaires, after all. Like the man sitting next to her.
“Nope. I don’t buy it. A romantic ski trip together—”
“We were seventeen!” she argued with a laugh.
“Even worse! He was probably dying for you to notice him.”
Bran didn’t know that her friend had, in fact, died. But that reference wasn’t what caused her eyes to mist over. It was remembering the good times she and Joe had together. That ski trip was one of the best weekends of her life. They’d grown apart after she’d stopped working for his parents. Years later they’d reconnected for a double date, but she felt the distance between them. She recalled vividly the sad smile he’d given her while his girlfriend at the time and Addi’s frat-boy date were talking about a football game.
She blinked away fresh tears and turned to focus on the passing landscape out her window.
“Oh, hell. What happened?” Bran asked. “You okay?”
“I’m fine.” She gave him a watery smile. “Joe and I drifted apart. It was...hard.”
“Oh.” Bran drew out the word with a sage nod. “You liked him and he didn’t like you, right? I’m sorry, Ad. That sucks.”
She had the sudden urge to laugh. Or punch him. Or maybe laugh and then punch him. Did he hear himself? She liked him and he didn’t like her back and it did suck! “We were friends. And now...”
She shook her head, the lump in her throat cutting off the rest of her sentence. She cleared her throat and tried again. “This weekend is Joe’s life celebration. He prearranged three nights in Tahoe for close family and friends before he died.”
The only sounds in the car were the low volume of the radio and the wind sliding off the sleek sports car as they glided down the highway.
“I’m so sorry, Addison. I didn’t know.”
“How could you have?”
“How’d he die?”
“Bone cancer. From diagnosis to the end, he only lived nine months. The same amount of time it took for him to come into the world was the same amount of time it took for him to leave.”
He squeezed her hand. “That’s why you were crying in the office.”
Bran would be so easy to lean on, to confide in. To trust with her deepest, darkest fears and secrets. She slipped her hand from his to dig through her purse for a tissue and found herself doing just that.
“We grew apart after I went to college,” she said as she dried her eyes. “It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Maybe we outgrew each other.”
“Yeah. I know what you mean.” His comment was thoughtful, and she wondered if he was referring to Taylor, who’d been a family friend for decades before Bran and she had dated.
Joe didn’t have a girlfriend when he died. He’d never married. When Addi heard he was sick, her own life seemed shorter.
Which was why it was a good idea for her to get over Brannon. She could be dating someone who was madly in love with her, not torturing herself by hoping her boss might someday notice her.
She punched the volume button on the radio to drown out those thoughts.
“I love this song!” she called out.
“Yeah, me, too!” he called back, cranking the volume louder.
She didn’t know if he was letting her off the hook or if he really did love this song, but she was going to embrace the opportunity to stop being so damn needy. So far, their road trip had consisted of awkward pauses, tears for Joe and jealousy over the woman that would have occupied Bran’s bed tonight if Addi’s car hadn’t broken down.
She’d learned a long time ago that relying on others for her basic needs came with strings, rules and, if Addi didn’t follow those rules to a T, rejection. She was grateful to Bran for a lot of reasons—her job, primarily, but also that he cared enough to console her and drive her to Lake Tahoe.
But.
Her heart was a terrible translator. Her heart would read that professional concern as “true love” and fill her pragmatic mind with head-in-the-clouds fluff.
She was done pretending they might someday march down a long, white aisle. It was time to buckle down and be practical. Find that independent version of herself and put her in charge of her life for a change.
