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Chapter 1
Faith Harris was standing at reception when Hope Lawrence waddled in with a cell phone pressed to her ear.
Heavily pregnant Hope wore a pair of lime-green tights and a long white shirt that hung to her knees. Faith suspected it belonged to her man, friend, and local Paul Newman. The black cardigan she wore over that also came to her knees. Her hair was bundled on top of her head in a messy knot, and on her feet were her shitkickers, as Newman referred to them. No-nonsense black lace-up boots.
“You promised me, Ryan!” Hope’s voice rose several octaves. “Mom and I haven’t seen you in years!”
Faith winced at the shriek. Hope wasn’t the hysterical type normally, but pregnancy had made her irrational, which Faith had noted was a condition that a few of her friends suffered from. Hormones, apparently, played hell with your personality.
“Seeing your face on TV or a screen is not the same, and I will scream if I want to. I’m eight and a half months pregnant and I want to see my big brother. I want you to see me too, because I may change beyond recognition after childbirth, and you won’t know me when you finally do make the time to visit. How bad will you feel then!” She paused, presumably so Ryan could speak.
“I may,” Hope whispered. “I don’t want to speak to you anymore.” She cut the call and handed the phone to Faith. “My brother is an asshole, and I n-need to use the bathroom, and when I come back, I want a large wine.”
“You can’t drink wine, as you very well know,” Faith said. “But we can go see Buster, and he’ll make you a large hot chocolate with those little marshmallows you like, and you can have three chocolate chip cookies. I’ll even buy.”
“That could work.” Hope sniffed.
“And I doubt you’ll change beyond recognition. I mean, look at the women who had babies in this town. I still recognize all of them.”
“Shut up. I was just trying to guilt my brother into coming home. Even crows like to live with their families,” she muttered, waddling away.
Bastard.Just thinking about Ryan Lawrence made her want to punch something. Hope’s brother had been a friend of Faith’s twin, Noah, and her. In fact, because their town was small, they’d all been close with the kids their age growing up. Faith had pretty much worshipped Hope’s brother from the day she was old enough to know just how cool he’d been. Tall, dark, and broody, he’d not spoken a lot, and often had just been there, but she’d had a serious case of puppy love for that man. She was pretty sure she’d followed him around like a puppy a time or two. Then they’d shared that summer together. Talked, laughed, and taken each other’s innocence. Faith had believed Ryan was her happily ever after. The following week, he’d left without telling her and never returned.
Bastard.Eleven years was a long time to hold a grudge, and she had moved on, but thinking about the devastation she’d felt and the weeks of crying into her pillow still left a nasty taste in her mouth.
The cell phone in her hand vibrated, the sounds of a birdcall ringing out through the reception area of The Howler, the hotel she and her brother owned. Trust Hope, a wildlife nut and photographer, to have a birdcall for a ringtone.
Looking at the caller ID, she saw a picture of Ryan as he was today. Big, dark, and hot. A rock star, with a face made up of all the right angles, hair that was cropped short, and an arm covered in sexy tattoos.
She accepted the call and held it to her ear.
“Jesus, will you calm down already? What’s the matter with you, anyway? You’re having a baby, not a breakdown. I told you why I can’t come. I have commitments that can’t wait. We’re touring, then we have a photo shoot and appearance at the American Music Awards.”
Those awards were last week, bastard!Faith could hear the frustration in the deep gravelly tone that had made him a superstar as one of the singers in Talon, a band that was famous in the entertainment industry.
“Cut me some slack here, Hope. I’ll get home at some stage, I promise.”
“Here’s the thing, shithead. I don’t give a damn about who you are or what you have to do, but I do care very much for the woman weeping in my bathroom. Your priority should be to her. You’re her big brother, for pity’s sake. Man the hell up and behave like one!”
“Who—”
“You may be this godlike figure in your own eyes, but believe me, here you’re just plain old Ryan Lawrence who wet his pants first day of school.”
“Faith?”
She cut the call and then turned the phone off.
“Who are you yelling at now? One hopes it wasn’t a customer.” Her brother was walking down the stairs. Tall and dark, her was her twin and other half. Faith looked him up and down. Dressed in jeans and a sweater, he was his usual handsome self, although now that he had an extra layer of happy, he was even more so. Not that she’d ever tell him that. He was also one of those annoying people who liked the skin he was in. A man who was where he wanted to be with the people he wanted to be with. She envied him that.
Faith had never been quite sure why she was on this earth. What were her passions? What did she want to achieve? The answer to those questions was an internal shrug.
“No, not a customer.”
“Then who?” He stopped beside her and flipped her short ponytail as he had since she was old enough to be annoyed by it.
“Hope came in yelling into her cell phone. I just helped her with that.” Faith shrugged.
“Helped her how?”
