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“Why do you live here?” Cole sounded confused.
“What do you mean? Why am I still on the ranch?” He could live anywhere, he supposed. Kinny would love Wild Wolff Village, which went all-out for the holidays, had an ice-skating rink, and cocoa and crepe kiosks. Plus, it had a full-time concierge service for the residents. Or he could live in town, but that got pretty crowded during tourist season. “My kid doesn’t have a mom, so I’m trying to give her family. She sees her grandparents, her uncles, her aunt—one of them—every day. It’s good.”
“No, I mean, why in this tiny cabin? Why don’t you build a house for you and Kinny?”
“Ah, man. I just built one for my parents. I need a break. Contractors and vendors are no joke.”
“But it’s so small, you and Kinny must be on top of each other. Don’t you need some space? You don’t even have an office.”
“I have one at the stadium.” As far as his daughter, he supposed when she got older, she’d want more privacy. “It’s fine for now. It works for us.” Once dressed, he came back down the stairs. Since he helped out at the Juniors’, Renegades’, and his own private rinks, he kept his gear in the car. So, when they headed outside, he grabbed his stick and bag from the trunk. “We’ll work on your deception and your quick releases.”
To an outsider, it looked like any other big red barn on a ranch, but it was actually a full-size skating rink.
Was it an indulgence? Yeah, of course. But every time he got called away to work with someone, it was time away from his daughter. So, it had just made sense—once he had the money—to build one here.
It cut down on travel time, massively.
He heard tires crunching on gravel and turned to see Grace pulling her borrowed car into the spot in front of her cabin. As soon as she got out, she popped the trunk, and both he and Cole jogged over to help unload her groceries.
“No, that’s okay.” She tried to block them, but she must’ve had fifty bags.
“It’s no problem. I got it.” Arms loaded, he pulled back from the trunk and tipped his head toward his friend. “Grace Giordano, this is Cole Montgomery. He’s our new forward.”
She flashed that dazzling grin, and Jaime was unreasonably jealous. “Oh, man, I can’t imagine the hate mail you must be getting. How could you leave Boston? We’re the most loyal fans on the planet.”
“You’re a fan, huh?” Cole grinned. “What’s a woman from Beantown doing on a bull ranch?”
Jaime whacked him. “You want to get these bags inside so we can get to work? Or you want to flirt with a woman who isn’t your fiancée?”
Cole gave him the strangest look but walked into the cabin. As usual, her pastries covered every surface in the cabin. “Whoa. You’ve been busy.” Since there was no counter space, Cole set his bags on the floor. One bag was filled with nothing but egg cartons. “And you’re making more?”
“Jaime’s been kind enough to let me use the kitchen in the big house. That’s why I bought all these groceries. Thanks to him, I’m going to be making even more.”
“You run a bakery?” Cole asked.
“I’ve got a truck at the music festival this summer.”
“My girls love sweets,” Cole said. “We’ll come by Saturday morning.”
“Wait. Take them these.” Grace stood on her toes to reach a high shelf. She couldn’t quite grasp the cardboard takeaway boxes, so Jaime came up behind her.
Between the whiff of her shampoo and the heat of her skin, his head began to spin. It brought him back to the night of the gala, their naked bodies pressed together.Fuck. This is not good. He grabbed the boxes and handed them off to her. “Here.” Looking into her eyes…it made him ache. It stirred up a longing that made no sense. They’d only had one night together. “Sorry. I should’ve given you a key. After I work with him, I’ll come back and help you carry all this over to the house.”
“That’s okay. Joseph loaned me a golf cart.”
“I’m coming back with the key in an hour. You can argue with me then.”
She smiled, and it ripped a hole right through him. Longing flooded him. He turned and strode past Cole. “Let’s go.”
Once they got outside into the early morning sunshine, Cole said, “What the hell was that?”
“What?” The fog that had settled over the valley hadn’t burned off yet. The grass glistened with dew, and a thin layer of white cloud hovered over the pasture.
“You and Grace.”
Well, fuck. He thought he was ace at locking things down. It hadn’t occurred to him that his attraction was that obvious. And if Cole picked it up, that meant Grace did, too. Which explained her frustration with him. He was confusing her. “She ran from her wedding, needed a place to get away. Brodie gave her a food truck, so she’s staying in my cabin for the summer.” It wasn’t fair to her. He had to get a handle on things. For starters, he’d have Joseph give her the key. The more he stayed away—which had been the original plan—the better for them both.
“Bullshit.”
