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Rhys snagged his jacket off a chair and shrugged into it. Although my brother was the CEO of our family’s corporation, an international conglomerate, he typically wore jeans and a long-sleeved Henley to the office.
As he fell into step beside me when we began walking down the hallway, I glanced over. “That’s a nice change from Seattle, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean?” he asked as he crested the top of the stairs.
Our footsteps echoed down the stairwell. “In Seattle, the downtown district is mostly people wearing suits. I mean, sure, you could’ve gotten away with jeans, but not when you went to meetings and such.”
Rhys grinned as we reached the bottom stair. “It’s good to be home.”
We pushed through the double doors together just as a cold gust of wind blew by. Rhys zipped his jacket up, adding, “Winter’s here. Almost.”
We walked down the sidewalk together. I replied, “Technically, winter isn’t here until the winter solstice in December. But this is Alaska. We should have some snow before Thanksgiving.”
The tension bundled in my neck and shoulders eased with every step away from our corporation’s main offices here in Fireweed Harbor. We had our headquarters in Seattle for a while, and Rhys lived down there full-time. I ended up being there about half the year then.
We’d decided to keep nothing more than a bare-bones office for us there. With online capacity, we didn’t need our headquarters there. I had busied myself in that office while I avoided coming home for a few days because of that kiss with Quinn. Every time I thought about it, need burned through me like a brushfire.
We’d seen each other the following morning and tried to play it cool. Except every time I looked at her mouth, I remembered what it felt like. I remembered the way her tongue boldly teased against mine. The way her body felt soft and lush in my lap.
I’d driven her to the airport, lying when I told her my trip was a few days longer than hers. I’d even had to call Rhys’s assistant, Tish, to make a quick change to my flight. I told Quinn something had come up. I knew she didn’t believe me.
Before that kiss, she would’ve been skeptical. She probably would’ve asked me if I was staying longer because I had a date. I knew things had changed when all she did was nod and let me lie about something so minor.
I seriously valued my friendship with Quinn and didn’t want to fuck it up, yet I feared we already had. My whole purpose with that kiss had been to show myself that my abrupt lust for her had been all in my mind. That hadn’t worked. Not even close.
I looked around as we walked down the sidewalk in Fireweed Harbor. The downtown area was cute with shops and storefronts with brightly colored signs. A few businesses were ahead of the curve and already decorating for the upcoming holidays.
Fireweed Harbor was in Southeast Alaska along the pristine shores of the famed Inside Passage. The town was nestled at the base of the mountains with snow-covered peaks surrounding it, a glacier visible nearby, a few islands out in the ocean, and a picturesque harbor with boats, eagles, and seagulls calling in the air nearby.
It was my hometown, and I loved it. I felt at home here in a way I’d never felt anywhere else.
“So what delayed your return?” Rhys asked, interrupting my mental meandering.
I shrugged, our eyes meeting briefly before we both looked ahead as we walked. “Just some scheduling challenges with one of our distributors.”
“I got your email,” he added. “Glad to hear all of that was sorted out with that brewery down there.”
Fireweed Industries was much more than a brewery now, but our mainstay was our beer, wine, and mead production. It had started small in our town and grown by leaps and bounds since the generation before our parents had started the business. They got going at a time before handcrafted wines and beers were all the rage. Once they started making money, they expanded, buying up holdings for land, mining, and other projects until a small family business was a large international corporation.
Ever since Rhys had taken over as CEO, one of his goals was to reconnect and focus more on the roots of our corporation. He’d worked to transition any environmentally destructive projects into renewable-focused alternatives. As such, a lot was shifting around. My role as the problem solver for the corporation kept me insanely busy.
Another gust of wind whipped by, and a few snowflakes floated from the sky. I glanced up to the mountains behind our town, commenting, “Termination dust fell last week. With it being almost November, we can expect to get snow down here soon.”
Termination dust was mountain speak for the end of autumn when the first snow fell on the mountains.
Rhys murmured his agreement as the sign for Spill the Beans Café came into view. With its shimmery pink lettering and coffee beans spilled underneath, the sign easily stood out in the overcast day. This little café was a favorite local hangout. They were ahead of the game with Christmas decorations and already had festive lights strung up around the windows and on two trees out front.
A moment later, we pushed through the door, and I breathed a sigh of relief at the warmth. Glancing at Rhys, I commented, “Even though I know it’s starting to get cold, all I wore was this.” I tugged at my lightweight fleece jacket.
Rhys shrugged, glancing down at his own. “We have the same problem. I love winter, but I’m not a huge fan of heavy coats.”
We got in line, and I glanced around. The café was cute with wide-plank hardwood flooring, small round wooden tables with chairs scattered about the space, and local artwork hung on the walls. The chalkboard behind the counter at the back had a list of their wide variety of coffee and tea drinks, along with the food menu.
“I see Haven’s made some updates,” I observed, sliding my gaze to my brother’s.
Rhys cast me a grin. “She insists on updating the chalkboard for them whenever they need it. Even though she only fills in here and there now.”
Haven Rivers was Rhys’s fiancée. They’d also had a baby, a pleasant surprise for them. My brother was happier than I’d ever known him to be since he finally got his head screwed on and realized how much Haven meant to him.
