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I hit the Call button. It rang and rang. For a few seconds, I considered hanging up and pretending the past two minutes had never happened, but then the line clicked, and a rasping masculine voice said my name.
“Hi,” I whispered.
“It’s been a while.” I could hear the smile in his voice and knew he didn’t take my absence from his life personally. We understood each other. Perhaps better than anyone. Ryan knew things about me that even Nate couldn’t possibly imagine.
“You know how it is.”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “So, what’s up? I’m guessing you didn’t call me after ten at night for no reason?”
I rolled my eyes. “I knew you’d be awake, Ry. You’re never asleep before midnight.”
“This is true. I’m sketching a design for one of tomorrow’s clients.” Ryan was a tattoo artist based out of a popular shop in Auckland.
“I bet it’s gorgeous.” All of his work was. That was why I’d trusted him with my one and only tattoo. “Um, does Felicia still breed and train Rottweilers?”
“She does.” He sounded intrigued. “Why?”
“I think I’d like one, if she has any looking for a home.”
“She probably does. Would you like me to check with her tomorrow and get back to you?”
“That would be great.” I curled a few strands of hair around my finger. “Thanks.”
“No worries. How’s everything with you?”
I spent a few minutes catching him up on the latest news, then listened while he told me about the clients he’d been working with and how his family was. I felt a pang of guilt. Ryan wasn’t the only person I’d neglected. I hadn’t caught up with his parents or Felicia either.
“Hey, I have an idea,” he tacked on the end of a story about a tattoo mishap he’d been fixing. “How about, if Fel does have a dog for you, I bring them down? I’d love to visit. I miss your face.”
Nerves twisted in my gut. Having Ryan in Destiny Falls would be tempting fate. I didn’t want the two parts of my life to collide. If anyone found out who he was to me, I’d never find my way out of that massive hole I’d dug, but I cared for him, and he was doing me a favor. How could I possibly say no?
With my insides tied in knots, I managed to summon a smile. “Sure.”
2
NATE
It had beena hell of a shift. Dealing with snobby tourists who thought they were too good to be ticketed for speeding up a dangerously slippery mountainside, putting themselves and their fellow commuters at risk, didn’t bother me too much most of the time, but one of the men I’d spoken to today had pissed me off. I needed to vent, which meant I was heading to Grace’s place with beer and wine. On the weeks Maddy had our eight-year-old daughter, Tess, I often went to Grace’s place instead of home after work.
When I pulled up, there was an unfamiliar Jeep in the drive. I frowned. Grace drove a sleek silver sedan that was as well-groomed as she was, whereas this battered Jeep was clearly past its prime. A bumper sticker on the rear advertised a tattoo parlor and was nearly illegible from years of fading. My frown deepened. Perhaps the jeep belonged to a guest. I got out and tried to look through the windows, but they were tinted. Scowling, I strode past and made my way up the steps. All I wanted was a beer, a heater, and Grace’s excellent listening skills.
The door was ajar, so I let myself in. We didn’t usually bother knocking at each other’s houses. Her place was basically my second home. I passed the showier guest area and heard laughter as I approached the private kitchen. My eyebrows hitched up. Grace wasn’t alone. Perhaps Kennedy had dropped by to see her. The two women were close—a fact that had bothered me when Kennedy first moved back to Destiny Falls, but we’d resolved our issues since then. As long as she made my brother happy, she was okay with me.
I entered the kitchen and stopped, unable to understand what I was seeing. Grace stood at the kitchen counter side by side with a dark-haired man—someone I’d never seen before—and a black-and-tan puppy sat near their feet. She and her companion were deep in conversation. As I watched, he said something too softly for me to hear, and she laughed and elbowed him in the ribs.
Something caught in my chest.
A man and a woman, preparing a meal. This looked like a date. But it couldn’t be, could it? Grace didn’t date. There was hardly anyone around here for her to date, and their body language said they were more comfortable with each other than a first date would allow. This was someone she knew.
The thought sprang to my mind that the whole scene was wrong. I didn’t know where it had come from, but the sense of wrongness clawed at my gut. I set the beer on the ground, and the slight sound alerted the puppy to my presence. It leaped up, growling in a way that might have been menacing if it had been more than a couple of months old. Grace looked over her shoulder, and the color drained from her face.
My stomach rolled unpleasantly. Yeah, this was a date. Why else would she look so horrified to have me walk into the kitchen as if I lived here?
The man turned, his vivid green eyes locking on mine. He grinned, wiped his hands on his jeans, and extended a heavily tattooed arm toward me.
“Hey.” His tone was friendly. Welcoming. “You must be Nate. I feel like I already know you.”
I shook his hand, noting that his grip was firm but not crushing. Whoever he was, he didn’t think he had anything to prove. For some reason, that annoyed me.
