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“You know where to find me.”
“I always have.”
* * *
DREW WATCHED CAREFULLY as Jasper stepped close. His friend moved as fast as a snake, striking out when Drew least expected it. He’d learned the hard way not to relax when Jasper spun away. More times than not, he came back harder, faster and ready to win.
The workout room was silent except for the sound of their breathing and the crack of the sticks connecting. Usually music pounded but not when they worked with fighting sticks. Concentration was required.
A couple of years ago, Jasper had wanted to use fighting sticks in one of his novels. He’d hired a trainer to spend a week in Happily Inc, teaching him. His friends had been invited to the intense classes, as had a few of the local fitness trainers. As far as Drew knew, the book was finished and sent off to the publisher, but Jasper continued to train with sticks because he liked it.
Drew’s cousin Cade sat on the mat, out of range of their combat, calling out advice, praise and slurs.
“Duck, Drew. Watch that left arm of his. Jasper, my mama hits harder than that. Oh, good one. Get ’em.”
Jasper advanced, forcing Drew to retreat. Drew sidestepped, faked a slash, then came in hard. Jasper slipped on the mat and went down on one knee just as the timer dinged.
“Well done,” Cade called as he scrambled to his feet. “We got off lucky today. Only a handful of bruises and no broken bones.”
The sticks were solid wood and struck hard. Getting hurt came with the territory. None of them had more than bruises, but they were often impressive and took a while to heal.
Jasper tossed Drew a towel, then took one for himself. They all walked to the stools in the corner. On the way, they grabbed water from the refrigerator against the wall.
Jasper’s house was high enough in the mountains to be surrounded by trees. In the summer, the temperature was a good twenty or thirty degrees cooler than in town, and every now and then there was winter snow.
His place had started as a two-room cabin maybe eighty years ago. It had been added onto at least a dozen times. The house was a hodgepodge of styles and materials. Some of the rooms were large and stately and others were oddly shaped and poorly constructed.
When Jasper had bought the house, he’d built an office and the workout room. The latter had the traditional array of equipment found in a home gym, along with a big open area and a wall of mirrors. From what Drew could tell, Jasper was a “method” writer. He liked to physically work through any action scenes. He often had friends over to block out fight scenes and a couple of summers ago, he’d spent six weeks getting familiar with a hunting bow.
When they were seated, Cade unscrewed the top on his water. “So, Drew. Buying trailers?”
Jasper raised his eyebrows. “You bought trailers?”
“They’re not for me.”
“He’s trying to bribe Silver into sleeping with him,” Cade said with a chuckle. “I’m not sure that’s the best way to get her attention, but if you don’t have the goods personally then hey, whatever works.”
“Shut up.” Drew’s tone was mild. He was used to his cousin’s teasing. They’d been tight since birth.
“Why trailers?” Jasper asked. “And you did use the plural version of the word so there’s more than one?”
“I want to buy into her business.” He thought about mentioning the trouble with the bank loan but not only was the information personal, Libby was Cade’s mother. The two weren’t close but he doubted Cade would appreciate him dissing his mom.
He also wasn’t going tell them that he’d flat-out lied to Silver. Yes, he wanted to be involved in her business, but not because he was “building his personal portfolio” or whatever other crap he’d told her. He was a bank guy, through and through. He had no more interest in buying into other businesses than sprouting wings, but the fib had been necessary to get her to agree.
As to the why—as in why was he working so hard?—that was harder to define. He just couldn’t get her out of his head. Given their past, simply asking her out seemed fraught with peril. But this way, he could get to know her again while doing something interesting. Should things work out, then great. Should they not, he would loan her the money to buy him out—no harm done.
“The trailers were for sale, so I bought them. I’m hoping Silver lets me be a minority partner.”
“She strikes me as the kind of person who prefers to be in charge.” Jasper chugged more water. “Why that business?”
“Silver and I go way back. I’m helping an old friend.”
Cade snorted. “Is that what we’re calling it?” He turned to Jasper. “Drew and Silver have a past. The summer before Drew here took off for college, he and Silver had a thing. It was a hell of a summer. I still remember that party before Labor Day.”
“Silver and I threw a big party by the falls,” Drew explained to Jasper. “Underage teens, a lot of drinking.”
Cade touched his water bottle to Drew’s. “My first time getting drunk. I paid for it the next day, but the party was killer.” He chuckled.
Jasper studied Drew. “So you and Silver were an item? Then what?”
“I went off to college.” He hesitated. “Silver insisted we break up before I left. I didn’t want to, but she was determined.”
“She can be stubborn that way,” Cade told him.
“She can. Then I left.” There was more. So much more. Before he could decide what he should and shouldn’t say, he found himself blurting, “She was pregnant.”
Both Cade and Jasper stared at him.
“Seriously?” Cade asked. “What happened?”
“She came to visit me at college. I was well into my freshman year and had moved on. I didn’t want to believe her, but I knew what we’d been doing. I proposed, she said no. We agreed to give up the baby for adoption.”
Jasper and Cade exchanged a look.
“So you have a kid out there,” Jasper said. “How old is he? Or she?”
“Nearly twelve. I never asked what she had. I assumed a boy.” He’d always pictured a son, one who looked just like him. Ego, he supposed. And a lack of any other input. Of course, if they’d had a girl, he would have assumed she looked exactly like Silver.
“A kid,” Cade said quietly. “Bethany and I want kids. The sooner the better, but you beat us all.”
“We were young and foolish.” They’d been passionately in love, he thought. That part had been about as real as it got.
“Is the baby why you want to go into business with her?” Jasper asked. “Out of guilt?”
“I don’t feel guilty.” Drew paused. “We were kids ourselves. We couldn’t have been decent parents. I want to invest in Silver’s company because I think it’s the smart thing to do. I’ve run the numbers. She works hard, makes a good profit and is turning business away every week. It’s a sound business decision.”
“Uh-huh.” Jasper didn’t look convinced. “What did she say?”
“I think the real question is what did she hit you with when you told her what you’d done?” Cade chuckled.
“She’s thinking about it.” Drew grinned. “She was fine with it.”
“Liar.”
“Okay, but she really did listen.”
Jasper finished his water and tossed the bottle into the recycling bin in the corner. “So you’re going to invest in Silver’s company, and then what? Are you going to help her manage the other trailers?”
“We’re still discussing the details.”
“The bank getting to you?” Cade sounded sympathetic. “I don’t know how you stand it, being there all day. It’s like a big, brick trap.”
Drew knew the bank wasn’t a trap—it was a living, breathing creature tied to the community. The bank was possibilities and he had a million ideas about how he was going to make it better.
“The bank is the least of it,” he said, avoiding the question.
Cade shook his head. “Your folks still on you?” He turned to Jasper. “Drew’s parents are...unusual. Happily Inc was never big enough for them. They always wanted to be somewhere else, doing something else. Howard, Drew’s dad, got involved politically and got an ambassadorship when Drew was still in school. Where was it again?”
“Andorra,” Drew said, remembering the thrill of having his parents leave town while he was in high school. He’d moved in with Grandpa Frank and life had gotten a whole lot easier. “It’s near Spain.”
“Never heard of it,” Jasper said. “Maybe I should do some research and set a book there.”
Cade grinned. “You should. Anyway, Howard had a couple more ambassadorships after that, then left the diplomatic corps to join a lobbying firm.”
“They’re still there,” Drew admitted grimly. “Growing the company and making room for their firstborn.”
Their only born, he added silently. Nothing would make his parents—mostly his mother—happier than having him take over the family bank for a couple of years, and then join his parents’ lobbying firm. While he was all over the first half, he had no interest in being a lobbyist.
“Not your dream job?” Jasper asked.
“Not even close.”
Jasper grinned at Cade. “Too bad they’re not your parents. Imagine how happy they’d be to know their son was marrying a genuine princess.”
“I don’t know where to start with that,” Cade admitted, then looked at Drew. “Have you told your mom about the engagement?”
“No, and I don’t plan to. The last thing any of us want is my mother camping out in town so she can go to your wedding or whatever it turns out to be.”
Cade had bought a stallion from the king of El Bahar. The “stable girl” who had delivered the stallion had turned out to be a royal princess in disguise. Cade and Bethany had fallen in love and were getting married. While the details hadn’t been worked out, there would be some kind of event or celebration locally, complete with the royal family attending.
“Your mom is going to find out.”
“Not from me.” Drew wouldn’t do that to someone he didn’t like, let alone a cousin.
“Have you two decided on your wedding plans?” Jasper asked. “You could always elope.”
Cade grimaced. “We’ve talked about it, but Bethany doesn’t want to disappoint her parents. We’re definitely holding the ceremony in El Bahar, but we’re going to do something here, too. The details are being worked out.”
Drew supposed that the logistics of marrying into a royal family put his life questions in perspective.
“Let me know if there’s going to be a party,” Jasper told him. “I’m heading to New York in a couple of weeks. I can rearrange things if it means hanging out with royals.”
Cade didn’t look convinced. “You’re like Drew. You don’t care anything about someone being royal or important.”
Jasper grinned. “That is true, but I’m always looking for ideas for the next book. Plus, you’re a friend. Someone has to be around to keep the crazies off your back.”
Drew nodded. “Jasper will handle them and I’ll run interference with my mother if she shows up.”
Cade winced. “Thanks, Drew. You’re a good friend.”
“You know it.”
CHAPTER THREE (#u73ece547-4530-5663-a518-74c9d2c6258f)
SILVER LAY ON the carpet, her feet propped up on the sofa. She rested her cell phone on her stomach and adjusted her earbuds.
Leigh was due to call in about three minutes and her friend was nothing if not prompt. While she waited, Silver thought about all that had happened in the past few days and wondered if she had an answer to the obvious question—what was she going to do about the trailers?
She was tempted. Very tempted. They were exactly what she wanted and with them she would have a chance to expand her business. Between the extra twenty grand Drew was throwing in on top of her own savings, she could refurbish both of them, buy the trucks needed to pull them, have enough left over for an emergency fund and have some work done downstairs.
Her second-floor loft apartment sat above retail space. Currently, Silver used the downstairs as a showroom, with large posters showing her trailer at a variety of venues and a couple of tables set up like a party. There was a place to go over drinks menus and discuss specifics. But she kept thinking she should do something to monetize the square footage. Right now it was just deadweight.
Again, with Drew’s help, all that could change. The price would be both working with him and having to share the profits. He wasn’t buying into her business for the thrill of it. She had so much to think about.
She picked up her phone and smiled. One minute to go. While she was waiting, she touched the screen to display her photos. She went right to the folder that held the pictures of Autumn, then scrolled through a half dozen.
Autumn was eleven, with dark hair and deep blue eyes and looked a lot like her dad. She was smart, pretty and kind. Okay, and yes, she had a bit of the devil in her, but she wasn’t mean—just adventurous.
Silver studied the child she and Drew had created and knew that at some point she was going to have to come clean. Especially if they were going to work together. Not that she’d done anything wrong. She’d gotten pregnant and she’d told Drew. They’d agreed on adoption and Silver had returned home to find the right family.
What Drew didn’t know was that while pregnant, Silver had gotten close to the adopting couple. That she’d ended up living with them the last few months of her pregnancy and that she and Leigh had formed a tight bond that still existed today. Drew didn’t know that after Autumn’s birth, when Silver had felt confused and uncertain about her future, she’d gone back to Los Angeles and had lived with Leigh and her husband. Although the two of them had eventually divorced, Silver, Leigh and Autumn were family. They talked all the time, visited a lot, and Silver regularly took Autumn for a weekend or two every year.
The familiar guilt returned. Silver pushed it away, telling herself that it wasn’t as if she’d lied to Drew. He’d never once asked. For all he knew, she could have lost the baby. For him, once the decision had been made, he’d totally forgotten about the pregnancy, while she’d had to live it for the next six months. And beyond.
Her phone rang. She pushed the talk button and smiled. “Hey, you.”
“Hey, yourself.”
Leigh’s voice was happy and filled with affection. They were only twelve years apart in age, so more like sisters than mother and daughter.
“I got your text about the trailers,” Leigh continued. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m still thinking.”
“It seems like a good opportunity.”
“You think I should work with Drew?”
“If he’s going to be a minority partner, then why not? You get the trailers, you don’t have to worry about a bank loan and you can grow the business how you want to.”
“But it’s Drew.”
“At least you know him and he has a strong business background.”
“Maybe knowing him is the problem,” she grumbled. “I don’t know if we can work together or not.”
At one time, she’d been wildly in love with him, but they’d both been young and that was so different from a business relationship.
