Second Chance Summer(23)

You play, you pay, Aidan thought, knowing it all too well. He and his brothers had been pulling shit on each other forever.

“Remember when Gray locked us in the Cat?” Hudson asked, obviously thinking along the same vein. “We found the keys and drove it into town in the middle of the night in the snowstorm from hell. Good times.”

“Good times?” Aidan asked. “We nearly went to juvie for grand theft. We would have if my mom hadn’t made Gray stand up before the judge and tell how he’d locked us in.”

Hudson grinned wide. “We all got our asses handed to us on that one. It was fun.”

“We were grounded for months,” Aidan reminded him.

“Yeah. Together.” Hudson shrugged. “I had the time of my life. You let me drive, remember?”

Yeah, Aidan remembered. Mostly because Hud had nearly killed them on Pine Pass Road when they’d narrowly avoided more than one tree. But he knew that compared to Hudson and Jacob’s rough childhood, nearly going to jail as a cocky fourteen-year-old with his big brothers at his back might indeed have been the time of his life.

They made their way through the crowd, but Aidan stopped short at the sight of the woman standing off to the side of the others, chewing on her thumbnail, a haunted expression on her face.

Lily.

His chest squeezed. Nothing about this woman should reach him, nothing, and yet he couldn’t seem to help himself. It was the kiss—stupidity at its finest. He’d gotten a taste of her, and it was messing with his head. “Don’t do it, Kincaid,” he muttered.

“Do what?” Hud asked, and followed Aidan’s gaze. “Ah. That’s what.”

“Give me a minute.” Ignoring the instincts that had kept him alive on more than one occasion, and despite being exhausted, starving, and on his last ounce of energy, Aidan walked over to Lily. “Hey,” he said. “What are you doing here?”

She looked away, but not before he caught the flash of worry she’d been masking. The rescue had brought back horrific memories for her, of that he had no doubt.

“Just wanted to make sure everyone was okay,” she finally said.

She sounded calm, but he could feel the tension simmering beneath the surface. He felt for her and the nightmares this mountain must bring. “We got her,” he said, voice softer now, feeling things when he didn’t want to. Way too many things. “She’s going to be okay.”

She nodded. “Good.”

Walk away. You’ve done your duty, now get the hell away from her. “How about you?” he asked instead. “You going to be okay?”

“Always am.”

More like she’d always had to be. Their gazes held for a single heated, tension-filled beat, and that’s when he knew something else as well—he was all kinds of screwed. Upside down, sideways … every which way, because just as she had in the past, Lily drew him in with those eyes, her voice, the outer toughness she showed the world, the inner vulnerability she did her best to hide.

And damn if he didn’t want to kiss her and then drag her back to his place caveman-style and show them both what they’d been missing out on. He tried to remind himself that their time, if they’d ever had one, had long since passed. Which was proven when, without another word, she broke eye contact and walked away.





Chapter 9


Lily managed to get to the Mane Attraction at nine a.m. on the dot, half an hour earlier than her official start time. She liked to be prepared. Unlike, say, how it felt to run into Aidan again. Nope, she was as unprepared for that as one could get …

The salon was located in the bottom floor of the big lodge at the resort, next to an equipment rental and sales shop. The place itself was small and cluttered but warm and welcoming nevertheless. There was one client room for waxing, and everything else was done out in the main room of the salon.

In other words, no real privacy.

“Not what you’re used to, I’m sure,” Jonathan said as he walked her around.

True enough. The place was nothing like Lily was used to. In San Diego they’d had 10,000 fabulous square feet, every inch designed to soothe and calm and rejuvenate the spirit.

They’d been a five-star salon and proud as hell of it.

Jonathan gestured to the three hair stations. “Pick your spot.”

Pick her spot? “Don’t you have more staff coming in?” she asked.

“Today it’s just you and me, Lily Pad.”

She stared at him.

He sighed. “Cassandra’s not supposed to be on her feet for more than a half hour at a time, so she’s not working anymore until after she pops. And then there’s my part-timers, Terika and Rosa, but they’re not in today either.”

“What days are they in?”

“Well?” he said with a grimace. “That varies. Terika’s mad at me right now.”

“Why?”

“Something to do with a late night, too much Jack Daniel’s, and a really awkward morning after.” He sighed. “It’s complicated.”

I bet. “And Rosa?”

“She scares me.”

Lily laughed, but Jonathan didn’t. “You serious?” she asked.

“As a midget at a nudist colony,” he said.