“Haven’t seen you at family dinner lately.” The other woman holds similar features to Summer, and yet, she couldn’t be more different. Porcelain skin and pale blonde hair pulled back so tight her entire face looks equally taut. Cunning, icy eyes, just like her expression.
I almost chuckle over the names. Winter all frigid and biting. Summer all warm and soft.
“We’ve been on the road.” Summer hikes a thumb at me. “Dad has me working with Rhett exclusively.”
The woman wearing the long white coat over a boxy blue dress glances over at me with a dismissive smile, and I decide to jump in, feeling protective of Summer and not loving the way her sister is talking to her.
I stand, using my height to my advantage, staying close enough that Summer’s knee brushes against my leg as I shove a hand in Winter’s direction. “Rhett Eaton, pleasure to meet you.”
She slips her hand into mine, and it’s cold too. Her grip is firm, and her eyes flit down momentarily to her sister. A look passes between them before Winter seems almost gleeful. “Doctor Winter Valentine. I’m Summer’s half-sister.” Summer winces at that designation, but it’s what her sister says next that has her all flustered. “And of course, I know who you are. Summer had your Wranglers ad plastered on her bedroom wall for years.”
My mind stutters over what she’s just spilled.
Summer clears her throat and glares at her sister, maintaining her composure beautifully despite the red splotches popping up on her cheeks, all the way down her neck and onto her chest.
Am I going to harass Summer about this later? Absolutely. I love to spar with her. It might as well be foreplay for how well she holds her own. But right now, I’m miffed. I see her older sister being intentionally cruel to her. Trying to embarrass her. It makes me plaster a vicious smile on my face while still gripping Winter’s palm in a handshake that has now gone on for too long.
I wink at her. “Sounds like you remember it quite clearly yourself, darlin’.”
Bitch.
Her lips flatten, and she yanks her hand from mine. “Maybe next family dinner you can join us. I know that would be a dream come true for Summer.” She turns her scathing gaze down at Summer and then brightly adds, “Well, I have a patient’s scans to tend to. It was a pleasure seeing you both.”
And with that, she’s gone. Same petite stature, but all harsh, slim lines—almost sprite like—as she walks away, head held high, completely unrattled.
“Oof. Ice queen much?” I breathe out before flopping back down.
It’s the small, strangled noise coming from Summer that has me turning in her direction. She’s covered her face with both hands, and I’m not entirely sure what she’s doing. But I think she might be laughing based on the way her body is vibrating.
Or crying. One of the two.
“You okay?”
“No,” she wheezes.
“Are you hiding because your sister is a grade A bitch or because I now know that I’m your teenaged spank bank fodder?”
I’m pretty sure I hear her mumble a choked, “Oh, my God.”
When she peeks out at me from between her fingers, I waggle my eyebrows. And when her only response is to groan and tip her head back against the vinyl chair back, I laugh.
“Can we please pretend that never happened?” Her palms muffle her voice.
I grin and shake my head, crossing my arms, irrationally pleased with the whole thing. “Not a fuckin’ chance, Princess.”
16
Summer
Dad: Can you come to the staff meeting this week?
Summer: Which day? What time?
Dad: Thursday at one.
Summer: Yeah, I might have to shuffle one of Rhett’s appointments that will conflict with it.
Dad: I’m sure he can manage an appointment on his own. Seems like you’ve got him on a pretty tight leash.
Summer: Again. He’s not a dog.
There’s a chinook rolling through today. You’d think the breeze would cool my cheeks, but the air is downright balmy. All the hard work I did in the waiting room to compose myself while Rhett had his scan went right down the toilet the minute he came striding back out with a knowing grin on his face.
Cocky motherfucker.
On our walk out the main doors of the hospital, I avoid his eyes. It’s awkward. Really fucking awkward. And it’s such a Winter move. She’s never outright mean to me. She’s passive aggressive, she’s calculated. Winter plays the long game. I can just see our dad mentioning what I’ve been up to and her filing that information away for the perfect moment to embarrass me with it.
I hate to call her conniving, because there’s this little part of me that truly loves her. Admires her. I wish we’d been given the opportunity to forge our own type of relationship. But the evil stepmother got her fingers in there and played us both like puppets, easily making me out to be the source of all family strife. Winter never got a chance to like me, and no matter how hard I try, she doesn’t seem interested. It’s something that keeps me up at night. I long for a relationship with her. Yearn to have one more person I can consider family, rather than just Kip.
Seeing Rhett and his family together—even pestering each other the way they do—makes my chest ache. I want that one day.
“Did you doodle our names with a heart around them in your binders?”
That’s how he breaks the silence.
I press my lips together into a firm line, willing myself not to smile. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of laughing at his joke. Even if it’s funny.
“No.”
“Did you. . .” He trails off, scrubbing at his beard. “Kiss the page you ripped out of a magazine?”
I scoff. “I didn’t rip it out. I cut it out very carefully. And now I’m looking forward to throwing darts at it.”
He barks out a laugh and grins down at me, looking altogether too handsome and pleased with himself. Which forces me to glance away and try to hide my smile. But when I do, my eyes land on the McLaren parked ahead of us, in a towaway zone with its hazards on. It’s the license plate that makes me stop in my tracks.
DRHEART
As a teenager, I thought it was witty. Now I think it’s lame beyond compare.
“You okay?” Rhett’s hand lands on my lower back as he looks down at me, concern etched across his features. “I’m just joking around. You should probably fire me for sexual harassment.”
“I . . .” I shake my head. “No. Just my ex.” I nod my head toward the vehicle parked about ten car lengths ahead of us.
His eyes follow mine and then roll when they catch sight of the expensive sports car. “Of course, it is.”
I just swallow in response.
“Do we like this ex?” His fingers pulse on my lower back, and I lean into him, not forgetting the way he stepped up to protect me when Winter’s claws came out.
“It’s complicated,” I breathe.
“Complicated how?” Rhett’s voice takes on an edge that has me looking up at him and away from Rob’s illegally parked car.
“Complicated like we’re very, very over. He’s moved on. But every time he catches wind of me doing the same, he crops back up in some capacity. Like, apparently, he saw a clip on TV of me giving you the thumbs up in Pine Lake and that was enough for him to start sniffing around.”
Rhett’s head drops down closer, erasing whatever little respectable space there was left between us. His eyes are trained on mine. Staring at me in that way he always does. With unmatched intensity. “That event wasn’t televised. Which means he’s going out of his way to figure out what you’re doing and probably searching the events on YouTube for footage.”
That night, when Rob told me he’d seen my gesture, I didn’t even question it. But Rhett is right. I know which events are televised—Kip has been very exacting about that—so there’s no way Rob just happened upon the footage. But Rhett is right, and I can’t believe I didn’t catch the lie.
“Shit. That’s . . . creepy.” I blink up at Rhett, who’s opposite hand cups my elbow now, turning me in toward him.
“Maybe we should give him something to creep on. Do you think he’s in that car?” The rugged man in front of me smirks in a way that has my entire body humming. “Rather than kissing your magazine pages, you can try out the real thing.”
“You’re an idiot,” I mumble, but I also don’t move away.
Would I do this? My heart races so hard that it drowns out the sounds around me. All I hear is that dull, rushing sound of my pulse in my ears.
“What if someone sees? What if this gets out?”
Rhett’s thigh presses against mine while the hand on my lower back slides down to the waistline of my jeans, his fingers tightening in a way that has the spot just behind my hip bones aching.
He moves in close, his scent surrounding me as his wild hair fans down around us. The air between us hums and I stare at his mouth, wondering what the roughness of his beard might feel like on my lips, on my body.