Page 73 of Stuck with my Mountain Daddies

Lucy wasn’t dramatic. She didn’t do warnings unless she had to. And right now, she looked ready to drag me across the town square by my ears.

“I’m not playing,” I said.

No smirk. No wink.

Her eyes narrowed. “I’ve seen you with girls before.”

“I’ve never been withherbefore.”

“She’s still learning how to breathe again,” Lucy warned. “She’s been to hell and back. I won’t let her get hurt again. Not by anyone.Especiallynot by you.”

That one stung. Because yeah, I’d earned the reputation.

The charming one. The safe bet. The guy you had fun with but didn’t get serious about because he never stuck around long enough to make it real.

I looked back at Riley. She was laughing with Sadie, marshmallows in perfectly chaotic piles, whipped cream smudged on her nose.

“I’m not the guy you think I am,” I said, maybe too quickly. “Not anymore.”

Lucy folded her arms. “Youarethat guy. But I think you don’t want to be.”

I let out a dry laugh, rubbing the back of my neck. “Shit, you sound like a therapist.”

“I’m Riley’s best friend. I know when she’s faking okay. And I know how she looks when someone’s getting under her skin. She doesn’t blush that way for just anyone. And I know that glittered-up hot chocolate disaster was yours. Come on, Asher. I’m your sister. I know your flavor of chaos.”

She didn’t even clock Beckett’s or Garrett’s efforts. Small miracles.

I looked back at Riley again. Now she was mock-arguing with Sadie about marshmallow symmetry as if it was life or death.

And somehow, it was the most beautiful damn thing I’d seen in months.

“I’m not screwing with her,” I said again, quieter. “Didn’t exactly plan this.”

“No one ever does,” Lucy said. “But you need to figure it out. Fast. Because the way you look at her? That’s not casual, Asher.”

I opened my mouth. Closed it again. Nothing came out. Because, hell. She wasn’t wrong.

Something had shifted.

The cabin. The storm.Thatnight.

The look in Riley’s eyes when she’d let the walls drop. The silence between us that never felt empty. It had all done something to me. Opened a door I hadn’t even known was locked.

But I wasn’t the only one feeling this, and I definitely wasn’t the only Wolfe throwing cocoa at her like bait.

Still, I scoffed. Reflex. “It’s only hot chocolate.”

Lucy gave me a look so long and so unimpressed I almost felt bad for her.

Then she leaned in and said, “If it’s just hot chocolate, why does your whole damn face light up when she smiles?”

I had no answer for that.

Didn’t matter. She didn’t wait for one. She patted my shoulder and said, “Figure your shit out, Wolfe. Before someone else does. Or before she runs straight back to LA.”

Then she was gone, vanishing into the crowd like she hadn’t just handed me a ticking emotional bomb.

I stood there a long beat, Lucy’s words louder than the carolers warming up by the tree.

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