Page 6 of Stormswept Colorado

“Right.” Emma nodded. She was from a military family too. “Good point.”

I aimed my thumb at Grace. “She’s the one who’s living with a billionaire. If we want to compare who’s out of touch.”

Grace pushed her glasses up her nose. “Hey! I’m the same nerdy girl I’ve always been.”

I laughed, my skin warming with how happy I was to be here.

Chaos or not, I loved every second.

I’d been looking forward to this trip for ages. I may have begged, just a little, for Ashford and Emma to take my hectic schedule into account when setting their big date. I wasn’t above bribery. But that hadn’t been necessary. Emma was a sweetheart, and even though Ashford and I had our differences in the past, I’d never met anyone more loyal than him.

He’d told me I was part of the O’Neal family now. And he’d been true to his word.

Grace, Ashford’s younger sister, would be the maid of honor. Her boyfriend Dane Knightly, the billionaire investor, was best man. The weekend promised to be full of simple pleasures. Time with the O’Neals, winter weather, and vicarious romance.

That was the only kind of romance in my life these days. Not that I was complaining.

The only thing Iwasn’tlooking forward to? Seeing the SilverRidge Police Chief again. But maybe I’d get lucky, and I could avoid Chief Teller Landry altogether.

Fingers crossed.

Emma’s phone rang, and she scrambled to check the screen. “Crap, that’s my mom. I better take this.”

After she disappeared down the hall, Grace blew out a breath. “A little intense around here.”

We shared a glance and both cracked up.

“A bit. But now that I’ve arrived, I can help with anything you all need. Just wish I could stay longer than Sunday.”

“You’re in high demand.” Her grin turned mischievous. “A couple weeks ago, some pictures of you popped up on my feed. You and that handsome record label guy.”

“You can’t believe everything you see in the tabloids. You should know better than that.”

“But that’s why I’m asking instead of assuming it’s true.”

“I’m too busy to date right now. I’ll be back in the studio soon.” Plus endorsements, endless promotion, interviews, photo shoots. None of it as glamorous as it sounded.

Especially after my last album didn’t do as well as expected. I was supposed to be hustling right now. Striving to get back to the top of the charts.

Grace nodded thoughtfully. “You must love it, though. Getting to be creative all the time. To make your voice heard. Literally.”

“I do love it. It’s not always easy. But I can’t imagine living any other way, you know? I’m so lucky. I’ve got to take the good with the bad.”

A wrinkle appeared between Grace’s eyebrows. “Hey, when we were in New York last fall, you mentioned something about an overzealous fan bothering you. Is that still going on?”

I forced down the dismay that suddenly rose up in my stomach. Ignored the bitter taste in my mouth.Breathe.

But I was a performer. I’d had plenty of practice hiding what I really felt inside.

“There was one small incident last September. Nothing since.”

“Just using the wordincidentmakes it sound bad.”

“Then pretend I used a different word. It’s no big deal.”

Didn’t matter that we’d never found out who really sent those flowers to me in Toronto, despite my team’s efforts. Never figured out how the person got access to that old photo of me, either. A photo that had never appeared online anywhere.

Months had passed since then. Everything was fine.

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