Page 14 of You, Me, & Après-Ski
Even though I seethed at spending the winter here, it was a good opportunity to see if the letters held any merit or if it was just someone messing with me. Soon, the server arrived with my drink and took our orders. While we waited for our food, I perused the dining room and pointedly did not dwell on the letter—or the woman who occupied the remainder of my headspace. I’d had enough for today.
The restaurant was not as full as my CEO brain wanted it to be, but countless conversations hummed a dull drone in the background, the sound absorbed by the wood paneling. A woman in a violet sweater sat at the bar, her back to me. But even from that brief glimpse, her beauty was evident. My eyes traced her figure, her dark hair—
A guy in his late twenties with curly hair and tanned skin took the seat beside her.Ah, well. Not like I could have her anyway.I moved on in my people watching, but then the woman turned and I saw her face.
A bright smile with a hint of nerves. When she tucked a curl behind her ear and laughed at something Snowboarder Dude said, my fist tightened around the handle of my steak knife.
Cressida tilted her head, watching me with a curious expression. Her gaze followed mine and—she turned back to her drink, hiding her smile in her wineglass.
“That’s Val, isn’t it?” she asked.
I answered without taking my eyes off of the pair. “Yes.”
“She seems to be on a date.”
I could tell Cressida was suppressing laughter. Turning my attention to her, I narrowed my eyes. “Yes, it does appear that way.” I finished my drink and motioned for another.
“That doesn’t...botheryou, does it?” Mirth danced in her gaze.
“No,” I snapped. The server arrived with our food, and I stabbed into my steak with the force I wanted to inflict upon Val’sdate.Which, again, made no sense.What has this woman done to me? I barely know her.
“Of course it doesn’t. My mistake.” Cressida drummed her fingers on the table as she watched me eviscerate my dinner. “How wasyourdate with her today?”
I stopped sawing my steak long enough to flick a glare at her. “It wasn’t a date. You’re my fiancée.”
Waving a hand, she said, “I’mgettingbored, is what I am. My FaceTime gossip sessions with Daphne can only get me so far. So what did you two do?”
I shoved a bite of steak in my mouth. Chewed. Swallowed. “We went snowshoeing. Out by the lake.”
Understanding lit her face. “Ah. So that’s why you came home and went to town on the wood pile out back. I thought it was all the pent-up sexual frustration. But at least now we’ll have enough firewood to last all winter.” Her lips curved but then she grew serious. “Are you all right, Nolan?”
I nodded but saw Snowboarder Dude touch Val’s arm, and again, that absurd feeling likeIshould be the one doing that pounced on me out of nowhere.
“I’ll say one thing, and then I’ll shut up,” Cressida said, planting her elbows on the table and leaning forward as if about to divulge a secret. “It appears youdohave a heart that can be reached beneath all those layers ofice. I always knew it. Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone that you’re actually human.” She mimed zipping her lips. “If Val means something to you, maybe you should tell her the truth about our situation. Bring her into the fold.”
It was nice to know I had Cressida’s support in whatever I decided to do about Val, but I said, “We’re supposed to be convincing the world you and I are in love, not making matters worse by giving the paparazzi a real scandal to sink their teeth into. Val doesn’t mean anythingto me. We’ve only just met.” If Cressida thought I was fibbing, she didn’t call me out on it.
After a few minutes of silence while we ate, I noticed her scanning the room, so I asked, “See anyone you like?”
Tucking a silky strand of hair behind an ear, she shrugged. “I’m having too much fun frolicking in the snow to worry aboutboys.”
I grunted my assent. She wasn’t worried about “boys”—there’d only ever been one boy for her. Our impending nuptials drove an even bigger wedge in my relationship with my older brother, Raife, but he lost his right to have an opinion on anything when he walked away from the Keller name—and Cressida—eleven years ago, shortly after he turned twenty-five. And now, Cressida and I were merely pawns in our families’ games. Marrying her meant a merger of one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and my family’s well-established resort dynasty. Cyrus wanted the publicity and a dedicated media network to blast his bullshit everywhere, and Cressida’s father wanted access to our sizable coffers.
It had been my father’s idea—decree, more like. The threat of disownment wasn’t enough to get me to comply, but when he and Cressida’s father had set their sights on publicly disgracing her by revealing her past…traumas, I’d seen red. They had us, and they knew it. So I agreed tothe arrangement, but we could choose the terms of our relationship. I didn’t care if Cressida took other lovers, as long as she was discreet and they signed the paperwork, but she rarely risked it, and neither did I.
I jabbed another bite of steak and chewed it with agitation. Val had me all shaken up, and I had to get a handle on myself before I did or said anything else incriminating. Why should it matter that she was on a date? I took another drink as I truly considered the answer. Maybe it was because even though my reputation as an asshole businessman and flagrant womanizer preceded me, Val still treated me like a person and made an effort to have normal conversation with me—although she did seem nervous.
I’d say she actuallycaredif I had a good time at Hale’s Peak this winter, without any ulterior motive. She didn’t know about the sale, so she couldn’t be sucking up to me in an attempt to change my mind. No, her detailed itinerary had to come from a place of genuine interest and joy. That was a foreign concept to me. In my world, there wasalwaysan ulterior motive. Nobody ever did anything purely out of the goodness of their heart. But Val was different. She wasn’t a simpering sycophant, throwing herself at me for the chance at fame or treating me like a walking ATM. In fact, she wasn’t throwing herself at me at all—and I liked it.
Having a secret dalliance with Val was an option, if she was interested, but with the risk of the paparazzi descending, plus the NDAs, it would suck the romance out of the entire endeavor.
Wait—when did I start seeing Val as an option, and when the hell did I start giving a fuck about romance?I’d bid that ship farewell long ago, and lusting after a woman I could not have was a waste of energy. Instead, I’d endure the winter and head back to San Francisco in April to secure mycareer. That was my entire reason for being here, and I had to remember that.
If I allowed anything to distract me, it should be my mysterious pen pal andnotValeria López. If there was even the minuscule possibility that my mother wasmurdered—I could barely think the word without wanting to throw something—then I had to look into it. I thought I’d gotten closure after years of therapy, but one letter, one sentence had been enough to blow a hole in my unstable ship.
After dinner, I excused myself from Cressida and headed to Barney Huxby’s office. Val was still parked at the bar with her date, and I tried not to notice the way her jeans hugged her ass. It crossed my mind that I could drag her with me under the guise of needing help with some asinine work task, but I quashed the thought.
Pushing on the solid oak door to Barney’s office, I walked inside like I owned the place. Well, I did, actually.
