Monsters in the Closet (Dancing With Monsters #2)

Prologue

Haley

Life got in the way.

It was a phrase I’d heard before, but I never understood it until I experienced it for myself. For twenty-three years I’d been in control of my life and my decisions. I’d made my own way, carved my own path, created my own happiness. But life’s a funny thing. Just when you feel like you have it all figured out, it drops a bomb on you that you never saw coming.

In my case, that bomb was named Shana Lane, a name that still grates on my ears nearly four years later whenever I hear it on the radio or see it on the cover of a magazine at the grocery store. Shana Lane is someone I despise, because everything in my life was great until the day she came into it.

All it took was one knock on the door, an ‘I think I made a mistake’, to turn my whole world – a world I’d shaped and built and made my own – right on its head. I know now that had she not come into our lives, things would be different. They would be so different, but they’re not, and we are where we are. And it sucks.

I’m tempted to say I hate my life, but that would be a lie. There are so many things about my life that I love, but it’s not the life I thought I’d have. In all honesty, it’s a shell of what it could have been.

I haven’t spoken to Sawyer Everett in three years, and I miss him every damn day. I’ve only seen pictures of his son – the son I helped raise until he was one and a half – in the tabloids, because his mother parades him around from time to time for publicity. She’s a famous pop star diva, and the paparazzi love to grab pics of her playing the role of the doting mother. It’s sick, and I hate that she’s in his life and I’m not. I loved that little boy like he was my own. I still love him, but I haven’t held him in my arms in so long. Whenever I see how big he’s gotten, it breaks my heart all over again.

There are days when I want to pick up the phone and call Sawyer and talk to him and tell him I miss him and Liam. I want to tell him that I still love him, but I can’t do that. Too many things were said that we can’t take back. The pain of that last conversation after our relationship had gone from the best thing in my life to an echo of something that was once great just carries too much weight. What we had fizzled away, and neither of us even realized it until it was too late.

Life got in the way.

I made decisions. Sawyer made choices. And somewhere along the way, we lost everything. It’s my biggest regret in life, but there’s nothing I can do to get him back. Nothing has changed since the day we called it quits. We’ll never be together, and at some point, I’m going to have to finally wrap my head around that. But it hasn’t happened yet.

It’s amazing how much things can change in five years. Five years ago, I didn’t even know Sawyer Everett existed. Five years ago I was twenty-two. I was a fifth year senior at UCLA, and I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. The only thing that was certain was that after the lease ended on my apartment, I was moving home to Colorado, and I was going to get back together with my high school boyfriend, Tyson, who was a professional snowboarder. It was a loose plan, but it was what had always felt inevitable, so it made sense to me.

But as I’ve learned too many times over the past few years, life can change in an instant. And I had no idea that the day Sawyer Everett walked into my life that everything would change. That the day he showed up on my doorstep would be a day I’d remember for the rest of my life. He was just a guy looking to rent a room for a few months, and I was looking to sublet a room since my friend and former roommate, Chris, had moved out of our apartment unexpectedly.

Sawyer blew me away from the first moment I looked at him. His piercing eyes surrounded by dark framed glasses, his dark hair sweeping over his forehead, those full lips, and that pale skin that was such a contrast to his other features. Everything about him was sexy, and that was before he even opened his mouth and his knock-me-on-my ass southern accent curled around his first words to me. I remembered being rendered speechless, and that usually wasn’t a problem for me, but Sawyer was the epitome of everything I never knew I wanted in a guy. He was standing on my porch, wanting to rent a room, to share a space, to share the same air as me, and in that moment, that was all I wanted.

Of course that was before I got to know the man underneath all that mouth-watering sex appeal, and before I realized what was happening, he became one of my best friends. He was going through a tough time, having just separated from his wife who he’d been with since they were teenagers, and what I didn’t know then was that she was also pregnant. He’d just been kicked out of his cousin’s apartment and was relatively homeless, and he was living in a city where he knew no one besides his bitch of an ex-wife, so to say he needed a friend was kind of an understatement.

We became friends, but then we were more. I fell in love with him so hard that I never saw it coming. I’d have done anything for him back then, and I did. When faced with the prospect of losing him, because his ex-wife decided she wanted nothing to do with their newborn son, and Sawyer felt he needed to move home to Tennessee so he could have the support of his family in raising a new baby, I’d stepped up. Just the thought of him leaving turned my stomach inside out, so I told him to stay and I’d help him raise Liam, his son.

Liam was barely a day old when I told Sawyer this, and at first he tried to talk me out of it, but it wasn’t any use. I wasn’t budging on my decision, no matter how crazy it might have sounded to the casual observer. I was ready to take on the role of surrogate mother if it meant that I got to stay with Sawyer.

In the end, we were so in love with each other that neither of us wanted to be separated. We both realized that no matter what the sacrifice, we’d stay together. I wish we’d have hung onto that mantra throughout the rest of our relationship, but we didn’t. We lost sight of it, and we got swept away by things that were out of our control. We let them sweep us away.

Life got in the way, and we let it. And now we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Chapter One

Haley

Tell me this is a joke, I said, bursting into my brother’s office and slamming the six page letter down on his desk.

His assistant Kacy was right on my heels telling me too late that he was with a client. I stopped short when I saw the strange looks I was getting from both my brother, Law, and Harry, the man who owned the local brewery in town, who was sitting across from him. I gave them both a sheepish smile.

Sorry, I said, and I could see Law fighting to roll his eyes. My theatrics were no surprise to him.

How are you, Haley? Harry asked me, having known me since I was a kid.

Just peachy, Harry, I told him, trying not to sound like the raging bitch I was in that moment.

It seemed like lately the littlest things could set me off, and it was probably apparent from the look on my face when I’d burst into the room that I was not in a great mood. The letter I’d received that afternoon, one I’d sincerely been dreading for several months had completely set me off, and I’d marched down the street to my brother’s office to discuss it with him.

As my attorney, and the attorney representing the inn I ran, he was responsible for any legal matters I was graced with. Normally I trusted him implicitly, but that had been before I’d been slapped with a non-disclosure agreement and a rider outlining the demands of a certain someone who apparently thought he was a VIP even though I’d known him since he was a sullen teenager.

Hales, will you give me a minute? Law asked, looking at me pointedly.

I fixed a glare on him, my nostrils flaring. I knew it would do me no good to argue with him, nor would it do me any good to get into a sibling debate with him in front of someone who brought him a lot of business.

Harry was on wife number four, and in addition to the personal drama he went through, he also dealt with his fair share of legal matters as the owner of a brewery in a popular ski resort town that attracted a lot of underage kids on vacation. He’d kept Law in business for the past few years since Law had moved home after finishing law school and had opened his own practice.

Fine, I said as I turned around and stomped back out into the waiting room, flopping into a chair and crossing my arms over my chest.

Can I get you a cup of coffee? Kacy asked me tentatively as she closed the door to Law’s office behind her.

Sure, I sighed, trying to calm down.

I gave Kacy a small smile, hoping she wasn’t mad at me for basically ignoring her and barging into Law’s office unannounced. I knew she took her job as his assistant seriously, and she was a sweet girl.

How’s business? she asked me as she poured me a cup of coffee.

It’s good. We’re booked to capacity pretty much every day for the next six months.

That’s so great to hear, she said cheerfully as she handed me the steaming mug.

I smiled as I took a sip, savoring the warmth and the rich taste. It was just what I needed to pull my shit together so I could have a rational conversation with my brother. I usually wasn’t so emotional, but with everything I’d been dealing with lately, I’d been a little stressed.

The inn usually made me happy. I’d been running it successfully for three and a half years, having taken over for my Nana, who had owned it for thirty years. When she’d initially approached me about taking over for her after she retired, I was honored and truly thrilled. I’d always loved the inn and had spent a lot of time there growing up, but I was also living in L.A. with Sawyer at the time, and moving home was the last thing I wanted to do.

Thankfully my Nana understood that my heart was in California. She loved Sawyer, and once she met Liam, she loved him too. In fact, the day I’d brought Sawyer and Liam home to the town I’d grown up in, I’d stood with my Nana in the foyer of her inn with a smile on my face as I watched the two boys I loved so much. Liam was just a baby, and Sawyer was showing him the snow outside through the window, telling him how one day he’d teach him to snowboard.

I’d gotten tears in my eyes that my Nana had seen, and she’d said to me, One day, you and those boys are going to make a home here.

I’d looked over at her in surprise, because even though I was fully entrenched in Liam’s life at that point, Sawyer and I had only been dating for five months. I was lucky he’d even agreed to stay in Los Angeles. Suggesting a move to Colorado back then might have freaked him out. I knew we weren’t ready for that step, but after envisioning the picture my Nana had painted, I hoped one day we would be.

He loves you, Haley, Nana had said. It might not be tomorrow, but he’s not going anywhere, and one day, when you take over all of this, he’ll be by your side.

I honestly thought that would happen. I believed it, and I wished for it so hard. And when I mentioned it to Sawyer a month later, he told me he was in, he’d do it. We planned to move when our lease was up in August. Everything was set, and I couldn’t wait to start our life in Colorado. Then Shana had knocked on our door, and we were faced with an unexpected custody battle, making things increasingly difficult for us.

For almost a year, Sawyer was entrenched in a legal battle that was painful, drawn out and dramatic, because Shana did very few things without drama. As much as he might have wanted to move back to Colorado with me, it wasn’t even an option while custody of Liam was tied up with the courts.

But I figured we’d get there. We’d get through the custody situation and then figure out what was next. In truth, I kept waiting for Shana to back out completely. She’d already given up her son once, having wanted no part of his life for the first six months of it, and I partly assumed that her return was emotional, and her desire to be a mother was short-lived. It wasn’t.

I still had faith though. Back then, I had so much more of it. I figured our little family would one day move back to Colorado together, I’d learn to run the inn, and then I’d take over for my Nana. Sawyer would help me, and Liam would grow up around my family. Maybe we’d have to let Shana take him for a few weeks at a time, but he would definitely live with us. After all, she hadn’t wanted him. What judge would even think of giving her more than minimal custody?

Of course I underestimated the power that simply being a mother can yield in court or the strings that can be pulled in the judicial system when a custody battle involves an up-and-coming pop star with public relations people making a spectacle of it and the media latching on. Sawyer hated that his son was in the spotlight, and he fought like crazy to avoid any media attention, but it wasn’t without difficulty. In the end, Shana got what she wanted, and we found ourselves at a loss.

I was already living in Colorado, having come home after my Nana had passed unexpectedly and Niall, the concierge at the inn who’d pretty much taken over running things, had to move home to England for a year. It was a perfect storm of things that led to Sawyer and I entering into a long distance relationship that we figured was temporary and ended up being permanent. I wasn’t sure we could have gotten worse news when the final custody verdict was decided.

I’d always feared long distance relationships, and I knew why once I was in one. Sawyer and I made it six months before things just got too hard. He ended it, making the call that neither of us wanted to make, but that we had started to think was inevitable. There were really no other options. I was entrenched in my life in Colorado, and he was stuck in California.

When he finally told me he wanted to break up, it felt like he was ripping my heart out through my throat. Hearing the words I’d known were coming was just the icing on the cake of a really shitty year. I wanted to hate him, but I loved him too much. So instead I blamed myself.

I’d chosen my life, and I had to live with the decisions I’d made, the mistakes I’d fumbled through and the pain that still simmered right below the surface. It was always there, never leaving, a constant reminder that I’d had something great, and I’d let it slip away. We both had.

Now my days were spent immersed in the inn, because it kept me busy and kept my mind off of what I’d lost. If I gave up everything for my business, then I was going to put everything I had into it. It was my only salvation. And I usually loved my job, but then there were days when I was faced with the ramifications of what I felt now was a truly bad decision, a misjudgment if you will, that I didn’t love it as much.

It all started a year ago when a movie studio contacted me to let me know that they wanted to use outside shots of the inn for an upcoming feature film. I thought it was a great idea, and I took absolutely no issue with it, especially after they quoted me an outlandish sum of money for payment. It seemed like a no brainer. But then I found out that the lead actor in the film, Sean Lynch, wanted to stay at the inn during filming.

Okay, not really a big deal. We’d had celebrities stay there before, but I’d also known Sean Lynch in high school. We weren’t close, per se, since Sean had been kind of a dick back then, but he’d been friends with my ex-boyfriend, Tyson, during our senior year, so we’d been inevitably thrown together. But Sean wasn’t someone I’d kept in touch with, and even though they’d been close, Sean and Tyson had some sort of a falling out after graduation that had essentially killed their friendship. I wasn’t sure what had led to them not speaking, but when Sean moved to L.A. after high school, he and Tyson weren’t friends.

About five years ago they rekindled their friendship, but Tyson had never brought me into the fold when he was around Sean. He kept our relationships very separate, and I figured it had something to do with the fact that Sean had never really liked me. He’d always been cold and distant toward me. I didn’t exactly know why, but I could never really bring myself to care.

I was fairly certain he was more than happy to move on and not look back at our sleepy, small town and everyone in it. He’d found fame after just a few years in Hollywood. The small screen had fallen for his dark hair, blue eyes and olive skin first, as he’d captivated audiences in a show about teenage vampires. I’d never watched it by choice, but my college roommate, Becca, had been obsessed, so I’d watched it with her. Sean left the show after a few seasons and went on to make film after film. It was sick how fast he’d jetted to the top of the fame ladder.

I’d heard girls gushing over him, but I could never understand what they saw. Sean was never someone I’d looked twice at. Sure, he was ridiculously hot and had a body to match, but his personality sucked – at least it had in high school – and I’d be inclined to think fame would have only made him more of a jerk.

My assumption was affirmed when I got the letter from his management company requesting that he wanted to rent out the whole top floor of the inn – for privacy reasons, obviously – for all three months of filming. Our four suites on the top floor weren’t booked at the time, but Sean commandeering all of them for three months would seriously limit the number of people we could accommodate. A lot of times we had larger parties stay in the two room suites that slept six, and those guests in turn spent money in our restaurant. It brought in a huge cash flow. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of one guy, who probably didn’t eat much as it was, being an income block for that long.

So I said no. I told the girl who worked for him that I’d give him the presidential suite, since that would be more than adequate for him. It had three bedrooms after all and all the amenities he could have hoped for, but apparently that wasn’t satisfactory for him. No, he’d insisted on all four suites. He said he’d pay double. That obviously changed things, and I found myself having to say yes.

So fine, Sean Lynch was staying at the inn for three months while he filmed his next movie. No big deal. I’d just find a way to put up with his sparkling personality – that is if he even remembered who I was. It was fair to assume that someone like him wouldn’t even take the time to remember a girl he’d sort of known ten years earlier. And I was fine with that. The less I had to interact with him, the better. I never understood why Tyson liked him, but they’d been close.

They’d even rekindled their friendship a few years back, having kept in touch here and there for the past five years. I asked Tyson a few times what he liked about a guy who was moody and sullen and unfriendly most of the time. He said Sean was different when they were alone. He said he was a cool guy. I just never saw it.

I’d seen him interviewed a handful of times over the years, and although he’d learned how to be charming for the cameras, there was still an air of arrogance and aloofness about him that mirrored who he’d always been. My guess was that he hadn’t changed much at all. I figured I was about to find out for sure, but something told me I already knew the answer – especially after I’d received the letter in the mail that afternoon explaining why my entire staff and I needed to sign a NDA, and we needed to accommodate Sean’s rider that included a list of things like the specific scotch he liked, red and green M&Ms that you can only find a Christmastime, and hypoallergenic bedding for his room.

Apparently the poor little actor was allergic to down – I was pretty sure he hadn’t been allergic growing up. I’d seen him wearing down coats when we’d gone boarding on numerous occasions. I figured he was just being dramatic.

Law should be finished shortly, Kacy said as she returned to her desk.

Thanks, Kacy.

After a few minutes the door to Law’s office opened, and he and Harry emerged. They shook hands, and Harry turned to leave, nodding to me on his way out. I smiled at him. Then I looked eagerly at my brother.

He sighed. Come on in, Haley.

I leapt up from my chair and followed him into his office, settling into one of his guest chairs as he closed the door behind him. As he walked around his desk and sat down to read the legal document I’d handed him earlier, I settled my gaze on the view outside his window. It was ridiculously breathtaking. He had a picture window overlooking the mountain a half mile away. I could make out the dots of skiers and snowboarders gliding down one of the trails, making me itch to get out there with them. I hadn’t been on the slopes in a few days, but I had plans to leave work early to do some afternoon snowboarding.

I needed to talk Law into coming with me. My younger sister, Tessa, usually went with me, but she’d found out a few weeks earlier that she was pregnant, and with morning sickness giving her a hell of a time, she said she didn’t want to chance getting on skis. I knew she was truthfully afraid of falling, even though she hadn’t fallen in years. She was on the ski team in high school and during her one year at Colorado State. She was beyond good, but this was also her first pregnancy, so I didn’t question her sudden bout of paranoia. I completely understood her fears.

This all seems really standard, Hales, Law said then, looking up at me.

I shifted my gaze back to him.

He’s asking for the moon, I admonished, folding my arms over my chest, the calmness I’d achieved earlier flying right out the window.

He’s really not, Law said rationally. He just wants to make sure he has his privacy. You know how the press loves to plaster the gossip rags with any scandalous information they can find about celebrities whose careers are hot at the moment, and you don’t get much hotter than Sean Lynch. I wouldn’t be surprised if you find the media camped outside the inn for the three months he’s staying there.

I made a face at the thought of having to deal with the media on a daily basis. Been there, done that. And I was sure Sean would eat it up. From what I’d seen, he knew exactly what the outside world saw when they looked at him, and he used it to his advantage. Talk about someone who thought a lot of himself. Yeah, sure, it was probably justified, but he wasn’t the only pretty face in Hollywood. I’d met enough Hollywood heartthrobs in the three and a half years I’d been running the inn that I knew a pretty face and a good body weren’t everything.

Personality counted for more, and although many people in Hollywood were perfectly friendly and kind, I knew Sean Lynch didn’t share those traits. No, I had a feeling his stay with us would include a trail of girls going in and out of his room, he’d be loud and demanding and think he owned the place, and he’d treat my staff horribly. I sure wasn’t looking forward to encountering him every day for three months.

Well, he’s a press whore anyway, so what could he possibly have to hide? He probably just wants to keep it under wraps that he’s going to sleep with half the town while he’s here, I grumbled.

Hence the NDA, Law said logically, always a voice of reason who was unaffected by the things that bugged me.

I huffed out a breath of air and looked away from him. I hate actors, I mumbled.

Law sighed and set the NDA down on his desk. Not everyone is your dad, Hales.

I whipped my head up and narrowed my eyes at him. Why do you think this has something to do with my dad?

Not many people knew that my dad, Larry, wasn’t actually my birth father. In truth, outside of our family, Tyson, Becca and Sawyer, no one did, especially since I had the same last name as the rest of my family. And as far as I was concerned, Larry was my dad. He’d been in my life from the time I was six months old, he’d adopted me when I was five, and he’d raised me as if I was his daughter from the day he met me. My real father, Harrison Cross, the famed Hollywood actor, was just the sperm donor who my mother had fallen for and who’d left her high and dry when he found out she was pregnant.

He’d never claimed me, outside of discreetly paying child support for a few years after I was born, only after he demanded a paternity test. The test confirmed what my mother had told him, but he still wanted nothing to do with me. When I was five, he’d signed his rights away and Larry had legally adopted me. As far as I was concerned, DNA didn’t matter, Larry was my dad.

Law shrugged. I don’t know. You’ve always had this weird thing about actors. Actresses you’re fine with, but you’re kind of a man-hater when they work in Hollywood. I always assumed it had something to do with your birth father.

Maybe, I said, not really caring to explore that idea any further. But mostly it’s shit like that. I gestured to the NDA in front of Law. Does Sean actually think any of us give a crap about who he sleeps with while he’s staying here? Trust me, I won’t be paying that much attention to him.

Then you won’t mind signing it.

I sighed. I don’t think I have a choice. It’s not like we can make up the money he’ll be paying us, and it’ll be bad for business to tell him he can’t stay with us when he’s set to arrive in a week. It irritates the shit out of me, but I’ll sign it.

Of course I was going to sign it. There was never a question about whether or not I’d sign it. I just wasn’t going to do it without complaining about it first.

I’ll read over it and make sure there aren’t any crazy demands or anything out of the ordinary if it’ll make you feel better, Law offered.

See the addendum, I told him, referring to the rider.

I saw it. It’s not out of the realm of what we can do for him. Just put Niall on it. He’s the best concierge in five counties. He’ll take care of it with a smile.

Yeah, that was probably true.

Can you add a clause that says Sean’s not allowed to make any more ridiculous demands after he checks in? I asked, just imagining the kinds of things he would request from us.

I had a feeling I’d be hearing from his people on a daily basis. I was going to earn every penny we were getting from him. I just knew it.

You know I can’t do that. You’re just going to have to suck it up and play nice. And you never know. He could have grown up to be a really great guy.

Ha! I laughed out loud. I couldn’t help it. Yeah right. Sean’s a jerk and a tool, just like he was in high school.

Probably. Oh, and you can’t call him Sean. You have to call him Mr. Lynch.

My eyebrows shot up. Seriously?! Law, I know this guy. I called him Sean to his face plenty of times. That’s just weird.

Law held up the rider. It says so right here.

I shook my head. Even though we always addressed guests by their last name, because it was just polite, this was different – kind of. Fantastic.

My brother laughed. You, my tightly wound big sister, are going to have a heart attack if you keep this up, you know that, right?

I knew he was right. I needed to let off steam. I’d been burning the candle at both ends as of late, and where I used to hit the slopes each morning, I’d been staying away more and more frequently when I knew Tyson was going to be on the mountain, as we weren’t currently speaking.

It was hard, because Ty was one of those guys who’d come and gone throughout my life, but he was always there for me when I needed him. More importantly, he’d been my friend when I’d been faltering after Sawyer and I broke up. But I’d screwed up kind of royally, and I was fairly sure I’d ended our lifelong friendship for good a year earlier. I wasn’t sure he’d be able to forgive me for what I’d done and how I’d treated him. I still hadn’t forgiven myself. The whole thing ate away at my insides.

He’d been so mad at me he’d left town, escaping to Park City for a year, and he hadn’t called me once. He’d been back home for a month, but we had yet to see each other. Not that I wanted to, but I knew it was inevitable. He was my younger brother, Elliott’s, new snowboarding coach and was going to help him earn a spot on the national team, so they’d been working together almost daily. And since we lived in a relatively small town, Tyson and I were bound to run into each other at some point. I just wasn’t sure what was going to happen when I finally saw him again. I was inclined to believe it would be relatively painful.

I think you need to get laid, Law deduced, and I made a face at him.

That was exactly what had gotten me into the mess with Tyson in the first place. I wasn’t making that mistake again.

No, I don’t. I need to go snowboarding.

So, go. Don’t let Tyson keep you from doing something you love. Seriously, Hales, the mountain is huge. You know he and Elliott are on the half pipe. Just stay away from there.

I don’t know that. Elliott said they were on the slopestyle course yesterday, and the day before that, they were in the East Bowl. He could be anywhere.

Yeah? So what. Just face him. How bad could it be?

Bad.

I sighed, choosing to dodge his question. They’re not on the mountain today, though. El said Tyson had to go into Denver for the day for a meeting, so the coast is clear. You want to come with me?

It had snowed the night before, and just the thought of fresh powder beneath my board had me fidgeting in my seat. It really had not been easy to go from snowboarding daily to once a week. I was going to lose my mind if I didn’t figure out a way to get out more often. Maybe I could drive over to Cascade Mountain. It was more of a local hangout that didn’t draw many out-of-towners, but they had good runs and the snow was well-groomed. It was also forty-five minutes away, but it might be worth it.

Yeah, sure, I’ll come, Law said then, and my face lit up.

You are the best brother in the whole world, I said as I ran around the desk to hug him. I love you.

Yeah, yeah. Just keep me on your good side. I don’t want to face that wrath when you’re cranky.

I shoved him but laughed at the same time. I know you love me too.

Whatever, he shot back at me as we walked out of his office together.

He told Kacy to tell anyone who called that he’d be back in a few hours.

Oh, Law said, turning around. If Justin calls, tell him to meet us. I know he was going to get done early today. He had a parent-teacher conference after school, but it wasn’t supposed to last long. We’ll be up on Bear Trap.

Justin was Law’s boyfriend, but if gay marriage was legal in Colorado they would have been married, so he was essentially my brother-in-law. They’d been together since their sophomore year of college, and Justin, who was a third grade teacher, had not only followed Law to law school, but he’d also moved home with him after Law graduated. They’d settled in a house a few blocks from me, and I loved having them nearby since they were fun to hang out with.

You’ve got it. Have fun, Kacy said cheerfully.

I smiled at her as we headed out into the cold, crisp afternoon.

Chapter Two

Haley

Mom? I called out as I walked into my parents’ house.

In the kitchen, sweetie, she called back to me.

My parents lived just a few blocks from me now that I’d moved out and got my own little house two blocks behind the inn. When I’d first moved home from L.A., I’d lived with them so I could figure out if running my Nana’s inn would be something I could truly do. I was honestly afraid I might crash and burn in the first few months, and then where would I be? And I was also thinking that once Sawyer and Liam moved, we’d find a place together. When that never happened, I decided to move out on my own.

Since we’d been friends at the time, Tyson had tried to get me to live with him. He had a big ski-in/ski-out condo on the mountain and said it was lonely living by himself. Although he was my friend, and I was sympathetic to his plight, I had no qualms about his true intentions. I knew he was still in love with me, and I had a feeling he was under the impression that if we were living together, once I got over Sawyer, we could pick up where we’d left off when I was in college.

Tyson and I had a massive history, but I felt like anything between us had ended the day I’d realized I was in love with Sawyer. And just because I was no longer with Sawyer didn’t mean I didn’t love him. In those first few months without him, I’d been a wreck. I felt like my life was over. My heart had been a jagged mess of broken promises and empty vows. We’d tried, and we’d failed. I’d taken a risk, and I’d lost the guy I thought I’d spend my life with.

The last thing I needed to do was move in with Tyson. So we’d stayed friends, and he helped me heal. Many beers were drunk as