Page 27 of When You Were Mine

Her phone vibrated not thirty seconds after she hit send.Oh, dammit.“I woke you up.” With the time difference, it was one in the morning in Wyoming. “I’m sorry.” She should’ve known her sister, as property manager, would keep her phone on all night.

“Oh, trust me, you didn’t wake us. Because we haven’t been to sleep yet.”

“Uh oh. Sounds like you had some drama?” Jess settled into the pillows, ready to hear the story.

“You will not believe it. This is a soft opening, right? Which means most of the guests are comped. That’s agift.”

“Yep. So, what happened?” She checked her phone and saw she had plenty of time to get showered, dressed, and meet everyone for breakfast.

“So, I get a call from the front desk, telling me the couple in room twelve was making way too much noise and wouldn’t cut it out.” Amber’s tone said,Nothing new about that. “So, I head over there and ask them nicely to keep it down. Guess what they told me?”

“‘We’re so sorry. We promise to be quiet as a bug in a rug.’”

“Ha. No, she goes, ‘Get fucked.’”

“How demure of her. How elegant.” Fortunately, they had a protocol for guests like that. “Is it resolved? Are they still there?”

“I had security remove them.”

“I can only imagine what a scenethatwas.”

“The woman said, ‘We’re influencers. We’re going to tell everyone how awful this place is.’ And I said, ‘I hope you do. Because then, we’ll have a reason to release the recording of you screaming at each other. We’ll show photos of the damage you’ve done to the room.’”

“Wow. I’m really”—she stopped herself from saying she was proud of her sister because that would sound patronizing—“impressed.” Amber had handled it perfectly. But then, Jess wouldn’t have run off to Iceland if she didn’t trust her sisters to stand in her place.

“Well, let’s not forget I had the best teacher. You put so much time?—”

“And patience,” her husband called.

“Yeah, that, too.” Amber laughed.

In the beginning, her sisters were busy raising kids, so they’d only worked with her part time and remotely. Over the years, though, their roles had become more specialized, and their husbands had gotten involved. The Sweetwater Resort and Spa marked the first time the family members were equal partners.

“You’ve had a rough night,” Jess said. “I’m going to let you wind down with your husband.”

“Well, wait. How’s it going? What’s Iceland like?”

“Hard to tell since I only get four hours of sunlight a day, and I used all of them yesterday to work. But from the little I’ve seen this place is like a whole other planet. I’d love to see more, but I’ve got a lot to pack in. For the next two days, I’ll be busy with tastings and interviews.”

“Okay, what’s going on?” her sister asked.

“I just told you. What do you mean?”

“You’ve gone all Robo-sister again.”

“Robo? Amber, I just woke up.” And here she thought she sounded as normal as possible, considering she’d just run into the man who’d once told her she was his reason for living.

The man who only had two speeds of sex. One, slow, like he was translating the achingly sweet love in his heart through his body. And two, fast, hard, and absolutely feral, as if trying desperately to break through the barrier that kept their souls apart.

“Like you’re constipated.”

“Constipated?” Well, it wasn’t like she could deny the low current of anxiety coursing through her. Because she would see him again in an hour. And she’d rather go back to working the front desk of a motel than ever look at his stupid, handsome face again. “Okay, fine. I’m freaking out.”

“About what?” her sister asked.

“Trevor’s here.”

“What do you mean by ‘here?’ Do you mean there’s a life-size cardboard cutout of him? Lars almost bought one of those. He was going to set an extra plate for Christmas one year and put it behind the chair. Fortunately, we share the same account, so I saw it and deleted it.”

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