Page 2 of Careless
“The next round is on us,” my dad said as he gestured towards Rune.
“You don’t have to do that, Dad,” I said as I wrapped my arm around his waist.
“Just one because I’m old, and I’m joining you guys.”
“Every time you call yourself old, you’re calling me old, darling, as we’re the same age,” Mom teased.
“No, no, you stopped aging at twenty-eight. I know the rules.”
I smiled at their banter as they kept going, and Rune made a round of drinks for everyone. This time, not tequila.
“And water for you,” Rune said as he gestured towards my second glass.
“Of course. Thank you, everybody,” I said as we each clinked glasses and, this time, slowly sipped our drinks.
The music blared a country tune that was easy to dance to, and by drink four, my parents were gone, Rune wasn’t behind the bar anymore, as he owned the place, so he didn’t always have to work there, and the four Ls and I were on the dance floor, trying to pick up the line-dancing moves.
“How are you so good at this?” Lauren asked with a little annoyance in her tone.
“I don’t know. I just follow what the person in front of me is doing,” I said, gesturing to the gorgeous redhead in front of me. I didn’t know her name, and that surprised me. Ashford Creek wasn’t exactly a tourist town. Yes, people came up here and stayed during the summer months, as well as stayed here if they wanted to ski at the resort a little bit away. We were cheaper than the major resort town next door, and that meant they could save money and only had to deal with a drive that, thankfully, the town had leaned into. We had a bus line, an entire community line of vehicles to get people to that tourist destination.
But on a Wednesday night at my brother’s place, I wasn’t used to seeing strangers.
Then again, I hadn’t been home in a while.
I came for the holidays, of course, but it was few and far between because I still worked down in Denver. My parents and Rune came to visit often, as did Atlas when he wasn’t on the road. Hockey season was always weird to me because even when he wasn’t playing, he was still training and conditioning. My brother worked harder than anybody I knew, and I was sad that he couldn’t be here.
Just then, Laurelin sucked in a breath, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
I turned, and there he was.
The man of my dreams. My hero.
I held back a snort at that.
Callum Ashford wasn’t my hero. Okay, maybe he was. He had been a teenager when I had been a little younger, as I was an ‘oops’ baby, and he’d saved me after I’d fallen off my bike.
He’d put the Band-Aid on my knee, kissed the top of it, and told me I was going to be okay.
All I had to do was smile and let others I could trust know I was hurting, and they would take care of it. But I wasn’t a little girl anymore, and Callum had grown into those wide shoulders of his.
“Oh my God, you did not tell me that Ashford Creek made men like that,” Laura whispered.
“They sure do,” I mumbled.
“Between your brother and whoever that bearded man is, I am in love.”
Jealousy zinged up my spine, but I told myself it was fine. I wasn’t going to act on it. Callum knew who I was, of course. Because I was Rune and Atlas’s little sister. Although I hadn’t truly seen him in years. He’d left town when he was seventeen and come back to town right when I had left for college. So I had known him when we’d both been kids, and now we were both adults, and he looked far better than any dream I had made up of him.
“Ashford,” an old man called out, and Callum raised a brow.
“Are you talking to me or one of the other Ashfords?” he asked dryly.
“Wait, is his name the same as the town? Is his family royalty or something?” Laurelin whispered, slightly tipsy on her feet.
I handed her my water, but she ignored it, going for her vodka Red Bull.
Shrugging, I chugged the rest of my water and picked up my own vodka Red Bull. This was drink five. Or six. Had I labeled that on my arm? I was fine. Right? Oh no. Time for more water.
