Page 74 of Snow Balled

I wasn’t too sure about that last part. Agreeing to strip poker because I wanted to show off my bluffing skills and see some gorgeous men’s bodies in the process hadn’t been my finest moment. But I’d puzzle that one over later. Instead, I told Drew something truthful. “Do you know the only time I’ve ever been comfortable sleeping on my side was when you were spooning me?”

He looked up, surprised at the subject change. “Really?”

“Yes. Want to try it again?”

He nodded, and I held out my hand, leading him into the bedroom that used to be his and was now mine.

I feel asleep with his arms around me.

25

SIERRA

The next afternoon, I surveyed the wreckage of my snow fort. If ever there was a day when I needed my own place to get away and think, it was today. But as silly as it had been to sit out here in the snow before, it seemed ever more so now that the wall had crumbled.

“Going to rebuild?”

Tristan’s voice came out of nowhere and made me jump. He walked toward me with confident strides, but his expression was cautious, as if he wasn’t sure I’d want to talk to him.

Which made me sad.

“No,” I finally said. “It was too small for me anyway. I thought about calling a realtor and seeing if we can find an upgrade.”

“Like maybe a treehouse?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”

He reached me and examined the broken wall, kicking a clump of snow that had fallen off. “It was an epic snowball fight.”

“Yeah, it was.”

“I’m sorry,” he said, looking me in the eyes.

I knew he wasn’t talking about the snowball fight.

“I handled everything badly.”

I looked down, not disagreeing with him, but knowing things hadn’t worked out the way any of us wanted to last night. But he was still my friend, and up until the last twenty-four hours, the person I could talk to about anything. “What happened?”

He rubbed a hand over the stubble lining his jaw. “I’ve spent the whole morning trying to figure that out.”

We’d all been rather quiet and stiff with each other so far today. And I was pretty certain I wasn’t the only one who’d been unable to focus well on work.

Tristan took a deep breath and let it out, forming a little cloud in the air. “I guess… I guess it started with your dress.”

It did? “I like that dress.”

“Me, too. But… you looked so damn amazing that all of a sudden, I didn’t see you as the young woman with the ponytail that I could bounce ideas off of and brainstorm with.” He paused, and then gave a little grin. “Carter called you my work wife.”

That made me smile. It kind of felt like we were colleagues. “So what changed?”

“Just seeing you like that. My brain shut off, and you stopped being my friend, Sierra, and you became this… well, sort of like a treasure that I admired, but also needed to hoard and protect.” He paced in front of the fort. “I’m not really describing it right, but I just—I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“Honestly, I didn’t do my best thinking last night, either.”

“It’s not the same, though. Drew and Carter were right. I tried to take away your autonomy, your right to make a decision for yourself. In that regard, I’m no better than the people in your past who’ve mistreated you and tried to take away your power.”

However mad I’d been last night, it was hard to feel that way today. Especially with Tristan sounding so upset with himself. “There’s a difference,” I said.

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