then, those lips would speak, and she’d tell him she never wanted to see him again. Never.
No compromise.
Not ever.
His friend, Emily, joined him on the path. “You look sad, Spence. Want to talk about it?”
“Thea is the one who broke up with me,” he muttered. “I’m the one who should expect an apology. Right?”
“It depends. Why did she end the relationship?”
He shrugged. “She thought I betrayed her.”
“With another woman?”
“Hell, no. I’d never do anything like that.”
“What was it?” Emily asked. “What did you do?”
“It’s complicated.” He didn’t like talking about relationships, facing the fact that he’d made a mistake and put his career ahead of Thea’s needs. Had he been in the wrong? Possibly. Was he sorry? Definitely. “I want her back.”
He shoved open the door to the gondola house. Would she be inside, waiting for him? Would she forgive him? The interior of the stone house was about as cold and empty as her heart the last time they were together, but there on the stone bench he saw her luggage.
He dropped his overnight bag on the flagstone floor. Nothing about the place boded well, save Thea’s luggage.
Emily and Jordan spilled inside behind him. “Too bad we’re not invited to the wedding. I wonder if we can hitch a ride up to the top, just for a treat,” she said. “I’d love to see the castle.”
“Doubtful.” Her husband Jordan studied the cogs of the gondola machinery. “Gregory Rosemont makes the late Howard Hughes look like a party animal. Even that’s a stretch. Everyone’s heard of Howard Hughes. Rosemont has come out of nowhere.”
“But Jordan, you have something in common,” Emily protested. “He’s a computer guy, like you.”
“All the more reason for him to be secretive,” Jordan said. “Rosemont might think I was here to steal his ideas.”
“Not you, Jordan.”
As she melted into her husband’s arms again, Spence exited the stone house. Of course, he felt glad that Emily and Jordan had found each other and fallen in love. After what they’d been through with Jordan being unjustly accused of murder and on the run, they deserved some happiness. But their bliss underlined his own solitary existence as a general practitioner in the small mountain town of Cascadia, a far less fashionable outpost than nearby Aspen.
After four years, the locals had pretty much given up on finding him a mate. He’d taken on the role of the kindly, bachelor doc who worked weekends with the Cascadia Search-and-Rescue unit. Searching for Thea, only now seeing small footprints in the crusted snow, he looked up toward the top of a snowy ridge. And there he saw her framed in an icy landscape with dark storm clouds rising behind her.
She’d cut her long hair into a straight, chin-length bob. Her burgundy parka matched her boots and gloves. As always, she looked organized and controlled. Only after he’d gotten to know her had Spence discovered the wild woman who lived inside, an impetuous creature who loved laughter and excitement. His body, having a memory of its own, was already responding to the vision of Thea.
Energized, his inhibitions leaking out with each breath he took, he hiked toward her, fully intending to grab hold of her and kiss the frown off her mouth. He was near enough to see a glimmer of vulnerability in her beautiful hazel eyes. She wanted him as much as he wanted her.
And then she spoke. “You look older, Spence.”
His instincts urged him on. Go ahead. Embrace her. Kiss her. “You cut your hair.”
“It’s not the only thing different about me.”
He tried to ignore the warning note in her voice. He wanted to touch her, to trace the line of her chin, to brush his thumb across the surface of her lips. “You’re still beautiful.”
“But older, now. Wiser.”
“Wise enough to forgive?” His hand raised, reaching toward her, needing the contact.
“No.” She clasped his bare hand in her gloved fingers and gave a firm, business-like shake. Quickly, she released and stepped back. “Spence, why did you come here?”
He felt his heart thud. He reminded her that he and Jenny had been friends long before he even met Thea. “And she invited me.”
“Because she thought we’d get back together.” Her voice quavered, but she said, “Jenny was wrong.”
“Was she?”
“Kiss and make up,” Thea said, “is not an option.”
Before he could respond, she stepped around him and proceeded toward the gondola house where she politely introduced herself to Emily and Jordan. Spence stood rooted in the snow, staring after her. In the center of his chest, his heart clenched like an iron fist. His lungs ceased operation. A few words from Thea had driven him to the brink of myocardial infarction.
Breathe, you idiot! He sucked down an ice-cold breath, tasting impending snowfall in the air. This reunion hadn’t begun the way he’d hoped. She’d rejected him. Again.
He exhaled a puff of steam. Kissing is not an option? Like hell! He’d heard the hesitation in Thea’s voice.
Growing warmer inside at the notion of Thea and her sweet, maybe unconscious hesitation, he pretended interest in the isolated castle across the wide chasm. The granite structure appeared to be impregnable, perched above high cliffs. But nothing was unreachable. You can’t hide from me, Thea. They’d be trapped there for two and a half days. It might take that long for him to change her mind. This time, he wouldn’t give her up without a fight.
He turned toward the parking area and watched as a shiny new Ford Explorer swerved across the snow, nearly sideswiping his van. A wild man in a colorful ski outfit and dyed white-blond hair leapt out and gave a loud whoop. “Where’s my big sis?” he yelled.
Obviously, this was Travis Trevain, Jenny’s brother. He was ranked as a world-class freestyle skier, one of those hot-dog show-offs who flip through the air in screaming pirouettes that couldn’t really be considered sport.
Spence took an immediate dislike to Travis. He knew the guy was the only family Jenny had left after her father, a renowned virologist Spence had once worked with, had passed away. Baby brother Travis hadn’t attended the funeral seven years ago. He’d been in drug rehab.
His current manic behavior suggested a relapse. Two and a half days with this jerk? Spence was particularly disgusted with the way Travis grabbed everybody, including Thea, in bear hugs. Especially Thea.
Stalking down the hill, Spence prepared to stake his claim before Travis decided to make her his weekend conquest. But the blond skier bounded halfway up the hill to greet him with arms flung wide. His red and yellow parka matched with skin-tight ski pants made him look, in Spence’s jaded opinion, like a demented snow parrot.
Spence blocked
