unwanted sting of that. And it didn’t matter what his responsibility in the situation was. She’d been the one to offer her assistance to Tara and she planned to honor her words. “I don’t intend to let her down.”
He leaned a few inches closer. “You heard her. She needs permanent help. Not just someone who’ll play at it for a week or two before getting bored.”
She didn’t back away. “I don’t suppose it even occurs to you that I might need this, too?”
“Need?” His lips twisted. “What could working in a small-town shop get you that you couldn’t buy a hundred times over?”
Her throat tightened and she wished that she’d just let his underwhelming opinion of her pass. “Obviously nothing that you’d ever understand.” To him, she was just a useless “cupcake.”
His eyes narrowed even more, but fortunately he was given no opportunity to respond since his mother announced that they’d all adjourn to the family room while the kids cleared the table. The kids in question, Eli and his sister, Megan, groaned about the task, but as Sydney left the table and was joined by Tara—who tucked her arm through hers as if they were lifelong friends—she noticed that their grumbling didn’t keep them from their assignment.
“So,” Tara was saying, “do you have any kind of retail experience?”
Sydney was glad that Derek had been waylaid by his father in the dining room and wasn’t close enough to hear. “Afraid not. If you want to change your mind, I certainly won’t blame you.”
Tara squeezed her arm. “Please. I didn’t have any retail experience when I started out.” She laughed a little. “If I had, I would have known that a shop like Classic Charms would have an abysmal chance of succeeding in Weaver. Sometimes blissful ignorance is a blessing. What I didn’t know didn’t hurt me.” She looked up at Sydney. “You know, J.D. never mentioned how much you look like Jake. The resemblance is really quite remarkable.”
Even from the emptied dining room, Derek could hear Sydney’s sudden laughter.
The sound of it seemed to slide down his spine, making heat collect at the base.
“What’s going on between you and Jake’s little sister?”
“I’m thirty-two, Dad.” Derek gave his father a mild look. “Wouldn’t worry about it if I were you.”
“I’ll worry when she’s a guest in our home,” Matthew returned just as mildly.
Thirty-two or not, Derek was still Matthew’s son; it was clear from his father’s tone that he meant business. “We might have gotten off to the wrong start,” he reluctantly allowed. “But we got it straight.”
His father lifted a disbelieving brow. “Did you, now.”
Derek grimaced. “Okay. So we’re working on getting it straight.”
Matthew just continued looking at him.
Derek exhaled, irritated. Megan and Eli were carrying the last of the dishes out to the kitchen. “She gets under my skin,” he muttered.
“Is that so?”
Derek didn’t like the sudden glint of amusement in his father’s eyes. “She doesn’t belong here in Weaver.”
“Better be careful, son,” he warned. “I once thought that about your mother.”
Derek snorted. “There’s a big difference between Mom and Sydney.”
“Well,” Matthew considered, “your mother is a beautiful redhead. Still. And Sydney is a beautiful brunette.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“You don’t think Sydney’s beautiful? Had your eyes tested lately?”
“Hell.” Derek tossed his hands up. “Of course she’s beautiful.” She was a gut-wrenching sexy version of grown-up Snow White from the blue-black hair that hugged her ivory face to that leather number that hugged her long-legged, deadly curves. “I know Jake wants his sister to stay in Weaver. But she’s not going to.”
“She tell you that herself?”
“She doesn’t have to. Look at her.”
Matthew smiled outright. “I did, but your mom noticed and then I had the pleasure of her kicking me under the table.”
Derek groaned. “Jesus, Dad.”
“I’m married, not blind.” He closed his hand over Derek’s shoulder and his smile died. “She’s Jake’s sister and that makes her family by extension. Blaming her for getting under your skin is about as useful as blaming a compass for pointing north. And blaming her for something she hasn’t done—and might never do—just because that’s what Renée did, is just as pointless.”
Derek’s shoulders stiffened. “This isn’t about Renée.” He hadn’t mentioned his ex-fiancée’s name in a long while, and didn’t want to now, either.
He still couldn’t think about her and what she’d done without wanting to break something.
His father just looked at him. “Isn’t it?”
“Come on, Sydney! You can do it!”
Sydney stared at the snowbank in front of her.
After dessert, it had been young Megan and Eli who’d volunteered to show her around the Double-C. Sydney had been so relieved that it wasn’t going to be Derek who’d be saddled with the chore, that she’d happily agreed to exchange her boots and dress for some borrowed clothes and snow boots. It was only after she’d done so that she’d realized that Derek was still coming along.
By then, it was too late to back out. Particularly when she suspected that’s exactly what he wanted her to do.
Despite her misgivings, though, Derek had fallen easily enough into the role of tour guide as they’d tromped around. He’d even refrained from any remotely personal comments, sticking to the topic of the cattle ranch that had been in his family for generations.
As for Sydney, she had little breath left over for comments of her own. Not when they were busy keeping up with the boundless energy Derek’s niece and nephew possessed. By the time they’d walked through all of the outbuildings and then all the way out to the nearly frozen swimming hole that had to have been a couple miles away, her chest hurt and the muscles in her thighs were stinging. Despite the hours she spent with her personal trainer, trudging through a few feet of snow for a few hours was a heck of a lot worse than anything that Janine had ever put her through.
But now, if she could ascend the solid-looking snowbank that rose twice as high as her head, it would cut at least a half mile from their trek back.
“You’ll never know if you can make it unless you try. But if you’re afraid, I’ll go back and bring a truck,” Derek said beside her.
She gave him a thin glare. He was the other reason she felt determined to get up that snowbank. “And here I thought you were going to manage not to say something
