Beyond Reason (22 page)

I’d gotten a message from Austin about dinner tonight, which I was looking forward to, but I was also excited about hanging out with everyone today. I started to hear the group slowly wake up with doors softly opening and closing, and the sound of voices following every so often.

I quickly knotted my hair in a bun and dabbed some lipstick on. I was already wearing my snow pants and t-shirt. I’d just put my jacket over everything before we left, and I’d be good to go. As I walked slowly down the hall, my nose alerted me to the wonderful smell of coffee, and I knew today was going to be a nice day. There was a plate of pastries on the breakfast bar and a row of empty mugs. I glanced over to the great room where the television was on, but no one was around.

I poured a cup of coffee and grabbed a croissant just as Ayden came into the kitchen. My eyes skated down his pecs, and my heart nearly jumped out of my chest.

“Do you ever wear a shirt?” I snapped, as my eyes fell along his abdomen before stopping at his jeans.

He chuckled as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

“Didn’t hear you get in last night,” I mused, leaning against the counter.

I wanted to act like it didn’t bother me, but it did. Listening for any sign of him to come home last night, I’d stayed up in bed until my eyes wouldn’t stay open any longer. I was actually relieved to see him here this morning.

“Late night,” he agreed, but offered no more information as he sipped his coffee.

“It’ll be fun today,” I said, putting my pastry on a napkin.

“Should be,” he said, reaching for a bagel. “Will Austin be joining us?”

I hadn’t even thought about inviting him! I apparently wasn’t the best at this whole getting to know a long-lost-love type of thing—inclusion would probably be a good start.

“Uh, no. I didn’t ask him. I kind of forgot.”

“You forgot to ask Austin?” Ayden asked, completely bemused.

“Well, maybe I didn’t forget, but we’re having dinner tonight so that’s probably enough of me for him to handle.”

Ayden frowned and took a step forward, bringing us much closer than I’d planned on for the morning. “Why do you always talk about yourself as if you’re a disease or a pest or something?”

“I didn’t really know I was doing that,” I said, looking into Ayden’s eyes. “I didn’t mean for it to come out that way. But anyway, I thought it would be nice to just hang out with my friends today.” I took in a slow breath as Ayden moved even closer to me, and my pulse began pounding. His blue eyes darkened as his gaze fell to my lips, which I instinctively moistened.

“So you were a fighter?” I whispered.

He traced his finger along my jaw and nodded slowly, not taking his eyes off of my mouth. “There’s a lot about me that you might find interesting, if you’d let me show you.”

It felt like a band of butterflies took flight in my stomach as he continued watching me, and all of the emotions that I’d been bottling up came crashing into my world. His touch was soft, gentle, sending chills up my spine, but the look in his eyes was so much more. I wanted to experience whatever was going on in his mind, in his world. I took a step toward Ayden, closing our gap and reached up to touch his neck to bring his lips toward mine.

Ayden dipped his chin, his mouth hovering next to my ear. “I don’t think this is something you want to do right now.” The breath from his words tickled my skin, but the meaning completely shattered me. I looked up at him quickly as he took a step back.

“What was that for?” I asked, a mix of anger and relief wafting through me.

Thank God I didn’t kiss him!

“I’ve told you before,” Ayden replied, his voice low. “I don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret. I don’t want to do anything that makes you doubt why you’re here. I shouldn’t have…”

Brandy and Aaron’s voices interrupted Ayden’s words, and I spun around, grabbing my croissant off the napkin.

“Good morning,” I said, giving Brandy a big hug.

“Are those okay?” she asked.

“Delicious. Are you the one we can thank for getting these this morning?” I asked.

“Aaron and I went out for espresso and thought we’d bring something back to give you energy for the big day on the mountain,” she said, grinning.

“I don’t think hot dogs are a good idea any longer,” Sammie groaned, as she came into the kitchen. “I’m not going to make it today.”

“Oh, no. That bad, huh?” Brandy asked.

“Not so hot,” Sammie laughed. “Do you mind if I hang with you today?”

“Sounds a lot less lonely. I’d love it.” Brandy took a sip of coffee and smiled.

“Should we get going soon?” Jason called from down the hall.

“Totally, but we have to wait for Brad Pitt to go put on a shirt,” I laughed. “The whole talk about his past glory days made him take his role a little too seriously.”

Brandy started laughing and pointed at her brother. “Why are you going shirtless so much when we’re all freezing to death in the mountains?”

Sammie almost spit out her orange juice in laughter and I just grinned. “Yeah. Why is that?” I arched my brow at him.

“So who said those days were behind him?” Mason said, appearing from the hall and slapping Ayden’s back.

“Seriously?” Brandy asked, crossing her arms.

“He’s kidding,” Ayden laughed, as he walked away, but I wondered if he really was.

“Hurry up,” Mason shouted at his brother. “You’re holding us all up.”

Everyone started pulling on their jackets and hats in the entry as Brandy and Sammie gave us the puppy dog faces.

“Have fun in the snow for us,” Brandy said.

“Don’t worry. We will,” I replied.

I was sitting down on the bench, lacing up my snowboard boots when Sammie walked over to me and leaned down. “Ayden’s a really great guy.”

I looked up at her and smiled nervously. “He’s a very confusing person is what he is.”

“I think the situation is confusing, not his…”

“What are you up to?” Ayden asked Sammie, coming up behind her in stealth mode.

“Absolutely nothing.” Sammie grinned and tapped my knee.

“Good. Nothing is exactly what you should be up to.” He glanced over at me, and I looked away, still annoyed with him.

“At least, you don’t take long to get ready,” Mason said, glancing at his brother. “Everyone ready to get this started?”

We all nodded and walked out the door with our equipment as Sammie and Brandy were left waving goodbye to us all. Snow was gently falling, but it wasn’t as cold as the day before, which was nice. Jason and Gabby broke off as a pair, while Aaron and Mason walked quickly ahead of Ayden and me.

“What’s the rush?” I asked, watching Aaron and Mason leave us in the dust.

“Beats me.”

We walked in silence over to the lift where Aaron and Mason had already uploaded. I glanced behind me and saw Jason and Gabby hugging. They were in no rush.

“You wanna just pair up?” I asked.

Ayden nodded as we snapped into our equipment, but he didn’t say anything else. We pushed over to the lift and loaded up. Still nothing.

“Okay, so I’ve just gotta say this,” I said, turning to look at Ayden. “I really have no idea where you stand, or where I want you to stand. But I’m just one of your little sister’s best friends, and things were usually pretty cut and dried between us. I knew where I stood in your eyes, which was not anywhere in particular. Now, I have no idea what’s going on. One minute it feels like you want to devour me and the next you push me away, literally.”

“Boy, you have never been one to beat around the bush,” he said, staring straight ahead.

“Not usually my style. No.”

“You’re wrong, though,” Ayden said, shifting so that his eyes met mine.

“About what?”

“You’ve never been my little sister’s friend. You’ve been Lily…Lily who calls bullshit when she sees it, who knows how to take care of her friends, who is more brilliant than any person I’ve ever worked with, and who is sexy as hell.” His blue eyes darkened a shade. “But some of those qualities seem to have evaporated when it comes to Austin. And because of that, I’m staying out of it.”

“You think I’m sexy?”

“Out of everything I just said, that’s what you latched on to?” His lips tugged up slightly and I laughed.

“A girl’s gotta have her priorities.”

“I almost canceled on this trip, Lily. But Sammie convinced me that I needed to come and have fun. But I keep running into a roadblock.”

The lift slowed and stopped, leaving us to dangle in the middle of the mountain. The sway of our chair lift freaked me out so I slid over to Ayden and held onto his arm.

“What’s the roadblock?”

“I’m the roadblock.”

The chill as we stayed stationary made me tremble. I looked up the line and didn’t see anything that would’ve caused the lift to stop, but we definitely weren’t going anywhere.

Ayden wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and my body relaxed into his.

“You’re your own roadblock to having fun?” I asked, looking up through my lashes at him. “Doesn’t sound like the Ayden I know.”

He smiled and squeezed me into him. “It’s not, and as of this morning, I’m done with being a roadblock.” He grinned and pressed his lips against my cap. “I love spending time with you. You’re a lot of fun, and I don’t want to spoil my trip or yours; so after last night, I decided to let go.”

My stomach felt like it was twisting too tight as I wondered what happened last night? Was he talking about after he left?

“I wouldn’t want you to do that either.” I felt the tightening continue as my imagination went wild with what gave him this sudden freedom. “I’m glad you can start enjoying the trip.”

The lift sputtered to life and began carrying us farther up the mountain.

“I might have been the cause of one of the stoppages yesterday,” I revealed.

Ayden’s deep laugh melted my insides as I glanced over at him. I knew that Austin was the roadblock, not Ayden. But he still didn’t want to stop me from doing what I needed to do, and that was beyond kind of him.

“How the hell?” he asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.

“I got stuck on the lift as we were unloading so it whipped me back around as it started to go back down the hill. I was dangling from the lift until I dropped into a snow bank.”

Ayden was laughing so hard his eyes watered. “It wasn’t that funny.” I scowled.

“I wish there was video of that. I really, really do,” he said, his laughter finally subsiding just as we were about to disembark. “Sure you got this?”

I rolled my eyes and stood up gracefully as the board hit the hill. I glided down the small hill without a hitch and waited for Ayden to catch up.

“I find it hard to believe you had an incident yesterday,” he said, coming up behind me.

“I got really good instruction,” I assured him.

Ayden’s expression fell slightly, and I felt bad for referring to Austin, even though I had no idea why I should feel bad.

“Hey, check that out,” I said, pointing in the opposite direction, while I scooped up a ball of snow.

“What? I don’t see anything,” Ayden replied, glancing back at me just as I pelted him with a snowball right on his forehead.

“Oh, it’s so on,” Ayden laughed.

I shrieked and took off down the hill, but not before a snowball smacked me on my ass.

War had been officially declared.

I spotted a little outcrop of trees with plenty of non-compacted snow and turned off in that direction. I landed on my knees and began quickly assembling an arsenal of snowballs as I kept glancing up the mountain, waiting for Ayden. A few too many seconds passed and my heart started beating quickly. Did he fall down or something? What happened to him?

I unstrapped my boots and removed my snowboard, sticking it upright into the ground before standing back up. I walked several feet back up the mountain and stared at all of the people snowboarding by. None of them were Ayden.

“You’ve done it now,” Ayden’s deep voice came from behind me.

How did he do that?

“Damn you,” I said, my gaze lingering on my stockpile.

“You shouldn’t have.” His gaze followed mine to the stash, and he reached toward the balls.

I dove toward the ammo, but not before he snagged as many as he could and backed away. Snow shoved its way down my neck, and I didn’t even care. Instead, I grabbed two perfectly shaped ice-bullets and pelted them right at his chest. He was still attached to his board, which got caught in the powder and he fell over.

“Score!” I yelled, dusting myself off.

“Not even,” he shouted, unstrapping himself from the board and standing back up in a flash. His eyes meant business as he glanced at the ten or so snowballs I still had, only inches from my grasp. I grabbed the first one and felt more of the snow melting down my back. Apparently, more snow snuck in than I realized.