Winter Interlude (54 page)

“Yeah, if she’ll have me.”

“Are you sure you can handle her?”

“What do you mean?” Paul asked
, his eyes narrowing
.

“She’s a steamroller
.”
James shook his head and laughed
.
“
She’s
lot of woman for such a tiny thing
—
and at times I found it difficult to deal with.”

Remembering their few battles, Paul smiled and said with supreme confidence, “Yeah, I know
.
But we seem to do well together
.
W
e understand
and respect
each other.
Or rather I should say
,
she understands that
I
’m
not about to
let her walk all over me.
”

“
Are you saying I did?
”

“
You’re the one who said it was easier to give in.”

“
Touché.”
He offered a second toast. “
You’re a better man than I
ever could be
.
”
He hesitated and his expression turned more serious.
“
So y
ou can deal with the fact that we’ve slept together?”

“
No
t really
,” Paul said, grunting.
“
I want to bash your brains out, but seeing as you didn’t bash
mine
out when I was a jerk to her, I guess I owe you.
Besides
,
you said it yourself. There’s a lot of woman in that compact body and
I
’ve already proven I
can
handle her
, which does make me
the
better
man
.”

Jame
s’
head snapped up and his gaze flew to Paul’s
.
Something akin to hurt
lurked
in those blue eyes, so much like his.
O
r maybe he just looked lost.
James
cleared his throat and the look was gone. “I wish you luck.”

“Thanks.” Paul started for his room. As he passed his brother, he
clapped him on the
back
. “Cheer up. Your time is coming. She just wasn’t the right one for you.”

“
Yeah, well…we’ll see.” James shrugged and looked away. A
few seconds
later he asked
to Paul’s back
, “A
re you about ready to hit the slopes?”

“
Sure
,” he said over his shoulder
.
“But I’m driving separately.”

“Oh?”

Paul nodded.
“I’m heading back to the city early.”

“Okay
.
I’ll meet you at the tram when it opens.”

Sitting on the K-2 lift after skiing for several hours, Paul’s thoughts were on the same thing he’d been thinking all morning,
Kate
and this Mike character
.
He couldn’t expel them from his mind, no matter how
hard
he tried
.

He sighed
.
He really didn’t want to ask James about what
Kate
said, but he felt at this point the need to know outweighed any ribbing he’d attract.

“So tell me about Mike,” he said a few minutes later.

Jame
s’
laugh floated past him
.
“I wondered when you’d get around to him
.
You know
,
if you’d have let me continue my game a little longer you could’ve found out without humbling yourself now
.”
He glanced over
at him
with brows quirked
.
“What do you want to know?”

“What information were you going to let me in on?”

James shrugged
.
“I don’t know
much more
than
what I told you earlier
.
She skied with him, got a ride back with him
,
and he invited her to dinner
.
She made it seem as if he was the reason she was breaking up
with m
.”
Then with a sheepish, lopsided grin, he added, “Well, I did nudge her because she ended things so abruptly and I was shocked
.
I knew then something happened last weekend and your face flashed like a neon sign
.
My guess is that when I pushed her to find out more, she put up this Mike as a decoy
.
She gave a good bluff, too
.
I should’ve known she was on to my tricks
.
Then
,
when I think about it, what was she supposed to say
?
‘
I
spent a few days with
your brother and
we connected so well
I want to call it quits
?
’
”
He snorted
.
“You know I don’t appreciate hearing stuff like that,
and
it
isn’t
easy being dumped.”

Jame
s’
expression and words had Paul laughing. “What if I was just one-upping?”

“No way
!
I’m sure of that
, especially after this morning
.
I
f I wasn’t so relieved, I think my pride would be more hurt
.
But I’ll get over it; you two deserve to be happy.”

“What about Mike?” Paul prodded.

“She said she has a date with him tonight
.
That’s the excuse she used to cancel our plans for this weekend
.”
He chuckled
.
“I thought I had it planned flawlessly…the perfect setup
.
Have her here and you come in at the end
.
Just thinking about the scene had my mouth watering.”

“Okay, but let’s get back to Mike and
Kate
.”
Paul made a hand movement to hurry James along
.
“And their date tonight
.
Do you think she’s really interested in this guy?”

James sighed
.
“Man, I’m glad I’m not in your shoes.”

“Yeah, I got that
.
Just answer the question,” Paul demanded, getting annoyed.

“I don’t know
.
W
hat I do know about
Kate
is that she’s loyal
.
If there is something between the two of you, Mike hasn’t got a prayer
.”
He stopped and thought for a minute
.
“You know she did say something interesting the night we broke up
.
She said she was through being the pursuer. Then she said…and I quote, ‘If he wants me, he knows where I am.’
I assumed at the time she was talking about this Mike guy, but now I think she was talking about you.”

The chair neared the top
.
As Paul put up the bar and prepared to disembark, he ran through Jame
s’
comment several times
.

He skied off the lift then stopped
beside James, who was tightening his boots
.

“I’m outta here,” he said
.
“Sorry to leave you hanging, but I need to take care of a few things.”

He took off down the path toward the bottom of the mountain as fast as his skis would go
.

P
aul raced to the bottom of the mountain and quickly changed
.
Because he was in a hurry, several friends’ attempts to engage him in idle chitchat were met with grunts and his back as he headed to his car and his quest to get back to San Francisco.

Once on the main road, he increased his speed, driving as fast as the car and road allowed
.
He prayed he wouldn’t run into any
members of the
California
H
ighway
P
atrol
.
Not even the threat of a
five-hundred-dollar
ticket was enough to slow him down
.

His luck held
.
He made the trip back to the
c
ity in record time, thankful the seven
-
series BMW was built for excessive speeds for long periods
.
He
cruised
Kate
’s street
.
It was Saturday, so he found a spot close to her apartment
.
Seconds later, he stood at the row of buzzers outside the main door
.
After jabbing the right button, the intercom came alive
with a burst of static
.

“Yes? Who is it?”

“
Kate
?
It’s me, Paul.”