Page 124 of One Last Shot
“That doesn’t look fun.”
The voice came from her brother Doyle, who’d come outside into the bright, sunny day with a cup of coffee and a fresh muffin. He wore canvas work pants, a sweatshirt, his cap on backwards, his brown hair sticking out the front and back.
“It’s a blast,” Boo said, limping over to a nearby chair. The air carried enough crisp to settle a fog over the lake. A few geese sounded, then landed on the lake.
A mother waddled along the shoreline, followed by goslings.
Boo sat on the chair, then eased her knee up slowly. The pain gathered, and she slowly straightened it.
“Only about two hundred more of those.”
“I don’t need your help.”
He held up a hand. “Grumpy.”
She sighed. “Sorry. I’m just... I need to get back to Alaska. I’m not sure why I let you talk me into this.”
He came over, leaned his muscled shoulder against a column on the covered porch. Took a sip of his coffee. Grinned.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just, I had dinner with Ranger and Noemi last night.” He took another sip of coffee. “Wanna tell me about Oaken Fox?”
Her mouth opened. “What? How?—”
“Dodge told Ranger that he saw Axel in Copper Mountain, who asked about you and then mentioned something about Fox, and I got the whole story.”
Not thewholestory. Not the part where Oaken had completely eviscerated her—or was about to—on national television. Maybe she just wanted to keep hiding until after the show aired.
And then move to Iceland.
“So what’s the deal? A month you’ve been here, and you haven’t mentioned him once.”
“What’s to talk about?He worked with us.”
“He nearly got into a fistfight with your boss about rescuing you in some blizzard.”
She froze.
“Hmm. By the look on your face, you didn’t know that, did you?”
She looked away, massaging her knee. “It was his job.”
Another sip of coffee, this time loud.
“Fine. Listen.” She looked at him. “I clearly haven’t learned my lesson about falling for teammates, okay? I might have... cared about him. More than I should. But he... well, he didn’t feel the same way.” She took a breath. “But fool me twice... It won’t happen again. There is nothing between us.”
His mouth made a grim line. “You’ve got this whole thing wrong, sis.”
She cocked her head at him.
“Any guy who is lucky enough to be loved by Brontë Kingston is a fool to walk away from her.”
Oh. Her throat tightened. She looked away.
“I don’t care who this guy is—you need me and Conrad and Jack to take a little visit to Fox’s doorstep?—”
She held up her hand, looked at him. “Thanks, but no.” But she smiled.