Hazel eyes thick with emotion, she held him in her trance, moving with him, pulling him over the edge until he was well and truly and eternally hers.
They managed to pull away, but he craved the sensation of her skin against his as the water flowed over their joined bodies. He poured shampoo into his palm and massaged into her hair, but she giggled and said, “We need to get a move on, or your friends won’t let us stay.”
“I’m fast.” When he didn’t scrub fast enough, she snagged the shampoo and turned his hair into a mohawk, laughing out loud at how ridiculous he looked.
At the impatient knock at the door, Grady winced. Asher growled, “Get your asses moving, or I’m not saving any bacon.”
“One sec,” Grady yelled back.
“Clothes on the bed,” Asher said before leaving them alone again.
Claire rinsed out the last of her conditioner and shut off the faucet, suppressing a giggle at their delirious foolery. They toweled off and dashed into the bedroom. Cozy joggers and a top of Sophie’s waited in a neat stack for Claire, and Asher had loaned him a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt. Grady tugged on the jeans and dropped to the bed, taking a gulp of the freshly refilled coffee that was waiting on the bedside table.
He heard Sophie’s bellow across the cavernous great room, her voice bouncing off the refinished hardwood floors. “Asher, get your ass off the couch and come help me in the kitchen. I like your bacon better than mine.”
Asher answered in a goofy tone, “Sorry, sorry. On my way.”
They had at least another ten minutes, maybe more with how charred Asher made bacon. Outside the bedroom window, the forest was coated in a thick blanket of white. Undisturbed, as if the entire world stood still.
Claire lowered next to him on the bed and leaned into his side, slipping his fingers into hers. “I love the snow.”
He kissed the back of her hand, then reached the table to hand her coffee over. “When we were kids, Ryder, Haley, and I used to have these snowball fights that would last for hours. Patricia would usually go to the hospital ahead of the weather, thanks to the urgent calls from the hospital requiring staff to make plans to get to work no matter what. Haley’s dad was often away on business anyway, so we three would let loose. Hattie would have hot chocolate waiting, and we’d warm up in front of the fire.”
“It was lucky you three had each other.”
“Yeah. I miss that.”
“Know what? I’ll bet they miss it, too. Ryder’s got a lot of colleagues, but aside from me, he has no real friends.”
“We used to be close.” Grady caught the scent of cheesy, eggy, savory goodness emanating from the oven. His stomach rumbled and reminded him how long it had been since he’d eaten anything. “Let’s eat,” he said. As they walked into the kitchen, he saw Zane pulling pie pans from the oven. “Zane, please tell me that’s the quiche you were thinking of adding to the lunch menu.”
“It’s your lucky day.” He set down the oven mitts and started to slice into an avocado. “Sophie added jalapenos and green chiles.”
Claire leaned into Grady and wrapped her arms around his middle, her tummy rumbling so loud the entire room heard it. “I might pass out from happy hunger.”
Asher flipped hunks of well-cooked bacon in the cast iron pan with a series of sizzles and pops. He laughed out loud, shaking his head as he said, “You and me both. We were up hours ago and had to skip our morning run, but Sophie insisted on holding breakfast until you guys got here.”
Freya skated across the hardwood toward them in her pink fluffy socks, coming to a halt alongside Claire. “Thin walls. Trust me, he was well entertained while waiting for you.”
Jumping back to avoid a bacon grease splatter, Asher laughed and said, “Don’t steal my martyr moment.”
Grady slipped out of Claire’s arms to refill their coffees. Within minutes, they were all seated around the table, cozy in the dim kitchen that was brightening as the cloud-diffused sun reflected off the snow.
Like a starving horde, they dove into the meal. Claire laughed at his side.
“What?” Grady nudged her and grinned through his overstuffed bite of quiche.
“My brothers would feel quite at home here.”
“I avoid appropriate, dull conversation and impeccably mannered dinners with my parents as often as possible,” Grady groaned.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Claire eyeing the last piece of bacon. And she wasn’t the only one. After a fair enough pause, she swiftly snatched the precious morsel. But Sophie was there just as fast and grabbed the other half.
“You’ve got some incredible reflexes. Like a freaking gecko,” Claire teased her new friend.
With a mischievous grin, Sophie broke it in half to share. “And you’re a bacon fiend.”
While Claire munched the last of the bacon, Freya watched as Claire leaned into Grady and he wrapped his arm around her, leaning in and taking a long breath as he snuggled closer. “What did it take,” Freya asked, “For you two to figure it out? Last we saw, Grady was a miserable lump.”
