Brayden

Sara’s changed her number, but mine is the same as it’s always been. I wish she’d have thought to use it and warn me. My brand-new tasting room is the last place I want to deal with the shock of seeing her again. Especially tonight with all my family around. I would have prepared for this. I would have told her not to come here, where there are too many people who think they need to protect me.

One second, I’m staring at Sara, trying to decide how to respond to her frank invitation that we reconnect, and the next, Molly is wrapping an arm around my waist and grinning up at me like we’re lovers. “Hey, you. Everything okay?”

Instinct alone has my arm snaking around her waist in return, but what the hell? “Everything’s fine.” With the exception of last night’s massage in my bed, Molly doesn’t stand this close to me or touch me beyond the occasional brush of a hand—not since that one night. But right now, she’s pressing against me like . . .

I catch sight of Shay standing at the edge of the crowd, a satisfied smirk on her face, and I realize exactly what Molly is doing.

God save me from meddling sisters.

Sara’s gaze shifts between me and Molly and back, her face growing paler with each pass. “Oh. Are you two . . . ?”

I let the question hang there for a beat too long. Did she think I’d wait for her? Ten years and not a fucking word, and she’s shocked to see another woman at my side?

The fact that I nearly did wait ten years only pisses me off more, but Molly either doesn’t notice the tension in my body or she ignores it. She leans into me, so close I can smell her strawberry shampoo and feel her every curve. “I’m Molly,” she says, extending a hand to Sara. “I’m sorry. I don’t think we’ve met?”

Sara’s gaze flicks between us again. “I’m . . . Sara?” The sight of Molly has her off balance. I flash a glare to Shay before stepping away from Molly. Shay might have led her to believe this would help, but I’m not interested in playing games.

Molly tugs her bottom lip between her teeth and looks up at me suggestively as she nestles closer into my side. It’s sexy, and the look combined with the feel of her pressed against me might turn me on if it weren’t so damn calculated. And if my ex wasn’t standing in front of me looking for all the world like she wants another chance. “Is this the ex-girlfriend you told me about?” Molly asks. “The masseuse?”

There’s not a doubt in my mind that Molly used that word deliberately.

The jab works, and Sara winces but tries to smile at me when she says, “Just let me know if we can talk.” She turns and rushes out the door.

I watch her climb into a sedan in the parking lot and have no fucking idea how I’m supposed to feel. Relieved? Disappointed? The only emotion I’m sure of right now is confusion and frustration.

I set my jaw as I turn to Molly. “What was that?”

“Shay said she was your evil ex and we needed to save you.”

“I didn’t ask for your help.” My head’s a mess. I need to get out of here.

Molly bows her head, chastened. “Sorry. I . . .” She shakes her head. “Sorry.”

“Don’t blame her,” Jake calls from behind the taproom bar, where he’s stepped in to fill orders. It’s getting busier in here by the minute. Thirsty Thursday, indeed. “We told her to intervene.”

I don’t need any of them intervening. “Call me if you need me, Levi,” I say. I ignore the rest of my siblings and their curious stares, and head out the door to my car.

The cold bite of the winter air is more than welcome, and I don’t even care that my coat is in my office. Maybe the cold will help me think straight, help me process this. Sara is back. Sara wants to talk to me.

Shay should have known better than to send Molly in like some fake girlfriend. If she had given it any thought, she’d have known I’d hate the idea, but she wasn’t thinking about what I want, only how she could protect me.

“Brayden, stop,” Molly calls.

“Why?” I ask, spinning around, but my anger melts when I see Molly’s face. She feels like shit about this.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “Seriously, Brayden. I should have stayed out of it.”

“You should have.” I exhale heavily and roll my shoulders back. “But it probably doesn’t matter anyway.”

“It does, though,” she says. She takes me by the hand and drags me to the side of the building, out of sight of the road and the tasting room windows. “We’re roomies, and I really, really don’t want you pissed at me.”

“I’ll get over it.” I release a breath. “I don’t blame you for Shay’s games. You didn’t know.”

“It’s not all on Shay. I realized Sara was the one you told me about last night, and I didn’t like it. I’m so sorry. Tell me what I can do to fix it.”

“Why didn’t you like it?” Sixty seconds ago, all I wanted was an excuse to leave so I could go home and be alone, but now that Molly’s standing so close, all I want is an excuse to keep her here.

“What?” Her expression changes to an unreadable mask, and she backs up a step and then another until she’s against the building.

I follow and rest my hands above her head, leaning into her as she tilts her face up to meet my eyes. “Why didn’t you like my ex talking to me?”

She swallows, and her cheeks flush pink. With cold, or embarrassment? “I don’t like that she hurt you.”

“I never said she did.”

“You didn’t have to.” She wraps her fingers around my forearm, not pushing me away but locking us in place. “I know you, Brayden. Better than you realize.”

My gaze drops to her mouth and her lips part. The pulse in her neck flutters faster. “I’m not sure you do.” I swallow hard and make myself back away. “I’ll see you at home.”

When I get home, my sister’s car is parked in the driveway, and I realize I’m not done talking about Sara tonight. Even if I want to be.

I park in the garage and come in the side door. Shay meets me in the hallway and hands me a tumbler of amber liquid. I sniff it, and my eyes go wide. “Dad’s?”

She nods. “Seemed appropriate.”

Sara is back and wants to talk to me, and Molly is living with me and falling asleep in my bed. I’d have to agree that tonight’s the perfect night to break out the good stuff.

Dad loved fine bourbon. When he died, we divvied up his collection between the siblings. By some unspoken agreement, we only dig into it on really bad days.

I take a small taste and let the warmth coat my throat and chest. “Thanks.”

“So, Sara’s back. What an awful surprise,” she murmurs, leading the way to the family room.

My mind’s been a mess since I left the tasting room: Sara, Molly, where I’ve been, and what I want, respectively. Every time I think about Sara showing up like that, I’m more embarrassed than anything. I loved her. Planned to marry her. Until she erased herself from my life without any warning.

Shay plops into a recliner. A glass of wine is already sitting on the end table by her chair. While I was taking the long way home to clear my head, my sister must have been here planning her ambush. “Are you going to call her?”

“I don’t know. She said she wants to explain.”

“Explain why she’s a heinous bitch?” Shay asks, and I shoot her a look. “I’m not sorry for how I feel about her. You deserved better than what she did.”

“Maybe what she did wasn’t about me. Maybe there are reasons we don’t know.”

Shay glowers. “She’d have to have one hell of a story for me to bite on that.”

“I’d finally accepted that I’d ever see her again,” I admit.

Shay sighs. “I think what worries me the most is that you might be able to forgive her, and the rest of us won’t. I don’t want to see you in that position—feeling like you have to choose between her and your family.”

I drag a hand through my hair. “Not that it matters, but I think everyone would deal with it if we did get back together—and trust me, I’m not saying that’s what’s happening here.” Honestly, in the months after Sara left, when I just wanted her back, whatever her explanation for leaving was, I worried about the same thing. What if I had an opportunity to make it work again, but my siblings and my mother could never forgive her? But the longer she was gone, the less of a concern that became.

“We might fake it for your sake, but things would never go back to the way they were.” Shay looks into her wine and swallows. “It would be hard to trust that she wouldn’t hurt you again.”

“I keep asking myself if I want to hear her explanation, but I’m not sure it even matters. I needed to know her whys ten years ago, and hearing what she has to say to me now isn’t going to change what not knowing did to me then.” Or how it changed me. “But maybe the explanation isn’t for me. Maybe it’s for her. Maybe this is something she needs to do.”

“You don’t owe her anything.”

I shrug. “I’m not sure that’s true.” I know Shay won’t ask about it anymore—at least not today. She knows me too well to push too hard.

The sound of the garage door opening interrupts the silence.

“That’s Molly,” I tell Shay.

She snorts. “God, perpetually single Brayden is suddenly going to have to choose between the two women he could never resist. Maybe they’ll fight over you.”

I scowl at her. “You’re hilarious. Despite that stunt you pulled earlier, that isn’t what’s happening here. And I don’t want you putting poison in Molly’s ear regarding Sara.”

“Why not? Are you worried I might say something that could ruin their potential friendship?”

“I know you’re angry with Sara, but let me figure this out by myself.”

Sighing, Shay drains her glass and stands. “Okay. Let me know if I can help.”

I huff a hollow laugh. “I’m not sure how you can.”

Her smile is gentle. “I’m a good listener.” She tears her gaze off me as the door to the garage clangs open down the hall. The house fills with the sound of little feet racing down the hardwood. “I think your fan club is here.”

“Rayden!” Noah calls, rushing into the family room. “Rayden, I’m home! Come see the snow fort I maked in the backyard!”

“The snow fort you made,” Molly corrects gently as she steps into the family room. She hands her son a blue-striped scarf and matching hat. “If you’re going out back, you need to wear these.”

“I’ll be right back, buddy,” I tell Noah. “I’m going to walk Shay out and grab my coat.”

“Okey-dokey,” Noah singsongs.

I follow Shay to the front, grabbing my spare jacket from the coat tree and shrugging it on as we step onto the porch.

“Why do I feel like you’re escorting me to my car to make sure I don’t stay and talk to Molly about Sara?”

I shrug. “So what if I am?”

She frowns at me. “I know you don’t want my opinion—”

“Then don’t give it.”

“But I’m one hundred percent Team Molly.”

“Is that so?” I walk around Shay’s car and open the door for her. “What happened to being worried that Molly is on her way to breaking my heart?”

She shrugs and climbs into her car. “That was before Sara came back to town.”

“Bye, Shay.” I close the door.

She points her finger at me and shouts loudly enough that I can hear her through the glass, “Team Molly!”