Chapter One
“This is so nice, Tess,” Jill Colby told her younger sister as they sat in the bar of the Ashton Hotel in Portland, Oregon, and dissected Jill’s failed marriage. “I love your fiancé to death, but I can’t really talk freely in front of him yet.”
“Don’t worry, I already told him all your flaws, so just be yourself.”
Jill laughed as she imagined what had been said. She and Tess adored each other but were competitive in a teasing way, which usually meant Jill would nag Tess about her bad eating habits and dangerous bartending job, and Tess would insist her big sister was hopelessly naïve, even though in truth she was a tough criminal-defense attorney.
Tess patted her hand. “I just wish you’d told me sooner. I would have rescued you years ago.”
“It was a good marriage back then,” Jill protested. “The problems started when I graduated from law school.”
Tess arched a skeptical eyebrow. “You just finished telling me he was limp in the dick department from Day One.”
“I didn’t say that. At least, not exactly.” She laughed sheepishly, enjoying her sister’s outlandish characterization. They were so alike in looks—blonde, blue-eyed, slender—but so different in attitude. “Not every marriage is centered on sex, you know. You and Sean are like rabbits, but I was fine with Colin’s approach at the beginning. He did his best, and found ways to satisfy me, and it was enough. We got off on the student-professor dynamic, I suppose. Then suddenly I wasn’t a student anymore and he started phoning it in.”
“Except his phone can’t hold a charge.”
Jill giggled. “Now you know why I didn’t tell you sooner.”
“Sorry, Jillie.”
“It’s fine.” Jill took a sip of sparkling water and studied a throng of bodies crammed onto a makeshift dance floor a few yards away. They were having fun, she decided wistfully. And oddly enough, Jill was having fun, too. She had kept her feelings about Colin bottled up for so long. Had buried herself in her work. Now she felt liberated thanks to Tess’s sympathetic ear. She only wished the conversation hadn’t focused so completely on her ex’s performance issues, when it was much more complicated than that.
So she told her sister gently, “My point is: it wasn’t the bad sex. It was the selfishness of it after a while. He stopped trying to make me happy. Wouldn’t go to therapy. Wouldn’t even consider Viagra. Oh, well,” she murmured, mostly to herself. “That’s ancient history now.”
“I always thought the age difference was romantic. Like Pygmalion. But I guess not. He was already out of ammo by thirty-six and it was downhill after that, right?”
Jill laughed. “Maybe so. Although he claims he satisfied other women, so it must be my dysfunction. And supposedly his latest protégée is deliriously happy, so who knows? Maybe he’s right.”
“He’s such a cradle robber,” Tess muttered. “How old is this one?”
“Twenty. Same as I was.”
“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t take her seven years to figure things out.”
“Amen.” Jill’s attention shifted to two tall, dark-haired men striding up to the bar like they owned the place. “Isn’t that your friend Johnny Spurling?”
Tess swiveled in her chair and smiled. “Yum, right? If he wasn’t married to my best friend—”
“Oh, stop it.” Jill cleared her throat. “Who’s the guy with him? There’s a family resemblance for sure.”
“That’s his brother Jayce. Also yummy, also a football player. But he’s a Charger.”
Jill tried not to stare, even though both men were indeed yummy. She had met Johnny a time or two and had been blown away by his tall, muscled body and noble blue eyes, not to mention his take-charge attitude and unbridled devotion to his new wife, who had recently delivered their first child. Basically the perfect guy.
If possible, the brother looked even better. Same build but with more swagger. And his smile? Even from a distance, it melted her to her core.
“What’s a charger?”
Tess laughed. “It’s the NFL team that’s moving from San Diego to LA. But he spends a lot of time up here these days. Partly because Baby Aaron is his first nephew, partly because his wife kicked him to the curb over the holidays.”
“What?”
Tess leaned closer, her tone conspiratorial. “Get this. She went ballistic about the sports stuff and came screaming into the family room while Jayce and his sons were watching TV. Then she proceeded to smash the big-screen TV and all his AV equipment with a machete, scaring everyone to death. Then she ordered him out of the house with just a laundry basket full of clothes.”
“My God, just for watching football?”
“That’s the rumor. But he’s determined to get her back. Even though she actually divorced him in January, believe it or not. And she’s supposedly dating some think-tank geek. But let’s face it, she won’t be able to resist that gorgeous smile for long. Plus, they have four children—all boys—”
“Oh, no. Those poor kids. The wife sounds awful,” Jill added without thinking.
Tess grinned. “Bam Bannerman calls her Sarge. Like sergeant, right? Because she’s sooo bossy. But I don’t really know her very well, and everyone says she has a heart of gold, so . . .”
“I’m sure she’s lovely,” Jill murmured, regretting her negative remark. Then she glared. “You’re such a bad influence.”
“Pardon?”
“I never gossip except with you. Let’s change the subject, please?”
“Good idea. But can we call them over? Johnny takes new baby pics hourly and I don’t want to miss them.” She winced and added quickly, “I know this was supposed to be just you and me—”
“It’s fine. I already trashed Colin into next week. So, mission accomplished. And I like looking at baby pictures, too,” she insisted weakly.
“Especially this baby—the cutest kid ever,” Tess agreed. Then she motioned for a nearby cocktail waitress and said, “That’s Johnny Spurling and his brother at the bar. Can you ask them to join us? We’re friends, not stalkers,” she added quickly.
“You’re Sean Decker’s girlfriend, right? Lucky you,” the server said with a heartfelt sigh, then she added briskly, “I’ll give Johnny the message,” and hurried away.
“I remember when you were famous for being ‘Colbee,’” Jill teased her sister. “Now you’re just some hunk’s girlfriend?”
“I’m still Colbee when I tend bar.”
“Ugh. Do not remind me you’re still serving drinks to drunken brawlers.” She would have bantered further but her attention was captured by the Spurling brothers, who were on the move, looking bigger and hotter than ever.
The idea that Tess’s life was filled with these guys now—big, strong, physical guys—still amazed her. Hadn’t the entire family pictured her with some aimless, adorable, counter-culture dude? Of course, Sean Decker was adorable, so at least they had gotten that part right. And even if Tess had fulfilled their father’s worst nightmare and gone for some perpetually stoned surfer, well—how bad would that have been? Tess had an inner core of strength they had all missed back then.
Of course, if they had seen it, even encouraged it, Tess might not have taken the meandering path that led her to Sean, the great love of her life, and a guy who almost certainly had some surfer-dude in his DNA.
In contrast, Jill had done everything right, at least by their father’s standards. Perfect grades, perfect behavior, perfect college profile, topped off by marrying a law professor. Colin had seemed like a gift from the gods in those days. Too bad he turned into the world’s most insufferable jackass.
Score one for the surfer-dudes, Jill decided sheepishly as she stood to greet the oncoming hunks.