One Mississippi. Two Mississippi. Three Mississippi.

The sensation of floating had Nick’s stomach ready to come up his throat, but he didn’t dare risk opening his eyes just yet. His fingers gripped the side of the carriage in which he, Anna, Jake, Megan, and the balloon operator were suspended.

He became aware of Anna’s arm on his, her hand around his waist.

“It’s progress,” she said. “You’re not screaming.”

“Give me time.”

A gust hit his face, and he used the chance to take in deep breaths.

He was being ridiculous, he knew, but that didn’t change the way his heart was beating a million miles a minute; his hands were drenched in sweat, his breath labored. A few more seconds passed. Maybe longer. Then the rising seemed to stop and they moved in a forward motion, which helped his stomach stop flipping.

“Are we still climbing?” he asked.

“Nope. I think we’re at the height we’re going to be at, and Nick…you’ve got to see this. It’s so beautiful.”

Her voice was filled with a calm wonder and he grew curious, slowly opening his eyes to the vista ahead. There were rows upon rows of grapevines, their lush green leaves and the rich reddish-brown soil visible from high above. The slopes of the Napa hills went as far as the eye could see. Yet his gaze found a beautiful woman, with her hair in two youthful braids, a baseball cap drawn low over her eyes as protection from the sun, and her mouth open slightly as she took in the view. The tight red tee shirt she’d worn for this morning’s excursion was cut low in a vee, exposing her neck and the skin below it. He wanted to press a kiss there along the side, just below her jaw, but he couldn’t because he was too afraid to move his legs in case they buckled.

Or worse, he lost his balance and fell forward into the abyss. He was doing okay, for now, as long as no one made any sudden movements.

They stayed quiet for a few minutes, enjoying the breeze that swirled around them and the calmness. With Megan and Jake snuggling together on the other end of the carriage and the operator focused on his job, it was like they really were up here alone.

“So, was it worth it?” Anna asked.

“I’ll tell you if I live, but right now? Absolutely.”

Anna moved her hand down his arm to rest on his hand. “It’s too bad that everyone is missing this. It’s my favorite thing by far.”

“I’m certain most everyone is nursing serious hangovers. Janie particularly,” he added, remembering how giddy she was on the shuttle back, going around kissing everyone and thanking them for being part of her and Dax’s special day. “Hopefully they’ll be okay in time for us to make our tee time this afternoon,” he said, referencing the golf game Dax and the other groomsmen were scheduled to play while the women had a day of pampering at the spa.

“Yes. Maybe…” Anna looked away guiltily.

He studied her. “What? Did Dax mention something to you about canceling the game? Was he sick?” Her eye twitched, telling him that something was up and she was struggling with keeping it from him. “Hey. You can tell me. Did they have a fight?”

She nodded, turning to face him again, her eyes crinkled in the corners as she looked at him with concern. “It’s just…just that I heard something earlier. In the kitchen. Between Dax and…Sara.”

Oh, shit. That wasn’t good.

“What exactly did you overhear?” he asked cautiously.

Anna glanced over her shoulder to where Megan and Jake were standing, still enthralled in their own conversation, not paying them any mind. “Remember, I’m just the messenger here, so don’t throw me over if you don’t like what I’m about to say.” She took in a deep breath. “It seems that at some point before Dax and Janie were engaged—which I understand was also before you and Sara became an item—the two of them were…hooking up.”

He worked to keep his frustration from his face. Not with Anna, but with Dax and Sara for being so careless with their conversation.

“Nick? Are you okay? Did you hear what I said?”

“Yeah. I heard you.” He pinched the bridge between his nose, taking a moment.

“Crap. I knew I shouldn’t have brought it up. You’re angry.”

He sighed. “I’m angry but not at you. I already knew about their affair, although not as soon as I would have liked. I discovered it after I started dating Sara, who Janie and Dax were hyping up as a great girl and my perfect match.” He met her gaze. “It’s the other part of why I ended things with her. It was too weird for me to be with someone who had slept with my baby brother. So you can rest assured, you’re not breaking my heart by telling me.”

“You knew.” She looked relieved. “I didn’t shatter any illusions you might have had about Sara or your brother. How did you find out?”

“Just like you. I overheard them talking shortly after the engagement was announced. Hell, I was pissed. Pissed at Sara for lying to me all that time, making me feel like a fool. Pissed at Dax for pulling that shit in the first place and then covering it up. For having the gall to let me get tangled up with the same woman when there had been such a complicated history between them.”

“And you never confronted them about it?”

“No.” He should have, but he’d kept hoping that one of them would do the right thing and come clean.

“Do you think that Janie will be able to forgive him? Or will she end things like you did with Sara?”

He paused at the genuine concern in her voice for her sister, something she probably didn’t even realize. “I don’t know. I hope she can forgive him and move on. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that Dax really is in love with her and he’s undoubtedly torn up about his mistake or he wouldn’t be considering bringing it up now. And like I told you before, I already had some concerns where Sara was concerned, wondering whether she was into me as much has the St. Claire name and the free publicity showered on her just for being my girlfriend. It wasn’t like she’d be the first person in my life who used me for their own self-interest.”

Anna smiled. “If it means anything to you, I’m finding I like you despite your name and reputation.”

Instantly, all the grief and disappointment from the last ten years of dating the wrong women faded away. “You know, since there’s a good possibility that the house is combusting from the chaos unfurled by Dax’s admission, we should make the best of our time up here and talk about important things like”—he reached out to play with one of her long braids, the plaits soft against his fingertips—“whether you had any hot erotic dreams about me last night. I know for a fact you made an appearance in mine.”

She rolled her eyes. “Men. One-track minds.”

“We have many tracks, but I will admit there’s that one track that is always playing—even if only as background music.”

“And it’s playing right now?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said, grinning at the warm flush on her cheeks. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First things first, you need to get a little closer.” He lifted his arm, waiting for her to accept his offer.

She hesitated for only a moment before stepping between his arms, her face forward so they could look out at the view. He wrapped his arms around her, his hands settling around her waist. She leaned her head against his shoulder, sighing.

He could get used to this. To having this woman in his arms.

* * *

Anna didn’t think anything could ruin her day as she stepped out of the town car and took Nick’s offered hand before they strolled into the Val Hollins estate later that afternoon. Not even the itching and tingling on her arms that told her she’d be suffering from a sunburn in time for tomorrow’s photo op—despite having slathered on a fifty SPF from head to toe this morning.

The day had been nothing short of perfect. Their exhilarating hot air balloon ride had been followed by brunch at a homey cafe in town, where they gorged themselves on pastries, fruit, omelets, and specialty coffee drinks. Being nestled under Nick’s arm, his fingers playing intermittently with the braids in her hair and the skin at the back of her neck, while laughing and telling stories with Megan and Jake, had all felt so…right.

So this was what it felt like to be in a relationship that didn’t end with her tiptoeing out of a guy’s apartment in the early morning’s light.

“You’re back!” Janie called with excitement as they walked into the house. She was sitting in the large front room of the house, and she wasn’t alone.

Anna’s excitement level went from a ten to a minus one in the space of a second at the sight of none other than Kathryn St. Claire staring at her, or rather at her and Nick’s joined hands. Anna welcomed the excuse to let go when Janie pranced over and gave her a tight hug.

“I was wondering when you guys were going to get back,” Janie asked. “Did you have fun?”

From the excitement and happiness still emanating from Janie, Anna took a guess that Dax hadn’t broken the news yet.

“It was great. Thanks for planning it,” Megan answered and glanced around the room. “Hi, Mrs. Van Hollins,” she said to the woman seated next to Kathryn. “Um, Janie, if you don’t mind, Jake and I are going to go upstairs and rest up until our appointment.”

“Go. Of course,” Janie said, shooing them from the room. “I think everyone else is chilling at the pool if you change your mind. I’m sorry I couldn’t join you guys, but Dax insisted I remain in bed and rest. He’s always looking out for me.”

Anna couldn’t look at Dax right now, still angry and disappointed about the pain he was going to be causing someone as sweet as Janie.

Megan and Jake waved, looking relieved to leave the room that was growing tenser by the minute due to the fact that Nick and his mother seemed to be having some sort of some face-off.

Nick didn’t flinch under Kathryn’s stare. If anything, his stance seemed almost challenging, while Kathryn’s eyes were cold as she stared at her son, nearly as cold as when she finally pulled them away to rest on Anna. The disdain in their depths assured Anna that Kathryn remembered who she was, even now.

“Anna, let me introduce you to my mother,” Janie said and dragged Anna over to the couch. “Mother, this is Anna.”

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Van Hollins,” Anna said politely. With light blonde hair, smooth and stretched skin, and hazel eyes, Elise was lovely, but she also seemed to be a little out of it, as if she was still coming down from the affects of too much Percocet.

Elise leaned forward the slightest bit, holding her hand out to Anna in one of those barely there handshakes. “Nice to meet you, Anna.”

“And this is Nick’s mother, Kathryn St. Claire. Maybe you already know each other? Nick went to high school with Anna,” she explained to her mother.

“We have met. Nice to see you again, Anna,” Kathryn said, holding her hand out. It was firm and cold, like her eyes that seemed to be telling Anna to keep her hands off her son.

Some things never changed.

“Wonderful to see you, too,” Anna lied.

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Van Hollins. Mother,” Nick said as he moved closer. Kathryn and Nick shared the same dark brown hair and eyes, but Kathryn’s porcelain-white skin was a contrast to Nick’s tanned skin. “I didn’t think you were going to arrive until this evening.”

“Fortunately, my plans changed and I saw no reason I shouldn’t join Elise on her flight into Napa.” Even ten years older, the woman was as imposing as ever. “It had been months since we caught up and, with Janie’s excitement about meeting her new half sister, I thought I’d join the party.”

“Yes. Janie was just telling us about how amazing you’ve been, stepping up as her maid of honor like you have,” Elise Van Hollins said, smiling vaguely at Anna. “I imagine it can’t have been easy coming into this thing without knowing a soul.”

“Oh, Anna and Nick actually go way back,” Kathryn interjected. “Anna once was hell-bent on destroying everything that Nick had worked so hard for when he was running for student body president, spinning lies and intrigue in her coverage for the school paper.”

If Janie had missed the tension in the room before, her open-mouthed reaction as she stared at Nick’s mother said she was now clued in.

“That’s all water under the bridge,” Nick said firmly. “In fact, in getting to know Anna again these past few days, I’ve been able to see things from a different perspective. God knows I wasn’t a saint back then. We both did things we’re not proud of.”

“Yes, and how are you doing now, Anna?” Kathryn asked, barely waiting for Nick to finish. “Didn’t you have some lofty aspirations of being a writer for the LA Times? Or was it The New York Times? How did that work out for you?”

The way the woman asked this told Anna that she knew very well where Anna was writing. She could play nice, up to a point. “I’m with The Daily Rundown. It’s an online news magazine based out of San Francisco.”

“I’m familiar with it. Another one of those gossip rags, isn’t it? Nothing worth my time, I’m afraid.”

“Okay, ladies, I have your tea,” Sara said and sashayed into the room carrying a tray with a tea pot, cups, and an array of desserts that she set down on the coffee table.

In a gauzy cream dress that looked designer and well out of Anna’s price range, her dark hair smooth and shining to perfection, Sara DeWinters looked like she belonged with Kathryn St. Claire and Elise Van Hollins. Anna, on the other hand, in her denim cutoff shorts and two long braids, whose plaits had loosened so that hair was poking out everywhere, looked like she’d just returned from a hoe-down.

“Thank you, Sara,” Kathryn said, reaching for a teacup. “I can’t say how much it pleases me to see you here today, watching out for our Janie and making sure she has what she needs before the big day.”

Subtle dig to Anna? Check.

“Oh, please, I don’t need anyone fussing over me. Well, not very much,” Janie added and laughed. “And I assure you that Anna has given me more than enough attention. I know I’m not supposed to know anything about this,” she said, “but she and Nick spent the entire afternoon yesterday trying to hunt down an alternate location for tonight’s rehearsal dinner after our original venue’s flooding.”

“How…thoughtful,” Kathryn said, turning that evil gaze back on Anna.

“It was nothing. In fact, I rather enjoyed myself. As did Nick.” Unable to resist, Anna smiled at the woman, refusing to let her think she was the same scared adolescent girl anymore. “Now, you’ll have to excuse me, but with our spa appointments just an hour away, I need to get a few things squared away up in my room. It was nice to meet you, Mrs. Van Hollins. And Mrs. St. Claire…always a pleasure.”

“You know, I think that’s a great idea,” Nick said and turned to go with her. “I probably should—”

“Actually, Nick darling,” his mother said, stopping him in his tracks, “there were a few things I wanted to chat about while I have you. Can we go somewhere?”

Nick looked like he wanted to argue as he studied his mother, who was smiling angelically at him, but quickly saw the futility. “By all means, but it’s going to have to be short since I still need to change before we head out to the golf course.”

Anna didn’t stick around to hear anything more since it felt like the opportunity for escape was fast closing. At the top of the stairs, she took in a deep breath and exhaled before moving down the hall to her room. She’d known Nick’s mother was going to be here, so she shouldn’t be as shaken as she was. However, she had hoped that her memory of the woman had been colored by the vulnerability of her youth, or at the least that the woman might have mellowed with age.

Neither of which seemed to be the case. She was still a peach.

But Anna wouldn’t let her cast a shadow over this day. This thing that was happening between her and Nick was real, it was special, and nothing that woman could say or do could change that.