Walking back into the lodge after a day full of skiing, my legs are so sore and tired. I don’t feel like I can take another step, and as I sit down, relief heats my limbs in the most delicious way.

“Hey, did you see Ari at all today?” Willow asks me.

“No, I thought he was just in here drinking.”

I glance over at Merritt who is bullshitting with Ted and Jacob, the three of them oblivious to Ari’s absence. “Do you guys know where Ari is?” Willow asks them, and they all three give her a blank expression and shake their heads.

She walks away from us and over to the bar, asking the bartender a question. “What did he say?” I ask her as she comes back to us.

“He doesn’t know shit.”

“Should we go back to the house?” I offer.

“I think so; it’s not like him to just disappear. You know he loves skiing.”

Loading up in my car, Merritt sits in the front seat. Since our kiss in the trees, nothing has changed, and I like that. “Where do you think he is?” I ask him

“You wanna know my honest opinion?”

“Of course I do.”

“He’s probably banging some chick he met today.”

“Really? You think so?”

“I do. I bet he met her at the bar and after getting pissed about work…” he trails off and I couldn’t imagine Ari doing that. He’s such a nice guy on these trips. “You look shocked.”

“I am.”

“Why? We all fuck.”

“I know, I just think of Ari like a brother, so I can’t imagine him doing that.”

“Well, you don’t know the guy I do.”

“Is that the way you are?” I ask him, wondering if he’s only coming on to me so we can fuck.

“No way,” he’s quick to answer like he’s the total opposite. With my hands wrapped tightly around the steering wheel, I put my car in park back at the house, and I can’t help but wonder if he’s lying. “What, you don’t believe me?” he asks, sensing my doubt.

“Not really.” And I’m not sure if it’s that I don’t believe him, or I’m just trying to push him away. Men have me so twisted up lately, I don’t know what to believe anymore.

“Whatever, Quinn, you don’t know me.” He gets out of my car, pissed, and I follow behind him, heading inside and straight for the liquor, needing a fuckin’ drink.

“Ari?” Willow calls out, and before he can answer her, Ari is in Merritt’s face, shoving him backwards. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find out?”

“What the fuck are you talking about, man?” he challenges back, looking down at him.

“My stocks, man. You fucked me.” Ari shoves him again.

“I didn’t do shit, man!”

“Fuck you!”

“You don’t know the whole story.” And this time Merritt pushes him back, obviously agitated, so hard Ari falls to his ass. He flies to his feet and swings, catching Merritt with a hard right hook in the face. The sound of Ari’s fist against Merritt’s skin echoes in the room, and I close my eyes clenching the bottle of tequila. The noise somehow pierces from my gut to my head.

I open my eyes and thankfully Ted and Jacob have jumped in and are pulling the guys apart.

“That’s enough,” Willow shouts, and Merritt has his hand over his face, blood streaming down his arm as he walks away from all of us and towards our room. Running after him to make sure he’s okay, I realize I’m still holding a bottle of liquor as I enter looking for him. I find Merritt in the bathroom, leaning on the counter with a towel pressed to his face where Ari’s fist hit him, and I pass him the bottle.

“You okay?” I ask and he nods. “What’s he talking about?”

He takes a swig and looks right at me. “After he left, he’s been waiting for the money from the stock he had in the company. My father has been stalling on signing off on them, dicking him around and shit. So I had them transferred into my name and was going to pay him what they were worth. I hate seeing him get screwed over by my dad, you know?”

“And now he thinks you bought them behind his back?”

“Yeah, and what pisses me off the most is that he’d even think I’d do something malicious to him. He’s my best friend.”

“Then talk to him.”

“No, fuck him, he swung first.”

Obviously, Merritt is letting his feelings get the best of him, so I figure I can’t push him. “How did he even find out?” I ask.

“Probably my dad. He’s been trying to drive a wedge between us since he left the company.”

“Why would your dad do that?”

“You don’t know my father. He needs to control everything; he was pissed at me when he found out I bought them.”

Merritt takes another swig, and I place my hand over his, wanting to look at his face. Holding on to the towel, he lets go, but looks down at me and even in this crazy ass moment, it seems I’m all that matters.

Gently, I lift the towel, but his face is still bleeding, split wide open. “How’s it look?”

“Not too bad,” I lie and press the towel back against his face. As I hold a little pressure, he winces. Staring into my eyes, he reaches up and runs his thumb over my bottom lip. My insides heat from the touch, the effect he has over me is unreal. I’m not sure what to do. My mind is telling me one thing, but my heart, my poor damaged heart, is telling me another.

However, before I can battle with the decision any longer, we are interrupted by Kami as she brings in ice and a first aid kit. “How’s it look?” she asks, and I stupidly respond, still in a daze, “Good.”

I pull the towel away. The bleeding has slowed, and Merritt looks in the mirror at his face. “You think this looks good?” he complains.

“I meant it looks better.” I open the first aid kit and find a few butterflies to place over the cut. “It might need stitches,” Kami adds, and he brushes her off, taking another swig of liquor. I’m tempted to take the bottle from him, he’s been drinking all day, and now with this, he might end up fighting with Ari again.

“Or not…let me know if you guys need anything else. We’re ordering pizza for dinner. Any requests?”

“A veggie one, please.”

“Merritt?”

“Nah, I’ll probably be leaving soon.”

Kami leaves, and Merritt is giving me that look again, making my heart race a million miles a minute. “Leaving, why?”

“I don’t know anyone here, and I’m not about to deal with Ari and his shit when I was just trying to help.”

“But, you know me.”

“That doesn’t help right now. I shouldn’t have come. I have a ton of work to do.”

“Merritt, I get that you want to go, but Ari is your best friend, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then talk to him before you leave. Trust me—you don’t want to run from your problems.” Hearing the words myself makes me feel like that is what I’m doing, pushing aside the pain of my breakup this week. But maybe that is what I need to be doing, in order to get past what I’ve been through. I’ve gotta let it go, the same way Merritt needs to let the drama with Ari go too.

He studies me as I look at the cut on his face. “Are you sure you don’t want to have a doctor look at this?” I ask him.

“Yeah, it’ll be fine.”

“Okay. But, before you make your mind up and leave, I want you to know, I’m sorry about accusing you of not being a good guy,” I tell him, feeling bad for insinuating such a thing earlier. Cleary he is a nice guy—look what he did for Ari.

“It’s all good. You just went through a breakup, so your heart is guarded, I get that.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course. So I guess I’ll go and see if I can hash this shit out with Ari.”

“Yeah? You want me to come?”

“No, Mom, we’ll be good, I promise.”

“Mom?” I respond back to him, my mouth gaping open.

He winks and kisses my cheek—his lips on me again are a surprise but have me wanting more. I don’t know what it is about him that makes my insides a flustered mess. I’ve never had a man make me feel like this, ever.