“I remember Sophia from high school. She was pretty cute even then.”
A stab of jealousy struck Connor, that maybe his brother and Sophia known each other, even flirted, or cast hot eyes on each other. He asked with a tight voice, “Did you know her?”
“Just saw her around. I think one of her friends had a crush on me. Lots of girls did, though. Can’t say I really paid attention, you know, with my mind on Victoria all the time.”
“Right.” The heat seemed to leave Connor’s face as quickly as it had appeared. He felt foolish and hoped Tristan hadn’t noticed.
“What’s she up to now?”
“She’s back for the summer from college in New York.”
Tristan grunted. “What are you gonna do when she goes back?”
A pang struck Connor. “I don’t know. I hadn’t thought of that.”
“I guess you could do one of those long-distance relationships. That could be tough, though.”
Another pang, this one bigger. “Yeah, that’s a lot of time apart.”
“That’s one of the reasons I gave up the sport bike racing, to be here with Victoria, the baby, and you guys. You can’t really go up there to be with Sophia, not with the inn to run.”
Connor was starting to feel like Tristan was twisting a knife in his heart. “Well, sometimes I could. You guys could help.” Even as he said it, he knew that wouldn’t be as easy now that Victoria was expecting a baby soon. The heart went out of him. He had to find a way to keep Sophia here. Not against her will, of course, like that creep Seth, but to convince her she could have a better life here with him than anywhere else, with anyone else. The thought of Victoria, Tristan, and their coming baby in his inn even for a weekend or two while he was in New York made him long for that expectant couple to be him and Sophia.
Tristan interrupted his thoughts. “Maybe Kris could manage. She’s a pretty good cook.”
“Yeah. She could manage.” Both had adopted a tone that meant they knew this wasn’t going to happen, despite what they were saying. Sounding like the wind had gone out of his sails, Connor said, “Maybe Sophia can transfer to another school down here.”
Tristan glanced sideways at him and sounded more enthusiastic as he said, “Yeah, that could work. What’s her degree going to be in?”
“Photography.”
“There have to be closer schools for that. Why is she at Syracuse?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out. If one school’s as good as another, she could transfer down.”
Connor perked up. “True.”
“The only problem there is that transferring takes a while, I think. You know, she’d probably still be up there a semester, but you could survive one season of long-distance dating.”
“Maybe.”
Teasing him, Tristan said, “Or maybe it’ll kill you.”
“Quit.”
“You could sext each other in the meantime.”
Connor glanced at him, the idea of nude pictures of Sophia on his phone turning him on. “Okay now you’re making me horny.”
Tristan looked startled but amused. “You’re creeping me out. Brothers aren’t supposed to say that kind of thing to each other.”
They laughed and watched the girls reappear from inside, heads together as they talked, smiling, laughing, and casting affectionate glances at their men as they approached. Tristan said, “Well, you obviously want her to stay. Now you’ll need to find out what she wants to do.”
“Yeah.” The idea of her not wanting the same thing as he did killed Connor. Maybe it really was too soon. What if she didn’t feel the same way?
Tristan said, “That’s kind of a big deal, actually, to switch colleges like that. She might not be able to.”
Connor shot him a look and whispered, “Shh! I don’t want her to overhear.”
But the girls were close enough for Victoria to ask, “Overhear what? Keeping secrets already?”
“Yeah, Connor,” said Sophia, sitting down on his lap and putting an arm around his neck. She leaned in and kissed his cheek, her perfume intoxicating him. Then she breathed in his ear, “
Are
you keeping things from me?”
“Only my lips.” He squeezed her close.
“Mmm. I thought I laid claim to those earlier.” She planted one on him and Connor felt a tingle all the way down to his growing erection. Stopping that from getting any more noticeable took an effort. He stood up, sliding her to her feet on the ground, and cleared his throat.
“Why don’t we start this tour?”
“Okay.”
The four spent the next hour with Quinn, who was not only the oldest sibling and head of family, but the winemaker who ran the winery. He showed them how everything worked, from crushing grapes and fermentation, to bottling wine and designing labels. Comus Winery was rare in that it allowed guests to not only design their own wine labels right on site, but create their own wine, too. Sophia gazed at Quinn with new respect that Connor irritably noticed. He was losing his head over Sophia and bit his lip more than once, just like he’d chided her about, to keep from saying something stupid.
They finally exited the winery showroom to find Kris standing beside a hitching post, holding her black stallion, Sabre, and four other horses, by their reins. She sometimes gave rides directly from here for people who’d signed up for it, as a network of trails, both private and public, led between here, the inn, their house and Sugarloaf Stables, and all around Sugarloaf Mountain and other properties.
Kris greeted them with a smile and tossed a tennis ball into the grass. The copper-and-white Australian Shepherd dog, Piper, at her feet ran off after it, his ears flapping playfully.
“Where are we headed?” Sophia asked, as Connor helped her in the saddle of a chestnut mare. “Up the mountain?”
“No. To Sunrise Meadow.”
“Sounds romantic.”
Mounting, Victoria answered, “It is. Tristan proposed to me there.”
A little annoyed that she’d made
her
relationship seem the reason the place was special, Connor said, “Well, that’s not why I wanted to take you there. We played there a lot as kids and had parties and other events in the meadow, so it’s become a special place for the family. I wanted to share that with you.”
She squeezed his hand from atop her horse. “Well, now I’m really glad we’re going.”
“Me, too.” He mounted.
“Okay, lovebirds,” Kris interjected with a smirk, “let’s try to be careful on the ride.” She mounted Sabre and led them along at a walk or trot through gently rolling pastures separated by a sparse lines of trees, Piper running along the length of the line, tongue lolling out in a happy pant. The trail wound over two streams and a covered bridge, with Sugarloaf Mountain growing larger before them, though it was only twelve hundred feet. From this side, the tree-covered top offered a peek at one of the few sheer rock faces visible from a distance. For a moment, Connor thought he saw smoke rising from there, but maybe it was nothing. As they rode, Victoria wanted to canter but Tristan refused on account of the baby, even though she was in the first trimester and not even showing.
They finally entered Sunrise Meadow, which boasted a car-sized boulder, two picnic tables, a two-person swing hanging from an oak tree, and a gazebo beside the stream running alongside the edge of the square-shaped meadow—this stream had a pool big enough to skinny dip in. Around the meadow’s edge, clumps of flowers concealed the solar-powered lights planted in the ground. Giant rose bushes of red, white, yellow, and pink grew in the corners of the glade. Cushioned lounge chairs lay beside several long boxes for storing those cushions, and in the center someone had laid out a large picnic blanket. On top of it sat an array of fruits, jams, breads, croissant sandwiches, and cheeses, all wrapped to keep the bugs out. A bottle of Comus champagne stood in a silver decanter beside a bottle of non-alcoholic sparkling cider for Victoria.
The riders dismounted outside the flowering hedge and trellis flanking the meadow’s entrance. Sophia appeared delighted, and Connor felt encouraged that she liked another piece of what he had to offer.
Sophia gazed affectionately at him and asked, “You set this up, didn’t you? When in the world did you have time?” She paused. “You know what? Don’t answer.”
“Okay.” Connor nodded his thanks at Kris, who’d arranged everything, including riding to the winery and retrieving the food from his trunk to lay it out. She’d learned a thing or two from Connor about entertaining people over the years. Now she alternated between playing fetch with Piper and tending to the horses, their reins now looped over a branch, while the couples sat on the blankets.
As Tristan poured drinks for everyone, Sophia asked, “What are we celebrating?” She moved to sit between Connor’s legs and lean back into him.
“Being cheesy romantics,” Connor replied.
“I think we can all drink to that,” she said, popping a grape into his mouth.
As they sat talking, Riley strode out from under the forest surrounding the mountain, wearing little more than a shirt, shorts, muddy boots, and a bottle of water on one hip. And a gun tucked under his shirt in back, though no one noticed that except for the pair of eyes watching from above. Those eyes had seen Kris setting up earlier and the eyes’ owner had thought to come down and ruin whatever she’d been planning, pissing on the food and kicking over lawn furniture, maybe yanking out some plants. But then Seth had seen Riley, who’d flashed the gun to his sister while talking to her. If you fucked with any Kendall, Riley fucked with you. Seth knew it and had stayed put, knowing better than to try messing with the Marine—although he knew how to use Mark’s gun, which he’d gotten his hands on only this morning, there was a good chance he’d miss with it. The chances of Riley the trained sniper missing, with any gun, were slim to none.
“This can’t be coincidence,” said Tristan to Riley as his brother neared. An American Fox Hound named Coby trotted beside the muddy-booted Marine.
Riley nodded at them. “Yeah. Figured I’d keep an eye on everyone.”
Connor gave him a look of gratitude and Riley turned to join Kris and Piper.
Sophia admitted, “I don’t know the first thing about Marines, but doesn’t he have to be with his unit or something?”
“No,” Connor answered. “He left the service after his contract was up.”
She remarked, “When you told me he
is
and not
was
a Marine, I thought....”
“Marines have this ‘once a Marine, always a Marine’ thing where they never refer to being one in the past tense.”
“Ah.”
“Besides, he’s got that alpha-male sniper thing going,” said Tristan. “The rest of us are a little more laid back.”
Victoria nudged him. “This coming from a sport-bike racer.”
“Former,” he corrected.
“What made you quit?” Sophia asked.
Tristan patted Victoria’s stomach. “Junior here, and not wanting to be away from everything I love.” He kissed his fiancée on the cheek. With a sly look at Connor, Sophia presented her own cheek. Feeling competitive again, he kissed it longer than Tristan had.
Victoria said, “New rule. If one couple kisses, the other has to.”
“Great idea!” said Sophia, squeezing his hand.
“You know,” Connor began, “we could take that rule further. You guys are getting married, having a baby...”
Sophia gasped.
Chapter 11 – Bonding
Connor hadn’t really meant to suggest marriage and children. Well, he sort of did. But he knew the instant he said it that he’d gone too far. He’d screwed this up, like Kris warned him not to. Sophia’s gasp confirmed it and a jolt of terror stabbed straight through him. She was going to bolt like a horse hearing a gunshot.
But she didn’t. Sophia gripped his hand, interlocking their fingers as she turned and gazed up at him. She murmured around a smile, “We’re getting ahead of ourselves just a bit, aren’t we? You haven’t even asked me to be your girlfriend.”
Surprise and relief washed over Connor. The look in her eyes wasn’t fear, but something akin to a thrill. Maybe he’d gone mad, but he thought her eyes said “yes” even though that’s not what she’d said. In an instant he rebounded and took the hint. He kissed her gently, as if to apologize. Then he asked, “Will you be my girlfriend?”
Sophia reached up to his cheek and whispered “yes” before kissing him again.
Smiling, Victoria said to Tristan, “I’m starting to feel like we’re intruding.”
He asked, “We weren’t that sickening, were we?”
“Oh, yes, you were,” Kris called from where she sat with Riley. “Still are!”
In the minutes after, Connor tried to gauge the situation. How badly had he stuck his foot in his mouth? He still felt flushed, especially since Tristan smirked when their gazes met, and then winked as if reading his mind. Victoria didn’t seem to think anything of it anymore, nor did Sophia, except for the new spark in her eyes. He tried to hold onto the women’s reaction to keep himself from going sick with worry. His gut told him that he and Sophia were fine. Better than fine. He could hardly believe it. Maybe he should stick his foot in his mouth more often.
As the next hour passed, his feeling of competitiveness with Tristan and Victoria faded. He reminded himself that those two had a far longer history and so he really had no business making comparisons. His jealousy of Tristan wasn’t a new thing but had never reared its ugly head so much. He really needed to let that go. He felt embarrassed.
Shortly before everyone left, Riley hiked with Coby to the winery to get Connor’s car, which he drove to Quinn’s house before jogging back to the winery and doing the same with Tristan’s. Riley lived in the guest house a hundred yards from the main house, not too far from the barns that were also behind the house a ways. He headed home for a shower just as the others rode by on the horses to Sugarloaf Stables.
Connor gave Sophia a quick tour of the horse facility, which included the smaller original barn and newer state-of-the-art one that included an indoor riding ring they used during winter. The multitude of indoor stalls were half-filled, the remaining horses out in the fields or being ridden in the rings. Kris spent most of her time here and technically lived in the apartment above the new barn, but she often stayed at the big house with Quinn because that was far more comfortable.