LITMIR.BIZ

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in a calming breath, smelling the evergreen boughs they’d decorated the porch with. This home was vibrant and bohemian, like the woman who owned it. Maybe a little run-down, but that just made it comfortable. People weren’t afraid to mess up anything in this house. Jake loved it here. The Sharps were as close to family as he’d ever had, and he was more grateful than they’d ever know that they’d taken him in and loved him no matter what. Not many people would have done that for the town drunk’s kid.

      “You mean it gets worse than hell frozen over here? You wouldn’t stay here under any other circumstances, and you know it. Why compromise your standards? We’d be more comfortable at a hotel.” The guy’s arms pinwheeled a bit when he slid on a small patch of ice. City boy not used to walking in the snow. Figured. Looked uptight, too. He skidded again.

      Jake arched a brow, stroking a hand down his goatee to cover a smile. It was mean, he knew. He didn’t give a damn. He only had to put up with the man until they left after New Year’s. The stiffs Dayna dated never lasted from one visit home to the next. Thank God. Fiancé or not, this guy wouldn’t last either. Dayna would never be stupid enough to go through with it. Not with someone so disrespectful of Rainbow’s house. Dayna worshipped her aunt, eccentric or not.

      “Well, if it isn’t the wild one himself.” Dayna’s wide hazel eyes crinkled at the corners when she smiled up at him. The smile was forced; he could see the stress lines around her mouth and eyes. From what little he’d seen, it must have been a hellish trip.

      “In the flesh.” Jake spread his arms and gestured down at himself.

      Glancing up, he caught the disapproving look on Nathan’s face when he saw the tattoos lacing their way up Jake’s forearms.

      “Hi, I’m Jake Taylor. Good to meet you.” He offered his hand to shake, and Nathan hesitated a long moment before he took it. Jake smiled, and if a tiny part of him enjoyed making the other man squirm, he would never admit it to anyone.

      “Nathan Bradford.” His handshake was firm, even if he couldn’t quite keep his lip from curling in disgust as he got closer to the tattoos. “You’re the brother’s best friend, right?”

      Jake kept the smile on his face and resisted the urge to squeeze hard enough to hurt. “That’s right. Since the sixth grade when the Sharps moved to town. I’ve known Dayna a long time.”

      “Well…that’s nice.” Nathan’s dark eyes narrowed, and he lifted his free hand to curl over Dayna’s shoulder.

      “Yeah, it is.” Jake noted the possessive movement and dropped the other man’s hand before he gave in to the need to break it. He jerked his chin toward the front door. “Penny and Rainbow are inside. Sam and his son, Toby, will be over in a bit. They’re delayed.”

      “Isn’t Sam’s wife coming with them?”

      That question let Jake know exactly how little Dayna had told Nathan about her family. Yeah, she liked to keep the Sharps her dirty little secret. He shook his head. She had it all wrong—it was the “normal,” supremely uptight assholes she brought home that she should be ashamed of. She really needed to cut herself and everyone else some slack. Well, except Nathan. Him, she just needed to cut loose.

      “No wife,” Jake said. “When he was two, Toby’s mom dropped him off on Sam’s doorstep. Hasn’t been back since.”

      It was Toby’s arrival that had cleaned up Sam’s act. Before then, he’d been even crazier than Jake, and the two of them had done just about every stupid, illegal thing short of killing a man. And they’d had a hell of a lot of fun doing it. They’d just been lucky enough not to get caught. Now they were both respectable. Well, as respectable as two tattooed, motorcycle-riding men could ever be.

      “Ah. Dayna neglected to mention he was a single father.” Nathan glanced at her, and she offered a weak smile. She winced when Jake spoke again, giving him the kind of look that begged him to shut his mouth. He ignored her.

      “There’s a lot to learn about this family.” He doubted Nathan would be around long enough to do so, which was just fine by Jake. He pasted on his most helpful expression. “Like I said, Penny and Rainbow are inside—that’s Dayna’s mom and aunt, in case she forgot to tell you that, too.”

      Over Nathan’s shoulder, Jake watched a car pull in behind the silver SUV and an older man step out. Penny’s new boyfriend. Jake saluted him with his coffee mug, and he waved back. The front door swung open, and Penny hurried out, towing a small suitcase.

      Ah, hell. Jake had a nasty feeling he knew where this was going, and he winced. Diligent, dutiful Dayna wasn’t going to take this well. He braced himself.

      “Hi, honey!” Penny set the bag down and swept her daughter into a hug.

      Dayna squeezed her briefly, pulled back, and looked at the suitcase. “Going somewhere?”

      “Why, yes.” A brilliant smile wreathed Penny’s face. “I’ve been invited to spend Christmas in Vail.”

      Eyes widening with a hint of panic, Dayna glanced between her mother and Nathan. “But…but we came up so Nathan could meet my family. You know that, Mom.”

      “Yes, but apparently my boyfriend just can’t live without me for even a few days. It’s going to be an adventure.” Penny’s hazel eyes twinkled with girlish glee. “Don’t be upset, honey. Aunt Rainbow is here, and Sam and Toby. And Jake.”

      “Jake isn’t a relative.”

      She threw up her hands. “He’s like another younger brother to you!”

      “No, he’s not,” Dayna said at the same time Jake blurted out, “No, I’m not.”

      Penny stood on tiptoe and smacked a kiss on his cheek. “Well, you’re like another son to me.”

      “Thank you, Penny.” He stooped down to hug the older woman, shaking his head and chuckling at the irrepressible force of nature that was Penny.

      “Merry Christmas. Have fun!” She scooped up her suitcase, scooted around her daughter, and met her boyfriend in the gravel driveway.

      “She’s really leaving?” Nathan had the kind of dumbfounded expression on his face that Jake had only seen on men right before he’d coldcocked them in a bar fight.

      Dayna’s lips flattened, her eyes swirling with hurt and anger. She pinned her gaze on the floor. “Yes.”

      “Is that normal?”

      “Pretty much,” Jake said and ran a hand over the back of his neck, his gut twisting at the pain on Dayna’s face. She’d just never been able to accept that while her mother was a good person, she was never going to live up to the ideal Dayna had built in her mind. It was a shame for both of them. He met Nathan’s gaze and gave a brittle imitation of a smile. “Like I said, there’s a lot to learn about this family.”

      “Oookay, the snow’s falling faster, so let’s get Nathan started on learning about the family.” Dayna shot Jake a killing glare and stomped on the toe of his boot as she walked past. Lucky for him, they were steel-toed.

      This was going to be a very long holiday.

      2

      Nathan had taken one look at her aunt’s rustic cabin and demanded they stay elsewhere. An hour of phone calls later, and he had been frustrated to find every bed and breakfast, inn, hotel, and motel in a fifty-mile radius was booked. What did he expect? It was the holidays.

      Dayna just wanted the ground to open up and swallow her. She escaped the awkward fits and starts of conversation downstairs by retreating to her childhood bedroom. She needed some quiet time. A lead knot had settled in her belly, and she fought the need to throw up. Every one of her worst fears about bringing Nathan here had come to life. She collapsed beside the bed and pressed her shaking fingers to her eyelids. Nathan didn’t just dislike her family, it was hate at first sight. And it was mutual. Aunt Rainbow said his aura was pitch

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