Chapter Twenty-One
KEATON
I had no time to process the fact that I’d just slept with Julian, less than a year after laying my boyfriend to rest, mere months after saying goodbye. We’d had a complicated relationship, we were physical in the beginning, not so much in the end.
Not so much at all.
I tamped down my feelings, attempted to get my shirt on the right way, and jerked open the door at about the same time someone tried shoving it open.
Someone who wasn’t Gene.
But an exact replica of Julian.
The only difference was their hair.
Julian’s was longer, this guy—Bridge, I believed his name was—had it cut a bit shorter and messier. It also wasn’t as glossy as Julian’s, not that I was comparing them.
Maybe I was.
At his side was a beautiful woman with sharp features and crystal-green eyes. She was wearing a gorgeous pair of leather leggings, a fake-fur coat, and thigh-high boots that looked really out of place in the snow.
“Hi,” I said dumbly.
“Did you guys really need to bring the helicopter?” Julian’s lazy voice came from behind me. I turned around and felt my entire body heat and blush simultaneously. You would have to be dumb as a rock not to know what we had just been doing.
The cabin smelled like sweaty sex and chocolate chip cookies.
I kept a smile pasted on my face when all I wanted to do was escape, especially because Izzy, Julian’s ex, kept inspecting me like she was trying to place who I was or what I was doing there.
“KEATON WESTBROOK!” she finally yelled, making me jump a foot and nearly collide with Bridge. “I KNEW I recognized you!”
“Yeah.” I smiled shyly. “Live and in person.”
“I just read an article about all of your amazing work with the children’s cancer hospital in Manhattan! I volunteer on a different wing, but you’re incredible. I’m so sorry for your loss.” She was being sincere.
I knew that.
But I’d just slept with Julian.
It was too raw.
Everything.
What the hell did I just do?
Noah would be so disappointed in me.
I was disappointed in me.
I’d just hopped into bed with a relative stranger because he made me feel good. I wasn’t that girl, had never been that girl.
I felt the tears again, and I smiled harder to keep them in while Izzy pulled me in for a hug. “I would love to take you out. I do a lot of charity work with—”
“Iz . . .” Bridge interrupted her. “Let’s maybe get them out of the cabin before you start plotting world domination.”
I almost threw him a parade. His eyes narrowed in on me and then his smile was back in place as he made his way over to Julian and pulled him in for a hug that looked painful to watch.
Julian still hadn’t forgiven him; that much was extremely clear.
And yet he’d slept with me.
Had we used each other?
Or was it more?
I crossed my arms. “Um, it’s going to take us a while to pack up everything—”
“Don’t worry about that,” Bridge said with a shrug. “I have a crew coming up here tomorrow to clear the roads for the other tenants in the area. They’ll grab all your stuff and deliver it to wherever it needs to go. Besides, we need to get you to a doctor. Julian said you got frostbite and fought off an elk all by yourself.”
I smiled at that. “Julian exaggerates, but had he not found me, I would have most likely been an icicle, frozen facedown in the snow.”
Izzy put her hand over her mouth. “What were you doing outside?”
“Oh, you know, trying to appease the master of the cabin and build another fire . . .” I glared playfully at Julian, who just smiled and looked down.
Bridge narrowed his eyes at me then at Julian as a small smile spread across his mouth. “Uh-huh, alright. That’s the story you guys are going to go with?”
“Yup,” we said in unison, earning a chuckle from Bridge and Izzy.
The days spent with Julian had been slow, enjoyable, like sitting by a campfire and living in the moment.
And then suddenly, I had my laptop and one of my duffel bags, and I was in a helicopter sitting next to him, wondering how it all happened so fast, the rescue, the fact that I could already see the city lights.
We landed at one of the private airports near Brooklyn, where an ambulance was already waiting.
I frowned and pointed. “That’s not necessary.”
Bridge snorted. “Tell that to my brother.”
“I’m fine,” I said, only to get ignored by Julian, who helped me out of the helicopter and into the waiting ambulance, where an EMT began to unwrap my hands. “Seriously, I’ll be okay.”
“Hold still, ma’am, have you had any tingling sensations? A fever?” He started firing off questions while Julian stood there.
I don’t remember answering.