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It’s the first time I’ve talked about it, and to my surprise, it’s easier than I expected it would be. It feels…goodto open up.

“So you left?”

I nod. “Not right away, but when Tessa was young. By then, I’d already started dabbling in investing, and years earlier, the guys and I had bought up the land here on the mountain and put up the cabins. So, coming here felt like the right choice. Holt and Beck moved up around the same time. Cal came later and Sawyer…well, he doesn’t show up much anymore.”

I shake my head and pull myself from the thoughts of my brothers and everything they’ve gone through, too.

“I tried to be a good dad,” I say. “My business started to take off, and I always provided for Tessa and made sure Cheryl was okay, too. I visited her as much as I could, but…it probably wasn’t enough.”

I blow out a breath and look at Lilly, who is watching me with a sad expression. “You’re here now.”

“That I am.” I watch while she makes her move on the chess board, and take a moment to choose my own move. “Your turn,” I say when I’ve finished moving my piece. “Tell me something about you. Like, who is this guy that you were so eager to get over?”

It’s none of my business, and I’d already decided I wasn’t going to ask her about him and the conversation I’d overheard betweenher and Tessa in the kitchen earlier, but I can’t help but wonder what kind of man would be stupid enough not to let Lilly go. She’s smart, sexy, and…the type of woman that any man who was lucky enough to have her attention would hang onto.

I don’t examine that last thought too closely.

Lilly doesn’t answer right away. Instead, she shifts slightly, pulling her long dark hair up off her back into a lifted ponytail before letting it fall again. She blows out a breath and reaches for the glass of whiskey I poured her.

It surprised me to learn Lilly enjoyed whiskey. Like so many things about this woman, it was a delightful discovery.

“He wasn’t…” she begins, and then hesitates. “Well, it turns out he wasn’t who I thought he was.”

My jaw tightens, but I don’t speak yet.

“Looking back, I should have seen it,” she continues. “There were signs,” she chuckles a little and takes a sip of her drink. “But doesn’t everyone say that?”

“That’s because there usuallyaresigns.” I shrug. “The important thing is, you figured it out.”

“I guess that’s true.” She smiles, but itdoesn’t quite reach her eyes. “We were going to get married,” she throws out that little fact so casually, I almost choke.

“Married?”

She nods. “Yup. But I’m not upset about it. Quite the opposite, actually. That’s probably a pretty big sign that I made the right choice, hey?”

I can’t help but agree with that.

She’s quiet for another moment. In the few weeks since I’ve known her, it’s easy to see that, as strong and confident as Lilly can be, she’s also deeply introspective and private. I don’t expect her to share much more with me, but I find myself hoping with a ferocity I didn't expect that she does.

“I thought we were building something together,” she continues after another quiet beat. “A future where we both could chase our dreams and go after…well, it turns out that we had different ideas about those dreams. While I was dreaming about a career in finance, Barrett was dreaming about a world where I was a good little corporate wife who would stay home and throw fancy dinner parties in between popping out babies he could parade around in front of clients and colleagues.” She takes a quick sip of whiskey before adding, “Oh, and he wanted to keep fucking his best friend on the side, too.”

I see red. “He what?”

“Yup,” she says, and almost laughs. “I caught them together. But I’m glad that I did,” she adds only moments before I declare how I’ll rip his dick off and stuff it down his throat. “Because if I hadn’t, I might have been getting ready for a wedding right now instead of sitting here with you.”

Well,fuck.

Her words hit me low in the gut, where I have no business feeling anything.

I don’t know anything about her ex, but I don’t need to. Lilly almost married a man who didn’t deserve her. If things were different, that asshole would have had the privilege of taking her virginity. He would have been the one to—no!I can’t let my mind go there.

And it doesn’t matter anyway. Because shedidn’tmarry him. He wasn’t the one to be her first. That was me.Me.

A wave of territorial possessiveness crashes through me with such ferocity that I’m almost knocked back.

Fuck.

I have no business feeling any kind ofway about Lilly or what we’ve done together.