Hud looked around and was relieved to find no one paying them any attention. “Are you kidding me? This is what you interrupted a training session for?”
“I never kid about meetings,” Gray said. He pulled out two bags of M&M’s from his pocket and handed one over to Hud. “So… the smile. ’Splain, Lucy.”
He shook his head. “I’m not smiling.”
“Mitch,” Gray called out.
Mitch turned their way. “Yeah?”
“What’s on Hud’s face?”
“Uh… a smile?” Mitch guessed.
“Bingo.” Gray beamed at Hud like, See?
Hud shook his head. “This meeting isn’t all that much fun.”
“It’s a lot of fun to me.” Gray tossed an M&M up in the air and caught it in his mouth.
“So smiling’s against the rules now?” Hud asked.
“Man, you’re not just smiling. You look completely wasted.”
“Maybe I had a really great lunch.”
“You locked yourself in your office for lunch.”
Hud lifted a shoulder.
Gray stared at him for another beat and then sighed. “I wouldn’t mind a lunch like that.”
“Exactly what do you think I had for lunch?” Hud asked.
“Bailey.”
Hud, who’d just tossed an unfortunate M&M into his mouth, choked on it. “Penny is dead to me.”
Gray grinned. “You going to deny that you banged Bailey in your office?”
“Jesus.”
“Listen, you bang on the clock, you have to talk about the bang.”
Hud drilled his finger into Gray’s chest. “Say ‘bang’ one more time and I’ll kick your ass.”
Gray grinned wide. “Fine. I’ll stop saying it. But not because I’m afraid of you. Because I have to go.”
Hud caught him by the back of his jacket. “Who else knows besides you and your big-mouthed wife?”
“About the banging?” Gray wisely shook free and took a couple of steps back as he spoke, counting off on his fingers. “Lily, Aidan, Kenna…”
“So everyone,” Hud said, annoyed. “Everyone knows. Shit.” He looked at Mitch, occupied with running the training session. “Don’t let anyone tell Mitch.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’s got a bigger mouth than you and Penny. He’ll tell everyone else.”
Gray shrugged. “Should’ve taken her someplace more private.”
“Like you do?”
“That’s right,” Gray said. “I take Penny some place real private. Like my office closet.” He grinned. “Have to, she’s noisy so we need the extra buffer.”
Hud resisted stabbing himself with his ski pole while Gray finished his bag of M&M’s and eyed Hud’s.
Hud tightened his grip on his bag. “What do you want?”
“Confirmation on the you-and-Bailey thing.”
Hud stared at Gray. “Tell me you didn’t really come up here just for that.”
“Hey, it’s big news.”
“How so?”
Gray shrugged. “Maybe I’m just curious whether you’re going to find your happy or not.”Hud blinked. “Why are you talking like Penny all of a sudden?”
“What do you mean?”
“Asking me about my feelings and shit.”
“Because that’s what we do,” Gray said.
“We do that never.”
Gray scratched his head. “No?”
“No, and you’re full of shit. You’re not up here for you. You’re up here for Penny. She made you.”
Gray grimaced. “Lily too. So you’ve got to give me something,” Gray said. “I can’t go back to those two empty-handed.”
Hud ran a hand down his face. “I can’t believe how afraid of two sweet, adorable women you are.”
“Are you kidding me?” Gray asked. “Those two aren’t sweet, adorable women! They’re hormone driven, crazy, and obsessed with curiosity about you and Bailey. I can’t go home until I get the scoop.”
“Well you should get comfortable in the doghouse then, cuz I’m not giving you the scoop.”
Gray blew out a sigh. “At least tell me how the choking-hazard Underoos went over.”
Hud choked on another M&M. “Dammit.”
Gray grinned from ear to ear. “So you were wearing them. And you got laid anyway? Man, she’s a total keeper, just sayin’.”
Hud lunged for him but Gray was nothing if not quick as hell. Laughing like a loon, he twisted away.
Hud blew out a breath. “I’ve got a question.”
“What?” Gray asked.
“You said I’d know when it was time to open up and let her in.” He paused, hating that he had to ask. “But I don’t.”
Gray straightened, his eyes going serious. “Holy shit. You love her.”
Hud froze and looked around. “Who told you that?” he hissed.
“You just did.” Gray smiled and clapped a hand on Hud’s shoulder. “And you’ll just know. I promise.” And with that, he pushed off on his skis and was gone in a blink.
Bastard.
Hud reached for his phone to call Aidan and tell him that his fiancée was every bit as crazy as Penny.
And that’s when he realized he didn’t have his phone.
He slapped his pockets, searching, before flashing back to slipping his sweatshirt over Bailey’s head. Damn. She had his phone.
Back in Denver.
“Mitch,” he yelled. “Need your phone.”
Mitch pitched it over and went back to training.
Hud dialed his own phone and held his breath. Would she answer it if she saw a number she wouldn’t recognize? Would she answer at all? They hadn’t exactly parted on rosy terms. One minute he’d been inside her in more ways than one, having unarguably the absolute best time of his life, and the next a bucket of cold water had been tossed over their heads in the form of one pissed-off mama—
“Hudson Kincaid’s phone.”
He felt a smile crease his face at the sound of her voice. Not exactly friendly or open, but he’d take it. “Hey,” he said. “You answered.”
“Hud? I’m so sorry I ended up with your phone,” she said in a rush. “Do you have any idea how many times a day it goes off?”
He laughed a little. “Yeah.”
“I saw it said ‘Dumb Ass calling’ and I figured it was someone you knew pretty well so I answered.”
Hud looked at Mitch and grinned. “Fast thinking and pretty.”
She laughed. “I answered in case it was an emergency. I was going to overnight the phone to you first thing in the morning—”
“I’ll text you our courier information,” he said. “Use our account so you don’t have to pay for it.”
“Thank you,” she said, her voice softer now.
“You pick up any more phone calls I should know about?” he asked.
“No.” She paused. “Mostly because I didn’t want to get you in any sort of trouble with… anyone.”