Oh yeah, Hud thought. This just got better and better.

Chapter 6

Bailey spent the day individually interviewing the Kincaid family for the mural. Well, interviewing everyone but Hud, whom she’d saved until last.

Or more accurately, put off until last. She wasn’t sure exactly what the problem was between them, but there was most definitely a problem. At least he had one.

She didn’t. Well, other than being rendered stupid by his voice, his smile, and the way his ass looked in pants…

But it was more too. She’d seen the way he was with his mom. Genuine. Loyal. Fiercely protective.

Not muted.

She could tell he was the same way with his siblings—all half siblings, as she now knew—and his siblings’ significant others as well. It appeared that when Hudson cared, he cared with his entire being, and damn that was attractive. In fact, several times he’d reacted instinctively to try to help her, a perfect stranger. First on the mountain and then at the table. And at first she’d assumed it was pity, exacerbated when she’d accidentally removed her cap and he’d seen her head. Knowledge had come into his gaze then.

And sympathy.

Which had made her grind her back teeth. Because it had only been after that when he’d accepted the idea of the mural really happening. And actually, not accepted so much as resigned himself to it.

And that made her mad. Furious, truthfully, because she didn’t want him to feel bad for her.

But you do want his wall…

And the truth was that she didn’t feel pitied by him. She felt like maybe that was just who Hudson was to the very core—a guy who genuinely cared.

And as much as she didn’t need him to, as much as she wanted to be independent and do things for herself, she couldn’t help admitting that soaking up some more of his warmth and strength wouldn’t be a hardship.

She sighed. She was sitting outside on a bench on the covered patio facing the wall. She’d just finished talking with Kenna when she caught sight of Gray and Penny in the throng of people moving about. They stood on the steps outside the lodge. Penny wore black leggings and fabulous high-heeled boots and a snug silver jacket that showed off an enviably curvy figure. Her long brown hair fell free to the middle of her back. She looked like a snow princess.

Bailey wasn’t vain but she really did miss her hair. Three months since her last chemo treatment and she was lucky to have a few inches of new growth, but it wasn’t thick or luscious. Nope, not even close. Instead it seemed like ostrich fuzz. Bedraggled baby-ostrich fuzz.

Gray grinned at Penny, a confident sexy grin, and for a beat he looked a lot like Hud as he leaned in close to his wife, putting his mouth to her ear. Penny laughed at whatever he whispered, probably a naughty little nothing, and wrapped her arms around him tight.

Gray lifted her up, one hand around her back and the other palming her butt, and kissed her. It looked like a really great kiss, and Bailey’s heart gave an envious pitter-patter.

She wouldn’t mind having a man look at her like that, like she was his entire world, and she really wouldn’t mind being kissed like that either. Busy with that thought, she nearly jumped out of her skin when Hud slouched onto the bench next to her. He leaned back, stretched out his long legs, and tilted his face up to the low midmorning sun now slanting in beneath the patio roof.

He wore dark sunglasses and his ski patrol gear. Black cargo ski pants. Long-sleeved outdoor wear that fit him like a glove. At least a day of scruff on a square jaw. Dark short hair, wind tousled and standing up in a way that only made him seem sexier. Damn him.

So he was a brooding, silent type, so what? She had little to no experience with that because for far too long things like hot guys with ’tudes had been luxury items that she’d never had time for. She’d never had time for anything except survival.

But she’d done that, she reminded herself. She was alive and now planning on staying that way. So it was definitely time to treat herself to the things she’d missed out on.

Like painting a mural. Skiing in the Rockies. Learning to ballroom dance. Explore some castles in Europe. See the Greek Islands. Skydive. Her list, basically. Which meant that the prickly Hudson Kincaid could bite her, sexiness and all. She took a quick glance and found him watching her, a look in his eyes that made her the prickly one. “We’re not going to talk about it,” she said. “Ever.”

“Which?” he asked. “The fact that you can’t read a map but you expect me to believe you can create a sixty-foot-long, thirty-foot-high mural? Or that you manipulated me into doing it anyway?”

She blew out a sigh. And then let out a low laugh. Dammit. He wasn’t going to ask her to talk about it at all. She’d vastly underestimated him.

“Just tell me you know how to paint a mural,” he said.

“Scared?” she asked.

“Terrified.”

“Uh-huh.” She arched a brow. “You don’t seem the type to be afraid of much.”

“You’d be surprised.”

Maybe. She was certainly surprised at her unexpected attraction to him. She was also surprised at his phone and radio, both which were going off constantly. She could tell he was multitasking, monitoring the radio with one ear and concentrating on her with the other. His phone he simply pulled out, glanced at, and then ignored. She was fascinated by this, by him. He definitely hadn’t shaved that morning. Probably not yesterday morning either. His hands were big and sexy, even with the ragged scars across his palms, and she wondered how he’d gotten them. “I can paint,” she said. “I promise.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She smiled with what she hoped looked like confidence and determination. “Trust me, Hudson, I can do this and it’s going to be good.”

His eyes darkened a little, whether at the use of his given name or the way she’d said it, which had been admittedly a little low and husky. Entirely unintentionally, of course, but the man made her feel things.

Such things…

He didn’t say anything for a few moments, which should’ve been uncomfortable but in reality was the opposite. “Heard you interviewed everyone,” he finally murmured.

“Except you,” she agreed. And it’d been fun and fascinating. She’d learned a lot about the Kincaids from what they’d told her.

And even more from what they hadn’t. “Are you ready to be interviewed?” she asked.

“Tell me what you think you already know.”

She smiled. He didn’t want to talk about himself. She got that loud and clear. Gray had been the first one up to speak with her and he’d told her there were five Kincaid siblings. They all had the same father, though no one had anything good to say about the man. The only other Kincaid missing from the mountain was Jacob, Hudson’s twin. She’d heard that little bit from Carrie, although Bailey still wasn’t clear whether Jacob was alive or dead.

Gray had been pretty close-mouthed about the subject, letting her know that it was Hudson’s story to tell. Or not tell. Aidan had been even less forthcoming, saying only that Jacob had gone into the military at age eighteen and hadn’t come back.

Kenna had been more frank. “Jacob’s gone and Hud’s fucked up because of it,” she’d said. “He misses his other half.”