I actually am Hope Sutherland. At least for a little while. She was still stunned to hear herself called by her married name, and it had never even occurred to her to introduce herself with Jason’s surname.
As she recovered from her admission, she realized that looking Chloe in the eyes was like looking into Tate’s. “Your eyes are exactly the same,” Hope replied, surprised.
“All five of us share the same eyes,” Chloe replied. “Tate’s actually the odd blond sibling, in more ways than one. The rest of my brothers are all dark-haired, like me. He favors my late father. The rest of us all look like Mom.” Chloe put her sunglasses back on and pointed across the street. “There’s a very nice shop across the street and to the left, a few blocks down. I’ll walk with you.” As she turned, her head snapped back. “Holy crap! Your ring is stunning.”
Hope held up her left hand. “It is,” she admitted. “Jason has amazing taste.” She squirmed a little as she reminded herself she wouldn’t be wearing it for long, but she let Chloe take her hand. The woman turned her hand to different angles to admire the diamond.
Chloe snorted. “Obviously. And we know he has endless funds. But he made a great choice. It’s stunning without being gaudy. I’m engaged, so I looked at a lot of rings.”
Her eyes automatically glanced at Chloe’s left hand. Hope noticed it was bare. “You haven’t decided yet?”
Chloe sighed. She dropped Hope’s hand and gestured for her to walk with her. “James wants to wait to get a ring.”
A startled laugh escaped from Hope’s lips. “Your fiancé’s name is James?”
“Yes.”
“I had a fiancé named James once.” Hope couldn’t help but laugh as the two women crossed the street. The full force of the Colorado sunshine beamed down on them as they scurried across the street during a break in traffic. She stopped as they arrived under the shade of the awning over the shops on the other side of the road.
“Why are you laughing? You obviously broke up,” Chloe asked curiously.
Hope shook her head as they walked sedately down the paved sidewalk. “It’s a long story,” she told Chloe, her voice laced with humor.
“Tell,” Chloe insisted.
As she gazed at the woman next to her, Hope’s heart lightened. It felt good to be in the company of another woman who really knew her identity. Other than David, she’d really never had any friends, out of necessity. It was difficult to get close to people when you couldn’t really tell them much about your life. She stayed quiet, kept to herself in Aspen. Even her neighbors didn’t know who she really was, and it had been a very lonely, very solitary existence.
With a deep breath, she told Chloe the story of her fake fiancé, but only revealed the part about wanting to keep her older brothers from interfering in her life. The other woman stopped occasionally, almost bending over with laughter, and commiserated about being from a wealthy family and having overprotective brothers.
By the time the shopping trip was over, Hope felt as if she’d made a new friend, and it felt incredibly good.
Later that evening, Hope watched Jason from the kitchen—ogling him had rapidly become her favorite activity—as he worked from his laptop on one of the recliners in the living room. He looked deep in thought, his eyes narrowed as he studied what was probably data. She’d cooked dinner and hustled him out of the kitchen to finish whatever he was working on as soon as they’d finished eating. He’d told her he was in the middle of a project, and she’d balked when he’d been ready to go with her shopping earlier in the day. She told him to finish whatever he needed to do while she went to town. He’d given her a look that said he didn’t want her to go anywhere without him, and she’d reminded him that it was just a shopping trip. It wasn’t as if she was going out to chase a storm. Jason had relented, but he hadn’t looked happy about it. In fact, he’d greeted her at the door with a look of relief when she’d returned, and gave her a fiery kiss that had made her body sizzle down to her toes, and every part of her anatomy in between, too.
Hope bit her lip to keep from laughing when Daisy hopped onto the chair and walked over Jason’s laptop as though the computer and Jason belonged to her. Her heart skittered as she watched him move Daisy gently, placed the feline next to his thighs, and gave her the attention she obviously wanted by stroking her head and then her silky body repeatedly. Hope grew teary eyed as she noticed Jason murmured to a deaf cat who couldn’t hear a word he said. Daisy ate up the attention as though she could hear his comforting words, and bumped him in the belly so he could keep on petting her.