He had planned to go out to the desert with Matt and their cousin to camp and romp around to ring in the new year. It was a tradition any year Matt wasn’t scheduled to work.

“I won’t feel right if you’re here alone.”

“I won’t be alone. Erin is sticking around. I don’t think Austin is doing anything. Besides, Mallory is going out there with Jase, and I would love to know that you’re there, too. Keep her safe.”

“She’s an adult.”

“You’re more adult than she is.”

He laughed.

“Go, Colin. You made those plans before me and all my drama. Don’t be the guy that gives up what he loves because of the girl.”

“I want the girl to come with me.”

“The girl would like that, too, just not this year.”

“Parker . . .”

She stopped him with a hand to his chest. “I’m having a girls’ night on New Year’s, and you’re not invited. So go hang with your brother and keep my sister from breaking anything. She doesn’t know how to ride a motorcycle, and her experience with camping is about as much as mine. I don’t think the firepit by the swimming pool and a tent in the front yard count.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her close. “Not invited, huh?”

She lifted her lips to his. “No. So kiss me and go away. I’m busy.”

Colin made good on the kiss. Broke away. “I really can do this for you.”

“You really can get your ass back to work.”

“Ohh, I like the bossy part of you.”

Parker was trying to keep a straight face. “Play your cards right and I’ll bring the boss to the bedroom.”

Damn if his body didn’t hear her.

He pulled her back, kissed her hard. Now who’s boss?

Yeah . . . she was speechless.

He liked doing that to her.

A playful slap to her butt and he released her lips. “Two can play at that game.”

He walked away, stopped at twenty yards. “Are you good on your tetanus?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Austin invited a friend over on New Year’s Eve, and the two of them disappeared into the garage with a six-pack of beer. If two healthy hundred-and-seventyish-pound boys were limiting their New Year’s to a six-pack, Parker was fine with it. She knew the boy’s mom and they both had the same mentality. Be smart and don’t drive.

On a normal night, Parker would be dressed for bed or already curled up in it. But she was so ready to kiss the year goodbye and start new. That meant staying up late and flipping 2016 the bird.

She and Erin had cooked a sinfully calorie-packed, cream-sauced pasta and countered it with a salad for dinner. They’d already polished off a bottle of wine and had opened up a second.

It was only ten.

“You never did tell me what Colin gave you for Christmas.”

Parker squeezed her eyes shut and dropped the back of her head on the couch with a grimace.

“That bad?”

She shook her head. “A trip to Cabo.”

“Why the long face?”

“Cabo is in Mexico.”

“Yeah . . . and it’s warm and dry and relaxing.”

Parker lifted her head, brought her wineglass to her lips. “Mexico is a different country.”

Erin nodded slowly and spoke even slower. “Yes . . . I’m aware of that.”

“I don’t have a passport.”

Her smile fell. “Oh . . .”

“Yeah, oh . . .”

“So get one.”

“Right. Easy.” She shook her head. “I don’t have a copy of my birth certificate. I looked. I have Mallory’s and Austin’s . . . not mine.”

“Did your parents have it in a safety deposit box or something?”

“I emptied all those out a long time ago.”

Erin shrugged. “So get the birth certificate and then the passport.”

“Government agencies are closed until the third, then if I’m lucky, I will get the copy in two weeks. Then it takes six to eight weeks to get the passport.”

“When did Colin book the trip for?”

“April.”

“Okay, no problem.”

“Except, I couldn’t get an appointment at the passport office until mid-February.”

“Oh, shit.”

“I know! See my dilemma?”

Erin curled her legs under her on the couch. “What did Colin say about this?”

“I didn’t tell him.”

“Why not?”

She remembered the smile on his face when he showed her pictures of the hotel he’d booked for them, and how excited he was to get her away from the floods and the stress of Creek Canyon. “I didn’t want to pop his bubble.”

“How are you going to avoid that if you don’t get your passport in time?”

“I don’t know. I’m going to try and get things expedited. If that doesn’t happen fast enough, I’ll think of something else.”

He was freezing his ass off. The clouds had blown in midday and sprinkled on them while they buzzed around the desert spitting up mud on each other for fun. Now it was almost eleven, the campfire was five feet around and still didn’t keep him warm enough.

Matt loved this shit.

Colin was fine with admitting he tolerated it. More so when the weather cooperated. Less so when it didn’t.

The beer they’d been drinking had long since stopped keeping him warm on the inside and kept making him walk away from the fire to pee.

They were determined to hold out until midnight when they could set off the outlawed fireworks, scream “Happy Fucking New Year,” and then drop into bed.

He kept an eye on Jase and Mallory enough to know that the two of them would be knocking it out right then if they had a motor home to go back to alone. But they didn’t. They were bunking with his aunt, uncle, and cousin, all three of whom had called it a night at ten. No one would be knocking anything out tonight.

Which made him miss Parker even more.

He wished she’d come. Would have rented his own RV and they could have skipped the waiting for midnight crap. He’d never wanted it to rain as much as he did now. Rain would chase them inside.

He shivered and told himself to stop being such a pansy. Colin stood and turned his ass to the fire to warm it up.

“Did anything crazy happen on Christmas?” Jase asked Matt.

“Bunch of medical calls and one kitchen fire that was out before we got there.”

“At least there was a fire.”

“I’ve never heard anyone say that,” Mallory said.

Colin turned like a marshmallow, cooking all sides. “Matt makes his living with fires, and I make mine with rain. It’s a sick family thing.”

“I never thought of it that way.”

“Too bad Parker couldn’t join us,” Matt said.

“She’s probably out cold on the couch already,” Mallory told them. “Maybe Erin will keep her up till midnight.”

“Erin doesn’t strike me as a party animal.” Matt hadn’t asked about Parker’s tenant, and hadn’t volunteered any information after they’d looked at Christmas lights.