If he already knew, then it would be a short conversation. If he didn’t care, then she would quietly think less of him and leave. If he was as horrified as she thought he might be, then she’d done her good deed for the week and yay her. Whatever the outcome, she would have done the right thing, which meant she would be able to sleep that night. Some days that was as good as it was going to get.

*

Jake Crane stood at his office window, gazing out at the mountain. The air was still, the sky gray. About six inches of fresh powder had fallen overnight. His two o’clock meeting had been moved to next week and sunset wasn’t for two and a half hours. There was no reason he couldn’t grab his gear and get in an hour or so of snowboarding, then return to work later and finish up. One of the advantages of his position was the ability to adjust his hours, if he wanted. Except, he didn’t want to go snowboarding.

Oh, he loved the sport, the rush of speed, the trick of staying balanced, testing himself on the mountain. He enjoyed the cold, the sounds, the sense of achievement as he mastered a difficult run. He was a typical guy who enjoyed being outdoors. Just not by himself.

He had friends he could call. Dylan had the kind of job where he, too, could take off if he wanted and make up the time later, and Dylan was always up for snowboarding. Only that wasn’t the kind of company he was looking for. He missed having a woman in his life.

He’d been avoiding that truth for a while now. Given his incredibly disastrous track record, he’d sworn off getting involved. As he saw it, the only way to keep from screwing up in the romance department was to not get romantically entangled. An easy, sensible solution. What he hadn’t counted on was being…lonely.

Sex was easy. He could head to Seattle or Portland, meet someone, have a great weekend with her, then head home. No commitment, no risks of breaking her heart, no getting it wrong. Except he’d discovered he didn’t enjoy those kinds of relationships. He wanted more. He wanted to get to know someone and have her get to know him. He wanted shared experiences, laughter and, worst of all, commitment. He wanted what other people made look easy.

But if he got involved, he would completely mess up. Or he could turn into his father, and he refused to do that. So he did nothing. A solution that was no longer working for him, which left him where he’d started. Staring at the mountain with no idea what to do with his personal life.

The phone on his desk buzzed.