Snowbound with the Biker (Holiday Encounters Book 2) by Amy Lamont Page B

all intents and purposes looking like he was totally at ease. But the tone of his voice gave away his tension. “I happen to be one of the owners of that bar. Me and a silent partner.”
    I still didn’t get it.
    “Okay. Why would I think you were a f-fuck up?” My face heated again as I stumbled over the swear word, and I wished for a moment the power was still off so I could hide in the shadows. “I didn’t realize you own the bar. What’s the big deal?”
    “Give me a break.” His lips curled into a sneer, definitely not as attractive as his earlier hint of a smile. “I know what you and your family thought of me.”
    “Um, by your tone, I’m going to go ahead and assume that whatever you’re thinking, you couldn’t be farther from the truth.” And thank God. If he knew exactly the thoughts I’d had about him over the years, there wouldn’t be a hole deep enough for me to climb into to hide from my humiliation.
    “Katelyn, it was obvious your parents didn’t want me within ten miles of you.”
    “Well,” I shrugged, “duh.”
    His body went rigid and he turned his full attention on me.
    I swallowed before I went on. “But just me.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    Since he wasn’t looking at me like a bug under a magnifying glass anymore, I relaxed a little. “My parents didn’t have anything against you being around my family. They had something against you being around me.”
    He narrowed his eyes. “Explain.”
    I huffed out a breath at his terse order. I’d forgotten over the years that he could be like this. Way too much like my bossy older brother.
    “Hunter, you rode a motorcycle and so did all your friends, you got a tattoo before you were eighteen, you looked old enough to buy beer way, way before you hit twenty-one, and Logan loved to tell tales of your exploits with girls over the dinner table. You were the nightmare of every parent of a teenage girl.”
    He snorted, but I noticed some tension left his jaw.
    “But,” I went on, “that doesn’t mean they felt that way about you being around Logan.”
    “Right.”
    The skeptical tone shocked me. I realized now I’d always looked at him through my awestruck teenage gaze. It never occurred to me when I was sixteen that Hunter Lawson might have even a moment of doubt about himself. But I could definitely fix this now.
    “Hunter, seriously. My parents were… I don’t know, thrilled doesn’t even begin to cover how happy they were when you and Logan got so close. I was always the good, nice, well-behaved one. And Logan was the wild child. My parents worried about him all the time. But then you moved in next door.”
    I stopped, remembering the day his family moved in. When Logan walked in the door with Hunter the first time, I’d almost burst into flames. I’d fallen in love on the spot and knew he’d never give my gangly, awkward eleven-year-old self a second glance.
    “Katelyn?”
    “Sorry. Took a little side trip down memory lane there for a second. Actually, now that I think about it, as many times as I heard my parents ask Logan why he couldn’t be more like you, I’m sort of surprised you guys were such close friends. You would think Logan would have taken a swing or two at you by then.”
    “Are you kidding me?”
    From the look on his face, this was news to him. But it had been common knowledge in my house that as long as he didn’t come near me, Hunter Lawson could do no wrong in my parents’ eyes. “No. You had good grades, and you always knew what you wanted to do and went after it. I think they were afraid Logan was going to just drift through life and never have any direction. Or worse. I’ve never seen them as proud as they were the day Logan said he was going to follow in your footsteps and enlist in the Army.”
    “But you didn’t share their high opinion of me.” He jumped out of his seat and picked up the fire poker, using it to shift a log.
    “I’m not sure what you mean.”
    He replaced