memory of that day haunted Anne throughout her school years. She plagued her mother with endless questions until she’d learned all about the feud between the Irvings and the Parkers. Years ago, Annie May Wilson had left her husband-to-be, Henry Irving, at the altar and had run away to marry John Parker.
Henry Irving had been so angry he’d secretly bought up Parker land and built a spa on it, which made him a wealthy man. The Parkers claimed he’d used a crooked lawyer and had stolen their land. The two families had been fighting over the land ever since.
Anne thought the whole thing terribly romantic, but when she’d said as much to her mother she was forbidden to ever talk about it again. The mere mention of the Irving name, Carol Parker had told her daughter, was enough to give Anne’s father a stroke.
During the long, hot summer Anne prepared to attend Burke Senior High, she kept wondering if she’d bump into Brad Irving. The very first week of her freshman year, she saw Brad in the cafeteria, and her heart did a handspring, though she did her best to ignore him. For some silly reason, she kept imagining him in a Viking helmet and carrying a spear. It didn’t help matters at all when Emily, her best friend, sighed and called him “dreamy.”
When Brad scored the winning touchdown at the Homecoming Game, Anne cheered along with everyone else, though she felt guilty doing it, knowing how her parents would disapprove.
The week before Brad’s graduation, Anne missed the bus and had to ride her bike to school. Late for her class, she flew down the hall and around the corner, and crashed straight into a tall, firm body coming the other way. She went down on her knees with her books scattered around her, and knew in that instant that she’d run into more trouble than she could handle.
“Nice block,” Brad drawled in his deep voice, “but I should warn you, you’re a little late to make the team this year.”
Mortified at looking stupid in front of him, she took refuge in anger. She glared up at him and muttered, “It’s not my fault if you’re dumb enough to get in my way.”
The gleam in his dark blue eyes unnerved her. “Well, Miss High-and-Mighty, for that you can pick up your own books.”
“Thanks for nothing.” She scrambled to her feet and collected her books, praying he would just disappear. This was the closest she’d been to him since grade school, and even a fourteen-year-old recognized a heartbreaker when she saw one. With that sexy smile, awesome body and those dreamy bedroom eyes, it was no wonder the girls hung around him all the time. Not that she’d waste her time on him, of course. He was an Irving, after all, and everyone knew what the Irvings were.
“So where’s the fire, anyway?”
She lifted her chin. “None of your business.”
“I guess you’re still a stuck-up brat, Annie Parker.”
“I guess you’re still a delinquent.”
He folded his arms across his broad chest, reminding her again of the childhood Viking image. “Yeah, and all the Parkers are saints.”
“We may not be saints, but at least we’re not thieves. We don’t go around stealing land away from its rightful owners.”
“No, you steal wives, instead.”
She flipped her hair back over her shoulder with a careless hand. “You can’t steal people. Annie Wilson married my great-grandfather because she loved him. It was the Irvings who turned it into a feud when they stole our land.”
“We didn’t steal the land. That land was bought legally, and it wasn’t worth much anyway until my family built the spa on it. Up until then it was just sitting there going to waste.”
“It was land that belonged to us, and the Irvings had no right to it. Henry Irving only bought it to get back at John Parker for marrying Annie.”
“And you Parkers have been trying to steal it back ever since.” His soft, mocking laugh set her teeth on edge. “So what can you do about it, Annie? You’re just a stuck-up kid with delusions of grandeur.”
“I’d rather be stuck-up than a low-down thief.”
Sparks danced in his eyes, but his voice was deceptively quiet when he answered. “Is that right? Well, one day I’ll make you and your precious family eat those words, Annie Parker. One by one. See if I don’t.”
She snorted. “When hell freezes over.”
“Watch me.”
She watched him disappear around the corner before yelling after him, “And my name’s not Annie. It’s Anne.”
Thank goodness she wouldn’t have to worry about him after next week, she told herself, as she stomped down the corridor to her class. Somehow he brought out the worst in her, though she had no idea why she let him get to her like that. She’d heard he was going to college somewhere in the east. With any luck, she’d never see him again.
The years passed swiftly while she followed her fascination with architecture and earned her degree in industrial design. She settled in Denver, and joined a partnership where she began to make a name for herself designing new office complexes.
Her visits home were brief and far between, and although she caught a glimpse of Brad once or twice, she managed to avoid meeting him face-to-face. And if every now and again something prompted a memory of a gorgeous Viking in full battle dress, she quickly erased it from her mind. Brad Irving could drop dead for all she cared.
The night she drove into Grand Springs to spend the holidays with her family, he was the farthest thing from her mind. It wasn’t exactly a joyful homecoming. Three months earlier, she’d called off her wedding plans when she’d discovered that her fiancé had spent the night in her chief bridesmaid’s bed.
Devastated by the betrayal, she’d given up her apartment, as well as her life in Denver, and was coming home to lick her wounds. There were worse places to make a living than Grand Springs, she’d decided. The town had grown in the four years she’d been gone, she could make use of her talents. And it would be good to be home, at least for a while.
Dan and Carol Parker welcomed their wounded daughter with open arms and undisguised sympathy. Her brother, Paul, pointed out how much better off she was without the jerk, while Sharon and Elise, her younger sisters, assured her there were plenty more apples in the orchard.
Anne had no intention of getting involved with another man. Ever. Convinced that all men were scum, she had no trouble adding Bradley Irving to that list when her sisters filled her in on the latest gossip.
Eighteen years had gone by since the last confrontation in high school. Brad now had a successful law practice right there in Grand Springs, and was gaining a reputation as the town’s most eligible bachelor. Since his father had died two years earlier, leaving Brad sole heir to his estate, this came as no surprise to Anne. He might be an Irving, but there was no denying Brad was devastating to look at. That combination of money and looks would be enough to draw the women like flies to a garbage can.
According to her sisters, Brad’s conquests were numerous and well publicized. That, and the fact that he was in his thirties and still single only confirmed Anne’s opinion of him. Brad Irving was a no-good womanizer with the manners of a barbarian. No better than a Viking savage.
When Anne discovered that her father had arranged to take the family to Mountview Ski Lodge for the New Year weekend celebrations, she did her best to get out of the popular social event. She just wasn’t in the mood for partying. The combined efforts of her parents, sisters and brother failed to change her mind, but when James Parker put in his own plea, she found it impossible to refuse her beloved grandfather.
On the night she reluctantly checked into the lodge, she was determined to make the best of things for the sake of her family.
After settling into her room, she hurried down the wide stairs to join her family in the dining room for dinner. As she rounded the corner of the crowded lobby, she ran smack