Why hadn’t he thought of this earlier? "I need you to find her."
Rafe’s eyebrows went up. "You don’t have the girl’s number?"
"Actually," Noah admitted, "I don’t know her full name, either."
He couldn’t blame his buddy for laughing at him as he asked, "How long was this meeting you had with her, exactly?"
Noah gave his friend the quick nuts and bolts of pulling her up out of the snow and tumbling partway down the mountain with her in his arms before teaching her to ski. "All I know is that her name is Colbie and she was at Heavenly Ski Resort last weekend."
Rafe gave him a strange look. "Wait a minute—what did you say her name was?"
"Colbie."
His friend looked like he was thinking about something. "Helps that it’s a pretty rare name. Can’t be a lot of Colbies out there. I take it you’ve already called the ski resort to see if they could give you any information about her?"
"I did. They told me they couldn’t give out the name of one of their guests. Then again," Noah added, "I probably didn’t ask the right questions of the right people." He paused. "I need you to do this for me, Rafe. I need you to find her."
But instead of agreeing readily, Rafe said, "I can’t help thinking, what if this were my sister some guy was trying to find? And what if she didn’t want to be found?"
"Then I’ll leave her alone," Noah promised. "But there was something there, damn it, and I need at least one more chance to prove it to her."
"Okay." Rafe pulled his phone out of his gym bag to take some notes. "Tell me what she looks like and the exact date and time that you ran into her, and I’ll see what I can do."
* * *
Meanwhile, across town...
Mia Sullivan opened up one of the last remaining boxes of Colbie’s initial stock, and when she unwrapped a gorgeous set of French lace and silk panties, she made a purely female sound of pleasure that Colbie knew most guys would give their left arm to hear her friend make for them.
"These are going to fly off the shelves," Mia said as she lovingly caressed the super-soft silk. "I’m going to have to hide a pair so I can buy them for myself."
"Take them home with you tonight," Colbie said as she perched atop a stepladder to finish hanging the curtain in front of her dressing room. "Consider them a small thank-you for all you’ve done to help me get the store ready."
She was amazed by how quickly everything was coming together. Then again, Colbie had been dreaming about opening Indulgence for so long that she’d known exactly what she’d wanted to sell and how the interior should look. She was on the verge of opening her doors tomorrow, which happened to be Valentine’s Day. She hoped that it would be just in time for all the men in Seattle to buy her out getting last-minute gifts for the women in their lives.
But she liked the significance of the day for another reason, as well. This store was her gift to herself...and was proof positive that she didn’t need a man in her life to make her happy. She could make herself happy, damn it.
Still, she’d had more super-sexy dreams during the past week than she’d had in her entire life. And Noah from Lake Tahoe had starred in every last one of them.
She’d hoped her endless hours of working to get her store ready to open would help her forget him. But they hadn’t. If anything, she found him popping up in her thoughts all the time. Like how she’d forgotten to be afraid on the ski lift with him, and now, she refused to be afraid to go to the top of the Space Needle. When she’d unwrapped a box of gift books on angels, her heart had clenched at the memory of the snow angels they’d made together. And when she saw a couple holding hands as they walked down the sidewalk outside, she’d thought about the way he’d held her hand for a little while...and how right it had felt, snow gloves and all.
When she sighed, Mia shot her a look. "Still thinking about the guy from the slopes, aren’t you?"
There was no point in pretending otherwise, not when her friend had laser vision for things like this. After all, hadn’t Mia been the one to question Rob’s scum-like qualities long before Colbie had walked in on him cheating on her? Mia’s brother Rafe might be the P.I., but there was no question about her people-reading skills. It was what made her such a great Realtor; she had a knack for pairing up her clients with just the right properties, even when they swore they were looking for something else entirely.
"I thought turning him down was the right thing to do," Colbie said. "And maybe it was. But I’ve said no to dating plenty of guys and never given it a second thought—until now."
Yes, he’d certainly made an impression on her up on the snowy mountain, but how could she possibly have known just how big a deal meeting him really was? Especially when she’d still been so hurt by what Rob had done. Because hadn’t her ex seemed great on first meet, only to end up not being great at all?
But as she’d awakened over and over again in the middle of the night from yet another sexy dream about Noah, her skin sensitive and overheated as her sheets brushed over it, she’d found herself wondering why she’d ever compared Rob to Noah.
Sure, she hadn’t really known Noah apart from the warmth of his arms around her. And his strength and his ability to hold her steady even as she’d sent them tumbling together down the mountain. And his concern for a complete stranger when Colbie had bit the dust avoiding a small child in the snow. And his patience and encouragement in teaching her to ski.
But hadn’t she known for far longer than she’d wanted to admit to herself that Rob wasn’t going to be her forever? And hadn’t she simply stayed with him out of the fear of being alone? Yes, it had hurt when she’d caught him cheating, but how much of it had been her heart that hurt...and how much of it had been the fact that he’d stung her pride with his callous behavior?
Suddenly, she wished she could rewind to that day on the slopes. She wished she could have been brave enough to accept more than an offer to learn to ski from a sinfully gorgeous man, whose strong and steady heartbeat she could still feel against her cheek in her dreams.
"Why didn’t I get his number, at least?"
Mia carefully tucked the tissue-wrapped French lingerie into her purse. "You should call Rafe. I’ll bet he could help you find the guy."
Colbie started laughing, then stopped when she realized her friend was serious. "You really think I should hire a private investigator to find a guy I spent a few hours with in Lake Tahoe?"