Blizzard (BearPaw Resort #2)

by Cambria Hebert

  Bellamy shook her head and scrambled backward, trying to get off me. The blanket was tangled around her, and she fell backward. With a curse I shot forward and caught her just before she hit the coffee table.

  She didn’t stay still, though. The near fall barely registered. She used my arm to steady herself and finish moving away from me.

  A surly feeling bubbled up inside me as I watched her step backward, clutching the blanket around her. “You were about to head back to the pros, to the Olympics!” She fretted. “Then I showed up and you got involved with me… and now look!” she exclaimed, pointing at my knee. “Just look at what I did to you! I took the one thing you wanted most away from you!”

  Shoving up, I stalked across the distance between us, my angry strides eating up the space like it was crumbs. Taking her shoulders, I stared down at her face, which was beginning to pinch as if she were going to cry. “That’s enough of that,” I growled. “Stop.”

  “Stop what? Telling the truth?”

  “What happened on that mountain is not your fault.”

  “Well, you wouldn’t have been involved if I hadn’t come here!”

  I went calm. Deadly still. “You saying you regret coming here?”

  Her shoulders slumped. I felt guilty for a fraction of a second, but I couldn’t allow this. I wouldn’t allow her to blame herself.

  “No.” Her voice was weak. “I just—”

  Tightening my fingers around her shoulders, I cut off whatever she was going to say. “Snowboarding isn’t the thing I want most.”

  Her eyes shot up, surprised. “It’s not?”

  I shook my head. “No. It’s you.”

  She made a sound and pulled away from me. I watched her clutch the blanket around her as though it would somehow protect her. I didn’t like it. Not the fact that she pulled away or that she acted like she needed protection.

  “That’s not true, Liam.”

  My eyes widened. “Excuse me?”

  She made a rude sound, and it was cute as hell. I ducked my head to try and cover up the fact that her angry exasperation didn’t make me want to kiss the shit out of her.

  “You just sat here and told me about how hard it was to deal with your injury, how out of control you spiraled when you thought you’d lost your career. You just said you planned to go back.”

  “I said they wanted me to come back. I said I was thinking about it.”

  She made another rude sound. If she didn’t stop it, I was going to have her naked and beneath me again.

  “Don’t be cute with me.” She shook her finger in my direction.

  I laughed.

  Her eyes flared into blue flames.

  “Are you laughing at me?” she intoned.

  “Now, sweetheart…” I tried to placate her.

  She gasped.

  I guess that was the wrong thing to say…

  I admit, for a split second, I thought about letting her go off on a tangent about whatever it was that was pissing her off. Angry Bellamy turned me on. She was like a little firecracker that had the fuse of a thousand suns. But then I realized she was angry because of what I was saying, that my words could cause hurt in her heart.

  No amount of being turned on was worth that. Not ever.

  Closing my arms around her from behind, I held her firmly when she tried to wriggle away. “Listen to me,” I demanded beside her ear.

  She stopped fighting with a little huff, and I kissed her earlobe.

  “Yes, I was considering going back to boarding. In all truth, I wanted to. But I hadn’t agreed to anything yet. Around the same time my coach and sponsors were calling, my dad called me into his office. He brought up the subject of taking over the resort.”

  Bellamy relaxed into my chest. My arms went from holding her still to cradling her. The amount of rightness I knew when she was in my embrace was unparalleled. And that was something that spoke more words than the English dictionary held.

  “He’s always wanted me to take over the resort, you know. He never pressured me. He never made me feel bad for going off and becoming a snowboarder. Hell, him and mom were the ones that made it possible for me to even go pro.”

  “You don’t want to disappoint him.”

  “No,” I replied quietly. “I don’t.”

  “I think if you went back to boarding, he would understand.”

  I made a sound of agreement and gently rocked us as I held her. “Yes, he would. He would be proud and he would come to my competitions and he would be front row at the Olympics, just like he was before.”

  “I wish I’d been there,” she mused. “I’m so proud of you, Liam. Of everything you’ve done.”

  My eyes closed. I didn’t need those words from her, but goddamn, they meant so much to me. “In the back of my mind, I always kinda hoped you were watching.” I admitted.

  “I did. I watched the Olympics on TV. I saw you win those medals. I cried. I followed your career up until I couldn’t anymore…”

  Leaning over her shoulder, I pressed my lips against her cheek. “Literally right before you walked into the resort, I had another meeting with my dad. I still wasn’t able to give him an answer for sure about taking over the resort. I was going to tell him about going back to my career, but something kept holding me back.”

  She tilted her head, glancing up at me out of the corner of her eye.

  “Then he asked if I could start my training this spring. You know, to take over BearPaw. I was shocked. My father has been a hard worker all his life. My mother, too. They built this entire place. Hell, they put the entire town of Caribou on the map.”

  My stomach dipped at that because I hadn’t known his idea of someday was so soon. And now I wondered if it was so soon because it had to be and not because it was what he wanted.

  I thought back to just two days ago when he’d walked into our hospital room dressed like a patient.

  Bellamy’s hands slid over my arms. “We should call them, Liam. Everyone’s avoiding everything. I think we needed these couple days to just… breathe. We only have a small window of time before Perry’s men come back. It’s time. I think now, more than anything, we need to get you some answers.”

  I was afraid of what they would say. Maybe because, deep down, I already had an idea. The reason I’d been holding off on going back to pro.

  My voice was hoarse when I finally spoke. “I’ll call them.”

  I felt her nod, then turn in my arms. I released her long enough to slip beneath the blanket and pull her close so I could feel her skin on mine. “Before I do, though…” I began. “There is still something I need to make very clear.”

  She lifted her head off my chest, a question in her eyes.

  “For a long time, my career was the most important thing to me. It’s what I wanted more than anything.” She nodded. I kissed the tip of her nose. “But you, Bells. You are more important to me than anything else. Do you understand me?”

  “But—”

  “No buts.” I insisted. “I’d been ready to give it all up before it even started eight years ago. And the second I saw you standing in the resort just a couple weeks ago, I was willing to never go back.”

  “I don’t want to hold you back, Liam. I want you to have everything you ever wanted. It’s not me or snowboarding. You can have both. I want you to have both.” She glanced down at my knee, sinking her teeth into her lower lip. “If that’s even possible now.”

  I tipped her chin back up. “What happened is not your fault. I don’t regret following you up that mountain for one second.”

  “Really?”

  I smiled. “Swear.”

  Bellamy burrowed back into my chest. I rested my chin atop her head. My thoughts turned back to my parents. Specifically, my dad.

  The urge to forgo the phone call and just drive over to my parents’ house was strong. To walk inside and demand answers. The image of my father in a hospital gown haunted me. The look in my mother’s eyes compacted the sense of dread t
hat slammed into me the second I saw him like that.

  Deep down in my gut, I knew it was bad.

  So bad they were putting off telling me. So bad I was letting them.

  It had been two days since Bells and I were in the hospital. Two days since someone tried to kill us. Two days since we met with the FBI and local police. Two days since my parents and I promised each other we’d explain our presence at the hospital.

  Two days of avoidance.

  Though, if I was being truthful, I’d been avoiding this conversation with my parents since before Bells came back to my life.

  Bellamy was right. I couldn’t avoid this anymore. I wanted all the information. Like my girl, I wanted everything.

  I just wondered how badly everything was going to hurt.

  Bellamy

  The sound of a door opening and closing, plus the sudden outburst of Charlie’s barking, made the blood in my veins turn to ice water.

  The dog’s deep timbre echoed through the entire cabin, reaching into the bedroom. Grabbing the T-shirt I’d just retrieved to replace the one Liam had ripped off my body, I held it up against my chest like a shield. The spike in my heartrate left me feeling erratic, and the nervous tremor in my hands was unmistakable.

  Charlie stopped barking almost instantly, and the sound of voices carried down the hall.

  Everything is fine. I assured myself. Myself didn’t care to believe me.

  Standing stock still with the shirt gripped tightly, I forced myself to relax enough to creep over to the open bedroom door. I moved like a ninja (a very untrained, less-quiet ninja) to the side of the wooden doorframe and peeked out to see who was there.

  I was being ridiculous. I knew. If it was someone who had come to kill me, the dog would still be barking. Liam would be yelling or fighting… There certainly wouldn’t be a normal conversation going on.

  Still. It was difficult to stop clutching the shirt. It was hard to calm the tremble in my knees and the sudden chill over my naked back and arms.

  A shadow moved across the wall, and I jolted back, then peeked out again. Liam was in the hallway now, gazing at me, a frown on his face.

  “Everything okay?” I whispered.

  How he managed to move so gracefully down the hallway, even with a limp, I would never comprehend. Maybe he didn’t look as steady as I thought. Maybe the muscles in his upper body were distracting me since he had yet to put on a shirt.

  Liam stopped on the other side of the doorframe, leaning down so we were eye to eye. “It’s just Alex, sweetheart.”

  I blew out a shaky breath and smiled. “I figured.”

  His eyes called me a liar, but wisely, he kept his lips shut. Instead, he brushed a strand of hair off my cheek and smiled tenderly. “You want me to get rid of him?”

  “Yo!” Alex called down the hallway, almost as if on cue. “Girl who got away, you back there? I brought you something!”

  Interest piqued, I shook my head at Liam. “He brought me something!”

  I started to push past him, but Liam’s broad, naked chest got in my way. “Hey!”

  “You aren’t wearing any clothes, Bells,” he growled.

  I glanced down. I was still holding the shirt, not wearing it. Wincing, I quickly pulled on the new shirt with the BearPaw Resort logo and glanced back at Liam. “Better?”

  “Pants,” he said patiently.

  “I don’t have any.” We hadn’t left this cabin in two days. And though I technically lived here now, I hadn’t moved in. That meant the only pants I had were the ones I’d been wearing the night Spidey and friend tried to kill me.

  Liam made a grumbly sound that kinda turned me on and wrapped his arm around my middle as I walked by. My feet left the floor even though they kept moving as if I were walking.

  “You ain’t walking around in front of Alex with no pants on, woman.”

  A disgusted sound ripped out of me, and I glanced up. “I’m not putting on my murder pants!”

  “What the fuck are murder pants?” Liam intoned.

  Alex cackled from the end of the hallway.

  I sniffed. “Pants that I almost got dead in!”

  Liam laughed.

  I objected to that. My near demise was no laughing matter!

  “Definitely can’t be wearing those,” he said, humor still in his tone.

  I smacked his arm, and he put me down. I marched down the hallway, pantless.

  “I just want you to know that it doesn’t need to be awkward. Not at all,” Alex said when I stepped into the living room.

  Charlie lumbered over and pushed his drool-dampened mouth against my hand. I glanced around at Liam with a “look” and then wiped the drool on the side of his shirt.

  He grinned widely. “Don’t be like that, sweetheart.”

  With a little huff, I turned back to Alex. “What doesn’t need to be awkward?”

  “You know… that I had to touch some of your unmentionables.”

  I blinked. “My what?”

  Alex pointed to several bags all piled near the couch.

  I gasped in surprise. “You brought all my stuff?”

  “Figured I wouldn’t be allowed to hang out if you didn’t have any clothes on,” Alex quipped.

  Behind us, Liam made a sound of agreement.

  I jolted forward and hugged Alex around the waist. “Thank you!” I exclaimed.

  “Why can’t all bunnies be this excited when I touch their bras?” Alex wondered.

  I laughed, but Liam wasn’t amused.

  “You touched her bras?” he hollered.

  “Not all of them,” Alex argued. “But there was one hanging in the bathroom.” He glanced at me and winced. “Some panties, too,” he whispered loudly.

  Liam made an aggressive sound and stepped farther into the room.

  “What was I supposed to do? Leave them there?” He defended himself. “I was bringing everything else. But like I said, it doesn’t have to be awkward. I used a hanger… didn’t actually touch them… just sort of flung them in the bag.” Alex made a gesture of what he must have done when “flinging” my “unmentionables” into a bag.

  I laughed.

  “Dude,” Liam rumbled. I could hear the amusement underneath his possessive ways.

  “Thank you for getting my things, Alex. I could definitely use them.” Going over to the bags, I peeked into a few with the new clothes I’d just bought. It felt like it had weeks since we’d gone into town, not just days. My eyes slid to the duffle I’d brought with me when I fled to BearPaw. My emergency bag.

  Lots of people might have in case of emergency bags or even just plans. No one ever thinks they’ll need them.

  But I did.

  Just looking at that bag—the sum of pretty much everything I owned, the symbol of everything I’d left behind in Chicago—my stomach clenched, and I glanced away. The life I had in Chicago definitely wasn’t my choice. It wasn’t exactly the kind of life that made me happy, but it was mine, you know?

  And for a while, I’d been safe. Safety was something I would never take for granted.

  It was also something I might never assume was for me ever again.

  You’re safe in Liam’s arms. My heart reminded me. It left a sorrowful echo through my chest. In that moment, it felt as if taking that safety he so unselfishly offered was putting his own at great risk.

  His feet appeared before me. Liam even had good-looking feet. The guy was an anomaly. I glanced up from my things. My eyes went up his legs, lingering a bit on the knee brace.

  “Bells.” Liam spoke above me. His voice brought my stare all the way up. His mouth crooked up at one side, and some of the tension at the back of my neck eased. “You okay?” he asked softly. Knowingly.

  I’d never met anyone who could read me the way he could. Not even my own mother.

  “Yeah, I was just making sure everything was here.”

  “It’s all there.” Alex confirmed. “I even looked under the bed.”

  I smiled, glanc
ing over my shoulder. Alex was standing there with his hands shoved into the pockets of his dark jeans. A red hoodie with black-and-white striped strings hugged his upper body. His hair was curly but controlled on top of his head, the style going from longer on top to closely cropped around his ears and at the back of his head. The black wraparound sunglasses were on the back of his head as if he had eyes back there, too. Really, I had no idea how he kept the glasses from falling off when he wore them like that, but they stayed, not even slipping.

  “Want some coffee?” I asked him.

  “Hell yeah,” he drawled. “Liam never asks me that.”

  Liam grunted. “You know where everything is.”

  “Sometimes a guy just likes to be asked.” Alex informed him rather haughtily.

  Liam gave him the finger. “Screw you.”

  “Liam!” I gasped.

  “Please.” Liam defended. “He was just going on about touching your underwear, and you want me to make him coffee? Not gonna happen, sweetheart.”

  I shook my head and poured some coffee into a mug. When I turned from the machine, Alex pointed to something rectangular, wrapped in foil. “Sharon asked me to bring this by.”

  “What is it?” I asked, sliding the coffee toward him, along with some cream and sugar.

  “Banana bread,” Liam replied, reaching around Alex to grab the loaf. “Sharon makes the best banana bread.”

  “It’s true.” Alex agreed.

  “That was sweet of her, especially since I haven’t had a chance to get groceries.”

  “Liam is Sharon’s favorite.” Alex informed me.

  “Am not,” Liam rebuked.

  “When we both moved back here, she used to show up at your place a couple times a week with food. She never did that for me.”

  I turned to get some plates and a knife from the cupboards behind me.

  “That’s because the first time she tried, you answered the door with a gun,” Liam cracked.

  I glanced around, forgetting about the plates. “What?”

  Alex’s mouth flattened. “It was the crack of dawn. I wasn’t even awake yet.”

  “Awake enough to get a gun before going to the door,” I pointed out.

  “Whose side are you on?” Alex accused.