by Kierra Quinn
Dio pranced at the door, and when he opened it, she flew out into the snow.
After they put their own coats and gloves on, Lukas and Tess joined Dio out in the frozen wasteland. The wind bit at Tess’s face, and her hands were still freezing. She couldn’t wait to get to her own home and find gloves that actually were able to withstand the cold.
They put the boxes in the sleigh with her suitcases. She climbed on the snowmobile behind Lukas and without thinking, slid her hands under his jacket to warm them.
“You know, Tess, that’s not necessary. We aren’t going far.”
She was glad she was sitting behind him because her face flushed bright red. Again. She removed her hands and rested them on his sides. Within seconds they pulled in front of her little house. The porch light was on as well as a few others inside the house. It looked so warm and inviting. She was relieved. When he said carriage house, she assumed the worst.
“I had the housekeeper clean it today and turn up the heat. Go ahead. I’ll get the suitcases.”
She grabbed one box and tentatively opened the door. The house was bigger than she anticipated with a large, comfortable living room. Tess set the box down on the coffee table, and Lukas followed with the two suitcases. He dumped them in the doorway and went out to fetch the other box. Tess dragged the suitcases farther into the house. Dio followed Lukas into the house and made a beeline for Tess, who immediately scratched the dog behind the ears.
“See, I told you she’d warm up to you. Can I give you a tour?”
“Sure.”
He walked to the back of the house first. “There are two bedrooms down here and a loft upstairs. I don’t keep a bed up there, but some of my friends swear the couch is more comfortable than the beds.”
“This is your guestroom.” He opened a door to one of the bedrooms. A day bed was pushed up against the wall and a small desk sat near the window.
Then he moved across the hall. “This is the master.”
He groaned.
Tess looked around him. The bed had been strewn with rose petals. Two towels were in the shapes of swans, and a bottle of champagne sat in a bucket of ice.
She glanced at him and arched an eyebrow in question. To her delight, his cheeks colored, and he looked as uncomfortable as she’d been since she landed on this frozen island.
“Usually my buddies bring their girlfriends here for a romantic getaway. I didn’t tell Estelle that you’d be a permanent resident. I just told her to get it ready. The guys that use it regularly call Estelle directly. I wonder how long it’s been since she didn’t have to fancy up the room.” He waved toward the petals. “I’m sorry. I can clean it.”
“Don’t be absurd. I can take care of it. Though you can take the champagne.”
“You don’t drink?” he asked.
Tess shook her head. “Every stupid decision I’ve ever made was preceded by too much alcohol. I gave it up a month ago.”
“What happened a month ago?” he asked.
“Now who’s being nosy?” That was one story he wouldn’t be getting out of her. Not that she’d be able to keep it a secret for long.
“Sorry.” He met her eyes, and for a crazy second she thought he might kiss her, but Dio wiggled her way in between them. Lukas reached down and patted her head. “Come on, girl, we need to get home soon.”
They walked into the living room. He pointed at a ladder. “That goes to the loft. The kitchen is through here.”
He pointed into a doorway, and Tess pushed open a swinging door. The kitchen was small but designed well with decent counter space. A basket filled with food was set on the table.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“The PTA and school board wanted to make sure you were welcomed. The fridge should be pretty well-stocked too.”
“Wow, I didn’t expect this.”
He chuckled. “They want you to stay. A lot of people would be on the next plane back to Miami.”
“I am not most people.” She leaned against a counter, exhausted. She had to be at work tomorrow, early in the morning.
“I should let you be. Doc said he’s sending a winter taxi for you in the morning.”
“What on earth is a winter taxi? I thought Mackinac didn’t have cars.”
He gave her a crooked grin, and she nearly sighed. “They are horse-drawn carriages. If the horses can’t get around, they use snowmobiles.”
Tess shook her head. This she needed to see to believe.
“Thanks. I’ll see you around.”
He hesitated at the door and then left without saying anything else.
Tess shut the door and went to her room. She sighed at the rose petals. She never had a guy do anything like that for her before. One of these days she hoped to meet someone who treated her like she was more than just breasts and legs. Though soon, she’d have one more hurdle to cross. She’d come with baggage.
She opened the kitchen cupboards until she found glasses. She dug around the well-stocked fridge, got out the milk, and poured herself a large glass. Then she went to the basket and rummaged around it.
There were probably ten different types of fudge. In her research she knew the island was famous for it, but she didn’t expect so many kinds. She picked a box at random and sliced off a piece.
Oh, heaven.
Maybe this wouldn’t be that bad of a place. The carriage house was nice too. She wondered how long he would let her rent it out. It sounded like he was doing this as a favor. But it was perfect. It had a second bedroom, which she would need soon.
She looked up and saw the champagne. The story about why she no longer drank was one she would never tell him, but he’d know the consequences soon enough.
Tess was pregnant and had no idea who the father was or if she wanted to keep it. One morning, she woke up naked, alone on a couch in a house where an old friend had thrown a huge party, with no memory of the night before. Tess could’ve done some asking around to find out who he was, but she was too embarrassed. It didn’t matter anyway. If he was the type of guy who screwed a drunk girl and left before she woke, she didn’t want him around.
Three weeks later, she was eight days late and took a test. The next day she applied for any job that was out of state. Now she was six weeks pregnant and in the coldest place on earth.
Lukas stripped Dio of her winter gear and kicked off his own boots. He was beat. Tonight had taken so much longer than expected. Not that he minded having Tess pressed into his back for the ride across the lake. As a matter of fact, he was glad he took the snowmobile.
She had the most beautiful expressive brown eyes, and her smile almost knocked him over. Her body, curvy in all the right places, fit against him perfectly. He’d have to keep his distance from her, or she’d be the end of him. He sighed and hung up his coat.
Before he could rest though, he needed to pack Stacey’s things. It bothered him to know that those boxes were out. He was glad he had some gear for Tess, but now that part of his life needed to be boxed up and shoved back into place. Out of his sight so he could try to put it out of his mind.
“Come on, girl,” he called for Dio, but she was already at the top of the stairs waiting for him.
In the spare bedroom, he closed each box and put it back into its spot. Dio watched from the door, her head down.
He was about to leave when he paused by a row of smaller boxes. The boys’ things. Lukas stood there and fought the wave of sadness and shame that threatened to overcome him. It was several minutes before he could move again, and when he finally was able to leave and shut the door behind him, he was as sweaty as if it were summer outside.
After a hot shower, Lukas lay in bed, half asleep when his phone rang.
“Yeah,” he answered, hoping it was Tess needing something. He wanted the distraction.
“Did my new teacher of the year arrive safe and sound?” It was Doc.
“Safe, sound, and completely unprepared.” Lukas chuckled at the memory of her rolling on
the floor trying to get her jeans on over her tights. “You’re lucky she didn’t board the next plane back to Florida.”
“I warned her.” Disappointment was thick in Doc’s voice.
“If you’ve never been that cold, you don’t get it. But don’t worry, she seems determined to stick it out. I gave her some of Stacey’s old winter gear until she can get her own.”
Beside him, Dio stretched and yawned. She took up more of the bed than Lukas did. He patted her belly and got a happy snuffle out of her.
“Thank you, Lukas. You’re a lifesaver.”
“Literally. She’d have frozen to death if I hadn’t given her my snow pants and a blanket.”
Doc groaned.
“That bad, eh? Well, we will do our best to treat her right and show her sunshine is overrated.” Doc’s optimism never failed. “I thank you, and the happy kids of my third-fourth grade class thank you.”
“Yeah, sure,” Lukas mumbled and hung up. He hated to think about happy kids. He’d never been good with kids, even his own. He loved them, but he’d been a terrible father. Now his boys were gone.
He scratched Dio’s belly again. She thumped her leg.
Another reason he needed to stay away from Tess—his dog was the only one who could truly put up with him. Especially after Stacey left. He didn’t need to get his heart broken, and at the same time, he didn’t want to be responsible for any broken hearts when Tess found out how much of a jackass he truly was.
The school was nothing like anything Tess had ever seen in Miami. Again, the research she’d done didn’t prepare her for the brick building housing nearly ninety students and twenty teachers, from K-12.
Dr. Jorgenson met her at the front doors, and he beamed at her when he shook her hand. He arranged for the teachers to have a small breakfast ready for her in the teacher’s lounge. Doc assigned the first-second grade teacher, Mrs. Chambers, to show her around and be her mentor. Their rooms were next to each other.
By her lunch period, Tess was exhausted from the enthusiastic, well-meaning woman popping into her class every ten minutes to check on her. Thankfully they had opposite planning periods.
Tess sat in a chair in the deserted teacher’s lounge and rubbed the back of her neck. She should have flown in a day early. Or taken a job in California. At least she’d be better dressed. She snorted. Not that any of her bikinis would fit when she was eight months pregnant.
“Is Sara wearing you out?” A man Tess hadn’t met before strolled into the lounge, his arms full of reference books. He was exactly the type of guy Tess would go for in Florida. Young, not extremely good looking, but not bad looking either. They were typically the kind she could count on to not be total jerks.
“Sara? Mrs. Chambers?” She sat up straighter. He hadn’t been at the breakfast.
“Yeah, most of us are on a first name basis.” He dropped his load of books on the couch and held out his hand to her. “I’m Chris Whitters. I teach language arts for the high schoolers.”
“Tess Mackenzie.” She shook his hand. Thankfully, he wasn’t anywhere near as tall or handsome as Lukas. If every man she encountered on this frozen island looked like her new landlord, she needed to leave, immediately.
Tess reached down into her bag and pulled out her lunch. There hadn’t been time this morning to get much together, so she grabbed a bottle of water, an apple, and some crackers.
“Sorry, I missed your breakfast this morning.” He kicked a chair close to Tess and dropped down into it. There was something eager in the way he smiled and leaned across the table. It made Tess uncomfortable.
She laughed, trying to dispel the strange tension she felt around this guy. “I never had such a warm welcome.”
She took a drink of water, just to give her hands something to do.
“Yeah, Doc has been crowing about you coming, but he didn’t say you’d be so hot.”
She took another big gulp, unsure of what to say. Her jerk-o-meter was wrong.
“Where are you from?” he asked. His gaze left hers and wandered down her body.
Enough of that, she’d run into plenty of idiots like this in Miami. She slammed her water bottle onto the table and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Florida,” she snapped.
“And feisty.” He grinned. Her message to stop leering had been received, but he didn’t seem the type who followed orders. He reached over and laid his hand on her knee. “I like feisty. We don’t get much of that around here with the casserole-baking mom types who stay on the island in the winter.”
“I better get back to my class.” Tess threw her untouched apple into her bag and stood, knocking his hand off. The nerve of this guy rattled her.
“Oh hey, don’t get mad.” Chris stood. “I want us to be friends.”
“I’m not friends with neanderthals.”
She sidestepped him and left. His laughter echoed in her head long after the door closed and she made it down the hall to her room. The kids were still at lunch, so she had a few minutes.
She slumped on the side of her desk. Her hands gripped the edge, and she fought back tears. Great. What if she made a mistake coming here? Mackinac was supposed to be an escape for her. Guys were supposed to be better here. Or at least not pay so much attention to her.
She’d worried so much over what to wear this morning. After Lukas’s horrible reaction to her wardrobe, she didn’t want the other teachers to think she didn’t have a clue. She opted for a blue woolen dress and leggings and was relieved when she didn’t look out of place.
In spite of trying to focus on something else, the tears came anyway.
“Knock, knock.” Mrs. Chambers pushed into her room. “The kids will be…oh.”
“Is lunch almost over?” Tess shook her head, trying her best to get ahold of herself.
Mrs. Chambers rushed over and folded her in a hug. The woman couldn’t have been ten years older than Tess, but she was one of those natural teachers who had a mother hen instinct.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just feel so out of place. I’m sorry. I was in the teacher’s lounge, and there was this guy.”
Mrs. Chambers snorted.
“Say no more. That was Chris.” She produced a tissue out of the cuff of her sleeve and wiped Tess’s cheek. “Pay him no mind. He’s a jerk to everyone. That’s why we didn’t invite him to breakfast.”
“He wasn’t invited?” Tess made a strangled sound somewhere between coughing and laughing.
“No, he most certainly wasn’t.” Mrs. Chambers tucked her tissue away. “We know he’s not got the most sparkling personality. But he knows his Shakespeare, he stays in the winter, and he’s never gotten out of line with a student. Reserves that for his colleagues.”
“I know plenty others like him,” said Tess with a weak smile.
“Good, then you’ll know to steer clear of him.” Mrs. Chambers returned her smile. “And yes, lunch is almost over. The kids will be back shortly.”
Tess jumped up. She could at least put some lipstick on and not let the kids know she had a horrible lunch break.
“Mrs. Chambers?” Tess called before the other teacher slipped out. “May I call you Sara?”
“Well, of course. I wondered why you weren’t. We are anything but formal around here.”
Just like that, Tess made her first Michigan girlfriend, and Sara was nothing like any of the girls she ran with in Miami.
Lukas had gotten up early to make sure Tess caught her winter taxi. She wore a pair of those ridiculous tights again. At least she thought to wear a pair of sensible boots he’d given her and the down coat. If that girl made it through winter with all of her bits and pieces, it would be a miracle. And her bits and pieces were too lovely to lose.
He’d shaken off his lustful thoughts with a chuckle and took the snowmobile to his fudge shop. Estelle had already opened and was prepping the copper pot when he walked in.
“You are a lifesaver, Estelle,” he said with a peck on th
e old woman’s cheek. For someone in her sixties, she braved these brutal winters again and again. “When are you going to be a snowbird with your kids in Georgia?”
One of these days, she was going to leave him. Most people left the island during the winter. His parents did.
She laughed and swatted at him with a towel.
“Don’t you worry about me, now. I’m tougher than the wind,” she said, and he never doubted it. “Did your friends get in?”
“Oh yeah.” Lukas’s cheeks burned. “I should have told you. I’m taking on a renter for Doc. So not a romantic getaway.”
Estelle cackled. “The boy blushes. Didn’t know you had it in you. It must be a girl. A pretty one.”
Lukas laughed. “You are a mess, woman.”
“So, spill. Who is she?” Estelle worked on the fudge while he printed off the new orders. Estelle hated printing the orders because she didn’t understand the Internet. She knew his family fudge recipe better than he did, so she helped in the winter, but he had to come in most days to print off the orders so she knew what to make. She chopped up butter and weighed out the sugar.
“She’s Doc’s new teacher,” he said. “And off limits.”
“Off limits cause Doc said so or because of your own lame rules.” Estelle chuckled at herself.
Lukas sighed.
“Both,” he said as he started printing address labels. Doc hadn’t said anything about staying away from Tess. However, if Lukas ran her off, Doc would be after him with a snow shovel. It was better all-around if he gave that girl a wide path.
They fell into a quiet steady rhythm. Lukas helped Estelle spread out the fudge. There were some things she was getting too old to do. That stayed unspoken though.
They worked all day. People wanted their fudge even when they couldn’t come to the island and get it.
“I know you know this, but you don’t have to punish yourself forever,” said Estelle finally as they were finishing for the day.
“Not going over this again,” he said with a shake of his head.
