That Snowy Night (Into The Fire Book 11)

by J. H. Croix

  I felt like such a foolish girl when it came to Alex. Beyond excited, I really wanted to squeal and run through the crowd. As it was, I had to wait because a little girl dropped her bag in front of me, and I almost tripped over it. She started crying, and then I found myself helping her mother who was also holding the hand of another toddler on the other side.

  Once the little girl stopped crying and they were moving forward, I looked up to see Alex still waiting. I didn’t even know what to think about just how cynical I was. For a second, I had actually wondered if he’d left. I mean, that was crazy. He was here to pick me up. He’d bought my plane ticket. Why would he leave?

  It’s just I wasn’t used to anyone going out of their way for me like that. I finally stepped through the doors that said I couldn’t turn around. If my point of no return meant getting wrapped in Alex’s arms, that was a pretty good deal.

  He didn’t even speak. He simply stepped to me and pulled me into his strong embrace. I could feel him head to toe, and I took a deep breath, letting out a shaky sigh as I buried my face in his chest. He smelled so good.

  After a minute, I lifted my head as he stroked his hand in easy passes up and down my back. I found his brown eyes waiting for me.

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Hey,” I returned.

  We stared at each other for a long moment, and I felt a laugh bubbling up. When it slipped out, he chuckled before asking, “What’s so funny?”

  “I don’t know.”

  I actually didn’t know. I thought my laughter was simply because of my nerves. It was a good kind of anticipation, but I was still nervous.

  When someone jostled me from behind, Alex reached for my bag, which I hadn’t even noticed I’d dropped. My small rolling suitcase had fallen to the floor, its handle stretching out across the tile. Leaning over, he picked it up, turning and keeping an arm firmly around my waist.

  “You ready to go?” he asked.

  “Of course. Unless you want to hang out in the airport.”

  We began walking side by side, and I looked up to see his cheek curving with a smile. “I wouldn’t mind hanging out in the airport as long as you’re here. Did you have any checked bags?”

  I shook my head. “Nope. I hate dealing with the baggage claim, plus it’s expensive now. You have to pay to check even one bag.”

  “I get it. Whether or not I can afford to cover the bags, it’s kind of the principle of it. I hate paying for it. Glad you brought your down coat,” he observed as he glanced down at me.

  I had my coat folded over my arm. “I wasn’t sure how cold it would be. I checked the weather, and it looks like it’s going to be warmer during the day, but the nights look cold.”

  Alex nodded. “Mud season’s about here,” he explained. “It’s not the prettiest time of year here. I’d like you to come again in the summer so you can see the fireweed.”

  I didn’t know how to reply because that meant planning for the future. It had taken so much courage just to take this trip. I wasn’t sure I was ready for more. My plane had landed late, and it was dark when we stepped outside at the airport. Alex never broke stride and never released his arm from around my waist. His palm curled over the edge of my pelvis, and I loved it. I loved him holding me close.

  Although I knew we were in Alaska, it was funny how all airports felt the same. We stepped out of a revolving door onto a sidewalk where taxis and car services were lined up to pick up the people spilling out of the airport.

  My breath misted in the air. I was chilly enough that I wanted to put my jacket on. I didn’t, though, because that meant stepping away from Alex as we walked into the parking garage. When we reached his truck, I glanced at him. “Did you leave it running this whole time?”

  He chuckled. “Of course not. I have a remote starter. I started it as soon as I saw you come through the gate. It’s cold out, so I wanted it to be warm for you.”

  I grinned as I climbed in. “This is the same truck you picked me up in when I ran off the road before Christmas,” I said as I buckled my seat belt.

  Alex, because he had manners, had put my suitcase away and insisted I put my jacket on. He glanced sideways as he buckled his own seat belt. “Of course it is. I don’t have two vehicles. Just this one.”

  My God, I was ridiculous around him. Joy fizzed through me as I smiled back at him.

  We were quiet as he drove out of the parking garage and paid the fee. When I offered to pay it, he ignored me, and a sense of insecurity stole through me. I spent most of my life not having enough—not enough money, not enough clothes, not enough anything. He’d insisted on paying for my plane ticket, and I was willing to bet he was going to try to cover everything while I was here.

  “Please let me pay for something.” My words slipped out before I could catch myself.

  One of Alex’s hands rested over the steering wheel as he glanced toward me. “I’m hosting you,” he said as if that explained everything.

  “But you flew yourself to North Carolina,” I protested, not sure why I was even bringing this up. It made me feel a little twitchy inside.

  The stoplight where we’d been waiting turned green. As he drove ahead, I fell quiet, telling myself to shut up about it. I didn’t have a ton of money. Every extra penny I had went into covering my nursing school tuition.

  “I don’t want to argue about money,” Alex finally said as he took a ramp onto a highway.

  “I don’t either,” I said softly.

  Because I was looking out the window and trying not to be irrationally upset, I didn’t realize he was reaching for my hand until he caught it in his, bringing it over to his lap, his grip warm and firm.

  “Stop worrying. I can practically see the wheels spinning in your brain,” he said.

  I could hear the smile in his voice, and the tension that had started to bundle in my chest loosened slightly. “Okay, I’ll try. How far away are we from Willow Brook?” I asked, figuring I might as well change the subject so I could distract myself from worrying.

  “Forty-five minutes, give or take a little. In just a few minutes, we’ll be out of the lights from the city, and you can enjoy the view.”

  “It’s dark,” I stated the obvious. “How am I going to see the view?”

  Alex chuckled and gave my hand a squeeze where his fingers were laced with mine. “The moon is out tonight, and it’s clear. I promise there’s a view.”

  As he predicted, a few minutes later, I looked out the window and saw the silhouette of a mountain range. Bright stars glittered through the darkness. When I looked at the other side, the moonlight was cast across the water. Its surface rippled under the pearly illumination.

  “Is Willow Brook on the ocean?” I asked.

  “It’s close,” Alex replied. “There’s a big lake in town, and the ocean’s about twenty minutes away. That’s Cook Inlet you see over there. It goes out to the Pacific Ocean.”

  “It’s beautiful.” I felt a sense of awe unfolding. With my emotions rioting, the beauty reached in and yanked at my heart.

  “It is.”

  We fell quiet for the remainder of the drive. After a while, Alex turned off the highway—a not particularly busy highway, by the way—and a few minutes later, the lights of a town became visible. “This is Willow Brook,” he said as he turned onto a street.

  It was approaching midnight, so all the shops were closed, but the streetlights were on. The main street showed a cute town with storefronts and signs glowing in the darkness.

  “We’ll get coffee here in the morning,” he said as we passed a place with a sign labeled Firehouse Café.

  In another few minutes, Alex pulled up to a small house in the darkness. Two lights flanked the front door. “Here we are.”

  He insisted on taking my bag, and my footsteps crunched on the gravel as I followed him across the driveway and up the stairs onto the small porch. Looking around, I saw nothing but trees although I knew houses were nearby because we had passed them on the way
.

  I couldn’t see much beyond the small pool of illumination cast by the lights on either side of the door. We stepped into a tiled entryway, and Alex flicked on the lights. From there, I could see directly across the open room to a wall of windows that offered a view of the mountains with the moon above them.

  “It’s so pretty,” I said softly.

  “It’s hard not to have a house with a view in Alaska,” he commented with a shrug. “You can hang your coat here.”

  He was pointing at a coatrack standing by the door. I took off my shoes and hung up my coat, following him as he crossed through the living room and passed an island, which delineated the kitchen, to a door on one side of the main area.

  He led me into what I presumed was the master bedroom. It also had windows offering a view of the moon over the mountains and a giant bed.

  Alex wheeled my suitcase through another door on the side of the room. Following him, I realized he had a walk-in closet with shelving on both sides. He lifted my suitcase and set it on top of a dresser. “You can leave this here.”

  He then took me on a quick tour. There was his bedroom, which had a nice bathroom with a gigantic tub. The living room and kitchen area were decorated in muted colors, along with the rest of the place. There was another bedroom opposite Alex’s on the other side of the living room, and a bathroom with a washer and dryer.

  When we were back in the living room, I commented, “This is really nice. You decorated it well.”

  Alex cast me a sheepish grin. “My mother and Holly decorated it. I built it, though. Nate helped me. Are you hungry? I knew you were going to be landing late, so I got some pizza that I could reheat if you were hungry when you got here.”

  Just as I was about to open my mouth and refuse, my stomach let out a rumble.

  Alex chuckled. “I’ll heat that pizza up now.”

  I didn’t remember falling asleep on the couch after we ate, but I came awake when Alex lifted me into his arms. “We’re going to bed,” he murmured as he pressed his lips against my temple.

  The tension from a long day of travel unraveled in my body as I fell asleep wrapped in Alex’s embrace.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Alex

  Delilah’s cheeks were still pink from our shower. I wasn’t about to let her shower alone, so we’d showered together before hopping in my truck to go to town for breakfast. Her hair was still damp, and she lifted a hand and patted it lightly. “Are you sure?”

  “Am I sure about what?”

  “For me to go out like this with wet hair.”

  I bit back a smile. “Of course. My hair’s still wet.” I gestured to my damp locks.

  She rolled her eyes, letting out a little huff. “You’re a guy.”

  Reaching across the console, I caught her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “Delilah, this is Alaska. You could show up in rubber boots in one of the nicer restaurants, and it would be okay. We’re just getting coffee. I promise it’s totally casual.”

  “Yeah, but who are we going to run into? This is your hometown.”

  “I didn’t plan to meet anyone, so if we do run into anyone, it’ll be by chance.”

  “Oh my God, is this the kind of place your parents go? What if we run into them by chance?”

  This time, I couldn’t hold back my laughter. “Babe, they really wouldn’t care. I’ve never known you to worry so much about how you looked. What gives?”

  As I turned onto Main Street in Willow Brook, I stole a glance at her. She looked a little tense, and my heart gave a funny twist.

  “I don’t know. It’s just, this is your world, and I don’t want to make a bad impression.”

  “You already met Holly. She’s probably the toughest customer in my family. You weren’t worried when we were at the ski lodge.”

  I turned into the parking lot at Firehouse Café, aiming for a spot in the back corner.

  “Yeah, but that was unexpected. I didn’t have time to worry,” Delilah explained.

  “I won’t tell you not to worry because I find whenever people say that to me, it doesn’t help at all.”

  Delilah cast me a big smile. “Thank you. When people tell me not to worry about things, it just makes me feel silly. Then I worry about worrying. It’s like I’m doing something wrong.”

  “Exactly. I’ll just say this: you’re beautiful, and it’s pretty much impossible for you to make a bad impression.”

  Delilah twisted her mouth sideways, but she didn’t protest further. A moment later, I held the door for her, reaching for her hand as I let it close behind us. The bell jingled above. I watched Delilah glance around the space.

  Firehouse Café had been around since I was a kid. I took the moment to see it through her eyes. The café was in the town’s old fire station. The tall, square garage had been transformed into seating for diners with an open-style bakery and kitchen. The fire poles were painted brightly with fireweed flowers, square wooden tables were scattered about for seating, and local artwork hung on the walls.

  A few familiar faces were present, but none of my family or close friends happened to be here. I let out a silent sigh of relief. While I took comfort from and appreciated the embrace of having family and friends close, I sensed Delilah was tense about it. I knew enough about her childhood now to understand.

  Delilah had been managing her life independently since she was a child. I wanted her to learn it was okay to lean on someone else. I just had to figure out how to make that magic happen.

  “Should we get in line or get a table?” Delilah asked, glancing up at me.

  I resisted the urge to kiss her. Delilah didn’t wear makeup, and fresh-faced with rosy cheeks in the morning, she was gorgeous. Her pink lips were plump from me kissing her senseless in the shower not too long ago.

  I resisted the urge, knowing she would not appreciate too much PDA. “Either,” I replied with a shrug. “If we grab a table, someone will come wait on us, but there are no menus. You might want to order at the counter, so you can choose what you want for breakfast from the chalkboard.”

  Delilah moved toward the counter, and I followed, keeping a hold of her hand. Two women holding hands stepped aside just as we got there.

  Janet beamed at us. “Hi, Alex. Who’s your friend?” Janet’s perceptive gaze bounced down to where my hand clasped Delilah’s.

  “This is Delilah,” I replied. “She’s visiting from North Carolina, same town where Remy’s from.”

  I didn’t know how it was physically possible, but Janet’s smile got even wider when she looked toward Delilah. “So nice to meet you. Welcome to our town. What can I get you two this morning?”

  I was relieved Janet kept it brief. She was known for being chatty; however, she was too kind to tease Delilah. I ordered my coffee and a bagel with cream cheese while Delilah scanned the chalkboard menu above.

  “I’ll take a plain coffee,” she said. “The bagel with smoked salmon cream cheese sounds good too.”

  “Oh, it is,” I assured her.

  “Just put that on my tab,” I said, glancing back at Janet.

  “You got it. Go ahead and have a seat.”

  A few people had already come in behind us, so we got out of the way and grabbed a table in the corner by the windows.

  “This place is cute,” Delilah offered as she shrugged out of her jacket and hung it over the back of her chair.

  “It is. Used to be the town’s fire station.”

  “Janet seems nice,” she added.

  “She’s the best. She’s a friend of my mom’s, so I should warn you, she’ll probably text my mom to let her know she met you first.”

  Delilah’s cheeks went a little pink. She shook her head slightly, her lashes sweeping down as she unrolled the napkin around the silverware on the table by her elbow.

  Janet had just brought us our coffee when Remy Martin walked in. His eyes scanned in the room, widening slightly when they landed on Delilah. He crossed over to us immediately. “Hey, girl
,” he said, stopping by our table.

  Delilah looked up, a smile breaking across her face. “Hey, Remy!”

  She stood and gave him a quick hug. I was oddly relieved to see her slightly guarded even with someone she’d known for years. Relieved and a little sad. Remy glanced between us. I’d run into him just last week and mentioned Delilah would be here. I wasn’t so sure he’d believed me.

  “When did you get here?” he asked.

  “Late last night. After midnight, actually, so I guess it was this morning,” she offered.

  “Hi there, Remy.” Janet bustled over with our bagels and cream cheese. “Would you like me to prep your usual?” she asked after she set our plates down in front of us.

  “Of course. Thanks, Janet!” he called. She was already hurrying back to the counter where someone else was waiting.

  “We should have dinner,” Remy said. “I don’t have much time to chat now because I’m on my way to the station for a shift. Rachel would love to see you.”

  Delilah looked toward me, and I nodded. “Tell me what works. We’re having dinner with my parents tonight, but any other night is fine with me.”

  “Are you working this week?” he asked

  “I’m just on call for emergencies.”

  “Got it. Well, I’ll check with Rachel, and I’ll text you, okay?”

  “Sounds good, man.”

  Remy tapped Delilah lightly on the shoulder as he turned away.

  Delilah took a bite of her bagel, letting out a moan. “Oh, my God,” she said after she finished chewing. “This is incredible.”

  I grinned. “Oh, yeah. Don’t go thinking that’s imported salmon. Probably caught right here in Cook Inlet. Were you close to Remy growing up?” I asked between bites of my own bagel and sips of coffee.

  Delilah cocked her head to the side, lifting one hand and swiveling it side to side in the air. “Sort of. Shay and I were in high school together, so obviously, I know her better. He was a few years ahead of us. He’s that kind of friend. Like I’ve known him forever, but we weren’t really close.” Before I could say anything else, she added, “So we’re having dinner with your parents tonight?”