She wished she could walk up and wrap her arms around him, could close her eyes and then open them to find they were back where they were last summer. Because, back then, in their early days of dating, she had already known he was special. Back then, she still had dreams their relationship would last.
Nick shot a glance at her. All she could hope now was that her expression hadn’t given away her thoughts to him. Again.
She took a deep breath of bracing, frigid air, the only way she had right now of bringing herself to her senses. If she couldn’t control her thoughts about him or her physical reactions to him, she could at least act as though she had a handle on her emotions.
“Brent’s balance comes naturally to him,” she told Nick. “His mom says he’s got the instincts of a polar bear on ice. A good thing for us right now,” she added, almost subconsciously rubbing her aching shoulder. Between Tommy’s weight and all his extra clothing, she’d carried nearly more than she could handle. Her body had begun to protest in additional places. But she reminded herself a few aches and pains didn’t mean much compared to what Nick must be suffering. And her discomfort didn’t matter a bit if it meant they could all reach safety sooner.
“Thanks for your help with Tommy,” she said to Nick.
“That’s my specialty—troubleshooting. Although this time it’s more like troublemaker. If I hadn’t tripped over that toy, I could have carried the kid all the way myself.” He scowled.
He was such a fixer, such a doer. She knew how much his inability to help must bother him. No matter why their relationship hadn’t worked out, no matter that she’d just given herself a mental shake about hiding her responses, she couldn’t help herself now. Her heart went out to him.
“Of course you could have carried Tommy.” She kept her voice low so the kids wouldn’t hear but forceful enough to convince him she meant it. To appease him.
Instead of looking at all comforted, he glared at her and stabbed one crutch into the snow. “That’s the same tone you used on the kid when he was afraid we wouldn’t get back to the house. I’m not a five-year-old, Lyssa.”
No, you’re definitely not that.
So much for making him feel better. She swallowed hard and faced forward, plunging her feet into the snow with dogged determination. “My mistake,” she said shortly. “You told me you were a kid at heart, didn’t you? I guess I took that too literally.”
During their dating days, she’d taken many things too literally—and too much for granted. That trustfulness had hurt her then, more than she would admit to him. Or to anyone else. And maybe even to herself.
She couldn’t take a chance on getting hurt again. She couldn’t let herself get close to Nick at all.
Although she had no idea how to avoid that if they were snowbound in the lodge together.
A little shiver ran through her, one she knew she couldn’t blame on the cold. Despite everything that had happened—or not happened—between them, she couldn’t forget the way she had felt about him. The way he had made her feel.
No matter how little time they might be forced to stay here, she knew it would be more than she wanted to bear.
…
“Hey!” Tommy shouted from a dozen yards ahead of them.
The kid’s cry distracted Lyssa. Good, as far as Nick was concerned. After their last uncomfortable conversation, she had hurried forward again, rejoining the kids, leaving him on his own. He preferred it that way.
He had drifted farther behind, hoping to put a distance between them permanently. But after a while, she had returned to his side. It infuriated him that she had to see him hopping along like this.
Now, he hoped nothing bad had happened up ahead. Still, it would suit him fine if she had to go up front with Brent and Tommy and stay there.
Again, Tommy yelled from his perch on Brent’s shoulders. “I see the house!”
“Me, too! Me, too!” Mollie plowed ahead to catch up with the boys, kicking up snow with her boots.
“Great!” Lyssa called. “Just a few more minutes and we’ll be inside.”
Nick looked past the kids to see the snow-covered lodge in front of them, only a few hundred yards away. Might as well be a mile, considering how his arms and now even his good leg ached. But he’d made it this far. He’d make it the rest of the way—although he wished he could do it alone.
Mollie and the two boys didn’t bother him. Much.
All right…admit it. He never would have chosen to spend his free time with a bunch of kids. Being stuck here with them only added to his irritation. By now, he was supposed to have been halfway to San Diego.
Lyssa… Lyssa bothered him. In ways he didn’t want to think about and definitely would not admit.
“I’ll be glad to get out of this blizzard,” she said.
“Yeah. Soon.” At one time, he wouldn’t have minded being isolated in a mountain lodge with Lyssa. No more.
“It can’t be soon enough for me.”
They crunched through several more feet of snow. The lodge loomed over them, as menacing as a snow-frosted prison. He had the crazy feeling if he went back into that building, he might never escape.
For the hundredth time since they had left the car, he saw Lyssa shiver and wrap her arms around herself. If she caught pneumonia, she’d have him to blame. They could have been back to the lodge an hour ago, if not for his ankle slowing them down.
“The living room should still be warm,” she continued, “and I’ll kick up the heat the minute we’re inside again, then find us all some dry clothes.”
“And get hot drinks into those kids.”
She nodded. “And into us. Fortunately, thanks to Amber, the lodge’s kitchen has a well-stocked pantry. And we left the refrigerator nearly bulging from the load of party leftovers.”
“Not such a bad thing, then, that you took the time to wrap everything up and stow it away.” Grudgingly, he offered the words and even tried to soften his tone. His ankle might have slowed them all down, and he’d accept full blame for that. But she was right. Her extra time in the kitchen had delayed their departure to begin with. Not that he’d be callous enough—or foolish enough—to point that out to her.
Her voice told him she still felt worried sick. No need to tell him why. He easily picked up on what she’d been afraid to say.
How long would they be stranded at the lodge? Would help arrive to get them out of there? When would anyone even figure out they had all been left behind?
“Amber will know we’re in trouble,” she said, as if he’d spoken aloud.
“Her concerns are all for her baby, right now, aren’t they?”
“Yes. As they should be. But she’s supposed to call me to let me know she got to our parents’ house.”
“Will she remember?”
“She should. She’s very good about follow-through. Then she would wonder why she couldn’t reach me on my cell phone…and then…” Her shoulders slumping, she sighed. “And then she’d chalk it up to no reception because of the weather.”
They walked in silence for a few paces, except for the crunching of the brittle snow.
Even though he’d brought about her response, he didn’t like seeing her so dejected. Almost subconsciously, he reached toward her. As he did so, one of his homemade crutches slipped out from under him. He grunted and grabbed at a low-hanging branch just out of reach.
Lyssa seized his arm and tried to block his fall with her body.
Unable to stay upright, he leaned heavily against her. The many layers of clothes between them kept their contact almost impersonal. Lucky for him, his imagination brought them much closer than that. For a long moment they were face-to-face, staring into each other’s eyes, so near to one another he could feel the warmth of her breath against his chin.
She broke eye contact first, looking away. He stabbed one of his branches into the snow. While he worked to steady himself again, she backed off. He took a few more steps, wanting to prove immediately that he had r
egained control of the crutches.
Getting control of himself could take awhile.
Finding a way out of here suddenly became an obsession. Because of his client, of course—his skittish client who just might jump on the first plane out of San Diego if Nick didn’t get in touch with him soon.
They both had too much riding on this deal for him to let that happen.
“It’s been hours since the snow started,” he said. “If Amber’s as good at following up as you say she is, by now, she’ll have realized something’s wrong. She’ll have called around to some of those parents and found out they’ve gotten home and that you were going to be the last to leave. And as she hasn’t heard from you, I’m betting she’s got a search party on the way already.”
“You can’t be serious.” She rolled her eyes. “Oh—of course. You’re still thinking you’ll get a flight out of here tonight.”
“Maybe not that. But I can be at the airport waiting when they announce they’ve cleared the gates.”
She merely shook her head. Then, without a word, she picked up her pace to tromp through the snow and away from him.
Okay, so she had jumped to the right conclusion about his plans. But before that, before the eye roll she’d given him, she had ridiculed his idea of a search party being on the way. There was something she hadn’t wanted to tell him. He knew that for certain.
He was just as sure he wouldn’t like hearing whatever she was holding back.
Chapter Five
When they finally reached the lodge again, Lyssa had felt cold to the bone, both from the snow and from Nick’s fixation on escape. On getting back to his job. The only consolation she could find was that, as little as she wanted to be stuck here with him, he seemed even less interested in being confined with her.
Which shouldn’t have surprised her. He hadn’t stayed with her this summer, either, when he’d had the chance. Last-minute business trips had often made him cancel his plans to come to Snowflake Valley. It happened so frequently that when he had bowed out of their special plans for the last weekend of the summer, she had finally acknowledged an on-again-off-again long-distance relationship wouldn’t work for her.
With an effort, she pulled her thoughts back to the present and looked at the three kids standing in the lodge owner’s suite. “Okay, guys, I think you’re all set.”
In Amber’s room, she had found pants and a sweater that would fit her—sort of—and a pair of pajamas that could pass as a sweatsuit for Mollie. Then she had taken over their absentee host’s bedroom, where she had freely handed out clothes to Brent and Tommy, along with gathering some for Nick. Under the circumstances, what could Michael DeFranco do to her? Besides, he was Nick’s friend. When the time came for explanations, she would let him talk to Michael.
“I’m going to take these downstairs,” she told the kids. Even after their change into dry, warm clothing, Mollie and Tommy had both complained they were still shivering. She suspected Brent was too but wouldn’t bring himself to admit it. “Mollie, you and the boys check the linen closet at the end of the hallway. You’ll probably find some blankets you can bring down to the living room.”
Eagerly, the trio headed in that direction.
As she went down the stairs, heat rose around her. She had turned up the thermostat, and waves of warmth now blasted from every vent in the lodge, as well as from the fire she had lit in the fireplace.
To her surprise, Nick still sat on the long wooden bench just inside the lodge’s front door. “Wouldn’t you feel more comfortable on the couch?”
“I don’t think a move to another location’s going to make much difference.”
“At least take your boots and jacket off. You’ll get overheated.”
“Maybe you’ve already got me that way.”
The comment made her thoughts flash to the moment outside when he had slipped and she had attempted to break his fall. Despite the heat in the house, she shivered. Nick grinned. A forced grin that didn’t match his teasing tone. Knowing he had to make himself flirt with her only made her feel cold all over again. “What’s the matter?” she snapped.
He shrugged. “My ankle’s so swollen, this boot might not come off.”
She took a deep breath. No way in the world did she want to go near him again. But she couldn’t let him sit here all night. “Let me help.” She crossed the room and deposited the armload of clothes onto the bench beside him. Then she knelt down and began opening the wet laces of his army boot. “You should have worn proper boots for snow.”
“These do the job back home.”
“Back home is in California.”
“Yeah. But who knew I’d be trekking cross-country in a blizzard.”
“Northern Nevada…” she murmured. “December… Might have given you a clue.” She tugged on the damp laces.
Instantly, he sucked in a breath. A heartbeat later, he grabbed her wrists.
She tried to ignore the warmth of his palms against the backs of her hands. Tried to believe he couldn’t feel her pulse suddenly fluttering beneath his thumbs. Tried not to look up and…and…
And this is ridiculous. Months ago, he had broken her heart. That didn’t mean she now had to fall to pieces at his touch.
She looked up, then wished she hadn’t. He was so close. If he lowered his head a fraction, if she raised her chin just an inch… As she mentally attempted to push away the thoughts, her hands jerked his bootlaces.
He let out a yelp.
“Sorry. Does it hurt that much?”
“What, having a madwoman trying to amputate my foot with a dull shoestring? Yeah, it hurts like hell.”
When he sat back, she attempted to be gentler while she loosened the top of his boot. “I knew you weren’t being truthful with me about the pain.”
“Well, right now, ask me anything you want to know and I’ll give you an honest answer. My future mobility might depend on it.”
“I’ve already had answers enough from you, thanks.” Ones I didn’t like hearing. “Brace yourself. I’m going to slide this off.” She eased the boot down as carefully as she could. He sucked in another breath but said nothing as she freed his foot. When she saw his red-and-white striped sock, she couldn’t hold back a laugh.
“What’s so funny? All the best Santas wear these.”
“Really? I wouldn’t have classified you as one of the best.”
“Kick a man while he’s down, why don’t you?”
She flushed. “Okay, I admit that was a cheap shot. I owe you one.”
“Why don’t I collect right now? Maybe it will help me forget the pain.”
Before she could blink, Nick tucked his fingers beneath her chin. He leaned down, his intention plain. He was going to kiss her and she was going to let him and the moment their mouths met, all those months she had spent trying to forget him would have been wasted. She had to back off, but where would she find the strength?
Luckily, she didn’t have to. The sound of footsteps on the stairway was enough to make Nick sit back again.
She tossed his boot aside and got to her feet just in time to greet Tommy. He ran up to her clutching an afghan around his shoulders, the tail end of it trailing on the floor behind him. Mollie and Brent came more slowly down the stairs. They both had themselves well wrapped, too.
“We found the blankets,” Tommy announced. “But I’m still cold.”
“I’m going right now to make us all some hot chocolate.” She noted Nick had removed his other boot and had left both standing on the mat inside the door. He hadn’t touched the pile of clothing yet. Was he going to go all macho and refuse to change? “Come on, gang,” she said casually, “let’s head to the kitchen and leave Nick some privacy to put on his dry clothes.”
“I want to sit by the fire,” Tommy protested.
She glanced at Nick, who nodded. “That’s fine,” she told the little boy. She had already put the fire screen in place. “Just don’t get too close, or you could get burned.”
<
br /> Good advice. She needed to heed that herself—when it came to getting near Nick.
A short while later, Lyssa carried a tray of mugs and a carafe of hot chocolate from the kitchen. Mollie followed with the stack of napkins she had carefully folded.
In the living room, Lyssa checked to make sure Tommy sat near enough to the fire to absorb its warmth yet far enough away to be safe.
After another nod from Nick earlier, Brent had opted to stay in the living room. He slumped on one end of the couch, his blanket making a barricade around him. Even the promise of hot chocolate hadn’t seemed to cheer him.
To her relief, Nick had changed out of his wet jeans and into the fresh pair she had given him. He sat a few feet away in his former “Santa Claus” chair, now stripped of its velvet cover, his bad ankle propped up on a footstool. She wondered what Tommy and Mollie would say if they were to find out he had played Santa.
She poured a mug of chocolate and handed it to Tommy.
Before she would accept her own mug, Mollie insisted on carrying Nick’s across the room to him. Relieved at not having to go near him again, Lyssa gratefully handed his mug over.
“Mmm…this is good.” Tommy licked his lips and grinned. “I like hot chocolate.”
“Me, too,” Lyssa said, smiling back at him. She liked anything chocolate. Her thoughts drifting to the too-tight elf costume, she swallowed a sigh.
As she took a sip of her chocolate, Tommy pushed away the afghan he’d had covering him. With a thud, he set his mug on the wooden floor. “I’m done,” he announced loudly. “We can go home now.”
She couldn’t help herself. She shot Nick a glance. Why, she didn’t know. It wasn’t as if she needed an answer from the man. She already knew what she would have to tell Tommy.
There would be no going home tonight.
Nick knew that, despite his false hope that Amber had sent out a rescue party. Judging by the brooding look on Brent’s face, he understood they were stuck here, too. She suspected Mollie also realized the snow would keep them stranded.
The little girl proved it by saying to Tommy, “We can’t go home now.”
Snowbound with Mr. Wrong (Snowflake Valley) Page 5
