Page 61 of Snowed in With My Small Town Billionaire

Oliver glared at him. “Sir, you have been nothing but a major pain in the butt since you got here. You caused a disturbance in the dining room the first night you were here. You are the only person who has not contributed during this crisis. It’s been quite the opposite, as a matter of fact. You have gone out of your way to make everyone else’s life even harder than it had to be. I don’t know what has made you such a miserable human being, but frankly, in my opinion, you don’t deserve to breathe the same air as everyone else. Therefore, in order to get you off my mountain and out of my sight, I will personally go outside tomorrow and shovel your car out of the snow. I’m sure if I didn’t, you would force your grandson, wife, or daughter to do it for you.”

Everyone sat in stunned silence for a few minutes and then Darren clapped. Soon, the majority of the people in the room applauded Oliver for saying what everyone else had been thinking all along. Jerome glared and snarled at everyone.

Oliver held up his hand. “Now, I do realize that this was supposed to be a vacation and everyone’s fun was ruined by the avalanche. As stated in the waivers you all signed, the resort is not responsible for natural disasters, skiing accidents, etc. However, becausemostof you have been a good sport andhelped out around here, all but one of you are welcome to come back for a week’s stay, free of charge, although meals are not included in that offer. Just give us a month’s notice so that we can make sure we have a cabin or room available for you.”

Jerome started to speak, but Oliver fixed him with a hard stare. “You, Sir, are not allowed near my resort ever again. Your wife, daughter, and grandson are welcome, but you are not.”

Wow. Just wow, Sawyer thought. I guess he decided to put him in his place.

Jerome growled, stood up, and walked out of the room. Audrey looked at Jerome leave, obviously trying to decide whether to follow her husband or to stay with the others. Gwen caught her eye and shook her head. Audrey bit her lip and sat on the couch.

It was late, so everyone went to the different rooms where they were sleeping. Darren, Sawyer, and Lucas talked for a while.

“I asked Samantha to marry me,” Lucas said.

“Wow. What happened to take it slow?” Sawyer asked.

“Well, the avalanche and everything that happened reminded us that tomorrow is not promised. My soul knows that I’m in love with her and hers knows that I’m her man,” Lucas said. “We did decide that we’re going to have at least a six-month engagement to give us time to figure everything out. Of course, I have an established business in Estes Park and I won’t be leaving that. She will find a job up that way. There are places hiring.”

“Congrats,” Darren said. “Maddie and I aren’t there yet, although we definitely will be seeing each other when we get off this mountain.”

“That is awesome,” Sawyer said. “I think that love has blossomed between Zaid and Emilia, too.”

“Yep. They are going to get married. She’s the one who asked him. He didn’t want to, because he was worried that if he loses a leg, he wouldn’t be a whole man,” Darren said.

“What did she say to that?” Sawyer asked.

“She told him that the infection must have got to his brain in order for him to say something completely stupid like that.”

Lucas and Sawyer laughed.

“So, what about you?” Lucas asked Sawyer. “You and Gwen seem to have gotten close, in spite of Jerome’s best efforts.”

“I told her that I loved her tonight and she said it back. I plan on asking her to marry me tomorrow before we leave,” Sawyer said.

“I detect some hesitation,” Lucas said.

“I’m not sure what she’ll say. She might have stood up to her father here, but I’m pretty sure that he’ll disown her if she decides to marry me. Regardless of how much of a jerk her father is and how much she realizes that he is wrong, it would be very hard for her to walk away from him. She would also have to walk away from her mother and nephew. I know she loves Brent dearly.”

“That would be a hard decision to make,” Darren said. “I don’t envy her.”

“What are you going to do if she says ‘No,’” Lucas asked.

Sawyer shrugged. “What can I do? I’m not going to pressure her, shame her, or guilt trip her. That would only create resentment. If she doesn’t come to me on her own, then I’ll just accept it and live with it.”

“You’re a good man,” Darren said.

As promised, Millie made pancakes for breakfast the next morning.

“This was the last of my mix and the last of the bacon. We got lucky guys. You were about to have elk or moose for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

“What about snacks?” Brent asked, giggling.

“Yeah, those, too,” Millie said, grinning.

The resort was a bee hive of activity after breakfast. Oliver said that he and Daniel would put a snowblade on their tractor and clear a path from the driveway to the road. Everyone headed out to the parking lot with shovels trying to carefully dig out their cars. A couple of cars were hard to see because of the deep snow.

Sawyer was amused to see that Jerome was out with everyone else. Apparently, he had a little bit of self-respect and decided it would be humiliating for Oliver to dig out his car.

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