Page 35 of Snowed In with the Bosses

“In the oven, Marissa. Yours and Harvey’s.” Liam pointed. “Clara, meet Marissa. She’s Alexander’s housekeeper. You met Harvey in the helicopter.”

“Housekeeper.” Marissa made a scoffing noise. “Good word. Yes. I keep this house.” She waved both hands toward Alexander in a shooing motion. “Most times it feels like it is my house because he is never here.”

“Not my fault.” Alexander stood and motioned for us to follow him. “I know that look. We’d better get out of here. She lets Liam use the kitchen, but her patience is wearing out.”

“Ha.” Her voice followed us into the foyer. “Who are you to speak of patience?”

Liam snorted. “She has you pegged.”

“Yes, well.” He stopped there and led the way to a room that must be an office but looked like a mix between a library and an executive suite. Two couches sat bookended by towering walnut bookshelves. A single window looked out over a white landscape with mountains in the distance.

A ringing filled the air, and Alexander crossed to the heavy oak desk, where he pressed a button and a screen on the opposite wall flickered to life. “Harrington, right on time.”

We spent an hour on the computer with Harrington, filling him in on our progress and showing him everything we’d accomplished. He seemed impressed and asked all the right questions to prove he was not only invested in the project but had a keen sense of what he wanted and what the project should accomplish.

Alexander ended the call with another click. We all fell silent, the weight of it all gripping me with a suddenness that left me breathless. This project was a make or break moment for me. If I failed, it would potentially be the end of my career at Summit.I took a deep breath and held it. Mom would tell me to get over myself and do my job. She would encourage me to look at each piece of the project and make each one the best possible, then look at it as a whole.

“All right. Let’s go shopping.” Liam stood and clapped. He spun around and held out his hands to me. When I hesitated, he grabbed my wrists and pulled me to my feet. “Come on. Forget about work for a little while. All of you. It won’t help us to obsess right now. There’s nothing else we can do until Harrington finishes approving our designs.” Liam’s effervescent personality swept the cobwebs of doubt from my mind and brought back the excitement of the upcoming adventure. “I’m driving.” He tugged me along beside him on his way to the front door, where he helped me into the same red coat.

This time, I tried to pay more attention to our surroundings, but with Liam, Alexander, and Ethan bickering over where to start the sightseeing adventure—with each one reminding the others of things I “absolutely could not miss”—it became a riot of confusion mixed with laughter.

What was going on with them? Was this how they always acted outside of the office?

Hour after hour of sightseeing with Alexander as the host, Ethan as the wry commentator, and Liam as the comic relief passed in a steady beat that had me feeling the fairytale even harder. This was not real. I reminded myself over and over again. I never wanted it to end, but that was the whole point with fairytales, right? The princess always got her prince, but it was never real. Every year of my experience told me this would end. I needed to enjoy every second until then, but the harshness of it impeded my joy. All of my relationships led me to this reality of knowing forever was the fairytale. And in a relationship—if that’s what it was—as unconventional as this, my head warned my heart that it would be over sooner rather than later.

By the time Alexander drove us back to the chalet, my feet ached from walking and my ribs from laughing. Alexander stopped in the foyer and faced me. “I’ve asked Harvey to take us back to Silverbrook.”

My heart fell to my toes, the sudden drop leaving me breathless. “Is something wrong?”

“No.” Quiet reassurance brought my heart back to its proper place. “I thought you’d rather stay close to your mom.”

“I do.” My nod bobbled my head. He’d thought of everything. It amazed me how the three of them saw me so completely. “I can’t get to her house, but I’d rather stay close.” There was nothing I could do if she needed me, but being this far away left me uncomfortable in inexpressible ways. “Where are we going?”

“My mansion,” Alexander said with a deadpan expression.

Liam whistled. “Damn, man. Pulling out all the stops today.”

I took that to mean he didn’t bring women to his mansion either. I raised one eyebrow and made a point to look around the expansive foyer. “If you call this a chalet, what’s the mansion like?”

His smile was a thing of gleeful beauty. He held out his arm. “Come find out.”

Back up the stairs, through the garden room, and onto the roof, we all walked together. Harvey greeted us with a smile and a nod. Before I’d even properly settled my headset on my ears, we were airborne. Mountains at night were almost frightening compared to our early morning adventure. They loomed in shadow, and I held my breath more than once in the time it took to cross back into Silverbrook and land on yet another roof.

I didn’t have it in me to catalog Alexander’s mansion. I had the sense that it overshadowed the chalet, but Alexander led the way to a massive living room with a thick carpet and a roaring fire. The sight of cheery, crackling flames drew me forward. I almost stumbled over the stack of bed covers piled up in front ofthe fire. Alexander caught my elbow and righted me. “I thought we’d sleep down here where it’s warm since there’s still no electricity.”

He probably had generators, but a yawn stopped me from asking. The day caught up to me as the warmth from the fire seeped into my bones. I sank onto the bed and kicked off my shoes. Alexander crawled in on one side, Ethan on the other, with Liam behind him. Body heat combined with covers and the flickers of light dancing over the walls lulled me into slumber. Soft snores came from both sides, and I grinned into the covers, checking my phone one last time for any messages from Mom. The screen lit up, and I almost dropped it in shock as the message flashed across my screen.

You’re a slut.

16

LIAM

Waking with Ethan in front of me was a new experience. I’d rather have been face-to-face with Clara instead of the back of Ethan’s head. Still, it wasn’t a bad situation. New and different in the kind of way I’d happily get used to. I stretched both arms over my head, the pop of bone and sinew cracking in time with the fire.

Clara sighed and snuggled deeper into the covers. I grinned and propped up on my elbow, reaching past Ethan to stroke Clara’s cheek. Her eyes popped open with a suddenness that startled me, but I kept the pad of my finger on her jaw. “Morning.” I mouthed the word at her.

Ethan grunted, his elbow coming back to jab me in the stomach. He stopped after landing the blow, his eyes opening in slow motion. I’d never seen Ethan look startled before. It was a strange look for him. He blinked at Clara, then turned to look at me over his shoulder.

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