Page 18 of Snowbound with the Santas

“Welcome to paradise.”

7

RAYNE

He isn’t kidding.

Wrapped in a coat that’s far too heavy for me and wearing boots three sizes too big, I follow him outside into a stunning, crisp white landscape.

The man before me, Nick, seems sweet. His gesture of showing me his passport is certainly endearing, but it means very little if I’m stuck here. He could say literally anything and I have no choice but to believe him.

I put all of that aside for a moment and huddle into the coat, unable to even fully comprehend the breathtaking view before me.

The cabin is nestled in a small valley between two towering mountain peaks on either side of us, stretching up toward a crystal blue sky.

I’d seen these same mountains on my way to the sky lodge and yet somehow, their beauty escaped me until right this second. They look close enough that I could reach out and touch them both with one hand. They stand proud like snow cones, covered in glistening snow that sparkles all the way down tothe tops of the trees that hug the base of each mountain and surround the cabin.

Several smaller peaks attach to the mountain on the right, visible just above the tips of the towering trees. There’s something so stunning about how natural all of this is. Even the wooden cabin behind me looks more like it was formed here than that it was actually built. The rustic log walls and slatted roof make it look like something out of a storybook, and my heart swells a little just taking in every detail.

If I died and this is my heaven, I can accept that.

This is nothing like the ski lodge, where hundreds of lights blast away the darkness and replace natural beauty with artificial sparkle. I scan every detail, barely aware that Nick is watching from a few feet away. Even the trees are stunning, all standing proud like a hundred Christmas trees lined up and harboring infinite secrets.

“Wow,” I finally manage to say. “You live here?”

“For part of the year,” Nick says with a warm smile, and his naturally friendly air makes me feel at ease. Maybe that’s because of how swiftly he tended to my leg—although that could also be because no one in my life has ever swept me up as easily as he did.

Those muscles are enough to make a girl lose all her senses.

“The three of you?” Beyond Nick, another man trudges heavily through the snow and he pauses when his deep brown eyes lock onto me.

He holds an axe in one hand and several chopped logs cradled against his chest with the other.

It’s the man I watched from my window.

Feeling the biting cold nipping at any bare skin escaping my coat, I can’t quite fathom how he stands there in just a shirt. He’s built just as thickly as Nick is, so maybe it’s a muscle man thing.They run hot, right? And he’s been out here swinging that axe, chopping all that wood like some sweaty, sexy mountain man.

My throat goes dry, and I feel like I should look away because his expression is anything but happy, but I can’t do it.

I’m locked onto him like I’m in some kind of trance.

“Rayne, this is Archer. Archer Davis. Archer, this is Rayne.”

Archer grunts just once in greeting, and while he seems to eye me with an air of suspicion, he does move the axe behind his body and out of sight.

“Archer is our resident grumpy carpenter,” Nick explains with another flash of that warm smile. “He might look like wants to kill you, but it’s with love.”

A small pulse of alarm breaks through me. Archer’s eyes snap to Nick and his gaze darkens, then Nick spins around to face me.

“I’m so sorry, that was a joke. I know how that sounds. I swear he doesn’t want to kill you. I was just… I am so sorry.”

He’s so endearing that it’s hard not to feel at ease, so I flash him a smile. “It’s okay, I understand. He does look pretty pissed off.”

“Only because you both talk about me like I’m not right here,” Archer says.

He recaptures my attention immediately. His voice is deep and very gravelly, almost like a rumble, and it sends an exciting thrill through my body.

“Well,” I say boldly, “It’s nice to meet you. Sorry, I presumed you only communicated in grunts and I’m not fluent.”

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