Page 20 of Snowbound with the Santas

“Breaking my heart.” Nick chuckles, faking a wounded look. “Neither of you come crying to me when you realize that fish have parasites.”

“Ew!”

Inside,Nick gives me a proper change of clothes—a pair of cargo pants and a fresh shirt—while reminding me that the warmth inside the cabin is deceptive. He lets me dress while he hunts out a better coat for me to wear, and once I’m sorted, I limp back out to the kitchen.

Frankie sets a glass of water and some painkillers down on the table for me, then returns to the stove, where a wood fire burns underneath, cooking the fish above.

Archer doesn’t seem to be around. My stomach pulls faintly as the scent of fried fish fills the air, and Nick eases into a chair next to me then sets a map down on the table.

“This is the ski lodge where you’re staying,” he says, pointing it out on the map. “And we are here. I think we found you around about here.”

“Oh, my God.” I lean forward against the table, trying to calculate just how far away the lodge is. “We’re so far away.”

“You must have driven for a long time,” Frankie says above the hiss of the fish in the pan. “What made you drive all the way into the mountains so late at night during a storm, of all things?”

Suddenly, Ashton pops into my mind, followed by my mother and Cecil. God. It all oddly feels so long ago now, even though only a few days have passed. Do they know I’m missing? Would they even care?

Being apart from them suddenly seems like the most amazing thing that could have happened because I don’t want to face any of them, I don’t want to be near them, and I certainly don’t want to deal with Ashton threatening to expose my past to anyone who would listen.

“I…” There’s no excuse I can think of.

“Did you season that properly?” Nick speaks up suddenly, pulling Frankie’s attention back to the fish. “It’s looking a little pale.”

“Of course I seasoned it,” Frankie remarks sharply. “Who do you take me for, Archer?”

I shoot Nick a grateful glance, then clear my throat softly as I touch the map.

“Is there a way I can call them? So they know where I am? I noticed I had no signal on my phone so… I’m sure my mom will be worried.”

If anything, I want to let Nina know that I’m okay and tell her everything that’s happened with my family and my ex. I need her comfort. I need her advice.

“There’s no cell service up this high,” Frankie says.

“No,” Nick agrees, “but we communicate with the radio and we have small bouts of Wi-Fi from a transmitter, but that’s depending on the time of day, the winds, etc. Being in the mountains is usually about minimal tech.”

“Makes sense.” I nod slowly. “Can I use the radio?”

“No,” comes a short, gravelly response. Archer trudges in the door and stamps snow from his boots. The sudden gust of biting cold air is painful, and I huddle up in my chair. While Archer is quick to close the door, the freezing cold lingers and a sharp shiver shoots down my spine.

“Why not?” My heart starts to race, wondering if this is the catch. That their pleasantness and kindness were all an act, and the truth of being trapped here is about to hit me.

“Because the storm knocked out the tower,” Nick explains with a sad smile. “I understand you want to contact your family, and we want that too, so that no one is worried.”

“And so no one thinks we’ve kidnapped you,” Frankie adds with a toss of the pan.

“But to do that,” Archer says as he kicks off his boots, “we’ll need to hike up into the mountain and fix that tower.”

8

RAYNE

Night falls almost instantly.

One moment, I’m washing up my plate while admiring how crisp and clean everything looks outside. The next, there’s nothing but a blanket of darkness sweeping across everything. It’s a smothering darkness, where the tree line vanishes and the only hints of the mountains are the dark shadows carved out against the twinkling night sky,

There are more stars here than I’ve ever seen in my life, and it’s beautiful. This entire place keeps taking my breath away. It’s like I fell into an entirely different world.

I like it.

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