Page 64 of Cabin Fever Baby

She stood up. “Hudson, where are you going?”

“Obviously, the roads are clear if your famous brother made it in. Or did he pay a snowplow to drive him here?”

Quentin sat on the couch by the tree, his pose an insolent slouch as he folded his arms to stare at me. “I actually did. Very nice guy named Nick. Seemed like it was kismet since it’s almost Christmas and all. He plowed your street too. So, you can take afucking walk since you busted up your car. I hear you’re pretty close to home. Just keeping time with my sister.”

“Quentin,” Ocean growled. “You’re not helping.”

I got to the bottom of the stairs and set my suitcase on the tile by the door.

She rushed over to me. “Hudson, please sit down so we can talk about this.”

“Talk about what? That you’ve been lying to me since day one?”

“I didn’t lie.”

“A lie by omission is still a lie.” I gnashed my teeth together. “You had days to tell me about your family.”

“I did tell you about my family.”

“Think you missed a few members. You know, the rockstar and the rookie hockey star.”

Her skin paled.

“Yeah, caught that one on the way down the stairs. What kind of idiot did you take me for?”

“I didn’t. I just didn’t know how to tell you. You have to understand my life isn’t normal. I don’t trust people easily.”

I wanted to thaw for her.

Wanted to believe her.

But there were too many places where she could have told me. Especially when I’d told her about me, and she had always held back.

I didn’t even know if what she told me about her other siblings was true.

“I thought there was something happening between us. But you told me repeatedly we had no future. I guess I was the idiot this whole time.”

“Hudson.” She grabbed my arm. “I didn’t lie about things that were important.”

“Nope. You were very clear about how this was only temporary.” I eased away from her. “We’ll just call it a little cabin fever, shall we?”

She clasped her trembling fingers together. “That’s not all it was.”

“Oh, it certainly was. Just a fever dream all around.” I moved around her and grabbed my coat.

“You can’t just go,” she called after me.

I dug around in the pocket for my phone and called my brother, Cal. I turned away from her and headed out the door with the phone to my ear.

She followed me and stood in the doorway. “Hudson, please.”

The phone rang so many times I thought I was going to hit his voicemail when he finally picked up. “Hud?”

“Hey, are you guys plowed out?”

He laughed. “Surprisingly, yes. Dad got this ridiculous ATV with a plow hitch on it. He’s been tooling around the neighborhood digging people out.” Suddenly, his voice turned serious. “Why? Where are you?”

“It’s a lot to explain. I’m actually close to you. I got into an accident.”

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