Page 19 of Snowbound

He nods. “I went in for a few hours this morning, then I told my assistant we could both go home. I’m on call with my tow truck, but no one’s going to come into the shop on a day like this. No one should be driving at all.”

I stare down at my plate, feeling like that’s a pointed comment.

“And before you ask,” he continues, “your car isn’t going anywhere. You’ll have to find alternate transportation if you want to leave.”

I shake my head. Reality has caught up with me, and I need to accept it. “I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere.”

“Then you can stay. As long as you like.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Don’t make a fanfare about it, though. As long as you’re quiet, I don’t care if you’re here.”

As ever, I’m confused about the hot and cold winds he’s blowing at me. One second, he’s lovely; the next, he’s grumpy and unpleasant again. Not for the first time, I wonder about his friends or lack thereof. I wonder if he ever speaks to anyone at all.

Maybe I’m the first person he’s had a real conversation with in a long while.

And now that it looks like I’m going to be here for a few days, I’m determined to get to the bottom of his secrets. Even if he hates it.

CHAPTER11

GABE

We eat breakfast in silence. I say breakfast, but it’s more like lunch at this point. Carly didn’t strike me as a particularly early riser, but I was impressed by the way I’d managed to go out to do everything I needed to do and get back again before she’d even got out of bed.

I suppose if I was being generous, I would remember that she drove here from Philadelphia yesterday, which isn’t exactly a short trip. But I don’t feel like being generous because she also stole my truck.

It’s going to take a while to forgive that.

Plus, she’s about to become an infuriating house guest. I saw the way she was looking at my military picture. She wants to know all about my time in the Air Force, I can tell. Maybe I will tell her eventually, but right now, I just want to enjoy my coffee and my bacon sandwich.

I should have fried an egg as well, but I was too busy keeping my eye on Carly, trying to stop her from snooping through all my stuff.

“Is your meeting really that important?” I ask eventually, my own curiosity getting the better of me.

She nods, tilting her head over so slightly, making her hair fall into her face, drawing my attention back to her bright blue eyes. I would love to say that I didn’t find her attractive, but I can’t. She is.

It’s not the reason why I let her stay. God forbid anyone ever think that I was that kind of man. But the fact that she’s easy on the eyes doesn’t exactly hurt.

What can I say? I have eyes, and she’s attractive.

She sweeps her hair behind her ear and shrugs, her cheeks flushing slightly. “I wish it wasn’t, but they pay the bills. It’s not that the clients themselves are particularly important. They’re just rich, and when I’ve promised to be on call twenty-four-seven to help them, they really expect that from me. The longer I’m out here, the longer I go without speaking to them, the more they’re going to want answers. When I talk to them again… nothing I can say will be good enough.”

“Can’t you just tell them you had car trouble?” I ask.

She grimaces. “That wouldn’t be good enough for them, and you know it.”

“I know,” I agree. I might not have lived the glamorous kind of life Carly has, but I have lived a life, and it’s made me cynical of other people.

“Why Philadelphia?” I ask. “To live, I mean.”

She thinks for a second, the furrow between her brows reappearing. “It’s a good city. It has everything you could ever want, all different types of people and different types of lifestyles. Plus, it’s close enough to New York that I can do business there without having to live anywhere near the city. I do a lot of consultations in the Big Apple.”

She chuckles awkwardly, like she was trying to make a joke that fell flat. I don’t smile.

“A lot of rich people live there who want to get married, but I travel everywhere,” she continues. “From LA to Boston and everywhere in between. Word gets out, you see. One pair of rich people like you, and they tell all their rich people friends, and suddenly your client base is tripling overnight, and you can barely keep up with the demand.”

I grunt in acknowledgment. Though our situations aren’t exactly the same, I do understand the value of a good reputation. “Couldn’t you, I don’t know, work online? Isn’t that a popular thing in the city these days?”

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