Page 2 of Snowed In With the Mountain Man
But of course, that didn’t stop Emma from rushing her the moment Dex stepped aside.
Dahlia tried not to roll her eyes at her warm wishes and requests for her to come visit again soon. Not one of them was going to shed a tear at seeing her leave, that much she knew.
But they loved Rose. It was obvious. She might have been just as much a stranger to Emma and her sister Lizzy as Dahlia had been the day she’d arrived, but they’d taken Rose in and looked after her.
They’d looked after Rose in a way Dahlia never could.
Her chest grew so tight she wasn’t sure where to look or what to do. Instinct had her glancing toward the door—toward her escape from this emotional scene.
But JJ was standing in the doorway, blocking her path, and what was worse…he was watching her. Everyone around her was talking over each other, emotions being aired out like wet laundry, and yet JJ was staring straight at her with that unreadable expression of his.
So quiet, so calm, so seemingly unfazed by anything going on around him, JJ looked like a quiet port in the eye of a hurricane.
Dahlia pulled her gaze away quickly, but not quickly enough. His look rattled her. And she’d already been on edge.
When she turned, she found herself swept up in a bear hug from Nash. “I hope you make it back for the wedding.”
Dahlia gave his back an awkward pat in response.
She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to act around the guy who was about to marry a sister she’d never met until their father’s ridiculous will forced them to. Not to mention the guy who’d actually known their father, who’d worked this property for him…
A man who knew more about their family than she did.
The thought had her backing away from Nash the moment he set her free.
Emma gave her a sappy smile—the kind totally befitting a small-town kindergarten teacher who apparently moonlighted as a saint on the weekends by the way Rose talked about her.
“We really are glad we got to meet you,” Emma said.
Dahlia nodded. She would have forced a smile, but her twin sister, Daisy, had long ago informed her that her fake smiles resembled a sneer.
“Yeah, well…” Dahlia backed away. She could all but hear a ticking clock in the back of her mind, counting down the seconds until her flight. “Congratulations on the wedding.”
But don’t expect me to be there.
She didn’t say that, of course. She was smart enough to know that people thought she was callous and hard-hearted. She was sure they whispered words just like that behind her back. But she did have some manners.
Honestly, though, if Rose wasn’t dead set on living in this Podunk little town of Aspire, Montana, Dahlia would likely never return.
But Rose would be here, along with her new baby. So of course she’d have to come back for visits.
She cast one last glance over at Rose, but her sister was making eyes at her boyfriend—again. Dahlia had never truly understood that phrase until these two. But if humans could have little heart emojis in their eyes like cartoon characters, then Rose and Dex would absolutely be sporting them right about now.
“All right, well, I guess we’re off.” She turned to head to the door and—bam. There it was again. That jolt when her eyes locked with JJ’s.
She wasn’t sure how or why, but every time her gaze collided with his, it felt like a mini explosion. It’d been that way since the very first time she met him, right here in this kitchen the month before, during her first trip to see her baby sister, and it had only grown worse on this second trip to be with Rose when they found out the baby’s sex.
It was annoying.
She looked away quickly, but not quickly enough, because heat was surging into her cheeks like she was some prepubescent tween who’d never seen a handsome man before.
And yes, he was handsome—if you liked that whole bearded, scruffy, might-not-have-showered-in-a-week sort of look.
Which she didn’t.
She arched her brows in a prompting look as he stood there eyeing her from where he leaned against the doorframe. “Well?”
His lips quirked up on one side, his eyes sparkling with amusement, the way they did every time she spoke to him.
