Page 4 of Collision of Winters
He stood on the porch with a cup of what I presumed was coffee.
CouldI convince him?
I hadn’t seen him since before I was arrested, and I knew he’d been disappointed.
Chris was more… Well, he had two sides to him. He was either a grumpy fucker who acted like he was being charged by the word. And then the other side—a hell-raising loudmouth. When he yelled at me, all was well. I was the same way. I could be loud and whatever. But Wade was stone-faced and unyielding. A rock that couldn’t be moved.
Then again, he was also fair and easier to talk to, so it was a toss-up.
Four dogs, all Huskies, barked when Chris and I crossed the stream.
“I built this.” Chris knocked on the rail of the bridge that was wide enough to drive a vehicle across. “Took me a whole summer.”
“I already knew you were slow.”
He let out a laugh—and didn’t take the bait.
They never did. They were both significantly older than me and had more experience. Wade had recently turned forty-four, and Chris was…forty for another few months, I was fairly sure.
I was turning twenty-six next week, and boy, was I looking forward to a wild party with tons of presents and guests.
Or, a likelier scenario, Wade woke me up with a pat on the head and a yawned, “Congrats.”
Fucking hell, it was cold. I was half surprised the ground wasn’t covered in more snow.
Chris jogged up the steps to the porch and greeted Wade with their usual forehead-to-forehead touch. Meanwhile, I wanted to murder them both.
“I’m surprised you didn’t need my help once you landed in Anchorage,” Wade noted. Tall as ever, that one. Tall and almost stocky. Solid. A little too easy on the eyes…
Chris chuckled. “Kayden was under the impression it was going to be a guys’ trip, so I let him believe that until we landed near the O’Connor retreat.”
Anger and embarrassment clouded my senses, and I stomped up the steps to get this shit over with. Chris was leaving immediately, and I wanted him gone.
“Yeah, my bad for thinking you finally wanted to spend some time with me,” I stated. “Won’t happen again.”
Chris’s forehead creased with confusion. “Kid, you’re the one who moved halfway across the country. If we’d known what was going on, we would’ve intervened before you got your ass thrown in jail.”
Wade didn’t say anything.
Whatever. They had no clue.
“Just tell me how long I’m gonna be here for,” I replied irritably.
Wade cleared his throat and threw the last of his coffee out on the grass. “That’s up to you.”
I rolled my eyes. That wasn’t an answer.
“If that were true, I wouldn’t be here right now,” I said.
They didn’t respond.
Not only did Chris leave within an hour of dropping me off, but Wade headed out too. Something about fishnets. He took off with a four-wheeler and gave me the same promise Chris had. I wasn’t going to find any keys to the vehicles, and they couldn’t be hot-wired.
Maybe I could find matches and burn the whole fucking place down…
I threw my duffel on the bed in the bedroom, anticipating a bitch fight with Wade already. It was a nice cabin; I could admit that, but it was on the small side. Classic log cabin, one story, with a kitchen and combined living room area, one bedroom, and one bathroom.
He could sleep on the couch.
