Page 12 of Sugar-Shacked with the Mountain Man
"Jesus, Sophie. That's..."
"I know."
"That's enough to solve every financial problem I have."
"I know."
I stand up, needing distance. "And you're telling me to turn that down for some hypothetical investor scheme that might not work?"
"I'm not telling you to do anything. I'm just saying there might be alternatives."
"Might. Maybe. Hypothetically." I run my hands through my hair. "Sophie, that's my family's survival."
"It's my survival too!" The words explode out of her. "Do you think I want to be the person who destroys something you love?"
"Then don't be."
"It's not that simple. I need this deal. My mother's medical bills, my career, my entire future depends on closing this transaction."
"Your mother's medical bills?"
Sophie wraps the quilt tighter around herself, suddenly looking small. "She has multiple sclerosis. The treatments, the care she needs... insurance covers some of it, but not enough. Without this promotion, without the salary increase..."
She doesn't finish, but the fear in her eyes tells me everything.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it doesn't change what I have to do. Because knowing why I need to take your farm away doesn't make it easier for either of us."
I sit back down, the fight leaving me. "Christ, Sophie. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place."
"I'm sorry," she whispers. "I never wanted it to be like this."
"Like what?"
"Like choosing between saving someone I love and destroying someone else I..." She stops.
"Someone else you what?"
"Someone else I'm falling in love with," she finishes quietly.
The words hit me like lightning. She's falling in love with me, and I'm falling in love with her, and in three days one of us is going to have to destroy the other to save what matters most.
"Sophie," I reach for her hand.
"Don't." She pulls away, standing and reaching for her clothes. "This was a mistake. All of it."
"You don't mean that."
"I do. I let myself get caught up in the romance of being snowed in, of this place, of you. But the storm's going to end, Kane. And when it does, we're going to be right back where we started—on opposite sides of a deal that one of us has to lose." She pulls on my flannel shirt. "I need some air."
I follow her after pulling on my jeans. She's standing by the window, staring at the falling snow. She's never looked more beautiful, and she's never felt further away.
"Sophie," I say quietly.
"Three days," she says without turning. "In three days, the storm will be over and we'll have to make our choices."
"What if we don't have to choose? What if there's a way to save both the farm and your mother?"
