Page 12 of Snowbound Hearts
After about two hours of ornaments giving, it was finally my turn. I wasn’t expecting Mason to sit and watch the entire thing and now I’m a bit embarrassed to give Sarah and Kris my ornament.
I walk over to them and hand them a small bag with my ornament wrapped in old red and green tissue paper. “This is old, from my school days. Someone very special made it for me and I want to give it to you both. I hope it brings you happiness and joy like it did to me.”
Sarah unwraps the tissue paper and holds up a small glass-blown heart hanging on a red ribbon. She inhales quickly. “Sydney, it’s beautiful. Thank you.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty,” Kris says.
I turn to look at Mason, but he’s left the room and I know exactly why he left.
I just hurt him.
Again.
Chapter 8
Mason
Itell myself that I need to check the generator, but actually, I’m just angry and need to leave the room. That last Christmas when Sydney and I were together all those years ago, I made that ornament for her. And now she just gives it away like it meant nothing to her.
Maybe nothing ever meant anything to her.
It’s finally stopped snowing and the afternoon sun, what little is left, is starting to peek out from behind the clouds of the storm. The power should be fully back on soon, I hope. In the meantime, I need to keep this ancient generator going. Looks like I’ll be replacing it for next winter. I can’t have guests at the lodge and no power. It’s not good for business.
“Hey, you. You ran out of there fast. Everything okay?” Emily asks.
“Yep. Just making sure this thing keeps running,” I grunt out to her as I try to tighten a bolt with the wrong sized wrench. I toss the tool back into my toolbox and shuffle around for the right one.
“What are you doing out here? Everything okay inside?” I ask just to keep the conversation flowing.
“Well, as usual, Franco is freaking out about the reception tomorrow and at the possibility that his staff won’t be able to make it to work in the morning, the bride and groom are too cute with each other and giving everyone else hope on love, and the older ladies are bickering about something or another. So, I’d say everything is status quo. Overall, I think Sydney’s got it under control.”
Hearing Sydney’s name makes my stomach drop and I shake my head clear. “Sounds good.”
“Speaking of love…”
“Don’t, Emily. Just leave it be,” I warn her.
I can feel her staring at me, but I don’t turn around. This would be a moot conversation at this point. Getting through the next two days is all I’m thinking about and quite honestly, I don’t even need to be around for the wedding festivities. So, I plan to make myself scarce.
“Okay, Mason. I’ll back off.”
I nod from behind the generator.
“Do you need anything before I go back inside?” My sister asks me.
“No, Em. I’m good. I’m just going to finish up here and then work in the garage for a little while.”
“Okay, well… don’t stay out here too long. It’s freezing.” She shivers even though she’s wearing about ten layers of clothing. She’s a Florida girl, through and through.
“Go inside, Emily. Just looking at you makes me cold,” I tease her and give her a small smile to let her know I’m all good. Am I good? I don’t know, but I will be glad when this holiday and wedding are over.
“I’m going. Holler if you need anything,” she calls over her shoulder as she shuffles through the snow.
I’ve been tinkering in the shed for the last few hours working on this and that, knowing full well that I’m just trying to avoid seeing Sydney. It’s getting darker though, so I decide to make one more loop around the property and over to the main road on the four-wheeler before it’s too dark.
As I maneuver the ATV out of the garage and to the side of the lodge, I see Sydney standing on the deck overlooking the vista. With the sun almost gone and the power still not back on, there’s barely any light out here, but even from way over here, I can see her beauty. No one’s ever been able to live up to Sydney. There’ve been others that have tried, but no matter how much I wanted to move on, Sydney is the one that I’ve always compared everyone else to even though it wasn’t fair of me. Between her beauty, wicked smarts, and gregarious personality, Sydney is the whole package.
Then she dumped me.
