Yikes was right. Could she ski in that?
He walked to the front door and cracked it, the wind buffeting it into his shoulder and blowing in some snow as Nicole joined him.
When he finally got it open, they stood in the freezing cold, taking in the sight of a blizzard. The air was thick with flakes blown sideways. The line of trees that framed the porch had blurred to ghost shapes. The slopes they’d skied to get here were white-on-white and barely visible.
The lifts that ran near the cabin weren’t moving, the chairs whipping in the wind.
“We’re not leaving here tonight,” he said softly.
“But your sister?—”
“I can get someone to check on her. I’ll call her now.” He pulled out his phone. “Thank God, there’s service.”
“Maybe we could…”
“No,” he said, tapping the phone. “I could, but I would never ask you to. No trauma on my watch.”
“We have to stay here all night?”
He smiled. “No trauma with that either,” he said. “Don’t worry. There’s some canned food, an air mattress that you can have, and plenty of firewood. We’re snowed in, but safe. You know what that means?”
So many things she couldn’t even begin to name them. “What?” she asked.
“You get to carve your name in the whiteout wall.”
She had no idea what that was, but what mattered was letting her mom—and now her dad—know she was safe.
“Let me call my family,” she said. “They’ll be worried about me.”
“I can talk to your parents if you like,” he suggested. “Just to assure them you are completely safe. We’ll stay warm, comfortable, and play board games all night.”
She smiled at him, touched by the offer and by this tender-hearted young man who was not the carefree partying ski patrol she thought he was. He was nothing like she’d thought, and that just made her like him more.
“It’s fine,” she assured him. “But if there’s Monopoly, be warned. I was trained by a master.”
He laughed and just the sound of that made her feel safe and weirdly excited about being snowed in with him.
MJ stood in front of the open wardrobe looking at two outfit options she’d hung for consideration. The navy dress was the safe choice, of course. Crisp and simple and…businessy. The all-black silk sheath was…date night.
“Nope.” She plucked them both from their hooks, rehung them, and pushed hangers to find her nicest black slacks. With those, she chose a cream satin blouse with a tidy black velvet collar, which said…holiday dinner with a friend.
She added delicate earrings that caught the light when she turned her head. Her hair—the only thing she was truly prideful about—decided to obey today, falling neatly to her shoulders, with her few silver threads barely noticeable.
If she was proud of her auburn tresses, it was because George used to run his fingers through her hair when they cuddled at night, and call her his “copper penny.”
She swallowed, tamping down the thought of her late husband, who would probably tsk mightily at the idea of a dinner date with a guest. Well, he’d tsk a lot more mightily if he knew her sister said the other option was to do a Google search on a guest, which was beyond the pale.
“Not a date,” she murmured, and slipped into low heels that could probably handle snowy pavement and certainly didn’t look like they belonged in a kitchen. “Reconnaissance.”
She smoothed the shiny blouse, drew a steadying breath, and left her suite with the simple goal—she’d ask questions without prying. That was all. She’d silence her sister’s fears that something was amiss.
Cindy wanted to know why an unusually wealthy plumber had taken up a month-long residence at their lodge, shown interest in MJ, and gifted them with a stunningly expensive snowmobile for no apparent reason.
MJ understood her sister’s misgivings—and Cindy didn’t even know he had a different name engraved on his very expensive watch. Her sister did know they were having dinner tonight, and agreed that it was a great way to get those answers.
Matt was waiting just outside the kitchen in the oversized dining area where five tables were set and ready for tomorrow’s breakfast.
He sat near a window, looking out at the snow tufted on the branches of the spruce outside. He wore a cable-knit sweater and dark trousers that weren’t anything she’d ever seen on any plumber. Ever.
