My chest tightens. I have to go home tonight. I have presents to wrap. I have leftovers in the fridge. I have laundry in the dryer that will most definitely be wrinkled if I don’t fold it immediately. “Eagle Peak.”
“Closed. They closed my road too.” He grins. “Looks like we’re stuck here.”
I shake my head and stalk toward him, grabbing his phone as though I don’t have my own. Sure enough, in black and white on the Gazette webpage…Eagle Peak is closed.
I run through the list quickly, taking note of any other closures that might affect the ladies that just left for book club, but they’re in the clear.
Maybe I should go home with them.
“We aren’t stuck here. We can’t be. All we have is this little space heater. We’ll freeze overnight.”
“I know you’re not used to such conditions, your majesty, but… it seems we are in fact stuck in town.”
“We can get a room at the inn.” My eyes widen. “Separate rooms. I’m sure they—”
“Not with the rodeo in town. They’ve been booked up for months.”
Oh my God!
“You’ll be fine. You’ve got cocoa, blankets, me… it’s all you need.”
I stare at him, trying to unlock my brain from whatever dark place it’s spinning out in, but it’s not working. My rational brain is lost in the weeds, and suddenly all it wants to think about is Cole leaning me up against the bookshelves in the backwhile he does the things he does in my dreams.The dreams I have that I tell no one about. The dreams I barely think about myself.
Get a grip, Tess!
“I know I’ll be fine,” I snap and head toward the back office. “I just need a second.”
Preferably one where I’m not imagining what he tastes like.
Chapter Two
Cole
“You know this isn’t ideal for me either, right?” I lean against the back bookshelf with one arm crossed over the other as though I’m upset by the current situation.
“Please.” Tess rolls her eyes and pokes into the bakery station, pulling out a tray of banana crumble bread and a few sugar cookies. “You’re loving this.”
“A queen such as yourselfwouldbelieve I live to serve her.”
“Yeah?” She tilts her head to the side and bites into a slice of the chocolate banana bread with a moan. “What amazing things did you have going on today? Last I heard, you were dodging a bounty hunter.”
“Dodging?Please.We made a deal. I’m turning myself in after Christmas.”
“Nice.” Her voice rises with sarcasm as she says, “Glad to hear how seriously everyone takes their jobs around here.”
I laugh under my breath, snagging a cookie before dropping into one of the velvet chairs beside her. “If I were in jail, who would fix the heater?”
She raises her brows and twists her long red hair to one shoulder. “True, and Lord knows it was you that made the room so much hotter.” Her eyes roll to the side with more of that signature sarcasm that Tess loves so much. “What’s the officialcharge, anyway? You steal something? Your sister was always vague about what happened.”
I don’t like talking about my mistakes, who does, but I figure if we’re going to be spending the night together, better to get the facts straight, though I’m not sure how to tell someone you beat the shit out of a man without saying you beat the shit out of him. “The long and short of it, I got a little heavy handed in my explanations on how to treat a woman. He’s still alive, so I like to think I showed kindness,” I laugh. “The courts don’t agree.”
She glances toward me and then away again. “And I suppose you think you’re a hero for standing up for her?”
“Nope. Not a hero. I fucked up. It’s fair to say that if my sister walked away with some bruising, the exchange rate should not be a month in the hospital going in and out of a coma.” I glance down at my hands, tracing the callous on my left thumb. “At the time it made sense.”
She rolls her eyes, rising without a word. At the coffee stand, she pours two cups of tea and returns, setting one in front of me. “Still doesn’t make it right.”
I nod, fingers curling around the hot mug. “No, it doesn’t, which is why I’m going to jail after Christmas.”
