Her other foot slipped as the snow gave way further. For a terrifying moment she thought she might disappear completely into whatever hollow space lay beneath the crust.
Before she slid too far, Wyatt spun and grabbed her arm.
“Easy . . .” He tightened his grip and pulled her toward him. “Don’t fight it. Lean back.”
Kori forced herself to listen. Slowly, she shifted her weight the way he directed until the snow stopped collapsing beneath her.
Her leg was still buried. She’d lost her protein bar.
But she hadn’t slid to her death.
Cold seeped through the fabric of her pants as she struggled to pull her leg free.
“It’s just a snow pocket,” Wyatt said. “The trail’s full of them today.”
“I noticed.”
He crouched and steadied her elbow while she worked her leg loose. When it finally came free, she rose . . . and immediately stumbled forward.
Straight into Wyatt.
For a moment she was pressed against his chest. His arm was braced around her to keep her upright—and to stop her from falling again.
Her breath came out in a rush of white air. Nearly falling . . . being this close to Wyatt—close enough to smell his evergreen cologne . . . it was all messing with her head. Making her feel things she shouldn’t. Leaving her off-balanced—something she rarely said about herself.
“Still think you’re fine?” Wyatt murmured, his breath whispering against her cheek.
She straightened, brushing snow from her pants as if nothing unusual had happened. “Absolutely.”
He gave her a look that suggested he didn’t believe her for a second. But he didn’t argue.
Once she regained her balance, she cleared her throat. “So . . . where were we?”
He continued to study her, not bothering to begin walking again. “You were talking about Mackenzie.”
“That’s right.” She resisted the urge to fan her face, to act like an adolescent around her first crush. She prided herself in being in control—and in control was the last thing she felt right now. “Anyway, Mackenzie fell in love with Blue Ridge Hollow that first visit. The mountains, the town, the pace of life. She’d always been that way—she loved small places. Places where people knew each other. It was the opposite of how I felt about it.”
“You didn’t like Blue Ridge Hollow?”
She couldn’t be sure, but was that disappointment in his voice? Certainly not. She was imagining things.
“I like Blue Ridge Hollow just fine. But I couldn’t imagine moving there and having the career I’d always dreamed about. Mackenzie could. When she got a job she could do remotely, she started talking about moving here. I thought it was a phase. It wasn’t.”
“I see.” He paused. “So is your career in DC everything you thought it would be?”
His question surprised her. Was it? She hadn’t asked herself that in a long time.
“I’ve been successful and made a name for myself,” she finally said.
“But is it everything you thought it would be?”
There Wyatt went, seeing through to the heart of the matter again.
She blew out a breath. “It’s fast-paced. I’m busy. I hardly have time for a life outside work, to be honest. Even leaving to come here, I kept fielding calls from the office. It’s like I can’t be successful unless I’m married to my career.”
“Is that what you want?”
She considered her answer. “To be honest, I don’t know.”
