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Usually, he’d have said no in order to save the third degree. But he didn’t have the patience that evening. Perhaps it was something to do with watching Maya kiss Brodie, even though he had no right to feel anything about that particular situation. “We shared a ride to work and back. Of course we talked.”

She lifted her gaze, eyes narrowed. “About what?”

Dropping his fork, he rubbed his eyes. “The weather. Skiing. The sled race. Why?”

Her tone was flat. “Because I want to know, that’s why.”

He opted not to say anything. Years of experience had taught him when to stay quiet.

“She’s manipulative and a liar. Just look at how she hurt you in the past.”

He was struggling more than usual to stay in his safe cocoon of silence. “Cat, she can’t manipulate or hurt me when we’re only discussing skiing.” He was aware that they’d discussed more than that, confided more than that. But he’d sensed she was genuine, and he’d listened to her issues as much as she had his.

“That’s what she wants you to think.”

Lifting his gaze to meet hers, he shook his head. “Why don’t you give her a chance? We’ve all changed since we were eighteen.”

The expression on her face told him that had been the wrong thing to say.

She pressed her lips into a line as thin as tracing paper, her eyes rivaling the narrowness of her mouth. “What’s she told you?”

His heart rate spiked. “Nothing. She just confided some stuff about her family.”

“Some bullshit about her sister?”

Sam opened his mouth to reply, then hesitated. That was a very good guess. The niggle from a few nights ago reappeared in his mind, when he’d seen Cat looking at his phone and she’d made an excuse, coupled with the missing text from Maya, which still hadn’t arrived despite his bouncing-around-the-satellites theory.

The text that was about Maya’s sister.

Sam spoke slowly, having to force the words through his constricted throat. “Have you been going through my messages? And deleting them?”

There was a moment’s pause. Then Cat shoved her chair back so hard that he startled.

“How dare you accuse me of that. That is the lowest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.” She grabbed her plate and took it over to the kitchen, scraping it into the food bin so violently that Sam was concerned for the welfare of the crockery. “I have never been so insulted in my life. I wouldn’t treat my worst enemy the way that you treat me. I don’t know why I put up with it.” She practically threw the plate into the sink, and Sam winced, convinced it must’ve smashed. “Everybody else thinks so too. My family, friends. I’ve told them all what you’re like, and they say I can do better and they don’t know why I stay with you. You keep me tied to this dead-end town when I could be out in a big city somewhere, living the high life, finding a guy who can treat me well and lavish things on me. All you do is hold me back. You’ve no ambition.”

It was the sort of monologue she went into whenever she had one of her blowouts, and it would end with him apologizing and asking her not to leave. But it would always fuel her determination to do just that, and she’d go—not returning for a few days.

But this time he didn’t have the energy. “Why don’t you go to your mum’s, then.”

She stared at him, seemingly in disbelief that he wasn’t playing along. Darting her eyes across the room, she opened her mouth, then closed it again. “I’m going to bed. You can sleep in the spare room.” With an about turn, she stalked out of the kitchen and slammed the door behind her.

“It would be my pleasure,” Sam muttered.

Chapter

Thirteen

Maya crossed through the ski center and up the stairs toward Sam’s office. By rights she shouldn’t have been in the building. Aileen was back, and Maya wasn’t teaching until the next day, but she was too excited not to give Sam this news in person.

Knocking on his door, she listened for an answer, her pulse picking up. She thought she heard him say, “Yeah,” so she opened it.

He was there, sitting behind his desk, and the sight of him made her heart trip.

“Guess what?” she said, smiling as she entered. He looked up, and there were dark circles under his eyes.

Maya shut the door behind her, the wind taken out of her sails. “You okay?”

He rubbed his eyes. “I didn’t sleep well.”