Snowbound with Mr. Wrong (Snowflake Valley) Read online

  The smile he gave her was warm enough to make something melt inside her, which only increased her irritation. She had to have more willpower than this. “Don’t waste your troubleshooting tactics on me. We’re not going to wind up in a win-win.”

  She wouldn’t fall for his charms again.

  During breakfast, Lyssa’s annoyance gradually started to fade. Then Nick began insisting upon inspecting the lodge’s garage, swearing his ankle was up to the trek through the snow. She didn’t want him to go alone, and she didn’t want to send Brent along with him. Luckily, she knew better than to say either of those things to Nick.

  Instead, as he left the lodge, she hurriedly asked Brent to keep an eye on the younger kids. To her relief, after only a blank-faced hesitation, the teen agreed. She ran to grab her jacket and follow Nick.

  Outside, the sky was dark and filled with heavy clouds promising more snow. A frigid wind blew with enough force to cut through her layers of jacket and sweater, chilling her to the bone. Her hair tumbled around her shoulders and across her face. She heard nothing but the muffled silence of the mountainside blanketed in snow and the crunch-crunch as Nick’s boots broke through the crusted snow on the lodge’s front steps.

  He stopped at the foot of the steps and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. When she reached his side, she heard him swear under his breath.

  “Still no reception?” she guessed.

  “No. But I’ll move around, try to climb above the tree line. Maybe that will get me within range of a signal tower.”

  Doubtfully, she glanced overhead.

  They crossed the open space between the lodge and the five-car garage. “What do you think you’re going to find inside?” she asked. “Even if Michael does have a chainsaw, it won’t do us any good since we can’t get the car on the road.”

  “When he’s staying here, he needs some kind of transportation. With all the skiing he does, I’m thinking he’ll have a snowmobile. That’ll be good enough to get me down this mountain.”

  But when he opened the side door, she was at his heels. At once, she could see he was due for disappointment. There were no vehicles in the garage, nothing with a motor except a gasoline-powered lawnmower that looked as if it had sat idle for years.

  Still, he prowled the building.

  “Now what are you looking for?”

  “Boards. Plywood. Anything wide and flat we could put under the wheels of your car.”

  “I don’t think we ought to go anywhere.”

  He turned and frowned at her. “Since when? Yesterday you were as eager as I was to get out of here.”

  “Yes, because I was concerned about getting the kids home to their families for Christmas. Not,” she added pointedly, “about getting back to my job. But that was yesterday. Today, it looks like we’re in for more snow.”

  “And the sooner we get moving, the sooner we can beat the storm down the mountain.”

  “What if we can’t?”

  “It’s worth a try.”

  “Not if it means the risk of taking the kids out in another blizzard. It would be better to wait for help to arrive.”

  “And when do you think that might be?”

  She had managed to avoid this conversation yesterday, but she had known eventually they would get around to it. She shrugged, taking a moment to brace herself for the unhappy response she knew she would get from him.

  “We’re experts at handling snow removal in Snowflake Valley,” she said at last. ”With the number of snowstorms that blow through the area, we don’t have a choice. Nothing would ever get done in the wintertime if we couldn’t clear the snow out quickly. No matter the weather, life goes on. We all manage to take care of our own.”

  “But…?” he asked.

  She frowned. “What?”

  “I told you, you had potential. You might have a great future in real estate, since you just gave me an excellent pitch on the advantages of living in the valley. However, you sidestepped my question. I know there’s a ‘but’ hanging onto that last sentence.”

  Shrugging again, she looked away and admitted, “But at first, no one will have time to worry about the outlying areas.”

  “You mean, anything outside the valley.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why don’t we stop dancing around the subject, Lyssa,” he said harshly, “and throw it out on the table. What you’re saying is that the folks of Snowflake Valley might not come to dig us out until they take care of everyone else in town. That even if Amber realizes something’s wrong, we’re not getting out of here anytime soon.”

  She said nothing.

  He exhaled heavily. “As that’s obviously the case, it only makes sense to find a way out of here. And when I find one, I’m taking it.”

  All for one and all for me.

  Without a word, she turned on her heel and left the garage. There was no point in arguing. He’d made up his mind. And she knew from experience that it was impossible to get him to change it. She wouldn’t argue. If he found a way off the mountain, she would let him go. She didn’t need him here—or in her life anymore. There were too many things they didn’t agree on. Too many ways in which their beliefs and value systems collided—for example, that night she had fallen asleep while he made his overseas phone calls.

  They had planned to go out to dinner, but he had gotten wrapped up in a conference call with a hot prospect in Europe. That one call led to another. And another. And another.

  She had hoped they would spend their time after dinner sharing kisses with each other and not making phone calls that involved only one of them. Obviously, Nick’s hopes and hers hadn’t matched. Eventually, she had fallen asleep.

  The next morning, she had opened her eyes to find sunshine streaming across her on the couch. The bright light had woken her up in more ways than one.

  Nick was all business, almost all of the time. And with him, business would always come first—not her, not their relationship, and worst of all, not the children she had foolishly begun to hope they would have someday.

  But that was before she’d discovered the real Nick.

  A man hardheaded and driven when it came to getting what he wanted—which, she had finally and reluctantly had to face, didn’t include her.

  …

  Back at the lodge, Nick stripped off his jacket and dropped it on the bench inside the front door.

  All three kids sat in the living room. Mollie and Tommy sprawled in front of the coffee table with a deck of playing cards Lyssa had given them. Brent had taken the chair near the fireplace and sat with his ever-present earbuds in his ears and a blanket pulled up to his chin.

  Immediately, Mollie crossed the room. “How is your foot, Mr. Nick?”

  She had asked the question a lot less grudgingly than Lyssa had that morning. He didn’t want to think about Lyssa. “Well, let’s see. It didn’t hurt while I was outside.” After he removed his boots, he flexed his right foot, testing his ankle. “So far, everything seems to be fine.”

  He wished he could say the same of Lyssa.

  And there he was, despite himself, thinking about her again. That didn’t come as a surprise considering he’d had plenty of trouble keeping her off his mind the past few months. When Michael had gotten in touch to ask him to play Santa again, Lyssa hadn’t been far from his thoughts, either.

  He hadn’t wanted a reunion with her. And he’d agreed to reprise his role only after Michael’s assurance—by way of her sister, Amber—that Lyssa couldn’t attend the party this year, let alone play elf. One of these days, somebody was going to have a lot to answer for.

  “Since your foot is all better,” Mollie said, “can we go outside and make snow angels?”

  Before he could answer, Lyssa appeared, as if she might have been hovering just inside the kitchen doorway waiting for an opening to join the conversation. It bothered him to think she didn’t want to talk with him alone. It bothered him even more that she couldn’t see he wanted only to help her.


  “No trips outside today,” she told Mollie. “It looks like it’s going to start snowing again any minute.”

  “Again?” Tommy yelped. “But Miss Lyssa, you said when the snow stops, we can go home.”

  Nick took his turn at jumping into the conversation. “What did you do with those cards, Tommy? I’m challenging you to a game.”

  “Can we play Go Fish?” The boy began sweeping the cards into a pile on the coffee table.

  “Can I play, too?” Mollie asked.

  “You sure can.” Though he spoke to the kids, over Mollie’s head he met Lyssa’s eyes. “You two shuffle the cards. I want to talk to Miss Lyssa for a minute.”

  Lyssa’s eyes widened a fraction, but she turned and went back the way she had come.

  He followed her into the kitchen. “There was nothing in the garage I could use to get the car back on the road. Not even a bag of rock salt.”

  “Amber probably carries that in the trunk of her car.”

  “Smart woman. But it won’t do us much good there. Haven’t you gotten in touch with her yet?”

  She shook her head. “I checked the cell phone. Nothing.”

  “Yeah. I hiked up the mountain a-ways to try for a signal. Nothing doing there, either.”

  “I expected that.”

  And nothing like beating a man at his own game. Of course, she had local knowledge of the area. If he’d done some Internet research…if he’d had Internet access to do research… He fought not to scowl. “You knew all along we weren’t going anywhere, didn’t you?”

  She nodded. “And you do know your card game is only a temporary distraction?”

  “Yeah.” For him. He needed something to take his mind off Lyssa. But he’d also already acknowledged what she had said—to himself, at least. He wasn’t about to broadcast the info. The truth was he, who always had answers to everyone’s problems, couldn’t find a solution to this one. “What do we do when Tommy gets tired of Go Fish?”

  “I’ll look around. I found the cards. Amber might have some board games here, too. If not, I’ll figure something out.”

  “Something that’ll keep all three kids happy?”

  She nodded. “Don’t worry about that. I had lots of experience entertaining my sisters and brothers when I was younger.”

  “And since then?”

  “Plenty of time with the local kids, between babysitting, leading a Scout troop, and volunteering at the preschool. My older sister, Callie, teaches at the grade school. She’s Mollie’s teacher this year, as a matter of fact. And Callie never passes up an opportunity to get me to help her out, too. I can always find something to do to amuse a child.”

  “Let’s hope so, or those kids are going to be in for a very long day.”

  She nodded and reached up to run her hand through her hair. The long brown strands tumbled over her shoulder. Her borrowed sweater, a shade snug on her, clung in all the right places.

  Swallowing hard, he turned and made his way back to the living room. The kids weren’t the only ones who would suffer through a long day here.

  He hoped she would find something to keep the kids occupied…because he’d been all too right about needing a distraction himself.

  Chapter Eight

  Lyssa deposited the pile of freshly dried clothes on the bed in the room she was using. Beside her, Mollie set down the small basket she had carried upstairs.

  “Thanks for your help, Mollie.”

  The girl nodded. “Are we going to make popcorn in the fireplace this afternoon, like you said?”

  “We sure are.” She had searched the house high and low for games and had found nothing except a chessboard and the pieces to go with it. Mollie had no interest in chess, and Lyssa doubted it would hold Tommy’s attention. Fortunately, so far, he had been content to play cards.

  The idea of popping corn had been a shot in the dark, and she was grateful for the positive reactions she’d gotten from the kids. Even Brent had perked up at her suggestion, and she’d had to suppress a smile. Obviously, anything to do with food ranked high on his list of interests.

  Lyssa began folding clothes. And making plans. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve, and they would more than likely spend it right here at the lodge. Thank goodness they had plenty of food and water and firewood, as well as a generator.

  When Mollie left the room, Lyssa looked longingly at her cell phone on the nightstand beside the bed. If only they had phone service…

  As if her thought had worked a miracle, the phone began to ring. She snatched it up and read the display. Amber. Thank goodness, again.

  “Amber, are you all right? How’s Penny? Did the twins get home okay?”

  “Yes, everyone’s fine.” Her sister sighed. “I’m so glad to hear your voice. I’ve been trying your phone since yesterday. Are you okay? Are the kids with you? Last night, I called a few people from the party, and no one knew what happened. The road up to the lodge is impassable, and everyone’s frantic.”

  Quickly, Lyssa explained everything.

  “Well,” Amber said, “we’ve gotten more than four feet of snow here. Now that we know you’re safe, the road crews probably won’t get to you for a couple of days. And”—she paused, then laughed softly—“as long as you and the kids are all okay, this could be a good thing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You and Nick.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Don’t be like that, Lyssa. I haven’t wanted to upset you by mentioning the two of you, but I know you know exactly what I mean.”

  Lyssa also knew in her heart there was something her sister had wanted. And it explained why Amber had helped Nick slip into his role as Santa again this Christmas—without conferring with Miss Elf. But now Lyssa was the one reluctant to mention his name or to confront Amber about plotting against her. Of course, that was only because she knew her sister already had so much to deal with.

  So she simply said to Amber what she had been trying to tell herself. “Don’t go looking for miracles.”

  “Why not? It’s the season for them. And for happiness. Isn’t that what everybody pushes on Icicle Lane? You deserve to have some of it, too.”

  Icicle Lane was the main street running through Snowflake Valley. For the businesses situated on the quarter-mile stretch of road, satisfying Christmas wishes was part of their daily trade. Lyssa believed wholeheartedly in the sentiment. But she knew it didn’t apply to her.

  She’d had a chance to satisfy her wishes and, despite all she had done, she couldn’t make them come true. She didn’t want to think of her failure. It was hard not to be reminded of it, though, when the man she had wished for had been almost constantly underfoot.

  “Nick might find himself in for a few surprises,” Amber said.

  “I doubt that.”

  “And so might…” The phone crackled, and her voice faded.

  “Amber?”

  “I was just say…you never…can happen…”

  “Amber…?” Sighing, she set the dead phone down on the nightstand again and went back to folding clothes.

  “Did Mollie hear your phone?”

  At the unexpected sound of Nick’s eager voice, she jumped and nearly toppled onto the bed. He was standing in the doorway, bootless. His striped socks had made no noise on the wood floor. “Yes,” she told him, “Mollie did hear the phone. But the signal dropped out while I was talking to Amber.”

  Grunting, he slumped against the doorframe. “I’d already tried mine and couldn’t get a blip out of it.”

  He looked so dejected, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, even though she knew what lay behind his concern. “It’s only a business deal, Nick. You handle lots of them. Having to pass up just one can’t be such a catastrophe, can it?”

  “This one can.”

  Of course he would say that. “Why this one?”

  “My reputation’s on the line.”

  And, of course, that’s all he would care about. She hesitated
. Maybe she was being unfair. Hadn’t she cared about saving Amber’s reputation as the perfect party hostess?

  “Why this one?” she repeated in a softer tone.

  “My client’s on the verge of bankruptcy, and I’m trying to negotiate financing.” He shook his head. “But the guy doesn’t trust banks or bankers, and every time I line up a loan, he refuses to sign on the dotted line. When we talked two days ago, he was threatening to give up and walk away from the business. The business his father and grandfather passed down to him. I can’t let that happen.”

  Hope twinkled like a string of Christmas lights inside her. “Then it’s not just about your reputation.”

  “Sure it is. Who’s going to want to hire someone who can’t successfully negotiate a simple loan?”

  So much for twinkling hopes. She frowned. “If your own client’s working against you—”

  “As he’s my client, that’s all the more reason I ought to be able to fix this.”

  “If you can’t get in touch with him, there’s not much you can do—short of wishing for a Christmas miracle.” Silly even to bring that up, especially when she had just acknowledged miracles were out of her reach. And Nick gave the response she expected.

  “Right.” His voice was laced with heavy sarcasm. “And you know my answer to that, don’t you?” He began to turn away.

  “Uhh…excuse me.” When he paused, she said, “Amber had bad news to report. It’s pretty much confirmed we’ll be here at the lodge through Christmas. You’ll need to help me with the kids.”

  “Help doing what?” he asked suspiciously.

  “We need to keep them busy. I think I’ll have them make some decorations for the holidays.”

  “Thanks, but that’s not my thing.”

  “Why not? You did surprisingly well playing cards with the kids this morning.”

  “‘Surprisingly’? Gee, thanks again. What do you think I am, some kind of ogre with no redeeming skills at all?”

  “Of course not. I think you have plenty of redeeming skills, and we’re going to put them to use this afternoon. It will be a good way to keep the kids’ minds occupied, too.” Making decorations would preserve tradition and provide a distraction for the kids—and for her. She had to do something to help keep her mind off Nick. Being with him again had made her realize just how much she missed his laugh, his touch, his kiss… How much she missed him.