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A suitcase sat by her feet as she used a shovel to clean the snow from her windshield.

I didn’t care how mad she was at me, I wasn’t letting her leave in that fucking car. Not like this.

Snow and gravel crunched under my boots when I jogged to close the distance between us. If she could hear my approach, she ignored it and moved to her back window to clear the snow.

When I got to her, she was dropping the shovel and heaving a heavy breath. Her hood was pulled up and her braids peeked through the sides, hiding the irritated frown on her face until I got closer.

“Shit, that’s a workout.” True tossed the shovel away from her and a smile tried to tug at my lips at the sound of her voice.

My heart sat in my throat when I said the only thing I could say. “True.”

She turned her whole body to look at me because of how puffy her coat was. And when her dark eyes flickered across my face, I caught a glimpse of warmth before her stare iced over. She tipped her head and slanted a brow at me. “What do you want, Noah?”

“He’s gonna get fucking pneumonia,” I grunted, tightening the scarf around my neck before pushing the door open. I was behind the resort, close to Noah’s unofficial wood shop, and my face pulled into a scowl as I closed in on him.

“Have you lost your mind?” I barked, stopping a foot away from him. The question should have been aimed at me since I was the one approaching a man with an axe in his hands. But the other option was calling him and I knew for a fact if he was out here like this, his phone was the last thing on his mind.

Noah brought the axe down again, watching the wood split in two. The resounding crack echoed around us before he let his eyes fall on me.

His heavy breaths came out in clouds of vapor and anger drew my face into a tighter scowl. It was too cold out here for him to be this reckless.

“Come inside.Now.”

I left before he could object, but breathed easier when I heard his boots on the walkway behind me.

In my office, he slumped into the chair facing my desk.

“I get that you pissed about last night but getting yourself sick out there won’t help shit.” It had stopped snowing this morning, but only because it was too damncoldto snow. Which made him being outside with no hat or gloves while he chopped wood even more fucked up.

Noah’s moody gaze tracked me as I sat down, facing the monitor with the email that put me on high alert in the first place.

“You missed a tour this afternoon.”

A few silent seconds went by before a look of remorse passed over his face. “Shit. I’m sorry, Grey.”

“John filled in. It’s whatever. I’m not worried about the tour. I’m worried about you. You don’tmissthings, Noah.” I leaned back, studying him with a tilt of my head. “I didn’t know your DNA allowed it.”

That pulled a dry laugh out of him and the triumph I felt for making him smile needed to be studied.

Warmth crept into my veins, trying to chase away my earlier frustration. All this because his dad had caught a chaste kiss before I took a call in the lobby.

Shaking the thought from my head, I said, “I know last night didn’t go how you wanted. And I’m not going to knock you down when you already on the ground, but shit, Noah…what did you expect?”

He didn’t speak. He just watched me with his brows dipped and his expression closed off.

“Nobody who loves you would sit there and let them talk to you crazy like that. We’ve known since True showed up that she wasn’t a “sit there and take it” type of person. And I don’t disagree with her standing up to him…”

I waited for him to scoff, to tell me I was choosing sides, anything. But all he did was smooth his hand over his hair and avoid my eyes.

“Would you let somebody talk to me or her the way your parents talk to you?”

“Hell no,” he said without hesitation.

“Why?”

“Because y’all are…everything to me.” His voice dipped at the end and the edge in my tone died a quick death.

“Then why do you get mad when people stand up for you? Why do you want us to watch you get hurt without saying anything?”