Page 16 of Perfectly Matched: Harbor Falls Romance Collection

“This was a mistake.”

Icy and sharp, the snow slanted against him as Matt got out of his cruiser and headed toward the blue Dodge. It cut into his face and he tilted his chin into his chest to avoid it. The driver moved the car to the side of the narrow road, but he wondered about the sanity of pulling it over. Visibility was quickly becoming non-existent and he didn’t relish being exposed and vulnerable should someone else pop over that hill.

They’d had a lot of snow lately. An unusual amount. It didn’t seem to be letting up any, either.

Before he’d left the cruiser, he’d taken a moment to jot down the license plate number, noting the out-of-county plates. He didn’t recognize the car and figured the person inside wasn’t local. Somehow that comforted him, although he wasn’t quite sure why. Perhaps he would feel less guilty giving a ticket to a stranger rather than someone he knew—especially during the holidays.

He glanced at his watch. His day was nearly up.

“Short and quick,”

he told himself.

“Then get home.”

The windows on the car were tinted so it was difficult to see inside. That always made him wary. He approached slowly, came even with the front edge of the side door, and knocked on the driver’s window.

The immediate sound of babies crying hit him as the window rolled down. He leaned forward. A woman was turned toward the back seat. He stepped closer to see the driver. A blond mane was all he could see. She faced the children as her frantic voice tried to quiet them.

“Be still. Hush, girls,”

she said. He thought he heard a sniff behind that plea.

“Ma’am.”

He leaned further and looked at the passenger seat. No one there. He relaxed inside but kept his stoic composure from an outward appearance.

He hoped.

The woman turned to look at him and in a flurry of words and tears blurted out.

“Officer, I’m so sorry. The babies were crying and I have a headache and,”

sniff, sniff.

“the snow is coming and I wanted to get to my sister’s and,”

sniff.

“I didn’t realize I was going that fast and—oh, my—”

She stopped. Blinked. Looked up at him with those baby blues that he remembered oh, so well. The baby blues that sometimes still haunted his sleep.

Something punched him deep. His gut twisted and fell. His heart slammed against his chest. Straightening his shoulders and posture, he attempted to plaster the most stoic demeanor he could possibly muster on his face.

He wasn’t sure he pulled it off.

The snow angled into her window and the swiped at the tears spilling onto her cheeks. A hand shielded her eyes from the stinging pellets. “Matt?”

He nodded with a single word. “Shelley.”

That’s right. Show no emotion.

“I…uh…”

He squared himself.

“Been a while since you were in town so guess you don’t know the speed limit has changed. Might be a good idea for you to heed that.”

With a puzzled look, she nodded.

“Of course.”

“Of course,”

he echoed.

“Since you left out of here on a whim and a prayer, without a word to anyone, I figured you’ve probably not given anyone in Harbor Falls a single thought since then, let alone the speed limit.”

“Matt, I—”

He cut her off.

“I’m giving you a warning. Watch it.”

With that, he turned on his heel and headed back to his cruiser, his heart pounding more with each step he took. Yes, watch it sister. You have a lot of nerve showing your face back in this town.

No, he wasn’t going there.

By the time he settled himself in the cruiser, the breath whooshed out of him in one fell swoop, fogging up his windshield.

“Dammit,”

he muttered and kicked up the defroster.

He waited for her to ease back onto the road before pulling out himself, then he followed her all the way through town. He sat, back rigid, fingers curled in a tight grip around the steering wheel, his chest taut as a drum.

His brain hummed. His heart ached.

She turned onto Lake Road. Seemed she was heading toward Sweet Hart Inn. He headed up the mountain.

He couldn’t wait to get home. To his cave.

“Dammit, Shelley, why are you here?”

He pounded the dashboard.

Everyone in Harbor Falls knew that Cliff had died, but…

His gut slammed against his backbone. Was Shelley home? Was his high school sweetheart back in town to stay? The woman who sent him into his cave in the first place?

He hoped with everything in him that it wasn’t true. It was the holidays, right? Lots of people come home for the holidays. Even people who vanish from your life and never look back.

Hell, he hadn’t realized how much his heart still hurt.

****

There were a million things she could feel right now, but Shelley pushed every one of them into some gray area of her brain. Matt was one. She could not deal with Matt Branson today. Not now.

The day had been too long. She was exhausted, emotional, and hungry again, not to mention frustrated with the crying babies in the back seat. Tired from fighting the snow and her emotions, she chose not to think any longer, just to do. So that is what she did.

She drove straight down Lake Road, turned into Suzie’s drive, slanted her gaze at the sign that read, Welcome to Sweet Hart Inn, and prayed that she would be exactly that—welcomed.

She doubted it.

She knew the way even though she had never been to the house since Suzie had turned it into a bed and breakfast. Their Aunt Donna had lived there for all of Shelley’s growing up years until she passed away—not long after she and Cliff had eloped and settled their lives into Dalton Springs. Shelley hadn’t attended her aunt’s funeral, either, and she felt a pang of guilt because of it. But things were as they were then, and there was nothing she could do about it now. What she was doing was what needed to be done—making amends, she hoped, with her sister and family—and that’s all she could do.

Right now, at least. Any other past transgressions she’d deal with in time. Matt’s face flashed into her mind’s eye at that moment and just as quickly, she pushed the image away.

Not now.

The gray, snowy night matched her somber mood perfectly. The snow had stopped for a while. A couple of inches piled up around Suzie’s front porch. She pulled alongside the house, and not bothering with anything but her purse and the girls, headed up the sidewalk. Karly was in her arms, her soft head resting on her shoulder. Katie toddled along beside her, holding her hand.

“Be careful of the ice, honey,”

she said to her oldest.

“Yes, Mommy.”

Tears sprang to her eyes again at the sweet child. She loved her girls so much, and now that they had arrived at this decisive moment—as she navigated the steps up to Suzie’s front porch with her most precious cargo—she wanted only one thing. She wanted Suzie to love her girls as much as she did.

Even if she didn’t accept Shelley, maybe she’d accept her girls.

Too much to expect, probably.

With every emotion known to woman ready to cackle up and spill over inside of her, Shelley swallowed her pride and moved forward onto the porch. A cascade of greenery and lights arched over the front door. Beyond in the sidelights of the door, she could see someone milling about. Soft Christmas music met her ears and she could smell cookies baking.

Peanut butter with chocolate drops.

That notion made her smile. This was the Suzie she remembered.

If only…

The door swung abruptly open.

“Shelley? Oh my God!”

Her sister stood there, framed by holly and twinkling lights, a questioning expression on her face. Her strawberry blond hair was piled high on her head. She had flour on her face and was wiping her hands on her apron. A little boy clung to her leg.

Tears poured. “Suzie,”

Shelley sobbed.

“I’m so sorry. I am so, so sorry for everything. I am…”

Suzie grasped her sister and pulled her into the house, tears streaming down her face.

“Come here, you,”

she whispered and kicked the door shut behind her.

“Just come here.”

Shelley sobbed on her sister’s shoulder, and Suzie, always the gracious hostess, let her. She hugged her with several years’ worth of longing, trapping the girls in their embrace.

“I’ve been so worried about you,”

Suzie whispered, pulling back to look into her face. She gently thumbed away tears from Shelley’s eyes and then turned to both girls, cupping first Karly’s small face in her hands, and leaning down to do the same with Katie.

“You are both so beautiful,”

she said softly.

Next, she grasped the little boy’s hand that still clutched her leg. Shelley guessed he was a little younger than Karly.

Crouching, she said to the boy.

“Petey, these are your cousins, Katie and Karly. Say hello?”

Petey turned his face into his mother’s leg. Katie burrowed a little closer into her own mother.

Straightening then, Suzie looked long into Shelley’s face and whispered.

“Merry Christmas, Shelley. We have a lot of catching up to do but let’s put one thing to rest right now. The past is the past. And I am so very glad that you’re here.”

Shelley sobbed, relief washing over her.

****

Matt drove on autopilot up the mountain and past the old lodge, navigated the drifting snow on the narrow mountain road, and took his time getting to his isolated cabin. His escape. His refuge from the storm—and life.

Shelley was back, he was sure of it. As he’d thought over the situation of thirty minutes earlier, he realized that her car was packed up with things. A suitcase was jammed between the girl’s two car seats. A couple of small boxes and bags were stowed in the passenger seat and floorboard. There was a grocery bag from Ralph’s, too. He’d taken all of that in in a few seconds because that was what he was trained to do. Observe and record in his brain. Sometimes the details didn’t jump back at him until he had removed himself from the situation and his brain had time to work over it.

The drive gave him more than enough time to analyze the situation.

He approached his cabin and pulled up close to the porch, realizing that he was going to have to shovel himself out in the morning. He wasn’t going to worry about that now. Shoveling came with the territory when you lived at a higher elevation and winter was here. Besides, he welcomed the physical exertion. Although snowstorms in the Blue Ridge Mountains were a part of life here, rarely did they get one that shut their world down for long lengths of time. But they did get them occasionally, and when they did, residents in and around Harbor Falls generally were prepared to hole up for a few days.

He hoped that wasn’t the case with this storm. Just like he hoped that Shelley would land in Harbor Falls for the holidays and then leave to go back to Dalton Springs. That scenario was not likely, and he knew it.

Fiddling with the door lock, he twisted the knob and stepped inside. He shrugged out of his jacket and shoes, handing up the coat on a hook by the door and leaving his shows on a mat there as well. Glancing toward the fireplace, he decided to light a fire to take the chill off. The furnace was set to a low temperature while he was gone, but a fire was what he wanted and needed tonight.

A fire would chase the chill away from his bones and his heart. Hell, he hated that his heart had turned cold after all these years, but it had. There was a time he thought if he ever had the chance to win Shelley back, he would do it. But that time had long passed.

How many years was a man supposed to wait?