Page 4 of Snowed Inn For Christmas

Three

Julie

Ihadn’t been preparedto see Gage, which likely explained why I had felt so flushed and antsy since we arrived.My plan had been simple: wake Daisy up in the middle of the night after I packed only what we needed, and drive the seven hours to the cabin in the woods.We would arrive by early morning and have the day to get settled in.

Only it wasn’t just a cabin in the middle of the woods.It was an inn that my brother’s best friend’s grandmother had owned, and we would spend every summer there growing up.There were at least ten bedrooms and a large dining room that opened up into the beautiful living room that had huge windows that looked out into the forest.About half a mile away from the cabin was a lake that we would spend our days at.The boys would try their luck fishing, but would always give up after a few hours and join us as we took turns jumping off the tire swing that hung from the large maple tree.

I loved that I could still see Daisy from my spot at the dining room table, but what I didn’t love was the look on Gage’s face as he returned and took a seat right beside me.

“Do you need anything before we get started?Water?Food?”

“No, I’m fine.Thank you,” I said softly as I leaned back in the padded chair, finally noticing how tired I felt.

“What’s going on, Julie?”he asked, cutting straight to the chase.

“Nothing.I just needed somewhere to go for a few days.”

“Bullshit.Don’t fucking play games with me, Julie.You know I will find out, so you might as well tell me.”

“It’s nothing.I promise.I have it handled.”

“Have what handled?”

I rolled my eyes, hating—but also secretlyloving—that he thought he could force me to talk.Gage had been a lot to me over the years, but mean was never on that list.Not that he was being mean right now, but I also didn’t want to cross him.I knew that he wasn’t someone to mess with after the falling out he had with my brother.

“Julie,” he warned, leaning back slightly in his chair, just enough that the corded muscles in his arm showed as he rested it on the table.

When had he gotten this muscular?Had his body always been like this?There was no way I would have survived my teen years with him looking like this, so it must have happened after I stopped coming around.Probably a good thing because I wanted to climb him like a tree...

He cleared his throat, forcing my attention back to him as his deep, dark brown eyes stayed focused on me.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I said with a shrug.“Like I said, I didn’t know anyone would be here.Now that I do, I will be out of your hair as soon as possible.”

“What are you running from?”

An icy chill snaked down my back as the blood drained from my face, giving me away.While I hadn’t been able to stop obsessing over everything on our way up here, I wasn’t quite ready to talk about it.Doing so meant that it was real and that I couldn’t just run from the nightmare and pretend it didn’t happen.

“Okay—let me restate that.Whoare you running from?”

I swallowed hard, looking over at Daisy as she ate her popcorn and watched the movie.I would need to figure out something healthier to feed her for lunch since it was apparent that I wasn’t getting that popcorn back from her anytime soon.

“My boss.”I lowered my eyes and refused to meet his gaze.

“Your boss?Did you embezzle from them or something?Am I harboring a criminal here?”