Reads Novel Online

Snowbound

« Prev  Chapter  Next »



the back of the van. “We just wanted to say thanks. You

must be exhausted.”

She was, Fiona realized in surprise. She felt as if

someone had just pulled the plug, and all the nervous

energy that had kept her going was draining out. Even

her legs felt a little shaky.

“The kids were great,” she said, “especially Dieter.

Thank heavens he remembered Thunder Mountain

Lodge and recognized the turnoff even though the sign

was buried in snow.”

She laughed. “Dieter never forgets anything. It can

actually be a little bit annoying sometimes. In this

case, though…”

“He was our lifesaver.”

Other parents came around to thank her as well.

Nobody, thank goodness, seemed to think she’d been

irresponsible. She was lucky that the storm had hit

Hawes Ferry as well, so the parents could imagine the

conditions that had stranded their children.

She was especially interested to meet Willow’s

dad, who was thin, balding and as unassuming in appearance as his daughter. Behind his glasses, she thought she saw some moisture in his eyes. Of all the

parents, he had the most reason to have been truly

afraid when Willow didn’t make it back from the

field trip.

As car doors slammed and voices called goodbye,

she looked around to see that Troy and Erin were

together scraping snow from the roof and windshield

of Erin’s car. His was already swept clean and idled

beside hers, exhaust hanging in the cold air. Apparently

they’d joined forces, or else he’d been gentleman

enough to insist on driving her to her car and helping

her get safely on her way home. Troy had grown on

Fiona this weekend; he might be participating in

Knowledge Champs only to pad his résumé for college,

but he’d been mature and uncomplaining through their

whole stay at the lodge, staying out of the occasional

bickering. He and Erin were simply more grown up than

the others.

With night falling, the sodium lamps around the

parking lot began to blink on as cars pulled out. Dave had

remained, and he drove Fiona to her car on the other side

of the campus, even helping by sweeping snow off it while

she scraped the windshield and the engine warmed up.

Then they said good night, the last two cars to leave

the high school.

Fiona reluctantly stopped for groceries and carried

them into her small, rented town house. She’d turned

the heat down last Friday morning, so it was cold and

dark but for the one lamp she’d left on in the living

room. Even before putting groceries away, she turned

up the thermostat, hearing the furnace come on with a

muted roar. A fire would feel good, but she had no fireplace. If the builder had bothered, it probably would have been one of those gas ones that were all show and

put out no real heat, nothing like the huge, river rock

fireplace capable of heating the entire lodge.

She put away the perishables, then went to her computer. It was silly, of course; John had probably gone down to town this afternoon to load up on groceries,

and might not make it back to check e-mail for days

or even a week. It wasn’t as if he was waiting by his

computer for her e-mail. But she’d promised to let

him know right away when they arrived safely, and

she’d do it.

Once the computer had booted and she’d gone

online, she skimmed the handful of e-mails that had

arrived while she was gone and deleted the spam, then

called up the screen for a new message. She typed in

the address he’d given her for his private email, then

typed “Dear John” before stopping.

Too formal. He’d kissed her that morning, dragged

her so tightly against him that she’d felt every contour

of his body and the full length of his erection. Even the

memory was enough to arouse her.

Why couldn’t she feel this way for someone more…

convenient? Why a man so damaged emotionally, he

might never be willing to leave his refuge in the mountains?

She started over.

John,

We made it safe and sound. Roads were mostly bare

past Danson, just icy in spots. A happy group of

parents met us. I was lucky. They all thanked me

instead of asking how I could have been so dumb as

to choose some skinny line on the map and assume



« Prev  Chapter  Next »