Matchmaker Backfire

I watch Carter unfold the note and hand it to my dad.

Then I watch my dad spread it flat on his knee as he reads it again.

“Is this a joke?” he asks, his eyes narrowing on Carter, whose face is stone.

“Afraid not Greg. I can only guess when we check the Wi-Fi here it’ll be the same as the hot water… non-existent,” he adds solemnly.

My dad leaps up, rushing for his phone, and then his laptop.

“Dammit!” he cries angrily, looking back to Carter and them myself with a grim nod.

“It’s Peterson, the national president of the company I work for,” dad explains to Carter. “Heart attack… With all this weather they need a man at the helm to direct supply and distribution and they want me,” he adds, looking at me vacantly all of a sudden.

“Oh, sweetie! I can’t go. This is your graduation present, our own holiday!” he cries again, aghast.

Carter grips his shoulder, taking the message into his own huge hand and reading to himself, raising his brow.

“It’s dated this morning, a few hours ago. You’d better do something,” he says briskly. “Those strange innkeepers had it in the trash for some reason. How are the roads, I wonder?” he muses, a new light coming into his eyes as they study me.

“I can’t take Serena, and I won’t leave her here,” Dad says suddenly, snatching the fax back, trying to dial numbers on his cell phone.

“Won’t leave her, or won’t leave her here with me?” Carter asks accusingly.

Dad looks lost, staring at me but seeming to look right through me.

“I mean… I won’t leave her when it’s our holiday, Carter. Her holiday. You wouldn’t understand!” he spits, tossing the fax into the fire and leaning his arms against the fireplace.

Carter leaves him a moment, then rests a hand on his shoulder.

“Sorry, friend,” he murmurs. “I didn’t mean to tell you how to do things. You do what feels right.”

Chapter Twelve

Carter

I’ve gone from feeling pissed about the hot water situation; struggling to fathom how Serena and I can have some alone time… to hearing Greg’s been recalled back to not just the city, but a different one entirely to assist in running the company he’s hired by.

I should be elated.

I should be over the moon.

I should be as smug as those bastards that control the hot water like its currency.

But my main concern is and always will be Serena.

Turning to see her reaction, I can only see her shrug and look at her feet.

Shaking her head like she doesn’t mind if her dad has to go anywhere. But we both know it’s concerning.

“I have to go,” he finally says. “It’s my job. My duty…”

“How though?” Serena asks, voicing my own mind. “How will you even get there? Have you seen the weather out there?” she asks, sounding concerned now.

“I’ll have to leave straight away, take the truck I guess. I’ll update you both once I know what’s what,” he starts to say.

But I cut him off.

“I can get you a chopper here in an hour, I can use the radio in your truck,” I tell him.

I watch him relax.

“The satellite phone should be working. Didn’t even think they’d try to contact me all the way up here on holiday,” he admits.

I watch Greg go out to his truck, making his calls once he powers up the satellite phone.

I really could have a chopper here in an hour, but maybe I’m sounding too brash.

Rushing too much to get him away so I can claim what’s already mine.

Serena goes to the window, looking out after her dad. Her face filled with concern until she turns to look at me.

“Will you stay here, with me?” she asks, a half-smile playing on her lips.

Her whole body seeming to shiver for an instant as I fight the urge to take her in my arms.

Fight the need to take her here and now, over the back of the damned couch if I could.

“You know I will,” I tell her. “Unless your dad won’t let you,” I add, feeling like I’m choosing between betraying her, my heart, and her father in the same breath.

“Go to him,” I tell her firmly. Knowing she wants to. Knowing she has to.

“Be there for him and tell him whatever you decide you feel is right,” I add, preparing myself for the fact that maybe he really won’t leave her here and maybe she really won’t stay.

It’s one thing to flirt like crazy, even kiss.

But what I have in mind for Serena is forever, not just a holiday fling or fooling around.

My heart and soul is on the line.

Her heart is in mine already.

Making sure with another glance through the window her dad is in his truck still, she rushes over to me, throwing her arms around me, begging me to let her stay.