Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 22991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Raven sighed dramatically. “Do you really think I just happened to have one more cabin available, Hayden?”
My spirits sank. Fucking hell. I was going to have to let these little busybodies claim that they’d had a hand in bringing me and Laurel together.
“Where the hell is Jake when I need him to take your devious minds off me?” I groaned.
Raven’s nose scrunched in annoyance. “He’s using my sister’s cabin to…well, I don’t know what…fight? Do the sleigh ride slide? Whatever it is…with his secret wife.”
“His what?” I choked out.
Raven frowned. “Yeah, I don’t know what the candy canes is going on with all the men in my life having hidden wives.” I knew Colin had shown up with a surprise wife the same year Raven had married Caleb. But this was the first I was hearing about her brother being married.
“You don’t know what’s going on with them?” I asked, a little shocked that the woman who seemed to know everything was clueless about her brother’s apparent marriage.
“Caleb won’t let me interfere,” she grumbled.
Speaking of the devil, Raven’s husband walked into the room and made a beeline for his wife. “What is it you’re blaming me for, baby?” he asked as he put his arms around her.
“Not letting me help Jake when I could—”
“No.”
“But I could—”
“Forget it, baby.”
“But what if—”
“Let them work it out.”
“If I could just—”
“Do you remember what happened the last time we had this argument?” he murmured. Raven’s skin flushed, and she practically melted into Caleb.
My face screwed up in disgust. “For fuck’s sake. I don’t want to see this shit. She’s like my little sister, Caleb.”
Raven’s husband grinned at me. “You’ll understand when you have your own woman.”
Raven perked up. “Oh! So I helped—”
“I’m leaving,” I announced as I stole another cookie before turning on my heel and marching out of the kitchen.
I was shrugging on my coat when Colin came into the hallway. “All joking aside,” he stated. “I was serious about the road closure.”
“Yeah.” I held up my phone to show him the missed calls and texts. “I got that. I’m going to go return the calls in Raven’s office.”
Colin cocked his head to the side and studied me for a moment. “I was also serious when I said there is no other place for you except the cabin we gave to your friend. Even the couches and sleeping bags are spoken for.”
My lips slowly curved into a wicked smile. “Even if they weren’t, I’d still be using that excuse. Although, I haven’t figured out how the fuck I’m going to keep my hands off her.”
“Ah.” Colin chuckled. “You just didn’t want the girls to know you were happy to take advantage of the situation.”
“These women—and that includes your wife, jackass—need to find something better to do than trying to ‘help’ people find romance. Why can’t you fucking control your women?”
Colin burst into a belly-shaking laugh, and I watched him in confusion until he finally caught his breath. “Seriously? They let us put on a good show of being in charge, but do you really think a single one of us isn’t completely whipped by our wives? Yeah…we’ll see what you have to say after you’ve put a ring on your girl’s finger.” Then he walked away, still chuckling.
Rolling my eyes, I finished donning my coat, hat, scarf, and gloves. I would treat Laurel like a fucking queen, but she certainly wouldn’t be leading me around by my jingle balls.
For fuck’s sake. You’re starting to sound like Raven.
I pulled open the back door and sucked in a breath of frozen air when a blast of wind hit me. Quickly, I wrapped my scarf around the lower half of my face. In the short time I’d been inside, the snow had turned to huge, fast-falling flakes, and it was impossible to see even a foot in front of me. After spending my life in Winter Falls, I wasn’t caught unprepared. I withdrew a pair of ski goggles from my inner coat pocket and put them on so I could at least keep my eyes open.
The walkways had been heavily salted, so I could just make out the path on the ground despite the furious snowfall. I knew the resort's layout like the back of my hand, so I slowly made my way toward the cabin where I’d left Laurel.
By the time I reached it, I was so covered in snow that I most likely resembled the abominable snowman or a yeti. It was too fucking cold to spend time trying to shake it all off, so I just pounded my gloved hand against the door. Since the fabric obscured my knuckles from rapping sharply on the wood, I had to thump on the door really hard.
A few seconds later, it swung open, and my hands flew up to cover my ears at the piercing sound of a scream.