Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77611 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77611 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
I’m not that lucky.
I know this because I’m currently a limping cautionary tale of what can happen when you get tangled up in other people’s problems. I should never have agreed to this.
It’s a long story. But the next time I go for a walk to rethink my friend’s plan, it won’t be in a fancy topiary garden. Seriously, the artistically shaped bushes had a creepy The Shining vibe that made me stupidly head for the tree line while I debated my next move. I hadn’t been ready to go back to the lodge yet, and by the time I realized my mistake, it was too late.
Never head for the trees is my new motto.
I’m not used to walking through a world without recognizable markers and street signs. Without sidewalks and corner stores filled with impatient, occasionally helpful people who could point me in the right direction. So I panicked a little.
After trying to call Connor at the lodge and realizing I’d forgotten to charge my phone last night? I panicked a lot.
So, that’s where I’m at. Limping on a twisted ankle—don’t ask—with a dead phone and no idea how to find my way back. Because of creepy topiary.
It’s snowing so hard I couldn’t find my hand right now unless it slapped me in the face. Is this a blizzard? A white out? I have no idea, but it isn’t like the sporadic snow we had back home this winter, or the barely-there layer that was already on the ground when we arrived. It sure as hell isn’t the magical flurries that show up at the end of every winter romcom to someone’s delighted cry of “Oh look, it’s snowing because love!”
This is not love snow. Instead, heavy flakes mixed with small ice bombs stick to everything like frozen burs, and this new and exciting temperature drop has me worrying about all kinds of things. Like hypothermia and hungry, sleepy bears who might be looking for a snack.
Worry about the fact that no one is looking for you because they don’t even know you’re gone.
I sag against a scruffy pine, it’s branches heavily laden with clumps of ice as I struggle to catch my breath after that mental sucker punch. The band I’m supposed to sing with hadn’t arrived at the lodge yet, and Connor won’t be looking for me for at least a few hours because he’s too busy enjoying the amenities that were supposed to be mine this weekend. The ones I bribed him with so I wouldn’t have to come up here by myself. He's scheduled for a hot stone massage right now. And after that? A facial. I would be enjoying the idea of the rough-and-tumble football coach getting pampered like a princess if I weren’t so damn cold.
I groan, stepping out from under the tree and resuming my death march—maybe we should call it a slog—unwilling to give up on the possibility of finding my way back to civilization. What I wouldn’t give to be curled up on Val’s couch with Bex again. To go back in time and tell her, “No, thank you” when she asked me to come here.
Bex never asks for favors. Though after what she’s been through, I’d offer her a kidney or the blood of her enemies if it would make her smile again.
She hasn’t smiled in a while.
I’ve been spending the last two months keeping her company while she recovered, and finishing my college course. She’s healing physically. Emotionally, I’m not so sure. But this situation? It got her attention. Sending me here got her brain working on something other than her injuries. Even Val wanted me to follow her lead, and he’s been anti-Finn since the night everything went down.
Did I mention that this ski lodge is full of Shawn and Ellen Finn’s family? That Kate the Calamity and most of her cousins are here celebrating the couple’s anniversary? They hired me to be the entertainment, which was definitely something I could do. Bex, however, had asked me to be her spy on the inside… Something I suck at.
Like I said. Long, complicated story.
So far, my sabbatical is a huge fail. Hanging out with that pervy vice principal would be safer than this. Because I’m definitely screwed at the moment. And not in a good way.
On the other hand, there are a few firefighters and police officers at the lodge right now. All of them attractive and every one of them named Finn. I take a moment to imagine a gorgeous group of mostly gay rescuers driving up on a snowcat to save the day. They fall instantly in love with me and become my new harem. Then they whisk me back to civilization and pamper me for at least a week to help me recover from my trauma.