Snowed In

by Tricia Wentworth

  He now stood directly across from Jordyn with his hands resting on the conference table, his only barrier to her. He couldn’t bring himself to sit down yet. “I thought it was you in the barn,” he began, resisting the urge to walk over to her and wrap his arms around her. Or grovel on his hands and knees. He was not against begging if that’s what it took.

  “I was there, Beckett. I saw it.” Her voice cracked but she kept going. “With my own two eyes. Are you really going to try to play that card right now?” She shook her head.

  He cut her off. “No interrupting, remember? And it’s the truth.” He moved to put his hands on his hips so he wouldn’t try to reach for her or hurdle the table to get to her. “I heard the barn door open, and I smelled you. I know that sounds crazy, maybe slightly creepy, but I love the way you smell. I could pick your lotion out of a lineup. And she smelled like you. Ariana even admitted to me that she used your lotion when she went inside to use the bathroom that day. So when I grabbed her by the waist, there was no doubt in my mind that it was you I was grabbing—not her. I had no idea Ariana would even step foot in a barn.”

  Jordyn’s eyebrows furrowed in thought. She was still mad, but she was at least thinking about the words he was saying.

  “By the time I did know it was her, she had already kissed me and it was too late. Then I had to deal with her. And then I got confronted by some Pink Ladies that were mad as hell.” He almost smiled. “I went after you, but you were already gone. I called, I emailed, I texted. I was trying everything I could think of to just talk to you to explain . . . . ” He felt something lodged in the back of his throat. He hadn’t cried since his mom died. He had to get through this . . . . She had to know the truth.

  “I thought it was you, Jordyn,” he said, his voice now cracking. “Please think about what you know about Ariana and me. You know I don’t like her anymore. You know I don’t want anything to do with her. What you and I had was real. I wouldn’t have cheated on you like that. Even if there is zero future for us, I need you to know the truth.”

  Jordyn was now deep in thought, her eyes bouncing from Beckett to Blakely to Walt. No one said a word.

  “Don’t say anything yet. Just think about what I said and please watch the commercials. This was your vision, and they turned out pretty spectacular.”

  He nodded to Walt, and Walt hit play on the remote in his hand for the TV in the corner of the room. In a few short minutes, this commercial would either seal his fate with Jordyn or destroy it.

  The Trick Play

  CHAPTER 29

  Why was Beckett Harper here?! In Houston?

  When she came face to face with him a few minutes ago, she thought she was dreaming. It was like she was trying to shove him out of her memory so hard that her subconscious had found a way to conjure him back up. And he was in a suit and tie. He looked professional. And handsome. Black suit, white dress shirt, skinny black tie. His hair was gelled. His facial hair was trimmed. He looked good. He never got closer than ten feet away, and she was glad. She didn’t trust herself around him. Especially looking like that.

  And he was not only here but trying to confuse her with this wild story of him not knowing it wasn’t her. That’s what it was, right? Some wild story. There was no way what he was saying was actually true . . . right?

  But then she thought about Glenda reaching out to her. Not everything is as it seemed. There was no way the Pink Ladies would do anything but what was on the up and up. They would not feed into a story like that. She knew that.

  Her heart ached. She wanted this version of the story to be real. She didn’t want to hate Beckett. She didn’t want to have this weight bearing down on her soul. But it seemed too easy, too good to be true.

  Fortunately for her, she had a moment to regroup and watch the commercial options. She didn’t know what to think about Beckett right now. Was it possible? Or was this just him trying to further manipulate her?

  Beckett left the table and positioned himself leaning against the back wall behind her. Though it could be to see better, she wondered if it was because he wanted to be able to stop her if she tried to bail. She stayed where she was and mentally prepared for what she was about to see. She didn’t want to see this at all, but it had been her idea, so she needed to see it through. She didn’t want all that hard work and those three weeks to be a total waste.

  The commercial began with the sound of an alarm going off, followed by Beckett leaving for the day, coffee in hand, while the sun wasn’t even up yet. She had been the one to hand him that very coffee, but she tried to ignore that. Then there was the noise of the tractor starting up. Some calming music started playing with Beckett’s voice-over on farm life. She remembered when he recorded it how silly he thought he sounded. He hated reading out loud, and though he loved the words of the script, he thought he was going to sound silly reading them.

  But he didn’t. He reallllly didn’t.

  The camera angles followed Beckett as the sun rose around them, showing him feeding the heifers, chopping some ice, throwing some hay to the bulls—and to Bess in the barn. The beam of sunlight shining in the barn when he first opened the door was perhaps her favorite part. She tried her best not to cry and to keep it together. Though she was super ticked off at Beckett right now, she did love that farm: the barn, the house, the shop, the land. All of it. And so far, the commercial was exactly how she envisioned it. You knew it was Beckett you were looking at; you just didn’t see his actual face. And it was beautiful. It was raw farm life—exactly what they had been going for.

  When they got to the aerial footage from the drones and the footage of the fresh snow, she literally had to bite down on her bottom lip to keep from crying. Beckett’s voice-over finished, quoting, “So to those of you who work sun up to sun down providing food for our tables . . . thank you.”

  The commercial ended with an aerial view of the farm fading to black. She had to sniffle. Lord have mercy, she was trying so hard not to lose it and she was not doing a good enough job of it. She remembered Beckett had had to go over that last line at least a dozen times because he wanted it just right. And it was perfect. And the view of his farm, freshly covered in puffy snow? It was . . . exquisite.

  Walt looked to her and smiled. “What do you think?”

  She nodded. “I think it was perfect. Loved the snow shots. That’s the one.”

  “Well, let’s give the second version a fair shot, shall we?” he asked with a smile.

  She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. That’s the one. This version is what I’ve been hounding the team for.”

  Beckett huffed behind her. Had he already seen them and liked the second option better or something?

  Walt looked at her. “But you have to see the other one to know for sure. So let’s make sure we do this right. You do know what I spent on this commercial, right?”

  She laughed nervously. “Yes, I know. You haven’t let any of us forget it. Let’s see it, then. But I’m telling you right now, the first one is going to be it.”

  Walt squinted at her, pretending to be mad. “I’m telling you right now, you need to see both options, which I thought you’d be all for, Miss Statistics Degree.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, Walt. Let’s see it, then.”

  The second option started out exactly the same. Same voice-over, same shots. The only thing that was different in the first few seconds was when Beckett grabbed his coffee, you could see him giving someone a kiss on the cheek, though the faces were blurred.

  She was in the commercial? Considering it was only her hand as she handed off the coffee and then her cheek, she didn’t mind. It did add an element to the commercial that farm life is rarely done solo. Hmm. She wasn’t mad, she supposed. Sucked to remember those happy days with Beckett, but it’d be okay. She imagined there were worse cheeks to be on television.

  It wasn’t until the final five seconds, after the voice-over, that everything went to hell. They had somehow captured a shot of Bec
kett scooping her up in the snow that day. Though again, you couldn’t see who Jordyn really was, but what you could see was how happy Beckett was. She must have said something to make him laugh, because he was smiling ear to ear. She was sure if the camera had been close enough to capture it, his one dimple would’ve been obvious. And then the shot stayed on them while they walked hand in hand across the freshly fallen snow toward the barn, footprints trailing behind them. In the distance, the setting sun blushed pink in the sky, and bits of ice and snow on the roof of the barn sparkled and blinked like Christmas lights.

  She had so many different questions. Had Beckett changed his mind about the commercial and not having his face in it? Why was she in there? How had the filming crew got that footage without them knowing? She knew at the time they had thought they were alone.

  The television was back on a blue screen before she could process it all. But what she did notice was the traitorous tear that had accidentally leaked out of her eye and forged a trail of sorrow down her cheek.

  Seeing that version of the commercial . . . well, it wrecked her. It absolutely wrecked her.

  ****

  Seeing Jordyn cry was the worst feeling in the world. He supposed it was a good thing though because it meant she truly cared. But knowing how much she was hurting—all because of him and the stupid stunt Ariana pulled—made him want to do nothing more than make it up to her the rest of her life. He was not going to be just another person in her life who let her down. He refused.

  Never again.

  Before she could get up and flee, he went to where she was sitting in her chair. He put his hands on her armrests to force her to stay put, then leaned down so he could look her in the eyes. It was something he’d done more than once with her back at the farm, so he’d done so intentionally.

  “Jordyn, listen to me, please. I thought it was you in that barn. I had no doubt in my mind. I wanted it to be you.” He took a deep breath and tried not to lose his composure. “And if I could go back and fix it, I would. You left before you got to hear me rip out Ariana. And I tried to run after you. I tried to text, call, email, everything. I’m here now. For you. I had the filming crew put together a special version of the commercial for you. To remind you what we have. To remind you where home is.” He was feeling brave, so he took her cheek in his hand to add, “With me.”

  He didn’t tell her how much this version of the commercial had cost him out of his endorsement check, and he wasn’t going to either.

  She was looking at him now with less hatred. Like she was considering his words. She hadn’t flinched with his touch. She wasn’t ready to melt into him yet, but he wasn’t done either. Her softened body language was enough motivation to keep speaking, to keep explaining.

  “My life was a blur before you came along. I didn’t even know it, but everything was a haze. All the days were the same, and it was . . . just . . . blurry. When you came into my life, everything came into focus. And not just because you are attractive.” He stopped to grin. “It’s so much more than that. You are so stubborn sometimes I want to shake you.” She dropped her chin to glare at him, but he ignored it and kept going. “You are playful and funny, intelligent and logical, and hell, I even love that you love football as much as me. You are kind, and you are always thinking of others, even when others have done nothing but let you down. I know I let you down. I can’t promise you I won’t again, but I can promise you that I want to be the person who lets you down the least.”

  He stopped to steady himself. “I’m no poet. I’m not wordsy. But that blizzard was the best damn thing that ever happened to me because it gave me you. And though I’ve only known you a few weeks, I know, without a doubt, that you are it for me. I love you, Jordyn Mack. I want nothing more than to be snowed in with you every day for the rest of my life.”

  She went to open her mouth, but he stopped her.

  He nodded at Blakely, who got up to go get what he needed.

  “There’s more?” she asked quietly, swallowing hard while he brushed away a few tears from her eyes.

  He nodded, and in a few short seconds later, Blakely arrived with the puppy from their stop they made upon landing. The pet adoption center. The little guy was squirming in Blakely’s arms. This was his “flea-flicker” move. Pun intended.

  Beckett backed away just for a moment so Blakely could gently place the dog, a black lab mix puppy, in her lap.

  More tears spilled out of Jordyn’s eyes and down her cheeks, though she tried to bat them away. “You got a dog?”

  He shook his head, leaning back in. “No, sweetheart, I got you a dog.”

  She took the animal, hugged it, and smiled through her tears. “You got me a dog?”

  Was he using her love for animals to lure her back to Picketts? Damn right he was. He was playing dirty. But he was playing to win. The trick play.

  He took a deep breath, nodding. “Now. I know you have a life here. I know your work is important and that you totally kick butt here at it. I know you have every reason not to trust me, and it may take a while to earn your trust back. I’m ready to put in the work if you are. Jordyn . . . come home. Come home, please? If that video showed you anything, it showed you where home is. Don’t let Ariana win. Don’t throw away what we had because of some huge misunderstanding. We can fix this. Just come home.”

  She wiped at her nose and with the puppy still in her arms simply said, “I thought you’d never ask.”

  He hadn’t technically asked. He’d just phrased his suggestion to sound like a question because he’d been too afraid she’d say no.

  He couldn’t stop the grin from spreading across his face. He’d won. She would come home.

  She reached down to gently put the dog on the floor before she launched herself at him.

  It was the best damn catch he’d ever made.

  ****

  When the dust settled, and she had her puppy and her man, it took her all of five seconds to realize she was moving to Picketts. Not back in with Beckett—no, she’d get an apartment or little house somewhere. Somewhere to have her own space while they figured stuff out. Though she believed Beckett, it was still a good idea to take things slow. Their whole relationship was just a whirlwind. Literally, a whirlwind of snow had started it all.

  She turned to Walt, puppy back in her arms. “I can’t work for you anymore. I have no idea what I’ll do in Picketts, but I have to go. I can either continue to work for you from there, or I will help you find my replacement.”

  Walt grinned, took off his glasses, and stood to rock back on his heels. “Funny you mention it. We happen to be doing this big Super Bowl commercial you may have heard about . . . . I was thinking of opening a midwest office since over half of our customers are based there. Think you’d be interested in managing it? You’d get to hire a few field techs and salesmen, and you could continue working with data development if you wanted to.”

  What? He would do that for her? She couldn’t even form words. She wanted to kiss his bald head.

  He shrugged. “You’re one of my most talented hires, and you’ve helped me build this company. Do you really think I’d let some other company take you from me now?”

  “But—how . . . ” She couldn’t even form a coherent thought. “You knew I was going back, didn’t you? This isn’t just something you are throwing out there—you have all your ducks in a row. You don’t do these things unless you’ve done your research.”

  He nodded. “After that first phone call from Glenda, I knew you were going back. As soon as you’d get out of your stubborn head enough to hear the truth.”

  She looked at Walt, then to Beckett, then back to Walt. “I don’t even know what to say, Walt.”

  He scratched by his ear, his nervous tick. “Say you’ll take the job.”

  She nodded so aggressively she almost scared the pup. “I’ll take the job.”

  He smiled. “Good. Now that extra vacation I promised you if you got Beckett to do the commercial starts immed
iately. After the first of the year, I’ll fly up, and we will find a location for the new AgGroSo office. You are officially on vacation until then.” He grinned and put his glasses back on. “So get the hell out of here.”

  Blakely apparently could not keep quiet another moment. “I do love a happy ending!”

  Jordyn had to admit she was right. She got the dog, she got the job, and she got the man. Life surprised the heck out of her. It had given her a snowstorm, and somehow, she found her happy ending in it.

  The Super Bowl

  EPILOGUE

  “Zeus, stop pestering Mable. She may be smaller, but she will still kick your butt.” Jordyn laughed from the couch, watching the two animals torment one another in mutual annoyance.

  “Maybe we should’ve gotten two puppies,” Beckett said. “He just wants someone to play with.”

  She looked at him and squinted. “You’re just jealous because he stays at my place with me.”

  Beckett grinned because she was totally right and reached to put his arm around her. “That’s true. I get stuck with crabby old Mable who doesn’t even like me and you get the puppy. Rude.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Well, he was my Christmas gift.” She paused. “Okay, I have to get up and go check on our game food. Will you make sure these two don’t burn down the house while I’m in the kitchen?”

  He nodded. “Sure thing, honey. I don’t know why you made so much dang food for the two of us.”

  She shrugged. “I’m mourning the loss of another football season by comfort eating.”