Snow Day

by Shannon Stacey, Jennifer Greene

  Tessa didn’t have an answer.

  “Are you truly crazy?” he asked, shrugging into his shirt.

  “I might be,” she allowed, realizing this was a complete and final breakup. Colton wasn’t going to come anywhere near her ever again. And who could blame him.

  * * *

  COLTON SLEPT FITFULLY all night, then stewed in isolation for most of the next day. Jack and Sherry managed to track him down a few times and keep him captive for a while. He pretended to listen to their endless stories, each time excusing himself as soon as he could.

  Alone, Colton alternately berated himself for staying in love with Tessa all this time, and for being such a fool about it. Giving her the ring so quickly— What had he been thinking? They’d been apart for months. He should have waited, let her get used to the idea of them being together again.

  But she’d been so sweet in his arms, so great all day long, so beautiful, so incredible, reminding him of all the reasons he loved her. He’d known what he wanted. He’d known it made sense. And he’d been impatient to seal the deal.

  The door to the second-floor library groaned open and Colton braced himself, guessing it was Jack and Sherry again. It was ridiculously cold up here, but at least it had been quiet.

  “There you are.” It was Rand’s voice.

  “Hey.” Relieved but still irritable, Colton responded with a short greeting from his seat in a big, emerald-green armchair.

  Two of the chairs were angled in front of a window. The boys were outside running off steam in the front yard, the occasional shout coming through as their blurry shapes put together a snow fort.

  “Everything okay?” Rand entered the room, swinging the door shut behind him.

  “I thought you were hanging out with Emilee.”

  “She’s helping Tessa put something together for dinner. I think they’re down to potatoes and spam.”

  “Whatever.” Colton would have plenty of time for five-star dining once he got out of Tucker’s Point.

  “Why’re you hiding?” asked Rand, plunking down in the opposite chair. “It’s frickin’ cold up here.”

  “It’s also quiet.”

  “The boys are outside.” Rand nodded toward the window.

  “It’s not the boys I’m worried about.”

  “You have a fight with Tessa? I mean, she seems upset, too. She was quite viciously attacking a turnip down there.”

  “I’m not attacking anything up here.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me.” Rand paused.

  The shouts below grew louder. It looked like the fort-building had turned into a snowball fight.

  “So what’s up?” Rand prompted, stretching one arm across the back of the chair. “Or are you just stir-crazy? I know if it wasn’t for Emilee being here to flirt with, I’d have gone about nuts by now. My phone is out of batteries, and I’m dying to read the Friday status reports. Man, never thought I’d miss those. But there was a glitch in Hawaii’s profitability last week, and I want to see if the trend is holding.”

  “I asked her to marry me,” said Colton.

  “What? Who? Tessa? Again?”

  “To marry me. Tessa. Yes, again.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “Because we made love. And I had the ring with me.”

  “You had the ring with you?”

  Colton didn’t bother to answer this time.

  Rand thwacked his head against the chair. “Oh, buddy, you’ve got it bad.”

  “She said no.”

  “No kidding. I doubt she’d be attacking a turnip if you’d patched things up.”

  “It was a stupid thing to do,” Colton admitted. “But, she was... She’s... It’s just so...” His voice died away.

  “She give you a reason?” There was genuine sympathy in Rand’s voice.

  Colton searched for the right words. He’d been mulling it over all day long. “She has this thing. She keeps telling me I’m too perfect. She can’t tell me how or why, and she can’t tell me what to do about it. And she seems to want the world to operate on emotion instead of logic.”

  Rand was quiet for long enough that Colton looked at him.

  “You’re a bit of hard act to keep up with,” Rand admitted in what was obviously a cautious voice.

  “No, I’m not.”

  “Yeah.” Rand nodded. “You are. You do what’s right, always. And you do it in such an icy, linear fashion, that nobody can ever argue with you.”

  Colton felt as if the whole world was losing its mind. “What’s wrong with doing the right thing?”

  “Not everybody can do that.”

  “They can try.” It was a laudable goal.

  “They can try, but they’ll rarely succeed, not like you do.”

  “So what?”

  “So, you make the people around you feel inadequate. I don’t think I’d want that twenty-four seven.”

  “So you’re on Tessa’s side?”

  “I’m just saying, maybe if you made a mistake once in a while.”

  “I make plenty of mistakes.”

  “Name one.”

  “I proposed to Tessa.”

  Rand chuckled. “That wasn’t a mistake. Since you’re crazy in love with her, it was a perfectly reasonable course of action.”

  Colton was starting to get annoyed. “It was illogical and emotional. It was stupid.”

  “You might be onto something there,” said Rand.

  “You’re agreeing that I’m stupid?”

  “I’m agreeing that you may be onto something. Maybe you should do something really illogical, something really selfish and emotional, something that shows Tessa and the rest of us that you’re human.”

  “Is that what she wants? Is that what you want? Is that what the world wants from me?”

  Rand’s expression turned thoughtful. “I can guess a bit of what it must have been like for you. Your father was flaky and unreliable, and then he left you. And you seem to have vowed never to be like him. Understandable, completely. You’ve had to be an adult for a very long time now.”

  Colton almost stepped in to defend his father. Despite his knee-jerk reaction last night, the details of Prince Colby had impacted his opinion of his dad. He was actually thinking about going to see him.

  “See those kids down there,” said Rand. “They’re nothing but selfish emotion and primitive energy. They’re probably going to do each other an injury before the afternoon is over, but it’s perfectly natural.”

  “Your point?”

  “My point is they’re even older than you were when your father left, and you had to rein everything in. Maybe, just maybe, you’re allowed to be selfish and emotionally motivated once in a while. It might help you become a more rounded human being.”

  Colton tried to wrap his head around Rand’s opinion. He didn’t agree. But Rand was smart, and Colton respected him. Should he try to let go? Could he actually let go? What would it look like if he did? The image actually frightened him.

  “You wouldn’t like it if I was selfish,” he finally told Rand. “Nobody would like it if I was selfish. Things would go wrong. They’d come off the rails. I’m the CEO of a multimillion-dollar company, I can’t operate on emotion.”

  “Try it.”

  Colton shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. I have too much power, and I affect too many lives.”

  “Wow. What a narcissist you turned out to be.”

  Colton shot his vice-president a sharp glare.

  But Rand didn’t back down. “Just for kicks, what exactly would you do?”

  “You sound like Tessa.”

  “Then it’s two against one. What would you do?”

  “If I was completely emotional and selfish?�
� Colton mentally ticked through the possibilities.

  “You’re applying logic to this, aren’t you?”

  “I’m simply mulling the possibilities.”

  “And?”

  “And...” Colton made up his mind. They wanted to see his selfish side? He’d give them his selfish side. “Here’s what I’d do. Tessa and Barry’s backs are financially against the wall, giving me all the power.”

  Rand smiled. “What are you going to do with that power?”

  He would be an absolute bastard. “Give her a choice. I buy Land’s End and destroy the castle. Or she marries me, and I save it.”

  “Blackmail?”

  “Yeah.”

  “You’d actually blackmail a woman into marrying you?”

  “See why I can’t behave like this? I’d turn into one selfish son-of-a-bitch.”

  * * *

  “YOU SLEPT WITH HIM?” Emilee confirmed as she tossed some more chunks of potato into the soup pot.

  “Looking back, it seems inevitable,” Tessa admitted, forcing herself to keep her feelings at bay, as she’d been doing for the past fourteen hours.

  Their lovemaking had ended in disaster, of course. But they’d been flirting around their physical attraction to each other from the moment he’d arrived at Land’s End.

  “Tessa.” Emilee glanced around the room, obviously making certain they were completely alone. “Are you still in love with him?”

  “I still want him.”

  That was as much as she’d dared allow herself to face. But there was a prickling feeling growing in the base of her belly. And, deep down inside, she feared heartache was only a whisper away.

  Emilee made her way along the counter to where Tessa was chopping carrots, her tone gentle. “I mean all-out love.”

  “He took his dad’s book,” Tessa said instead. “When I showed him it was his dad’s, he pretended he didn’t care. But he took it with him when he left my room.”

  “That’s a good thing, right?” Emilee accepted the change of topic, even as she watched Tessa carefully. “I mean on a human level, it’s nice if you can help heal a rift.”

  “Truth is, it made me feel greedy,” Tessa admitted, pausing to take in the kitchen, her mother’s pottery vases, Sophie’s pictures above the table, the old cast-iron pans hanging from cupboards. “All this stuff I have at Land’s End, years and years of it. I have all this, and all Colton has is a book.”

  “Well, that and a multinational corporation,” Emilee noted.

  “It’s not the same thing,” said Tessa.

  “I suppose not.”

  “He owns public buildings, decorated by strangers. He owns a business, not a home. You know, he grew up in hotel suites. How sad is that?”

  “Maybe sad,” Emilee allowed. “But also profitable. Your inheritance here is a money sink.”

  Tessa set down her knife.

  She’d reluctantly admitted to herself that Barry was right. The castle was crumbling beneath them, and she was incredibly selfish to insist they keep it. It cost far too much money to maintain. Tessa could never manage it herself, and her brother’s life and dreams were hundreds of miles away.

  She realized she’d been operating on emotion since Sophie’s death. But she needed to apply a little logic to the situation. Setting aside her selfish desire to have it all, what did she truly want to keep? Could some things be donated to museums? The castle itself might be made of stone, but even stone eventually wore out.

  “I’m going to have to give it up,” she said out loud.

  “Would you sell it to Colton?” Emilee asked gently.

  “Might as well be him.” Tessa would honestly rather Colton tore it down than a stranger.

  She started to work on another carrot, the sound of her chopping echoing through the huge kitchen.

  “You love him,” Emilee stated.

  “It doesn’t matter,” said Tessa, fighting back a wave of emotion. “He’ll never change, and I’ll never measure up.”

  Emilee’s tone went soft, and she leaned in. “Maybe you should let him decide that.”

  “You know I’m right,” Tessa responded in a pained whisper, resting the side of her head against Emilee’s. “You’ve been telling me I’m right for months now.”

  Emilee gave a self-deprecating click of her teeth. “I may have been wrong about some things.”

  “You wanted emotion,” Colton’s voice boomed suddenly and shockingly though the kitchen doorway. His footsteps echoed as he paced into the room.

  Tessa jumped at the sound, her knife clattering to the countertop.

  “I’ll give you emotion,” he continued with barely a breath in between.

  Both Tessa and Emilee whirled around to gape at him.

  “You want selfishness?” he asked, coming to a halt directly in front of her, eyes gun-metal gray.

  She shrank back, pressing the small of her back against the lip of the counter.

  “I’ll give you selfishness.”

  “Colton—” she began.

  “My turn to talk,” he interrupted.

  “Rand?” Emilee questioned, her attention going to the doorway where Rand had stopped.

  “Here are my terms,” said Colton.

  “Your terms for what?” Tessa interjected, confused, alarmed, but somehow excited at the same time. There was a fire in his eyes she’d never seen before.

  “When Barry gets home from the hospital, I’m going to make an offer for Land’s End. It’ll be an offer that the two of you can’t possibly refuse. It’ll be so far over market price that your heads will literally spin.”

  Tessa was about to tell him she’d already decided to sell, but he leaned in, not letting her get in a single word.

  “And then I’ll level it. I’ll flatten the whole thing and pave it over.”

  Tessa was stunned by the bitterness in his tone. It might be the logical thing to do, but he made it sound so horrible.

  “Or—” he drew out the word “—or, you can agree to marry me. You marry me, and I’ll save your castle. I’ll spend whatever it takes to rebuild or do anything else you want with it.”

  Tessa felt the floor sway beneath her. As she clutched the counter, trying to get her bearings, Rand crossed the kitchen. He grasped Emilee firmly by the elbow and led her away.

  When they were alone, Colton drew himself up, lifting his chin, crossing his muscular arms over his chest. “What do you think of that?”

  Tessa swallowed, finding her voice around a dry throat. “Damn the torpedoes, it’s all about Colton?”

  “Yes.”

  “That has got to be the most illogical, self-centered, emotional decision I have ever heard.”

  He gave a sharp nod. “I’m not perfect, Tessa. And nobody, nobody needs to be perfect for me.”

  She struggled to wrap her mind around what he seemed to be saying. She thought she understood, and her heart wanted to sing with joy.

  Still, even as she spoke, she barely dared to hope. “Finally, after all this time, the thing you want—selfishly, emotionally, deep down inside...” She found she had to draw a shaky breath. “Turns out to be me?”

  His expression softened, and his eyes lightened to smoke. “It turns out to be you.”

  She was giddily, deliriously happy. Colton was human, after all.

  A smile twitched at the corners of her mouth, and she reached up to smooth her palm across his face. “I’m so proud of you, Colton.”

  “I’m so in love with you, Tessa. And I’ve got your castle as leverage. You’re not escaping from me this time.”

  “You think I love the castle more than I love you?”

  “I think we’re a package deal, and you’re going to take us both.”

  �
��Well, I’m not.”

  His eyes went wide, jaw lax.

  “I’m taking you, Colton. The castle we can talk about later.”

  “But—”

  “I love you more than any old castle.”

  His shoulders relaxed. “I love you, Tessa. I love you exactly the way you are, and I’m sorry if I ever made you feel otherwise.”

  “You made me use spearmint toothpaste,” she reminded him, vowing to put everything out in the open from here on in.

  He gave his head a little shake of confusion. “You said it was your favorite. I bought it for both of us so that we wouldn’t clash.”

  “You made me shower before sex.”

  A grin grew across his face. “I made me shower before sex. I didn’t think you’d want me sweaty. I don’t care if you take a shower.”

  “You won’t let me make mistakes.”

  Now he really looked confused. “During sex?”

  “You take over and make it perfect.”

  He laughed at that. “I want it to be good for you.”

  “Well,” she admitted. “It was.”

  “But make as many mistakes as you want. Seriously, Tessa, if that’s what it takes, you go ahead and mess it up. I’ll just lie there and smile.”

  It was her turn to grin. “Well, okay. But that might be overkill. I’m sure we can work out something.”

  “With absolute pleasure.” He drew her into his arms and kissed her softly.

  She all but melted into his arms.

  “The ring’s still in my pocket,” he whispered in her ear. “Still sitting next to my heart.”

  She drew a shuddering breath, holding back tears of joy. “Will you quit being so darn perfect?”

  “I’ll do my best, Tessa. I’ll do my best.”

  * * * * *

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