The logs shift and collapse into coals I can hear shifting in the grate.
By the time I feel tired enough to actually sleep it’s at the same moment
I understand I won’t be with her tonight, I see the first gray light through the gap in the thick curtains which tells me it’s way past dawn in this frozen valley.
I wake with a jolt not long after, more in a half-dream than actual sleep.
The smell of bacon, eggs, and hot coffee along with the clank of cast iron and low laughter brings me back to the room.
Greg’s being Greg, I can tell, and sticking it to the management, he’s fixing us all breakfast in his own special way.
Wrapping myself in the heavy blanket from the bed with a groan of acceptance, I stagger half-asleep to the doorway, seeing Serena first which makes me smile.
She’s still here, not quite mine yet, but here where I can see her at least.
Bacon pops and sizzles in the fireplace now, making both Greg and Serena make a hungry noise to themselves.
There’s a selection of cast iron hotplates on the coals I know will soon be doubling as plates as I slough off the blanket and get dressed.
“Got any bread in that kit of yours?” I ask, sidling up next to Greg by the fire, holding my hands out to it, catching just a glimpse of Serena.
Enough to get my heart started this morning.
“Oh, we got bread. Beans. Bacon. Sausage,” he announces proudly.
“Fuck the establishment!” he continues, laughing heartily before casually asking me how I slept.
I want to tell him I didn’t. That I can’t. But I catch a pleading look in Serena’s eyes, telling me she’s spent as much a sleepless night as I have.
Both of us only waking after a moment’s dream to find her dad trying to get us breakfast the same way he entertained us all last night.
“That’s the spirit,” I tell him, slapping his back. “Tell me what you need,” I add, always ready to take direction when he’s at the helm of a cooking fire, but never when it comes to taking direction regarding his daughter.
I know that now.
Looking into Serena’s eyes as they glow in the firelight, I know we both do.
We have a new understanding.
After a night so close yet so far apart, we’re silently bound to never spend another night alone ever again.
How her dad, Greg my best friend figures into all that?
I guess we’ll just have to wait until after breakfast.
Her eyes tell me what I already feel.
That it won’t be long somehow.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Serena
It’s great to just hang out with dad, doing goofy stuff like play games and talk in front of the fire.
But my mind strays to Carter as much as my eyes do, and I know he feels the same now.
No denying it.
I almost wish I’d just let him at least try to have his way with me in the bathroom before, but I know dad would have found us out once the water went cold.
A suitable metaphor indeed.
A real cold tap on our whole holiday so far, but when I do catch Carter’s eye, it burns with such intensity that I can’t help feel he’s determined to finish what we’ve started.
And long before it’s time to go home in a week.
I feel zonked after no sleep, but seeing Carter tells me he didn’t sleep much either.
He’s dressed in jeans and a knitted sweater, geometric patterns that only highlight his huge chest and shoulders, almost making me sigh as soon as I see him.
Whoever knitted that must’ve taken a year.
Dad’s so wrapped up in making us breakfast I’m sure he doesn’t even notice Carter and I making eyes at each other.
Even once we finish eating.
“I’ll get these cleaned up,” Carter offers, moving towards the utensils and plates, making dad look like an old mother hen.
“Oh no you don’t!” he cries. “This is premium cast iron and I’ll take care of it. Why don’t you take Serena for a stroll over to the lodge and get a weather update? Find out if we can’t have a proper day of skiing for a change,” he says with determination.
I’m not sure what’s come over dad, but a night with him between me and Carter seems to have done the trick, or maybe it’s just him getting to use all his camping and ski gear in one day that’s made him a changed man.
“I’ll get changed,” I tell them both, with dad reminding me not to try and use the hot water, which I discover is working fine now.
I shower and get changed into what I think Carter will like, jeans and a sweater with leather boots I thought I’d never wear here.
By the time I reappear, Carter holds his finger to his lips, letting me know by his damp hair and clean shave he’s had plenty of hot water too.
Dad’s pottering with his pans and oiling all the cast iron, waving us away as we leave him to it.
The door’s stuck with a few inches of ice and snow, but Carter pulls it open and then uses a stiff broom from the porch to clear it as he studies the environment around the cabins.
I want him to pull me closer, even try to close the door behind us, but his deep and commanding voice reminds me we have a ways to go yet.
“Soon, Serena. I’ll make you mine yet. But we need to be mindful of your dad’s feelings, for now,” he says with authority and some regret.
Checking the door’s closed and Dad isn’t looking, Carter pulls me closer but only for a moment.
“I tell you, Serena, you’re mine. Understand?” he says with firm authority.
I nod without hesitation, weak in the knees under his touch and floating on air as he helps me down the icy wooden steps before we walk over to the lodge.
“Looks a little clearer today,” he adds ominously like he knows something I don’t as he chances another close pull of me towards him and squeezes my waist making me smile.
The same old woman from the dining hall is at reception, wearing her name tag this time. A garish thing that looks homemade that screams ‘Hi! My name is Gladys’.
Carter peers at it a moment, ignoring her sour look, and smiles as he wishes her good morning.
“Is it?” she scowls. “You missed breakfast, again… and apparently you’ve used your hot water limits. Twice,” she continues with a deepening frown.
“Hot water limits?” I hear myself asking warily.
“We have a lot of guests and not a lot of hot water. Guests who abuse the privilege are cut off,” she almost shrieks, making Carter stifle a laugh.
“Okay, okay lady. How much do we owe you for hot water now? You charge extra for lunch, dinner and God knows what else… how much for some hot water to our cabins?” he asks her, leaning right over and putting his face right in front of hers.
Looking like he’d arm wrestle her if she challenged him.
“How dare you!” she scolds him, clanging the bell at her side, summoning what I guess is her husband, or is it her son?
“Problem?” the guy murmurs, wiping his hands and sucking his teeth from behind a thick beard.
He eyes me up and down, and starts grinning to himself.
I hear Carter start to growl.
“How much?” he says with strained control.
“How much for what?” the guy asks. The short, squat guy who looks like the woman but with a little more beard.
“The hot water,” The old woman snaps impatiently.
“I meant, how much for your lodge?” Carter repeats, grinding his teeth as he cracks his knuckles on the countertop.
Both of them look dumbfounded, the older woman hisses under her breath. The guy looks like he’s just sucked a lemon.
“Not for sale,” The old woman spits, and slamming her registry book closed, she storms off out back, leaving us with-
“Dak Porter,” he whispers, looking over his shoulder and holding out a greasy hand to Carter, which he ignores.
“My mom… she’s… sentimental,” h
e says with a guffaw, reiterating his last word with an emphasis on the ‘mental’ part once he repeats it with a mad grin.
“We’ve had some hot water trouble,” Carter continues, ignoring him and flitting several hundred dollar bills in front of the guy.
“We’d rather it didn’t happen again,” he adds with a firm tone.
Dak snaps up the money quicker than they settle, and glances over his shoulder again.
“You looking to buy the old place?” he asks, flushing hard and sweating suddenly. “It ain’t worth much once it’s left to me… back taxes,” he explains in a low voice, smearing his length of sparse hair over a greasy crown.
“Good to know,” Carter says, a matter of fact.
“Oh! You got a message too,” Dak adds, suddenly remembering his service role, fishing in the trash next to him, passing Carter a crumpled yellow fax.
“This is addressed to Mr. Blaxhall,” he scolds the man, looming up over him without even reading it.
“Must’ve been a mistake… my mom,” Dak explains, showing his mad grin again as Carter takes my hand, pulling me away from the reception area and back to our cabins.
“What about the weather?” I ask, feeling stupid. Having no idea what’s going on, what any of that just meant.
“Weather be damned,” Carter snarls before stopping in the middle of the lot between the lodge and our cabins, taking both my hands in his.
“Sorry, Serena. I just have six things at once going on up here,” he smiles, tapping his forehead.
“Let’s go see your dad and then we can check our own weather online?” he suggests calmly, which I readily agree too.
Weather. Whether or not he’ll get in my pants…?
I laugh out loud at the thought as I trail behind him, my hand in his which seems to make him relax a little.
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.
“I want you, Carter. I want to be yours. But I need to know my dad’s safe too,” she whimpers.
I calm her with my hands, running them over her, pulling her closer, forgetting everything again as it’s just the two of us.
She pulls herself away slowly, fearful of us being caught, I know.
“Then just go make sure he knows you care,” I advise her.
Ignoring my own victory once I know she’s not going anywhere that I’m not.
It could cost me my best friend, a lifelong bond. But I already know I love her.
I already know she’s my new best friend.
Mine.
I don’t want her to go anywhere, but I urge her to go check on her dad, to be there for him.
Like I told her to.
I’ll be here for him, always.
I don’t plan to push him away either, but I know a storm’s coming if I have my way.
Now that I know I’m getting it.
I watch her go outside, down to her dad’s truck which he opens to let her in on account of the cold.
He’s started it up and has the heat going as well as to charge his satellite phone I’m assuming.
It’s hard not to have her here, but I know she needs to square things up with Greg if she’s gonna s
tay.
I know she wants to stay and I know Greg doesn’t want her to, but what real choice does he have.
If only you knew how well I’m gonna look after her, buddy.
I stoke the fire some more, trying to busy myself. Almost jealous that Greg actually has something to do.
My whole life’s ahead of me, and I’m essentially unemployed.
Nothing to do but manage my money and…
Start a family. That’s full-time work, I hear.
I tell myself, grinning suddenly and moving back over to the window, annoyed at the frost and how I can’t make out Serena’s shape in her dad’s SUV anymore.
But starting to plan a few things of my own.
Little mental notes.
Things that I would have laughed at even a few weeks ago are now suddenly important.
Things about Serena, about where we’ll live.
The family I’ll raise with her.
First things first, slick. You gotta get said family inside her first.
The sight of her suddenly snaps me to attention. She’s not mad or upset, hurrying up the steps back inside, so I open the door for her.
“Well?” I hear myself ask as if I need permission to even think my next thought.
“Dad’s going to Washington, the company’s major distribution center. They’re sending a plane or helicopter, whichever they can get in first. Apparently, the roads are out for a few miles down. We’ll be stuck here for days.” She announces, pretending to look out the window again, but I can tell she’s quivering with excitement.
“Days,” I hear myself murmur with satisfaction.
Wondering if it will ever be enough to begin what I want to show her.
“He’s coming,” she warns me calmly, clinging to the curtain as I turn to tend the fire again, hearing Greg come back inside.
I hear the thud of his satellite phone, but keep myself busy.
Knowing he wants to stay as much as I want him to leave, but not because I don’t care for him as a friend.
Just because I need to let nature run its course.
What’s mine is mine, and everything’s going in my favor now. I’m sure even he knows that on some level. But his own mind is on business right now, as it should be.
Matchmaker Backfire: An Instalove Possessive Age Gap Romance (A Man Who Knows Who He Wants Book 226) Page 6