Christmas Sanctuary by Lauren Hawkeye

Author:Lauren Hawkeye
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2017-12-05T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Emma felt as if electricity was thrumming along her skin as Nick’s truck pulled up to the front of her tiny cabin. The early afternoon sunlight glistened off the tinsel that she could see through the window, and instead of upsetting her as it had earlier, the dancing sparkles made her smile.

That smile faded when a man rounded the corner of the cabin, shading his eyes as Nick shifted the truck into Park. Emma’s stomach sank like a stone in the water.

“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” she muttered to herself as she undid her seat belt. Irritation was a thousand tiny needles in her brain.

“Look what the what?” Nick’s brow furrowed at her southern slang, but when he saw her face, his focus shifted. “Who is that? Are you okay?”

“Um…” Emma looked through the windshield to where Matthew stood, arms now crossed over his chest as he waited rather impatiently for her to get out of the truck. “Thank you for the…the hike. The wine.”

She swallowed against her suddenly dry mouth and then decided to be fully honest. “Thank you for showing me your favorite place. It was…I appreciate it.”

“You appreciate it?” He arched an eyebrow, his gaze dropping to her lips, and she ran her tongue over them self-consciously, flushing a little. He was remembering their kiss…their kisses, plural. She was, too.

If Matthew wasn’t here on her doorstep, she just might have been brave enough to invite Nick inside for a bit. The fact that she no longer could invite Nick in made her resent the presence of her ex even more.

“I’ll…” She wanted to ask Nick to call her, or to tell him that she’d stop by the studio the next day, but the bravery she’d felt that morning was rapidly fleeing, scared away by the reminder of her life back home. “Thank you.”

Embarrassed by how cold her words were, she opened the passenger door and slid out. She sounded so abrupt, so curt. She definitely didn’t sound the way Nick made her feel.

“Matthew.” Closing the short distance, Emma listened to the quiet tick of the engine in the thin air. “Why are you here?”

Surprise flashed over his features, which exasperated Emma. Matthew had never been great at seeing the other side of things—he tended to decide what he was going to do, and if others didn’t like it, he couldn’t quite understand how they could be displeased when he was not.

She heard the driver’s door open, the crunch of boots on the snow-packed ground behind her.

“Everything okay?” Nick came up behind her and laid a hand on her shoulder protectively. When she glanced behind her, she saw that his jaw was set, his lips curved in the slightest of smirks.

“It’s fine—” She started to speak, but Matthew cut her off.

“Who’s this?” He drew himself up to his full six-foot-two-inch height, pulling his shoulders back. Wearing a charcoal Tom Ford suit that she’d helped him pick out at the Nordstrom’s in Atlanta, he looked as crisp as if he hadn’t just traveled for nearly a full day, which Emma knew he must have.

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