One Snowy Night: A Heartbreaker Bay Christmas Novella by Jill Shalvis

Author:Jill Shalvis [Shalvis, Jill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, Romantic Comedy, Holiday
ISBN: 9780062463562
Google: HuS8CwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B01CY36WHK
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Published: 2016-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

RORY SPEED SHOWERED and pulled on clothes, and they were out the door not ten minutes later.

“Breakfast?” Max asked, pointing to the small continental spread in the check-­in area.

“No,” she said. “I’m sorry, I just need to get there.”

He didn’t say anything until he had them loaded and on the highway. “Need to get there?” he repeated curiously. “Yesterday it was ‘want to get there.’ ”

Yes, and she was extremely aware of the difference. She just didn’t want to explain it, how she felt she’d managed to fail her family yet again. She pulled out her phone to call her mom but she still didn’t have reception. The curse of the Sierra Mountains.

Max’s hand settled on her thigh and then Carl’s head came over the seat and settled on her shoulder. Rory’s heart warmed from the inside out and she heard herself start talking. “When I told my stepdad I was coming, he had me pick up my mom’s present from him. It’s a necklace he had special ordered and made in the city. It was supposed to be ready a few days ago but got held up. I told him I’d hand deliver it. He was understandably hesitant to believe me since I haven’t been home in so long, but I promised.” She paused. “But they always open presents by dawn. I obviously screwed it all up.”

“Hold on,” Max said. “The present was going to be late anyway, but you offered to pick it up and hand deliver it. You set a deadline on yourself, and now because you missed that you think you failed them? Do I have that right?”

“You don’t understand,” she said. “I’ve made promises to come home before and haven’t come through. I wanted this to be different.”

“It is different. You’re actually going. And if not for the storm and then my truck and Carl, you’d have been there.”

“Not your fault,” she said, reaching out to put her hand on his arm. “All those things were out of your control.”

He slid her a quick look, his eyes warm. “Yeah, and remember that, Rory. Remember the very same thing. None of this is your fault.”

An hour and a half later they made it up and over the summit and into their small Tahoe town. It was just barely eight o’clock. Definitely past her self-­imposed deadline, but still early. Hopefully early enough, but her heart was pounding with anxiety.

Max pulled into the driveway of her childhood home. The place was a small ranch-­style house, emphasis on small, in a neighborhood of hard-­working ­people who didn’t spare a lot of time or money on their yards. Not that it mattered because the new snowfall was a white blanket over everything as far as the eye could see, giving new life to the tired street, making it indeed look like Christmas.

“Rory,” Max said quietly, once again putting a hand on her thigh. “Breathe.”

Right. She’d been holding her breath. She gulped in some air but she was close to a nervous breakdown.

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