Snowy Mountains Promise by Alissa Callen

Author:Alissa Callen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mira
Published: 2022-12-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

21

A second night of snow had again draped the mountain landscape in white. Hettie took in the scenic views as she walked along the section of Glenwood Station’s driveway where the snow had melted to reveal the gravel below.

Behind her in the valley the horses and deer munched on their breakfast. Brenna had country music on high volume as she battled her bookwork, and judging by the smoke drifting from the workshop chimney Taite and Bundy were inside.

She bent to retie a shoelace before starting a slow jog. Her muscles protested. After snowshoeing yesterday it was as though she’d done a full body workout. She kept running. She needed to process what had happened yesterday with Taite in the hut. Even now she had to remind herself she hadn’t conjured up their kiss from wishful thinking. The sparks between them had heated her far more than the blanket and fire ever could.

While her intention had been to help him, he’d helped her. She’d never spoken about her fear of the dark to anyone, not even Elliot. The way Taite had listened and held her hand with such care even now made her smile. But as much as things had changed, whatever it was that caused the shadows in his eyes when he’d talked about her deserving better continued to plague him.

Taite mightn’t have friend-zoned her but she was sure he was going to say something that would have put the brakes on whatever was happening between them. So she’d taken the pressure off. It hadn’t been a conscious thought, she’d been following her intuition, but she’d done what Taite had done with Maverick on the day the brumby had arrived.

It had worked. Taite had agreed to press pause. However, while she might have bought time to discover what it was keeping them apart, there was no guarantee she hadn’t prolonged the inevitable. In six months, or a year, Taite might rebuild the wall between them.

She picked up her pace. As he’d seemed to have let Stacey get close to him, it would be naive to think it was grief holding him back. Maybe all he felt for her was simple attraction. Maybe that was what Brenna was trying to say last week, that her red hair reminded him of Stacey.

A stitch in her side had her stopping to catch her breath. Beside her stood the ornate floral gate Taite had made in memory of his mother. Footprints in the snow that she guessed were his from the large stride led from the gate to his mother’s special bench and back again.

Hettie set off in another slow jog. It hadn’t surprised her when Taite said it had been his mother who’d helped him to cope. From the first weekend Brenna had taken her home from school to stay at Glenwood Station, Steph Lancaster had made her feel welcome. Her warmth, empathy and sincerity had never waned throughout the years Hettie had become a regular visitor. What she remembered most about Brenna and Taite’s mother was her joy and kindness.

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