One Snowy Night Read online

  Carl let out a low huff.

  “And Carl’s exhausted,” he added and got a ghost of a smile from Rory. “If we get rooms, we would get some sleep and hopefully the roads will open up at daylight.”

  “Daylight,” she repeated softly, staring out the window. “So we won’t make it home by dawn.”

  There was something in her voice. Emotion. Deep emotion. “Better than going back to San Francisco though, right?” he asked.

  She didn’t answer.

  “Rory? Stay or go?”

  She closed her eyes. “Stay.”

  “Okay.” He nodded. “Do you want to call home? I’m sure there’s a phone in there we can use.”

  “It’s too late,” she said softly. “They go to bed early. It’s okay, I’ll call them in the morning. I don’t want to walk up the whole house.”

  “Okay. Wait here with Carl for a sec, I’ve gotta go try to bribe them into letting him stay as well, otherwise I’m stuck in the truck.”

  “We’re stuck in the truck,” she said, reaching to pet Carl.

  We. Shit. He hoped to God he had enough cash on him to bribe whoever was in that motel, because the close quarters inside the truck would kill him long before dawn.

  Chapter Seven

  MAX DIDN’T WAIT for an answer; he just slid out of the truck and strode purposefully toward the small motel. Rory watched him go, his gait confident, those broad shoulders squared against the wind.

  “He never second-­guesses himself, does he?” she murmured to Carl, her own shoulders slumping.

  Carl, who’d climbed into the driver’s seat the second Max had vacated it, licked her chin.

  “He’s also still not thrilled with me, kiss or no,” she said.

  Carl whined and sniffed at her bag, probably hungry for another PB&J.

  “At least it finally makes sense now, given what I cost him.” She sighed. “I really blew it, Carl.”

  He whined again and bumped his face to hers. She hugged him tight, burying her face in the short but soft fur at his neck. “I knew you’d forgive me.”

  Back then she’d really believed turning in the video had been a victory. Her first. She’d actually won at something, gotten the upper hand.

  But she’d been wrong. It’d been a terribly selfish thing to do, leaving Max to pay the price, and what was worse, she hadn’t even realized it because she’d been blinded by her need for revenge.

  She really hated that.

  She startled when Max opened the door and wind and snow blew in. “Let’s go,” he said.

  “They’ll take Carl?”

  “Had to pay double, but yeah.” He grabbed their two bags and tossed her the leash. “You got him?”

  For some reason that made her feel slightly better. Though he had good reason to hate her, he didn’t, not if he trusted her with Carl. Maybe he’d finally really hear her apology. “Max?”

  He turned to her, impatience on his face. There were snowflakes clinging to his perfectly long, inky black eyelashes, and his jaw was tight.

  She bit her lower lip. “I just want to say how sorry I am that—­”

  “Not now.”

  “Then when?”

  His laugh was humorless. “Rory, it’s ten fucking degrees and it’s coming down sideways out here. You’re shaking so hard your teeth are going to rattle out of your mouth.”

  “I don’t care.” She reached out and grabbed a fistful of his jacket to hold him still. “I’m trying to make everything okay, Max. Don’t you get it? I really need everything to be okay. God, just once in my life, I need that. I can’t live with all this past stuff in my head anymore, I’m going to lose my mind.” She gripped his jacket tighter and put her face in his. “So I’m going to tell you I’m sorry and you’re going to listen to me, dammit!”

  He hadn’t so much as blinked as she basically yelled at him but she thought maybe there was the slightest softening in his hard eyes. “Okay,” he said.

  “Okay.” She let out a breath and nodded. “Good.”

  “You ready to go inside now or do you need to yell at me some more?” he asked.

  She choked out a laugh and got out of the truck.

  The lobby of the motel consisted of a desk and a love seat that looked like it’d seen better days. So did the paint on the walls and the floors. The wide-­screen TV though, that was brand spanking new and the twentysomething guy in front of it waved them through a hallway without taking his eyes off his show. “Last two rooms on the right,” he said, glancing over, his gaze slowing a little as he took in Rory. “They connect if you want them to,” he added slyly.

  Rory stumbled but Max caught her and nudged her along without comment.

  To their connecting rooms.

  She didn’t say a word as they stopped in front of the first door. Max handed her a key and waited until she unlocked it.

  “Try to get some sleep,” he said. “I’ll come for you when the roads are open and clear.”

  “You kissed me.”

  “Yeah.”

  “You kissed me like you liked me,” she said.

  He just held her gaze as snow flew all around them.

  She drew a deep breath. “Max, the girl who made that video, she isn’t the same woman standing here in front of you. You have to know that.”

  Max dropped his head and stared at his boots for a beat before meeting her gaze again. “Look, maybe we could go in our rooms and take showers to recover from the snow apocalypse, and then take some time to think things through like rational ­people. Would that work for you?”

  She paused and then nodded.

  A very slight bit of humor came into his gaze. “You sure?” he asked. “Because if you want to go back outside in this crazy-­ass storm and yell at me on Christmas Eve some more, that works too.”

  She rolled her eyes and turned back to her door. “The rooms connect.”

  “Yes.”

  She glanced at him. “You going to knock first?”

  He studied her for a long moment and then stepped into her a little bit, enough to make her breathing hitch and her heart skip a beat. His fingers stroked a rogue strand of hair from her temple. “Worried?”

  Yes. She was worried that he wouldn’t come over at all.

  “Listen,” he said. “Let it all go for tonight, okay? I mean what’s the worst that could happen—­you wake up and go back to worrying in the morning? Because maybe life’ll surprise you and everything’ll be fine.”

  She gave a rough laugh and he smiled. “It could happen,” he said.

  “Not in my world.”

  His smile faded. “There’s a first time for everything, Rory. Shut and lock the door. You know where to find me if you need me.”

  He said this lightly but she had a feeling he was hoping she wouldn’t need him. Which was fine. She didn’t need anyone, thank you very much. So she did as he said. She shut and locked her door and stared at the small but neat room. She set down her duffle bag and then eyeballed the connecting door to Max’s room.

  The walls were thin. She could hear him unlocking his door and then the padding of Carl as he trotted in.

  “Stop,” Max said and Rory froze.

  “Don’t drool on the windows.”

  Rory had to laugh at herself and then imagined Carl at the window, up on his back legs so he could see out into the night.

  “You wouldn’t believe the security deposit I had to put down for you,” Max said, tone warning, “and I want it back, every penny.”

  There was a thump. Probably Max’s duffle bag hitting the floor. And then the interior door, her connecting door, rattled a tiny bit.

  He’d unlocked his connecting door, she realized as her heart took a good solid leap.

  He wanted her to be able to get him if she needed him.

  “Don’t even think about the bed,” Max said. “I’ve got dibs. I’m taking a quick shower first. Don’t eat anything while I’m gone, you hear me?”

  There was a silence and then the