Page 32 of The Ice Queen in the Corner Office

I was so dead.

I should pack up and go home. Except that May would definitely tell Jill I’d been there and why, so Jill would be pissed at me no matter what I did.

I got to my feet and stalked to the door. Better to die fighting than be labeled a coward.

I maintained my determination until I pushed through the front door of the inn. The little card next to my bed had said breakfast would be served at the inn every morning, but I didn’t see a lot of people around. In fact, the place looked pretty dead.

I followed the sounds of laughter and people talking and found myself in a dining room with a large table. Seated at that table was Jill and May, and an older woman who looked just as I imagined Jill would look in twenty years, gorgeous.

Where the hell were the guests? Where the hell was the— The three women stopped talking and spun to look at me. The older woman smiled sweetly, May grinned like she’d just gotten tickets to her favorite show, and Jill somehow managed to look shocked and furious at the same time.

“Hey,” a man, with Jill’s eyes and dark hair, stepped into the room holding a baby in a car seat carrier. He was followed by a petite woman and three more kids. “Sorry we’re late. Kayla and Carrie were up most of the night working on Kayla’s costume for the Christmas concert and-” He stopped in the middle of the room. “Sorry, I didn’t think we had guests this weekend.” He stretched out a hand. “Cody Reynolds.”

I took his hand and shook. “Alex Owings.” There was no point in subterfuge.

His grip on my hand tightened. “Alex Owings. As in the guy who bought the family business? That freaking Alex Owings?”

I held firm, but I was thinking I maybe would have taken Agatha’s advice and high-tailed it out of there if I’d known Noah had a brother who was as big as a grizzly bear but with more muscle. “That’s me.”

He grinned and slapped my shoulder. “Welcome to Nora’s Inn, dude. It’s good to see you.”

He dropped my hand and went about tending to the baby in the carrier. “Not to complain,” I said. “But why are you so happy to see me?”

He stood, baby on one arm. “Noah hated running the business, man. You saved him by buying it. You saved all of us.”

“I was happy to do it?” I said, wondering if he was just messing with me before he took me out.

“Hold on,” Jill said. “Before you announce Alex is your new best friend, Cody. Why don’t you ask him exactly why he’s here? On my vacation.”

Jill glared at me and I gave her my cockiest smile. “I couldn’t stand to be away from you for an entire week, sweetheart.” Risky? Hell, yes. But safe wasn’t in my wheelhouse.

Jill made a sound that was indisputably like a growl. Cody narrowed his eyes and handed the baby to the short woman next to him. She took the baby, but put a hand on his shoulder. The other kids were watching from the doorway.

“Are you dating my sister?”

“Not yet,” I said. “I’m here to try to convince her to give me a chance.”

Cody relaxed. “Cool. I thought it was something creepy, like she’d dumped you and you wouldn’t let her go.”

Jill’s hands fisted at her sides and her face turned red. “He followed me here like a stalker. That is totally creepy.”

Cody took a seat and the woman with him patted Jill’s back sympathetically. “You’re talking to the man who arranged our wedding before he asked me to marry him.”

Jill ground her teeth and looked to her mother. “Mom, please tell me you aren’t going to let him stay here.”

Mrs. Reynolds smiled sweetly at her daughter. “May’s got him staying in a cabin, sugar. It’s double the rent for a room in the main house, and I really want to finish re-doing the cabin on the east side.”

Jill’s eyes widened. “Money is more important than the safety of your eldest daughter?”

Mrs. Reynold’s eyes twinkled, and she appeared to be biting back a smile. “Are you in danger? Is this man a threat?”

“He’s a threat to my sanity.”

“The best ones are, honey,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “Maybe you ought to give him that chance he wants so badly.”

Jill glared at me. “Leave or I quit.”

Jill might love working at Owings Leisure, but I didn’t doubt she’d follow through on her threat. “Give me two days,” I said. “It’s beautiful here and I could use a break from the city. If at the end of two days you still want me gone, I’ll leave.”

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