Page 84 of The Ice Queen in the Corner Office

“Your brother’s a really great guy. He did everything in his power to get you back, and it’s clear he adores you. You’re lucky to have him.”

“I know,” she said. “I didn’t doubt for a moment that he’d come for me. I was so scared he’d get hurt trying to save me and…” Her words faltered, and she pressed a hand to her mouth as though trying to hold something back. “I’m just having a hard time believing I’m really safe, that someone isn’t going to break the door down and take me away again, that I’m not going to wake up alone in that room.”

“You’re safe here.” I turned on the lamp next to the bed. “We’re several hours from Atlanta. No one will find you here. I promise.”

She nodded, silent tears rolling down her cheeks as she stared out the window. I got out of bed and went to her. I squished into the chair next to her and wrapped my arms around her while she cried. Her tears didn’t last long, but her whole body shook even after she stopped crying.

“Wanna get back in bed?” I asked. “It’ll be warmer with the blankets.”

She nodded, and we got back in bed. “Tell me something that will make me stop thinking about them,” she said.

So, I told her about my disastrous hike with Alex and I told her how terrified he’d been when I did the ropes course. She laughed until a bit of the fear and darkness left her eyes.

“He just showed up on your vacation?”

“He’s not so good about giving up when he decides he wants something, and he’d decided he wanted to get to know me better.”

“He must be crazy about you,” she said.

I didn’t want to do anything to darken her mood, but I wouldn’t lie to her, either. “I think what you’re seeing from your brother when he looks at me is admiration and respect for me in a professional setting. We work well together and, maybe, he thought that could translate to a relationship, but it didn’t work out that way.” She didn’t need to know the details about our relationship, didn’t need to know just how much I cared about him. He was her brother and I’d never say a bad word about him to her. “We just aren’t meant to be.”

She didn’t look convinced. “Alex didn’t tell me and Dad that he’d started his own company until he’d been running it for three years. He hadn’t wanted to share it with us until he was sure it was going to be successful. He doesn’t tell us much about his personal life, either, but he told us about you. I know he can be stubborn and obnoxious, and he’s probably not the most romantic guy on the planet, but he loves fiercely and completely. Maybe…Maybe just don’t give up on him quite yet.”

Pain constricted my heart. “When Alex finds the right woman, I absolutely believe he’ll love her with everything he has, and she’ll be beyond lucky to have his love and devotion. I’m just not that woman.”

She sighed. “You asked me how I feel about Lee? The truth is, I think he’s the kindest, most caring guy I’ve ever met. I want to be happy that he’s interested in me, but I just don’t feel anything but sisterly affection for him. Maybe if I dated him, or spent more time with him, that would change, but if I got serious with him, if I married him, we’d stay in the neighborhood we all grew up in. I’d move into a house probably not much different from the one I live in now, and we’d struggle, just the way I’ve struggled all my life. I don’t want that. I want to do what Alex did, I want to get out of the old neighborhood and do something more. I want to travel and see the world and live without worrying every day if there’s going to be enough money to buy dinner.” She looked at me. “Lee’s a great guy, but he and I don’t want the same things.”

I dropped my head back against the headboard and looked up at the ceiling. I could sympathize with Lee, loving someone who didn’t feel the same about him.

“Wanna see what’s on T.V?” Willow asked.

“Sounds good.”

She grabbed the remote and flipped through the channels, but we ended up talking, about Alex as a kid, about Willow’s plans for the future, about my family and my brother’s vineyard, until dawn’s light rolled in under the blinds.

***

The sound of my stomach growling woke me. Sunlight warmed my face, even through the window, and I knew it had to be the middle of the day. Still, I tried to sleep. To settle back in and just hide from the world for a couple more hours.

What would it hurt?

With a jolt of panic, I remembered that I was supposed to be watching out for Willow. I sat up straight in bed and looked for her, but she wasn’t there.

“Are you okay?” Alex asked.

I pulled the blanket higher around myself. I was still in my clothes from the day before, so there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot to hide, but I felt the need to protect myself. Especially when he was dressed and wide-awake, sitting on the bed next to me, and I was having to struggle to remember where I was. “Where’s Willow?”

“She’s fine. She’s with your mom and Lee, having breakfast.”

My shoulders dropped, and the panic receded a bit. “Were you watching me sleep?”

“I wanted to talk to you. As soon as you step out of this cabin, there will be people everywhere we go, and I won’t be able to tell you how sorry I am. I want you to believe that everything I did, every choice I made, was to keep you safe. If things were different, I never would have left your side.”

“You don’t have to be sorry,” I said. “I understand why you did it. I appreciate you wanting to keep me safe.”

“But you’re still mad at me.”

He looked so confused, so lost, and, with everything else going on, I wanted to make it better somehow, but I couldn’t.

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