Page 29 of Snowed In With You

‘I take it Rob never told you about the time we tried to do Thanksgiving at my place then. We had to call the fire department in the end.’

She was utterly ridiculous and gorgeous and I loved the way her eyes got all wide when she recounted her crazy antics. ‘The fire department?’

‘Yeah, that was one inedible turkey after I’d had my way with it.’

We both curled up in laughter and I kissed her on her smile, she pulled me closer and my fingers slid into her soft hair. Her hands ran across my chest and I sighed, wondering how quickly I could carry her to my bedroom and have her naked, when there was a knock on the door.

I was only expecting one person and I groaned, God her brother had terrible timing. I smoothed Sara’s hair with one hand as I strode to unlock the door for my best friend.

‘Hi,’ I said, my eyes running over him with concern. His hair was mussed and there was a faint shadow of beard on his jaw that said more about his mental state than possibly anything else could have. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I’m fine. Can I come in?’

Sara rounded the corner, ‘Who’s at– Oh.’ Then her eyes took in Rob and I saw the same worry in them that was reflected in mine, but she clearly wasn’t going to let this go without making him sweat a little first. ‘Rob.’

I gestured for him to come in and then headed to the kitchen, tossing Rob a beer that he promptly set on the side atop a coaster. I hadn’t even known I owned coasters, so I wasn’t sure where he’d found one. I briefly entertained myself with the thought that he had resorted to carrying them around with him to maintain order.

‘Sara, I’m sorry. You too, Fletch. I shouldn’t have messed with you both and tried to manipulate you into getting together. Even if it worked.’ Rob’s fingers drummed at the arm of the sofa and his eyes darted around the room. This was clearly hard from him, I’d seen him more relaxed in a street brawl than he was right now.

Sara sighed, ‘I’m grateful to have Fletcher in my life, but I wish you’d just come and spoken to us. I know it’s not somethingwe do nearly often enough,’ she reached out and took his hand, stilling the frantic movement of his fingers, ‘but there’s still time to change that.’

‘You mean that?’ Rob asked, a strangely wet look in his eye as he stared at his sister and I cleared my throat, feeling like maybe I should leave when Sara glanced at me briefly and I could tell she wanted me to stay.

‘Of course! I don’t hate you Rob, all I want is for you to try to remember I’m not a child any more. You don’t need to lecture me, or criticise me, or turn every failure into a teachable moment. Just… be my brother.’ Sara’s jaw was clenched and I wanted to ease away the strain for her, for them both.

‘I’ll do better,’ Rob said, relief evident on his face, and then he lurched forward, scooping her into a giant hug that had her shooting aWhat The Fucklook at me when he released her.

‘I will too,’ she said and this time her smile was soft, all was clearly forgiven. They both looked to me and I blinked.

‘Oh, er, yeah, sure, me too.’

‘No, dumbass, your phone is ringing.’ Sara looked like she wasn’t sure if she wanted to tweak my nose or kiss me and I gave a small chuckle as I pulled my phone free of my pocket.

‘It’s Providence calling,’ I said in confusion and Rob and Sara shared a worried look. ‘Hello?’

‘Hi, I’m looking for a Fletcher Harris on behalf of Robert Bridges?’

‘Speaking and Rob is right here with me. Is everything okay?’ My heart was pounding and my mouth felt dry, pretty much everyone I was close to in Anchorage that could have me down as an emergency contact was sitting right here. That only left one person. Tanya.

‘We have a Mrs. Tanya Bridges here and we were unable to get hold of the primary emergency contact number. Could we speak to Robert?’

I wordlessly passed the phone over to Rob and he looked stricken, his face paling further until his dark eyes looked black against his pallor.

‘Rob Bridges speaking,’ he said and then he bit his lip, nodding even though the person on the other end of the line couldn’t see him. ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

Sara had her hand on her brother’s arm as he hung up and I could see the whiteness of her knuckles from where I was sitting. ‘What’s going on?’

‘It’s Tan,’ Rob said, his voice a little faint and his eyes unfocused. He shook his head and clenched his fists. ‘They said the power went out at the lodge and when she turned it back on there was a spark in the fusebox that got her. They’ve taken her to Emergency but they wouldn’t tell me exactly why over the phone.’

Sara jumped up, spooking Tibs from the corner of the chair and causing him to run into the kitchen where he peered balefully out at us. ‘Okay, we’ll take the rental and we’ll go and find out what’s going on.’ She took Rob in a tight hug, ‘I’m sure she’s fine.’

Chapter Twenty-One

Sara

We made it to the Emergency room in just under fifteen minutes and Rob was sweating profusely by the time I pulled up. I had been allowed to drive because they needed my, quote, ‘oh-shit’ driving, whatever that meant. Either way, we’d brushed past two red lights in the nick of time and Fletcher was holding onto the handle of the car door like he was scared it was going to fly open.

‘Now I’ve seen you drive first hand, I can understand why nobody is that comfortable with you doing it,’ he muttered as we pushed through the doors and Rob led the way to the reception desk. He was a doctor and I guessed all the hospital layouts were likely very similar, because he located it much quicker than I probably would have.

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