Page 4 of I Still Do

“Did I hear you need a ride?”

She knew that voice as well as she knew her own: Grey.

She turned slowly to find him watching her with curiosity. He was standing near the window, his luggage at his feet. He’d changed some, and yet everything about him was familiar from his strong jaw to the breadth of his shoulders.

She realized she was holding her breath. She’d known this moment was coming but hadn’t expected it to be quite so soon.

“Um…yeah. Apparently, they’re all out of, well, everything.” That was smooth.

The corners of his mouth lifted into a little smile. “So I heard. The rest of the family got here yesterday. When they heard about the storm, Flynn came down here and reserved a truck for me with four-wheel-drive and snow tires just in case.” He held up a set of keys. “Turns out it’s a good thing he did.”

“You’re not joking.” Flynn always had been quite the planner, to the point of being overly controlling. In fact, he and Grey both did a lot of primitive camping and things like that together before they started growing apart. Grey often spoke about being prepared for any eventuality whenever possible. It was no surprise that Flynn had thought things through ahead of time, too.

“You’re welcome to ride out there with me if you’d like.” He glanced out the window at the swirling snow. “We’d better get going, though. The guy gave me the truck but cautioned against driving in this. I’m thinking the sooner we leave the better.”

Ride in a truck, just her and Grey? Cora wished she had another choice. But she couldn’t hide from Grey this weekend, and she certainly didn’t want to sleep at the airport. Besides, speaking to him for the first time where the rest of the family wasn’t watching was probably better, anyway. She’d rip that stinking bandage right off and be done with it.

Her decision made, she took a steadying breath and squared her shoulders. “That would be great, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Come on, the lot is this way.”

They fought their way through the crowds of people until they came to the door leading to the parking lot outside.

Grey put his heavy coat on and Cora followed suit. He turned to look at her then, and his green eyes—a color that had always made her think of a meadow just after a heavy rainfall—focused on her. “Here let me take your suitcase. Just follow me.” Without waiting for her to respond, he picked hers up like it weighed nothing. Although that was Grey—always the gentleman.

Now that they were walking next to each other, Cora was reminded of just how much taller he was. She’d always felt tiny in comparison. His sandy brown hair, with subtle red highlights that probably still shone in the sun, looked much the same. Maybe cropped a little closer than he used to keep it.

He was still just as handsome as ever. That realization made Cora’s heart stutter.

The attraction between them—the spark—had never gone away. At least not for her. It was more like everything else that had been wrong with their relationship had overpowered it.

It didn’t matter, though. He could be remarried by now.

She glanced at his left hand. No wedding band. Then he probably had a steady girlfriend, or a fiancée. A whole lot could happen in five years.

Snow began to cover their jackets the moment they stepped outside. The snowflakes alone were shockingly cold as they hit Cora’s skin. It was the howling wind, however, that really drove the freezing temperatures home.

It wasn’t hard to find the rental truck since most of the lot was empty. Grey hit the clicker on the keys to unlock it, opened the passenger door for Cora, and then stowed their luggage in the back seat. “I’ll be right there. I just want to get my pocket knife and boot knife out of my bag. They don’t do me much good in there.”

Once he found what he was looking for, he put the pocket knife where it belonged and then slipped the larger knife into his boot. Cora brushed the snow off her pants and jacket onto the floorboard as Grey got behind the wheel.

“Wow, that’s a lot of snow.” He leaned forward a little so he could look at the sky through the windshield.

Her eyes widened. “Do you think we should go back into the airport?”

“Do you want to weather the storm out there?”

He knew she disliked everything that had to do with flying, including airports. Usually people say they like lift off. Or landings. Or at least the beauty of the view far below. Yeah, not Cora. There was nothing positive enough about the flight to outweigh the fact she was floating thousands of miles above the ground in a tin can crowded with way too many people.

“Nope.”

“Me, neither.” Grey started the engine, turned the windshield wipers and heater on full. “You still have that map the guy at the counter gave you?”

“Sure.” Cora pulled it out of her bag. “I thought you’d been here a lot before.”

“A lot is three or four times, and it’s been years.” He took the map from her and studied it a moment before handing it back. He glanced at her and then slowly made his way through the parking lot to the road. Or rather, what was a road before all the snow had buried it. “In the interest of full disclosure, this isn’t going to be easy.”

“Are you saying there’s a chance we may not get to the cabin?”

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