Page 28 of A Runaway in Winter
“Good. Winston, will you come help me in the kitchen?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he says, giving us a wink before following his wife. They’re adorable and exactly the type of marriage I always dreamed of having.
The kind I know in my heart never would have happened with Carter. I watch as she giggles at something he says, his arm banded around her waist as he kisses her temple.
It’s something Carter hadn’t done in a long time.
Years.
Why had I let that become acceptable?
“I don’t want you to move into the cabin, but if you’d be more comfortable…” Lake says cautiously, forcing my attention back to him.
“We already talked about it,” I tell him firmly. “I don’t want to move into the cabin.”
“Good,” he says, his shoulders relaxing as he nods toward the buffet-style dinner. “Let’s go grab dinner before Beau eats it all.”
“I heard that!” his brother yells, flipping Lake off and making us both crack up.
It’s refreshing and so damn normal I could cry.
It’s perfect and it feels good to be home.
16
PEN
Something had shifted inside me after dinner at the lodge. Lake and I had lazed around when he was home the next couple of weeks, watching movies and just talking—catching up on everything and nothing. He surprised me with breakfast in bed and hot chocolate by the fire with matching reindeer socks and new best friend mugs he picked up in town. It was cathartic, just like dinner had been, and it was a start, but it wasn’teverything.
I’d used the time I was alone to take a hard look at my life, at the person I’d become and the one I want to be in Wintervale—the one I want people to know as I replant my roots here.
We spent Christmas with Oma and his family, and I’d gotten a secondhand account of how his cousin Reid’s boyfriend, Harlan, had to grovel to win him back. Lake had told me how Harlan had called them for help and how he’d had to hold Beau back after hearing Harlan had broken Reid’s heart.
The Beau that had wanted to wage violence had been nothing but sweet to Indie—something that made her giggly and starry-eyed every time we had a video chat. I still didn’t know Beauwell enough to tease him, but if this continued between them, I wouldn’t be able to resist.
Gossip about my botched wedding still flitted through town, and that wouldn’t change—not for a while. I thought that would bother me but whatever negativity someone wanted to throw my way would be no match for the bone-deep relief I feel not beingMrs. Carter Hanes.
“Goddammit, Penelope,” Lake growls, startling me. I spin to face him, clutching the towel knotted between my breasts, my hair still wet from my shower.
“Jesus, you scared me.” I motion toward the microwave. “I had to heat up my coffee.”
More rejection letters required more coffee, and I’d been so focused, I forgot to get dressed first.
“In a towel?” he sighs, averting his gaze and making me snicker.
We hadn’t adhered to the Christmas sex date, instead watching it come and go, both of us waiting forsomething.
There was plenty of kissing, cuddling, and a fair amount of groping, but I hadn’t taken it any further and neither had he. The frenzy of the wedding and the aftermath still lingered in the periphery, but I also liked getting to know Lake again.
I knew the boy who picked me up from school the day he got his license to get ice cream, the one who taught me how to ski, and the one who wasn’t afraid to be a goofball if it got me to laugh.
So many days we’d be up early and home late, absolutely filthy from being outside. Oma would just shake her head and feed us both before sending Lake home.
But we hadn’t been those kids in a long time.
Lake’s dreams had changed and so had mine, but we’d still ended up here.
Together.
