Page 31 of The Way Back Home
The contact was innocent. Protective. Supportive.
She didn’t want it to stop.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
TEAGAN
As if on cue, snow began to fall just as they took the final exit off the highway. Thick white flakes drifted slowly at first, increasing in intensity as the truck climbed the winding road up the mountain. Darkness was just settling along the ridge, providing a storybook setting for the outstanding displays of holiday lights.
Teagan held her breath when they passed the turnoff that would take them directly into her old hometown. Thankfully, Noah was concentrating on the road and didn’t notice.
By the time they pulled off the main road, the wipers were operating at full speed, and Noah had shifted into four-wheel drive. A blanket of white stretched out before them, with dark evergreens looking like someone had slathered them with frosting.
Teagan had forgotten how beautiful these mountains could be. When she’d left, she’d gone south andwest. These last few years, however, she’d been slowly working her way back. She shifted at the sudden, overwhelming feeling of being home again.
Just that quickly, they were in a clearing. A huge, sprawling farmhouse appeared before them, its exterior brilliantly lit with twinkling white Christmas lights and old-fashioned streetlamps outlining the last hundred yards of the drive. Evergreens and shrubbery were decorated as well, making it look like something right out of a Christmas fairy tale.
“You weren’t kidding about the Normal Rockwell thing, were you?” she murmured.
His response was a small smile, but there was tension around his eyes. Maybe that stuff he’d said about having her around wasn’t complete bullshit after all.
Noah pulled his truck off to the side, parking beside four other similar vehicles. For a moment, they just sat there, each steeling themselves in their own quiet way.
“Ready?” he finally asked.
“No,” she said honestly.
That earned another curve of his sensual lips. “We can do this.”
We, he said. Notyou. As if this was difficult for him too.
“But listen, before we go in, I should probably warn you about?—”
Noah’s door was thrown open, and a huge pair of hands pulled him out of the truck.
“Welcome home, shithead!” said an exuberant male voice.
“Yeah, we didn’t think you were going to make it!” said another.
No sooner had his space been vacated than a huge, furry mass launched itself inside and promptly tried to sit in her lap. Since the dog was the size of a small bear, she ended up pinned between the seat and the door as he sniffed her hair and face with a cold, wet nose.
The dog seemed curious and friendly, so she remained still and let him do his thing. It was people she had a problem with, not animals.
Teagan peered around the dog and saw that four bodies had converged on Noah, splaying him out on the ground by his limbs. Two held him down while the others bombarded him with snow. Noah fought valiantly, taking one out with a quick sweep of his legs, then using the momentum to flip another.
“Dickheads,” Noah growled, getting his feet underneath him and tackling the largest of them.
Teagan heard theumphfsas he took the guy down, even as more hands reached out.
“Hey,” one of them said, laughing. “What’s Bear doing? Guys, check this out.”
“You bring a pack of steaks with you, Noah?” one asked.
“Oh fuck,” Noah cursed, shaking off the others and approaching the truck. “Bear, down!” he shouted, but the dog completely ignored him and settled half on, half off Teagan’s lap.
“What the hell?” another said, peering into the cab.
Noah ran to the passenger side of the cab and threw open the door. “Bear! Get off!”
