3. Allie

3

ALLIE

A firm hand clamps over my mouth, and I scream. The sound is muffled by the hand, and with my heart racing I whip around as fast as I can with ankles sunk into the snow. The grip loosens and the hand falls away as I turn, leaving only a faint scent of pine and aftershave that’s vaguely familiar.

My feet move slowly in the snow that’s already gotten them half frozen and I stumble backwards, but before I can fall the man reaches out and grabs me around the waist, steadying me and bringing our bodies so close his snow suit grazes the beads of my wedding dress. I stare up at the man and find myself looking into familiar bright blue eyes, blue eyes that I’ve been dreaming about for the past two years. There are tiny lines shooting out from their sides and they’ve lost their mischievous sparkle, but they’re still the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen.

I gasp at the same time that Hans does, his blue eyes widening with recognition.

“You.”

His arm drops from around my waist, and it’s so unexpected and this snow is so thick that I’m thrown off balance and fall backwards, landing on my butt in the snow for the second time in the last five minutes.

“Hans,” I gasp from my position in the snow.

A smile spreads across my face at the sight of him. The man who’s haunted my dreams since I met him here two years ago. I hoped I’d run into him while I was here, although I dreaded it too, but now that I have all I can do is smile up at him like an idiot.

But he’s not smiling back. He folds his arms across his chest, and there’s a scowl on his features that doesn’t fit with the laidback, cocky ski instructor I met two years ago.

“What are you doing, Allie?”

The use of my name makes my heart flutter. He remembers me. Hans remembers me. But the smile falters on my lips at the stern way he’s looking at me.

“I’m…um…”

What am I doing? I’m not even sure. I just knew I had to get out of there. I can’t go through with the wedding, and if I try to talk to my family about it, they’ll only talk me into it. Responsibilities, obligations, and all that.

A sound from the cabin behind has me whipping my head around in a panic. Someone comes out of the side door and I scramble to my knees, not caring about the chilly bite from the snow.

But it’s only one of the staff going out for a vape.

I’m on the edge of a thicket of pines, and with the darkening sky from the incoming storm, I’m not sure they can see us. They turn to look the other way, down the valley and toward the resort that’s all lit up for Christmas.

When I turn around, Hans reaches a hand out for me. I take it, and he pulls me up. For a moment our bodies brush, and I get a whiff of his scent again.

My stomach flutters, and my core pulls up tight. Then he steps back, putting distance between us.

“You can’t be out here in the cold.”

He’s right. My toes are already numb, and the adrenaline that got me out of the window has worn off. I wrap my arms around myself suppressing a shiver.

“Come,” he says. “I’ll take you back to your fiancée.”

He spits out the last word and looks away, his expression unreadable.

“I’m not going back,” I say. “If I go back, I’ll get talked into going through with it. And I can’t go through with it.”

He eyes me warily, and I want to tell him he’s the reason. Because I don’t feel the spark with Ryan that I did with Hans. That I’m scared I’ll never feel that again with anyone.

He looks at me long and hard, and I wonder what’s going on behind those bright blue eyes.

“Please.” I’m not above begging, because I didn’t climb my large ass out of a window and drop into the snow only to be sent back to the chapel.

Hans scowls at me then looks up at the darkening sky, swearing under his breath.

“I suppose if I just pretended I didn’t see you, you’d do something stupid like run up the mountain in your bare feet?”

I look down to hide my disappointment. I don’t know what I expected. Hans to be happy to see me, to welcome me with open arms and help me escape?

“Yes,” I say defiantly. “I’m not going back there, so you can either help me or leave me on my own on the mountain.”

I hike up my wedding dress and take a few steps through the snow. Damn, my toes are so cold they’re painful, but I don’t let him see it. If he doesn’t help me, I have no idea where I’ll go. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. And the harsh reality of what I’m doing sets in. Maybe I can find an empty cabin and break in for the night.

I just need to buy myself some time to give everyone a chance to calm down. Then I’ll work things out with my mom.

“Come on then.” Hans sighs. “Follow me.”

He turns to the left and takes a path that runs behind the cabin we’re staying in. I hang back, still not sure what he’s going to do.

The kind man I shared a connection with two years ago is gone. All I see now is a grumpy employee who’d turn me over to my family with no consideration of my feelings.

“You’re not going to turn me in, are you?”

He turns to look at me, and his face is half in shadow from the tree we’re standing under.

“No, I won’t.” He sighs. “But I won’t leave you out here to freeze to death either.”

It’s not the romantic answer I was hoping for. Not the answer of a man who’s pleased to see me. I was right. I was just another rich tourist to him.

The thought hurts more than anything else that’s happened today.

He turns and trudges up the path, and with no better options, I hike up my skirts and follow.