Chapter 19

19

When they returned to the lodge, everyone traipsed inside to grab a bite to eat at the restaurant. The parade had been so fun and dripping with Christmas goodness that everyone was in a bright mood, even Matt. Tahlia was watching he and Jed chase the twins around the lobby Christmas tree, an ear-splitting grin on her face, successfully distracted from any thoughts about her future, when she saw the last person she ever expected.

She couldn’t believe it. Dale fucking Brenner stood at check-in, arguing with a concierge. Had she somehow conjured him up earlier? What were the fucking odds?

“He’s not having a good day,” Jed quipped breathlessly as he paused beside Tahlia, who was frozen in place. She could do nothing but stare at the vision of her ex-boyfriend, who was, by some astronomical chance, at the same ski lodge she was. The nightmare got worse when he turned and spotted her.

Go away, go away go-no don’t come over here!

Tahlia looked around wildly for an escape. The Nelsons were mere feet away, the twins finally calm, and having some kind of discussion she couldn’t make out through the roaring in her ears. Her eyes found Matt and, as if he could sense her distress, he looked her way. She wondered how horrified she must have looked to make him scowl so deeply.

“Tahlia!”

She whipped around to find Dale right in front of her. He was flustered, face red either from the argument or from how fast he crossed the lobby to reach her.

“Tahlia! Baby!” He lifted his arms as if to embrace her but Tahlia came back to herself in time to bat them away.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” she hissed.

“I came to see you!” he exclaimed with a grin.

“How did you know I was here?” Tahlia went back over every movement she’d made in the last week to check if Dale had been in the background somewhere.

At least he had the decency to look somewhat abashed. “Find My iPhone. I know your password, babe.”

Fuck. She knew she’d forgotten something after breaking up with him. “You tracked me?” She grabbed his arm and dragged him further away from the Nelsons; the kids were watching. “That’s…beyond inappropriate. Why are you here?”

“I missed you,” he said, as if that was a reason that could sway Tahlia.

“You missed me?” she repeated, incredulous. “Bullshit.” She narrowed her eyes when another thought occurred to her. “You’re out of money, aren’t you.”

It was not a question and the way his eyes darted toward the Nelsons confirmed her suspicion. Her stomach churned and she stepped away from Dale.

“You’re such a dick. Go away. You’re not getting any money out of me or my family.”

“Hey, Come on, don’t be like that…” He reached for her but Tahlia jerked away. Dale’s face clouded and when he spoke again, he was harsh. “You owe me, Tahlia.”

“Is everything alright?”

Tahlia closed her eyes at the sound of Matt’s voice behind her. Damn it. The last thing she wanted was for him to get involved.

“We’re fine!” she tried to say cheerily, but the words came out in a near-screech. “Dale was just leaving,” she added in a lower tone, shooting a glare at her ex-boyfriend. Who didn’t take the hint.

“No, I’m not. Tahlia owes me money,” Dale straightened up and puffed out his chest in a wildly bird-like way that would have made Tahlia laugh had she not wanted to scream. “I’m here for what I’m owed.”

“I don’t owe you anything!” Tahlia had never been so frustrated in her life. Or embarrassed. Dale was throwing a fucking fit in the middle of a fucking ski lodge. But that wasn’t the worst of it. That she could handle. Any other day she’d yell right back and tell him to sod off but today…today he was doing it in front of people she cared a great deal about.

Matt took another step forward, deliberately placing himself between Tahlia and Dale. When he spoke again, his voice was dangerously low, like a distant roll of thunder that warned of a violent storm to come. “You heard her. You should go. Now.”

Despite the spacious lobby, the air tightened and closed in. Tahlia’s heart pounded so hard she feared it might burst from her chest. Dale did not look like he was going to back down and Tahlia feared he would be excessively stupid and attack Matt. Without thinking, she reached out and touched Matt’s hand. It was fleeting, barely a brush, but he flexed his hand in response before curling his fingers into a tight fist.

“I will call hotel security over,” he said in the same, threatening timbre.

Dale’s eyes flicked between Tahlia and Matt, narrowing shrewdly. “Right,” he huffed. “Should have guessed. Alright, fine.” He raised his hands in surrender and backed away. “I’m leaving, dude!”

He continued walking backward, eyes flitting between Matt and Tahlia, until he almost tripped over a coffee table, then he shot one last look at Tahlia then turned and rushed out of the lobby. Tahlia guessed he had a motel room somewhere in town he was escaping to, and hopefully she would never see him again; good riddance.

“Who was that?”

Right. The other man in her life with whom she was sorely irritated.

“Why did you do that?” She turned on him and he reared back in surprise. “I was fine. He would have left.”

“You looked upset.” Matt’s brows furrowed in a deep scowl. “He touched you. I couldn’t stand there and let you be attacked.”

“I wasn’t being attacked,” she argued, even though from a distance she understood it could look that way. All the same, he shouldn’t have inserted himself like that. “I was handling it! You don’t have a right to butt in to my business!”

Instead of growing angrier, which Tahlia thought would have been preferable, a blankness swept over Matt, as if he’d pulled a mask over his face. Tahlia’s stomach turned sickeningly when she realized her mistake.

“My apologies, Miss Jameson,” he said stiffly. “Please excuse me. I won’t be able to join everyone for dinner. If you wouldn’t mind explaining to my family, I have some work to do.”

With that he strode to the doors that led toward the cabins. Tahlia closed her eyes and blew out a deep, but shaky breath.

Good work, Jameson. Good bloody work.