Chapter 5

5

The rest of the flight was uneventful. Tahlia barely exchanged more than a few words with Nelson for the whole four hours, but it wasn’t completely unbearable. At least she knew he didn’t outright hate her.

Kaiden and Maddy went through a whole season of their favorite show, a movie, and then napped until landing. Tahlia knew they were probably going to be hyper in the car but she’d thought of plenty for them to do. Besides, if she was occupied with the kids, the less she had to think about their puzzling father.

Mr. Nelson had called ahead to have an SUV waiting for them. Tahlia thought they would have a driver, as the family did for nearly all excursions, but was surprised to see Nelson slid into the driver’s seat himself after getting the kids and luggage into the back. She didn’t say anything, though, when she got into the passenger’s side.

“Seatbelts?” he looked in the rearview mirror at the kids.

Tahlia turned around in her seat so she could see the twins. “Check?”

They gave her toothy grins, not at all tired, just as Tahlia suspected, and very safely strapped themselves into their respective seats. It was a custom Tahlia initiated when she started driving them to school.

“Check!” they exclaimed in unison.

Their father lifted a brow, but Tahlia noticed a slight lift to the corner of his mouth as he shifted the car into gear.

As soon as the car left Bay City limits, Tahlia connected her phone to the car’s stereo system and set it to her kid-friendly holiday playlist and a loud sing-along commenced. Tahlia was unapologetically off-key but the kids didn’t care as they joined her. Nelson seemed bewildered at first but Tahlia noticed his features softened and even saw his fingers tap in time with the beat when Rockin’ Around the Christmas played.

When the sing-along ended, Tahlia got the kids into a rousing game of ‘I Spy’ Tahlia’s polka-dot sweater was a popular ‘spied’ object then 20-Questions. Again, Nelson didn’t engage, but he was obviously listening and there were times when Tahlia saw blink-and-miss-it smiles. She couldn’t help wondering what his all out grin would be like. If he was capable of being that emotive.

Eventually, the sky darkened and the hills turned into larger peaks blanketed in snow and evergreen trees. The kids were finally getting tired out, quiet as they watched another movie on the iPad during the final stretch of the trip.

The sun was gone and the stars had come out when they got to the three-bedroom log-cabin (the style of a log-cabin, anyway) Nelson had rented on the resort’s property, but the cabin was awash in light from within. Tahlia could see a gravel trail off to one side of the structure, illuminated by light posts every couple of feet. Through the trees, she could see the bigger structure of the main lodge.

“Alright, kiddos,” Tahlia announced as she unclipped her seatbelt. “We’re here!”

“Snowball fight!” They both cried and, with a surprising energy Tahlia thought had been burned off during the trip, leapt out of the car and dropped into the snow. Without their coats.

“Wait a second!” Tahlia jumped out herself to scramble after the twins with their coats. “Put your jackets on!”

The kids swooped by in a whirlwind and took their winter coats. Only when they’d run off again, attacking each other now with hastily made snowballs, did Tahlia register the mountain cold on her un-coated self.

A violent shiver wracked her body, and she wrapped her arms around herself tightly. Before she could hightail it back to the car and grab her own coat, something heavy and fleece-lined was dropped around her shoulders. It was warm so Tahlia instinctively pulled it tighter around her before she realized it was her coat.

Nelson strode past just then, arms laden with bags, and Tahlia comprehended that he must have brought her coat to her. She stared after him for a second longer than necessary, a strange warmth suffusing her skin that had nothing to do with the cold or her jacket.