Chapter 3

Three

CAMMIE

“ D id that really just happen?” Wendy asked, her eyes wide with bewilderment.

“Husband?” Candice puzzled.

I glanced around the lobby as if something was there to answer our questions, but we were alone. “Don’t ask me,” I said with a shrug. “I’m wondering if we are even related…” Although the dark hair and ice-blue eyes, as well as our similar bone structure, made it hard to deny our shared DNA.

The girls giggled, and I couldn’t help laughing with them.

“I’ll check on the shuttle,” I offered, traipsing over to the check-in desk.

“Don’t bother,” Colin advised as he stalked back into the lobby and around the desk. “Gus is on his way back to the inn, but he won’t be taking any more trips. They just announced that they are closing the roads.”

“The road to the airport?”

Colin nodded but didn’t look up as he typed and frowned at the computer screen. “And the roads in and out of the resort. We’re all snowed in here until the blizzard passes.”

“Well,” I grumbled, “there went my plans for a warm Christmas on the beach. It’s probably karma for not spending the holiday with my family.”

Colin chuckled and glanced up at me. “Can your friends bunk with you in your cabin? We’re going to have our hands full trying to accommodate all the visitors who weren’t planning to stay and are now stuck here.”

“Sure,” I agreed. Turning, I faced the girls and jerked my thumb toward the entrance to the lodge. “Drop your bags by that door,” I told them, pointing at the room where they temporarily stored luggage for guests. “Let’s go eat and then I’ll grab some food from the kitchen. There isn’t much in the cabin since I was planning to be gone.”

“Sounds good,” Candice murmured. “We can talk about the trip and what we want to do now that our flight is canceled.”

Nodding, I led the way through the large great room of the lodge to the entrance to the restaurant. “I hate to decide anything without Hannah. I’ll call her and see what she wants to do.”

She didn’t answer, so we ate and filled up some grocery bags with food before trekking out to my cabin.

I called Hannah a few times over the next couple of hours, not wanting to decide anything without her input. She didn’t answer or reply to my texts, so I eventually sent one to Jake, in case he saw it first.

Me: Hannah isn’t answering her cell. Have her call me. I’m guessing she’ll tell me more about this mystery than you will. Girl talk and all that shit. Anyway, our flight was canceled because of the storm. We are trying to decide what to do about the trip .

It was over an hour later when I finally received a response.

Jake: Trip is canceled .

Did he miss that part of my last text?

Me: I just told you the trip was canceled…Did you shake some brain cells when you got that concussion? Yes, I know about that. Yes, my medic friend told me. And since I didn’t tell Mom or Raven, you owe me, big brother .

My phone rang suddenly, and Jake, making a goofy face, popped onto the screen.

“I asked for Hannah to call me, not my clearly addle-minded brother,” I answered.

“Hannah is sleeping.”

I glanced at the clock and frowned. “At one in the afternoon?”

“She’s worn out, Cammie,” he said.

By his smug tone, I had a feeling I knew how he’d worn her out and… “I…ewwwwww, Jake. That’s just gross.”

“You brought it up.”

I almost argued, but Jake was a master at riling me up, and I wasn’t about to take the bait and hear more about his S-E-X life. But it was a good segue to find out some answers to this confusing situation.

“Speaking of, what the hell is going on with you and Hannah?” I paused and realized I’d left it wide open for him to give me more details that would force me to have my ears bleached. “And give me the PG version, bro.”

“None of your business,” he retorted

I deserved that since I’d used the same answer on him earlier.

“I figured.” It was my turn to sound smug. “No worries. Hannah will tell me.”

“That’s up to her.”

He obviously wouldn’t budge, so I moved on to the reason I’d messaged him in the first place. “Okaaay, well, I need to talk to her about rescheduling the trip.”

“I already answered that, Cammie,” he grunted. “The trip is canceled.”

Wait, did he mean canceled as in no trip at all? “Like canceled, canceled?” I clarified. Even though I doubted everything would make sense, no matter what he said in reply.

“Exactly.”

Annoyed that he thought he had any say in what I did with my friends, I protested, “But?—”

He cut me off. “It’s not up for discussion, Cammie. I just got my wife back, and I’m not letting her out of my sight anytime soon.”

“You can’t throw that at me and not give me an explanation, Jacob Ashley!” I yelled, frustrated that he wouldn’t give me even the tiniest bit of explanation on the whole Vegas wife thing. “Why the hell are you calling Hannah your wife? And when did this wedding happen?” I gasped at a thought that popped into my head. “Did you get her pregnant? Why was it a secret?”

“Because she is, last Christmas Eve, not yet, and none of your business.”

I sputtered, once again thrown off by him using my words against me.

“It’s been a year?” I queried, disappointed that he’d kept this from me. Jake, Raven, and I had never kept secrets from each other. Now he was keeping all kinds of shit to himself. “Why—” I stopped suddenly when the rest of his answers sank in. “Wait, did you say NOT YET??” I practically screeched.

“Merry Christmas, baby sister,” Jake crowed in a jovial tone before hanging up.

My mouth hung open, and I pulled the phone away from my ear to stare at it confoundedly.

“Did I mention that my family is as mad as a hatter?” I asked no one in particular.

“Did he answer your questions?” Wendy probed.

“Not really.” I set my phone on the table in the dining area and padded over to curl up on the couch. “Just that it happened last Christmas Eve.” I narrowed my eyes on my friend. “You knew about this?”

She held her hands up in defense. “I only knew that she hooked up with some guy. I didn’t know about the marriage. His friend Zander and I hung out until late that night, and he mentioned Jake being a pro snowboarder, but I didn’t put two and two together.”

“This is the first I’m hearing about any of this,” Ardith grumped, probably as annoyed as I was at being left in the dark.

“Same,” chimed Candice, Shelly, and Sian.

Ardith and I grew up together in Winter Falls, and we met Candice and Sian during our first year of college. After hitting it off with Shelly in my doctoral program, I’d introduced her to the other girls, and we’d become really close. Then a couple of years ago, Candice, Sian, and I were filling in as temporary medics at a figure skating competition, and that was where we met Hannah and Wendy. In a humorous twist, it turned out that they’d grown up only a couple of hours from me in the small town of Cranbury Cove.

The seven of us had been close friends ever since. It wasn’t like we told each other every single secret…but getting married seemed like something you would share with your best friends.

“Maybe we should—” My phone ringing interrupted my thought. Assuming it was Hannah, I jumped up and bounded over to the table, snatching up my cell. But my brother-in-law’s face filled the screen.

“Hey, Caleb. What’s up?”

“Cammie, I am so sorry to do this to you, but I need a favor.” He sounded genuinely distressed, and my mouth curled down into a worried frown.

“Of course. How can I help?”

“I hate to ask…especially with the weather. But you’re the only one qualified to give medical care and are an expert at driving a snowmobile. And you, Jake, and Raven know this place better than anyone else. It’s just…I feel like the worst brother in the world for asking you to go out in this storm.”

“Back up. Someone needs medical attention?”

“Yes. But…never mind. I’ll ask?—”

I snapped my fingers over the phone speaker to get his attention. “Caleb! I have to go, and you know it. Besides, I can navigate this land with my eyes closed.” Which was a damn good thing since it was most likely going to be very close to that.

He sighed. “Yeah. My friend Soren was trying to sand the paths like a fucking idiot. I told him it was useless and he should keep his ass inside. Anyway, he slipped and fell while we were on the phone. He hit his head. He swears he’s fine, but it sounded worse to me than he’s letting on. I’m worried about a concussion.”

“You’re right to be worried, especially if he’s alone in this storm. What cabin is he in? I’ll go check on him now.”

“That’s the thing,” Caleb sighed. “He’s the architect and project manager for the new Olympic training facility. He’s living out where we’re building the new cabins for the athletes. It’s the only completed one, so he’s alone. I was hoping you could make a quick trip to check on him and get back before the storm is so bad we have to pull all the employees who are out trying to keep the paths clear.”

“It’s no problem, Caleb,” I assured him. “I can make it out there in half an hour on one of the new snowmobiles.”

“Just make sure you don’t stay more than half an hour before you head back to your cabin,” he instructed. “It’s predicting that in about two hours, the conditions will be complete whiteout, and the winds are going to hit a record high.”

“I’ll leave now.”

“Thanks, Cammie. Keep us updated on when you get there, when you leave, and when you’re back.”

“Will do.”

We hung up, and I raced into my bedroom to put on my warmest thermals and sweats. I explained the situation to the girls as I hurried to the coat tree by the front door and donned my parka. Once I’d pulled on my snow boots and bundled in a hat, gloves, scarf, and snow goggles, I waved goodbye and opened the door. The wind nearly knocked me off my feet, but I gritted my teeth and pushed through the gusts. It was almost impossible to see the path to the shed where we parked all the vehicles. The snow was falling so fast and heavy that the salt didn’t have a chance to melt it.

Still, I could see far enough ahead of me to spot the light over the garage door. The roads and snowmobile paths throughout the resort land had reflective roadside markers, snow stakes, chevron markers, and rumble strips to cue drivers about the edge and keep them on the right road or path.

Guests and employees were forbidden from off-roading, but like I’d told Caleb, I knew every inch of this place. That didn’t mean I was going to be stupid, but there were shortcuts to the area where this Soren guy was staying that would save me valuable minutes.

The ride was normally only fifteen to twenty minutes, but I didn’t go at my normal speed, wanting to be fast but cautious. So it was more like forty minutes before I spotted the porch light on the cabin.