Chapter 1

Chapter One

West

“ S o, then I told him there was no reason why we couldn’t get the photoshoot done over two days and be finished well ahead of Christmas.”

My best friend, Sheila, laughs, the sound reverberating in my car’s speakers. “I don’t know that that’s well ahead of the holiday. It’s already the nineteenth.”

My stomach swirls at the reminder. “Yeah.”

“But that would be better than the week Daryn told you it would take and get you to your parents’ before the party on the twenty-fourth. Did he go for it?”

“Of course he didn’t,” I say, slapping my steering wheel and then shaking out the sting in my fingers. “Not that it matters. Just as I headed out of the office, he had the gall to tell me that this rich client he’s so eager to sign and is bending over backwards to accommodate won’t even be here until the day after tomorrow—at the earliest !”

“ What ? Why do you have to be there so early?”

“Apparently, his assistant has to approve all of the proposed layouts and clothing options before this guy will even get on his private plane or helicopter or whatever. ”

Sheila whistles under her breath. “And this had to be done right at Christmas?” she asks, sounding dubious.

“That’s what I said. And Daryn gave me his favorite answer. Whatever?—”

“The client wants,” she finishes with me, very familiar with my boss’s favorite expressions.

I shake my head, focusing on the deserted road ahead of me. I’ve been making my way slowly up the mountain for what feels like hours, and every winding minute is another minute snow is accumulating. I need to get to this stupid luxury resort that some insane person had built on the side of a mountain for rich people to vacation at before I end up in a ditch or falling down the side of the mountain.

I shudder, almost grateful for the fact night had fallen an hour ago and I can’t really see that the right side of the road just drops away anymore. I still know it’s there though.

“I’m sorry, babes,” Sheila says, and I can hear in her voice how much she means it. “I can’t believe I’m going to be at your family’s Christmas party and you won’t.”

I groan theatrically. “Me either. I mean, I want you to have fun, obviously. It’s not like I want them to cancel the party because I can’t make it.”

At least… most of me doesn’t want that. A tiny part of me had hoped that when I called my parents yesterday and gave them the news, they would insist on postponing the annual party until I could be there with them. Even if they’d wanted to, it was too short of notice, and I knew that.

Family from all over the state—and even a few from even farther—come home to Stonewood Ridge every year to celebrate the holiday, and there’s no way they can cancel or postpone a week ahead.

I’m just going to have to miss it.

“When do you have to go back home?” I ask, grimacing when she sighs heavily.

“My flight home is the twenty-sixth,” she says reluctantly. “I have to be back to work the next day. ”

“I might not get to see you at all?” I exclaim, silently cursing my boss all over again.

Daryn is the absolute worst. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself and the big-money clients who make him even richer. I don’t know why I’m still working for him. At least once a month, I contemplate resigning. Just walking into his office, setting the piece of paper on fire, and then dropping it on his desk. Then I’d turn on my heel, all dramatic and cool, and saunter back out.

But every month, I also chicken out.

Working for Daryn is giving me the opportunity to make connections I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do and still live in Stonewood Ridge. I would’ve had to move to New York or LA, and that just isn’t something I’ve ever been interested in doing.

I like working on the PR side of things, especially managing social media, and I keep waiting to be given my own accounts, but every time I bring it up, Daryn blows me off and says I’m not ready . I know it’s bullshit though, that he just likes having me as a glorified assistant.

I know I’m a halfway decent photographer and content creator. A few of the videos I’ve made for my parents’ business have even gone semi-viral, and that was with me half-assing their content. I know that if given the opportunity, I can help people grow their businesses and create the kind of branding most small-business owners don’t understand.

I squint at the GPS on my phone and frown. The path I’ve been following has disappeared. The words Searching for Route are at the top, along with the circle of doom. Is my GPS failing? Have I lost service or something?

Wait. That doesn’t make sense. I’m still talking to Sheila.

“Oh, great. I think I’m fucking lost,” I moan.

“That’s not funny, West,” she says sharply.

“I’m not kidding.” I press on my brakes, my stomach swooping as I feel my tires slide on the slick road. “My GPS seems to have bit the dust, and I don’t know where my turnoff is.”

“Could you have passed it?”

“I don’t see how!” I exclaim. “There’s literally nothing up here. There’s no way I missed the turnoff for this place unless they have zero signage.”

“Maybe you should just turn around and come back down the mountain.”

I shake my head. “I know I’m almost there. I have to be.”

“I don’t like this,” she says, worry thick in her voice. I hear someone say something in the background, the deep voice no doubt belonging to her fiancé. “Gregg agrees. He says, ‘Your job isn’t worth your life.’”

I roll my eyes, even though I kind of agree with them. “I’m supposed to be the dramatic one here, not you two.”

“West…”

I cut her off before she can convince me to blow up my life and turn around. “I’m almost there. I’m sure of it,” I say again, creeping along the road and trying to find any sign for the Aiguille Resort or a turn.

“Well, don’t hang up until you get there, or else I won’t be able to sleep tonight night. I’ll be worried your car is tumbling down the side of the mountain.”

“Thanks for that colorful image,” I say dryly.

“Well, it’s the truth.”

I can’t help but smile at her shrill tone. “I won’t hang up, I promise. You can keep me entertained until I get there. What are you and Gregg doing for New Year’s?” I ask, trying to distract us both.

“We don’t really have set plans yet,” she hedges, but there’s something in her voice that tickles my brain.

“Sheila Rose, did you just lie to me?”

“…no.”

“Well, that was convincing,” I say. “Spill it.”

“We promised we wouldn’t tell anyone until after.”

“Tell anyone what? Until after what?” I say, straining to see if the curve ahead has the turnoff I’m looking for, and then her words click in my brain, and I gasp. “Are you two fucking eloping? ”

The silence is all I need.

I shriek with delight. I’d clap my hands if I wasn’t terrified to take them off the wheel. “Oh my God, you bitch. You’re getting married without me?

She laughs. “Well, my parents said they’re not coming, and his mom is being—” Gregg says something in the background, but I can’t quite make it out. She snorts. “I’m not calling her that, even if it’s true.”

I can only imagine what Gregg, the salty-mouthed tattoo artist, had to say about his rude and controlling mother, especially if she’s turning that rudeness on Sheila, who Gregg loves to an almost disgusting degree.

“I’m sorry your parents still haven’t come around,” I say softly.

Her relationship with them has never been great, but I was still shocked when she told me when we were FaceTiming a few months ago that her parents had basically disowned her because Gregg had gotten her pregnant. I’d known that she’d grown up in a conservative household, but I hadn’t realized just how bad it must have been until that moment. She generally downplayed it, rarely telling me about her family or childhood, and that had been the moment when I realized why.

“Yeah, me too,” she says just as quietly.

“Don’t you still need witnesses?” I ask, unable to handle her being sad at the moment. “I can come with you wherever you’re going.”

She laughs lightly. “I’m pretty sure they provide the witnesses, but if you really want to come…”

“I do!” I shout and then carefully fist pump the air when I see a road up ahead. There isn’t a sign, but I know that has to be my turn.

“Then, we’d love to have you there for it,” she says.

God, I’m so fucking happy for her. “You’re going to be so beautiful. I’ll make sure of it.”

I can practically hear her eyes rolling. “Gee, thanks, West.”

“Hey,” I say softly .

“Yeah?”

“You know I love you, right?”

Her shaky breath surrounds the tiny interior of my car. “I know. I love you too.”

Suddenly, I can hear Gregg a lot more clearly than before. “Gay or not, I’m not particularly a fan of listening to you tell another man you love him.”

We both laugh, and I carefully take my turn, tall trees enveloping me on both sides. It’s even darker than the main road, but at least one side doesn’t just drop away anymore.

“Are you guys doing like an Elvis-themed Vegas thing?” I chuckle at the thought, trying to imagine Sheila, who up until she met Gregg was the epitome of a strait-laced good girl, and Gregg, with all of his tattoos and leather, standing in front of an Elvis impersonator.

When she doesn’t respond, I glance at my phone, frowning when I see the screen’s gone dark.

When had that happened? Had the GPS just given up and shut down the app?

I tap on the screen. “Sheils?”

There’s no response, and the screen stays dark. My car’s quiet, except for the crunch of the tires outside on the growing snow and my heater working hard to keep up with the frigid cold.

I tap at the screen again, more frantically, pressing the buttons on the sides, trying to wake it up. The screen stays black. Fuck . How is it dead? I had been at eighty percent when I left my apartment.

Fear rolls down my spine as I glance around, but I can see very little outside the beams of my headlights, which don’t go too far, thanks to the heavy snow falling from the sky.

I just need to keep going. I’ll get there eventually. I just need to stay on the road, and then I’ll make it.

Something big and brown moves fast, darting out from between the trees just to my right and crossing the road in front of me, startling a scream out of me. I reflexively slam on my brakes, catching dark eyes and a long snout before my car is spinning and I lose sight of the animal.

I try to pump my brakes, fighting for control of the steering wheel, but it’s no use. My tires can’t get any traction, and my car, even though it wasn’t going that fast, has enough power behind it to wing around a few times and then slam into the trunk of a tree.