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“Glad you’re not dead,” I finally say, choosing to ignore her. I don’t wait for her response, and put the truck into drive. “I’ll deal with the car after the storm passes. Let’s get back to the cabin now though. It’s freezing.”
“The cabin? No, you need to take me to the airport.”
I let out a scoff. “Look around you, honey. Does it look like any planes are flying today?”
“What are you, an aviator? Take me to the airport and let a professional decide.”
“I’m not keeping us on these roads to fulfill your whims,” I counter sharply. “We’re going to the cabin.”
“I’m going to Boston,” she insists, folding her arms. “Aren’t you a billionaire? You can’t get me a flight?”
“Aren’t you a billionaire too? Get your own goddamn flight.” I’m driving now, trying to ignore her death glare. It’s hard though. Julia Ridgeway is exceptionally pretty when she’s angry.
She settles into her seat and directs her vitriolic stare out the window. “You planned this, didn’t you? You brought me to bumfuck Montana because you knew I’d get snowed in with you.”
I snicker. “You’re asking me if I can control the weather.”
“You knew there would be a snowstorm.”
“Didn’t you? You didn’t check the ten-day when you packed? Maybe you wanted to get snowed in with me.”
“Oh, please. Why would I want that?”
“I told you to come in two days. You’re the one who came in three. If you had come a day earlier, this wouldn’t be happening.”
“So this is my fault?”
“Jesus Christ. It’s nobody’s fault, Julia. What, is this the first time you haven’t gotten what you wanted? Grow up. And while you’re at it, stop being so damn prideful and admit you enjoyed last night.”
Her jaw drops. “You’re delusional.”
“Says the woman who accused me of controlling the weather,” I retort, chuckling with disbelief. “You’re welcome, by the way, for waking up in the middle of the night and coming to your rescue.”
“Please. You were chasing me.”
“Chasing you? Julia, if I wanted to spend another minute with you, I wouldn’t have to chase you. You’d be in my bed begging for it.”
She curls her lip. “I detest you.”
“The feeling is mutual. At least we agree on one thing.”
I can tell she’s dying to get the last word in, but this has gone on for too long. We both know it. She stares out the window instead, refusing to acknowledge me. I decide that’s fine. She’s better to look at than to talk to anyway.
When we get back to the cabin, Julia heads straight to her bedroom without a word like a surly teenager. I consider picking a fight, but it’s still so early, and I don’t have the energy. I leave her suitcases by the door to her room and head back downstairs, where my coffee is still waiting for me.
Clearly, being snowed in with Julia Ridgeway is going to be a fucking treat.
***
Four hours later, we’re up to a foot of snowfall with no sign of stopping. The last time I saw a storm like this, I was thirteen. Back then, Grandpa and I sat in the living room and watched it together, while Grandma panicked in the background about boiling water and making sure the pipes wouldn’t freeze.
I remember Grandpa laughing at her when her back was turned. “Crazy old girl,” he said while shaking his head, but he still stared at her like she hung the moon.
Now, I’m sitting in my living room and watching the storm again—except I’m on a three-thousand-acre compound. There’s no need to run the taps; the pipes won’t freeze no matter how cold it gets. I have PEX pipes running through the place, not to mention a solid heating system that hasn’t failed me yet. Grandma and Grandpa would have been blown away.
It’s after ten, and I start to wonder if Julia is going to spend the rest of the storm locked in her bedroom. If so, that’s her problem. I’m not going to beg her to spend time with me. I got what I wanted—what I was owed. Sure, we briefly toyed with the idea of doing it again. But that was just drowsy sex talk, I now realize. Didn’t mean anything. If it had, she wouldn’t have run away.
I read for a few more hours, periodically watching the snow falling, but mostly trying to get through a book on Toyota’s manufacturing philosophy, which is a much hotter read than it sounds.
