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“Of course. I get the message loud and clear you want to be left alone.” She averted her eyes and looked a little embarrassed again.
I grinned, turned on the swivelling stool and rapped my knuckles on the wooden dining table. “You got it,” I agreed and looked around the family room again when an awkward pause developed between us.
A smile curved my lips when I took in the massive bouquet of fresh red roses sitting on the small dining table with more fresh petals scattered around it. Their deep ruby color appeared vividly rich against the unwaxed, pine wood table. I considered how hard it must have been to transport those delicate blooms up to the cabin without them being damaged and smirked at the likely ‘fuck celebrities and their stupid demands’ conversation of the person charged with keeping them intact.
I inhaled a deep breath and broke the silence. “Thanks. The place looks great. Everything’s perfect. I’m sure my girl will love it.”
She grinned. “Mr. Fontaine, any girl would love all this. It’s such a grand, romantic gesture to bring a girl to a place like this,” she admitted, waving her arm around at the romantic setting of the quaint cabin.
“Well, if there’s nothing else,” Kelsy stated, turned and wandered down the hallway again. I followed her and glanced out the small picture window next to the door. A few flakes of snow fluttered down past the window creating a fabulous winter scene and I smiled. I loved the white stuff, since snow had been the reason I’d met the love of my life, in the first place.
A look of uncertainty flashed through the cabin girl’s eyes when I’d followed her, so I felt I ought to say something. “Thanks for your help, I’m sure we’ll love it here.” For a second or two she hesitated before she pulled on her outdoor clothing and slipped her feet into her boots. She lingered on the inside of the front door until I realized why.
“Oh,” I said reminding myself to tip her. I stuffed my hand in my back jeans pocket and pulled out my money clip. Thumbing four fifties off the clip, I passed them over. “Thanks again, I’ve got your phone number, so I’ll message you if we need anything,” I confirmed again.
Taking the money, she stuffed it into her pocket, did up the zipper, and proceeded to put on her gloves. “Thank you,” she muttered before she reached for the handle of the door. A huge gust of wind blew a drift of fresh powdered snow straight toward us. And fresh heavy snow fell from the sky. Kelsy immediately huddled over, turned her back on it, and pulled the hood up on her long, padded coat. “Damn,” she muttered. “Go inside, it’s freezing out here,” she ordered.
“Are you sure you want to go out in this?” I asked, concerned about the stormy conditions.
She glanced out at the weather and back toward me. “If I didn’t go out every time it snowed, I would be home from October to May,” she responded and smiled. “Seriously, I’ll be fine. My chalet is just over that hill, and I have my GPS.” I glanced in the direction she pointed and could see nothing. “I know what I’m doing. Go, get inside before you freeze to death,” she ordered.
Dressed only in a thin T-shirt, sweater and jeans I shivered in the minus twenty-degree temperature, so I did as she said, and quickly closed the door.
Moving back to the small picture window at the side of the door, I watched Kelsy trudge a path to her snowmobile, pull down her hood and slip on her helmet over her ski hat. By the time she mounted her ride the trees around us were barely visible. Within seconds she sped off into the distance and the glow of her red lights at the rear of her ski mobile quickly disappeared as heavy snowfall and fog swallowed her up in a blanket of invisibility.
The sound of silence was deafening as I stared out at a suspension of faint sparkles of iced moisture that hung in the air like suspended glitter but saw nothing of the incredible Christmas card scenery that had welcomed me on my arrival. It wasn’t unusual for ‘whiteouts’ to happen in the mountains, when the combination of heavy snowfall and fog reduced visibility to zero.
My chest tightened at the thought I’d endangered Daisy by bringing her all the way up here in such conditions and again when I wondered if the sudden change in weather would prevent Daisy from reaching me. I took my cell phone out, glanced at the time and saw a text message from Felix.
Felix: The Eagle has landed. ETA @ resort in one hour.
Daisy had arrived in Burlington and was on her way to the resort. Part of me wished I’d insisted Felix had gone to pick her up instead of some random resort driver. However, I laughed when I read how he’d referred to my girl. He’d called Daisy my ‘bird’ because I had been flying to Belfast when a diversion had led me to her in the first place.
I texted him back.
Me: Don’t you dare take chances bringing her up here in a whiteout.
Felix: Love you, boss, but not so much that I’d put my life on the line in a snowstorm.
Felix: If I go down, I go down fighting, not frozen stiff on a mountainside. We’ll wait for the storm to pass before we set out.
Felix: According to the locals the latest snowfall is set to pass around the time Daisy gets here. Don’t worry, GPS will lead us straight back to the cabin.
I cursed the snow, then immediately took it back because if it hadn’t been for the white stuff, I’d never have met my gorgeous, Irish girl in the first place.
CHAPTER 2
Antsy and unsettled, I decided to waste some time finding out where everything was and unpacking my luggage. My impression of the cabin only got better when I realized that the second bedroom and bathroom for Felix were situated on the opposite side of the family room from ours. And that there was a separate entrance door to the cabin from there as well.
Usually being somewhere so secluded wouldn’t require me to have my bodyguard to stay with me. But on this occasion, it had made sense to keep Felix nearby because I figured I’d need him for other things. It also made perfect sense that there were two exits from a house made of wood, that had three open log fires.
Felix’s room was completely self-sufficient with a small kitchen, a mini fridge, microwave, and tea kettle. There was also a large wall-mounted TV, a comfortable couch, a small fireplace, and a large king size bed. Best of all, with the thickness of the mature logged walls, we still had enough privacy to prevent Daisy from feeling too inhibited.
After noting his mini kitchen had also been stocked with Felix’s favorite protein bars, shakes, breakfasts, and snacks, I headed back through the family room and found my luggage in what I realized was our master suite.
Our bedroom was situated down a small hallway off the far side of the family room, next to the kitchen area and past the large indoor sauna. Our room had the same layout as Felix’s—minus the kitchen. In its place was a wall-length log burning fireplace. Then there was a huge plush couch in front of that, and a custom-made bed. Ours also had a floor to ceiling wall of windows, which I’d been assured by Donna gave a panoramic view from our vantage point on the mountain down to the valley of the Sugarbush resort below. In that moment I figured I’d have to take my PA’s word, because right then the visibility outside was zero.
As I lit the fire in the bedroom, I heard a text alert on my cell phone and scurried back to retrieve it from my jacket.
