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“Yeah. I contacted my breakdown service and pretended that you were my boyfriend, got you added onto my cover. They’re picking your car up tomorrow and towing it to the garage.” His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth, but she got in first. “Before you have another go at me for trying to help, I didn’t do it for your benefit. The sooner your car is fixed, the sooner we won’t have to travel in the same vehicle anymore.” She turned to head along the driveway. “Thanks for the drink, and walking me home.”

Opening the door, she went inside and shut it behind her, leaving him standing on the driveway, apparently speechless.

Chapter

Eight

Sam?”

He looked up, meeting his mum’s gaze across the kitchen table, aware that she’d asked him something. But he had no idea what she had said.

He cleared his throat. “Sorry?”

Tara smiled. “You seem a million miles away. Is everything all right?”

Depends on your definition of all right. If it meant being terrified that the ski resort might be in serious difficulty, feeling the burden of responsibility toward a friend who needed financial support, his girlfriend probably being on course to dump him again, plus that he was generally knackered, then yes. He was all right.

Although Cat’s usual pattern of behavior had changed. She’d gone from being generally pissed off to like she was buttering him up for something.

A cold nausea swirled its way into his stomach. What if she was planning on trying the “we should move away from Glenavie” conversation again? Sam had always known this was the place for him, and enduring the same debate on at least a yearly basis was pretty soul destroying.

The other person playing on his mind was Maya. He hadn’t seen her at the resort earlier that day. She must have been avoiding him.

He thought back to the previous evening. They’d been getting along pretty well, until he’d mentioned Cat. But why should Maya be bothered about her? Cat certainly gave the impression they didn’t get along, what with all of her barbed comments about how Maya thought she was too good for the rest of them, going off to university and becoming an accountant. Those were opinions he’d shared for a long time, fueled by his argument with Maya and her subsequent cold rejection of him.

But recently, things didn’t seem to fit. They got along so well at times, though, granted, in other moments they rubbed each other the wrong way. However, she was really funny, and he couldn’t help but laugh at her quips, plus she seemed so empathetic toward other people.

She’d also taken him off guard when she said that she preferred the small ski-town life and hated being an accountant. Even that she loved all the same over-the-top Christmas decorations as him.

None of it fitted with the picture he’d painted of Maya in his head. It did sit more evenly with Liv’s opinion of her, but in the past he’d put that down to bias, because best friends overlook each other’s flaws.

The biggest thing he couldn’t get over was the fact she’d kept that moon charm. Did it mean something to her that he’d gifted it? Or had she kept it only because she’d loved the trinket so much? After all, she’d been admiring it for a while before he’d bought it.

He’d organized and purchased it, but the rest of the ski team had put in for it too. That would be why Maya didn’t associate the charm with him.

Right at that inopportune moment, the memory of seeing her walk into the steam room popped into his head, and he nearly groaned out loud. It was like his brain had it on priority replay. A few times a day it would appear out of nowhere like a really annoying but mind-meltingly hot advertisement.

He’d struggled so hard to keep his eyes off how her tawny-brown skin had glistened and the way her swimsuit hugged her curves. But he had failed spectacularly and so had no choice but to extricate himself from the situation, his brain screaming, Mayday! and pressing the imaginary ejector seat button.

He rubbed his beard, glancing up and realizing that he still hadn’t answered his mother, who was giving him a patient look. “Sorry, Mum. I’ve got a few things on my mind.”

Tara touched his hand. “You seem as if the weight of the world is on your shoulders.”

“That’s because his girlfriend is an almighty pain in the arse,” Liv called from the kitchen. She crossed the open-plan area toward the table, carrying the pot of stew. “Tuck in.”

Sam eyed her, but she avoided his gaze, and he could tell that she’d made her previous comment without thinking.

Lifting the lid, Tara stirred the pot. “This is lovely. But I feel guilty that you’ve come round to mine for dinner and done the cooking yourself.”

Liv kissed the top of their mother’s head. “You cooked every night for us when we lived here. Now it’s your turn to put your feet up. Anyway,” she said, taking a seat next to Tara and across from Sam, “I love cooking.”

Tara dished the food onto their plates, and Sam shot Liv a look.

Liv raised an eyebrow. “Why are you giving me a death stare?”

“You know why. Stop slagging off Cat.”

He took a mouthful of food and had to stop himself from groaning at how good it was, not wanting to give Liv the satisfaction.