Merry and Bright(42)

“Look at it this way.” Lori gave her a thumbs up. “You’re doing a helluva job with that evil plan to make his visit miserable. I bet he hated that torturous tongue lashing you just gave him.”

Hope thunked her head on the cabinets. “My evil plan is kaput.”

“Good. Why?”

“Because he quit. He’s going to start his own business, one where he doesn’t have to suck the soul out of people.”

“Wow. Good for him. You got to him.”

Yeah. And damn if he wasn’t getting to her . . .

She shoved away from the counter and headed toward her office.

“Where are you going?”

“To bury myself in paperwork.” Anything to avoid reliving the past few minutes, which had been fantasy-worthy, and definitely worth reliving—neither of which she wanted to face. “And like you were helping me make him miserable. You were too busy manufacturing ways to get us together.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lori said innocently.

“You locked me out of the house earlier. You sent him to the living room where you knew I’d be. You—”

“Wow, you’ve got quite the imagination.”

Hope rolled her eyes. “Okay, fine. Play innocent. Just stop playing me.” She hit her office, where she spent the next few hours trying to rob Paul to pay Peter, and unable to do that, did her best to handle the money situation so as to make every creditor happy.

An impossible feat.

With a sigh, she closed her eyes and tried something she hadn’t tried since she’d been four and in church with her mother. She clasped her hands together and bowed her head. “God? Do you think you could do me a favor? If you help me, I promise I’ll . . .” She hesitated, wracking her brain for a worthy offering. “I’ll stop fantasizing about Edward’s speedy death.” She opened her eyes, peeked at her bank balance, and sighed in disappointment.

As usual, she was on her own.

She turned to the window, where she saw not just the snow, falling much more lightly now, but Danny, walking the perimeter of her property while simultaneously looking down at a large piece of paper in his hands.

What was he up to now?

She should just ignore him. But she could no more do that than stop thinking about how he’d kissed her. How he’d held her face and looked into her eyes before and after as if . . .

As if she meant something to him.

The thought brought a lump to her throat, which pissed her off. Pushing up from her desk, she shoved on her knit cap and grabbed her coat. Because he might have kissed her as if she was the most important thing to him at that moment, but right now he had something else on his mind.

And she wanted to know what.

And . . . and maybe, just maybe, she wanted to see if he meant something to her, too.

So she headed outside, but the cold slap of air on the porch knocked some sense into her and she hesitated.

What was she doing?

She didn’t need to talk to him, she needed to ignore him. And repeating that like a mantra, she turned back to the door.

Which was locked.

“Dammit, Lori!” But the door remained locked. With a sigh, she headed toward him.





Danny walked through the snow, squinting behind his fogged-up glasses as he checked the plot map in his hands to the lot Hope had up for sale. It ran adjacent to the B&B, most of it a hill overlooking the valley far below.

A stunning view.

He knew from Hope’s business plan that she wanted to build a sledding and tubing area here. She’d need equipment for the tow lift, maybe some lights to operate at night, and the sleds. Cheap—relatively speaking—and it would give her a nighttime activity for guests. Plus, she could charge for the activity and bring in additional income. He liked it, he liked all of it, and could now see the draw, see what kept her here.

The potential was amazing.

He’d always loved the city life, everything about it; the traffic, the noise, the availability of fast food . . . but he could admit, there was something to this, too. Something wild and almost savage, and incredibly soothing at the same time.

Through the falling snow he caught sight of someone standing on the back porch. Jeans, a white down jacket, snow boots . . . that frown.

Hope.

She was walking toward him with purposeful steps, and at the sight of her a mix of heat and wariness hit him. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this way about a woman before; the intense need, mixed with a deep, abiding affection.

As he dealt with the onslaught of emotions over that, he caught yet another movement. Something small, brown . . . a dog. A brown Lab, he thought, bounding up to play with him. Danny crouched low, encouraging it to come up to him— Whoa. It wasn’t a dog.

It was a bear cub.

He straightened and stared in shock down at the cub, now frolicking and rolling in the snow at his boots looking like the cutest thing he’d ever seen. But even he, a certified city rat, knew baby bears didn’t travel alone.

And sure enough, as he looked up at Hope still coming toward them, he saw the momma bear behind her, heading for the equipment shed and trash box between him and the B&B. Even as he registered that, Hope came to a stop and slowly turned.

And came nose to nose with the momma bear. “Oh, shit.”

In answer, the bear puffed itself up and let out a low but unmistakable growl.