Snowbound Summer (The Logan Series Book 3) (7 page)

Chapter
Nine

Getting carried away in the heat of the moment was one thing—discussion
about the finer points of contraception quite another. Summer couldn’t pretend
to herself that she hadn’t thought through sex with Nick any longer. Couldn’t
blame drink, or circumstances.
Who’s going to know?
She brushed off the
anxiety clenching her stomach muscles tight. In Brookbridge everyone knew everybody
else’s business; you had as much chance of keeping a secret as you had winning
the lotto. But up here, sequestered from the rest of humanity by the elements,
with the nearest house a couple of miles away, their secret would be safe.

No-one need know. It didn’t have
to mean anything.

Still, the discussion has altered
the mood from uninhibited to reserved. She still wanted him, but the desperate
edge had been eroded from her desire. Maybe they should get on with the jobs
for the day that needed to get done before nightfall. It would be dark by five
or six, more than enough hours then to explore each other.

She climbed off the sofa and put
her clothes back on. “You need to eat and drink something hot.” She filled the
saucepan and put it onto the woodstove. “And we should try to find out when the
electricity will be restored.”

“Summer…” He reached a hand out
to her. “Come and sit down here for a moment.” He patted the sofa.

She didn’t want to. Didn’t want
to get drawn in. “No...I’ll just...I’ll make some coffee.” She had no idea what
she was getting herself into here, no idea at all. There was a pile of reasons
they shouldn’t do this, a pile as high as the Christmas presents that would be
under her brother’s Christmas tree. And only one reason they should. Because
they wanted to. Desire. Nothing more than that. No love, no happy ever after.
No even pretense of a relationship. It was damned depressing.

“We can wind back time to before
I woke up this morning. Pretend all of that never happened.”

He looked so serious her heart
twisted. “Do you want to do that?”

He shook his head. “No. I want to
take you to bed, and be creative. But you have reservations...I can see them in
your eyes.”

Summer cleared her throat. “It
would just be sex.”
Laying down ground rules.

“No, it wouldn’t.”

And getting them stomped on.

“There’s no way being with you
would just be sex,” he said. “We’ve known each other for years, we have a
deeper connection, it would...”

“Be just sex.”

His eyebrows pulled together. His
forehead wrinkled. And his mouth turned down at the corners. “How could it be?”

“It would have to be—”

A loud buzz reverberated through
the kitchen table. Then again. Nick grabbed his cell phone and stared at the
screen. “It’s Declan.” He put the cell on the table and let it ring. “I can’t
talk to him now.”

“If we do this, you can’t tell
him. Ever.”

His eyes widened. The phone kept
ringing. “I can’t keep a secret like that from Declan. He’s my oldest friend. Why
would we need to hide it anyway? Okay, it would be a shock, but once Declan and
our families get used to it…”

Get used to it?
“Neither
your family or mine will understand that you and I had a quick fling.” She
brushed her hair back from her face. “They’ll think it was sleazy. They’ll
judge us.”

“Judge you, you mean, don’t you?”
His mouth compressed into a line.

“Yes, they’ll judge me. Women always
get judged. Men don’t.”

“So you want a quick fling. Just
sex. Secret sex. You don’t want anything else from me.”

“I want your silence.”

He shook his head. “People in my
practice know that I’m here—know that there is someone here looking after the
house for the holidays. I didn’t reveal your name, but I won’t ask everyone to
lie for me. To lie for you. Did you really expect that you could come back to
Brookbridge and no-one would know?”

She’d hoped to.

“I have to call Declan back.” He
stood and picked up the phone. “And I won’t lie to him.”

*****

Nick placed the call. His friend answered immediately. “How’s
it going? I guessed you were probably with a patient—maybe stuck on a hillside
with a freezing sheep or something. The weather forecast says there’s snow in
Ireland.”

“Yeah, feet of it.” He glanced at
Summer who stood in front of the range, twisting her hands together. “Wish I
was there.”

“I bet.” Declan laughed. “I’m
calling to get your brother’s number. Matthew is still in London, isn’t he?”

“Yes, for a while anyway. He and
April are coming over for Christmas, but they won’t be making the trip for a
few days. Maybe even longer if this weather keeps up. What’s the problem?”

Declan and Matthew weren’t
friends, he could see no reason that Declan wanted to contact his brother. “It’s
Summer,” Declan said. “We can’t get through to her cellphone, and our parents
are worried. They called the restaurant, but there’s no reply from them either.
We thought maybe Matthew could track her down, make sure she’s okay. “

“Okay, hang on a moment.” He put
the phone on mute. “Your parents are trying to find you. Your phone is dead.”

Her face crumpled. “The
singing...” She rubbed her eyes. “The battery must be flat. I can’t...” She
paced the room. “Maybe I can call them from your phone—no, Declan will
recognize the number—”

“They want Matthew to go out to
your house and check on you. You’ll have to tell them where you are. And I’ll
have to tell Declan the truth.”

She rolled her lips in. Then gave
a brief nod. “Tell him. Then put me on to them.”

“Declan.” Nick internally cursed
her for putting him into this situation. “Summer is fine. She’s here.”

“What?”

“I’m in your parents’ house right
now. And Summer is with me.”

There was silence for a moment.
Then Declan spoke. “You want to tell me what’s going on, buddy?” There was an
edge to his words, as if he suspected them of being in collusion. Which, of
course, they were.

There was no alternative but to
reveal everything. Well, almost everything. The events of a few moments earlier
didn’t need to be revealed. “I got a call yesterday morning about an injured
dog. It was Summer. She’s hiding out at your parents’ house for the holidays,
and a stray appeared...anyway, the details aren’t important. I came out here
and fixed the animal up, but he was too weak to transport, so I stayed the
night here. It’s been snowing all night, and now we’re marooned. Uh, the power
is off too.”

“So you’re snowbound with my
sister.” Declan didn’t sound happy about it. “Where’s her boyfriend? What about
the restaurant—surely she needs to be there, it’s the busiest time of the year.”

“I don’t know.” He didn’t know
much about anything where Summer was concerned. Except for the fact that all
she wanted from him was sex. “You’ll have to ask her about that stuff yourself.
I’ll put her on.” He held out the phone.

Summer took it. “Declan?” She
rubbed the back of her neck. Sat on the edge of the sofa. “I...um...I’m here.”

The water was boiling. Nick threw
back the quilt and pulled on the set of dry clothes Summer had brought down
when she fetched the towels. She probably wanted privacy, but she wasn’t getting
it. He had questions. Unanswered questions. And if she wouldn’t tell him what
was going on, he would have to learn the answers by whatever means he could.

“No, no, everything’s fine.” Her
fingers were clenched so tight, they’d gone white. “The power is out, so I
couldn’t charge my phone. Michael’s working, and I decided I wanted to…um…” She
was a terrible liar.

“Don’t put me on speakerphone—” She
closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. “Hi, Mum. Hi, Dad. Yes, I’m in Ireland.
I just decided on a whim to come home for a few days. Michael’s been working so
hard, and the restaurant…well, I have a very good chef who’s standing in for me
for the Christmas period. I was getting burned out, you know, and I thought
some time alone would be good.” Had she even realized she’d crossed her
fingers?

“He’s…he’s coming out in a few
days. We’ll be together for Christmas. I won’t be alone.”

I can’t listen to any more of
this.

Nick took the water off the
stove, made a cup of coffee, and strode out of the room. She was spinning lies,
maybe now, or to him the previous night. Either the relationship with Michael
was history, or they’d had a lovers’ tiff, and he was on his way in the next
few days.
Who the hell knows?

The sympathy he’d felt for her
broken relationship evaporated. He’d been a fool. A complete and utter idiot.
Why would she lie to her parents? Why pretend everything was fine, unless she
expected it to be?

The memory of her anger when she’d
revealed what he’d considered to be the truth the night earlier burned through
him.
That was real
. Because the alternative, that she had mislead him
because she wanted to go to bed with him, was too horrible to contemplate.

He’d said their family would be
okay with them having a relationship—no wonder she’d fought so hard against
that particular idea if Michael was waiting in the wings for their big
reconciliation. He crossed his arms and stared out the window in the sitting
room. It was starting to rain, which meant the temperature was rising.

There was no way in hell he was
staying here a moment longer than he had to. No way he was playing any more of
Summer’s games.

He walked back through the
kitchen where she sat, still talking to her family, and out the back door.

*****

If there was anything worse than lying to her parents and
brother, it was the look on Nick’s face as he passed her on the way outside. He
hadn’t even looked in her direction, but his anger was evident. What did he
expect? That she’d just tell them the truth and have them worried all through
the holiday?

There wasn’t anything they could
do from such a distance, and telling the truth would have them worried—she
wouldn’t put it past her mother to insist on flying back to Ireland.

When he came back in, she’d
explain.

She wanted to be with him, wanted
to chase away the ghost of her relationship failure and replace it with a new
memory, a warm memory of Nick’s lovemaking, but the prospect of another
relationship…she shivered
. I’m just getting over the last one.

Declan spoke, wanting to talk to
Nick.

“No, Nick’s not here. He’s gone
outside,” she said. “Shall I get him to call you back later?”

“Do that.” Her brother’s voice
was warm. “Take care, sis.”

Her parents said their goodbyes,
then they were gone. She stood up and walked over to Fella. “How are you doing?”

He lifted his head and whined.
She checked his coat—dry. And temperature—warm.

“I think it’s time for you to
have some breakfast.” She looked out the window as she filled a couple of
bowls. Nick was trudging back to the house.

He pushed open the door, shaking
water from his hair. Then shoved his hands into the pockets in Declan’s
sweatpants. “All done?”

“Declan asked if you would call
him back.”

“I’ll call him later.” He strode
over and picked up his cellphone. “First, I want to call the electricity
company and find out if they have a crew on the way.” He barely glanced at her.
“The rain is turning the snow to slush. We should be able to get out of here
this afternoon. I want to get Fella into the surgery, he looks well enough, but
that swim could set off a secondary infection in his leg, and I may need to
give him antibiotics. I can’t do that here.”

He called directory enquiries,
and then the electricity company.

“Nick…” She wanted to turn the
clock back. Wanted to make him understand her reasons for lying to her family. “I…”

He held up a hand. “Hello? We’ve
lost electricity here. I’m sure you have crews out, and just want to find out
when we might expect it to be restored.” He gave their location, and listened
to their reply. “Fine. Thanks.” He didn’t look happy. “They have crews out, but
they won’t get the power on out here until tomorrow at the earliest. I don’t
want to leave you here without electricity.”

“I thought...” She’d thought they’d
talk it out, but now, looking at his face, that idea was dying. He didn’t look
as though he wanted to hear anything she had to say. “I want to talk about what
happened. About what I told my family.”

“You don’t need to justify anything
to me.” His voice was calm, but a storm was brewing in his eyes. “Like I said,
the reaction I had to you was out of my control. It didn’t mean anything.
Forget about it.”

How could she? “I didn’t lie to
you...”

“If you didn’t lie to me, you
lied to your family,” he said. “I can’t see any reason why you would do that,
so I have to presume you spoke the truth to them. And if Michael is going to
make an appearance in the next couple of days, I don’t want to be collateral
damage.” He stood up. “You’ll have to come back to town with me and camp out in
my spare room until the power is restored. I suggest you pack up whatever you
need, including anything from the fridge which will spoil if you leave it here,
and I’ll shovel a path down to the road.”

Before she had a chance to say
anything more, he pulled on his boots, put on his coat, and left.

For a while, she just sat there.
Nick could say what had happened between them didn’t mean anything. He could
brush it off as if it was nothing, just as she’d tried to, before the phone
call. But the truth was that she’d felt more in his arms than she had during
all the years with Michael. She’d wanted him. And when he’d risked death for
Fella, she’d been so worried her heart had clenched. Nick wasn’t just anyone.
He was special. But he didn’t trust her, and she couldn’t really blame him.