Page 77 of Abdominal Snowman

Reporter

They stayed in bed, learning each other’s bodies long after they returned home on the ATV, despite Sage’s attempts at convincing him otherwise.

Sage was utterly spent when she finally found sleep, and when she woke Soren was already gone. She reached a hand to his side of the bed, still warm. He couldn’t have gone far.

She sat up, stretching her aching limbs and cracking her back. If she listened hard enough, she could hear Soren puttering around in the kitchen, no doubt making that sugar coma of a coffee drink she’d come to love.

As the bed threatened to suck her back in, she figured maybe a sugar rush might just be what she needed.

Blinking her eyes awake stubbornly, Sage flung the covers off, stretched, and made her way to the shower. She frowned at herself in the mirror.

Apparently, a sex-a-thon with an abominable didn’t make for the best bedhead.

Gabi would be proud. Patting at the rat’s nest on top of her head, Sage sighed and turned on the shower. It was bliss. Pure, hell fire, steamy bliss.

And it was interrupted far too soon by the piercing ring of her cell phone.

She considered letting it go to voicemail, but the real world did call—sometimes—and if it was the insurance company, she didn’t want to miss it. Again.

She wrapped a towel around her as she padded to where it was plugged into Soren’s side table and found a number she didn’t recognize on the screen.

“Hello?” She sat on the edge of the bed.

“Hi, Sage, this is Brian. The SnowBnB host?”

“Oh. Hi, Brian. What’s going on?” Sage pulled the towel closer around her.

“I just wanted to call and let you know that I’ve processed the refund voucher for the stay, and you should see it on your end in a few days. What that means is that you’ll still be able to redeem it for another rental for the same price. With that being said, the town festival is coming up, and I was hoping to invite you, if you’ll be around for that long.”

Curiosity fluttered through her, and she wondered why Soren hadn’t mentioned it.

“I appreciate the offer. I’ll ask my friend. The one I’m staying with.” Smooth.

Brian hummed. “You know, the only other person I know up on that mountain is Soren Kanine.”

Sage grinned down at the bedspread, their mingling scents enveloping her.

“Subtlety isn’t your strong suit, Brian. But yeah, he’s actually the one who found me after the crash.” Brian could assume the rest himself.

“I’m glad to hear it,” he said, and changed the subject without blinking.

In an instant, she was hearing all about the upcoming celebration and all the town’s history she never asked for. It was commemorating the one hundred and second anniversary of the town.

“And Tobin, as the town chair, is going to be the grand marshal, so it’s left to me to delegate the vendors.”

The mention of Tobin caught her attention. She’d never realized how deeply entrenched in this town he was. “Oh, Tobin. I think I met him at the market the other day with Soren.” Her tone was light, but frustration bubbled in Sage’s chest just at the thought of the man. Now that she knew who he was and what he’d done, the mere implication that he threatened Soren made her want to find him.

“Oh? He’s quite the... individual.”

It didn’t take a genius to pick up on Brian’s tone, but Sage supposed being a reporter helped. There was something Brian wanted to share. Sage just had to prompt him for the right thing.

Sage sighed dramatically into the phone, sandwiching it between her ear and shoulder, and grabbed her laptop from under the bed. “Sure seems like he’s quite important around here.”

Brian chuckled. “He likes to think he is. But only because he’s bought up most of the real estate in town and on the mountain in a big bid for his stupid tourist trap.”

Sage silently gaped, pausing in the middle of her search bar. “So, what, he owns all of the land on the mountain?”

Of course, she knew that wasn’t true, but a good reporter never reveals her hand all at once.