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He studied her for a few seconds, wondering about those demons of hers. She obviously had daddy issues. She’d cried out for her father until she damn near lost her voice. From what he gathered, the guy had left his family. He clamped his jaw shut and then swore. There was no reason good enough for a man to walk out on his kid. He’d been there. His own father was a rat bastard who’d slunk away in the middle of the night, and then he’d been replaced by a monster.
It was why he’d decided long ago never to have kids or get involved with a woman who wanted them. No way would he ever chance putting that kind of hurt on a child.
Chess muttered something and snuggled deeper into the pillow. He’d held her in the night to keep her from thrashing around, and truthfully, the feel of her heat had scared him. He knew that if she took a turn, the chances of getting help were slim. But sometime between dusk and dawn, her fever had broken, and she’d clung to him, head buried into his neck, her breathing even. He wouldn’t have been able to extricate himself if he tried. Her grip was too strong. After a while, he’d finally relaxed enough to catch some shut-eye.
Cash got to his feet, confident she’d be asleep for a few more hours at least. He tucked the blanket under her chin and headed outside. Then made his way back to the office and asked Jerry for a shovel. The guy cleared his throat nervously, said he had something better, and gave him the key to the storage room where a snowblower sat waiting for him.
For the next four hours, Cash worked to clear as much snow from the walkway and parking lot as he could. Joely waved from the diner, and though Steve looked at him through the window, he puffed from his cigarette and shook his head as if thinking Cash was an idiot—already a few inches of snow had reclaimed the path he’d cut through the parking lot.
When he was done, he parked the snowblower where he found it and headed to the diner for some hot coffee and food to take back to his room. He grabbed an old newspaper from a pile on the counter and shoved it inside his jacket, while Joely rang up his order of soup and sandwiches.
“Will you be open later?” he asked after he paid.
“Where else we gonna be?” Steve grumbled as he pulled a cigarette from behind his ear and lit up. “I hate winter.”
“And yet you never leave,” Joely said sarcastically.
“I hate summer too.”
She rolled her eyes as if to say, See what I put up with?
“We’ll be open, Cash. Stuck here on Christmas Eve,” Joely said, attempting a smile. “No place I’d rather be.” She winked at him. “Come by for dinner. There’s a couple in thirty-four who’ll be here, and an elderly gentleman in fifteen. We’ll cook up something special, won’t we, Steve?”
The cook exhaled a long plume of smoke and shrugged. “I’ll see what we got.”
Cash’s cell vibrated against his chest. He took a step back and pulled it out of the pocket inside his coat. It was his sister.
“Hey,” he said with a smile, glad to hear her voice.
“Hold on,” she replied. Cash heard Christmas music in the background and then his sister spoke, but her voice was muffled, like she was holding her hand over the phone. “Tawny, grab the tape and scissors before your dad gets back. Oh, and plug the kettle in for some hot chocolate while I grab your sister.”
A pause. “Sorry about that. We’re trying to get all this last-minute stuff done while Cam’s out, and the baby is cranky. Another tooth coming through.”
“Sorry to hear that.”
“It’ll be okay. But, it’s Christmas Eve, and like usual, I’m scrambling to catch up. And this storm sucks. Cam’s out in it clearing snow for some neighbors. Where are you?”
He was going to say Kentucky, but his sister beat him to the punch.
“And don’t say Kentucky, because I talked to Blake yesterday and he told me you were headed this way. I’ve been worried sick about you out in this mess.”
Fucking Blake. The guy couldn’t keep a secret to save his life, though Cash supposed there was no point in any of that now.
“I’m in Crystal Lake. I made it here last night but was forced off at the first exit. The main road into town is closed, so I’m at a motel.”
“Shoot. Maybe I can see if Cam can get to you. He’s got this big truck with chains on the wheels and a big contraption on the front. It looks like something from Mad Max.”
“I know you think your husband can turn water into wine and perform all kinds of miracles, but no way is he navigating a closed road when the county won’t even send out their plows.”
His sister started to protest, and Cash cut her off. “Look, don’t worry about me, Blue. I’m fine here. Met some new friends, and hopefully tomorrow, things are different and you’ll have a big-ass turkey waiting for me when I get there.”
“I guess you’re right,” Blue conceded. “It’s just I hate the thought of you being so close by, but not here with me. I was planning a nice quiet get-together tonight. Poppy’s coming. Cam’s bringing her back after he’s done clearing driveways. You remember her, don’t you?”
Cash made a face and was glad his sister wasn’t there to see it. Nothing against Poppy—she was something special—but Cash wasn’t so fond of his sister’s never-ending desire to set him up with a good woman who’d balance out the darkness in him. A woman she thought would make him want to settle down.
That kind of life wasn’t for Cash. He wasn’t made that way. He’d seen too much pain, saw firsthand how love could be used to twist someone up so bad, they lost themselves. His mother, for one. He wasn’t interested in giving up that part of him. As far as he was concerned, love made people weak.
His sister was the exception.
