Snowed In Read online

  That was part of the reason he was on his fact finding mission. He needed more information. Something that might clue him into the puzzle piece that he was missing so he could decipher the entire picture. The other part was just a base need to know her. He didn’t want to invade her privacy or even walk the line of being creepy but this information, these pictures were available to anyone. Public domain.

  After a little mental deliberation he clicked on the photos tab. There were a bunch of shots with Nikki and her dog, Scrappy. A lot of pictures with her family. Then over a dozen or so of her on beaches in Australia, the Bahamas, Hawaii, Mexico, the South of France.

  Mike felt himself getting a little turned on because damn, that girl could wear a bikini. He could stare at her in a two piece all day, but other pics did catch his eye. There were shots of her snowboarding. Horseback riding. Skiing. Windsurfing. Skydiving.

  He got the impression that Nikki lived life to the fullest. She looked absolutely fearless in these candid shots. Mike was having a hard time reconciling the girl in the pictures with the one that had been terrified when they’d gotten stuck in the elevator together.

  Scrolling down further he saw her standing huddled together with a group of girls at what looked to be a wedding. The caption read “Besties 4 Life”. He did a double take because several of them looked really familiar. One of the girls he now knew was her sister but looking closer he saw that one was Olympic Gold Medal snowboarder, Samantha Holt, one was, holy shit, Karina Black, she was a huge pop star. And the blonde at the end looked like, yes, she was that girl from Home Sweet Vacation Home, Lauren (or Laura or something).

  Wow, this girl had an eclectic group of friends.

  “Mike, I’ve got Clara for you on line two,” his assistant Jane’s brisk voice came over the intercom loudly.

  “Thanks, Jane.” Mike took a deep breath and glanced at the time as he picked up the phone. “You’re up late, Mother.”

  Growing up his mother had always been in bed by eight-thirty. Which meant that the entire household had to be silent. Because if there was one thing that you didn’t want to do, it was disturb Clara Gowan when she had ‘retired for the evening’.

  “Well now sugar, if my son would call his mother back when he says he is, then I could be resting comfortably in my bed,” her southern drawl was always a little more pronounced when she was laying on the guilt, so needless to say it was thick as molasses right now.

  Clara Alice Shaw had been born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, and was southern through and through. She loved to say “you can take the girl out of the South but you can’t take the South out of the girl”. She had been crowned Miss Georgia Peach a record three times between the ages of fourteen and nineteen. A feat that had never occurred before and had not been duplicated since.

  After meeting his father, James Edward Gowan, in her freshman year at Harvard, she’d dropped out of school to be a wife and mom. Michael James Gowan was born seven months after their June 7th wedding date. Both Clara and James maintained to this day that Mike had been born two months premature.

  Right. He was an 8 lbs. 21 inch preemie. And if anyone believed that, he had some beautiful ocean front property in Arizona he could sell them.

  Everyone knew that they’d only gotten married because his mother had been pregnant but no one that he knew of had ever called them on their lie.

  Growing up his parents’ marriage had always confused the hell out of Mike. He absolutely could not make sense of it. James and Clara didn’t even like each other. They didn’t even speak when they were in the same room with each other.

  When Mike was about ten, and had taken sex ed in fifth grade, he’d figured out that his conception must have been the reason they’d gotten married. It had actually made a whole lot more sense to him than that the two people that he saw living separate lives had ever been so in love with each other that they’d gotten married.

  Not that Mike even believed in the concept of “being in love”. He didn’t. Lust, he believed in. Attraction, he knew was a real thing. He also knew that the most you could ever hope for in finding a partner was to genuinely care about them and like them as a person.

  He didn’t consider himself cynical, just realistic. And in his thirty-six years, he certainly hadn’t seen any evidence that the all-encompassing romantic love described in books, poems, songs and portrayed in movies, really existed. It was a fantasy. Like Santa Claus, unicorns, and the Tooth Fairy.

  “Sorry I didn’t get a chance to call you earlier, Mother. It’s been a busy day.”

  “Well bless your heart, I suppose it has been. I heard all about it,” his mother pointedly drawled.

  Mike’s jaw tensed. “Really?”

  “Yes. I know all about the stewardess and you being MIA since last night. Poor Phil had to cut his trip to Austin short to come hunt you down in Dallas. I have to say I am surprised and disappointed at your behavior, Michael James.” If Clara would have ended her statement with tsk, tsk, tsk, Mike would have not been surprised, it was definitely implied.

  “Did you need something?” Mike took in a deep breath through his nose and made a point to moderate his tone. He wasn’t about to let his mother bait him into being rude or engaging in a defensive argument about his life. His private life, whether Phil or his mother wanted it to be, was just that. Private.

  “Well now, you don’t need to get your feathers ruffled. I just wanted to let you know that I’ve taken something off your to-do list and arranged for you to escort Elizabeth to the benefit this year,” his mother declared in her patented passive aggressive style. One that had taken her far in life but no longer worked on Mike.

  “Who I take to the benefit is none of your business.”

  “Of course it is. I’m your mother. Now, I’ve already spoken to Elizabeth and she is just happier than a pig in the mud. You wouldn’t want to disappoint her now would you, sugar?” Clara spoke with such conviction it was clear why the benefit was so successful every year, because when his mother put something in motion, she made you feel responsible if you didn’t hop on the merry-go-round and enjoy the ride.

  Mike had been here before, more times than he cared to remember. This conversation was just going to go round and round. Time to jump off. “I’m not taking Lizzie-”

  “Now, darlin’, I know that you think she’s got her nose so high in the air she could drown in a rainstorm. But she is a sweet girl, Michael, she’s just a little shy and it makes her seem standoffish. That’s all. You just need to give her a chance.”

  First, there were a lot of words he could use to describe Lizzie, sweet would never be one of them

  Second, that girl did not have a shy bone in her body. She not only craved attention, she needed it to survive. It was as important as oxygen or water to her.

  Third, he’d wasted six years of his life in a relationship with Lizzie, which was more than enough of a chance.

  Knowing that pointing these things out to his mother would be like speaking to a brick wall, he took a different tactic. “I want to be clear, I am not taking Lizzie to the benefit. I have to go. Talk soon.” Mike disconnected the call even though he heard his mother’s voice still speaking to him. He felt a sliver of guilt creep up at his abrupt dismissal.

  Sometimes he just wished that he could have a conversation with his mother that didn’t involve any agenda, hidden or otherwise. But he’d learned a long time ago, no such conversation would ever happen. His mother looked at life like a chess game in which she considered everyone pawns to be strategically moved and played against each other for her amusement or, more times than not, her gain.

  The thought had crossed his mind, more than once, that she should really be the one in politics, not him. Every time he’d stopped long enough to examine his life he felt like he was on a runaway train and there was no conductor. Things happened so fast and he never had any time to breathe.

  Except for last night. Last night, he’d taken the time. He’d connected with some
one. Nikki.

  He looked at his computer screen with all of Nikki’s information listed. He was more than a little tempted to call her, email her, pursue her. But he felt like he’d laid it all out there. The ball was in her court. Now he just had to wait and see if what happened between them was really just a one-night-stand or something more.

  He was really hoping it was something more.

  Chapter Nine

  Darkness surrounded Nikki as she stared down at the illuminated screen of her smartphone and reread her text. The same one she’d been trying to send for the last fifteen minutes. This was probably version sixteen. She’d read, reread, rewrote and repeated again and again.

  She drummed her fingers on her steering wheel and tapped her foot on the floorboard of her SUV. Biting the inside of her lip she told herself she was making way too big of a deal about this.

  It was a text. It wasn’t open heart surgery. No one’s life was on the line. And he’d given her his card. He wanted to hear from her.

  Last night, she’d spent a restless night tossing and turning in her bed. Several times, she’d had to stop herself from picking up her phone and middle-of-the-night-dialing. Sure, middle-of-the-night-dialing may not be as dangerous as drunk-dialing but no good can come from a phone call you make after two a.m. Even if it’s not a booty call. Especially if it’s not a booty call.

  At least with a booty call, both parties know what the purpose is. Or, at least they should. She’d definitely known girls that had tried to pretend that they thought a guy that only called them to hook up after midnight was their “boyfriend”. But Nikki knew those girls were just saying that to make themselves feel better or somehow justify what they knew was nothing more than sex.

  Send. Press send. Now. She instructed herself forcefully.

  It didn’t work. Her thumb remained still. Apparently her subconscious self was not easily intimidated by her conscious self. So instead of pressing send, she read what she’d written again:

  Hi, it’s Nikki. Hope you’re having a good day. Just wanted to let you know I haven’t got stuck in any elevators since I saw you…in case you were worried.

  Stupid. It was stupid. That is why she couldn’t bring herself to send it. In her attempt at casual and flirty, she’d achieved moronic. And this was draft number sixteen!

  When, in the name of George Clooney, had texting become so difficult? Shaking it off she knew it was revision time. She erased the entire text and tried again typing:

  Hey it’s Nikki, the hot blonde you met in the bar not the weirdo that was on your flight. Just wanted to say Hi.

  Frustration filled her as she read what she had just written. She was going for funny but just sounded schizophrenic. Lovely. Her finger pressed the backspace once again deleting her sad attempt at her light, casual text.

  Headlights flashed brightly across her dashboard and she looked up to see Amy’s car pulling up behind her. Now she knew that she only had a few moments before she would be spotted and then she’d have to go into Lauren’s for book club. Once her sister saw her sitting there she would be little miss twenty questions until Nikki went inside.

  But this matter was time sensitive. Nikki wanted to send the text now because she knew that she would be distracted for the next few hours, surrounded by her friends at book club. If she sent the text when she was alone, she would torture herself checking her phone every few minutes—or seconds!—waiting for Mike to respond. Nikki did not want to be one of those girls. It would make her sick to her stomach if she became one of those girls.

  Okay, she had to think fast. If she wanted to send Mike a text before she went inside, she needed to do it now. Focus. What did she want to say?

  Hello.

  Greeting done. Wait… did ‘hello’ sound too formal? She wanted this to be casual, maybe she should put ‘hey’ or ‘hi’…

  The loud knock on her window startled her, even though she’d seen her sister pull up. She looked over to see Amy standing beside the passenger door. Her little face peeking out between the pink beanie on the top of her head and the gray scarf around her neck.

  “It’s cold. What are you doing?” Amy’s muffled voice came through the closed window.

  Being an idiot.

  Nikki reached over and grabbed her coat, “I’m coming.”

  Amy nodded and hurried up the winding walkway to the porch. Nikki joined her a few moments later just as the front door swung open and Sam greeted them, wine in hand. “You ladies are late. We already opened a bottle.”

  “Oh, well um, Matt and I were eating and then…we, um…got distracted…” Amy’s voice trailed off and her cheeks filled with a crimson shade of red.

  “Oooh, I do love those kinds of distractions.” Karina lifted her glass as Nikki and Amy took off their coats, “Good for you, Amy. Glad it’s working out so well.”

  Nikki sat down quickly, not offering her lame explanation of tardiness. What was she going to say? ‘Well, I was actually here on time but I have been sitting outside trying to send a text to a guy that I can’t stop thinking about and have no idea what to say to’.

  She didn’t think so.

  The girls all chatted and caught everyone up on the latest in their respective lives. Nikki looked around the room at the group of women gathered together that she considered her best friends. She realized that they were all so different but had all somehow managed to settle down happily in relationships.

  Her sister, Amy, was the undisputed thinker of the group. She sat beside Nikki, beaming from her newfound love. Matt was perfect for her. They were both teachers and Nikki saw that Matt really got Amy and all of her cute quirkiness. It was obvious to anyone with a set of eyes that he adored her, and the feeling was definitely reciprocated.

  Next to her was Amanda the blond, bubbly cheerleader of the group who had loved her now husband, Justin, since she was five years old. Their road to happily-ever-after was definitely the longest of the bunch. Justin had left Hope Falls for ten years and only returned when Amanda’s beloved dad, Parker, had passed away. Parker had left the family business, Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures, to both Justin, who had worked there as a troubled teen and whom Parker thought of as a son, and Amanda, his only child. It had taken a little bit for both of them to find their way back to each other but she couldn’t think of two people that belonged together more.

  Across from her sat Lauren. She was definitely the leader, the planner, the most type A of the girls. In fact, if there was one of them in the group that Nikki had never expected to fall head over heels it would have been Lauren. She was so contained and controlled. She had built walls around her heart higher than Fort Knox. But somehow Ben had found a way past all of her self-imposed roadblocks. Lauren’s entire demeanor changed, softened, and opened whenever Ben was around or talked about. Hell, Nikki could even tell when Lauren was just thinking about her man; she got this dreamy faraway look in her eyes.

  “Is Matt living with you now?” Sam asked Amy excitedly as she opened another bottle of wine.

  Sam was the athlete in the bunch. She’d spent her most of her twenties focused on her snowboarding career and it had paid off. She was an Olympic Gold Medalist. Unfortunately, keeping her eye on the prize had meant that she hadn’t had any time for romance and because of that had had zero relationships.

  But after returning to Hope Falls for Amanda’s father’s funeral she’d decided that being home felt right and she retired. Shortly after, she started working for Amanda at Mountain Ridge as a ski pro. Soon after that Luke, who was also in the circuit, and who Sam had had a crush on for years, was hired as the second pro to start their now wildly successful snow program. It didn’t take long for the attraction that the both Luke and Sam had been tip toeing around for almost a decade to turn into more, they both fell in love and fell hard. From what Nikki could tell, they hadn’t looked back since.

  “No, he’s not ‘officially’ living with me,” Amy again blushed as she answered her friend’s question.

/>   “Does he ever stay at his house, officially?” Karina asked with a small wink.

  “No,” Amy dipped her head and reached up to the bridge of her nose. Nikki’s sister had worn glasses for years and even though she’d gotten Lasik surgery months ago, she still had a nervous habit of pushing her now non-existent glasses up on her nose.

  “Good for you, Ames. I’m glad to see that you are getting your sexy on,” Karina lifted her wine glass in a toast fashion and the rest of the girls all chimed in with ‘here, here’ or ‘to Amy’.

  Karina Blackstone—who was more commonly known by her pop star name Karina Black—was arguably one of the most famous women in the world. Her soulful voice and award winning songwriting skills coupled with her incredible dark haired exotic beauty had shot her to super stardom at an early age. It had been a fast-paced and wild ride.

  She had actually considered leaving the entire music industry because the star-making machine had turned her into something that she wasn’t. Karina was private, smart, loyal, and probably one of the funniest most sarcastic people that Nikki knew. She wasn’t a perky, outgoing, pop princess, but that is exactly what she had been forced to be.

  Then just as she was about to walk away from the fame game, she’d met Ryan. He was the grandson of Sue Ann—who owned and operated Sue Ann’s Café which was a staple in the small town of Hope Falls. He’d come to help his grandmother out at the Café and the minute he and Karina met, sparks flew so bright you could probably have seen them in space. Ryan was also a musician, not professionally at the time, but he and Karina began playing together and through him she found not only the love of her life but also a renewed sense of her first love…music.