His gaze shot toward the closed bathroom door then he swiveled around to face her. She stood near the door, her face flushed crimson. “You’re not alone,” he blurted out, unable to keep the surprise from his voice.
“Eric, listen. I…” She blew out a long breath and raked one hand through her tousled hair. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Actually, neither do I.” His sister was thirty-four years old-her love life certainly wasn’t any of his business. “Obviously I should have called first, but it never occurred to me you’d have company-”
His words cut off when the bathroom door opened. A tall man, fully dressed-thank God-except for his boots, emerged and walked toward him.
Eric actually felt his jaw drop. “Marc?”
“Eric.” Jess’s brother treated him to his usual scowl as he walked by. Marc stopped next to Kelley and took her hand. There was nothing scowl-like about the look he bestowed on her. And Kelley, who gazed up at him, jeez, looked like she’d just swallowed a lightbulb.
“Well I’ll be damned,” Eric muttered, staring at them. “I thought you two couldn’t stand each other.”
Marc turned and met Eric’s gaze. “Seems we can.”
Apparently. Clearly those sparks he’d detected between them were the result of more than animosity. “How long has this been going on?”
“Turns out we’ve had feelings building for each other for a few months,” Marc said.
“But only discovered how deep they ran last night,” Kelley added.
“Appears our feelings are stronger than either of us even suspected,” Marc said, his gaze steady on Eric’s. “You have a problem with that?”
Eric’s gaze shifted to Kelley and his heart twisted at the light shining in her eyes. Shaking his head, he said, “As long as Kelley’s happy, that’s all that matters to me.” He hesitated then said to Marc, “You know your mother isn’t going to be happy about this.”
“Probably not.” Marc shrugged. “She’ll just have to get over it.”
Good luck with that. But it was just what Eric wanted to hear for Kelley’s sake. He narrowed his eyes. “You’d better be good to my sister, you big, scowling jerk.”
Marc blinked, then his lips twitched. “Same goes.”
Eric’s insides knotted tighter and before he could reply, Marc approached him. “I owe you the same courtesy you just showed me. I’m sorry I haven’t offered it sooner. As long as Jessica is happy, that’s all that matters to me.”
He held out his hand. Eric studied it for several seconds, his stomach cramping with what he had to tell them. Damn. He didn’t want to mess up this peace offering, but what choice did he have? He shook Marc’s hand then drew a bracing breath. “Thanks. But there’s something I need to tell you. Both of you.”
8 JESSICA HURRIED through the lobby, a beehive of activity in the center of which a smiling Helen Krause buzzed. She offered the woman a quick wave but didn’t pause, intent on getting back to the cabin as quickly as possible. Her breakfast with her mother had taken far longer than she’d anticipated-it was almost eleven o’clock. She’d hoped Eric might be waiting for her in the lounge or lobby, but she couldn’t blame him for not hanging around for four hours.
An image of him, when he’d looked at her just before he left her outside the restaurant with her mom, flashed through her mind. She’d never seen such an expression on his face before. He’d clearly been extremely upset. As was she. But Eric had appeared almost dazed. Furious-like a volcano ready to erupt, yet somehow also looking as if he’d just lost his best friend.
She’d wanted to talk to him, but she had to deal with her mother immediately. And now that she had, she needed to tell Eric about the compromise she and her mother had hammered out. And hope that he’d agree to it.
She exited the lodge and struck out on the freshly shoveled path, a smile tugging at her lips at the sight of a family making snow angels and a group of shrieking teenagers in the throes of a snowball fight.
She picked up her pace, her rapid breaths blowing vaporous puffs in the cold air. When she arrived at the cabin, she closed the door behind her and blinked against the sudden dimness, a stark contrast to the bright white glare of the snow. She was about to call Eric’s name when she made out his shape, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Sorry I took so long,” she said, quickly removing her coat then walking toward him. “Did you think I’d deserted…”
Her words trailed off as she drew closer to him. He was leaning forward, his elbows braced on his spread thighs, his clenched hands hanging between his knees. He looked up at her as she approached him, his expression more serious than she’d ever seen it. He rose slowly, as if some great burden weighed him down and concern suffused her.
“Are you all right?” she asked, lightly grasping his arm.
He stepped away from her touch, something he’d never done before, and uneasiness slithered down her spine. Obviously he was still very upset. Not that she blamed him. “We need to talk,” he said.
Yes, they did. But the way he said those words, in that grave tone, and his somber expression, her uneasiness morphed into dread. Her intuition warned her she wasn’t going to like what she was about to hear.
Forcing a half smile, she said in the brightest voice she could muster, “Of course we do. I want to tell you about my extremely long conversation with my mother, although I’ll give you the condensed version-”
“Jessica.”
She stopped speaking at the sound of that single quiet word. He never called her Jessica. It was always Jess or sweetheart or some other endearment. She had to swallow to locate her suddenly missing voice. “Yes?”
“The conversation with your mother isn’t what I need to talk to you about.” He nodded toward the chair by the fire. “Maybe you should sit down.”
Her stomach plummeted to her feet. Sit down? Oh, God. Nobody was ever told to sit down because whatever was coming next was good. She shook her head. “I’d rather stand.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw and she wanted to reach out and touch him, but she suddenly felt as if she couldn’t move.
“About what happened this morning at the lodge,” he began.
A feeling akin to panic made her rush to say, “I know it was awful, but-”
“It was worse than awful. It was…intolerable.” He looked away from her for several long seconds and when he looked back his eyes were filled with both sadness and regret. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “So sorry to have to say this, but I just can’t do this anymore.”
Jessica tried to draw a breath, but it seemed as if his words had sucked all the oxygen from the room. She licked her dust-dry lips. “What do you mean by ‘this’?”
“I mean the wedding. I can’t do it anymore. It’s over.”
She didn’t need to worry any longer about the lack of oxygen in the room because her lungs seemed to have shut down, bringing her heart along with them. A deafening silence engulfed them and she stared at him, certain she must have misheard, but one look at his face told her she hadn’t. He was utterly serious. While she’d feared this moment might come, somehow, deep in her heart, she hadn’t truly believed it actually could.
Her entire body started to tremble. “You can’t mean that,” she whispered. “I know it’s been difficult, but-”
“But now it’s impossible,” he broke in. “We both know why we came here. The arguments, the stress, the problems were just getting to be too much. Well, this morning they became too much. I’m done.”