reason. Just curious.”
That was a strange thing to be curious about. Besides, what did it have to do with yesterday?
Before she could turn back to that particular subject, Jack started in again.
“I don’t know if you’ve seen the weather forecast, but I’m due back in Texas in a little over a week, just after that storm is supposed to hit. I don’t want to take the chance on my flight being canceled if it’s worse than predicted, so...”
He was leaving. Not in a week. But soon. Maybe even today.
“When are you going?”
“They’re trying to book me on any flight they can get, so I figured I wouldn’t have time to track you down and say goodbye. The reception desk told me you were in here, so I thought...” his jaw tightened “...now was as good a time as any.”
As good a time as any? As if she were no more important than any other business acquaintance. She guessed that put her in her place. If he wanted to tell her exactly where she stood, he couldn’t have chosen a better way to let her down easy.
Only it wasn’t easy. But she wasn’t going to drop to her knees and beg him not to go. He had a job back in Texas. She’d known that from the very beginning.
That was one thing living at a ski resort taught you, that people were not permanent fixtures. They came and they went. An endless cycle that could bring heartache, if you let it. Isn’t that what she’d been trying to teach herself with her resolution? That she needed to let them wander through while keeping her heart away from those high-traffic areas?
God. And look how successful she’d been at that.
“Well, it’s been fun. Thank you.” She swallowed. “Have a good flight.”
When she stood to go, he grabbed her wrist, fingers tight against her skin. “It was more than fun, and you know it. I just can’t do...this.”
This. This? What the hell “this” was he talking about?
She had no idea. But whatever it was, he didn’t want it. Didn’t want her.
Her chin went up. “I don’t remember anyone asking you to.”
There. Way to lob it right back at him, Mira.
Instead of pride, though, all she felt was sadness...and that same weird desperation she’d felt in his arms last night.
Number Five was leaving, and she hadn’t even had to tell him to go.
She could try to convince him not to. Tell him how she felt. But did she really want to grasp at someone who...what was it that Robert had said? Oh, yes, who just “wasn’t ready to settle down”—with her or with anyone.
Jack released her and the fingers of her other hand rubbed at the spot, trying to erase the memory of his touch. It didn’t work, though. He’d branded himself on her. Not last night. Not that time in his hotel room. But that very first time their hands had gripped each other’s in the snow.
And now she had to find a way—like he had—to uncurl her fingers and let him go.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN, he’s leaving early?”
Ellory’s face was a study in disbelief as she stood in Mira’s room, hands on her hips.
“There’s talk of a winter storm blowing in, and he’s afraid of getting stranded.”
“Oh, he’s afraid all right, but not of getting stranded. What happened?”
Mira went through the whole story, about how they’d gone to the lodge, how everything had seemed to be going really well, about how he’d talked about his wife’s death.
“He told you about that?”
Mira nodded. “Why?”
“That’s not something you tell someone you have no intention of ever seeing again. Why would he bother, unless he felt it was something you needed to know?”
Mira dropped onto the foot of her bed and grabbed her Cheshire cat. “He started acting funny right after we...” she rolled her hand around in the air “...you know.”
“After you boinked like bunnies in front of the fire?”
“Elle!”
Her friend grinned and then sprawled next to her, poking the stuffed cat in its furry little belly. “You were supposed to teach her a thing or two about loosening up.”
Oh, she’d been plenty loose. That was her problem. If she’d held on to her emotions just a little bit tighter, she could have avoided this whole mess.
That wasn’t true, and she knew it.
“Okay,” Ellory said. “Let’s go down the list of things we know. One, his wife died in a plane crash. Two, he asked that you two see each other exclusively while he was here at the resort. Have I got it right so far?”
“Yes, but—”
“I’m thinking here.” She put a finger to her lips and tapped. “Three, after he tells you about his wife, you get down to business and then he seems weird afterwards.”
Mira nodded. “I thought I was being too forward.”
“Get real, ninny. Men love that stuff. So what happened after that?”
Impatience flared to life. She’d wanted hugs and a sympathetic shoulder, not to write a dissertation on what had gone wrong. “What does it matter?”
“It matters.”
Mira’s brows went up. “Okay. Four. He asks me if I like it here in Silver Pass. Five. He says there’s a storm coming...says he’s leaving early.” Her voice sped up as another wave of hurt rolled through her. “I reply that it’s been fun, bye. He grabs me and says it was more than that, and that I know it, but he just can’t do...” she drew quotes in the air “...this.”
“This.”
“Yeah, one minute he’s asking me about Silver... Oh, my God.” Wrapping her arms around her stomach, she let Chessie slide to the floor. “He can’t ask me to leave. That’s what it is.”
“What?”
“Silver Pass. His wife died on the flight to Texas. She’d left her job to be with him.”
Ellory picked up the cat and tossed it onto the pillows behind them. “He’s afraid you’ll die?”
“I don’t think so. Or at least I hope he’s not irrational enough to think it could happen twice. I think his guilt won’t let him ask me to choose between him and the resort. He asked me if I loved Silver Pass. Right out of the blue, after he saw me talking to Robert. It didn’t go along with anything we were talking about. I thought it was strange at the time, since he said he wanted to talk about what had happened at the cabin.”
“I think you’re right, Mirri.” Her brows went up. “So what’s stopping you?”
“From what? He’s probably already left.”
“So? It’s not like you can’t find Texas. It’s freaking huge. Right there on every map.”
Mira closed her eyes. Her friend was right. What was stopping her?
Fear.
Fear of rejection. Fear of what she’d find when she saw him. Fear...that he didn’t love her.
And?
What more did she have to lose? She’d let him walk away—so he was gone already as far as that went. If she confronted him, and he said he didn’t want to be with her, she hadn’t lost anything more. Just