LITMIR.BIZ

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was the next best thing.

      “Something like that,” Eliza murmured.

      The more thought she gave to it, the more ridiculous the whole concept seemed. What in the world was she thinking? She didn’t even want to speak with the man, forget about staying in his home.

      She was a smart, capable woman. She never should have let herself be railroaded into this whole thing, storm or not.

      When they walked out to the reception area, they found Aidan leafing through a magazine in one of the uncomfortable-looking chairs.

      He rose when she and Maddie came through the door. “Are you free to go?”

      “So they tell me,” she said glumly.

      She had no choice, she reminded herself. She had her daughter’s welfare to worry about first and foremost. A safe, warm place for the night, even with Aidan Caine, was the best option for Maddie.

      “Excellent. I’ve already brought the car around.”

      He gripped her elbow as they passed through the outside door and she caught a whiff of some kind of expensive peppery aftershave before the wild swirl of icy wind and blowing snow snatched away her breath.

      “It’s so cold!” Maddie exclaimed.

      “Come on. We’ll get you warmed up.”

      Still gripping her arm, he headed for a very familiar vehicle and opened the door to the backseat.

      “Hey! This is my SUV,” she exclaimed.

      He nodded. “It seemed the safest choice, since you had a car seat and everything. I drove the rental with the lousy tires into town while they were discharging you and swapped with the key you gave me. I hope you don’t mind.”

      “I don’t mind. What about your rental?”

      “I called them to pick it up,” he said grimly, “with a few choice words about renting out an unsafe vehicle.”

      She would not like to be on this man’s bad side.

      After he made sure she and Maddie were both settled securely, he pulled out into the snow.

      Within the first few minutes of observing while he drove along at a crawl, the wipers valiantly trying to beat back the snow, she realized driving back to Boise would have been a nightmare. She wouldn’t have made it, not with the headache still throbbing through her to the same rhythmic beat of the wipers.

      “Are you doing okay?” he asked after a few moments.

      She shrugged then realized he couldn’t see her in the dark interior of her SUV. “Yes. Fine.”

      “Thank you for giving me this chance to try to make things up to you,” he said, his voice low. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am about what happened today. I’ve been having flashbacks ever since that terrible moment when I thought I had hit both of you. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to forget it.”

      She relived that moment of helpless terror when she had seen Maddie racing directly into the path of the oncoming vehicle and realized he wouldn’t be able to stop in time. A fine-edged shiver rippled down her spine. “I doubt I will, either.”

      If she had any doubts about his competency behind the wheel, they were quickly allayed as he drove through the snowy night around the lake. Though they encountered few other vehicles on the road, he was cautious, alert, leaving plenty of time for braking at the few stop signs they passed through on the way out of town and then progressing at a sedate pace.

      She had a feeling this was more a reaction to the events of the afternoon than his usually driving patterns. That didn’t make her appreciate his vigilance less, given the dangerous conditions.

      “Tell me again about what you were doing in Haven Point, the job you were supposed to be starting,” he said after a few moments without taking his gaze off the road. “I only caught bits and pieces of the story at the accident scene and then a little more at the hospital.”

      She released a long breath and shifted in the seat. Just that slight movement hurt and she sincerely wished she had taken the doctor up on her offer to write a prescription for pain medication.

      “I have a degree in hotel management and was hired to take charge of the Lake Haven Inn.”

      “What were you doing before today?”

      “Until yesterday I’ve been working as the assistant manager at a small hotel in Boise. I’ve been there for three years, since my husband died.”

      “I’m sorry. About your husband, I mean.”

      “Thank you.” Manners compelled her to acknowledge the condolences, though it felt strange, wrong somehow, when they were coming from Aidan Caine.

      She stared straight ahead at the snow blowing against the windshield. When she was a little girl, she used to think the snow reflecting in the headlights looked like stars and she would pretend her dad was piloting a rocket ship through hyperspace.

      That time of imagination and fun seemed a long time ago. Now driving through snow was at best an inconvenience, at worst, an experience fraught with tension and peril.

      “It seems an odd time to start a new job, right before Christmas,” he observed.

      “I suppose. I was actually hired in early November but it took a little time to tender my resignation and end the lease on my apartment.”

      “You really did pack up everything, didn’t you?” He jerked his head to the back, piled high with boxes.

      “Most of our things are in storage. These were only the essentials. Moving to Lake Haven was supposed to be a new start for us. I guess that didn’t work out so well.”

      That panic hovering just beneath the surface since the moment she’d seen that blackened building seemed to bubble up all over again. For a moment, she wanted to just close her eyes and wallow in self-pity. She had pinned such high hopes on this move. Running a hotel in a small town had been her dream since she was just a girl working the front desk at the Seaswept Inn on the Oregon Coast.

      She loved the idea of raising Maddie in this small town, finally putting down roots after Trent had moved them from job to job, opportunity to opportunity, always in search of pay dirt.

      The charming town of Haven Point and the whole Lake Haven area had seemed the perfect location—quiet part of the year, bustling during the summer months, and close enough to Maddie’s specialists in Boise that they could still go to appointments with relative ease.

      She had loved Haven Point on previous visits and had felt welcomed from the first moment she stepped into town.

      She was so tired of disappointments, of constantly being forced to rechart her life’s direction.

      “I’m sorry about your job situation,” Aidan said quietly. “I can only imagine how upsetting that must be for you and for Maddie.”

      What did he know about upsetting job situations? He came from a completely different world and probably had no idea what it was like to struggle, to wonder which bills she could afford to pay off that month and which she would have to make token payments on until a better time.

      “Upsetting. Yes. It certainly is.”

      “If you don’t mind me asking, what are your plans beyond the next few days?”

      She didn’t have a fallback position. Why would she ever have imagined she needed one?

      “I don’t know yet,” she admitted. “I haven’t exactly had a great deal of time to go over my options, considering I’ve been at the hospital since five minutes after I found out the inn burned down.”

      “True enough. Being hit by a car can be such a distraction.”

      “Who knew?” she said dryly, earning a short, surprised-sounding laugh.

      “I

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