Page 87 of Cabin Fever Baby
“I know he’s a good man. That’s why I’m trying to find him, dammit. I want to apologize.” I almost stomped my foot like a toddler mid-tantrum.
“Why did you lie in the first place?”
“It wasn’t my place to tell him about my brother. Not when we were so new and I was used to keeping my family private. You don’t know what it’s like to wonder if people talk to you because you’re you or to get information on—my brothers.”
Ellie frowned. “Hudson’s not like that.”
“I know he’s not. But my family is the most important thing in my life. I have to protect them first. But I want to explain that to him and maybe then he’ll forgive me. Maybe he’ll understand.” I sniffled back the emotion flooding me.
Ellie’s face softened. “I understand that. I’d literally do anything for my kids and Cal. For his whole family, really. And that does include Hudson.”
“I’m glad he has that. We all should have that. I just want to explain that to him. We’re so new. We were stuck in that house—happily, I might add.”
“I bet you were,” Lucky said from the barber’s chair.
“Lucky!” Ellie admonished.
“What? Like you weren’t doing the same thing being stuck in the house.”
Ellie laughed. “Fair. Look, I’m sorry. I just want to make sure Hudson doesn’t get hurt again. He’s never reacted like that before. At least not as long as I’ve known him. Cal was really worried about him. But you did save him from the car crash.”
The whole room went from silent to chattering.
“Okay, everyone. We’ll be here all night if we keep with story hour. Brit, you should check those foils.” Mel clapped her hands.
“We want to know what happened,” a woman said from Mel’s chair.
In for a penny at this point. “Hudson’s rental car got blown off the road by one of the big city plows. It was a dinky little car that he shouldn’t have been driving, but he wanted to surprise his mom and dad with an early arrival.”
The woman sighed. “And what else happened?”
I laughed and thanked Ellie as she handed me the seltzer she’d held hostage when she found out who I was. I took a quick sip. “His car spun off the road and right into my yard. I’m renting a cabin on the lake.”
“Oh, my God it sounds like a movie.” The older woman’s eyes lit up. “Is he hunky?”
I laughed. “Yes, even with the goose egg he had. But luckily, he wasn’t hurt any worse.”
The woman sighed. “I miss being young and sexed up.”
“Janice!” Mel laughed as she combed out the woman’s wet hair and carefully measured out cuts in that way that stylists did.
“What?”
“She rescued him from a car crash. There was no…relations.” But Mel couldn’t stop the snort.
I glanced at Ellie, who seemed amused. She was also getting on with doing Ivy’s hair. “I got him inside. There was over three feet of snow at that point. I couldn’t exactly call 911. It would have taken forever to help him.”
“You brought a strange man into the house?” Another woman—the one with the foils that needed checking—shook her head incredulously.
“I couldn’t leave him out there,” I said, flushing.
And there had been no need to worry. Not about him being dangerous—at least not to anything other than my heart.
“I think it’s romantic,” Janice said with a sigh.
“Thanks, Janice.” I said and sunk into one of the chairs near the wall. I was tired of being the person under a spotlight in the middle of the room. “He’s pretty amazing. Even beyond the hot trapped-in-a-snowstorm thing.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” the woman in the foils said.