Page 89 of Stirring Up Trouble
She squeezed her eyes shut, partly to escape from his expression and partly so she could think. Pure survival instinct swirled at the back of her mind, whispering that she should run, but she quashed it.
She could fix this. She had to fix it.
“I know how this looks, but you have to believe me. I wasn’t going to leave. I’m sorry that you and Bree found out like this, but I didn’t think—”
Gavin stiffened at the sound of Bree’s name, cutting her off completely. “That’s the trouble, isn’t it? You don’t think. You live your life from one impulsive decision to the next, just stirring up trouble and never thinking about the consequences. Well, I hate to break it to you, but that’s not how the real world works. Not that you’d know, because you’re too busy racking up frequent flyer miles to sit still long enough to get it.”
Sloane winced. Just because she’d earned his anger didn’t mean it stung any less upon impact. “I know I hurt you, and I’m sorry.”
“You think this is about me?” Gavin’s frosty stare became downright glacial. “I don’t give a shit if you want to hurt me, Sloane. But if you think I’m going to sit around and listen to anything you have to say after you just destroyed my sister’s trust, you’re out of your fucking mind. That kid cared about you, but you’re too stuck in your own selfish world to see it.”
Sloane’s eyes filled with tears, and they breached her lids to track down both cheeks as she said the only thing she could think of to make it right.
“I’m so sorry, Gavin. I never meant to hurt either of you.”
For just a breath, time melted into slow motion, a flicker of emotion making the tiniest dent in Gavin’s expression, and her chest surged with possibility and hope.
But then it disappeared, his words ripping at her as the banked emotion in his eyes turned to solid ice and he said, “Your apology isn’t good enough.”
He walked to the front door without pause and held it open, and Sloane had no choice but to walk through it and leave her heart behind.
* * *
Sloane’s suitcasehad seen better days, but that had never stopped her from shoving all her worldly possessions into it. Granted, she usually had an idea of where she was headed when she zipped it up, but having a destination didn’t seem nearly as important right now as getting away from Pine Mountain. Once she was on the road, she’d be able to think, to lift the boulder-sized block of sadness off her chest and at least breathe.
Oh, God, she had to getoutof here.
Windshield wipers flashed across the rain-slicked glass, the rhythmicthump-THUMPkeeping time in Sloane’s head like a bad-weather metronome. She reached forward to turn the knob to the next setting, her breath leaking out of her in a slow sigh when she realized it wasn’t the rain blurring her vision, but a fresh round of tears spilling involuntarily from beneath her eyelids.
She guided the Fiat carefully down Rural Route Four. While her deeply ingrained survival instinct hollered at her to get out of Dodge as fast as possible, she wasn’t stupid enough to go speeding down the mountain like her hair was on fire. Those guardrails were high and tight for a reason, and it wasn’t to block the gorgeous views.
And besides, the slower you go, the longer you have to change your mind.
Sloane stuffed down the thought about two seconds after it surfaced. Her impulsive ways had gotten her into enough trouble, thank you very much. Recklessly turning around and begging Gavin and Bree for another chance blew right past the border of pointlessness, landing directly in the lap of total fucking insanity. He’d made it crystal-goblet clear that he wasn’t interested in anything she had to say, and in hindsight, Sloane couldn’t blame him.
After all, she’d proved the wholenot good enoughthing in spades.
As she turned off the gravel mountain road and her tires found the smooth ribbon of highway beneath them, Sloane began to cry in earnest.
* * *
Gavin satat La Dolce Vita’s polished mahogany bar, wishing the stack of inventory sheets in front of him was a double shot of Grey Goose over ice. He’d had enough emotion in the past twenty-four hours to last him a lifetime. Considering where it had gotten him, he’d give his right arm to forget the pleasantries of his palate and go right for numb.
“Hey.” Adrian’s gruff voice yanked Gavin out of his wishful thinking, and his head snapped up in surprise. “You’ve got a visitor.”
Gavin’s pulse clattered through his veins. “We’re not open for dinner shift for another hour and a half.”
One corner of Adrian’s mouth kicked up into a half smile. “Yeah, I figured you’d make an exception for this one.” He took a step back, ushering Bree into the bar area from the dining room, with Jeannie right behind her.
“Is everything okay?” Gavin asked, concern flooding through him, but Bree was quick to head it off.
“I’m not hurt or anything. I just…” She turned and looked at Jeannie, who put a comforting arm around Bree’s shoulders. “We were all skiing, but the trails are really crummy from the rain, so we came inside and Mrs. Carter said maybe we could catch you in between lunch and dinner. You know, to just say hi.”
“Oh. Sure.” Gavin’s brows slid together, his worry deepening as he caught Jeannie’s troubled expression. “Are you sure everything is okay?”
Bree nodded, but Jeannie shook her head. “Bree seemed a little down, so I thought maybe coming over for a minute would cheer her up.” She gave Bree’s shoulder a squeeze before letting her go. “I’ll give you two a minute. Just come find me when you’re ready to head back to the lodge.”
Gavin’s heart took a nosedive toward his shoes as he watched Jeannie slip through the entrance to the dining room. Adrian, who was normally rough and gruff and chock full of curse words, shifted a glance at Bree, then said, “We’ve got the ingredients for hot chocolate in the back, if you’re in the mood for a sugar rush.”