Her heart did a few hopeful acrobatics before sinking again. He had even told Luke that he’d needed to think about trouble they were having.
She resented falling asleep the night before, thinking things were wonderful between them, only to find out Gavin had been restless with unease all night long.
Glancing over her shoulder briefly, she turned forward again and kept walking. He was far too appealing to contemplate for long. She’d end up confessing more tender feelings for him that she could not afford to have. “I didn’t like these heels anyhow.” She walked faster. “Too tall. Too fussy.”
She could hear him pick up his pace, his steps crunching in the snow. He was beside her in an instant—all too tempting.
“It’s slippery.” He offered his arm. “Hold on to me.”
It sounded simple enough. But if she touched him now, she might not be able to let go. “It will be faster if I don’t.” She hugged her lined cape tighter around herself, tipping her head down into the wind that was picking up. “Shouldn’t you be in the receiving line?”
“I went to extraordinary lengths to make it to the wedding at all. I figured I checked the best man box well enough.” He touched her elbow lightly, steadying her as she stepped off the curb to cross a side street.
She glanced down at his arm, seeing the white splint peeking out from his suit sleeve. Something must have happened on the mountain.
“You’re hurt.” A pang of concern for him overrode everything else. Not just for his injury, but for the career that meant so much to him. “Are you all right? Can you still race?”
“It’s a mild sprain. The splint is just a precaution, and it won’t keep me from racing.” He moved closer to her. “Right now, my biggest concern is talking to you.”
Relieved he was okay, she was able to focus on his words. Remember how much his actions this morning still stung.
“That’s funny.” She stopped in the middle of the street to face him, holding back tears by sheer force of will. “Because you actually had unlimited opportunities to do just that last night and this morning, but you chose not to.”
“I know.” He raked his fingers through his hair. He looked incredibly handsome in his gray tuxedo. The formal bow tie was a deep crimson. A rose boutonniere shivered in the chilly wind. “But I couldn’t think my way around what I should say until I had a chance to clear my head.”
A car behind her honked. She wouldn’t have even thought to move if Gavin hadn’t taken her arm then, and drawn her safely to the other side of the street where the Hearthside Inn sat on a hill overlooking Lake Placid. Even here, outside Yuletide, the streets were full of holiday décor now that Christmas was just a week away. A band of carolers dressed in bright green and red sang “O Tannenbaum,” their steps matched in a kind of sprightly march.
“Because I pose some kind of trouble for you?” She remembered how it had felt to have Luke read the text aloud in the bridal parlor. “Some inconvenience? Despite my supposed reconciliation with the groom, he and his parents accused me of wrecking the wedding before you arrived. Apparently, it was my fault you were late.”
His expression clouded. “I’ll make it clear to everyone that I was solely to blame for that.” He held a side door to the inn open for her and she slipped inside, stamping the snow off her shoes. “Besides, keep in mind the Harris family—Luke’s parents in particular—might have their own reasons for wanting to alienate you.”
“I had the same thought, actually.” And if Luke’s parents had been somehow involved in her father’s disappearance—if they’d pressured him to leave somehow, or threatened him in some way—it couldn’t have been easy for Luke to open up the family to police scrutiny again. He might be under more pressure than anyone knew. “And you don’t need to intervene on my behalf. You’ve done enough for me this week.”
She tugged a tissue from her pocket and bent to swipe off some of the snow on her toe. The shoes were ruined for sure. The burgundy velvet matched her dress perfectly. Or rather it had until the color blotched from the moisture.
“No I haven’t. I spent half the week worrying about what a relationship might do for a business I haven’t even started. And then I couldn’t even be there for you today after spending days convincing you go to the wedding with me.” His brow furrowed, his eyes darkening.
“I’m glad you’re okay. We were all worried about you.” She’d been terrified, in fact. “I was surprised you didn’t answer Luke’s calls, if not mine.”
She shed her coat and didn’t know where else to put it so she laid it over her arm. Gavin took it from her, settling it over his own. Restless and edgy, she wished they could keep walking. At least that had been an outlet for how upset she was. And it beat crying.
So she kept walking, heading down a corridor of ground-floor suites. Each door was decorated with a willow branch wreath and a red ribbon.
“I would have answered your call, hell, I would have called you, but I dropped my phone when I fell and it shattered into about twenty pieces.” He slid a protective hand on her back once when a group of skiers stalked past, their equipment taking up half the hall.
“How bad was this fall?” Everything in her went still again. “Did you hurt anything else?” She bit her lip, not sure how much to say.
Not sure how much to show she cared when she’d already revealed her feelings to him. From what she understood, her outpouring of love had been what sent him running in the first place.
“It wasn’t bad. I’m lucky to have injured just my wrist. I lost concentration for a second.” He shook his head like he still didn’t understand what had happened. But then, he seemed to regain a sense of purpose as he took her hand and tugged her into the small—empty—hotel library full of antique furniture and books.
A small, spindly Christmas tree stood on one end of the room, decorated solely with red cardinals and pine cones. On the opposite end of the room, a blaze burned brightly in a huge stone fireplace that took up most of one wall. A swag of pine garland covered the mantel, bright bows at regular intervals. Rachel felt warmer already as she gravitated toward the fire, hands extended to savor the lick of heat on her fingertips.
“Anyhow,” Gavin continued, setting her cape on the arm of a stuffed leather chair before joining her in front of the hearth. “I had my wrist wrapped at one of the ski stations, but I thought I’d better get a quick X-ray or MRI to see if I broke or tore anything. By the time I realized how close I was cutting it to make the wedding, I forgot that my pickup had been running on fumes the past few days.”
“You ran out of gas?” She didn’t know why that made her laugh a little. A release maybe, since his day could have been so much worse.