The smile faded from her lips as she let her eyes go around the room. “You’re looking at it, I’m afraid.”
I leaned in and gave her a warm smile. It was taking every ounce of willpower I could muster not to rip off her robe and bend her over the kitchen table. My cock was ready for round two. It moved in my pants, as if it could sense her pussy near. Sometimes I thought the damn thing had a mind of its own. God forbid it should ever wrestle control of my body from my brain. I would not be held responsible for the havoc that might ensue.
“This doesn’t look like such a bad life to me,” I said, leaning in and giving her the warmest smile I could muster. “Carl said you owned the bar. How did someone like you come to own a place like this?” I winked at her playfully. “And I mean that in a most respectful way.”
Her smile made me sigh. “My mom and dad were from Snowcap,” she said, staring at the table between us as she spoke. “They opened this bar before I was born, when this was a thriving tourist area. Since the Overlook opened, Snowcap has pretty much died. Anyway, Mom left when I was young. She hated the weather and the bar and, I guess, my dad. She ran off with another man. My dad raised me. I started working here when I was a kid and never stopped. My dad had a heart attack a few years ago behind the bar. I took it over and, well, here I am.”
“Does it make you sad that you’ve never traveled the world?” I asked, already knowing the answer but wanting to bring it to the forefront. “I mean, again, no offense, but there is a great big world outside these walls. Do you ever think about leaving?”
She blinked at me. “Leave Snowcap?”
“Yes, to see what’s out there.”
She looked away. “I left once. It didn’t work out so well.”
I rested my elbows on the table and spread out my hands. “Maybe you left with the wrong man.”
CHAPTER TEN: Rebecca
“What did you say?”
Nick blinked at me as if the words were rewinding in his head. He gave me a nervous smile and said, “I’m sorry?”
I had been sitting with my knees up and my arms wrapped around my legs. I let my feet drop to the floor and leaned in to lower my voice. “You said ‘maybe you left with the wrong man.’ What exactly did you mean by that?”
The corners of his mouth twitched. His eyes darted around my face as he leaned back from the table. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Yes, you did,” I said, eyeing him warily now. Shit. I knew this night wasn’t going to go the way I had planned. “What did Carl tell you while I was in the kitchen?”
He blinked at me. “He didn’t tell me anything.”
“He didn’t tell you about me leaving town with a guy named Charlie Feenie?”
Turned out, Nick was not a great liar. I could almost hear the gears turning inside his head as he processed the answer that would prove to me that this was not all just a set up. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. I waited for him to say, “The old man said you fucked a guy and left town with him, so I figured, what the hell, she’ll probably fuck me, too!”
“Rebecca,” he said softly, “there’s no need to get upset.”
I pressed my palms into the tabletop and gritted my teeth at him. “What did Carl tell you?”
He held my gaze for a moment, and then his shoulders fell as he gave me a placating smile. “Look, Carl said that you had left town for a while and returned, but that has nothing to do with this.”
“This?” I leaned into the table until it cut into my ribs. I glared at him. “Exactly what do you mean by this?”
“Well, I mean…”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Would your car really not start?”
His eyes blinked like a slot machine.
“Look, there’s no need to get upset,” he said, smiling at me with those big brown eyes that had probably made dozens of girls melt like the snow in springtime. “This was not planned. It just happened. Fate has drawn us together. This was meant to be.”
I clenched my hands into fists on the table. “What was meant to be?”
He smiled and held out his hands as if he were going to hug me.
“My dear Rebecca, this, you and I, here, now, was meant to be. Fate has brought us together.”
I frowned at him. He was talking like a madman. He had a glean in his eye. There was a pistol in the nightstand drawer next to my bed. I wondered if I could fight him off long enough to reach it.
“Fate has brought us together for what?” I asked.
I planted my heels on the cold floor and prepared to bolt for the bedroom door. If I could reach my pistol, I’d force him to get out of my apartment. Or shoot him and dump him in the snow to freeze. It would be his choice. I’d never let a man harm me again.
He let the smile drop from his face and held up his hands. He said, “This may sound insane, but please, bear with me.”