Snow Kissed

Chapter 15

I swore tears were forming in his eyes, but I had to remind myself of reality. We didn't go together, we had just momentarily fit.

“Let's go.” He walked to the front door.

“But...” I turned towards him as he did up the buttons on his coat.

Why had he even bothered to take his jacket off, if he was just going to put it back on?

I marched over and found my boots. Angry was a light way of putting what I felt.

He slipped on his boots and ignored my huffing and puffing.

By the time we were in his truck, I didn't have a recollection of what was happening. I didn't want to fight with him. I hadn't asked to go, but he had decided I had to go. I understood that, maybe it even had something to do with Claire. Whatever it was, at the end of the day, it had nothing to do with me. It was all for the better. I just hoped I would be strong enough to not rely on Elizabeth for any support once we got to the resort.

“How far away is it?” I asked.

With both hands on the steering wheel, he answered me in a gruff voice, “A couple hours.” His eyes stayed fixed on the road like glue. I looked on the bright side, at least he was a focused driver.

His words left me wondering, he wouldn't be back home till almost dark if he's departed right away from the resort. The thought sickened me, but I shook it off, he wasn't mine to worry about after all.

I was okay to sit in silence. I was used to it. In fact, I preferred it.

But after an hour and a half, my thoughts kept creeping back to Ean Hunter and his bed.

“Ean?”

“Hm,” he grunted, hardly a recognition of my presence.

I repeated his name.

“Amy,” he said back.

I swallowed, getting my vice president suave back in order. “You're being rude.”

He smiled and stayed quiet.

I was surprised to say the least about his attitude towards me. I tried again.

“You're not going to say anything to me, after the last few days?” I snapped.

He sighed, losing his edge in a way. “What is there to say?”

There must have been something to say... there had to be something!

“Oh my god!” I exclaimed.

“What!” His eyes flew over to me.

“I forgot my box! Where's my box?”

He looked back to the road, confused. “Your box?”

“My present.” My heart snapped like an icicle meeting its demise.

He swallowed. “You want that?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed. Why I was attached to a box a Bushman had given me was ridiculous; he even seemed to think it absurd.

He mumbled, “I'll mail it to you.”

His words crushed me.

“I could come and...” I had stopped myself before I got the rest of the sentence out. Was I going insane? Gaga for a man that lived in the middle of nowhere, who was now pushing me away like I was the ugliest thing he'd ever seen!

Ean kept his eyes on the road and returned to his mute state of being.

I told myself, I had nothing more to say. I didn't want to say something I'd regret and I didn't wish to say something that would hurt him, but I did want to tell him he was hurting me. However, that was a strange thing for me to feel.

People didn't cause me hurt.

I was more independent than that.

Much more.

The minutes turned to hours and there, like the skies parting, was the sign of Forrest Mountain Ski Resort and it was glorious.

He pulled his old white pickup up the steep grade. Slipping only once or twice and Elizabeth had told me I would have made it up there in my BMW?

He slowed at the main building of the resort. It was picturesque in the setting sun with subsequent log cabins all around nestled in their own private getaways. Sort of like Ean Hunter's, but his was legit.

I then realized I was within close proximity to Elizabeth, my only true friend. I also found great comfort in city-dwellers being near me.

City-dweller heaven!

As soon as the engine cut, I opened the door.

Ean reached out and caught my wrist suddenly. “Amy.”

I wrenched my wrist from his hold, my heart slamming in my chest. He didn't get to speak to me, he'd had more than enough time to do so on the drive. I fled the truck in quick steps and walked into the reception hall, the woman at the front desk smiling away without a care in the world.

“Welcome to Forrest Mountain!”

I nodding, wanting to get past the introductions. “Hi.”

Ean sauntered up beside me though and grabbed the woman's attention like a moth to a flame.

“Good evening,” she purred. “Do you have a reservation?”

“No--” I got her attention off Bushman and back on me but she cut me off.

“We have some rooms in the hotel, but all our cabins are booked, I'm afraid,” she said snidely, “King size beds, though.”

“Cozy,” Ean commented.

I looked to him quickly, wanting to slap him for even opening his mouth up after all this time.

“I can get that together for you?”

I narrowed my eyes and stepped as close to the desk as I could. “No, thank you. My friend has a cabin rented here. I just want to know which one it is.”

“Oh,” the woman nodded. “Under what name?”

I wanted to roll my eyes but held it together. “Elizabeth Saltz."

Ean leaned on the counter. “Nice resort. I've never actually been up here.”

I stared at him in boiling anger as he chatted with the receptionist.

“I can ring up to let her know you're here?”

“Great,” I tried to sound chipper, but all I wanted to do was go to sleep. Forever. Kay, maybe I wanted a drink first, but then I was going to bed.

Ean caught my attention we waited for the woman to call up the correct cabin. “Are you going to ski?”

“Excuse me?” I hissed.

“She's expecting you,” the woman interrupted us.

Yeah, no crap! I spin around to face her. “How do we get there?”

She started to explain and I really hoped Ean was paying attention because I was lost.

We left, walking back out to his truck and moved in front of me, opening my door.

I stopped dead in my tracks, literally about to explode on him. He didn't get to be mute then turn his charm back on when he was about to get rid of me!

“Amy?” he asked after a few moments.

“What are you doing, Ean!” I shrilled.

He paused, blinking. “What?”

“What are you doing to me!” I roared.

“I was opening the door for you,” he muttered.

My mouth gaped. “Are you bi-polar?”

“I just...”

“What!” I shouted.

His jaw clenched and he stepped forward. “I don't want our last minutes together, spent hating each other. That's not what I want.”

“Yet, you kicked me out of your house!” I snapped in his face.

He was dreadfully close and when he took another step towards me, I begun to panic.

“Amy, I'm trying to be--”

“You're attempting to make this okay!” I cut him off. “Pretend that we're okay, that we're just friends!” I shoved him and he stepped back from my blow.

“Amy, isn't that all we are?”

I stopped and stared at him. I didn't know what we were, but I really didn't care. It didn't matter what we were... I mean, it kind of did, because some bottomless pit in my heart seemed to care, but I was not about to tell him that.

He sniffed from the cold and broke the moment between us. “Come on, let's go before we both freeze.”

I watched him walk around the truck and get in. Deciding I'd had enough of him, I began to walk the ice covered road to the cabin plateau where I figured, I would eventually find Beth.

“Amy!”

I heard him calling me, but I thoroughly ignored him. It had already gotten darker as the sun slipped behind the near mountains and I noticed the chill, but I was done. I would eventually find my friend and the rest of the city-dwellers.

“Amy!” The truck's engine roared to life and rolled up beside me, crawling my pace. “Amy! Get in the truck!”

“No!” I shouted over the diesel engine.

He kept beside me, though, the truck's door open still.

“Amy, you're going to get cold!”

“Oh well!” I snapped, glancing in at him.

“Do you even know which cabin it is?”

I stopped and turned towards him, he hit the brakes and the truck slid to a stop. “I don't care, I'll find it. Go home, Ean!”

He slammed the truck into park and I kept my walk. Running in front of me, he stopped me on the spot. “Amy--”

“Just get away from me!” I shouted. I was done. Ean Hunter had boiled me past the breaking point. No man was ever going to do this to me again, ever; I vowed it.

“I think...” His step faltered as I pushed around him, returning to my grueling pace up the slippery climb.

“Amy, I think I love you!”