Snowed in With My Small Town Billionaire

Chapter 28 Gwen

28

C H A P T E R

Gwen

G wen sat at her desk, staring blankly at the stack of tests on her desk that she needed to be grading. She didn’t hear the low buzz of the classroom as a few of the students talked instead of focusing on their essays. Normally, she would walk around the classroom, offering help to the students and keeping them focused on their tasks. Today, her heart wasn’t in it. At this point, as long as no one was dancing around on the tables or throwing spitballs, she didn’t much care what they did.

“Ms. Cooper?”

The voice snapped her out of her daze. Gwen looked up to see one of her students standing in front of her desk with a worried expression.

“What’s up, Maria?” Gwen asked, smiling at her.

“Are you okay?” Maria asked.“You’re not your normal happy self. You were supposed to come back from vacation all relaxed and stuff, but you don’t seem that way.”

Gwen’s heart twisted at the student’s concern. She was usually so good at hiding her feelings at work, keeping her personal life separate from her classroom. But she had to admit, Maria had a point. She wasn’t herself. And it wasn’t the vacation itself that had been weighing on her mind. It was Sawyer. She missed him. She was constantly thinking about him.

“You’re right. I haven’t been myself. I’m just dealing with some stuff. I’m sorry that I brought it into the classroom.”

“It’s okay. You tell us that we’re humans and have good and bad days. You’re human, too. You’re our favorite teacher and some of us were just worried about you.”

“You’re so sweet, I appreciate that. It means more to me than you know. I’ll be okay.”

“If you say so,” Maria said, walking back to her desk.

Gwen breathed a sigh of relief when the final bell rang. She was about to head down to the library when Abby ran into her room.

“Okay, spill.”

Gwen told her about everything that happened while they were at the resort, including reconnecting with Sawyer.

“I love him. I knew that I had fallen in love with him before he found me after I got lost.”

“Wow. Falling in love with the arch-enemy huh? That’s a classic story,” Abby said.

“He asked me to marry him, but Dad has made it clear that if I do, he’ll disown me and prevent me from seeing Brent.”

She swallowed hard and wiped a tear away. “I’m miserable without Sawyer, but I can’t lose Brent.”

“Your father has no right to put you in that position. He has no right to control your life like that. You don’t live with him. You certainly wouldn’t need an inheritance from him if you married Sawyer. He can’t keep you from seeing Brent. I bet you could even go to the courts and force him to give you visitation.”

“That’s true,” Gwen whispered. “He’s always been so controlling and he’s held a grudge against the Johnson family forever. He hates Sawyer, and in spite of everything that Sawyer did on the mountain, he refuses to change his mind. Dad is just stuck in the past.”

“Then it’s up to you to break free from your father. You love Sawyer and, if he asked you to marry him, then he loves you, too. Your father shouldn’t take that away from you. If he really loved you, he wouldn’t. You deserve to be happy and you deserve to be with the man you love.”

Gwen let out a shaky breath. “I know. You’re right. I just don’t know how to deal with the guilt of possibly hurting Brent.”

“Like I said, take your dad to court if you have to. The judge will likely listen to what Brent wants. Who knows, he might end up living with you and Sawyer.”

“Brent and Sawyer would both love that. They became close while we were stuck on that cursed mountain.”

“Then, it’s settled. You’ll tell your dad that you love him, and if he can’t accept that, then it’s his problem, not yours.”

“What if Sawyer tells me he changed his mind?”

Abby tilted her head and pressed her lips together. “Really? What kind of insane question is that? He loves you enough to propose marriage. The Johnsons aren’t fickle people nor do they do anything on a whim. If he proposed then the offer is good for at least ninety days.”

Gwen laughed.

She texted her mother and asked if they could have dinner alone. Her mother agreed.

They sat at a back table in a little diner. The bubbly waitress delivered their glasses of sweet iced tea and took their dinner orders.

Audrey looked at Gwen searchingly. “Not that I’m not grateful to spend some time with you, but you don’t ask me to have dinner with you very often, especially without Brent.”

Gwen was quiet for a minute. “It’s about Sawyer and Dad.”

“Ah. I had a feeling that’s what might be on your mind.”

“I love Sawyer. I’m in love with him. I feel like I’ve lost part of my soul and I can’t imagine going through my whole life feeling empty inside. But Dad’s not going to change his mind. He’s so full of hatred and stuck in the past that he couldn’t possibly accept my decision to be with Sawyer.”

“Your father’s always been stubborn, especially about this issue, that’s for sure,” Audrey said.

“I just don’t get it. Dad got a chance to see that Sawyer is truly a good man. Sawyer and Lucas dug us out. They made sure that everyone stayed warm and had food. They saved Brent and then me. He saved Zaid’s life. How can Dad possibly see any of that as evil?”

Audrey reached out and touched her hand. “It’s not fair, I know. But your father is stuck in his way of thinking. I know that he’s afraid of losing you, even if he does have a funny way of showing it. He obviously doesn’t realize that he’s just pushing you away.”

Gwen felt the tears fill her eyes. She angrily wiped them away. She hadn’t cried this much her entire life and now, it seems that all she does is cry.

“I don’t want to lose you or Dad, and I certainly don’t want to lose Brent. But I love Sawyer. He’s everything that I always dreamed about when I thought of getting married and starting a family.”

Audrey smiled at her. “Then, you should follow your heart. True love only comes around once in a lifetime and you found that with Sawyer. You deserve to be happy, even if it means that you have to stand up to your father.”

“What if he never changes?”

Audrey sighed heavily. “I can’t promise that he will change or if it will be any time soon. But I do believe that, in time, he’ll come around. You’re his daughter, and he loves you. He may be angry now, but that won’t last forever. And as for Brent... your father might try to keep him from you, but you’ll always be his aunt. No one can take that bond away.” She grinned. “Besides, I’ll make sure that you get to spend time with him.”

“Thank you,” Gwen said.

“That’s what mothers do,” Audrey said.

The waitress delivered their food, and the conversation shifted. Gwen actually enjoyed the food because she felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of her heart.

****

Gwen continuously looked at her watch and then at the clock above her door. She was pretty sure that both of them had stopped. Finally, though the final bell rang. Stuffing her computer and ungraded papers into her bag, she raced out the door. She wanted to catch her father in his office before he left for the day. He was less likely to yell if he was at work.

She just wanted to get this confrontation over with. Gwen already knew how it would go and dreaded it. Today had been movie day in all of her classes, with a writing prompt on theme and characterization, because there was no way that she could have taught anyone anything.

Her heart thudded in her ears as she walked up to the receptionist’s desk. She smiled at the woman working the front desk.

“Hi, Sallie. Is Dad in?”

“He sure is. Go on in.”

Gwen gave her a weak smile. “Thanks.”

The office door was open. Her father looked up from his computer and smiled.

“Gwen. I didn’t expect to see you here today.”

She closed the door behind her and sat in the big cushy chair in front of his massive oak desk.

“I need to talk to you about something important.”

He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. “Is this about Sawyer?”

“Yes. I already told you that I fell in love with him. I miss him and I can’t go the rest of my life without him, so I’m going to go to him and tell him that I’ll marry him if he’ll still have me.”

Jerome’s face hardened and his eyes narrowed. “I thought I made myself clear. If you marry him, I’ll disown you.”

“I know what you said, Dad. That’s not fair. Brent and I have a very close relationship and you’d only be hurting him.”

“You’d be hurting him. You’re the one making the decision.”

“I can’t believe that you’re so blind. The Johnsons didn’t do anything wrong. They barely had enough water to keep their own ranch going during the drought. Besides, you know as well as I do that water rights laws wouldn’t allow them to divert water to our place.”

“That’s not the point. They bought the farm when it went to auction.”

“Someone would have. At least the Johnsons offered to sell it back to you in a way that you could afford it. You refused. That wasn’t their fault. You made the choice to walk away from it.”

Jerome’s face turned bright red and the vein in his neck throbbed with anger. “They killed Kyle.”

“No. Kyle killed Kyle. He was a grown man and knew exactly what he was doing. He chose to drink and he chose to get behind the wheel of the car.”

He clenched his jaw. “They destroyed my family and I’ll never forgive them for that. If you walk away from here to marry that man, then I’ll never forgive you, either. If you walk out of here and marry that man then you’re no longer my daughter.”

“I’m sorry that you feel that way but I’m not going to let you control my life. If you can’t accept the fact that I love Sawyer, then you’ll lose me. But that’s on you, not me.”

With that, she stood and walked to the door. She put her hand on the handle and paused.

“I love you, Dad. Goodbye.”