Snowed In With You

Chapter Sixteen

Sara

I stared at Rob, too distracted for a moment by the memory of what Fletch and I had done on the exact spot my brother now had his elbow resting on to really hear what he was saying.

‘Yeah, because we told you, like twenty minutes ago,’ I said, a beat late.

Fletcher caught the blush that was working its way across my cheeks and smirked as he followed my gaze.

Rob looked between us and the table before pulling his arm away like it was on fire, grimacing as he asked, ‘Do I even want to know?’

Fletcher clapped him on the back and took a seat next to him on one side of the table, I took the place opposite and Tanya slid in next to me, setting grilled cheese toasties down in front of each of us.

Rob took a breath as if to steady himself and that made me pay attention, Rob was never unsure – but I guessed we were both learning new things about each other today.

‘No, I mean, I’ve known since the day after the wedding.’

Silence descended and the bite of toast in my mouth suddenly felt like cotton as I struggled to swallow.

‘You what? Why didn’t you say something?’

Rob raised an eyebrow cooly, ‘Well, neither of you seemed inclined to bring it up either.’

Okay, point.

‘But out on the lake you acted like you were surprised and I don’t–’

My eyes widened as a thought occurred to me.

Rob’s lack of anger or concern, the fact that he apparently knew what had happened between me and Fletcher before he’d invited us on this trip– ‘were you trying to Parent Trap us?’ My voice had risen shrilly and Tanya patted my shoulder comfortingly.

Had she known too?

Fletcher rubbed at his eyes tiredly, ‘What, dare I ask, is a Parent Trap?’

‘He set us up,’ I accused and Rob didn’t even try to deny it.

‘You were both being idiots, pining after each other without knowing the full story.

It was driving me crazy.

I waited, I swear I waited, because I thought, surely these two people who I care about a lot wouldn’t be so stupid as to let this opportunity pass them by.

But a week turned into two and you were both clearly unhappy and lying to me about it.’

Anger was washing through me too fiercely for me to listen to him right now.

I stood abruptly but Fletcher reached across the table and laid a comforting hand on my shoulder.

I sat back down and Fletcher walked to the kitchen, the now-familiar sound of him opening and closing cupboards drained some of my tension away and I let out a slow breath as he set a cup of tea in front of me and gestured to the pot for Rob and Tanya.

‘So what was your plan? Get us here and ditch us?’ I looked accusingly at the newlyweds and Tanya looked a little remorseful while Rob just took in my anger resolutely.

‘No, I just wanted you to spend more time together, maybe force some team-building activities.

To be honest, I hoped you’d sort it out between you on the car ride over.’

My mouth dropped open, having forgotten about that small detail, and my fists curled as I realised Rob would have known just how uncomfortable he was making us by getting in the car together.

‘The snowstorm came in handy, I guess,’ he continued mildly and by that point I’d had enough.

‘Honey, we just wanted you both to be happy,’ Tanya chipped in and I could only stare at her.

‘I told him that he might not get the results he wanted if he interfered, but you know your brother can be a little...

single-minded.’ I appreciated Tanya’s attempt to be diplomatic and that Rob was her husband, but we’d started to become friends before the wedding.

That she hadn’t even attempted to give me a heads-up about what my brother had been planning stung almost as much as Rob’s meddling.

‘I can’t believe you let him think this was a good idea.

You can’t honestly tell me you fully agreed with this madness,’ I rolled my eyes at her silence.

Tan was too nice to be a good liar and she looked away quickly, messing with her nose ring and tugging at her pink ringlets.

‘Yeah...

‘ I said slowly, ‘that’s what I thought.’

‘Except for the fact it did work,’ Rob pointed out.

Fletcher’s brows furrowed and he inched away from my brother as we both stared him down.

Rob sighed and put down his cup, running a hand through his dark hair and levelling his dark eyes on me, ‘You just needed a push and I wanted to help.’

‘Lying to us was you trying to help?’

‘Hello – pot, kettle,’ Rob said, gesturing between me and Fletch.

I shrugged off his words even if he did have a point.

‘How did you even know about it if neither of us told you? You and Tanya left the reception earlier than we did.’

‘Fletcher told me what happened between you two almost as soon as it happened.’

I shot an outraged look at Fletch but he was already shaking his head, ‘No, I didn’t.’

My brother pinched the bridge of his nose and Tanya looked like she was maybe trying not to laugh and I nudged her, ‘Yes, you did, Fletch.

You were passed out in front of the elevator and I woke you up.

I figured you didn’t remember our conversation when you never brought up what happened again with me.’

It was a sweet relief to have that final confirmation from Rob that Fletch’s story had been true – I’d believed him, but it was a comfort all the same.

‘I don’t remember talking to you,’ Fletcher said, his blue eyes meeting mine in a panic and I gave him a reassuring smile to show I trusted him.

‘I asked you why you were asleep outside of the lift and you said it was because you had slept with Sara but needed to talk to me before you could ask her out,’ Rob rolled his eyes and to be honest, I was with him on that.

What sort of assbackward– ‘You were obviously still ridiculously drunk and of course I was shocked and maybe a little mad that you hadn’t told me you liked her beforehand, but to be honest, in hindsight it made sense.

Whenever she was in the room your eyes would gravitate to her and at every opportunity you were whisking her off to dance or touching her.

You were head over heels.’

Fletcher was blushing and I was baffled, had I really been so clueless? It honestly hadn’t been until near the end of the night that I’d got up the courage to ask Fletcher to bed and even then I’d been half-sure he was going to say no.

‘But then you never brought it up again and Tanya told me that she had seen Sara running to Kate’s room in floods of tears that morning, obviously I put two and two together and realised Sara thought she’d been ditched–’

‘Well to be fair, he did leave a note,’ I said defensively and Tanya nodded her head empathetically after looking at me with wide eyes, her fingers reaching out and squeezing mine tightly, and I considered that maybe she’d felt a little hurt that I hadn’t confessed any of this to her either.

‘I watched you both mope for almost a month and then I decided to book the lodge.’

I felt like my eyes couldn’t get any wider at this point, ‘So instead of speaking to the two of us and explaining the full-story, you tried to meddle in our lives and force us to get together?’

Tanya was looking a little nervous now as she patted my hand faster and faster, ‘Well, you’re not always so easy to talk to, we thought it would be easier to simply give you two the opportunity to work things out in a supervised setting.

Then when we heard about the storm…’

‘It was a gift horse,’ Rob finished and I shook my head in disbelief.

‘I can’t believe you manipulated us like that, you–you’re fucking crazy,’ I could feel my skin flushing in anger and Fletcher looked at me in concern.

For a second I was worried he was going to take their side too but he just shook his head.

‘You shouldn’t have messed about with us like that, man.

We’re not puppets.’

Rob half-shrugged, ‘Well it seemed to work out alright for the two of you in the end though, didn’t it?’

Outraged, I flew to my feet, ‘The only thing you directly accomplished here was making me trust you even less than I already did.

And I can’t believe you let him go ahead with this!’ Tanya and I had become somewhat close while I helped her with wedding prep and to know that she’d gone behind my back to try to control us like this was just…

Rob opened his mouth but I shook my head.

‘This just proves more than ever what you really think of me.

You’re so full of shit, Rob, I didn’t know I made you feel like that – I?m calling bullshit, otherwise you wouldn?t have tried to set this all up.

You?d have just come and talked to me like a normal person.? I waved away his protests and stomped upstairs to collect my stuff.

A moment later Fletch came into my room and almost got hit by a bra that was thrown in my packing frenzy.

He caught it and gave me a wry smile before it fell away, leaving a more serious expression in its place, ‘I’m coming with you.’

A wave of relief swept through me so fiercely that for a second all I could do was stare at him before I walked over and he swept me into a tight hug.

‘I’m sorry–’

‘Rob’s an ass–’

We stopped and laughed quietly together for a second before I pulled back to look at him.

‘Will you come back to mine with me?’ he asked hesitantly, lower lip caught between his teeth as he waited for my answer.

‘I’d love that,’ I smiled, I felt like I didn’t know nearly as much as I wanted to about him yet and as we were cutting this trip short I still had a couple vacation days left off of work.

‘There’s no place I’d rather be… but maybe we could stop at mine so I can grab some panties?’

Fletch’s eyes instantly heated, ‘Oh, I don’t think that’ll be necessary.’

???

Well, on the one hand, Rob was unlikely to try and kick my ass for sleeping with his sister.

Twice.

I wasn’t sure how to feel really.

My oldest friend had not only betrayed me, but had used information I’d drunkenly provided to control my life.

Sure, it had sort of turned out well, but it didn’t excuse his methods.

I was glad Sara wanted to come back to my apartment with me, I’d been half-scared she was going to run at the first opportunity, maybe be the one to leave me a note this time as a little piece de resistance.

But she wanted me.

Wanted to explore whatever it was that was still simmering between us and considering how often that ache led to me stripping her bare, it was likely a good thing we would be leaving the lodge – and her brother – behind.

I moved around the room I’d claimed as my own for the past few days and gathered up a few toiletries, it felt like I’d barely slept in here when in reality it was only really the one night that Sara and I had curled up together.

Soon she would be in my bed, hopefully naked and shouting my name.

I tried to imagine her in my apartment, curled up on my sofa, naked on my kitchen counter...

I shook my head to clear those thoughts, as if my brain was an etch-a-sketch to be emptied at will.

I found it easy, thinking about all the ways Sara could slot into my life, and hopefully vice versa.

Seeing her laugh every day, waking up to red hair in my face in the mornings...

I wish we could have enjoyed our first morning together before Rob and Tanya had shown up.

But there would be time to make-up for that and I hoped it might lead to every morning together.

I smiled at the thought as I pushed some errant pyjama bottoms into my bag.

Sara Bridges, you’re going to be mine.