happy.”
“Jonas.” He could not move back here.
“It’s a good suggestion.”
“You’re asking me to give up my entire career to move back?” He’d brought home the perfect fiancée. Everyone in his family loved her. His grandmother was delighted that he’d found someone. Why couldn’t that be enough? When would what he did ever be enough? Gabe clenched his jaw and then forced himself to relax. One deep breath after another. “I’m sorry.” He sounded clipped and short, but it was the best he could do. “That’s not on the table.”
Gabe got up from his seat and left, the conversation unfinished and seeming to follow him out the door. The weight of each moment pressed down on him like a massive boulder, hovering there and crushing him slowly with each moment that passed. Yes, his grandmother had gotten terrible news and a prognosis that didn’t seem promising. But moving back to the Elk Lodge wouldn’t save her. The problem was, if he returned, he might not leave again.
He felt raw from his skin to his core and halfway to his grandmother’s suite, he realized where he was going—his old room. He knocked on the door and went in without waiting for a response, finding it unlocked the way it always was when they were in town.
“Grandmother?” No answer. Gabe moved down the hall into the quiet of the space, peeking into the master bedroom. His grandmother slept peacefully, shoulders rising and falling under her blanket. Good for her. She deserved a nap, after raising the three of them and running the lodge for so long.
His room was down the hall from hers, and the door opened soundlessly under his hand like the hinges had been freshly oiled. Like his brothers’ rooms, she’d left them all pretty much as they were when they lived there. A queen-size bed in the center. Low bookshelves brimming with comic books. Anime posters on the walls. Gabe’s room wasn’t like his brothers’—they had ski trophies and things like that, and he’d never been much for formal skiing competitions.
People were always surprised when they heard that. How could an Elkin not be an incredible skier?
Jonas’s proposal was untenable in every possible way. There was nothing for him here. Nothing permanent, anyway. He would always be looking for a way to find a place where he belonged. He wouldn’t ever belong here because his family was complete without him.
You’ll belong here if Anna stays, a voice whispered at the back of his mind—but Anna wasn’t going to stay. She was only here because he was here, and when he left, so would she. The thought of her leaving gave him a pang of sadness. Impossible. He couldn’t be sad about it.
The quiet of the room pressed in on him. He wanted to be back in his apartment in Vegas and he wanted to fit here. Such a bizarre contradiction. The person who would make everything seem less fraught would be waiting for him in the suite, so he left as quietly as he’d come. Anna.
The first thing he wanted to do was kiss her. And then he would pull her in close and breathe in the sweetness of her hair and feel the sensuous curves of her body beneath his palms. There would be no more ringing silence because she would make those little noises she always made in the back of her throat. It would be delicious.
He pushed open the door to their suite only to discover she was gone.
Disappointment punched him in the chest. Gabe rubbed absently at his ribs, trying to dispel an ache that he didn’t want to feel. Anna didn’t have to be at his side every second for the full duration of the vacation. That wasn’t the deal they had.
A note waited for him on the narrow kitchen counter where they’d spent so much time baking cookies.
Gabe
Chase and Tana invited me to take a ski lesson. I’ve only been once, and it was a long time ago, so I’ll probably make a fool of myself. See you in a bit!
Anna
He threw the note down on the counter, smoothed it out with his hands, and read it again. Chase and Tana. Of course. They liked Anna, and the Elk Lodge was a luxury ski resort. It would only be right for them to invite her to a lesson.
What was wrong with him?
Gabe went to the window and looked out at the slopes, trying to pick her out her slender form. Not spotting her, he