back and let her come to her own realizations and decisions about what she wanted.
“Who’s Mitch?”
“The man that I’m madly in love with. But I need to tell him that. He won’t say it first. He never asks people for things. He never reaches out for help or even favors. He’s always the one helping and doing favors.”
Damn, she was so in love with him.
And he needed to know that he could ask for things. Ask her for things.
“So, he is going to be pushing your car out of the snow or not?” the man asked.
“Oh, no. He pushes me by not pushing me.”
“Did you hit your head when your car slid?”
She frowned at the man. “No.”
“And Mitch is not showing up right now to help?”
She sighed. “No.”
“Then let’s get this over with.”
Ten minutes later, the man in the truck had applied sand to the ice under her tires and had pushed her car off of the slick spot. He’d also given her his card. His name was Timothy Rogers, and he and his wife ran a bed and breakfast about three miles up the road. Where he was headed as well.
An hour after that, Paige was checked into the most adorable bedroom she’d ever seen. She was wrapped in a fluffy bathrobe, propped up on eight—yes, eight—of the fluffiest pillows she’d ever felt at the head of a four-poster king-size bed. The mattress felt like it was a cloud from heaven. The towels had smelled like lavender and vanilla. And she was now eating a bowl of the best broccoli cheddar soup and a salad with a homemade dressing that made her willing to bring the Rogers family a cat when she came back through on her return to Louisiana.
Or maybe a beautiful photograph of one of her cats that they could hang on the wall.
Actually, she wasn’t so sure she was even going to be able to take any of her cats back to Autre with her. The cats were all living at Didi Lancaster’s mansion, where they’d been spoiled daily by Whitney’s grandmother for the past two and a half months.
The news was on TV as Paige ate, and she groaned as the weatherman pointed to the screen behind him. It was clear that she wasn’t going to be to Appleby in time to help set up for the wedding. Or maybe for the wedding at all. The snow was going to stop, but it would be blowing all night, and the roads would be a mess in the morning. It looked like they’d gotten snow in southern Iowa too, but the map didn’t extend all the way to Appleby. She wondered if she’d drive out of it if she started in that direction tomorrow.
“Dammit.” She set her dishes back on the wooden tray Mrs. Rogers had brought to her room and reached for her phone.
A minute later, her sister answered.
“Paige!”
“Hey, Josie.”
“Uh, oh, what’s wrong?”
“You can tell something’s wrong from two words?” Paige asked.
“Yeah.”
Paige smiled but sighed. “Well, I’m stuck in Peoria, Illinois. Huge snowstorm.”
“What? No way. It’s April!”
Paige laughed. “I take it that means things are okay there?”
She heard a clattering and shuffling on Josie’s end of the line. “Yeah. Things are okay here,” her sister said. There was a pause, and then she said, “Oh dammit.”
“What?”
“I just pulled up the radar. Yeah, looks like it’s all south of us. Davenport is getting hit too.”
“I don’t know if I’m going to make it on time,” Paige said, feeling the disappointment settle into her chest.
“Well, you shouldn’t try tonight for sure,” Josie said. “I do not want you on the road alone in this. Especially, as it’s getting dark.”
“I’m at a B and B in Peoria. I’m okay right now.”
“Good. Just stay there.”
“But the wedding…” At one point in her life, she would have tried to drive through the snow to be there, but she did know better now.
“The wedding will go on,” Josie said. “It would be awesome if you could be there, but they’ll understand.”
“Yeah.” Paige bit her bottom lip. “It’s not them. It’s me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I want to see Piper and Ollie say their vows. I want to be there for the celebration. I’ve realized that weddings aren’t really about tying two people together in a way they can’t get out of.” She gave a little self-deprecating laugh. “That’s how it used to feel to me.”
“I know,” Josie said, her tone dry but affectionate at the same time.
Paige nodded, even though Josie couldn’t