One Snowy Night (Sweet Home, Alaska #1) - Patience Griffin Page 0,38

it. She jerked away and ran from the lodge.

“Wait up!” Lacy was running after her.

“No!” Ella didn’t want to be friends with Lacy anymore. She’d done this because Ella had given her notes from history to Tad—Lacy’s boyfriend. And she was just being nice! It wasn’t like she liked him or anything. “You did this on purpose!”

“I didn’t,” Lacy pleaded. “I thought you knew. Why else would you be coming out to the lodge?”

That was a good question. But no way was Ella going back in there and ask her mom why. Why had she brought them here?

“Don’t be mad!” Lacy was blubbering like she’d just been betrayed and not Ella. “You’re my best friend.”

Ella stopped running. She needed a Kleenex. Snot was all over the place.

Lacy caught up to her and took her arm. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll go to my house. My mom’s on a date.” She tugged Ella toward her car.

And Ella let her. What else could she do?

Mom was a big fat liar.

Grandpa was dead.

And even though Ella had apparently gained a father tonight . . . she had never felt more alone in her life.

* * *

• • •

DONOVAN BACKED INTO a chair and sat. Hope looked as pale as a ghost, nearly as upset and looking as awful as she had the night Izzie and Beau died.

Rick hurried into the kitchen. “What’s going on? What’s wrong with Ella?”

Donovan hung his head, feeling too shocked, too stunned. I have a daughter? “You tell him, Hope. In fact, tell us both how this happened.” He looked up at her, just in time to see her anger rise to the surface.

“You were there, Donovan Stone!” She put her hands on her hips. “Or do I need to remind you of ‘going all the way’ with me?”

“How could you have told Ella I was dead?” Donovan just couldn’t wrap his head around it. Any of it!

“What is going on?” Rick repeated.

Hope seemed to give up her holier-than-thou act and pushed past Donovan. “I don’t have time for this. I have to find my daughter.”

Donovan grabbed her arm. “Give her a minute to process.” He certainly needed one. Maybe seventeen years’ worth.

Hope glared at him. “You’ve been a father all of ten seconds and you’re telling me how to raise my daughter?”

“Father?” Rick said. “What is she talking about, Don?”

Sparkle came into the kitchen and led Rick away. “Let me explain about Hope and Donovan.”

Donovan felt defeated. “I wasn’t trying to tell you how to raise Ella. I could just tell she needed some time to take this all in.”

“She doesn’t have time.” Hope broke free. “You don’t understand. I have to stop her.” Then Hope was gone.

Donovan dropped into a kitchen chair and let his head fall into his hands. “Man. This is so messed up.” He still couldn’t comprehend why she hadn’t told him he had a daughter.

But apparently he did have one.

He just didn’t want to admit that maybe some of this was his fault.

* * *

• • •

HOPE PARKED HER car in front of the Hungry Bear and got out. She looked up and down the dark empty street, but there was no sign of life. Where are you, Ella? She wasn’t answering her phone and Hope hadn’t been able to find her at the usual spots. She’d knocked for fifteen minutes on Aberdeen’s door, thinking the girls might’ve parked elsewhere and were drinking inside. But no such luck. No one answered.

Hope didn’t know what to do. She texted Piney. Can I come up?

Piney pulled back the curtain from the front window and motioned her to come on in. Hope unlocked the door to the store, careful not to set off the noise-activated alarm as she quietly let herself in and made her way upstairs.

Piney was waiting in the doorway of her apartment. She put an arm around Hope’s shoulders. “Get in here, buttercup. Sparkle called and told me everything. The herbal tea is steeping.”

“Have you heard from Ella?” Hope asked anxiously.

Piney shook her head. “Not a word. Go sit down. You look as wound up as my yarn.”

“I can’t stay. I have to get home.” But being with Piney felt like home. If only she could stay forever. “Ella is never going to forgive me!”

Piney took both of her hands and squeezed. “That’s not true. Ella’s going to be fine. I’ve seen it.”

“I better go.” Hope didn’t have time for Piney’s crystal-ball talk now. “I just wanted to make sure Ella