Saved by the Blizzard: A romantic winter thriller (Tellure Hollow Book 2) by Adele Huxley Read Free Book Online

loudly. I’d already voiced my concerns in every way possible. Breathing loudly seemed to be the only form of protest I had left, short of chaining myself to the truck and refusing to drive.
    “What now?” Liz said dramatically. It was difficult to stay mad at her when she looked so cute. Her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail, ears covered with little white puffy earmuffs. She was wearing one of my tan Carhartt jackets and a dark pair of jeans. I don’t know if she was doing it on purpose, but I physically couldn’t look at her and remain angry.
    “You know what,” I mumbled.
    “We’re already late, can we just not do this right now?” she said tilting her head. “I don’t mean to sound like a brat, but you’ve already agreed, and—”
    Sensing a loophole, I interrupted. “I never agreed. I stopped arguing.”
    “Same difference,” she said with a smile and a shrug. She grabbed my keys from the little table beside the door and went to go outside. “It’ll be fun, okay? I’ll even let you kiss me at midnight.”
    I tried to swallow the tight ball of apprehension that’d been building in my stomach for the last day. When I saw Kayla in the shop, I had a feeling something bad was going to happen. When Liz told me we were going up to the cabin for a New Year’s Eve party, I’d become all but sure of it. It hadn’t quite triggered our first fight as a couple, but it’d come very close. If that’s even what we are. Can we have a couple’s fight without being a couple? I wondered.
    “Alright, give it a couple minutes and we’ll be ready to go,” she said as she stomped the snow from her boots. With a bright smile and sparkling blue eyes, she came towards me, arms outstretched. “I promise, we’re going to have a good time. Kay needs to see you’re not going anywhere. If she can’t get through today without starting shit, then I have my answer, right?”
    I pulled her into my chest and kissed the top of her head, breathing in the scent of her shampoo. “I still don’t get it, but okay. I’ll do it for you.”
    She leaned back and looked into my eyes. “I’m a little superstitious when it comes to New Year’s Eve, you know. However I ring in the new year hints to what the rest of my year is going to be like.”
    I brushed a piece of hair from her cheek and smiled. “How did you spend it last year?”
    She looked down and to the left as she remembered, chewing her lip as she always did. “I was alone, in my dorm room, worried about a court date that was coming up in January. I think I was still trying to decide if I was going to cut a deal with the prosecutor. I watched the ball drop and drank an entire bottle of cheap champagne by myself.” She blinked the memory away and looked up at me with a mysterious smile. “How about you?”
    “Last year? I think I went to bed before ten. If I hadn’t been staying with my mom and brother, I don’t think I would’ve known it was New Year’s at all.” It came out sounding a lot more bitter than I’d intended.
    Liz gave my chest a little pat as if that proved something. “See? This year I plan on spending it with friends and...” she smiled a little, a pink flush rising in her cheeks, “whatever the hell you are.”
    “Oh, that’s nice!” I laughed as I kissed her rosy cheek. “I’m just worried about Noah and the charges. If he nails me with trespassing or something—look, I don’t want to end up spending Christmas and New Year’s in a jail cell.”
    “We’re meeting them at the pond, off the property. If there’s going to be any trouble, we’ll know long before we head up to the house, okay?”
     
    ____________
    After shaking off the nerves, I had to admit, I was actually having fun. They’d cleared off the pond and set up a small hockey rink, a fire burned in a sunken pit off to the side, and someone had even brought a small speaker system to play music. No one in the small crowd was drinking too much and spirits were