Snow Angels by Fern Michaels, Rosalind Noonan, Marie Bostwick, Janna McMahan Read Free Book Online

words. “Actually, I saw nothing like that at all.” She could tell him the truth, there was no reason not to. “I see someone who’s been hurt by…a tragedy.” She paused catching his eye. “You’ve suffered a personal loss so…consuming that it’s taken over the person you used to be.” Grace waited for a response, a reply, anything. He perched on the hearth, shaking his head.
    “Well, you’re wrong, lady. I’m the man I’ve always been. Nothing will ever change that. Trust me. I like to drink and sleep. Nothing more.” Max hesitated for a moment as though he was testing her reaction. “A real prize, huh?”
    Taking a chance Grace replied, “I think you were a real prize, Max Jorgenson, at one time. Whatever happened to strip away your self-confidence, it’s still there. You have to want it back.”
    He looked at her for several minutes, a tense silence filling the space between them.
    “Yeah? Well, you’re wrong. I don’t ever want to be the man I was. Never.” He looked down at the pine floors. “Never,” he added in a low, husky voice.
    Grace wanted to say, “Never say never,” but it wasn’t the right time. With this man, she wasn’t so sure there would ever be a right time.
    Putting concerns about her host’s mental status on the back burner for the remainder of the night, she told him good night and went upstairs. As soon as her head hit the soft down pillow, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Chapter 6
    Blinding sunlight filled the bedroom, casting a burnished glow across the pine furniture. Grace sat up quickly when she realized she wasn’t in her room at Hope House. Then it all came back. The roadblocks and the loss of communication with the world.
    She looked at the girls next to her. They slept like babies. Careful not to wake them, she pushed her hands down on the mattress in order to ease off the bed without either child feeling the movement.
    Grace used the bathroom, splashed cold water on her face, and rinsed her mouth, using mouthwash she found in the medicine cabinet. Taking a comb from her purse, she ran it through her long hair and secured it with an elastic band. Checking to make sure both Ashley and Amanda still slept, she quietly made her way downstairs to the kitchen.
    She stopped at the foot of the stairs, surprised when she saw Max in the kitchen. Grace felt a tingle trail up her spine as she observed him. He wore a fresh pair of faded jeans with a tight black T-shirt. Chest muscles pulled the fabric so taut that Grace laughingly thought how lucky his T-shirt was. She took a deep breath. He was certainly something to look at, but most skiers were. She remembered going to the slopes as a teen, then later during college breaks. All the cool guys, the ones that really knew their way around the mountains, were hot and handsome. She’d never bothered with the type simply because those she’d met were either so conceited it was pathetic, or they didn’t have an intelligent thought in their heads. She figured Max Jorgenson must be a combination of both because most men living on a mountain in the middle of nowhere planned ahead. The thought hit her then; maybe Max really didn’t care about his future.
    The aromatic scent of coffee pulled her away from her musing and into the kitchen. Max poured boiling water from a pot into a European coffee press. “That smells divine,” Grace said upon entering the kitchen. Surprised that he owned such a simple yet sophisticated coffee press, she waited as he pushed the press, slowly sending the dark brown liquid to the bottom of the clear carafe.
    “Almost finished,” Max said with a look of satisfaction on his face. He removed a small cup from the cabinet, filled it, then placed it on the counter. “I have sugar but…wait. Here’s powdered cream,” he said as he rummaged through the cabinets. “I didn’t know I had this stuff.”
    Max dumped the powder and several spoons of sugar in his coffee. Grace smiled. She’d