Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 22991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22991 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
4
HAYDEN
Everything inside me screamed for me to return to Laurel’s cabin. I fucking hated to leave her, but I convinced myself to give her a little time with the reassurance that she wouldn’t be able to leave town for a while.
I jogged back to the inn and hurried inside, taking a deep breath of the warm, sugary-scented air. Damn, either Raven or her amazing pastry chef were baking cookies.
“Mayor Douglas.”
Turning around, I grinned at the sight of my old boss, Bethenny, holding a baby in her arms. “Bethenny,” I greeted in response. “It still feels weird using your first name instead of calling you mayor or boss.”
She laughed and hoisted the little one—who wasn’t quite a year old—onto her shoulder. “Raven tells me you have a friend staying with us?” Her emphasis on the word friend made me sigh.
“Don’t let her pull you into her matchmaking schemes, Bethenny,” I growled.
She blinked innocently at me before smiling and walking past me into the kitchen. Unable to resist the lure of freshly baked treats, I shed my coat and hung it on a hook before following her.
Raven looked up from the oven as I entered and smiled. “Couldn’t resist, huh?”
I rolled my eyes. “Name one person who can resist the cookies you and Vivienne make?”
She grinned. “These are new. Chocolate and peanut butter cookie batter mixed with chunks of sugar cookie and dark chocolate, then swirled with smoked marshmallow cream.”
My mouth watered as I snatched a cookie from the cooling racks on the island and shoved it in my mouth before she could yell at me to put it back.
“Howy funkee hillll,” I groaned around a mouth stuffed with cookie. I swallowed and grabbed another. “These are amazing.” Then I quickly devoured the second one.
“That’s all you get, Hayden,” Raven scolded, smacking my hand with her spatula. “These are for the guests.”
“Hey!” I yelped. “I’m a guest!”
Raven snorted, but before she could toss back something snarky, Colin interrupted us.
He’d come strolling into the kitchen with his trusty clipboard while I was eating my first cookie, daring to grab one while Raven was distracted by me.
“Actually, he’s right, Raven,” Colin drawled before eating another cookie.
“Hey, how come you aren’t smacking him for eating the cookies?” I grumbled.
“Because I own half this place, and she couldn’t run it without me,” he said matter-of-factly.
Raven glared at him, then shrugged. “Maybe,” she muttered as she moved to the opposite counter and scooped balls of dough out onto an empty cookie sheet. “But you don’t have to be so smug about it.” She pointed the scooper at him with narrowed eyes. “Hot chocolate and whipped cream are the best combination, but it can be replaced with cinnamon.”
Colin scoffed. “I don’t—”
“Wait,” I cut in, his earlier comment suddenly sinking in. “What did you mean about me being right?”
“Oh, about you being a guest,” Colin explained, narrowly avoiding Raven’s spatula after stealing another cookie.
“I’m not staying. I’m headed home.”
Colin shook his head while perusing his clipboard. “Not possible. They just closed the road down the mountain. A tree fell and caused a huge snowdrift to shift onto the road.”
“Well shit,” I muttered, grabbing my phone from the pocket of my slacks. I had about a dozen texts from my deputy, the sheriff, and the meteorologist at our local news station.
Colin scratched a few things on the paper and frowned. “You’ll have to give me a little time to figure out where to put you.”
“You don’t have a room I can stay in?”
“You called in a favor for our last room,” Raven informed me, munching on one of the fresh, warm cookies. “And we’ve already been shifting people around to free up space for people who were up here skiing but not staying at the inn.”
“Why doesn’t he stay with his friend?” Bethenny piped up.
I’d almost forgotten she was there, and I turned to glare at her. “We don’t even know each other,” I grunted.
Bethenny’s eyes moved in Raven’s direction, and her lips tipped up.
Hell fucking no. I was not about to let these two play matchmaker. They’d take credit for the romance between Laurel and me, and I’d never hear the end of it.
“That’s a great idea,” Colin announced, smirking at me.
That bastard was a fucking dead man.
“Look, I’m not going to pretend that I don’t intend to keep Laurel,” I admitted begrudgingly. “But we just met this afternoon.”
“And now you have a perfectly legitimate reason for spending more time with her so you can make her fall in love with you.” Bethenny grinned, and I swung my gaze to Raven, who was trying not to look smug.
“Stop looking like this was all your doing,” I snapped. “You did not play matchmaker! I’m not going to let you women take credit for this.”
Colin snorted, but he didn’t look up from his clipboard.