Chapter 4
Chapter four
Andri
I dropped Daphne off hours ago before I went to do the boring parts of running the lodge. I had to sign for the liquor shipment for our bar, do a quality control on our rental equipment, and run a bit of payroll.
The entire time I was doing those menial tasks, all I could think about was Daphne.
She’s beautiful, sure. Her strawberry blonde curls frame her wide blue eyes.
Even her crooked gold-rimmed glasses add to her charm.
And god, does she smell good. Like an orange cinnamon roll, the scent that rolls off her is spiced warmth.
But what sticks in my head most of all is the fact that she seems so kind and so gracious, and she’s somehow engaged to one of the rudest men I’ve ever met.
I don’t even know his name, but his slimy, pompous attitude hangs over my head like a storm cloud.
And the way Daphne automatically apologized for him, like she’s done it thousands of times before, makes my stomach churn.
How on earth did someone so reprehensible take the hand of such a ray of sunshine?
I don’t even know her, and it makes me sick.
But I suppose she’s not the first woman to be trapped by such a dick.
I’m not sure what I can do to help her, but I certainly won’t let him speak to her like I saw him do earlier.
The only reason he got to do it today was because I was in shock.
I bite at the skin of my lip with my canine, somehow worked up by total strangers. I’d have probably stayed in my head, imagining how the conversation earlier could have gone differently, if not for a quick rap on my office door.
“Come in,” I sigh, wondering what kind of problem I’m dealing with next.
Lerana pops her dainty faun head through the door, a trepidatious look on her face.
“Hey there, handsome.” She steps through the door, her hands wringing together.
“What do you need?” I cut through her posturing.
“I know I just got here…”
“But what?”
“It’s Jack, they called the front desk right as I came in, and he’s running a fever. I know I said I’d pick up a bar shift tonight, but I really have to go get him, and I wouldn’t do this to you unless—”
I raise a hand, cutting her off. “It’s fine, I’ve got it. Go get him.”
She knits her brows. “I just really need money, especially now that we're headed to the doctor. I don’t want to give up the extra hours.”
I unlock the drawer at my desk as she speaks, and pull out a couple hundred-dollar bills from a zippered cash deposit bag, walk over and shove it in the front pocket of her apron.
“Lerana, really, don’t worry about it—I shouldn’t have asked you to come in, you’ve already got a full plate. Go be the awesome mom you are already!” I shoo her out the door and grab my own apron hanging from the coatrack in my office.
She’s raising Jack on her own, thanks to a no-good piece of scum that’s reminding me an awful lot of Daphne’s fiance.
It takes a village, and as someone who never had one, I’ll cherish the village I have now and pay it forward as much as I can.
“Thank you,” Lerana says quietly, her eyes getting misty. “This means a lot, you know.”
“Oh stop it, you big softie,” I scoff, both of us knowing that I’m the soft one. It takes a lot to get such an emotional response from my best friend.
She takes it as her cue to exit and leaves me running the bar. It’s late, and a weeknight, so I don’t expect there to be many guests there. My breath catches in my throat, though, when I see the sole customer sitting sadly at her barstool.
It’s Daphne, and she’s swirling the cherry around her pink drink with a black bar straw, sniffling.
“Hey there, stranger!” I say more loudly than I would have liked. I can’t help myself, there’s just something about her that piques my excitement.
She starts, dropping the straw into her drink, and red-rimmed eyes shoot up at me.
“You really keep catching me off guard, don’t you?” she says, swiping her hand under her eyes, catching a tear as it falls down her cheek.
“I don’t mean to…are you okay?” I know that skeezy little turd of a human must have done something to her.
“I’m…” She pauses and looks around. “I’m just feeling a little out of my depth, you know?”
“With skiing or something else?” There’s obviously more to her story than just not being great on the slopes. “Because don’t fret about that, I told you I’d help you and I meant it.”
“Heh, I guess that’s the question, isn’t it?
I think I mean everything, though. The wedding, trying to fit in with Gerald’s family, and god, even skiing.
You know we came here because no one acquainted with the Van Kleeth family could see me learn.
We literally have the family ski trip in Vail in one month.
I want so desperately to fit in with them.
I don’t even know why I’m trying, they all know I’m white trash. ”
Should I feel strange that this literal stranger is offloading onto me? Because I don’t. I just have the overwhelming urge to help her, however I can.
“Woah! Absolutely not, we’re not shit talking ourselves—knock it off.
” It’s a gut reaction, and I fear it may come across a bit harshly, so I do my best to smooth it out.
“Can I ask if you even want to learn to ski? Or better yet, why would you want to be with someone who doesn’t like you as you are? ”
Her eyes shoot up to me, wide as saucers, as if the concept of someone loving her for her is a foreign one. She absentmindedly fiddles with the giant rock on her hand, spinning it around her finger.
“Because I want a family, never really had one of those.” Her face drops at the same moment my own does.
Family—I have a found one here in Hallow’s Cove, but snowmen aren’t known for cohabitation.
Mothers set up cubs in a cave with enough supplies to make it through the first winter on their own before they leave.
Only the strong survive, and our population numbers show it.
I’ve never met someone like me, beyond my mother, and that was 27 years ago.
“Gerald gives me a chance for that, and even though I’ve had to put academics on hold, I want to make a go of this.
Who knows how many more chances I’ll have with someone who's willing to love me?” Her voice cracks, and I can’t help myself from placing my hand over hers.
I know that pain, though I’ve tried to bury it deep.
Daphne’s voice catches in her throat, but she doesn’t move her hand. We lock eyes, and I want to tell her that she’d be so easy to love. I deflect, because it’s easier, because she’s not mine—and that fact suddenly stings.
“That’s a big one, looks heavy,” I whisper before trailing my furry fingers gently over her own before retracting my arm behind the bar.
“Heavy, that’s a good word for it.” She cradles her palm against her chest, her brows knitting as she takes me in—like she’s trying to figure me out. “Why did you offer to teach me for free? Gerald has plenty of money to pay you, just so you know.”
“I didn’t like the way he was treating you,” I tell her honestly as I busy myself cutting citrus, needing something to keep my hands busy so I can suppress the urge to touch her again. What’s going on with me? I’ve never been like this with a woman before.
“He’s not a bad person,” she says, almost like she’s trying to convince me and herself at the same time.
Before I have a chance to argue with her, to convince her she deserves better than that schmuck, the devil himself walks in.
Though his cheeks are rosy and you could write that off as an effect from the blustery weather tonight, I can tell by his movements that he’s fucking sloshed.
From where though, I’m not sure. No one is running the gondolas to town this late, so there’s no way he managed to get down to the town bar and back up to the lodge.
He certainly hasn’t been drinking at my bar tonight, either.
“Gerald!” She straightens before rushing to his side as he nearly trips over a chair in his path. “We should get to bed,” she says calmly, pulling him toward the front door.
“Don’t you need to pay the man for your drink?” he slurs, cocking his head and taking me in.
“On the house, no worries.” I plaster on my best customer service smile, but make sure my fangs flash as I grin a little wider at the sorry sack of a man in front of me. He blinks quickly, as if unsure of what he just saw before he shakes his head in an attempt to clear it.
“Besides, Daphne should get some sleep. I’ll see you early at 7:30 sharp to begin your lessons tomorrow morning. Sound good?” I swing the half door and walk about from behind the bar, puffing out my chest as I tower over the both of them.
“Great,” she says, smiling nervously and waiting for his reaction.
“Grand idea, she needs all the help she can get.” Gerald belly laughs at his own cruel joke.
I walk ahead and open the door so that Daphne can lead him out.
Before she steps all the way over the threshold, I place my hand on the small of her warm back.
She whips her head around to hear me whisper, “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ring the front desk. I’ll be here…really, anything at all.”
The vision, the human I want to touch so badly, bites her lip and nods before leaving me alone in the lodge foyer.
I watch them make their way clumsily to the luxury cabins nearby. I don’t look away until they’re both on the porch, even though my chest burns with jealousy.
What in the world is going on with me?
I barely know this woman, and yet I need her. There’s some primal part of me that is already planning all the little accidents her fiance could have around the lodge to get him out of the picture. I bite the inside of my cheek until I draw the metallic taste of my own blood.
Is this just a crush? Is my sense of justice hijacking my own common sense?
In a few short paces, I’m back at the bar.
I grab two shot glasses and pour doubles of the well whisky.
With a swig, the first one goes down almost as easy as the second.
That familiar burn, the one that normally dulls the aching need in my chest, does nothing for my feelings for Daphne.
The need is still there, whispering behind my every thought.
How has this sad human woman wiggled her way into my soul so deeply?