Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
JOVIE
The Wilder Lodge glows like a snow-dusted gingerbread house.
Garlands drape every banister.
The fire crackles like it’s personally invested in morale.
Someone is playing soft acoustic carols over the speakers, the slow, nostalgic kind you feel all the way down your spine.
Greer hands me a mug of hot cider and plops onto the couch beside me.
“Okay,” she says, tucking her legs under a blanket. “We’re going to ignore how you look like you were emotionally hit by a reindeer. We're going to drink this. We're going to do something festive. And we're going to breathe.”
“I’m breathing,” I lie.
“You’re shallow breathing,” she says. “There’s a difference.”
I take a sip of the cider. It burns pleasantly down my throat, full of cloves and orange.
“I’m fine,” I try again.
“Jovie,” she says gently. “You’re not.”
And that opens something inside me.
“Everything just… snapped back to normal too fast,” I say, staring into the fire. “The storm ends, the world reappears, and suddenly it’s like none of that happened. The kiss. The… everything. And he just left.”
“He didn’t just leave,” Greer says softly. “He got called away.”
“I know,” I whisper. “But it feels like…”
“Like he left you behind?”
I swallow hard. “Yeah.”
Greer squeezes my shoulder. “Sweetie, that man was looking at you like you invented heat.”
A tear escapes before I can stop it.
I swipe it away.
Greer’s expression softens even more. “You love your dad. You love being responsible. You love taking care of others. But did you ever think that maybe someone wants to take care of you too?”
Such a simple question. Such a gut-punch answer.
Before I can respond, footsteps echo on the porch.
Heavy ones.
Greer glances toward the door. “Oh good, that should be—”
The door swings open.
Cold air rushes in.
And everything inside me stops.
Because standing there, dusted in snow, cheeks flushed from the wind is Rhodes.
And beside him, arm looped through Rhodes’s, bundled in a heavy winter coat, eyes bright with emotion, is my dad.
For a second, all sound disappears.
The fire. The carols. My heart pounding.
“Dad?” I choke.
He beams. “Hi, kiddo.”
I’m on my feet without remembering how to stand. The cider sloshes. The blanket falls. I’m moving, running, throwing myself into his arms.
He catches me with a soft grunt and warm, familiar laughter.
“Oh honey,” he murmurs. “You didn’t think I was going to let you spend Christmas Eve up here alone, did you?”
Tears flood my eyes instantly. “How…? When…? You shouldn’t have traveled—”
“Relax,” he says. “Your cowboy made sure every detail was safe.”
My cowboy.
My breath stutters as I turn to Rhodes.
He watches me with that guarded, haunted, soft-eyed expression I’m starting to learn is his version of heartbreak.
Greer comes forward, wiping tears. “He called me this morning,” she admits. “After he got back from the ridge. Told me he didn’t think you’d leave unless he fixed the one thing you were most afraid of.”
My dad squeezes my hand. “And he wanted to make sure you didn’t spend the holiday worried about me.”
My heart breaks clean in half.
Dad looks from me to Rhodes. His smile softens into something deep. Proud and knowing.
“You found yourself a real cowboy,” he says. “More than that, he’s a good man.”
My throat closes.
Rhodes shifts, awkward in a way I’ve never seen.
“I, uh…” he mutters, rubbing the back of his neck. “Didn’t mean to make a scene.”
“You flew my father to a mountain lodge two days before Christmas,” I whisper. “This is… kind of the definition of a scene.”
He shrugs one shoulder. “Yeah, well. Seemed like the right thing to do.”
My dad pats his back. “She’s a good one, son. Don’t let her get away.”
From the look of shock on his face, Rhodes nearly expires on the spot.
I step closer. “You did this for me?”
He meets my eyes. Bare, honest, no walls.
“I did it because you love him,” he says. “And because I hated the idea of you hurting alone.”
Everything in me shatters and comes back together as something whole and new.
“Rhodes,” I whisper. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Didn’t want to make you feel trapped,” he says quietly. “Or like you owed me anything.”
I take his hand.
He lets me.
I step closer.
He doesn’t retreat.
I rise on my toes.
He breathes in like he’s bracing for impact.
And then I kiss him.
Soft. Certain. Sweet as pumpkin pie.
Everything we didn’t say in the cabin and everything we’re ready to say now.
When I pull back, my voice shakes. “I want to spend Christmas with you.”
His forehead touches mine. “Yeah,” he whispers. “I want that too.”
Greer sniffles loudly. “Merry freaking Christmas to me.”
My dad chuckles. “Knew it the second I saw the way you two look at each other.”
Rhodes curls his fingers around mine.
“Come on,” he murmurs. “Let’s get you both settled. We’ve got a whole mountain full of Christmas waiting.”
I lean into him, heart full to bursting.
Because somehow… In a storm. In a cabin. In this little magical town.
I found exactly what I didn’t know I was looking for: the promise of true love.