Page 10 of Eight Days of Christmas
“Oh yeah? And what else has Norah been saying about me?” Norah and her big mouth. It had been Norah’s fault Isabella got caught sneaking out her bedroom window when she was seventeen. At least Mom and Dad didn’t know she’d been sneaking into Leo’s window. And she’d been doing it for years.
With a mouthful of food pushed to one cheek, he said, “It’s not like Landon and Norah and I sit around talking about you, if that’s what you’re insinuating.”
“It’s not,” she snapped. “Believe me, I figure the last thing you want to do is talk about me. Unless you want to talk about how much you hate me.” There, she’d said it.
“Hell, Izzy, I don’t hate you.” He crumpled the sandwich wrapper into a ball and chucked it at the floor mat. “I don’t…well, I don’t anything you.”
Well, if that didn’t send a burnt poker straight through her chest.
She widened her watering eyes, fighting back the untamed emotion. “Wow…thanks.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“No, no, you’re right. I deserve that.” Isabella forgot about her sandwich, suddenly no longer having an appetite.
“We’re not supposed to be talking about this, remember? Your rule.”
“Right. My rule.” She stared out the windshield, the wipers clearing the falling snow. “Fine. Talk about something else.”
“Or we could just listen to the radio.” Leo fiddled with the radio, but every station it jumped through was nothing but static. “Great.” He gave up, flinging back in his seat.
In a quiet agreement, they drove in silence.
Isabella hadn’t been driving for more than an hour when snowflakes sprinkled like confetti against the windshield, making it hard to see the road. Her palms were slick with sweat, and she debated asking Leo to take over the driving shift. Was it worth killing them to prove she still knew how to drive?
She glanced at him, his attention fixated on his phone. He was probably texting his family and complaining about being stuck with her. Complaining about how terrible of a driver she was. Maybe he was reiterating how much he hated her and how unfair it was of them to force the two of them together during the wedding festivities.
Isabella was less than thrilled about all of this herself.
A road sign appeared in the headlights, half-hidden by flakey snow. Two more miles until the next rest stop. Finally, she’d get to use the bathroom again and get a break from the weather. The snow flying toward the windshield had taken on the look of a vortex, and she was being sucked into it.
Leo tore his attention away from his phone screen. “What’s going on?”
“There’s a rest stop up ahead.”
“You gotta pee already?” He shifted in his seat, squinting out the windshield.
“Yep. Already. Sorry,” she said flatly. “And the snow is seriously starting to trip out my eyes.”
“I guess when you haven’t driven in it for so long, you forget how.” He sighed. “It’s been so long, I bet you won’t even recognize home.”
Everything out of Leo’s mouth sounded like a jab. It didn’t matter what he said. Every comment was another reminder of the fact that she’d left ten years ago and never looked back.
He was right—but not entirely. It was true, Isabella had left ten years ago. Left Pineridge, left Leo, left her family. But she had returned—once.
No one knew about that trip. No one except for one person.
And that person was dead.
Chapter Four
Leo
The snow whirledaround the car thicker than Leo had seen in a long time. The wipers did little to nothing in helping to clear the view. If he was driving his Chevy, and if he wasn’t responsible for the life of Norah’s maid of honor, he’d at least feel more confident. Christmas Day was a terrible choice for a wedding date. And piss-poor planning if anyone had asked him. But no one had asked him. Because if someone had, he would’ve also told Norah and Landon to elope. To have an intimate ceremony in Hawaii or the Maldives, anywhere but Colorado at Christmas.
“You sure you can see?” Isabella asked, wrestling out of her coat and tossing it onto the back seat.
She fiddled with the radio and finally landed on a station playing music. Christmas music. He didn’t want to hear cheerful bell ringing right now.
