After lunch, I hand Stella a jacket that’s miles too big, and she dons a pair of my brother’s gumboots as we venture outside. Emmett and I show Stella around the property. There isn’t much to see this time of year but white powder dusting the ground and trees, but I think she likes the air anyway because I catch her shutting her eyes and gulping in deep breaths. When her lips are turning blue, we head back inside. She stands by the fire in my den, and I make her a hot tea. It’s that herbal shit my mother drinks, but she doesn’t seem to mind.
“Stella, you want to play air hockey?” Emmett waggles his brows at her.
That sly bastard. I shake my head, marveling. My brother has a way of getting the ladies to do whatever he wants in a way that I just can’t. Unless, of course, it involves getting a woman naked and on a first name basis with my cock.
“Oh, I don’t really play . . .” she peters off, glancing at me as if I’ll step in and give her an out. Sorry sweetheart, but I’m not crushing my baby brother’s hopes and dreams of hustling his favorite super star. She gives me a pointed look. Which, of course, I ignore. “Besides, I need to get going.”
“Why don’t you play while I call for a tow truck?”
It’s a Sunday—Tim’s Towing isn’t open today. Emmett knows this, but Tim’s a friend, and Sunday or not, he’d make an exception for me. As I meet my brother’s gaze, I fully expect him to blow my cover, but he just grins and insists that she hurry up.
“Okay, just a quick match,” Stella says, following him to the game room.
They wind up playing the best of six, and Stella loses all but one game. I’m sure the first two she gave to him, but once she realized she was being hustled she actually tried to beat Em. I probably should have warned her, but I guess my hesitance comes from wanting Emmett to beat the low expectations that people set for him because of his disability. My brother is just as competitive as I am, and many women have been fooled by his appearance. I love that he constantly shocks everyone around him. He constantly shocks me. And I live with the guy.
“So, did you call?” Stella asks.
“Call who?” I glance up absently from my phone.
“The towing place.”
“Oh, right, yeah. They’re not open.” Again, I tense, waiting for my brother to put his foot in it, but he just chuckles and lines up the puck on another game.
“What do you mean they’re not open?”
“It’s Sunday. Nothing’s open on Sunday.”
“But . . . I have to get back.”
“Roads are closed.”
“What?”
“Apparently there’s some damage after the storm.”
“I don’t understand. Didn’t you get through just this morning?”
“Yeah, but there’s been a shitload more snow fall since then,” I say, as if this is a given. “Looks like you’re stuck in the country, country.”
“I can’t stay here.”
“Where exactly do you plan to go?”
“I was trying to find the Fairmont . . . something.” She furrows her brow and snags her bottom lip with her teeth.
“The Fairmont Banff Springs. You’re fresh out of luck, babe. It’s on the other side of the mountain, and in this weather, the only way to get there is to climb over it and down the other side, which should take her what, Emmett? Like two days?”
“Yeah, ’bout that.”
“Say, I know this is crazy, but why don’t you stay here for a bit?”
“What?”
“Well, you did crash into my mountain, and shaved off part of my beard, and I did make you pancakes. The least you could do is be polite enough to stay for dinner.”
“And breakfast,” Emmett chimes in.
“I just met you.”
“And you’ve spent a record ten hours here without either one of us attempting to murder you. Come on, Stella. It’s not like you have many options, other than to freeze to death out there on your own.”
“Okay, fine, but I’m not sleeping in your bed again.”
“For the record, I put you in my bed so I’d keep you from losing your limbs to frostbite. I may have fallen asleep afterward, but it’s only because you’re such a great cuddler.”
She folds her arms in front of her sweet rack. “I thought you said you put your clothes back on, and didn’t peek once?”
“Busted,” Emmett says.
“I meant this morning.” I grin, and I can tell by her exasperated expression that I’m losing her. “Come on, country. We’ll even put you up in the east wing.”
“We have an east wing?” Emmett says, looking confused.
“The guest rooms at the other end of the house, Em.”
“But that’s not where you make the puck bunnies sleep when you have parties. Eli told me.”
“Okay, let’s play that game where we zip our lips and stop airing all our big brother’s dirty laundry in front of pretty strangers.” I smile tightly. Jesus, way to throw off my game, Emmett.
“I’m just being honest,” Emmett deadpans. Sometimes I forget how literally my brother takes everything.
“I barely ever have parties.”
“Right.” Stella smiles, but it isn’t friendly, and I swear to god, my dick is hard in three seconds flat and seeking her out like a missile. Locked and loaded. When I found this woman by the side of the road, it wasn’t my intention to keep her, but damn if I’m going to let her go without having a taste.
“Well, I guess if I have nowhere else to go you should show me to your room.” Her eyes widen, and she shakes her head. “My room. Not your room, because that’s where you sleep.”
“I don’t mind snuggling again, especially if it’s naked snuggle time.”
“Knock it off, Van,” Emmett says, and I shrug. Can’t blame a guy for trying.
“Come on,” I say to Stella. “I’ll show you to your room. It’s right down the hall from mine in case you decide you can’t sleep without your snuggle buddy.”
Her responding glare threatens to burn a hole right through me, but I know she wants me. Even if she hasn’t yet figured that out. She will, and I have every intention of making that little songbird sing.