Four For Christmas (4 page)

“It’s an old tradition we’ve recently started up again. This cabin has a lot of good memories. I built it when I was nineteen, the summer before I went to college. We added to it a little bit more over the years, when we could. It always feels like home. You know?” His smile held a trace of sadness that didn’t fit his words.

She instantly felt pathetically sorry for herself. Home. She vaguely remembered what that felt like. Before her father died. Before she’d lost Grandpa Bale. Her flesh and blood sister hadn’t invited her to a holiday in years, her mother barely knew Christmas existed, but these men were spending theirs together. It was a tradition. She took a sip of water. Then another. “I’m sorry, then. For messing up your plans.”

He covered her hand as she handed the glass back to him and she felt it like a jolt of electricity through her body. “You saved Flynn’s life. You don’t have anything to be sorry for.”

For once, Georgia was at a loss for words. Words were her trade, her armor, but not a one was coming to mind. Nothing to break the suddenly charged silence. Or to acknowledge the fact that neither of them was releasing the glass. That he was still touching her.

All she could think about was how blue his eyes were. How kind.

“How fares our patient? I see she’s finally awake. That has to be a good sign.”

Officer Jimmy. Georgia hand dropped from the glass and she glanced up, inwardly drooling. He looked even better out of uniform. His hair was cut short in an almost military fashion, and his white thermal shirt clung to his muscles in a way that almost seemed obscene. Sexual.

Was excessive arousal to every man she saw a side affect of mild hypothermia? 

Her handsome doctor sighed and looked over his shoulder. “She’s good, James. No frostbite and no permanent damage. You got to her right on time. How’s Flynn doing?”

Officer Jimmy smirked. “Definitely going stir crazy already. Said he wanted to see his angel. He’s refusing to stay in bed unless he can.”

“She’s going to be here until the weather improves. He’s got plenty of time.”

The other man held out his hands helplessly. “Don’t tell me, Chris, tell
him
. He’s acting strange, even by Flynn standards. He hasn’t even asked about the snowmobile. You know, the speed machine he saved up his pennies for all year? I’m not sure what’s gotten into him.”

Both men looked directly at her. Oh dear, Georgia pushed her hair behind her ears self-consciously. It didn’t take a genius to catch their not-so-subtle hint. They thought Flynn was acting strangely because of her.

Ridiculous. He’d seen her for all of five seconds before slipping back into an unconscious stupor. He
did
have a head wound. Maybe that explained it.

Georgia caught the mischievous sparkle in the officer’s eyes and realized he was enjoying her discomfort.  “He won’t relax until he sees his angel?” She made a clicking sound with her tongue and Roux instantly sat up, her tongue lolling out expectantly. “Roux, go check on snowmobile guy.”

She noticed the men watch as Roux tilted her head, digesting the information, then lope obediently off the bed, past Jimmy and out of the room in search of the man she’d rescued.

Georgia crossed her arms and felt a genuine smile lift her lips for the first time since her flat tire. “She
is
the angel he’s been talking about after all. All I saved was one little tree.”

Their doubtful expressions were priceless.

Chapter Three

Two days. The wind had been whining for nearly two days before the storm had passed. And now, instead of making her way to her friend’s house, Georgia was outside the cabin of the three sexy hunks, playing in the snow that she’d vowed to hate for all eternity.

It was a much-needed outlet. They’d been driving her crazy during their confinement. For more reasons than she could count, and only one that really mattered.

Sex. More precisely, her growing desire for it.

Where was the reclusive grump who penned witty prose but turned up her nose at flagrant flirting? She’d been replaced by a woman she was sure Grandpa Bale would call a trollop. Harlot. Hussy. If only in her dirty little mind.

With every hour her envy for that Charli woman grew. Three gorgeous men hanging on her every word, laughing at her jokes and taking care of her as if she were something precious? It was addictive.

They weren’t perfect by any means, these “sort of” brothers. They loved to argue with each other, one-up each other just like any other family she supposed. Though Georgia sensed something just beneath the surface. Something sharper. More painful. All was not brotherly love and sunshine in Doc Williams’ cabin. In fact, she’d discovered they’d only renewed this holiday tradition a few years ago. Before that they’d lost touch with each other. Why, she didn’t know.

But when things got too tense, Georgia realized she could always distract them. Make them look at her. Flynn watched her as if she were an angel. Jimmy, as if she were a game he really wanted to play. Or a puzzle he was trying to figure out. Chris studied her as if he saw her in a way no one else ever had. And he liked what he saw. They all did.

When she’d studied her face in the mirror that morning, she’d wondered at that. It wouldn’t exactly launch a thousand ships. Her chin was a bit too pointy. Her lips full but uneven. Her eyes just an average hazel. She had what her mother called a beauty mark above the right corner of her upper lip.

It was a mark that had been stared at more in the last twenty-four hours alone than it had been in all her thirty-three years.

She shook her head as she watched them each attempting to make the better snowman. For her. They were three beautiful examples of the male species. All of them healthy and normal…and snowbound with nothing and no one to occupy their time but her.
Of course
she had their undivided attention. And as usual, when given the opportunity, her imagination took the wheel.

She’d never had fantasies so vivid as they’d been the last few nights.  Or quite so crowded.

She looked down at herself. Beneath the borrowed snowsuit that hid every curve of her body she was wearing their clothes. They’d brought her bags home along with her, but the men had apparently decided that none of the winter clothing she’d bought for her trip to the mountains would do. Instead she’d spent the last two days in giant pants held up with belts and oversized sweaters donated by each of them.

The strangest part was that instead of making her feel clumpy and unattractive, wearing their clothing made her feel feminine. Sexy. Protected. She could smell them on her all the time now. Their scents. All male. It was almost like torture.

She really needed to get out of here before she jumped one of them over their cozy family breakfast table and embarrassed herself. She made a face and lifted a ball of snow into her gloved hand, staring at it. Unfortunately she was, according to them, well and truly stuck.

The plows would go for the main roads first, so it would be a few more days before power starting coming back on in the cities. Before she could get to her rental and to Connie’s house.

The idea of staying longer wasn’t unappealing. In fact, it was so appealing it scared her.

These men were trouble.

She walked over to the area they’d cleared for her to sit on. It looked like an oversized tractor tire. She climbed up and settled on top of it just as the man with piercing blue eyes and a beard she wanted to feel scraping along her skin came her way. “Are you too cold, Georgia? Do you need to go inside?”

She shook her head, unable to hide her wide smile. “And miss the creation of my very own snow army? I don’t think so, Doc.” He didn’t seem convinced. “You know you don’t have to take care of me anymore. I’m not your patient.” She wiggled her be-gloved fingers and pointed down at her borrowed boots. “See? I have all my fingers and toes.”

“If you aren’t my patient anymore, why do you keep calling me Doc?”

Georgia shrugged. “Habit?” Distance? A way to keep herself from getting used to his kindness, and stem the strong desire to climb him like a tree and never come down again. “Do you want me to stop?”

Chris smiled. “I suppose its better than Officer Jimmy or Snowmobile. It does make me feel a bit like one of the seven dwarves.”

Georgia bit her lip to stem her laughter. “Yes, but the best one. Doc was always my favorite.”

Her breath stopped when she saw a change come over his expression. “Your favorite?”

When had he gotten so close? He was standing right in front of her, so close the clouds of cool air created by their breaths mingled. Combined. What she should be asking herself is why wasn’t she getting up and moving away, but she knew the answer to that already. She was only human after all. And she wanted to be kissed.

He was leaning in close when an icy explosion blasted his neck, its chilly spray decorating her cheek and dripping from her eyelashes. A snowball?

Georgia leaned over to see Flynn standing a few feet away from them, looking innocent as he knelt beside Roux to give her a good scratch. She glared. Her dog was a traitor. Since they’d arrived she’d hardly left Flynn’s side.

Flynn winked. “Aren’t you glad Roux and I convinced you to come out and play today? Come on, admit it.”

Chris growled and wiped the snow off his neck. “You should still be taking it easy, Flynn.”

Jimmy looked over from his ridiculous snow self-portrait, complete with an old highway patrol hat, and chuckled. “When have you ever known him to do that, Chris? Besides, he’s a sucker for Roux’s big brown eyes. The poor dog hasn’t been able to run anything but circles around him for days.” 

“You and my dog
have
been getting pretty chummy lately, Snowmobile.” Georgia tried to sound playful, though she was a little disappointed that her dog had been getting more affection than she was. How silly was it to be jealous of her dog? “I know she’s irresistible but I’m still taking her with me when I go, so you shouldn’t get too attached.”

Flynn tilted his head. “She’s not gone yet. We still have time before we have to drop you two off at the orgy palace.”

“The orgy palace?” Georgia was blushing again, and not from the cold.

“Flynn, that’s enough.”

Flynn walked up to them, his dark wavy hair poking out of his ski cap, and patted Chris’s back. “You never stop worrying, do you, bro? Never stop giving orders. It’s cute in an old mannish kind of way. You should be worrying about the fact that both Jimmy and I are nearly done with our snowmen and you aren’t. It looks sort of sad and tiny next to ours. And headless.”

“I’m three years older than you not thirty,” Chris grumbled, tugging Georgia’s cap lower over her ears before turning and heading back to his creation. “And mine isn’t overcompensating size-wise. It’s the one that will last.”

Flynn sat down beside her and lowered his voice as Georgia watched Chris walk away. “He’s sensitive about being the oldest.  Especially since Jimmy has decided to compete against him this year.”

“Compete?”

“Doctor Williams is the strongman champion of Divide. He pretends he only does it to fundraise for the children’s wing of the Medical Center, but Jimmy thinks it’s more than that.” Georgia felt his warm breath on her cheek and shivered. “Which is why he’s signed up for next year’s games. Thankfully, he waited until I was around so we could both enjoy the old man’s response to a little healthy competition.”

Georgia watched Jimmy and Chris, their bodies strong and distracting as they bent to scoop up the snow around them. “I was wondering why you were all so huge.”

Flynn patted her knee…then left his hand there. “I come by it naturally. And I have no interest in rolling tires around mountainsides or tossing axes. I’m more into speed myself. Which is why I teach skiing and snowboarding, among other things.”

“Adrenaline junky?” Georgia snorted and glanced at him sideways. “I never would have guessed.”

“Have I said thank you for saving my life, Georgia?”

“Only a few dozen times since I’ve been here. And I keep telling you—“

“It was Roux, I know,” he interrupted. “It’s just, well I’ve never experienced a Christmas miracle before. It’s hard to get used to. Especially when it comes in such a beautiful package. A package I really want to unwrap.”

Georgia looked up at him in shock. “You
do
like to go fast.”

Roux , distracted by Chris tossing a snowball at Jimmy’s snowman, ran over to investigate. Flynn chuckled, watching her. “I do. Wasting time is pointless, especially when I’m not sure how long it will take the others to stake the claim I know they both want to.” He shrugged. “And I know you like them, but I know you like me too.”

Flynn stared at her with his lovely green eyes. “I want you. I have from the first moment I saw you, concussion notwithstanding. Life is too short to pretend I don’t.”

Georgia was having that moment. That moment when disbelief and shock warred with arousal and, well,
shock
, and combined to elicit a single, intense reaction based entirely on self-preservation. Flight. “I—I think I should go back inside after all. I’ll make cocoa. Yes. Cocoa sounds good right now.”