Snowbound by Kristianna Sawyer Page B

continually put off important
things when he wasn’t normally a procrastinator, did he force
himself to tackle the pile. Damned if he was going to turn into a
moping, whining loser with a broken heart who just faded away. He’d
done a good impression the past few months, but enough was enough.
Beth wasn’t coming back. He’d made sure of that, because it was for
the best, so he didn’t get to wallow in his own misery after doing
the right thing.
    “ Man up, you little shit. You gonna cry?
Yeah, go ahead, and I’ll give you another’n.”
    The phantom sound of his dad’s voice in his
head, repeating that oft-heard refrain from his childhood, made
Reed tense. His stomach twisted, and he forced down the surge of
nausea. “That crazy drunk can’t hurt me no more,” he said aloud.
He’d stood in front of the old man’s grave when he was just
twenty-two, having stopped by on leave to have the pleasure of
spitting on that hallowed ground that had held such filth. He
hadn’t bothered to attend the funeral that had taken place six
months before, and he’d never felt even a niggle of compulsion to
stop by his drug addict mother’s grave for a visit. Nor had he made
any effort to find his sister when he’d been in the area.
    That was the only thing he regretted now,
looking back. At the time, he’d figured she was either as screwed
up as their parents, or she’d lucked out and found a good adoptive
family. He didn’t want the drama of the first scenario, and he’d
spared her having to acknowledge an ignorant redneck brother if
she’d gotten lucky.
    Maybe he’d been too hard on himself and had
just decided she wouldn’t want anything to do with him because of
his past. Maybe she would have been pleased to see her little
brother, even if they just shared a meth-head mother as their only
connection. Perhaps he should look into finding her.
    “Don’t want to die miserable and alone,” he
said with a harsh laugh. Aika looked at him, head titled, as she
always did when he spoke. She gave him a tentative tail wag before
returning to the far more interesting task of sniffing the
carpet.
    With a sigh, he started sorting through his
mail, separating by business and personal. All his bills were on
auto-draft, so he didn’t owe anything, but he’d have to keep them
for his tax records. A few catalogs made the cut, since he knew
there were items he’d want to order. His Internet connection at
home was spotty. Controlled by satellite, it worked great on clear
days, but was nonexistent the rest of the time, so he still did
some old-fashioned mail ordering. He’d have to fill out his order
and drop it by the general store/post office before leaving
tomorrow if he wanted everything to arrive before his next trip
into Endline.
    An unsolicited brochure for an all-inclusive
resort caught his eye, mainly because of the shapely blonde woman
running across the sand. Her hair was almost the right shade to be
Beth’s, but of course it wasn’t her. He wadded it into a ball and
tossed it straight into the can before returning to sorting. Reed
had almost reached the end of the pile when he discovered a stiff
envelope with feminine writing he didn’t recognize.
    His heartbeat sped up when he read B. Wyndam
in the return address. The curly cursive seemed unlikely to belong
to Blair Wyndam, and why would the other man contact him anyway?
Their business had concluded, he’d been paid, and that was the end
of it.
    Reed sat upright as he tore open the
light-pink envelope, his heart galloping in his ears. A folded
letter fell out, along with another, smaller envelope. On the front
of the letter, she’d written “Read Me First.” He unfolded it,
taking a moment to drink in the sight of her elegant handwriting
before allowing himself to start reading.
    May 21 st ,
    Dear Reed,
    It seems silly to start the letter that way,
but what else would I say? Anyway, I want you to know I never lied
to you. I hope you’ll believe that it was an