Snow Place Like Home

Chapter Nine

Jason

After Jason left Shonna in his room, he needed to get out and do something with his hands, so he came by YoYo's cabin to fix the faucet.

He used the hide-a-key under the mat at the front door and let himself in. He hadn't been back to the house since he brought YoYo's ashes. It was too painful to be there now that she was gone. But he knew YoYo must be trying to communicate with him beyond the grave. It was why she sent her granddaughter here and how they kept ending up in each other's crosshairs. There was something there, an undeniable force pulling them to each other, and despite her being a visitor and leaving any day now, he wanted to explore these feelings.

The door thrust open, and he heard it slam shut. Penny was barking and skipping happily as she came to find Jason in the bathroom, kneeling over the tub.

"What the hell is this?" He heard an angry voice say.

Jason put his tools down and gave Penny a gentle pat on the head before exiting the bathroom.

There she was.

Shonna Jackson.

Huffing and puffing as though she'd sprinted here, shooting darts at him with her fiery eyes and holding up a piece of paper that he hoped was something other than he thought it was.

"Is that my letter?" Why the hell was she going through his stuff?

"What is my grandmother talking about? Why did she write this?"

Shit.

"You weathered a broken heart but still have the capacity for so much love. It's why I feel you are the perfect man for my granddaughter. She needs someone like you. She hasn't had a lot of love in her life and has never opened herself up to a man that way. But you can change that," she read, even though she didn't need to.

Jason had read it so many times. He could recite it from memory.

"Is this why you keep showing up everywhere? My grandmother was trying to pimp me out, and you thought you could use this to try to sleep with me?"

"Hold on. I never tried to have sex with you. I've done nothing but try to help you. I honestly don't know why YoYo wrote that letter."

"Bullshit. You've been playing me since the moment we met."

"When you ran me off the road, I didn't even know who you were. At least, not for certain. And the second time I saw you, I did what anybody here would have done and assisted you with Rocky."

She narrowed her eyes at him, seemingly unconvinced by the fact that their run-ins were coincidental. Perhaps if he were in her shoes, he might have thought this was some grand scheme, a plan orchestrated by her grandmother, and that he was playing along.

"Okay, I'll admit," he continued. "Since the moment I saw you, I was attracted to you. When you told me you were YoYo's granddaughter, the fact that she believed we would be perfect for one another did enter my mind. But it was insane. I planned to forget the whole thing until you showed up at my inn. And then, I don't know. The way the pipes burst out of nowhere, it was like a sign that maybe...."

"What?"

"You and I could... Maybe we are..."

"What?" she nearly barked this time. "Meant to be? That's why you were asking me about signs. It was bad luck. Just like my entire stay has been since I arrived in this God-forsaken backwater little rent-a-town! None of it means anything other than I definitely shouldn't have come here!"

He definitely took offense to most of that.

"But you admit you're drawn to me. You said earlier how there was something between us."

"Okay, just because I considered having sex with you does not mean... whatever the hell this is supposed to mean," she spat the words as she tossed the letter on the couch.

The words echoed in his mind. "I love you, Jason. Thank you for loving me. And I know you will love my granddaughter for the rest of your lives," he recited them aloud.

"Don't tell me you buy that shit."

"I don't know, Shonna," he admitted. "Do I want you in my bed? Hell yes. Do I want to spend the rest of my life with you? I don't know. But if I'm being honest, I already feel connected to you in a way I've never felt with anyone else. I want to find out where, if anywhere, this could go."

"No," she said flatly.

"No?"

"No," she repeated. "You are insane, and so was my grandmother. I can't believe she would do this to me. I am out of here."

Then she took off, leaving Penny behind and Jason staring after her. He raced out of the cabin, chasing behind her. She was surprisingly fast and already disappearing down the walkway toward the main street. He hustled through the snow, taking a shortcut to catch her.

"Shonna, wait," he called.

"Stay away from me, Jason. I am getting my things and going straight to the airport. I don't want to spend another second here."

He was at her side now. "There is a storm coming. You may not get a flight tonight."

He reached for her arm, but she snatched it away. "I don't care. I'll sleep at the airport then."

"What about Penny?"

"Keep her. I don't want her dog. I don't want anything to do with her."

Darkness was descending upon them, but it was still light enough that he could see the tears in her eyes.

She opened the car door, but he closed it shut and pressed his body against it to block her from leaving.

"You shouldn't drive when you're this upset, sweetheart. Please."

"Get your big ass off of my car."

He placed a hand over hers and removed the keys from her grasp. "I'm not letting you drive like this. It's getting dark, the roads are icy, and you're crying."

"No, I'm not," she said, but a rogue tear on her cheek.

He put a hand on her face and wiped it away.

"Shonna," he whispered, pulling her close to him.

"Don't," she protested weakly.

"Don't what?"

"Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

She didn't respond. Instead, she pulled herself out of his embrace and took off running.

"Damn it, Yo. You sure in the hell didn't make this easy, did you?" he muttered before chasing after her.