He found Cora rummaging around in her suitcase. She finally raised her hand in triumph. “Here they are.” When she turned, she had a bright smile on her face. She handed him a large Ziploc bag.
Mint chocolate breakfast bars with caffeine. He couldn’t stop the deep chuckle. “You brought some with you?”
She gave him a fake pout—one that had him instantly remembering what it was like to kiss those soft, warm lips of hers.
“Chocolate, caffeine, and mint. What’s not to like? I knew there was no way they’d have some here.”
She was right about that. Grey wasn’t a fan of the protein bars, but he thought they sounded pretty good right about now. When he took a bar out for himself and another for her, Cora grinned.
“Admit it,” she said as she opened hers. “You’re really glad I brought these.”
“I still don’t understand your obsession with these, but yes, I’m glad you brought them along.” She flashed him a triumphant smile. He opened his bar and took a bite. “Although, if I had my gun, I’d go out and shoot us a rabbit. Then we could have ourselves a real meal.”
She rolled her eyes good naturedly. He couldn’t help but relax into the comfortable rhythm of the way things used to be between them. Before she stopped opening up to him, and he started traveling more in response. Before it all fell apart.
He missed this. He missedherand hadn’t even realized how much until now.
Chapter Four
Cora finished her protein bar and decided then and there that she’d never leave her house without one again. She knew Grey had never really liked them, but he polished his off minutes before she did. She offered him a second one, but he politely declined. He was always the planner, and she had no doubt he figured they’d better save them for tomorrow in case they weren’t able to make it to the main cabin like they hoped.
She thought about Grey’s family. It was going to be weird enough going to this event when she was the only outsider, but it would be even stranger to show up with Grey. Not knowing how she was going to be received by Flynn, in particular, was probably the hardest part.
Right now, however, she chose to focus on the warm cabin and the food that would be waiting there for them. Maria always had been a good cook. Truthfully, Cora had missed her as much as she had Grandpa Jackson after the divorce.
Maria had welcomed Cora from the very beginning, back when she and Grey were only partners in science class and they’d meet to put their projects together. The idea that Grey’s mom looked forward to him getting home from school and even welcomed him with a snack baffled Cora. When she’d get home from school, her mom would put her to work and if she didn’t get that done by dinner, then dinner didn’t happen. There were days Cora ate crackers right before bed and had to struggle to get her homework done in the early hours of the morning before school began again.
Then there was Maria. Some of Cora’s snacks at the Jackson home were better than the dinners she had at her own house. Once she and Grey were dating, Cora frequently ate dinner at his house. Maria never seemed to mind, and her parents never once complained that she wasn’t home enough. Provided, of course, that she got her work done before she left. The homework was up to Cora. But she and Grey did theirs together, and it worked.
They worked.
Until they didn’t.
Cora frowned. She instinctively pressed a hand to her lower abdomen. The large scar there always represented the breaking point in their marriage, even if things had been going downhill for a while before then.
It seemed like a lifetime ago that she’d seen the double lines on a pregnancy test. That baby was supposed to revitalize their marriage and make them realize just how much they had together. But even that plan had fallen apart.
Grey brought her back to the present when he gently nudged her arm. “You okay over there?”
She shrugged, relieved to have a distraction from the way her thoughts had been spiraling. “A little nervous about tomorrow, I guess.”
“Hiking through the snow? Or seeing my family?”
Cora raised her gaze to his. “Both.”
He nodded. “Well, as long as the blizzard dies down and we don’t end up with twenty feet of snow out there, I’m confident we can make it to the main cabin.”
His incredible sense of direction was almost maddening. Where she had to use a GPS to navigate her way to a new location multiple times before she remembered the route on her own, Grey could figure it out in his head. Worst case scenario, he used a map once and never had to use it again.
There was a time she’d affectionately referred to him as her human GPS system.
No, Cora didn’t doubt that he’d get them to the main cabin tomorrow. The scarier thought was being stuck there for an extended stay when she wasn’t really welcome.
Okay, so that was an exaggeration. Maria had personally encouraged her to come, not just because Grandpa Jackson wanted her to, but because Maria did as well. She’d always gotten along fine with Dare. It was Grey’s older brother that she was worried about.
“Does Flynn still hate me?”
Grey was about to take a drink of water when he set the glass back down again. “He never hated you.”
