very impressed or intimidated by Aidan’s reputation, either. She faced him down, chin up and arms crossed over her chest like she was a one-hundred-pound offensive lineman protecting Eliza, who had the ball.
“I asked where I could find Eliza Hayward and the receptionist gave me the room number. Is that a problem?”
“Yes! We have strict security protocol. This area is restricted to family and friends of patients. As far as I know, you’re neither.”
“He’s my friend,” Maddie said firmly. “I want him here. He’s nice.”
Eliza flushed. Maddie had become very good at pushing her weight around in hospitals.
“There. You see?” Aidan said, after flashing a rather devastating smile to her daughter. “I’m Maddie’s friend. And I do believe I have an answer that might help everyone.”
She sincerely doubted that. Eliza pulled the warmed blanket—quickly losing its comforting capabilities, anyway—up to her chin, wishing she were wearing something other than this atrocious hospital gown.
A little battle armor would be nice when confronting a man like Aidan Caine.
“You need a place close by to stay for the night so you can leave the hospital, is that correct?”
Eliza didn’t want to answer but she could see no point in dissembling. “I want to drive back to Boise to stay with friends but Dr. Shaw is concerned about the storm.”
“With good reason. It’s really coming down out there.”
He was not helping her position with the doctor. Maybe he was trying to sabotage her life.
“Here’s the thing,” he said. “I recently took ownership of some property in town.”
Dr. Shaw gave an inelegant snort. “More like half of Haven Point,” she muttered.
To Eliza’s surprise, a hint of dusky color rose on the man’s cheekbones. “Not quite. But one of the properties is a large lodge on the southeastern shore of the lake about two miles from Haven Point.”
“Snow Angel Cove,” Dr. Shaw offered.
He looked surprised. “You know it?”
“I grew up on the lake, Mr. Caine. Everyone knows Snow Angel Cove.”
“Then you can confirm that there’s plenty of room for Ms. Hayward and her daughter to stay while she recovers from her injuries.”
He really thought she would just merrily pack her daughter up and go move to a stranger’s home? Either he was unbelievably arrogant or ridiculously clueless. She would bet on the former.
“That’s not necessary. I’ll figure something else out,” she said, her tone stiff. Her head throbbed as if someone had wedged it in a car door and was slamming the door against it again and again for fun. The rest of her wasn’t faring much better.
After the miserable day she had endured, she just wanted to be alone somewhere where she could whimper and sniffle and lick her wounds by herself.
“There aren’t any hotel rooms left in town. You heard the doctor. I don’t feel good about you leaving town, either, in the middle of that storm. I promise, I’m not a homicidal maniac.”
No. Only a fiercely ruthless competitor who had built his business from nothing in only a few years—and the man who had indirectly contributed to her husband’s death.
She didn’t want anything to do with him.
“That’s impossible,” she said. “Completely out of the question. I’m not staying with you.”
Surprise flitted in his blue eyes, as if he had never expected her to refuse. “If it makes you feel any better, a very nice couple has been overseeing the renovations on the property for me the last few months. They’re staying on the property, as well.”
That made the whole thing sound more like a genuine offer to help her out of a tough situation and help her get released from the hospital and less like he planned to drag her to his evil lair for his own nefarious purposes. But still.
“This is stupid. I’m fine to drive back to Boise. I’m used to driving in snow. I’ve got a four-wheel-drive SUV and I have good tires on my car. Unlike someone else I could mention,” she said pointedly.
Where was all this snarkiness coming from? She was never caustic or sharp. She considered herself a nice person, darn it. Apparently, leaving one job and apartment, losing another of each in a terrible fire and then being mowed down on the street, all in the same day, tended to bring out the worst in her.
Unfortunately, reminding him of his contribution to her situation only seemed to strengthen his resolve.
“That is exactly the reason you should stay at Snow Angel Cove for the night. I feel responsible that you were hurt.”
“You are responsible,” Devin Shaw murmured.
He nodded. “There. What the good doctor said. I am responsible for you being hurt. I would offer to put you up in a hotel for the night but as Dr. Shaw pointed out, I doubt there’s one room to be found in town. This is the next best thing. Please, Ms. Hayward. Better than some cramped couch at a friend’s house.”
“Do you have a Christmas tree?” Maddie asked eagerly.
He looked down, apparently disconcerted by the question. “Um, I don’t think so. Not yet, anyway.”
“That’s okay,” Maddie said.
She seemed to accept this failing—and the whole situation—with far more equanimity than Eliza. She also seemed to have developed an immediate liking for Aidan.
Eliza wanted to pull her daughter close and whisper to her a bit of maternal advice about being careful about the men you decide to trust, but this probably wasn’t quite the time.
“It’s not a bad solution,” Dr. Shaw said with a pensive nod. “As a last resort, I was going to offer my own house for you to stay. It’s not far from here and I have an extra bedroom. The only problem is, I’m on shift all night tonight and you and your daughter would be alone there. I’ll tell you quite frankly, I feel much better about you staying somewhere with people around than I would even if we could find you a hotel room here or up in Shelter Springs.”
Eliza studied all three of the people in the room, looking at her with varying degrees of expectation. She was too tired and battered to make this kind of decision right now! This whole thing was so ridiculous.
If she only had herself to consider, she would jump up from this bed, grab her coat, tell them all to go to hell and drive to Boise, against medical advice or not.
But she would be a poor mother not to be concerned about her daughter’s well-being. Maddie had already had a long, hard day. She was a trouper but she had to be exhausted. Subjecting her to at least a two-hour car ride in poor conditions—and with a driver who, like it or not, probably wasn’t in any shape to drive—would be foolhardy.
He had an abundance of bedrooms
