A Festive Feud: A Holiday Romantic Comedy(21)

“I understand. Trust me, I get it. Don’t worry, Snowflake.”

“Thank you.” Glancing down at her phone in her lap, she chews at her painted nail as her eyes scan the screen. “Shit. Can you call the hotel and let them know we might miss check-in by a little? I think this storm actually might be getting worse based on the radar. Roads could be more hazardous than anticipated.”

“Uh… what hotel?”

Emma’s head whips up, her blue eyes shooting to mine. “Uh, the hotel that you were supposed to book? The one I told you to book when we were at Town Hall.”

For a second, I rack my brain from the other day when we were together, and I’m coming up short. Fuck, I was exhausted that day, and quite frankly, the only thing I remember is Emma hovering over me, her plump pink lips just above mine after the ladder incident.

“Please,” she starts, exhaling a deep breath. “Please tell me you did not forget to book the hotel, Jackson.”

“I didn’t.”

“Oh, thank God. I was about t—” she says, but my words cut her off.

“Okay, I didn’t book it, but in my defense, I didn’t hear you even ask me to in the first place, so I technically didn’t forget.”

She groans next to me, and I feel her head hit the headrest of the old bench seat behind her. “This is a disaster. An absolute, complete freakin’ disaster.”

Keeping my eyes on the road, I tell her, “It’s okay. Surely, we’ll find something once we get into town. We’ll just wing it.”

I turn my wipers up. The snow is falling more heavily, and it’s dark now, making it nearly impossible to see the road in front of me. The further we get from town, the worse the roads will be since they won’t have been cleared or salted.

We’ve been on the road now for thirty minutes, and I knew that if it came down to it, my truck would be safer. Sturdier.

Harder to dent.

But what I wasn’t accounting for was how quickly the weather would decline.

“God, wing it? In the middle of a snowstorm? That’s if we even make it there!” she cries. “Look how hard it’s snowing, Jackson. The roads aren’t going to be safe much longer. The only place between here and town is the old motel off of Highway 55, so if we miss it, then there’s nothing for another thirty miles. This is exactly why I had a plan, why you can’t just ‘wing it.’ Why can’t you take my plans more seriously?”

Shit, she’s right—there’s nothing for miles after we pass there. Lord fucking knows I don’t want to get caught out here in this cold. And even if we somehow made it to the city, it would take forever, and the roads would be just as bad there. And who knows if we could even find a place to stay?

“Looks like we’re stopping at the motel for the night, then, Snowflake.”

A heavy sigh leaves her lips as she glances back down at her phone in her lap. “My battery is almost dead, and of course this truck is so old it doesn’t even have a place to charge it. God, if you would’ve been less caveman-y and more logical, we could’ve taken my car and not had to worry about whether or not we’re going to freeze to death overnight in the middle of a freaking blizzard, Jackson!”

From a snowstorm to a blizzard. Got it.

I let her get all her frustration out because it was clearly simmering below the surface, especially after the stuff she just shared about her parents, and when she’s done, she squeezes her eyes shut, taking another deep breath.

“It’ll be fine. Look, there’s the motel up there.” I gesture through the snow-covered windshield to the bright red blinking sign that actually only says “tel” since the other two letters have gone out.

I can practically feel the exasperation coming off her in waves, but I’m not going to take a chance with our lives on these roads, driving my truck or not. It’s gotten bad, quickly.

Pulling my truck into the parking lot, I put it in park before turning to her. “I’m going to go see if they have any rooms available.”

“They better have a room available, Jackson Pearce. For your sake.” Her lips are twisted into a frown.

Not sure whether or not I should be afraid of Emma right now or turned on, but it’s definitely a mixture of both.

I pull my old ball cap further down my ears like it will somehow stop the cold from seeping past the mesh, and then I step out into the snow. The ground is so fucking slick I almost eat shit right by the front door of the office but somehow manage to wrench the door open and step inside. Thank fuck, I’m immediately hit with a gust of warmth.

“Hiya, darlin’!” an older lady with graying hair says from the other side of the desk. She’s working on what looks to be like knitting a sweater.

“Hi, do you have any rooms available? That storm really came out of nowhere.”

She nods, looking up from her yarn and offering me a kind smile. “Yes, it did seem to come out of nowhere. Don’t worry, sweetheart, we’ll get you situated. What type of room are you looking for?”

“Two, if possible.”

“Ah.” Her eyes flit down the ledger in front of her, her brow furrowing closely after. “It seems like we only have one room available left tonight. We had quite a few people stopping in when they heard of the storm, and of course, we had to reserve a few rooms for our staff. Don’t want them traveling on the roads in this weather either.”