She breathed in deeply as she walked, heading farther into the trees, toward the trail she liked best. Immediately, she felt her heart rate begin to slow—and realized she had been running on nerves and adrenaline for days, something she wasn’t used to. She kept walking and felt the beginnings of a release. Faye was right: everything was going to be okay. Christmas, her favorite time of year, was magic. She had had mixed feelings about coming home—but a break from the pace of the city was doing her good already.
She had counted on the fact that the storm would start slowly, as was so often the case in Starlight Peak, with a slow, steady buildup that eventually blanketed the town in white. But now she looked up at the snowflakes starting to swirl above her head. The downfall was thick and coming on fast.
A few more minutes and her visibility was down to almost nothing.
“Shoot,” Cass muttered, turning around. But already, it was impossible to see more than a few feet in front of her.
She took a step forward, but there was a small pit in the path ahead she hadn’t been able to see in the snow. She stumbled and pitched forward. Before she could put out her hands to break her fall, she felt her head thunk against a tree stump hidden by the falling snow. She cried out as pain flooded through her and blurred her vision.
No, Cass, you can’t. You have to get up. You have to get up now. But she couldn’t. It was too much. The white snow falling in thick sheets blurred before her eyes. But she forced herself to focus on reaching into her pocket for her cell phone. With rapidly freezing fingers she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She willed herself not to lose consciousness before she could speak—but knew in her heart that even if she didn’t manage to ask for help, Charlie would know. Charlie would come for her. She had to.
22
Charlie
Thursday: 2 Days Until Christmas . . .
Starlight Peak
Charlie had awoken early in her old bedroom at her parents’ house. It was strange, being back in her childhood home and all alone at Christmastime. Normally the house would be full of Christmas cheer. But between her fight with Cass the night before and the uncertainty around her parents’ snowed-in flight delays, she was feeling lonelier than ever.
The initial shock of knowing Austin had scooped the job out from under her had faded—though she still wasn’t sure how it had happened—but in its place was a sense of failure that Charlie was unaccustomed to, and she didn’t like it. It was the first time in years that she had no plan, no handle on her career trajectory, and it was alarming. Her sleep had been fitful, and she knew the only solution for now was a strong cup of coffee. Charlie scavenged around the kitchen until she found an old tin of grounds in the freezer—her parents were tea drinkers—and brewed a pot.
Charlie was refilling her mug when her phone pinged. She glanced at the screen, and was so distracted she nearly overfilled her mug,
Hey, can we talk?
Jake. Charlie’s stomach dropped, coffee bitter in her throat. Her fingers hovered as she tried to figure out what to say. She still didn’t know what Cass had said to Jake outside the bakery, but without question the interaction clearly had left Jake confused. Because Cass obviously had no clue what Charlie had been up to all week, or just how far things had gone with Jake.
Charlie typed, erased, typed, erased, finally settling on:
Hey. Can’t chat right now, but I promise I’ll explain soon.
The coffee no longer appetizing—her stomach soured by the text exchange, and what had to come next—Charlie set her mug in the sink. Then she headed upstairs to get ready for what she hoped wouldn’t be the most disastrous day yet.
* * *
? ? ?
When Charlie arrived at the bakery, having borrowed her parents’ car to get there as the Prius wasn’t great in heavy snow, she was surprised that Cass wasn’t around. She had hoped they could talk. She was still reeling from the night before, but if anyone had Charlie’s best interests in mind, it was her twin sister. Even though they lived hours apart, Cass was—had always been—Charlie’s “person.” She still had plenty of questions, and she had her own explaining to do, but the last thing she wanted was for all of this to drive a permanent wedge between them.
“Is Cass upstairs?” It was weird to finally be able to be herself with Walter. She was so used to playing her sister that she had to remind herself that she could be Charlie now.
Walter looked up. “Oh. Hi, Charlie. Cass told me you were coming in, but I wasn’t sure when. I’m glad to see you.”