Free Saved by the Blizzard: A romantic winter thriller (Tellure Hollow Book 2) by Adele Huxley Page B

page had been left open, Bryan “The Blizzard” Marsh’s face in the corner. I hadn’t been able to read anything past the first paragraph, but Kay had given me a brief rundown.
    “He lied by omission, for weeks. This isn’t a little thing, you know?”
    “I guess...”
    I turned towards her, my eyes tearing up before I could even pry the words from my mouth. “I told him everything. Everything . We even...last night...” The tears rolled hot and fast down my cheeks. Kayla wrapped her arm around me and pulled me into a tight hug. He knew everything, even stuff I’ve never even been able to tell her, my closest friend.
    “It’s alright, sweetie. Shhh, don’t worry about him. He’s nobody,” she said as she soothed me. “At least now we can trade sex tips,” she giggled. Kayla was a sweetheart but she could never really handle deep conversations very well. Her instinct was always to joke.
    I shook my head, wiping the tears away with the back of my hand. “No, we didn’t do that. Pretty much everything but...” I sniffed. The party was still raging outside, coming up to midnight and this was how I was going to bring in the new year. Half drunk, crying over some guy, in bed with my best friend. Classy.
    “Aw, what an asshole.” She paused as if deep in thought. “You actually sold your virginity?”
    I groaned and pulled the comforter up over my head. “Can we please not talk about this now?”
    “Why did you do it? Because you could?” For once, she sounded curious and sensitive. My defenses were lowered and it caught me off guard.
    I poked my head out and sighed. “If you boil it down, yeah. I knew he wanted it, so I figured why not? I think I’d heard about some girl selling hers online and got the idea.” Tucking the puffy comforter under my armpits, I chuckled. “The way I see it, I’m not actually a prostitute until I give it up. Until then, I’m merely a con artist.”
    “Nothing new there,” Kayla laughed. She shifted to face me, resting her head on her hand. “What did you spend the money on, then? Obviously not clothes.”
    “I haven’t spent it. Like I said, it’s for my dad. I’ve been letting it earn interest, which I even offered to give Rick. I thought more money might smooth things over with him...”
    “How do you think he found you on Christmas?”
    I took another sip of cocoa, the liquor and chocolate soothing my nerves. “I have no idea. It’s a small town, Bryan’s a local. Maybe he just asked around and figured out where the family cabin was.”
    “Well, it sounds like he was getting out there just in time to save you,” Kayla said with a huff.
    Just as I was about to defend Bryan, a loud pounding reverberated down the hall from the front door. We both looked at each other in surprise.
    “It’s him,” I said. I could almost feel the urgency through the knock. “Can you please get rid of him? I really don’t want to do this right now.” I pulled the thick blankets up around my chin and wiggled further down into the bed.
    “Gladly,” she said bouncing out of the bed. She left the bedroom door open and as much as I tried not to, I focused on her footsteps and the click of the front door. I couldn’t hear the actual words, just the murmur of conversation until Bryan shouted.
    “Liz! I know you’re in there. Please, just let me explain and then I’ll go away if you want. Please!”
    I threw my mug onto the side table and clamped my hands over my ears. His voice tore right through me. I wanted nothing more than to believe the lies he’d inevitably tell me, to try and forget any of this happened but I couldn’t. Was I seriously that bad a judge of character? First Rick, now him. Apparently I was.
    Kayla’s voice rose to meet his and the shouting eventually stopped. The door slammed shut and Kayla’s bare feet slapped against the wood floor as she ran back to the bedroom. She dove under the covers with a shiver.
    “He’s gone, it’s alright.”
    “What