Free Snowbound with the CEO by Shannon Stacey Page B

to stop her.
    Miraculously, she didn’t cry during her journey home. Instead of soaking in a bubble bath and putting on her comfortable pajamas, as she usually did after the party, she dropped onto her couch. The scope of what she’d done was overwhelming and she barely had the energy to kick off her heels.
    She’d ended any hope of ever having a relationship with the man she loved. And she’d quit the best job she’d probably ever have. Now she’d have to update her resume, trying to come up with a good interview excuse for why she’d leave a company with BHR’s reputation, and go hunting for a second-best job.
    But first, she was going to have a good, long cry. Since the tears fell and the sobs shook her body, she didn’t have any choice but to ride out the heartbreak.

Chapter Seven
    “You’ve barely touched your pie, Adrian.” His mother’s voice broke into the endless stream of thoughts of Rachel, and he blinked. “You’re not sick, are you?”
    “No, Mom. I’m just a bit tired, that’s all.” He smiled to reassure her, then dug into the huge slab of pumpkin pie with whipped cream she’d set in front of him.
    As he did every year, Adrian had driven home to Vermont to spend Christmas with his parents. It wasn’t the small house he’d grown up in. His father wouldn’t let Adrian build them a new house, but about ten years before, Don Blackstone had found an amazing farmhouse being sold cheap. It had solid bones, but it had to be moved off the land or be bulldozed, so Adrian had bought the house and paid for the onerous process of moving it. Then they’d renovated it together.
    “You do seem a little off, son,” his father said. “You know your mother’s just going to worry herself sick, maybe even convince herself you’re dying of some horrible disease, if you don’t just tell her what’s wrong.”
    He didn’t want to talk about it, but he didn’t want his mother spending Christmas worrying about him, either. “Rachel gave her notice. She’s looking for a new job.”
    They both looked as stunned as he’d felt, but it was his mother who spoke first. “You can’t let her do that.”
    “I can’t really stop her.”
    “But she’s so good. You’re always talking about how good she is. And I’ve spoken to her on the phone and she’s a lovely woman. Why does she want to leave?”
    He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “We got involved.”
    “Oh, son.” His dad shook his head. “You know better than that.”
    “She’s not suing you or anything, is she?” His mother had always zeroed in on practical bottom lines.
    “No, she’s not suing me. It’s not like that.”
    His mom plopped another spoonful of whipped cream on his pie, as if that would fix everything. “So what’s it like?”
    “I screwed up.”
    “Worse than getting romantically involved with an employee?”
    “I brought a date to the office Christmas party.”
    There was silence in the living room for so long Adrian squirmed in his seat. Both parents were probably trying to come up with a name they could call their own son to indicate how they felt about that situation without insulting him too badly.
    He told them the entire story from beginning to end as honestly as he could. There was no sense in trying to spin it to make himself look better. They were his parents. One, they’d see right through it. And, two, he didn’t have to pretend with them. They loved him even when he’d been a total jerk.
    “So that’s it?” his dad asked when he was done. “You’re just going to let her go?”
    “I can’t make her stay,” he repeated.
    “You could at least fight for her.”
    “I don’t know what to do, Dad. I don’t want to make this any worse for her. Or for me.”
    “Listen to me.” His dad sat forward in his easy chair, leaning his elbows on his knees. “We didn’t have much to give you. We did the best we could, but it wasn’t much. You had to fight for everything you have. You fought for