CHAPTER FIVE

      HER PHONE BEEPING softly in her ear woke her from a dream about giant monster trucks with ferocious-looking grills barreling toward her from every direction, intent on mowing her down.

      She fumbled under her pillow for the phone then rolled over to turn off the alarm. Ow. She swallowed a groan as various and sundry muscles complained quite loudly at just that small movement.

      Beside her, Maddie stirred and made a huffing little noise but quickly subsided back to sleep. She hadn’t even made it to the trundle. After her bath, she had climbed into the big four-poster—the princess bed, she had called it—for their regular story time. They were reading a Junie B. Jones holiday book but had both fallen asleep about five minutes into the story about the mischievous kindergartener.

      In fact...Eliza patted around the comforter until she found the book where it had slipped out of her hands as she drifted off. She moved it safely to the bedside table so the pages didn’t get crinkled, then enjoyed the luxuriously soft sheets for a few moments as she listened to her daughter’s deep, even breathing.

      She did this sometimes, just slipped into Maddie’s room to listen to her breathing and to offer up earnest prayers for that weak, courageous heart to stay strong as long as possible.

      Right now, she wanted to hug her daughter close and remain snuggled under these cozy blankets, safe and warm from the howl and moan of the storm she could hear outside.

      Though she had no recollection of doing it, she must have turned the reading light off sometime in the night. The only light in the room came from the flickering glow of the gas fireplace.

      Wouldn’t it be lovely to stay here in this nice, protective bubble and pretend the figurative storms in her life weren’t swirling around with equal menace to the actual blizzard outside, where she didn’t have to worry about any pesky little details like finding a place to live and a job that would provide decent health insurance that Maddie’s cardiac specialists would accept?

      This time she couldn’t hold back her groan. Only a little of it was from the aches and pains of the accident.

      What was she going to do? The natural optimism that had kept her from completely falling apart during the past three years of dealing with everything on her own seemed in short supply right now, as the reality of her situation seemed to seep beneath the blankets and grab hold of her skin with icy fingers.

      She had options, she reminded herself. She wasn’t completely destitute. She had already taken care of Maddie’s Christmas presents, so that wasn’t a worry. Beyond that, she had a little left in savings, enough to tide them over for a month or two and to make a first and last month’s rent, and she received monthly social security benefits that would help.

      She had been trying to save all of Maddie’s survivor benefits for her college education but the hard truth was that survival today had to take priority over tomorrow’s tuition payments.

      The snooze on her phone alarm chimed softly again and she turned it all the way off, wide-awake now. Something told her Aidan Caine was a man who kept his word. He said he would be knocking on her door at 2:00 a.m. and she had a feeling he would be there precisely at that moment.

      She gingerly eased out of bed, feeling about a hundred and ten years old. Her robe was packed in one of the boxes still in the back of her SUV so she grabbed a decadently soft throw from one of the plush chairs by the fire and wrapped it around her nightgown for warmth.

      With one last check on Maddie, she padded out into the hall, hoping to intercept him before he knocked on her door. She could see a light on underneath the door across from hers but she didn’t quite have the nerve to knock on it. Instead, after a moment’s indecision she headed toward a padded window seat at the end of the hall upholstered in rich, deep colors that fit well with the lodge look of the rest of the residence.

      The window was a little frosted but through the darkness she could see snow falling steadily, whipped in all directions by the wind.

      She shivered, grateful for the comforts of the house. It really was a lovely place, with those massive beams and logs the color of sun-warmed honey.

      What had led Aidan Caine to purchase the house? He didn’t strike her as the outdoorsy cowboy sort, more like a sexy computer geek. Maybe there was more to him than she would have suspected from what little she knew about his public persona.

      The Geek God.

      He seemed a very complex man. Yes, he was a powerful and successful man with this grand, expansive house, his own company. To achieve so much at his relatively young age he was no doubt a workaholic, just like Trent had been, a man whose entire focus revolved around making money.

      On the other hand, he was obviously very fond of Jim and Sue and he had been extraordinarily kind to Maddie. He had been visibly upset about the accident and had gone out of his way to make sure she was all right, even coming to the hospital and eventually bringing her here for the night.

      All that hardly seemed the actions of a heartless, cold businessman, which was the image she’d had of him before today. How did she reconcile the man she had met that day with all the anger she had nurtured toward him and Caine Tech over the last three years?

      His company had stolen the heart right out of her husband. Plain and simple. The people he had met with at Caine Tech had taken Trent’s dreams of fame and fortune, his ideas for a new productivity app he was certain would revolutionize the business world, and had shut him down fast and hard.

      He had called her from California in despair to tell her about it and she had never heard him sound so defeated. She had tried to be encouraging but by that point she was exhausted and out of patience from trying to be a supportive wife in his endless chase for financial security for her and for Maddie.

      She couldn’t blame Aidan for the mess. Not really. Knowing the nature of big companies as she did, he probably didn’t even have any direct knowledge of that final meeting between his associates and her husband.

      Shifting her mind-set would be a difficult task where she had demonized him for so long. She could manage it for the few hours she might see him in the morning, before she left Snow Angel Cove.

      At exactly one minute to two, she heard the door just across from theirs open. Aidan walked out into the hallway in jeans and a T-shirt. Had he forced himself to stay awake into the early hours