Sabela snorted. “Let me guess. Invade their rooms and treat them like naughty children? Too late. You already did —”
“Here’s the ibuprofen!” called a falsely cheerful voice from the other side of the room. Marie.
Sabela hadn’t even noticed her enter, nor had Colin from what she could tell.
Big hands on trim hips, Colin scowled down at Sabela. Marie rushed forward and pushed herself between the towering man and Sabela’s bedside.
“Here you go, dear,” Marie said. “Take these with some water. Then you can try some more tea.”
“She needs to get that mask back on,” Colin insisted.
“Mr. Morgan, the last thing I would want is to worry you,” Marie said slowly and carefully. “But arguing with her probably isn’t the best thing right now. I think it would be better if you gave Ms. Vaughn some space. Let her rest for a while. I’ll stay with her and make sure she’s okay. And she will be. I promise.”
Chapter Twenty-One
COLIN LOOKED LIKE HE WAS going to argue as he glanced back and forth between the housekeeper and Sabela. Sabela wanted him the hell out of the room, and she tried everything to make sure her expression showed it.
It must have worked because Colin finally nodded at Marie. “I’ll need updates.”
“Of course.”
“Frequent updates.”
“I promise.”
Colin nodded brusquely one more time. “I’ll get the helicopter warmed up back in town, in case we need to descend quickly.”
“Sounds like a grand idea,” Marie said in a tone a patient mother might use.
“Okay then,” Colin said. After one last quick glance at Sabela, he strode to the door. “Call me if anything changes.”
“I will,” Marie called.
And Colin finally left the room.
Sabela collapsed back onto her pillows and blew out a loud breath. “My God, that man is a terror. What the hell was he thinking?”
Marie sat on the edge of the bed beside her and patted her arm. “He was thinking that you were sick, and that if anything happened to you it would be his fault for bringing you here, and that the only thing he wants in the whole world right now is for you to be okay.”
Sabela raised her head slightly to meet Marie’s eyes. “If you’re going to put it that way, it’s going to be hard to stay mad at him.”
Marie smiled knowingly.
“Okay, so he’s looking out for me,” Sabela admitted. “But couldn’t he be less of an ass about it? He scared me half to death when he came charging in here.”
“Mr. Morgan can be rough around the edges sometimes, it’s true. I’ve always believed, though, that just under that tough surface is a kind man, someone who can be trusted. Take those pills, dear.”
Sabela swallowed them with some water then accepted the tea Marie returned to her. “I’m glad he’s not a doctor. He’s got an awful bedside manner.”
Marie laughed. “Don’t tell him I said this, but I agree with you.” She removed the cloth from a basket and pulled out a thick piece of toast. “Here, try this with the tea and see if it settles your stomach.”
Sabela nibbled on the dry toast. The bread was homemade. It was the most delicious dry toast she’d ever had. Marie poured her some fresh tea and added a little honey.
Sabela smiled. “I appreciate that you’re taking such good care of me. I’m not used to it.”
“Mr. Morgan ensures that all of his guests are well taken care of. You should start getting used to it if you’re going to be staying awhile,” Marie said with a wink.
How long was she supposed to be staying, anyway? Colin had never given her a hard date. After his business was concluded, she supposed that he’d send her home.
But his business associates hadn’t even arrived yet. How much longer were they going to be?
She brushed the thoughts aside and brought up a concern she hadn’t forgotten. “Marie, why did you cover for me with Colin, about the booklet? You did tell me about it. You must remember.”
Marie fussed around with the tray, moving things here and there, bringing out a large linen napkin and spreading it over Sabela’s lap to catch toast crumbs. “You looked afraid, and Mr. Morgan was … intimidating you. It was better that he not make a big thing out of it.”
“But he was angry at you. I’ll tell him the truth when he’s calmed down. I don’t want you to get your pay docked or something worse.”
Marie laughed. “You don’t have to tell him anything, dear. I assure you he won’t do anything more to me.”
Sabela wasn’t so sure. She shrugged, non-committal, not wanting to promise she wouldn’t straighten things out with Colin.
She felt better after she finished the toast, and at Marie’s suggestion she curled up in one of the cushy window seats while Marie tidied the room. Last night Sabela had learned a lot about the housekeeper, and she knew that Marie was a family woman who’d been married to the love of her life for decades.
Maybe asking her in vague terms about her troubles with Colin would be beneficial.
“How did you know that your husband was the right guy for you?” she asked Marie as she worked.
Marie paused, fluffing a big pillow. “There was something about him that spoke to me from the minute I met him. He drove me crazy back then, and he still does now.” She smiled.
“Something that spoke to you?”
“Mm, yes.” Marie put the pillow down and turned her gaze out the window. “He was different from every other man. It was the way he treated me, I guess. Or the way I couldn’t stop thinking about him.”
“Even if he hurt you?”
“Oh, he never hurt me, not on purpose, anyway. No one’s perfect, dear. What’s important is that you come back and fix your problems instead of sweeping them under the rug.” Marie winked.
“But no matter how we fight, there’s no one else in the world I’d rather be with,” she continued. “He’s my best friend, and he makes me want to become a better person every day. I think that’s important in any relationship.”
They were words to reflect on. But not in regards to Colin, Sabela told herself. It wasn’t as if she was falling for Colin anyways.
How stupid would that be?
She was attracted to him, physically, and she could deal with that. She wouldn’t be so silly as to truly fall for a man who was so far out of her league.
“What has Colin been up to this morning?” she asked. If Marie thought they were dating, the question would be natural. Sabela didn’t have to try to hide her curiosity.
“Mr. Morgan hit the ski scope early this morning. Normally, we wouldn’t see him again until lunchtime. But I suspect you being here is what brought him back to the house so quickly.”
Sabela wasn’t so sure about that. She pulled her snuggly robe tighter around herself and sighed in warm comfort and pleasure. Marie came over.
“Would you like more tea?”
“No, thank you, Marie. I’m perfect right now. I feel so much better it’s like I’m a different person.” She tried to hide a big yawn behind her hand.
Marie took her cup with a kindly smile and patted her shoulder. “I’m glad. I’m going to let you get some more rest now. There’s some more toast and some muffins on the tray if you think you could eat some more. You give me a call if you need or want anything, or if you begin to feel ill again, okay?”
Sabela promised she would. Before Marie left, Sabela pointed at the mask and small oxygen tank sitting beside the bed. “You can take that. I won’t need it. I told him I didn’t have altitude sickness.”
/> Marie eyed the tank, then gave Sabela a knowing look. “It would be best, I think, to leave it there for now. Think of it as a soothe the savage beast offering.”
Sabela laughed. “I can’t believe you said that.”
“I didn’t,” Marie said with a sly grin.
She slipped quietly out the door, and Sabela immediately heard voices in the sitting room. Good grief, had Colin been sitting out there all this time, waiting?
Sabela wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She tensed, wondering if he was going to come barging into her room again. But shortly, Marie stuck her head back into the bedroom.
“We’re going now. You get some rest,” she said, firmly, as if she were saying it for more than Sabela’s benefit.
Sabela silently mouthed a “thank you” before the housekeeper closed the door a final time.
She leaned back in the cushiony cubby and sighed, warm and content under a fuzzy blanket, a soft pillow behind her head. She let her gaze wander out the window. From where she sat she could see the bottom of the ski slope.
If Colin returned to the slopes, maybe she’d see him.
She soon drifted off to sleep, and dreamed.
She watched a singular figure jet down a massive slope, swooping left and right with agile ease. At the bottom of the mountain, the figure skidded to a stop. A wide arc of snow sprayed into the air. The masked man turned to look at her.
He watched her without moving for what seemed like ages. She waved, and it seemed he might wave back, but then the moment passed.
In a flash, he was skiing toward the lift and being taken back up to the top of the mountain. The snowy peak was so far away that eventually she couldn’t see him. Sabela squinted to no avail. He was up there somewhere, way up high, but she couldn’t see him.
And she wouldn’t see him again until he came down the mountain. Something churned in the pit of her stomach. She was certain the man in the mask would never come back to her, not ever.
But she kept watching anyway.
Chapter Twenty-Two
NO MATTER WHAT COLIN TRIED, he couldn’t ease his racing mind. When work had eluded him, he decided to try finding peace through physical means. He returned to the slopes.