Snow Place Like Home

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jason

After Shonna was gone, Jason lost himself in work to keep his mind busy.

He was outside chopping wood, a task which he used to find cathartic, but at this moment, he despised it. A storm was set to hit that evening, so they needed as much firewood to sustain the days ahead. But all he could think about was Shonna and the way she'd joked about them keeping him around to chop firewood. How he missed that twinkly look she got in her amber eyes whenever she said something clever.

Why had he encouraged her to go back to Arizona with the guy she'd been kissing? It seemed like the right thing at the moment, but he had been kicking himself ever since. He was truly an idiot. Now he was taking his frustrations out on the logs. After he was satisfied with the amount of wood, he carried them inside.

There were still several guests staying through the holidays. A family of three, a newlywed couple, and an older couple who were celebrating their 50th anniversary. Love was most undoubtedly in the air, and it gave Jason mixed emotions.

The temperature was starting to drop. It was dark, and the winds were picking up. Every one of the guests was enjoying dinner at the restaurant, except for the older couple. Jason set the firewood down by the fireplace in the lobby.

"Hey, Emily, can you send Steve down to make sure some logs get to all the guest rooms?"

"Sure thing, boss."

"Thanks."

Suddenly one of the guests came running up to Jason. She was an older woman from the couple celebrating their anniversary.

"Are you in charge here?"

"Yes, ma'am. Is something wrong?"

"It's my husband. He's been having trouble breathing, and now he's saying his chest hurts. You have to help him. Please!"

"Emily, call Dr. Dell and ask her to come right away. Take me to your room, ma'am."

They rushed to where the old man was lying in bed, clutching his chest. The man could talk, but his breathing was shallow.

Emily appeared in the room. "Jason, Dr. Dell is out of town," she said.

"What about the on-call doctor?"

"The roads are blocked on the east side. No one can get through."

"Alright. I'm driving him to the hospital."

"But that's all the way in Anchorage."

Since the road heading west was clear, it would be a straight shot to Anchorage. He made that drive all the time in various degrees of weather, so Jason was confident he could get the guest there safely.

"I know, Emily. Sir, can you walk?"

The man nodded, likely in too much pain to speak.

"Get your coats. We're gonna head down to my truck. Emily, tell Rigby I'm leaving. You stay here and hold down the fort."

"Sure thing."

Jason and the older couple piled into his truck and headed for Anchorage. The snow was coming down hard, but thankfully the road had been plowed recently. He drove carefully to avoid black ice along the dark road. He was laser-focused, listening to the woman sing softly as she cradled her husband in her arms.

Jason prayed he could get this man safely to the hospital before it was too late. Nobody was going to die on his watch. On Christmas Eve, no less. They made it to the hospital in just under an hour. He helped the man inside the emergency room's entrance, where they put him in a wheelchair and rolled him away.

"Thank you," the woman said and left to be with her husband.

"I'll be here."

Jason waited for over an hour in the waiting room of the hospital.

"He's going to be fine," the woman said when she returned. "He had a minor cardiac event, and they want to monitor him overnight. But they gave him something to treat it and ease his pain. He needs his rest, but he wants to see you first."

Jason went to see the old man, and he was laying in the hospital bed.

"Hey, Mr. Washington. How are you feeling?"

"Better, thanks to you...."

"Jason."

"Jason. You didn't have to do what you did. But I am grateful. Anything I can ever do for you, let me know."

"I'm just glad you're alright."

"You don't need to stay here. I'm going to spend the night with my husband. We'll probably get a hotel in town until the storm ends before we head home to Texas."

"I can stay and bring you guys back in the morning once he's released."

"No, we can't ask you to do that. You've already done enough. It's Christmas Eve. There's gotta be somewhere you'd rather be."

There was, but Jason didn't want to leave them. Jason's family didn't celebrate Christmas, so he didn't have plans to see them. He always worked every year around his time. But this year, he had the urge to be with one person.

The woman who made his heart skip a beat whenever he saw her. The woman who had blazed through town made him fall in love with her and then left as quickly as she'd come.

"You're sure?"

"We're sure. Our vacation has officially come to an end. Your inn is beautiful. We enjoyed ourselves up until this point. Merry Christmas, young man. And Happy New Year."

"Merry Christmas. Feel better, Mr. Washington."

To see the love between the older couple, he could imagine the storms they weathered, the fights they endured to make it to fifty years. It made him ache, yearning for the sort of love and devotion they had. That his parents had. That he thought he had with Alicia once upon a time. But that stopped being true when she walked away on their wedding day.

Looking back on it, he must have done something to push her away. He'd never gotten closure and never knew why she left. It stayed with him and made him uncertain about who he was and whether his love would ever be good enough for someone else. It hadn't been enough for Alicia. It didn't seem to be enough for Shonna because she left too, and he was alone once again.

As Jason was leaving the hospital, he passed by a familiar-looking woman in blue scrubs.

"Jason?" she called.

Speak of the devil. It was his ex, Alicia Smith, the woman who broke his heart into a million pieces when she left him standing at the altar in front of everyone they knew.

She looked good. Long, dark hair flowed over her shoulders. Her eyes lit up at the sight of him. Then something shifted, and he couldn't tell what it was.

Guilt, he hoped.

"Alicia," was his big opening line.