Snowbound - Harlequin.com

JANICE KAY JOHNSON 249
INCREDIBLY his sister had offered to take over the lodge
for up to two weeks. She’d taken her vacation with that
intention.Yes, she assured him, she had actually brought
athletic shoes, jeans and sweatshirts. No, she wouldn’t
split wood, but she was fully capable of hauling it in,
doing laundry and cooking for a dozen, three times a day.
“My dream job? Nope. But that’s what I came here
to do.”
“Wait a minute. You’re lying. You don’t have room
in that bag for enough clothes…”
“My suitcase is in the trunk of the car. If you said no,
I wasn’t going to bother hauling it in.”
Now, having been assured he wasn’t needed, John was
on his way down the mountain, his own bags in the back
of his SUV. He had the key to Liz’s condo so that he could
stay there, but she’d admitted to telling their parents about
how she planned to force him into action. He knew damn
well his mother would be hoping he’d choose to stay with
them instead, sleeping in his childhood bedroom.
And he had an appointment for Monday morning at
10:00 a.m.—scheduled by his sister—to see a counselor
who specialized in posttraumatic stress.
“He’s a Vietnam War vet,” Liz told him. “He has a
prosthetic leg.”
In other words, John was left with no valid excuse.
His guests were being taken care of. He could stay in
solitude at his sister’s place if he wanted. And, yeah,
maybe the counselor would understand everything. But
what about the guilt? Could anybody understand that?
John’s unease grew as the trees thinned and then
opened into the rolling, fertile Willamette River valley,