A Summer With Snow (Frosted Seasons #1) (13 page)

“
But …
a relationship is built on trust, and I need to see your past to even consider if we could have a future.” I clasp my hand to my chest, feeling my heart racing. “Can’t you see, Snow? A relationship doesn’t consist of money; it’s not the material things in life that matter, well not to
me
.” My eyes drop to my finger. “If you were to give me a ring, it wouldn’t matter what it cost; it could be worth a million pounds and be set with the rarest of diamonds, or it could be made from cheap plastic and pulled out of a cracker, if you gave it to me with love, that’s all that would really matter.”

He chuckles, then looks at me, presumably thinking I’ll do the same, but I don’t get his humour so don’t reciprocate; I see the furrows deepen in his forehead.

“Plastic! Do you think I’d stoop that low?”

“You’re missing the point; forget I ever mentioned the ring.”

“I don’t understand.”

My face is on fire. “It’s my polite way of saying fuck your money.”

I almost bite my tongue at my words, but it’s the only way to get my point across.

“I want to know the real Snow.”

“Okay, Darc, if that’s what you want, then I’ll show you.”

I quite expect him to sit quietly in a mood, but he puts the smile back on my face as he folds me into his chest, and I snuggle up against him for the remainder of our journey.

T
he taxi pulls up over rough ground. I unravel myself from Snow’s arms and sit up, peering out through the window at field after field of wild green hedgerow and trees. This is way out in the sticks; we really have left the extravagance of London behind us. After sitting for so long in one position, it feels nice to get out and stretch my legs. As I walk away, Snow calls back to the taxi driver telling him to wait, explaining he has no idea how long we’ll be; but I guess the amount Snow has paid him, the driver won’t care.

“You wanted Snow’s past, you got it. This is where I grew up as a kid,” he says, linking his fingers with mine.

We amble through long grassy fields, and it seems like we are walking round in circles. Eventually, we fall upon a broken bench, with age-splintered wood and missing slats at the back. But it sits in the most beautiful of locations, looking out onto a lake that looks more like a huge mirror. He frees my hand, sits down and beckons me to join him. Very slowly I edge along the bench to his side.

“I brought you here to let you in on a secret, one I’ve kept for years and promised to take to the grave.”

I cock my head to one side.

“Go on,” I say, leaning forwards.

“My kid sister drowned in this lake.”

I see his open hands clench into fists.

“You see, Darcy, it was all my fault…”

I have no idea what to say and simply listen to each painful word that leaves his lips as he unravels the most awful day of his life. I rub my hand across his knee to comfort him, for I could swear I see a tear.

“You were a kid, and accidents happen; it wasn’t your fault, you shouldn’t have been left in charge of your sister. Where was your mum?”

He shrugs his shoulders. “I remember Nana’s screams and Benji barking…”

“I’ve never heard you mention Nana before; what happened to her?”

“Bravo! How well rehearsed you are… You tell it so well, I almost feel like I was there myself.”

Snow jumps to his feet.

“Rayne!” he gasps.

My head shoots round at a man’s voice and the sound of clapping hands. I look up into the most beautiful grey-blue eyes, framed by short dark hair. From where I’m sitting he doesn’t look quite as tall as Snow, though his muscles are prominent and stretch his grey top tight across his chest.

“Fuck me, you scared me shitless! How long you been listening in?” Snow enquires.

“Long enough.” Rayne’s terse reply comes back.

He turns his attention to me.

“You enquired after Nana; well, she went back to Jamaica.” He manages a slight smile. “And
Benny
was our dog’s name. After Summer’s death, Mum lost the plot.” He clears his throat. “Had him rehomed.”

“Yes, brother, she had us all rehomed,” Snow is quick to add as he walks to Rayne’s side and places a hand on his shoulder.

“After everything we’ve been through, we’re brothers now?”

I see Rayne’s eyes dart towards Snow, where he holds him in an odd kind of stare.

“Well,
brother
,” Rayne says sarcastically, “even with the inconsistencies you tell, you somehow have the ability to make me believe you, and furthermore believe that you care… Like you really give a fuck about Summer.”

I gaze up at Snow. The poor bloke has poured out his heart to me and I can see the pain behind his eyes. I jump to my feet.

“How dare you!” I hiss. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“Who am
I
? I know who the fuck
I
am, who the fuck are
you
?” he says, taking a step towards me.

Snow takes his arm, pulling him back.

“Darcy,” I snap. “What’s it to you anyway?”

“Darcy?” he gasps. “As in Snow’s sister?”

To start with I nod, then shake my head.

“But I’m not his sister … we’re not related,” I say with urgency.

“No, you’re not, are you, Snow?” There’s a harshness in Rayne’s voice. “Tell me you haven’t…”

I don’t feel ashamed, why should I? Though I look down to avoid his eyes.

“Trust me, go home,” Rayne utters. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into, but believe me when I tell you, you’re in way over your head.”

“I haven’t brought her here for this,” Snow snaps. “I’ve brought her here because she wanted to know the truth, and the truth is what I’ve told her.”

“Oh, really!” Rayne shouts into his face.

Lifting both hands, Snow shoves his palms against Rayne’s chest, pushing him back.

“One girl who’s off limits, one girl you knew damn well you shouldn’t have touched. You had no right to lay a finger on her.”

“Whatever, Rayne, that’s my fucking business. No one tells me what to do.”

“You should take some time to think about that one… I’ve got to hand it to you, you really have sunk to an all-time low.”

Rayne barges between us, and my eyes follow him as he pads his way down to the bank of the lake, where he kneels down. I watch his fingers as they break the perfect surface of the water.

I pull at Snow’s arm, whispering into his ear, “What’s his problem?”

Snow pauses. “You wanted to come here. To think we could be in Regent Park right now, eating lunch to the sound of violins.”

In my head, I’m really starting to wish we had gone there.

“Now can you see why I never told you about my family? They all blame me for Summer’s death, and all of them hate me.”

I stand up, brushing the grass back and forth with my shoes.

“We’d best make tracks.”

He doesn’t give me a chance to respond, but turns and heads in the direction we came from. I take one last glance towards Rayne, and then am quick to follow.

“You should have seen the house; it was demolished not long after Summer passed away,” he tells me as I catch him up.

“So what do you think of London?”

Our heads shoot round; Rayne is only steps behind.

“You gotta stop creeping up on us like this,” Snow snaps as he approaches.

“You been here long?” He looks at me. “How’s London treating you?”

“The hotel’s amazing, but apart from that I haven’t seen a lot, only the hospice this morning.”

Snow coughs.

“What right did you have to go there? You’re nothing to Mum,” Rayne snaps at Snow. “A word, in private.”

“Everything that needed saying has been said.”

“No, Snow, now.”

I feel Snow’s grip tighten around my fingers.

“Wait here, this won’t take long.”

He releases my hand, and I watch the brothers as they amble back down to the river bank. Bored and left alone, I sit on the grass plucking at daisies and searching for four-leaf clovers. Every now and again I gaze up and see that they’re still talking, so I pull out my phone. I have two text messages: one from my sister, and one from Sam asking me to ring him. It only rings twice before he answers.

“Hi, you alright?”

I hear Sam’s voice.

“Be nice to meet up sometime, have a drink with the gang.”

I smile, thinking back to my schooldays.

“Yeah, that’d be nice. I’ll give you a ring when I come back from London.”

“Oh, by the way, I’ve got Hooper’s collar, so when we meet up I’ll bring it with me.”

A lump sticks in my throat, and I can’t answer.

“You don’t need to worry about the vet bills; let’s say it’s a favour from my uncle.”

“Thanks,” I utter; then I say my goodbyes and hang up.

I start to reply to my sister’s text, but seeing the men are heading back, I press the off button and slip the phone back in my pocket. Snow leans down, holding out his hand. I take it, and he pulls me back up to my feet. I look beyond Snow to Rayne, who has a strange glint in his eyes, yet as I look deeper, there’s an odd kind of familiarity, as if I’ve met him before, and as I maintain eye contact and he smiles at me, it’s as if he feels it too. His stare is like a stab to my stomach, but blanking him, I turn my head towards Snow.

“Anyway, got things to do, catch you later,” Rayne says, straightening his jeans with his hands, and then making his way towards the bench while we head back to the taxi.

“Later? What does he mean?” I ask as I fasten my seat belt and the driver pulls off the uneven grass.

“He wants to meet up with us in a bar.”

I frown. “Well, that’s not going to happen.” I think of his eyes, his leering stare. “He gives me the creeps.” I shudder. “Text him and make an excuse.”

“It’s not that easy, Darc, I can’t,” Snow mutters, loosening his tie.

I pull the seat belt away from my chest and lean forward.

“Why not? What hold’s he got over you?”

“Hold? You’ve got to be joking!” he scoffs. “Nobody’s got a hold over me. It’s just business talk and shit.”

I raise my eyebrows. “Business talk?”

“It was a decision we made a while back, that I’d be the face of the hotels. Liaise and drink with the customers, keep the staff in check, that sort of thing. I’ve made most of my money pissing around, fucking around and snorting coke,” he says with a cat-like grin, though it is soon gone when he sees my straight face.

I jump as he grabs my thigh.

“Darc, you’ve changed me. It might sound cliché, and I don’t expect you to believe me, but I’m no longer into the drug scene or shagging round, it don’t interest me no more. It’s like I’m a different person … a better person when I’m with you.”

I twizzle my hair into ringlets. I’ve seen what drugs can do, and men who shag around. I think of the awful life my mum had. I look towards Snow and heat up inside at the intensity in his eyes as his gaze moves from my eyes down towards my breasts. It’s nice that he feels he can talk to me so openly, yet every time I feel a little closer to him, he does or says something that makes me hold back.

I can sense he’s waiting for my reply, though drugs and shagging around are taboo subjects that I can’t talk about. The air feels claustrophobic, so I’m quick to change the subject.

“So, where does your brother fit into the business?”

“Rayne’s the total opposite to me, he’s not good around people, so he stays in our London office, deals with the accounts, contracts, tour companies; you name it, he does it. I travel the world, and stop off at all twenty of our hotels; there’s only one I don’t visit, that’s Rayne’s baby.”

“Why, what’s wrong with it? Is it rundown?” I probe.

“The Seasons Hotel? You’ve got to be joking; it’s probably the most luxurious of our chain. I’d love to sink my teeth into the complex, and there’s so much I’d love to change.”

“What’s stopping you?”

He shakes his head. “I just don’t get on with the manager. A clash of personalities, I guess, so I stay away. Not really struck on Jamaica either, so can’t say I’m bothered.”

“You can’t be serious? My sister went there for her honeymoon; she loved it, said it’s beautiful.”

“Whatever, Darc,” he says, and reaches for his phone. “Chase can’t be too far from here, if he decides to answer his fucking phone, that is.”

I gaze down into Snow’s lap while he texts. My eyes can’t help but wander to the bulge held tightly in his trousers.

“I’ll make a few calls and get our friend a babysitter for the night. Eh, Darc, just thinking, if the driver puts his foot down we should make it to the jewellers; I can assure you they won’t keep us waiting.”

“Snow, it’s a nice gesture, it really is, but…”

“I’m not taking no for an answer, and you can forget about that plastic shit.”

I roll my eyes. “I was trying to make a point…”

“Okay, point taken. When you pick out the piece that you want, imagine it’s from a cracker, but most importantly I want you to remember that whatever the cost, it’s been given to you from me with love.”

I
t’s late evening, and Chase, Rayne and I are walking down a busy street towards a cocktail bar. Fletchers is brightly lit with neon lights and sits on the corner of the street. Since he picked me up from the hotel, Chase hasn’t uttered a word, his eyes haven’t moved away from his phone and his fingers haven’t stopped texting. If he can’t be bothered to speak, neither can I. I twizzle my diamond necklace around in my fingers. It’s unreal; I could have bought my house twice over with the amount of money it cost, and still have change in my purse. I nearly died when I found out the price, but whatever I said, Snow wouldn’t take no for an answer. I keep clutching it in my hand, half expecting someone to jump out at me and steal it. I think back to my eighteenth birthday. Mum surprised me with a gold-plated curb chain from her catalogue; forty pounds, I snigger to myself. It was the most expensive necklace I had ever worn, and now I’m strutting round the streets of London with half a million pounds fastened around my neck.

“Darc, wait up!” Rayne calls.

I flick my head round, brushing my hair from my eyes. He’s trying so hard to keep up. I was so focused on my necklace I hadn’t noticed how fast I was walking. Hearing him shout after me, I slow down. He walks as close as he can so that his shirt brushes against my arm, and at every opportunity he tries to strike up conversation. But I don’t feel like talking and so blank him and look straight ahead.