Tangled Web: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 6) by Giulia Lagomarsino (an ebook reader txt) 📕

I opened the front door and grabbed the shovel off the porch. The path Lorelei had made the other day had already been closed up with new drifts of snow. I started shoveling another path. Luckily, it wasn’t too difficult since she had already done it once. Otherwise, the snow would have been packed and been a lot harder. By the time I was done with the porch, I was heaving and sweating under my layers of clothes.

I heard a faint sound in the distance, something sounding similar to scraping. It was difficult to see from this far back from the road, but I would bet a snow plow was coming through. I dropped the shovel and started hiking toward the road down the long drive. Each step was harder than the last. The snow was up to my knees in places. I was crazy for thinking that I could shovel this out. I needed a plow, and when I saw Eric’s truck coming down the road, his plow attached to the front, I started laughing hysterically. Mostly because I was worried that I was actually going to have to shovel this whole damn thing out.

He honked as he came closer, slowing as he started plowing a path down the drive. He backed up a few times, having to plow several spots twice before he really moved all the snow. By the time he had the end of the drive plowed out, I was just walking up to him. He jumped out of the truck and grinned at me.

He glanced behind me at the small area I had shoveled and held out his arms in disbelief. “Thanks, man, for getting that little path shoveled. You saved me tons of time. If you had been able to get just a few feet more, that would have been perfect.”

“Hey, I shoveled off the porch. Do you have any idea how long that took?”

“Oh, you poor baby,” he jeered. “Did you have to do some work?”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that I’m seriously injured and you’re lucky I’m still alive.”

“Yeah? Let me see.”

I took off my hat and showed him the back of my head. “What, that scratch? You’re such a baby.”

“That’s not all. I got kneed in the balls yesterday.”

He winced, nodding slightly. “Now that makes me feel bad for you.”

“Wow, you’re all sugar and sunshine, aren’t you?”

“Do you want me to plow you out or not? Because I don’t have to do this much work. I could go home and relax with Kat.”

“Yeah, I’m sure this is really hard work, moving the gear shift back and forth. I really feel for you, man.”

“You should. My arm is killing me,” he said, mockingly rubbing his arm.

“I’m surprised you left Kat at all.”

“Well, I didn’t want to, but someone had to come save your ass. I couldn’t live with myself if I let you die.”

“That’s really touching,” I said, trying to sound sincere.

“Yeah, well, I can’t have my reputation stained. I can’t be the brother that didn’t go rescue his helpless brother.”

“Whatever. You want to give me a ride back?”

“All the way up there?” he scoffed. “You can’t make the walk on your own?”

“My feet are freezing and my legs are sore,” I whined.

“Fine,” he sighed. “Get in the damn truck.”

I trudged to the other side of the truck and got in, pushing my hands in front of the vents to warm my hands. “Crap, it’s fucking cold out there.”

“And you were so sure we weren’t going to get any snow,” he smirked. He started plowing, pushing the snow off to the side of the driveway. It was going to take a little while to get all the way up the driveway with the drifts.

“It’s fucking December! When do we ever get snow in December?”

“There’s a first time for everything. So, why didn’t you leave Lorelei’s the other day while you had the chance?”

I shot him a look, telling him he knew exactly why. “I was helping her paint. Well, I would have if I hadn’t fallen and cracked my skull open.”

“It’s hardly cracked open. How’d you fall anyway?”

“No idea. The last thing I remember is talking to her. Then I woke up with her standing over me.”

“Well, what did she say?”

“She said she had gone upstairs to get a sweatshirt, so she didn’t see what happened.”

He blew out a breath. “You’re lucky, man.”

“Don’t I know it.”

It still bothered me that I didn’t know what happened, but I had let go of the idea that Lorelei was responsible. I just couldn’t see her having anything to do with my accident after what had happened over the last few days.

“So, is this serious between you two?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“I mean…I have mixed feelings here. I really like her. I…shit.” I stared out the window, only now realizing what a terrible situation I was in. I couldn’t tell Eric. He would totally flip out. If I told him a potential serial killer was around him all day long, he would rip me a new asshole, and not just because he was there, but because of Kat.

The problem was, I had lied to Lorelei for weeks. She thought I was just interested in her. What would she think if she found out that I had been lying to her all this time? Everything between us would be wasted.

“Are you in love with her?” Eric asked incredulously, laughing slightly.

“Shut up,” I grumbled.

“No, this is great, man. Really great. Why are you so nervous?”

I sighed, deciding to tell him just a little. “Because I haven’t been totally honest with her, and I’m afraid that when she finds out, she’s not going to want me anymore.”

“What haven’t you been honest about?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Well, obviously it does. Besides, what could you have possibly hidden from her that she would be so upset about?”

Luckily, I didn’t have to answer because Lorelei was walking down the steps of the porch just as the truck was