Read Snow Angel Cove (Hqn) for Free Online Page A

failing—and the whole situation—with far more equanimity than Eliza. She also seemed to have developed an immediate liking for Aidan.
    Eliza wanted to pull her daughter close and whisper to her a bit of maternal advice about being careful about the men you decide to trust, but this probably wasn’t quite the time.
    “It’s not a bad solution,” Dr. Shaw said with a pensive nod. “As a last resort, I was going to offer my own house for you to stay. It’s not far from here and I have an extra bedroom. The only problem is, I’m on shift all night tonight and you and your daughter would be alone there. I’ll tell you quite frankly, I feel much better about you staying somewhere with people around than I would even if we could find you a hotel room here or up in Shelter Springs.”
    Eliza studied all three of the people in the room, looking at her with varying degrees of expectation. She was too tired and battered to make this kind of decision right now! This whole thing was so ridiculous.
    If she only had herself to consider, she would jump up from this bed, grab her coat, tell them all to go to hell and drive to Boise, against medical advice or not.
    But she would be a poor mother not to be concerned about her daughter’s well-being. Maddie had already had a long, hard day. She was a trouper but she had to be exhausted. Subjecting her to at least a two-hour car ride in poor conditions—and with a driver who, like it or not, probably wasn’t in any shape to drive—would be foolhardy.
    He had an abundance of bedrooms and a caretaker couple in residence. She likely wouldn’t even see the man before she and Maddie left in the morning.
    The thought of having a safe, comfortable bed suddenly held enormous appeal. One night. What would be the harm in that?
    And anyway, what choice did she really have in the matter? She had a feeling it was either stay with him or be stuck here in the hospital overnight.
    “I suppose we could stay for one night, if you’re certain you have the room.”
    Relief blazed across his features and she realized with some surprise that his concern was genuine.
    “Absolutely,” he answered. “We have more than enough room.”
    “The place is huge,” Dr. Shaw said.
    “Yay. Now we can help you get a Christmas tree!” Maddie exclaimed.
    “Great,” he answered another quick flash of that devastating smile.
    “I do have one caveat,” Dr. Shaw said. “Someone will have to check on Eliza during the night. I would prefer every two hours but at least once or twice will suffice.”
    “That can be arranged,” he said.
    “Great. Then I’ll start work on your discharge papers.”
    She hurried out of the room, leaving Eliza alone with the man who had put her in the hospital bed in the first place.

CHAPTER THREE
    B Y THE TIME the nurse brought the final paperwork to release Eliza from the emergency department an hour later, Maddie’s patience with hospitals had trickled away, leaving her tired, hungry and cranky.
    “I want to go home,” she said several times. Each time, panic trickled through Eliza at the reminder that she didn’t
have
a home for her daughter.
    “We’re going to stay overnight at Mr. Caine’s house,” she finally explained just as she was shrugging back into her coat.
    At least she assumed that was still the plan. She hadn’t seen the man in an hour, not since he left with her car keys to call his employee to retrieve her vehicle from downtown Haven Point and take it out to his property so she would have all her things waiting for her when they arrived.
    “Are we having a slumber party?” Maddie asked with excitement. She had been hounding her mother to let her stay overnight at a friend’s house but Eliza had always been too nervous, given all the medication her daughter required. Apparently this was the next best thing.
    “Something like that,” Eliza murmured.
    The more thought she gave to it, the more ridiculous the whole concept seemed. What in the world