Scowling, he took a menacing step towards her.
She launched the snowball. The hard sphere exploded high on his right shoulder, sending cold chunks of slush up into his face.
“You’re playing with fire.” He swiped snow off his nose with a mad snap of his hand.
“So are you. I’m tired of being bossed around by a glassblower.” She fired another snowball in his direction. It landed with a loud thwap in the center of his coat. “Get on the sled, or this next snowball is going down your shirt.”
“Haven’t you figured me out by now?” Mitch took another couple of steps toward her. “I don’t pay attention to what consultants tell me to do.”
“I don’t like the way you say that word.” She whipped another snowball.
He feinted so the snowy bullet zinged past his shoulder. With a smirk, he eyed her three remaining snowballs. “What will you do when you run out of ammunition, Miss Davis?”
Her plan was working. Mitch was focused entirely on her. She stood her ground and yelled, “Get on the sled, Mitchell Blake!”
“Nag, nag, nag. I’ll fly down the hill when I’m good and ready.” He barreled into her like any good linebacker.
“Ooph!” The world tipped upside down. Jaye hung over his shoulder like a dirty sack of rock salt. She dropped the snowballs and clawed at the back of his coat. “Put me down!”
“There must be a consultant talking, because I can’t hear a thing.”
“Your hearing was damaged by the wild stunts you pulled in college. Speaking of which, are you overcome by an urge to run naked through the snow?”
He swatted her on the rump. “Streaking can be arranged.”
“Wait. Let me get my camera. We can post the pictures on your company’s website.”
“Sales will go through the roof.”
She laughed, which came out in a piggish snort while she was upside down.
With a quick move, he flipped her upright and put her on the sled.
Now that she was at ground level, the hill looked steeper than the Rocky Mountains. She scrambled off, falling knee-first into the snow. “I wanted you to go sledding, not me.”
“Not so fast, pixie.” He caught her and sat on the sled, plunking her in front of him. “Like most things, sledding is better with two people.”
“No!” Irritation spiked. The last thing she needed was another man telling her what to do. She slapped her mittens on his big thighs and pushed herself off the sled’s cold slats.
He buckled his arm around her waist, trapped her against his body, and lunged forward.
The sled rocketed downhill, throwing a thick mist of snow into the air. Jaye screamed—surprised, annoyed, and laughing like a kid on a wild amusement park ride all at once.
They gathered speed, careening toward a gully at the edge of the meadow.
Twenty feet from the edge, Mitch rolled off the sled and pulled Jaye with him.
Jaye landed on top of him, scraping her nose on his coat zipper. It figured. Every time a man didn’t listen to her, she got hurt. Jamming her hands into his shoulders, she scrambled to a standing position and swiped the snow off her face. “I didn’t want to fly down this stupid hill, you bully.”
He got up on one knee and grabbed her arm. “Why are you so mad?”
Typical. Like everyone else who took money from someone, he had no idea how much being valued only for the size of your bank account hurt. She yanked free of his hold. “I heard you and Nick talking a few minutes ago. Did you really treat your mother like a bank?”
Mitch shrugged. “She inherited money from her father. How else do you think we financed the factory?”
“So she carried the burden of never knowing if people wanted her or her wealth. Even her son and husband used her to fund the family business.” She pushed him in the chest. “How could you?”
“Money was all she was willing to talk about.” He stood, brushing the snow off his jeans with a brusque swipe. “Don’t sit in judgment, Jaye. You weren’t there.”
“Even a perfect stranger can see you treated her rotten.” She pointed at his chest, but the gesture lost its bite with a warm mitten covering her accusing index finger. “No wonder she doesn’t speak to you.”
“You don’t understand. My mother and I had a good relationship. Then, all of the sudden, she stopped talking to me. I have no idea what went wrong. Every time I tried to get an answer, she said the topic was off limits.” He flipped his hands open, his expression pained. “She’s my mother, damn it. Isn’t she the one person who’s supposed to talk to me when no one else will?”
A rush of sorrow doused some of Jaye’s ire. “She wouldn’t tell you why she was upset?”
“She wouldn’t even look me in the eyes.” A flash of guilt crossed his face. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m not blameless. The day she left, I behaved like a jerk. I just don’t know what I did to provoke her withdrawal six months before then.”
“Oh.” A snowflake landed on her nose. She flicked off the lacy bit of ice and wished she hadn’t gotten so angry.
Mitch walked past her, heading toward the gully.
Jaye followed, lifting her knees high to get through the snow. She paused beside him at the edge of the meadow. Twenty feet below, a creek ran along the frozen bank. Luckily, Mitch had pulled her off the sled before they went flying off the edge of the meadow. She gazed at the chunks of ice floating down the creek. “The sled is poking out of the water like a popsicle stick.”
One-handed, he grabbed the back of her coat, pulling her away from the edge. “I’ve seen the ground give way here. Don’t want you to fall into the water and turn into a Jaye-sicle.” He jumped into the gully, landing at the edge of the
