"What do you mean there are no flights to New Hampshire?"

Natalie Turner was at her wit's end. Having to stuff herself into a tin can all the way from the bright and sunny west coast to the dreariness of the east coast was bad enough, but stuck one layover away from her destination because of a freak snowstorm was more than she could handle.

The woman at the airline ticket counter maintained her calm composure, which made Natalie even more frustrated.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but all flights have been grounded until the storm passes."

"And when will that be?"

The woman gave her an apologetic smile. "April snowstorms in Boston are as unexpected as they are unpredictable. The forecast says by tomorrow, but—"

"I don't have until tomorrow."

"I'm sorry, ma'am. But nothing is leaving tonight. We can offer you a room—"

Natalie didn't want any more excuses, and with a groan, she pushed away from the counter and turned her back to the woman without hearing the rest of her suggestion. None of this was acceptable and if she couldn't blame the airlines, there was someone else she could pin it on.

Carter Lewis had had his face buried in his phone since they saw the CANCELLED notification on the Departure screen, and Natalie hoped to hell that he was figuring out a solution for the mess they were in.

"Well?" Natalie snapped as she approached.

Carter's dark hair fell into his eyes as he remained focused on his phone. She was about to snap again when his blue gaze lifted to meet hers. "The retreat is about a two and a half-hour drive from here."

"Then we call a car—"

"But the road to the mountain is closed because the snow is even worse up there."

"So we have someone drive us as far as they can."

Carter shook his head. "There's no one available." He held his phone up for her to see their company's preferred ride-sharing app. Where usually there would have been numerous red blips on a digital map of their surrounding area waiting to pick them up for a fee to take them to their requested destination, there now wasn't a single one to be seen.

Natalie swore, running a hand over her face, smudging her once-perfect makeup. "Can you get in touch with someone back in Los Angeles?"

He shook his head again. "No one's answering at the office."

This was not what should have happened. They were supposed to have flown directly to New Hampshire and taken a car service hired by the company to drive them to the hokey 'team-building' corporate ski trip she was forced to attend for the week.

From the very beginning, things had gone sideways. Instead of a smooth flight, it was a turbulent nightmare that landed them in Boston because of a freak snowstorm. And now she was being told there was no way to make it to their destination until tomorrow, and that was only if they were lucky.

Well, she was not going to spend the night at the airport.

Walking back to the woman at the airline counter, she caught her attention just as she put down what looked to be a large walkie-talkie. What year was this, 1989?

"We'll take that room now," Natalie announced. "Two beds, and a car to pick us up in the morning."

The woman dared to tease a smirk before her expression returned to her earlier annoying calmness. "I'm sorry ma'am, but all available rooms in the nearby hotels have been taken by other passengers."

Natalie saw red. "But you just said you would offer us a room."

"I said we could offer you a room, but they filled up fast due to the unprecedented storm and if you were going to take one you needed to let me know—" the woman looked at her wristwatch "—five minutes ago."

"What?" Natalie hissed.

"As I said," the woman continued. "We will be happy to assist you in the morning, but unfortunately the counter is closing so that airline employees can return home safely. If you're in need of further assistance, the airport's main information and reception desk can help you."

The woman gave her one final smile which Natalie swore was spitefully forced before placing an obnoxiously large 'CLOSED' sign on the countertop.

With an exasperated groan, Natalie turned back to Carter, who still had his hair in his face like an under-groomed golden retriever as he remained glued to his phone screen.

"You need to find us somewhere to sleep," she said more forcefully than she intended. "I don't care where, and I don't care how much it costs. I will not sleep at the airport."

"We may not have to," Carter murmured, typing for a few more moments before finally looking up to meet her impatient gaze. "I found a room at a motel about twenty-five minutes away, and one of the last remaining cars on the app will take us there."

"How much?"

Carter looked back down at his screen. "This one is $99."

Natalie's laugh echoed off the walls of the empty airport. "Is that by the hour?"

"For the night." Carter frowned, confusion written across his face.

"Never mind," she said, brushing him off with a flick of her wrist.

His brow remained furrowed as he looked back to his phone. "Well, we need to make a choice soon. This room currently has four other viewers looking to book it."

Rolling her eyes, Natalie looked at their surroundings, debating their next step. She did not want to stay in the airport a moment longer than necessary, but she also did not want to spend the night at a cheap motel with...

She glanced at Carter out of the corner of her eye. She'd known since the moment her boss walked him into her office last year that this intern was going to be trouble.

Thanks to her innate ability to excel at every task she put her mind to, she'd become the company's youngest marketing manager. Which meant these fresh-out-of-college interns were barely younger than her, but somehow all seemed like infants when it came to performing simple tasks like data mining and field research.

Carter was no different. He needed his hand held even for simple tasks like following up on a lead or interpreting sales data. He never seemed to remember names or numbers when she told him and was always goofing off on the internet instead of working. Which was why it had taken her so long to let him do anything other than getting her coffee and stand there looking pretty.

Although he certainly was, she would give him that.

It had taken a very stern conversation from her boss to convince her Carter could handle additional responsibility.

According to her boss, having an intern was supposed to make her job, and therefore her life, easier. So she'd given him this simple assignment. Book their flights from LAX to the New Hampshire ski resort they were being forced to spend the next week at. But right now she'd give anything to fix her mistake in trusting him with this.

If she'd booked the flight, she would have checked the weather. Obsessively. Up until their boarding time.

It was only common sense.

They wouldn't be standing in this airport terminal with no other option than a sleazy one-star motel because they never would have boarded that plane in the first place.

But she hadn't booked the flight, and because she trusted someone else to handle it they were stuck. And any bed was beginning to sound better than no bed.

Gritting her teeth, Natalie turned back to Carter. "Book the room before we end up on the streets."

"Already done," he said, looking up from his phone with a knowing smile. "Our ride should be here in ten."

"You booked the hotel without my permission?" He was truly testing her patience, which she had very little of at the moment.

"You may be my superior, Natalie, but I'm not an idiot. It's our only option."

"That's Ms. Turner to you."

Seething, Natalie stomped down to the baggage claim area without checking to see if Carter was following her. With each step of her heels on the epoxy flooring, she reminded herself that she just had to get through the coming week. When they got home to the Oracle Xero Records office, she'd recommend to her boss that Carter be transferred to the mailroom, or fired for his incompetence, so long as he was somewhere else where his incompetence couldn't bother her any longer.