“What the hell?”
I heard him shuffle. Because yes, of course, the night sky in the middle of nowhere is beautiful sans light pollution, but also damn fucking dark.
I couldn’t even glimpse the fingers I was wriggling around in front of my face.
“The main power line must have been damaged.”
“So, what now?” I felt bubbles of panic rising inside me when the windows began to rattle in their frames. It wasn’t hardenough to play find-the-laptop-before-Nora-has-a-meltdown with the lights on? We had to level up?
“Nora,” John’s warmth surrounded me before my brain could even recognize the noise his boots made. Or maybe it was the howling of the wind outside that had somehow increased in volume since we were plunged into darkness. You know what they say. Some senses become sharper when others are taken away. The scent of him grew stronger, too. Pine, leather, soap. Masculine and clean. My head began to swim. My dizziness rushed back.
Large hands gripped my shoulders with gentle strength. “We will fix this.”
I wanted to protest, but I was indeed on the edge of a panic attack yet again. And he’d noticed before I did. What that said about the emotional intelligence of either of us, I didn’t want to put my finger on just now.
“In the pitch black?” I said to the approximate area where his face would be.
“There must be a generator someplace.” His breath caressed my face. I was glad he couldn’t see me right then, because I instinctively licked my lips.
“Ok. Where would that be? Not that I know what a generator looks like.”
“I’ll look. You...” He wrapped his hand around my arm, pulling me slightly with him. This was like one of those terrifying trust games they make you do at theater camp. You were blindfolded, and someone else guided you through the room. I’d never been able to relax, always bracing myself for the impact of a wall or table. Doing this with John Kater was the equivalent of being guided alongside an active volcano by your supervillain nemesis. I was so tense I thought I’d snap in two. Him leading me, the warmth of his hand the only sensory input, felt oddly intimate. I only knew we crossed into another room when thefloorboards beneath my shoes turned to soft carpet. How was he navigating this in total blindness?
“You sit here.” Both his hands pushed me gently down into a cushy seat.
Then the warmth and smell were gone. A pang of panic shot through me at the thought of sitting in this void. I craned my neck as a flash of lightning jolted through the room, illuminating John, who had retrieved a flashlight. An icy cold hit my face as he opened the patio doors, and the howling wind went from a low rumble to a crashing cataclysm. Moments later, he was back, towering over me, my head barely reaching his belt buckle. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this small.
His hair stuck in wet strings over his forehead, mouth forming a grim line.
“I need your help.”
“With what?”
“The generator.”
“These hands don’t know electric thingies.”
“Well, good for us, my hands know electric thingies. But my arms are too big to reach the lever.”
A bit of silence. Then two.
“You’re serious?”
“I mean, if you prefer to die of hypothermia, then be my guest.”
“Fine.” I agreed to help because what else was there to do?
The wind immediately slipped between my clothes, biting my skin, as I stepped into the freshly fallen snow. Sharp cold burned my cheeks, and I could swear John was angling his body in a way that took the brunt of it.
Behind a massive pine whose branches lashed out in the storm stood a small garden shed, the door ajar, a pile of snow holding it open. John popped the light between his teeth, shining it at a metal box on the top shelf. It was shoved againstthe slatted ceiling and probably housed dozens of spiders. I shivered.
He nodded towards it, opened his palms, then said something.
“All I got was gibberish,” I said.
John plucked the flashlight from between his teeth. In the dark, I couldn’t see his facial expression clearly, but I’d bet my ass it was exasperated.
“There is a small switch you need to flip at the back of it. I’ll hoist you up.”
