Beside him, she was all warm, naked limbs wrapped around him, and he knew it wouldn’t take much for him to roll her under him and make love to her again.
“Mmm…who’s texting?” she mumbled. “Why is anyone awake?”
The ominous rumble of thunder that followed her question was a pretty good indication, and the lightning lit up the room like it was the middle of the day. It had been that way all night, but they had done a pretty good job of keeping themselves distracted.
“I’m guessing it’s storm-related,” he murmured before kissing her forehead. “At dinner tonight, we talked about all the emergency procedures. Axel lived through a storm like this while everything was under construction, and we have a solid plan in place.”
“Then who’s texting?”
His phone was about to vibrate right off his nightstand, and he cursed the fact that he’d even brought it into the bedroom earlier when he got up to get them something to drink.
Sighing, Slater carefully untangled himself from Evie so he could roll over and grab the phone, and as soon as he tapped the screen, he knew there was trouble.
Fifty-seven missed texts.
“Shit.”
Axel: The power’s out but the generators kicked in! I think we’re good.
Milo: I can’t monitor everything I need to with the Wi-Fi out, but my team in Seattle is on it.
Connor: We’ve still got power in town.
Connor: Do we need to evacuate any of the cabins? What’s the lake level at?
Slater sat up and quickly read through all the back and forth until…
Axel: We’ve got crews moving people. We made the announcement after all the activities tonight and offered to move guests into the lodge. Luckily, we’re mid-week and half the cabins are vacant.
Axel: We should be good for a while, but maintenance noticed some downed trees. It’s gonna be a long night.
Milo: Where the hell’s Slater? This is kind of an all-hands-on-deck situation!
He groaned.
“Everything okay?” Evie whispered around a yawn.
“Uh…yeah. Maybe. Everyone’s freaking out about the weather,” he said distractedly. “I’m not even halfway through the messages and they’re asking where I am.”
“Oh.” Now she shifted and sat up, holding the blankets tightly over her breasts, as if he hadn’t been kissing them only minutes ago.
Axel: I thought we were all going to stay up here in the lodge tonight.
Milo: We decided that after he left.
Milo: But it’s completely irresponsible for him to not respond. We talked about this earlier.
Connor: Okay, everyone calm down. Slater can’t stop the storm or anything. This is why we have a staff. It’s not up to only us to take care of things.
“Thank you, Connor,” he murmured, and saw that text had come around midnight.
Axel: Connor’s right. Everything is under control, but it would still be nice if Slater let us know where he’s at.
Milo: I can’t get in touch with Evie either. She wasn’t feeling well earlier and I know she was going down to her cabin, so maybe she turned her phone off?
Milo: Or maybe I should send someone down to check on her and bring her up to the lodge?
Axel: It’s late and she’s probably asleep. Don’t go looking for trouble. We have enough to deal with.
