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He started, that gut-jolt happening to him again. The pickaxe his grandfather had always used, with WINCHESTER engraved along the polished wooden handle, was propped against the tree trunk where Scout had been splitting firewood. And no… It had not been there moments before.
“What the hell…?” he muttered.
“Hey, you’re stalling out,” Ciara said. “Let’s go! We can take the Rube.”
Ciara rushed to the passenger’s seat and Scout slid behind the wheel. He turned the Rubicon around and carefully drove along the private road to the narrow one that wound its way from the base of the mountain almost to the top of its peaks. As he’d scolded Ciara earlier, it wasn’t a road anyone should be on during a snowstorm. Especially with the dense fog and the ice accumulating.
“My God, I hope Gaby’s okay,” Ciara told him.
“Yeah. And I hope nobody else was around. With kids out of school for the holiday, they could be up here on snowmobiles, skis or snowboards. It can be extremely dangerous this time of year if you’re not used to the conditions.”
Even as he said the words, the tires of the Rubicon hit a patch of black ice and shimmied along the road as Scout fought to keep the vehicle under control.
One of Ciara’s hands gripped the “Oh, Shit” bar adjacent to her window. Her other palm flattened against the dashboard.
“Jesus, Scout. This is the worst damn road to be on right now. You are absolutely correct.”
“Just hang on, babe. And hell… Had you started up the mountain fifteen minutes later, it could be you in the middle of an avalanche.”
“So happy I was running another errand before I got the wild hair to confront you.”
“No happier than me. Fuck, if it you were I was chasing after right now…”
His jaw clenched.
“But it’s not,” she simply said.
They didn’t make it too far down the mountain when they came upon the others.
Ciara gasped. “That’s Gaby car!”
The front was buried in snow. There were a few others that were covered as well, the driver’s milling about, talking on their cells, likely to 9-1-1 or family members. It didn’t appear that anyone was injured.
“I don’t see her,” Ciara said with increasing distress.
“Shit!” Scout’s body tensed.
But then Ciara’s hand shot out and she clasped his forearm. “There’s Gaby!”
The pregnant woman with short brown hair stepped away from the shield of Hamilton’s tall frame and she appeared perfectly fine. Not a scratch on her. Thank God.
They exited the vehicle and Ciara went one way—with Maddie to check on their friend Gaby—and Scout grabbed the provisions from the Rube and joined JT.
No words were necessary. They knew what to do. First, they worked with Hamilton to dig out Gaby’s rental. Scout called out for anyone else who needed help, but it didn’t appear anyone was trapped in a car and no one was hurt. A miracle. Perhaps slightly suspicious, too. With all three couples arguing up at the cabin, and Gaby actually leaving, Scout would not put it past Grandpa Win to get a little mischievous and trap them all on the mountain. Snowed in and snuggled up, Gramps would likely say with a twinkle in his eyes.
An avalanche was how he’d won over the love of his life, after all.
Hamilton took Gaby back up to the cabin in her car. Scout and JT used the pickaxes to hack away at the pileup of snow and ice, but the powder kept falling and it was too massive a mound to even loosen chunks that could be shoveled away or at least dislodged enough that Scout could bring down the snow mover from the cabin. It wasn’t meant for a job this big.
“We’re gonna have to call the association,” he told JT. “Get them to clear the road.”
The half-dozen or so luxury homeowners on the mountain paid into a conglomerate that kept the roads maintained. The crew had the necessary equipment for something of this magnitude. But Scout and JT kept at it, double checking as best as they could to make sure no one had fallen victim to the avalanche. No signs of skis, poles or boards. That was good. They continued a while longer, working well together without having to direct each other and just innately knowing what needed to be done.
Ciara and Maddie did some searching of their o
wn, but knew to stay close by, in eye- and earshot of Scout and JT, in the event another landslide occurred.
When they’d done all they could, the men re-loaded the Rubicon and everyone returned to the cabin.
