AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It maddened her that he was so relaxed. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. So far you’ve not been great company, although I’m sure that could change if you’d settle down some.”
She felt a stab of guilt. Without him, she would have been attacked by a mountain lion, or lost in that snowstorm. “I’m a bit stressed.”
“I’m getting that.”
“I have to check on Rosie. You must have some way of being able to contact someone. This is an emergency.”
“We have different views on what constitutes an emergency.”
“We have different views on most things. It’s all about perspective. Being snowed in without any form of communication is an emergency in my book.”
“Today you’re reading from my book, not yours. I keep the cabin well stocked. I have a generator in case the power goes out. I have pretty much everything I need to survive in a situation like this one. You won’t starve and you won’t freeze.”
“How often does this happen?”
“A couple of times every winter. Sometimes more. We’re in the mountains.”
She rubbed her arms and paced back toward the fire. This whole situation was unreal. What had possessed her to walk into the forest? Why hadn’t she gone to the bar at Snowfall Lodge and ordered a large vodka and processed her issues in warmth? “There must be a phone signal somewhere.”
He dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone. “Check for yourself. And while you’re at it, take a look at the message from Dan.”
She took the phone, saw that he had no signal at all, and read his last message to Dan.
Found Katie. Will keep her here with me overnight.
Dan had replied: Thanks. Will let family know.
She was dismayed, but also relieved. At least her mother
wouldn’t be imagining her dead somewhere in the forest. She handed the phone back. “So what happens now?”
“Well, I don’t intend to throw you over my shoulder and carry you to the bedroom, so I guess we need to find another way to pass the time.”
She felt awkward. “So—you want to swap life stories?”
“I’m going to throw another couple of logs on the fire. You should sit down and relax.”
“You should know by now that I don’t know how to relax.”
“Try.” He walked out of the room and closed the door.
She pulled a face at the door, and then felt childish. If he hadn’t found her when he had, she’d still be on that trail and the blizzard would have wiped out any chance of her finding her way home.
Fretting about her sister, she paced over to his bookshelves. Jordan was obviously a big reader. There was more nonfiction than fiction, a concentration of books about Arctic exploration and climbing. Several shelves were devoted to biographies.
When he walked back into the room a few minutes later, she was curled up on the sofa, her nose deep in a book on Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated trip to Antarctica.
He dropped the logs he was carrying into the basket next to the fire. “That book won’t warm you up.”
She closed the book. “Judging from your bookshelves, you love the outdoors.”
“I do.” He carefully added a log to the fire. “I’m guessing you’re an indoor, city type.”
“I work in the city, and my job is indoors so I don’t have much choice about that. Most people don’t choose their career based on the environment. But I bet you did.”
“I wouldn’t want to live anywhere but the mountains.”
