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A couple.
Genesis aside, that was the fact.
It was very hard to tell myself otherwise while we were full-blown making out.
We probably would’ve been there a while if his phone hadn’t rang.
A confusing sense of frustration lit in me as he pulled back, holding my gaze while he fished in the pocket of his coat for his phone. But something about the look on his face as he checked the screen before answering doused water over that particular fire.
“Hello?” he answered, then listened intently to the muffled female voice over the line. I guessed it was probably Shiloh. “How did the doctor she saw here not notice?” he barked into the phone, then immediately sighed over whatever the answer to that question was. “Of course she did,” he replied, sounding defeated as he pulled himself to a standing position. He tucked the phone against his ear, then held out his hands for me.
Five minutes ago, I would’ve tried to pull him back down into the snow.
The anxiety on his face now let me know it wasn’t the time.
Instead of playing around, I accepted his help getting up and then waited for him to end the call. A moment later, he did, but then he just… stood there, looking lost.
“Orion… what’s going on?” I asked, after I’d waited as long as I could in the increasing cold.
The sound of my voice seemed to pull him from his thoughts, and he turned to look at me. “Uh… Calli,” he said. “She had… uh… an episode.”
“An episode?”
“She’s at the hospital now, waiting for answers. But um… we need to go. I’ve gotta…”
He didn’t finish that statement, just headed back to the garage where he yanked up the shovel and started moving like a madman, clearing the snow.
“How can I help?!” I yelled. “Is there another shovel, or…?”
“I just need enough clearance to get the Jeep out of the garage; it can handle the snow,” he answered, shaking his head. “You’re my wife. I don’t want you out here with a shovel.”
“Okay, but whatcanI do?” I asked, ignoring the look of frustration he sent my way over another interruption. “You know what, never mind. I’ll get us packed up,” I said, instead of waiting for an instruction he probably wasn’t in a space to offer.
I rushed back into the house, changing into dry pants first, then set about the task of shutting the house down the best I knew how, then repacking our bags. I did a mental inventory, making sure I located cell phone chargers, laptops, everything. There wasn’t anything that couldn’t be replaced, but in absence of anything else useful, I could at least mitigate the chances of later annoyance.
Down in the kitchen, I made sure everything was clean and dry, and did the same in the bathroom. There wasn’t a lot I could do about the linens that were still wet, but at least tossed them in the dryer.
I was just heading back downstairs when I heard the garage door machinery engaged, which I took as a good sign. I grabbed all the bags, walking them out to see that Orion had already backed out into the driveway and was getting out of the vehicle, presumably to come looking for me.
He seemed relieved when he saw me in the door.
Instead of getting back inside, he helped with the bags, then thanked me for the thermos of coffee I put in his hands. He’d been out in the frigid weather much longer than I had and I’d spent a good fifteen minutes with my limbs tingling from the warmth inside.
He had to be freezing.
Orion didn’t say much, and neither did I. I wanted him focused as he maneuvered in the snow. He must’ve picked up on my anxiety because he muttered something to me about special tires and terrain capability, stuff that was too far into the details for me to care about.
I just wanted off the damn mountain alive.
Which he gave me.
It was much slower getting back down than it had been coming up and I had a sneaking suspicion he would’ve been much more reckless about it if I wasn’t in the car. Nearly an hour after we set off, we pulled into Sugar Valley proper, but only to fill up with gas and take the chains off the tires.
The weather wasn’t clear enough for a helicopter ride, so we were driving back to Blackwood.
Stress laid so heavily on Orion by the time we left Sugar Valley it was impossible not to feel bad for him.
“Do you… want to talk about it?” I asked, feeling awkward about it, but knowing I shouldn’t let the radio be the only thing filling the silence.
