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"Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we've still got about twenty miles until we reach the lodge, and it'll be night in ten minutes," he revealed.
I cringed. "So do we wait it out here or keep going?"
He shook his head. "If we keep going we'll end up in a rerun of your accident. I'll keep driving until it's too dark to see, and you keep your eyes out for the hunters' cabins I know are up here. They're about thirty yards off the road on either side, if they aren't buried up to their chimneys in snow."
"And occupied by anybody else who's dumb enough to be up here," I added.
The stranger pressed his foot slowly on the pedal and we creaked forward. "I was the last vehicle allowed on the pass from our side, and I doubt anybody else will be coming from the other direction," he revealed.
"So we're essentially the last two people on the mountain?" I guessed.
That sly smile of his slipped onto his lips and his eyes flickered to me. "Possibly the last two people in the world."
I snorted. "So the fate of our entire species rests on our shoulders? I admit my shoulders are a little broad, but that's a pretty heavy burden."
One of his eyes scrutinized my appearance while the other kept on the road. I squirmed under his careful, thorough gaze. "I can think of a lot of worse fates," he quipped.
"Like what?"
He nodded out the window where the snow kept its steady falling. "Like getting stuck in this blizzard. If we don't find a cabin soon we'll have to sleep in the truck. I haven't tried it yet, and I'd rather not start now."
I peered out the windows for a sign of anything that wasn't white-colored. "I'll look, but I charge by the hour for being a spotter," I teased.
He chuckled. "I can afford it. And speaking of myself, I haven't introduced myself. The name's Nick Frost. I'd shake your hand, but-" he nodded at the wheel where clutched both his hands.
"My name's Crystal," I told him.
"Is that a first or last name?"
"First."
"Did your parents forget the last name?"
"No, but we only just met," I pointed out.
He raised an eyebrow. "And we're completely alone on a mountain top in the middle of a blizzard. If I wanted to do something to you that you wouldn't like then I wouldn't be trying to drive us out of this mess," he returned.
I furrowed my brow. He had a couple of good points. "Smith."
Mr. Frost frowned. "I know we only just met, but you have to trust me enough to at least give me your real name."
I snorted. "That is my real name. Crystal Smith."
He blinked at the windshield. "Smith?"
"Smith."
"You were hiding Smith?"
I sheepishly smiled and shrugged. "An ordinary name for an ordinary woman."
"I'll be the judge of that, but have you spotted anything? We should be getting to one of the cabins soon," he reminded me.
I turned my attention back to the windows. My eyes swept over the area as we puttered through the thick snow. Even his truck couldn't break twenty miles an hour without starting to fish-tail along the slick road. I pursed my lips and squinted my eyes. Wait!
I jabbed a finger at the left side of the road and thirty yards off where the road should end. "There!"
Frost slowed the truck and followed my finger. He leaned over the wheel and squinted at what I pointed out. It was the brown, steep roof of a squat log cabin. A road filled three-feet deep with snow led through the trees and to the front door. I could just make out some windows on the front and a stone chimney on the roof.
