by M. S. Parker
Tabitha was a new woman at work, and both Stella and I had sort of taken the shyer, quiet girl under our wings. I squinted at Stella. “You’re not going to let her cook, are you?”
“After last time?” Stella laughed. “No. Cooking duty is on you and me.”
The last time we’d gotten together, Tabitha had burned the boxed macaroni and cheese she’d planned on making for the group. She’d told us, after the fact, that she wasn’t much of a cook.
She then told us she’d just stick to her first instinct, buying potato salad or something like that from the nearest deli the next time we needed food for a get-together.
Another yawn cracked Stella’s mouth wide open.
“It’s getting late.”
She blinked at the screen of her phone, the light making her face seem paler. “It’s not getting late,” she told me. “It is late – after one.”
She staggered upright, swaying a little. She reached out a hand to brace on the wall for balance as she giggled. “Man, my head is going around and around…” She twirled her index finger in emphasis.
“Why don’t you take your drunk self on to bed then? Let Lukas have his way with you.”
She waggled her eyebrows at me. “That sounds like a brilliant plan. You sure you don’t need anything?”
“No. I’m good.” I smiled at her, still sitting by the window. She’d loaned me a pair of jogging shorts and a shirt, and Lukas kept all the guest bathrooms stocked as far as amenities went, so I was good for the night.
“Okay, then.” She turned, and with the exaggerated care of somebody who knows they’ve had too much to drink, she made her way to the door.
As the door shut behind her, I leaned my head back against the wall and went back to staring outside as I finished my glass of wine.
Man, I really was going to have one hell of a headache in the morning.
That didn’t stop me from finishing off the glass as I sat there, staring out into the silvery-white, moonlit night.
It really was beautiful out here.
2
Breanna
Gracie is joining us for the weekend.
I read the text and sent Stella back a smiley face in response.
Gracie was closer to Stella than she was to me, but I liked the other woman.
She had an…unusual relationship with Lukas and Stella.
Before Stella and Lukas had fallen in love, Gracie had been married to him. It had shocked the hell out of me when Stella explained the complicated situation, but after meeting Gracie, I could see why she adored the other woman.
Gracie and Lukas had shared what was basically a marriage of convenience – nothing sexual or romantic existed between them. Gracie was gay, and her family hadn’t known anything about her sexuality. Lukas, as a guy with a wedding ring, had been able to avoid any sort of matchmaking attempts. He was loaded and attractive. I’d personally seen women all but trip over themselves to get his attention.
Not that it was going to happen now that he had Stella. He only had eyes for her.
Well, her and his little girl. Gracie and Lukas had ended their amicable marriage, but before Stella came along, Gracie had asked Lukas if he’d consider being the sperm donor if she got artificially inseminated.
He was involved with his little girl – very involved – and it was obvious he was crazy about little Belle.
My friends had a set-up that worked for them despite the complications, and I was happy for them.
I picked up my phone and tapped out a quick question.
What about Belle? She getting her first girls’ weekend?
Putting the phone back down, I focused my attention back on the portfolio I’d put together for the meeting this afternoon. It was with Ken-tech, a local tech company that was trying to branch out and grow. I loved supporting local businesses, and this had become one of my babies.
The tone from my phone had me glancing away from work once more, and I read the text from Stella.
Lukas is keeping her this weekend.
I grinned at the image of the big, somewhat intimidating man taking care of his infant daughter.
It was a good thing Belle couldn’t talk yet. She’d have already convinced her dad to buy her the moon.
I bent back over my desk and skimmed the material I’d put together.
A quick look at the clock told me that I had a half-hour before I was supposed to meet up with my contact from Ken-Tech. I needed to be going. Gathering up my bag, laptop and the presentation for Ken-Tech, I shut down everything on the desk.
The cold stung my cheeks as I made my way to my car. Overhead, the sky was a bright blue bowl, not a cloud in sight. It was supposed to be clear all weekend.
Clear and cold.
That was fine because I didn’t plan on doing anything but lazing around in my PJs and reading once I got to the cabin.
“Just get through the meeting, and you’re scot-free,” I told myself as I unlocked the car.
Just get through the meeting, I repeated to myself several hours later.
I was already more than an hour behind the schedule I’d set for myself, and I was going to get caught up in rush-hour traffic if I didn’t get a move on.
My two o’clock meeting had run late, not getting to the restaurant where we’d agreed to meet for coffee until just a little after two-thirty. And he’d brought some of the people who handled PR for his company with him.
Instead of the quick meeting I’d planned, we were there for close to two hours. There was no way I was going to make it to the cabin before it got dark. I seriously hated taking that road at night, but I wasn’t about to miss out on my girl time either.
My worn old SUV took a couple of seconds to crank to life, and I turned the heater all the way up, waiting for it to warm up and thaw out the ice that had become my face and hands.
Fortunately, before I’d left the restaurant, I’d changed into something warmer than a pantsuit and heels.
Now, wearing jeans, a flannel shirt and a sweater, I eased my way through the Denver traffic, heading toward the mountains. They jutted up into the air like sentinels as I finally broke free of the concrete canyons of Denver, and I breathed out a sigh of relief.
There was no denying I loved my job and I loved Denver, but sometimes, I had to just get away.
The sun edged down closer to the horizon as I took the route that had become more familiar over the past year.
I stopped once to get gas and coffee, groaning as my car bellyached again as I started it.
I needed a new vehicle but was hoping to wait until spring before I started looking.
“Get me through one more winter, baby,” I told the SUV, patting the dashboard. “Just one more winter.”
As the engine hummed along throatily, I left the highway and took the first of several winding roads that would lead me up into the mountains.
Darkness loomed closer, and I tried not to let it get to me. Roughly thirty minutes after I left the highway, the sun slipped behind a bank of clouds close to the horizon.
The appearance of the clouds made it darker than it should be in the mountains and I grimaced as I eased the SUV around one sharp turn after another.
The four-wheel drive handled the road like a pro, and I found myself relaxing a little…which was a mistake.
I was almost to the last turn-off for the cabin when I came across a tree branch blocking most of the road. Grumbling, I pulled the SUV as far off to the side as I dared and turned off the engine, pocketing the keys. I never left a car running with the keys inside – a friend of mine had lost her car that way in college, and even though I was out in the middle of nowhere, the paranoia that had formed after that incident had never left me.
It took a bit of huffing, puffing, and grunting, but I got the tree branch off the road. Turning back to the SUV that I could just barely make out in the dark, I muttered, “They better have soup ready. Or hot chocolate. Anything hot.”
My hands were numb, my wool
en gloves soaked through, and I shoved the key into the ignition, desperate to get the heater back on.
I twisted the key.
The engine sputtered…then, with a noise almost like a sigh, it went quiet.
“No,” I muttered, shaking my head. “Not now.”
I tried again.
Nothing.
Grabbing my phone, I hit the button to bring it to life, dread now a weight inside me.
There were no bars.
I was trapped up here in a broken-down car with no way to call my friends or call for help.
I dropped my head back against the seat, helplessness welling inside me.
“Of all the luck,” I said, trying not to panic.
Things would be okay. It was going to get cold, but I was in the car, and I had extra clothes in the suitcase behind me, as well as a blanket. I was warm-natured, and it seemed I was always colder than everybody else, so anytime I traveled, I took extra blankets.
“It will be fine,” I told myself, taking a deep breath.
Even as I tried to convince myself of that, the panic tried once more to set its hooks in me. I slid from the car and popped the hood, although I had no idea what I was looking for. I could add more windshield wiping fluid and check the oil, but that was it.
I was no mechanic.
In the dim light, I couldn’t make out anything other than the fact that I was, indeed, staring at an engine.
“Why couldn’t this happen in the city?”
Slamming the hood down, I turned and braced my back against the SUV. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It was going to be fine. In the morning, I could just follow the road up to the cabin where Stella was and use the radio to get help with the SUV.
It was going to costs a pretty penny to have it towed, but I couldn’t do much about that.
I took another deep breath.
A familiar scent came to me, and I tipped my head back, looking around.
Wood smoke.
I pushed away from the SUV, even as a logical voice in my head told me, Stay with the vehicle.
But that smoke smelled really close.
I didn’t stay with the vehicle. I dug my big, heavy flashlight out of the trunk and studied the darkness for what felt like forever. Finally, I stepped into the heavy undergrowth and started to work my way up a steep embankment.
The scent of smoke grew stronger, and I hesitated a moment, peering into the dark to see if I could catch sight of another cabin close by. A lot of people up here still used wood stoves and fireplaces for warmth.
But I couldn’t see a cabin.
I glanced back at my footsteps and gave them the evil eye and a warning, “Don’t go anywhere.”
Then, taking a deep breath, I set off into the night. Every now and then, I paused to look back, studying the tracks my booted feet left in the snow. I was about ready to turn back when I caught sight of flames glinting through the trees ahead.
Did somebody light a fire out here? Tonight?
It seemed mind-boggling to me, but as I drew closer, I could see that was, indeed, what had happened. I caught sight of the small tent as I neared, finally breaking through the trees into a small clearing.
My flashlight beam swept across the man who was sitting on a rock, facing me.
He arched a brow. “Kind of late to be going for a hike,” he commented.
“Kind of cold to be out camping,” I returned.
And he was camping. He had to be nuts. But there was no mistaking the small tent or the heavy backpack that lay just beyond the tent’s entrance.
“You having trouble?” he asked instead of responding to my comment.
“My SUV broke down. I smelled the smoke and…” Shrugging, I lowered the flashlight and thumbed off the power, not wanting to waste the batteries.
“Where are you heading?”
I told him, cautiously studying his features in the firelight. Brown hair peeked out from under a knit cap, while a heavy growth of whiskers obscured the lower half of his face. He was cute, in a wild, outdoorsy sort of way. And he looked familiar, although I couldn’t figure out why.
“That’s Lukas Grayson’s place,” he told me.
“You know Lukas?”
He nodded. “Come closer to the fire. You’re not dressed for being out in this kind of cold.”
I made my way closer, still clutching the heavy flashlight, ready to use it as a weapon if I needed to.
“How do you know Lukas?” I asked once I reached the warming heat of the fire.
“We’re friends.” He leaned forward and stirred something in a pot that he’d rigged up over the campfire.
My belly grumbled.
He gave me an amused glance. “Want something to eat?”
I hesitated to say yes. What I wanted to do was get to the cabin and get warm, but that was seeming less and less likely.
“I should go back to my SUV,” I said, shaking my head.
“It’s going to be miserably cold.” He gave me a practiced look, then said, “If you want to stay here tonight, I can share my tent and the sleeping bag. It will be a tight fit, but we can make it work. In the morning, I can get you to Lukas’s cabin, maybe then take a look at your ride.”
The scent of the food he had in that little pot was killing me. I hadn’t had anything to eat except for a bagel at my desk for lunch.
Uncertain, I glanced back at the way I’d come. A cold wind kicked up, and I moved closer to the fire.
“You still willing to share some of that?” I asked, glancing at the food.
He offered a grin, his teeth shining white against the facial hair that shrouded his chin and the lower half of his face. “I am. Come on, sit down before you freeze.”
It was beef stew, and he also tossed me some bread from the little loaf he’d brought with him.
“A meal fit for a king,” I quipped as I scooped my first bite.
“Hardly, but it’s not bad for camp food.”
It was probably because I was starving, but the stew was definitely a few steps above not bad. I swallowed and reached for the bottle of water he’d given me.
I’d worried about using up so much of his supplies, but he shook his head. “I’ve got plenty. I’m only out here for the night, but I always pack extra.”
We ate in silence for a few more minutes, then I glanced up at him. “So, what’s your name, Lukas’s friend?”
He eyed me appraisingly. “Ryder. Yours?”
“Breanna.” I was about to take another bite when the realization hit me. No wonder he looked familiar. “Lukas has a picture of the two of you…you’d just caught a fish.”
He cocked his head. “Yeah. I sent him the picture a few weeks ago. It’s from a camping trip we took this past summer.”
“It’s in his living room.” I recalled what Lukas had said about Ryder and considered it. It didn’t seem to fit with the guy sitting across from me.
“Guess it was a good thing I was out here when you broke down, Breanna.”
I crooked a smile at him. “I’m not going to complain. I wasn’t looking forward to sleeping all night in my SUV.”
“Yeah, well, it’s going to be a tight fit, both of us in there, but you’ll probably be warmer than in the SUV.”
“I had a blanket,” I said defensively.
But the cold was biting into me already, and I eased closer to the fire to keep from shivering.
Ryder noticed and tossed another small chunk of wood onto the flames.
A tight fit, he’d said.
He wasn’t kidding. I lay curled up against him, wearing my flannel, sweater, and jeans. He’d shucked his coat and the flannel he’d been wearing, joining me while still wearing his jeans, socks, and a thermal undershirt.
My feet were now encased in a spare pair of socks he’d given me. My boots hadn’t held up very well to the snow, and my toes had felt like ice blocks by the time we’d decided to go to bed.
I’d shivered for some time as we squirmed around an
d tried to find a good fit in the sleeping bag. If he wasn’t so big, we’d fit better. But the heat coming off his big body was pretty awesome, so I decided I wouldn’t complain about the tight fit.
My butt was snug up against his crotch, and judging by the heated length pressed against me, I knew I wasn’t the only one aware of the distracting intimacy of the moment.
He said nothing about his erection and kept his hands to himself, which was hard in that confined space. Some silly part of me wished he wasn’t being such a gentleman, though.
He was sexier than hell, and I’d found myself thinking about kissing him long before we even ventured into the tent.
But that was fantasy stuff, and we were dealing with reality – a cold reality that had wind whistling outside the tent while we lay snug inside, pressed close together.
He’s a total stranger. You don’t know him from Adam, so behave yourself.
Still, that silly part of me didn’t want to go quiet.
I thought about what Lukas had said – Ryder went through women like crazy. Yet he hadn’t so much as flirted with me and now we laid all but tangled up in each other in that small sleeping bag.
How much of a womanizer could he be?
Maybe I’m not his type.
Maybe it’s because he knows you’re friends with Lukas.
Maybe he’s not as wild as Lukas thinks.
All those maybes spun around and around in my mind.
Behind me, Ryder sighed and shifted. “You think really loud, Breanna. Anybody ever tell you that?”
“I’m not trying to think,” I told him. “I’m trying to sleep.”
“Me too. Just…relax. Morning will get here before you know it.”
Relax.
Like I was going to be able to do that.
But to my surprise…I did.
3
Breanna
I plodded along behind Ryder, appreciating the fact that he was taking what looked like almost half steps, so I could keep up with him.