by Ember Leigh
Much to Rose’s chagrin, her quick stop by the CB radio the evening prior had revealed a very grim reality. Not only was the CB radio unable to function, it looked like some sort of antique decoration. She wasn’t sure if the brothers knew this—maybe they’d hung onto it thinking it a good back-up option—but didn’t want to admit she’d been assessing their old fake radios. It seemed like an odd breach of privacy: snooping through potential back-up communication devices.
Which meant phones were the only option for now, and luck played a bigger role than she liked. Rose knew her boss’s number by heart, one of the few numbers she couldn’t risk losing. Every new gig meant she memorized the numbers of the hiring parent, as well. There weren’t many situations where she had to use the number by memory, but it was part of her standard emergency preparedness prior to every gig.
Even though this emergency had sideswiped her, left her the least prepared of her life. Shame crashed over her, draining her as it always did, causing all sorts of guilt and vitriol to flash red and bright in her mind’s eye.
She put the phone to her ear. A dial tone—the sweetest, most freeing monotonous hum she’d heard in her life, and certainly the first dial tone from the antiquated phone. Rose swallowed a squeal of delight and spun the old rotary wheel, mouthing the numbers as she did so.
After the last number, there was an unnerving pause, and then it rang. Hallelujah. Her heart slammed in her throat, palms clammy. After three rings, her boss answered.
“H’lo?” He sounded suspicious and groggy.
“It’s Rose.” She struggled to keep her voice calm. “It’s me. I got caught in a snowstorm.” She had to say the most important things as quickly as possible, in case the connection cut off.
“Hello?”
She tensed and repeated herself. “Do you hear me? It’s Rose. I’m caught in a snowstorm.”
“Rose.” The connection crackled. Her boss sounded a million miles away. “I can’t hear you, speak up.”
“I’m trapped due to a snowstorm.” She repeated the words slowly, firmly. Prayed that the telephone gods would allow her this one bit of information to get through.
“Good Jesus God.” He sighed loudly. “Woman, you don’t know the trouble you’ve caused over here.”
“Let her mom know.” She wanted to cry again, heart breaking for the hundredth time as she imagined the mother wondering and panicked in Delaware. She checked her surroundings to make sure the coast was clear before she spoke again. “Please, tell her Emmy is okay.”
“Rose, I swear to God, if you don’t get that baby to her mother now, there will be major repercussions. In fact, the shit has already hit the fan, little lady. You know what I found out last night? The client called—”
A wave of intense static consumed her boss’s voice, amplifying the tense knot in her gut. She waited a few moments, but the static didn’t clear. His voice never reappeared.
Then the line went dead.
Her breath slid out low and shaky. She hung up the phone and leaned her forehead against the wall, cursing the weather. What was he about to say? One more second and she could have known. One. More. Second. Why couldn’t she get even that?
The client had called somewhere—enough information to sound all the alarms, and too little information to know how bad things might really be. Had Emmy’s mother called Rose’s boss? Or had she called the police? What about television networks? A private detective? Each possibility proved worse than the last.
Focusing on a million different possible bad endings wouldn’t help. She had to focus on completing the job and handing over Emmy ASAP.
She trudged back to the room, anxiety eating a hole in her gut like a garden pest. Her time at the hotel was up—she’d demand the brothers take her to the nearest town, no matter what price she had to pay.
She slipped into the room and checked on Emmy, who started to rouse. Garrett was dressed and smoothing down the covers. “Couldn’t sleep anymore?”
He swiveled to face her, looking guilty. “Hey. Uh, no, I couldn’t. Once you got up, I figured I should start the day too.”
“I think I’m going to get my workout in.” It might be her only hope to reverse some of the negativity that had started her day. “Any chance you and Wes will be heading to town today?”
“Could you get hold of your boss?” His tone sounded hopeful, but his face didn’t look it. Probably living the same conflict as her—wanting to both stay here forever, yet eager to leave within the hour.
“I did. I…” She swallowed, unsure of what to say. “Well, I really need to get back on the road.”
An uncomfortable silence settled between them, and Garrett gnawed at his lip. When he finally looked at her, he said, “I know, Rose. Let me go talk to Wesley, and check out the weather for myself. You do your thing, and I’ll let you know at breakfast, okay?”
“Perfect.” She smiled at him and took his hand. “Thanks, Garrett. I know it’s weird, but part of me doesn’t want to leave.”
She’d said it—oh God, it happened, she’d admitted the single most ridiculous thought in her brain.
Garrett cracked a smile, his rough hand cupping her face. She inhaled the scent of him discreetly, thankful that if needed, she could at least steal the pillowcase he’d used from last night, as sort of a parting gift to take with her. “Same here, Rose. It’s silly, right?”
“It’s something. What, I’m not still sure.” She frowned at the floor, wanting to say more but unsure what words to pick. Was this goodbye? Sadness churned inside her.
Avoiding this moment would have been better than facing the tight chest, the awkward search for words. Hadn’t she learned from her formative years emotional attachments only led to suffering? Just a few nights with this guy, and already attached. He’d even spent the whole night with her, not only in her bed, but also her heart space.
This stung her the most. She had no idea how to say it to Garrett—how to tell him she wouldn’t mind spending every day with him, seeing him all the time, sharing all facets of intimacy, from platonic to romantic.
He must have had an idea of what swirled inside her head. He pulled her against him in a hug. Maybe he could taste her sadness or sense it in the air.
She wrapped her arms around him and clung, drinking in his scent, both elated and hopeless in his grasp. This guy was as good as gone from her life—so what did it matter in the long run? Rose needed to get her head on straight and keep it there. That started with morning exercises and a nice, cold shower.
When he pulled apart, she looked away. “Thanks, Garrett. I better get my workout done.”
He kissed her forehead gently and left the room without a word.
When the door shut, Rose allowed one tear to escape before she wiped it away roughly. Now was not a time for tears.
Now was a time for getting the hell out of Dodge.
****
When Garrett entered the brothers’ room, Wesley still slept soundly. He contemplated rousing him, but a few moments to himself would probably be the best idea. Might help stop him from keening like a lovesick fool, at the very least.
Awake a full hour and a half before his regular alarm, and he couldn’t have been more alert. Or more confused.
The night he and Rose had shared was beyond description. Today marked the fifth day of her unexpected stay at the hotel, but it felt like he’d known her for years.
And like he wouldn’t have a problem getting to know her for years longer, as well.
Despite how much he’d love to absorb her into his temporary, hidden mountain life and never release her, she had plenty of things waiting for her. Emmy needed normalcy and a pack of diapers, for God’s sake. Rose had a job to get back to, an apartment or house somewhere that probably had food spoiling, insurance claims to file for the wrecked car, and all manner of regular mommy things that had fallen by the wayside during her stay.
But it didn’t mean he wanted her here any less.
They desperately
needed a trip to the nearby town at this point. Rations reached dangerously low levels, so the brothers would have to make the trip today. They could take her and Emmy along, assess the car if they could find it, and go from there.
And maybe she could come back for a few more days…
The suggestion itself sounded preposterous—what mother in their right mind would return to a remote, child-unsafe hotel of her own volition? Even more preposterous was the urgency with which he wanted to find a workaround, some way to put them into contact again as soon as humanly possible.
Wesley stirred in his bed and rolled to his side. “Garrett?”
“Morning.”
“Why are you up so early?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I couldn’t sleep.”
Wesley blinked a few times. “You slept in Rose’s room?”
“Yeah.” He stopped pacing the room and sighed.
“You guys have been getting awful close.” Wesley fluffed his pillow and settled his head again.
“I know. She’s amazing. I’m so comfortable with her.”
“Need I remind you we know nothing about her?”
“Well, I know some things about her. I’m getting to know her. And I don’t think you have to be so paranoid.”
“I’m not being paranoid, I’m being realistic. I’m more than happy to help her out, but don’t go thinking you’re so close to her before you know the whole story.”
“Well, I’m working with what I got, and it tells me she’s a lovely person.”
Wesley raised a brow. “Fine.”
“Why, do you think I should be suspicious?”
He shrugged. “Never said that.”
Garrett narrowed his eyes. “We don’t need to be suspicious of her, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Okay, whatever.” Wesley closed his eyes. “After all, I’m sure you could vouch for her she’s one hundred percent who she says she is.”
His brother’s hesitance came across more forceful—and out of place—than usual. Sure, they had rescued a stranger and put her up at their hotel. But that didn’t mean she was untrustworthy or a bad person.
“I don’t like what you’re implying,” Garrett said finally. “She is a great person and a great mother.”
Wesley sighed again, nuzzling into the pillow. “You’re totally not head over heels for a girl you met five days ago.”
Garrett’s jaw set. This conversation would go nowhere, and he suspected Wes was either salty about his growing affection for Rose, or trying to play it too safe. “Hey, we gotta go to town today. No matter what. Rations are low, and we need to get Rose to a reliable phone. Maybe go check out her car.”
“No problem.” Wesley sounded like he drifted back to sleep. “Maybe at lunch.”
Garrett continued pacing the room, battling a desire to spend the remainder of the morning in her arms. What if this marked the last time they ever saw each other? What would happen if they went to town and she never came back?
He needed to get his mind off things, and fast. “Wes, I’m gonna go sand those pieces we left for today.” The loud whine of the grinder would help clear his mind, not to mention occupy him until breakfast rolled around.
Wes grumbled something, and Garrett let himself out of the room, more amped up and jittery than he could remember in recent history.
Though he was being dramatic, and possibly a little insane, about the whole Rose thing, it wasn’t just him. No way this could be one-sided.
Five days together and he felt like he knew her.
This didn’t count as only insane, but also impractical and absurd.
But for some reason it didn’t matter to him. The only thing that mattered: more Rose.
****
Midway through her crunches, someone knocked on Rose’s door.
She grinned, figuring it to be Garrett again, unable to hold out until breakfast to see her. Emmy crawled on the ground around her as she huffed and puffed, alternately clapping and messing up the bedsheets. The girl watched with wide eyes as Rose hopped to her feet and headed to the door. Maybe Emmy wanted Garrett on the other side too. Though, on second thought, she doubted it.
Rose threw open the door, unable to hide the surprise on her face.
“Good morning, Wes.” She smiled brightly. “How are you?”
“Doing well,” he said. “Hey, I know you and Garrett were planning on heading to town today, but I have to get going right now. Mind if we skip out?”
Rose thought about what she’d have to prepare in order to leave at the drop of a hat. She could be ready ten minutes tops. Excitement rippled through her, ready for the forward-motion finally. “Let’s do it. I’ll get everything ready.” As if on cue, Emmy shrieked a long string on nonsense from inside the room.
“Great. I’ll grab us some snacks for the road. Meet me by the front door.”
Rose would gladly ditch the remainder of her workout for the opportunity to get to civilization again. She tugged on her jacket, wriggled into her skinny jeans, and left Garrett’s mesh shorts on top of the bed. She snagged the few items she’d accumulated during her stay—toothbrush, toothpaste, a tiny bottle of shampoo per every hotel visit in the history of mankind—and wrestled a fidgeting Emmy into the car seat.
The girl cried as Rose did a final check of the room, then cried harder when Rose tucked an extra blanket on top, wailing for perhaps no other reason than being torn away from the particular section of bedsheets she’d been playing with. Five days with a kid and Rose understood a little bit more about their inner workings but remained drastically far from being an expert.
She lugged the car seat out to the front hallway, where Wesley waited, tapping his fingers against his belt.
“Do you want me to carry the car seat out to the truck?” he asked.
“Sure. I hope you don’t mind. I stole one of those extra blankets you gave me, so she doesn’t get too cold.”
“No problem.” He heaved at the door, struggling to pull it open. “I’ll take her out, and you follow.”
As soon as the door had opened an inch, cold slithered in and stole her breath. The snowfall had lessened considerably, at least compared to the prior days. But the wind pelted them as she followed Wesley to the truck. He’d apparently gone out before to turn it on, clearing holes in the snow where the headlights were. The rumbling of the truck got louder as they approached.
He pulled open the passenger side door and pushed the car seat inside. Then he offered his hand to Rose and helped her inside. She took it, though she didn’t need it.
Wesley slammed the passenger side door shut, then trudged through the snow to the driver’s side. Once inside, he removed his gloves and put them on the dashboard.
“This snow is insane,” he muttered. “It’ll be slow going down the mountain. That’s why it’s good we’re leaving so early.”
“Is Garrett coming?”
Wesley put the truck into gear and began inching forward. “He’s not. He’s working on a project until breakfast, so I thought I’d help out. I know you’ve been anxious to get in touch with your regular life.”
Though his intentions were good, Rose was crestfallen. She wanted to protest, to see if she couldn’t at least run inside and give him a good-bye hug, look into those green eyes one last time, but she didn’t know what to say. It was more important she and her “child” be on their way, and when her opportunity presented itself, she had to take it.
That didn’t mean her throat didn’t tighten as she craned to look at the hotel as they crept along the driveway. She didn’t have the heart to interrupt Wes, who concentrated on the road as intensely as though he were performing an operation.
When confronted with resolving the professional issue or placating her stupid romantic side, she could never allow this concession in the name of lovesickness.
She leaned her head against the headrest and closed her eyes. As the distance between her and the hotel increased, she imagined it as painful wrenches i
n her heart.
The best step forward also presented the most confusing, and illogical, sense of loss she’d ever experienced in her life.
Chapter Thirteen
Rose spent the majority of the ride down the mountain in stricken silence. If a sudden curve didn’t steal her calm, then the truck would get stuck and they’d spend ten minutes revving and waiting. The truck blazed the first set of tracks through this mess.
Drifting proved to be the only savior. The gusting wind had created ridges of snow in some areas, and peeled back enough of the cover to allow glimpses of the natural road progression. They lumbered ahead. Rose chose to squeeze her eyes shut most of the time, vowing to never return to Pennsylvania in February ever again.
“I don’t know if you’ll be able to make it back up the mountain.” Rose peered out of one eye at a new curve ahead. “This is insane.”
“But it stopped snowing,” he pointed out. “So I’ll have the tracks to follow up.”
“Thank God you have four-wheel drive,” she muttered. Emmy stirred beside her and soon she started fussing, which meant feeding time. She unpeeled the banana Wes had brought and fed her small bits. Emmy gurgled happily.
“While we’re in town,” Wes said, “I’ll give my insurance company a call, let them know about what happened. I’ll give them your info, too, so they can get the claim started. Hopefully, you’ll be able to get a new car quickly.”
“I have enough funds to rent something until I get home,” she said. “Thankfully.”
He nodded. She fed Emmy the pieces of banana until the girl had her fill. Rose popped the remainder of the banana in her mouth, not hungry but knowing she should put something in there. Her nerves had gotten the best of her—the anxiety of hitting the road, the anxiety of not being able to say good-bye. Something between sickness and fear roiled in her belly.
She would be no help staring out the windshield and agonizing over every new twist in the road, so she forced herself to shut her eyes and rest a bit. Garrett invaded her head. She imagined his dimples in full bloom during a smile, imagined the way his hair had lain against his forehead during the shower, could almost smell him. She cursed herself for not grabbing the pillowcase. Just in case.