by Claire Adams
I spent the next fifteen minutes looking through the rest of the kitchen and the back office that was tucked away in the corner, but I couldn’t find matches, a lighter, or candles. It was certainly warmer in the building than it was outside, but I could still see my breath as I exhaled loudly and looked around for some secret place that I’d forgotten about. Everything else was left in its place; surely they had to have candles or something to light a fire with.
“Declan, I can’t find anything,” I said as I walked into the great room.
But Declan wasn’t out there. He’d come back with a stack of firewood though, and it was sitting in front of the fire. I grabbed a few pieces and organized them in the fireplace and then placed the rest of the wood off to the side where I noticed a small metal box sitting. Sure enough, as I opened it I saw a large box of matches. We didn’t have candles, but at least we had what was needed to get the fire started. As handy as Declan was, I doubted he would have been able to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together.
I grabbed the matches and struck one after another as I tried to light the wood on fire, but I needed some sort of kindling to get it going. Instead of waiting for Declan, I walked to the back porch to see if there as any residue of small wood chips that I could use for our fire. Unfortunately, everything was covered in snow and wet, so I knew it wouldn’t work to start the fire.
After I grabbed my coat inside, I went back out and followed Declan’s footprints down a steep hill toward what I suspected was the shed where he was getting the wood from. My feet slipped out from under me though, and I quickly slid down the hill and over a large drop that I hadn’t even seen.
I screamed out in pain as my ankle twisted when I hit the ground. There had been a small retaining wall and a drop that I couldn’t see through the blowing snow. Instead of walking down a pathway, I’d basically walked right off a ten-foot drop off.
“Emmi are you okay?” I heard Declan yell, but I couldn’t tell where he was.
“I am, but I’m pretty sure I messed up my ankle.”
“All that running around drunk and in heels but you hurt your ankle while you’re sober and in boots,” Declan said as he walked down the stairs toward me.
It was ridiculous how I had missed the stairs and walked right off the edge, embarrassing that I’d actually hurt myself in such a stupid manner. My ankle throbbed as I tried to move it. I was certain I’d broken it and was doing the best I could not to cry. But the day had been long and filled with so many adventures that my system was totally overloaded, and I found myself in a stream of tears by the time Declan bent over to pick me up.
“I’m sorry,” I said with a wobbly voice. “I could probably walk if you just support me.”
“That’s silly, I’ll just carry you to the couch, and we can get the fire going. Maybe I can find a bag to pack some of this snow into so you can ice it.”
“There was an ice machine in the kitchen. Oh wait, there’s no electricity,” I said as I tried not to keep crying.
“It will be fine. Rest your head and let me get you inside.”
I didn’t have the strength to argue with him and let my head rest on his chest as he walked back up the steps with ease. His thick arms wrapped under my body and supported my frame as if he was carrying something light, like a bag of groceries. My body relaxed knowing he had plenty of muscles to carry me and I didn’t have to worry about him dropping me.
He managed to get the back door opened and gently set me on the couch. Declan pulled the coffee table over and set my legs on it as he got to work on the fire.
“We need kindling; that’s why I went outside. I couldn’t get the fire started,” I said.
“Matches, where did you find them?”
“In that metal box right there.”
“Go figure. We look everywhere and they are just sitting here next to the fire. Any luck on the candles?”
“No, but I can go look while you do the fire.”
“Oh, no you don’t. You’re not moving from there at all.”
“Yes, sir,” I teasingly saluted him.
“I’m going to get this fire going, then I’ll have a look at that ankle.”
Declan grabbed a book off the shelf in the corner and brought it back to the fire. As he started ripping the pages out, I felt an unusual pain in my stomach. I never thought I’d be part of burning a book. I loved books. I loved old books. Owning a piece of history was special to me, and I hated that he was tearing the pages out to help get the fire started, but I didn’t hate it enough to say anything to him because I was also freezing.
He stuffed the crumpled paper under the wood and I leaned forward so I could watch him start the fire. Declan looked like a man who had started many camping fires over the years and with one match, he had the thing going. The paper caught on fire and filled the room with light; it burned quickly though, and Declan had to continue adding paper so the logs could get hot enough to catch on fire as well.
“I could have started it with just two sticks, but I didn’t want to show off too much,” he said with a wink as he stood in front of the large fireplace. “I’m going to get a plastic bag and some snow for your ankle. If we’re lucky, it’s just a sprain.”
My tears had dried up now, but I still had an uneasy feeling about myself. My hands were trembling, and my body felt eerily warm as Declan went outside to get some ice for my ankle. I leaned my head back and took some deep breaths as I tried to calm the dizziness that took over. My stomach was next as it rumbled as if I was going to vomit. I was definitely going to vomit.
I jumped up to find a bathroom, but quickly succumbed to the pain in my ankle and fell to the ground. My stomach clenched up, and I heaved on the finely woven carpet. My stomach clenched again, but nothing more came out.
“What happened?” Declan said as he came in the back door. “Are you okay? Did you just throw up?”
“I don’t know what happened. I was fine, then I noticed my hands shaking and got dizzy and tried to find a bathroom but my ankle hurt too much.”
“It adrenaline. Sometimes when you’re coming down from it, your body will freak out a little. You’ve had a lot of excitement for one day. Let’s get you to sleep.”
“I’m so sorry. Find me a towel and I’ll clean this up.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so little lady. I’m putting you back on the couch and getting this snow on your ankle and bundling you up so you can sleep. Your body went through a lot with that cold and the fall.”
I decided not to argue with him. Declan was probably right. I had had enough excitement for one day. The fire wasn’t going to warm the entire room up very much, but if we slept close to it, we would be fairly comfortable for the evening. I couldn’t wait to get to sleep.
As I started to crawl back to the couch, Declan grabbed me and helped me back to my spot. He pushed the couch close to the fireplace and then pulled the carpet out from under it in one swift pull.
“I’m just going to throw this in the other room for now. We can decide what to do with it later. Are you feeling any better? Do you need me to get a bucket?” he said with a smile.
Declan licked his lips subconsciously after he smiled and my body reacted. Warmth filled my center as I let my mind imagine what it was like to kiss him. He clearly was a nice guy, he was gallant and helpful, he was polite, he was handsome; suddenly I had to wonder what was wrong with the guy.
Sure, he had been a little pushy when we met. He was a tough guy to work for, but overall he was the kind of man women flocked to. Yet he wasn’t married, he had no children, and he didn’t have a girlfriend from what I could tell. There had to be something wrong with him.
I narrowed my eyes on Declan as I tried to figure out what his fatal flaw was. I was no male expert, but I knew enough about men to know the bad ones from the good ones. Declan seemed to be one of the good guys.
“Why are you single?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
He laughed for a moment and then c
ame and sat down next to me. He pressed his lips tightly together as he pondered the answer to my question. I waited impatiently to hear what this major flaw was that had prevented women from flocking to him.
The fire crackled and the light gleamed on our faces as we sat only a few feet away from the giant fireplace. The wind and snow had picked up quiet a bid outside and a small pile of snow was accumulating near the large back door.
“Who says I’m single?” he finally replied.
“Me. I say you are. I’ve seen your schedule and spent the last week with you. If there was a woman in your life, I’d have heard about her by now.”
“Maybe I like to keep her a secret,” he replied with a sly smile.
“So you do have a girlfriend?”
“No, I don’t. I’m too busy working for a relationship. I don’t need that sort of drama in my life.”
“Interesting,” I said as I ran my fingers along my chin. “So you equate a relationship with drama. Now I’m getting somewhere. Lay back on my couch and let’s begin this counseling session,” I joked.
“Not that all women cause drama. I just mean that I’ve got a busy life and it would be impossible for me to keep a woman entertained all the time.”
“So you need to entertain your women. They don’t have lives of their own to keep themselves busy?” I playfully asked. “I’m teasing, I’m teasing. I know what you mean.”
“I’ve had relationship. Some of them very good. But a relationship requires time and I usually don’t have much of that. Are there any other personal questions you’d like to ask?”
Declan playfully reached for my good ankle and rubbed it. His hand was shooting warmth up my thigh as my eyes shot up and made eye contact with his. Just as quickly as our eyes met, his hand retreated from my leg as if he had been doing something horribly wrong. It didn’t feel wrong. His hand on my body invigorated me, and I wanted it back there. Well, my primal urges wanted his hand back on me, but my brain was screaming that it was a bad idea.
“I should get some rest. Thanks for everything,” I said as I turned to my side and curled up to get warm.
“Yeah, thanks for almost killing you in a plane crash, getting you trapped in the freezing cold, and letting you hurt your ankle. I’m really the best,” he said sarcastically.
“Plane crash?”
“You slept through it, but our plane was jumping around like a two-year-old. It was pretty damn scary. I couldn’t believe you stayed sleeping.”
“I drank a lot last night,” I said sheepishly.
“Yeah, I figured that when you showed up at my house barely able to stand up.”
I covered my face with my hands as that memory rushed back to me. How could I have thought it was a good idea to show up at my boss’ house in that condition? Then something else dawned on me: I’d asked him about being single when I was at his house too. Oh, man, the embarrassment rushed over me, and I buried my head even further in my hands.
“Oh, I just remembered I asked you why you were single before, didn’t I?”
Declan smiled from ear to ear as he got up from the couch. He stood there for a minute as I waited for him to admit that I’d already grilled him about his love life before.
“You also told me I was handsome,” he winked. “I’m going to find us some blankets now.”
He turned and left the room before I could think of any sort of response. The embarrassment settled into my gut, and I let out a bit of a laugh at the idea. He sure was handsome; at least I told the truth when I was drunk.
Chapter 13
Declan
I was on very thin ice with Emmi. My hands couldn’t keep away from her. Anytime I was near her, I had the urge to caress her, cuddle her, keep her warm. We weren’t going there. Absolutely, one hundred percent, I was not going to make a move on Emmi. She was my business partner’s daughter. My livelihood was at stake, and I couldn’t cave in, no matter how much my body longed for hers.
Out of guilt, I dialed Teddy’s number to let him know we had arrived and were safe. I knew Emmi had texted him, but I wanted him to hear from me as well.
“Teddy, how are you?” I said as he answered his phone on the first ring.
“Doing better than you two. It’s seventy-three degrees here.”
“Just wanted to let you know we are at the chalet and will get to work in the morning. Not sure how bad the storm is, but we should be able to finish our work up and be home in two days or so.”
“Do you have power? I heard that storm was getting pretty bad.”
“No power, but we will move to the hotel in the morning. Staying at the chalet tonight. I’ll touch base with you when we wrap things up.”
“Declan, you take care of my girl. I was worried about you guys flying into the storm. Why didn’t you wait and go in a few days?”
I couldn’t admit to Teddy that I hadn’t even looked at the weather before heading out or that I pushed the pilot to go against his better judgment. It was just one more thing that I’d forgotten to take care of. And I couldn’t blame it on Emmi because she gladly would have checked into the weather, the hotel, and anything else if I had only bothered to ask her.
“No worries, Teddy. We will get our work done and be out of here soon. It’s not as bad as the weather people make it out to be; just a little wind and snow.”
“Okay, is Emmi around? Can I talk to her.”
“Of course, let me…” I walked into the great room and noticed Emmi was fast asleep. “Well, maybe I’ll have her call you tomorrow. She appears to be fast asleep. Apparently, she doesn’t care about the storm at all,” I laughed.
“She always could sleep anywhere.”
“That’s the truth,” I laughed so hard I snorted.
I wasn’t about to tell Teddy how Emmi had slept at my house the night before and I had carried her to my car. Or the sleepy walk up to the airplane and how she had slept right through the rough turbulence; that was all part of a story I would likely never tell Teddy.
“Call me tomorrow. I’d like to go over everything. Maybe we could even do one of those webcam things or something so I can see things for myself.”
“Sure thing; talk to you tomorrow.”
It took me nearly a half hour to find some blankets downstairs. I slid two of them over Emmi and then pushed the second couch close to the fire. I loaded a few more pieces of wood onto the flame and then climbed onto the couch so I could get some sleep as well. It was nearly midnight in Colorado, and the sun would wake us up through the big picture windows so there was no need to worry about when we would be getting up in the morning. I closed my eyes and felt my body relax as I fell asleep to the flames crackling the large pieces of wood.
“You need to restart the fire,” I heard Emmi say a few hours later.
“What time is it?”
“I don’t know, but I’m freezing. Go burn another book or something,” she laughed.
It was odd how quickly the fire had burned through the half dozen pieces of wood I had put in there. Typically it would have taken four to six hours to go through all of that, and I had hoped the sun would be peeking into the windows by then, but it was still dark outside.
I clicked my phone to check the time, but it didn’t turn on. I glanced at my watch, and it took me a few minutes to figure out what was going on.
“It’s nine-thirty in California. That means it should be seven-thirty here, right?”
“Hmm, yeah, that sounds right.”
“Why is it so dark outside still?” I asked as I walked over to the window and saw the snow still swirling around outside and the sky dark as if the storm still had not passed us. “It’s still storming?” I said to myself, but also to Emmi.
“Wow, I guess so. That snow pile sure added up fast; look how high it is on the windows.”
She was right; the snow drift against the back windows was at least a foot high and getting bigger by the second. The storm didn’t even look like it had slowed down at all. Instead, it mig
ht have even gotten worse.
“I should call the airport guy and see about that hotel,” I said as I grabbed my dead phone. “Crap, I don’t have any power. How about your phone?”
“Mine’s been dead since the car ride last night.”
“Well, now we have an issue. I don’t have any way of reaching someone to take us to the hotel.”
“Technically the Hilton is just down the street,” Emmi said pointing in one direction and then changing her mind. “But do you really think they are going to have room now? Look at it outside. I’m fine here. We can just set up show for the day and see if the storm lets up at all.”
“You are alright staying here?” I asked.
“Sure, I saw a huge closet full of canned foods back there. They can’t all be expired. I’m sure we can find something to keep us alive,” she laughed. “It will be an adventure. Plus, I can’t walk to the Hilton, and it might be a little too far for you to carry me.”
“I could handle you.”
“Let’s just chill here. We aren’t in a hurry. The storm will eventually pass.”
Emmi was remarkably calm about the whole thing. She even looked like she was enjoying the idea of having to stay at the chalet for another day.
“I guess we could see if any of the rooms upstairs have fireplaces. I think they do. And we could get our work done and take the notes that Rosa needed.”
“Yeah, we came here to work. We will get our work done. But first, do you think you can rustle up some food? I can’t remember when I ate last. I think it was before I went to the bar.”
“What? Oh, yeah, I guess that’s probably right. You slept all day yesterday. Let me get this fire going again, and then I’ll get some food for us.”
“I feel like I could sleep all day again. Isn’t that weird how it being dark out can make your body think it’s nighttime?”
“Yeah, it is. Okay, I’m going to get this going. You stay put and let that ankle relax.”