Snow Furries (An Alpine Grove Romantic Comedy Book 4)

by Susan C. Daffron

  Becca was not a fan of beards or long hair, although Jack’s dark brown hair did curl in a kind of sexy way. But the guy was definitely scruffy. And she did not find the scruffy look attractive. Maybe he was a farmer or something. What did people in Alpine Grove do? He was clearly in extremely good shape, with broad shoulders and not an ounce of extra weight. What was this guy doing out here in the middle of nowhere?

  Jack descended the ladder and threw a pair of wool socks and a well-worn flannel shirt over the back of the sofa. “Here you go.”

  Becca grabbed the socks, pulled them under the blanket and onto her feet. The heavy knit of the socks was like a little slice of heaven. Thick, warm, and wonderful. Shucking the blanket off her back, she put on the flannel shirt, which was obviously made for a man who shopped at the big-and-tall store. But the flannel was warm. And it was beyond time to face the bathroom situation before she couldn’t see a thing. Darkness was falling fast.

  She padded across the floor and stood next to Jack, who had returned to crouching in front of the wood stove. Holding her hands out in front of her toward the stove, she said. “Thank you.”

  He looked up and smiled. “You’re welcome.”

  “Thanks to Frank too, for helping. He’s a great dog.”

  “Yeah, he’s my buddy.”

  “I’m missing my dog too. Even though she wouldn’t be happy here, I still miss her.”

  Jack stood up. “Where is she?”

  “At the boarding kennel somewhere around here. As I mentioned, I’m not exactly sure where it’s located.”

  “There’s a kennel in Alpine Grove? I didn’t know that.”

  “Sort of, I guess. It’s this woman with a bunch of dogs. Mona is staying in her house. There’s an outbuilding where Mona was supposed to stay, but I was worried she’d be scared. Mona is really sensitive.”

  “I see.” The flicker of the light from the wood stove reflected in Jack’s eyes.

  Becca dropped her hands to her sides, “Oh no, I forgot! I should call Kat. I don’t know how long it’s going to take them to pull my car out of that ditch. I’m going to have to stay in Alpine Grove a lot longer than I thought.” She scuttled back to the couch, grabbed the receiver off the phone sitting on the end table, and put it to her ear. There was no dial tone. She sat down heavily on the sofa. “The phone doesn’t work, either.” This took isolation to a disturbing new level.

  “Didn’t you see that tree that fell across the road? It’s sitting on power lines and probably phone lines, too. Even if the power weren’t turned off here, I doubt we’d have electricity.”

  Becca put her face in her hands. “This is awful. I hope Mona is okay.” Poor little scared Mona.

  Chapter 3

  Lights Out

  Kat finished making up the guest bed in her office and was checking on the dogs, who were happily napping in their favorite spots in the hallway. Mona was certainly an easy dog to care for, once she’d decided she was part of the pack. Joel came downstairs and checked on the state of the wood stove. The warmth from the stove probably added to the soporific effect in the downstairs hallway. At least the dogs were going to be well-rested this winter.

  Kat stood next to him as he bent to prod the logs in the wood stove with a long metal poker, which sent brilliant orange sparks swirling around the inside of the metal box. “Thanks for all your efforts to keep us warm.”

  He turned and put down the poker. “Having your mother here increased my wood-chopping motivation.”

  “Understandable. Too bad I didn’t have any excuse to escape off into the forest.” Her mother’s presence tended to cause Kat to want to run far away.

  “I’m guessing you aren’t going to go home to see your mom for Christmas.”

  Kat wrapped her arms around his waist and placed her head on his chest. The beat of his heart was comforting. “What? And leave you here? No way.” She leaned back so she could look into his eyes. “I’ve had enough family time. Speaking of which, you do know that you’re going to have to tell me what happened with your leg.”

  Suddenly, all the lights went out in the house and they were enveloped in velvety blackness except for the flickering orange light of the flames in the wood stove. Joel extricated himself from Kat. “I was afraid that was going to happen.”

  “Did the power go out? It’s so quiet. I can’t see a thing.”

  Johnny started shrieking upstairs. “Mommy, I can’t see!”

  At the cry of the unhappy child, all the dogs stood up and started milling around anxiously. Joel walked toward his office, reaching out to find the wall. “Let me go find a flashlight.”

  Kat stumbled behind him. “Linus, please get out of the way! I think Abigail had some lanterns packed away in that storage room across from my office.”

  Cindy stood at the top of the stairs, holding Johnny’s hand. “What is going on?”

  “We lost power. Joel is looking for a flashlight. I’ll be right up. I think there are some lanterns down here,” Kat said. Maybe Cindy could keep Johnny from completely losing it until they got up there.

  Joel emerged from his office and turned on the flashlight, shining it toward Kat. “Let’s see if we can find those lanterns.”

  Kat dug through the boxes in the storage room as the six dogs looked on. She found two kerosene lanterns and turned to Joel. “Do we have fuel for these things?”

  “Yes, it’s outside on the shelf in the shed.” He took the lanterns from her and started toward the stairs.

  “Wait! Don’t run away with the light.” She turned to the dogs. “I guess you guys can come up.”

  Kat opened the gate and all of the dogs thundered up the stairs. As part of her new role as pack mate, Mona followed the resident dogs without any hesitation.

  While Joel went outside looking for fuel, Kat and Cindy sat at the table. Cindy had Johnny in her lap with her arm around his waist. The boy was still upset and making an obvious effort not to cry. Cindy tilted her head down toward his face and wiped away a stray tear with her fingers. “It’s like camping out, honey. You love flashlights! When Joel comes back, we’ll have more light and then you can play with the flashlight.” Mona came over and put her head on the little boy’s thigh. He stroked her head. “I like this dog.”

  “See what happens when you’re quiet and treat her nicely? She’s a very sweet girl,” Kat said. Mona was good with him. Maybe she liked kids.

  Johnny smiled weakly. “Nice doggie.”

  Mona wagged and wiggled her body, trying to absorb more affection. Realizing that there was petting to be had from the humans, Linus came over to Kat and placed his big muzzle on her leg. “Hi Big Guy. I know it’s dark. We’re working on it.”

  The door opened and Joel came back inside. He shined the flashlight around in the kitchen, found some matches, and lit one of the lanterns. The kitchen was illuminated with a golden yellow glow. He lit the other one and walked toward the dining area. Weaving his way through the dogs, he placed it on the table. “Let there be light.”

  Kat pushed Linus’s head away and stood up. She glanced into Joel’s eyes briefly, raised her eyebrows, and took the flashlight from him. “Hey Johnny, I have an idea. Have you ever made a pillow fort?”

  He crawled down off his mother’s lap dubiously. “I don’t think so.”

  “It’s really fun. I’ll be right back.”

  Kat went into the bathroom and grabbed a sheet out of the linen closet. She went across the small hallway, took the pillows off her bed, and returned to the dining room. “Okay, let’s set up over here.” She handed Johnny a pillow and pointed to the back of the couch. “Here is the impenetrable fortress that you need to defend. There is a moat, so no one can get across. But you need to make some fortification over there on that side.”

  Johnny carefully set up his pillow at a strategic location on the floor. Kat opened up the sheet, floated it over the back of the couch, and tucked it in under the secondary pillow wall. She crawled in and gave Johnny the flashlight.
“You need to stand guard. Do you require assistance?”

  “I think I need Joey to be my second in command.”

  “Okay. I’ll go get him.” Kat crawled back out and Cindy handed her a stuffed dinosaur, crayons, and a stack of coloring books. Kat placed the supplies in the fort. “Here you go.”

  After Kat had backed out of the fort, Mona poked her nose inside and wagged her tail. Johnny said, “Mona, you can stand guard too.” He brandished the dinosaur at her. “But you have to take your orders from Joey.” Mona laid down in the entryway to the fort, apparently figuring out that it could be quite a while until Joey had something to say.

  Now that Johnny was busy explaining the details of fort management and hierarchy to Mona, Kat stood up and walked back to the dining room. Cindy waved her glass of wine at her. “Thank you. You could make some kid a good mom someday.”

  “Since that’s not happening in the immediate future, I think I’ll join you in some wine. The refrigerator isn’t working, so I think I’d better do my part to use it up.” Kat quickly opened the refrigerator, grabbed the wine, and closed the door. It was best to keep the cold air in there for as long as possible.

  “Do you know if there are any coolers around here somewhere?” Joel asked.

  Kat poured her wine into a glass. “Maybe downstairs in the storage room? That seems to be where Abigail kept her camping-type stuff.”

  Joel took the kitchen lantern by the handle and went down the stairs, leaving Kat and Cindy sitting in the glow of the other lantern.

  The light from the lantern flame flickered and danced across the wine in Cindy’s glass. She twirled the liquid and gazed at it thoughtfully. “It’s so weird that this is your house, but it’s not really your house.”

  Kat took a sip of her wine. “I’m getting used to it. A lot of times it feels like I know Abigail better now than I did when I was a kid. I just wish I could talk to her again.” So many questions had come up since she’d inherited the house, but they weren’t answerable anymore.

  “Yeah, I feel that way about my parents.” Cindy leaned forward and wrapped her hands around her wine glass. “I barely remember them now.”

  “I’m sorry.” Kat looked down at her glass. Joel never talked about his parents.

  “I try not to think about it too much.” Cindy shrugged. “It’s just sad that Johnny will never know his grandparents, you know?”

  “What about his dad?” Kat knew nothing about him, either.

  Cindy looked at Kat sharply. “I don’t want him to know that guy.”

  “Oh.” Kat sighed. Oops. She’d really walked into that one. Talking to Cindy was always tricky. “At least you have Joel. Johnny seems to like him.”

  “Yeah, Joel is really sweet with him.” Cindy peered down into her glass. “But since most of the time Joel and I tend to fight, that’s probably not the greatest influence either.”

  Kat set down her glass. Cindy actually realized that? Hmm. “That’s true. You should sign a peace treaty or something.”

  “I have tried not to fight with him, but he makes me insane. I suppose it’s not unusual. Everyone’s parents drive them nuts.”

  “Well, my mother certainly drives me nuts. But he’s your brother.”

  “It’s the next-best thing.”

  Joel came back upstairs with the lantern and placed it on the kitchen counter. He sat down at the table. “I found a big cooler. If the power doesn’t come back for a while, we can put snow in it and put the frozen stuff in there. Then throw the whole thing into a snow bank.”

  Kat looked at him. “Snow bank? Exactly how much snow is out there.”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  Jack lit another candle and placed it on the kitchen counter. The place was starting to look like a small shrine, with candles flickering from their spots on most of the flat surfaces throughout the small cabin. He looked over his shoulder. “Would you like a Twinkie?”

  Becca stood up and walked into the tiny kitchen area. The wood stove was doing its job and she had finally faced the terror of the bathroom. Warmth and bladder relief did a lot to improve her mood. She opened the tall door to the pantry. Thirty or forty individually wrapped snack cakes were stacked on one of the shelves. “When they ask you the question, ‘if you were stranded on a desert island, what would you bring?’ Twinkies are never on that list.” She looked around the door at Jack. “There’s a reason for that, you know.”

  He turned to look at her. “We’re not on a desert island.”

  “Same idea. You know what I mean. Twinkies are not on the list of key survival supplies. Or they shouldn’t be.”

  “I suppose not. We could heat up some soup on the wood stove. I think there are some Chef Boyardee pasta things in there too.”

  Becca looked back into the cabinet. “Is the owner of this place twelve years old? Who eats like that?” What was in stuff like Twinkies or canned pasta anyway? Gross. It was probably better not to know.

  Jack shrugged. “At least we’re warm. And crummy food is better than no food. I’m not sure what I’m going to give Frank. He’s starting to look anxious about dinnertime.”

  At the mention of his name, Frank got up and stood next to Becca, gazing into the cabinet forlornly. Becca reached in, pulled out a can, and held it in front of the dog. “How do you feel about SpaghettiOs, Frank?”

  Frank wagged and hopped backward a few times. Becca smiled at his enthusiasm. “Yeah, a can is a can, right? It could be Alpo.” Frank didn’t exactly seem to be a picky eater.

  Jack took the can from her and held it up to the candle. “I suppose we can all eat it for dinner. Just don’t read the ingredients list.” He handed the can back to her and bent down to open a lower cabinet. “I’m going to use this pot to melt some snow.”

  “I suppose this is part of the not dying of dehydration program?”

  “Yes. And the plumbing improvement program. Be right back.” He put on his coat and went outside.

  Becca looked down at Frank and stroked his huge head. “You are the most awesome dog. Jack is lucky to have you.” Frank wagged in agreement.

  Jack returned with the pot, which was overflowing with huge hunks of snow. He placed it on the wood stove. “This is some heavy snow. It should have a high water content.”

  Becca looked at the pot. “Great. Now I’m thirsty. I wasn’t before. And if I drink something, then I’ll need to use the bathroom again.”

  “Well, melting the snow could take some time, so you don’t have to worry for a while. By the time there’s enough water for a flush, you’ll be ready for it.”

  “I guess I’ll just hang out. It’s not like I have anything else to do.” She settled onto the sofa and inspected her fingernails. It didn’t seem like she’d done much today, but the polish was thrashed and chipping off. “What I would give for a spa treatment right about now. A little time in the whirlpool, massage, manicure, pedicure. The whole nine yards. But that’s sure not going to happen until I finish this appraisal.” She chipped a fleck of nail polish off her thumb with her index finger and looked over at Jack. “You know why I was here. So what are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?”

  “I was out at the property at the end of the road. They are trying to get a conservation easement, so they need a management plan.”

  “Managing what?”

  Jack was staring down at the snow in the pot. Becca said, “I don’t think you need to watch the snow melt, do you? Aren’t you tired?” She was certainly exhausted.

  “I suppose it has been a long day.” He walked over and perched on the edge of the couch. “I’m working on a forestry management plan.”

  “You mean trees?” There certainly were enough of them around here.

  He looked down and picked at something on the faded fabric of the sofa. “Yes, trees. I’m a forester.”

  Becca tried to act cool like she knew what that meant. “Oh. That’s interesting.” What did a forester do exactly? Look at trees?

&nb
sp; “It is to me.” He got up, walked into the kitchen, and started rummaging around in the cabinets again. “Did you see a can opener?”

  “No. I was admiring the Twinkies.” She tapped her foot and wiggled her toes in the big wool sock. Happy toes were a marvelous thing.

  “Hmm.”

  “Hmm?” Becca put both feet on the floor and turned to look at him. “What do you mean, ‘hmm?’ Are you telling me we can’t get into the SpaghettiOs? Because Frank’s going to be upset. I promised him SpaghettiOs.”

  “No, it’s okay. I have a Swiss army knife in my coat.”

  “That coat is amazing.” Becca leaned her elbows on her knees. Did he have everything he owned in there?

  “It’s good to be prepared.”

  “Do you think the tall twelve-year old that lives here would mind if I look through his dresser? My legs are still freezing and my pantyhose are shredded. I don’t think they can be resurrected at this point.”

  “I doubt they were warm either.” Jack turned from a cabinet and pointed toward the loft. “There’s a bunch of old clothes up there.”

  Becca climbed up the ladder, hoping that Jack wasn’t looking up her skirt. She was definitely not wearing her sexiest pair of panties. Why hadn’t she done laundry earlier this week? If she’d known, she would have opted for a lacy Victoria’s Secret bikini, not this utilitarian cotton J.C. Penney model. Mom was right about wearing good underwear when you go out. Because you never knew when you might be in a car accident out in the middle of nowhere. With some scruffy forester looking up your skirt. It was hard to imagine how this day could get any more bizarre.

  Becca found some old sweatpants in the dresser, put them on, and rolled up the bottom of the legs, so she didn’t trip all over them. She was going for the full-on serious bag-lady look now, but at least she was warm. She bent over the railing and called down. “Hey, I like it up here. I feel like I’m in a bird’s nest. And it’s warm!”

  Jack looked up at her from the living room. “You can sleep up there then.”

  Becca turned and descended the ladder again. “Where are you going to sleep?”