Because keeping someone alive is about protocols, decisions, and not freezing.
Taking care of them is softer. Harder. More personal.
I stopped doing that when Emma died. Learned that being competent doesn’t matter if you’re not there when it counts.
“Drink your coffee,” I say.
She does.
I stare at the fire and tell myself this is fine. Roads will open this afternoon. She’ll leave.
Then I’ll go back to the quiet.
Where I belong.
three
. . .
Holly
I startle awakein Cole’s guest room. His clothes on my body, morning breath with no toothbrush, and my hair must look like a bird’s nest.
I bolt upright. The quilt pools around my waist.
Pale light filters through the window. Snow blankets everything outside.
I hear a voice. Cole’s, but quieter. Talking to someone.
I slip out of bed and pad to the door, unlock it, and crack it open.
He’s standing by the woodstove with the phone pressed to his ear. “Yeah. Road’s buried. Plow won’t make it up here until late afternoon at the earliest.” Pause. “She’s fine. Warm, fed, safe.” Another pause. His mouth twitches. Almost a smile. “Tell Jesse I’ve got it handled.”
Jesse. That’s Nora’s guy. I should’ve known the men who lived on the ridge were friends.
Cole listens, then grunts. “Appreciate it. I’ll check in later.”
He ends the call, pockets the phone, then turns.
I’m standing in the doorway like a creep. My cheeks heat. “I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.”
“You didn’t. I was talking to Wells. Checking road conditions.”
“Oh, Wells.” That’s Paige’s boyfriend. “He helped with the Thanksgiving food drive.”
Cole nods. “Yeah. He’s good people.”
I step into the room, aware that I’m wearing his thermals and nothing else. My hair must be a disaster. “Is the road?—”
“Buried. Three feet and drifts higher in places. You’re stuck until this afternoon.”
The words should stress me out. Instead, relief pools warm in my chest.
I’m stuck.
Which means I get more time in this quiet cabin with this impossible man who looks at me like I’m a problem he’s solving instead of a person he’s dismissing.
“Coffee?” he asks.
