By the time Tarr came down the hall, smelling like sagebrush and woodsmoke, dinner was almost ready.
“That was mighty nice,” he said as he joined her at the bar. “Thank you, Briar.” He put his arm around her and squeezed her a little closer to him. He always put off such great energy, and Briar allowed herself to relax.
“Where’d you go all day?” she asked. “Because it doesn’t take almost five hours to get some groceries.”
“Maybe traffic was bad.”
“Tarr.”
“Fine, I went through the RV and packed up everything I thought I shouldn’t leave inside. I took all of that to the barn storage. Then I made sure the RV was secured—no reason to give raccoons and porcupines—or anything bigger—to think they can live there this winer. Then, I went to town for groceries.”
Briar still didn’t think that would take that long, but she didn’t press the issue. “Okay, well, I had some chicken cordon bleu, so I put that in with some potatoes. I’ll just make a quick sauce to go with them.”
She got up to do that, and she’d just flipped the gas on under the pan to heat cream, butter, salt, garlic, and parmesan cheese when the lights in the cabin went out.
Her breath left her body in a whoosh too, and Briar stood very, very still as she waited for the electricity to come back on. It didn’t, and she turned around after several long seconds of silence.
“Great,” Tarr said, and he sounded disgusted.
“I have a generator,” she said. “And I brought in a ton of wood.”
“Then we’ll be fine,” Tarr said.
The timer on the oven went off, and Briar spun to silence it and get their dinner out of the oven. “This is gas, so we should be able to cook.” A franticness moved through her nonetheless, and her hands seemed to flap around as she started adding ingredients to the frying pan.
Then Tarr eased into her side and said, “Hey, we’ll be okay,” in that velvety, sultry voice. She’d long wanted to ask him if he’d ever thought about being in a country music band, but she’d never done it.
“I’ll start a fire while you finish dinner, and we’ll eat by firelight, okay?”
She nodded, because Briar couldn’t get her voice to say, “Okay,” in return. He stepped away from her, and Briar tipped her head back and pressed her eyes closed as she silently prayed,Dear Lord, did the power really have to go out?Isn’t the situation already awkward enough?
She sighed.I guess if this is how it’s got to be, then bless me to come up with the patience and conversation I need to treat Tarr right.
seven
Tarr knelt in front of the fireplace and exhaled a steady stream of air onto the flame to encourage it to grab on to the kindling he’d tee-pee’d around it. Behind him, Briar whisked, and the scent of butter and salt filled the air. Tarr had never felt so domestic in his entire life, and something good and homey made everything inside him calm right down.
The first crackle of wood uniting with fire met his ears, and he quickly reached for another handful of shredded newspaper.
The fact that Briar had newspaper at all made him smile, but she’d claimed that she kept it for art projects. He wanted to see so much more of her art—her paintings, her woodcrafts, her sculptures, anything she would show him.
His phone rang, and Tarr looked away from the bright fire to see Tuck’s name shining on his screen. A zip of apprehension ran through him, but he reached to tap on the call.
After tapping the speaker icon, he said, “Howdy, Tucker.”
“Hey, where you at?” Tuck asked. “The power just went out, and we drove by your RV, and it’s totally dark.”
“Yeah, I’m not there,” Tarr said, knowing he couldn’t dodge his best friend’s questions. The walls of Briar’s cabin suddenlyclosed in around him, and he felt like he was shouting when he added, “I’m staying at Briar’s tonight.”
The fact that Tucker said nothing spoke volumes. The hum of the truck came through the line, so Tarr knew they were still connected. Then Bobbie Jo said, “You can both come here if you need to.”
“Yeah, that’s right,” Tuck practically yelled. “We’ve got a generator and lots of food.”
“Briar has a generator too,” Tarr said casually. “And you’re on speaker while I build a fire, just so you know.” He ducked his head in a covert way to look over his shoulder, but he couldn’t see Briar, and he didn’t sense her drawing close to him. “She brought in a ton of wood, and I went grocery shopping this afternoon, so I think we’ll survive the night.”
“Will you?” Tuck asked, and his question had sharp hooks.
“I think so,” Tarr said, trying to keep his heartbeat as slow as his voice. Tuck and Bobbie Jo both knew that Tarr had spent more than one night with Briar.
