It hadn’t been a dream. And she was half-sprawled on top of Ren. The sun had come up and now she could very clearly see those clear green eyes of his staring out at her. He had one arm under his head, propping him up in a lazily delicious sort of way. Hair tousled. Smile charming.
Natalie felt her heart begin thumping harder in her chest. She immediately scooted back away from him. What on earth was she doing—all but lying on top of a man she hardly knew?
But she couldn’t deny—despite every reason why this shouldn’t be true, and there weremany—she’d slept the best she’d ever had since the first time she realized her husband was a monster who would cruelly punish her on a whim. Evidently her exhausted mind had had no trouble giving over her trust to an almost total stranger.
But now her mind wasn’t exhausted and she wasn’t just going to trust blindly. She had way too many scars to ever let that happen again.
She scampered back a little farther, ignoring the pang of loss she felt as his hand fell off her hip.
“Be careful,” he said. “The fire is mostly out behind you but it might have enough heat to burn.”
She stopped. “I’m sorry I was basically sprawled all over you.”
That smile. Sweet mother of chocolate. “No worries. I can think of a number of things worse than waking up with a beautiful woman draped over me.”
“Even in a cave?”
His smile faded as if he remembered why they were here. What had happened. “I’ll admit, it isn’t the best of circumstances. Are you feeling better?”
The fuzziness in her head was gone, she realized, and she didn’t have any pain. So not a head injury, or if it was, not a severe one. “I’m feeling pretty great, considering everything.”
“Good. Last night you were a little overwhelmed. The crash, of course, and some other stuff.”
Snow. She knew he was talking about her reaction to the snow. But there was no way to be able to explain that easily so she wasn’t even going to try. “Yeah, I just can’t believe those people are dead. Do you have any idea what happened?”
“No. It was so chaotic. When I came to, everything was surrounded by smoke. I happened to hear you moaning, so that’s how I got you out. The lady and the guy were... It was already too late for them.”
“So what is our plan now?”
“The last thing I checked before we were out of cell tower range was weather. Mostly I was looking at Montana, but I happened to see an overview of here. It’s not good. Snow, Natalie. Not quite a blizzard, but bad.”
She could feel her teeth clenching. She was just going to have to overcome the snow. Mind over matter. She had control. Wasn’t tied. Wasn’t forced. Wouldn’t need to beg.
“Natalie?”
Her eyes snapped to his green ones. “Yep. Got it. We have to walk through the snow and I have to not freak out.”
“It’s just...”
She nodded. “Yep,” she said again. “I know. I freaked out a little last night. I won’t let it happen again.”
“Okay, then we should get on our way. Try to find better shelter than this before worse weather moves in. Or a town. Or cell coverage, orsomething. Are you sure there’s no one you need to get in touch with who will be worried about you?”
How did you explain to someone who had multiple people who would be worried if he was a day late that there was literally not one person in the world who cared if Natalie dropped dead right now?
Maybe Olivia, the waitress from the bar who’d asked Natalie to house-sit in her stead, would be worried. But honestly, Olivia had only asked Natalie because she was desperate to find someone who could take her place. In fact, Olivia had to confirm Natalie was actually her name before she’d asked her about house-sitting. Maybe Natalie’s bosses would notice, but Natalie got the impression they were constantly surprised when she’d always shown up to work since she insisted on being paid cash, which, to them, said she was a flight risk.
She had spent the last six years not talking to anyone. Trying to make sure no one really noticed her. Obviously she’d been successful. And it pretty much made her pathetic.
“No, no one will miss me. I guess all my people are used to not hearing from me for a while. We’ll make it somewhere before they get to the point of worry.”
They shared a protein bar, agreeing that they needed to conserve as much as they could once they got moving, and drank some water through the filtered bottle. They scooted out of the cave into the trees and wilderness surrounding them. They both moved in separate directions to use the bathroom, then came back to wrap up as warmly as possible and were soon ready to leave.
Natalie looked at the snow. It was uncomfortable, it was cold, but she wasn’t trapped in it. She could get out of it whenever she wanted. She felt much stronger and more in control.
She would be fine as long as she didn’t think too hard about the fact that shecouldn’tactually get out of the snow whenever she wanted. There was nowhere else to go.
Focus, Natalie. Mind over matter.
