I opened the door, and the damn thing nearly blew back shut.
Okay. A little wind. I can deal.
Eyeing my running shoes and the blowing snow, my certainty wavered a bit.
Still, I didn’t have a choice. Dark was coming soon, and even if my GPS could direct me back to the main road, if I missed a turn, I might wind up in the middle of nowhere.
You are in the middle of fucking nowhere. Get a move on.
Again, I pushed open the door, this time steadying myself as I slipped out. I grabbed my overnight bag, then ensured all the doors were closed and locked.At least you learned from the time you didn’t close the door properly and you had to get a boost come morning because you’d drained your battery.
Yeah, except I’d been outside a rather questionable hotel, and word had gotten back to my father.
I sighed, braced myself against the wind, palmed my keys, and headed toward safety.
CHAPTER 2
Marco
Jesus Fucking Christ.
I’d worn my parka, my thick winter boots, wool socks, thermal underwear beneath my jeans, a turtleneck, a cable-knit wool sweater, and insulated mittens.
And of course, I was still freezing my ass off.
Perhaps my balls as well.
My dad and his husband would be laughing their asses off at me. My stepfather. Who also happened to be my best friend. Yeah, life was weird that way.
I was incredibly happy for them. They’d tied the knot the second Saturday in October—coinciding with Canadian Thanksgiving. Because, of course, they were thankful to have reconnected, fallen in love, and were now able to share their lives together.
You’re not jealous. Just because you don’t have anyone, doesn’t mean you’re jealous. You have your studies. That should be enough.
Right. Like doing important climate research would warm me on a cold winter’s night.
I followed the well-worn path between the lake and the cabin. I’d been making this trek twice a day for six weeks now. My sensors were picking up some interesting readings about the ice density on the frozen lake. Well, the lake that was normally frozen this time of year. The ice was slow in coming, and I was trying to figure out if this was simply because of the late arrival of the cold weather or if another factor lay beneath the odd readings.
I hauled my butt up the wooden stairs.
Only then did I turn to check out the driveway.
Well, shit. This is going to be interesting.
Along with the beat-up pickup truck I’d borrowed from a friend—because there wasn’t a charging station for thirty miles, so bringing my electric car up here would’ve been just plain stupid—was a high-end SUV.
I racked my brains. Mr. Parsons had said he wasn’t planning to use the cabin until January. He wanted the ice safely thick enough to go ice fishing on. With the way things were going this winter—unless we had a massive freezing spell—he wasn’t going to be able to. It was one thing to check a sensor on the partially frozen lake. It was something completely different to put a wooden shelter up there, to plop one’s ass down after drilling a hole, and attempt to catch fish.
So why had Mr. Parsons come?
I couldn’t figure a single reason.
And given how hard the snow now fell, neither one of us was likely to get out anytime soon.
Ah well, I’ve had weirder things happen. Like finding my best friend in my dad’s bed after they’d, uh, done the nasty.I’d laughed. So had Troy. Well, after a fashion. My dad had comehome with takeout food, and we’d had an amazing Christmas.God, was that almost a year ago? Time’s flown.
I opened the front door, relieved to find it still unlocked.
A guy popped off the couch.
