“I’m with her on that one.” Caleb put his hands up. “Might be true but she seems really nice.”
“I never said she wasn’t,” Daniel tried to defend himself. “I’m just saying she needs to keep her phone on her.”
“All right. I’m heading out and will keep you posted.” He grabbed the box of cookies and went back to his place for his truck. It was going to be a long few hours.
Looking up at the sky, he hoped the weather held like forecasted, but he doubted it, though. It looked like the snow might move in earlier.
In case it did, he went back to his house and grabbed his camera equipment. He would get some good photos in the mountains if it started snowing.
CHAPTER 5
“Milo,”Grace called. “Where have you gotten off to?”
She looked under the sofa and got back up. He wasn’t anywhere, like he had disappeared.
“Milo,” she called again.
Finally she heard an answering meow. She followed the sound and opened the pantry for him to saunter out like she’d interrupted him.
“This isn’t home,” she scolded. “You have to stay where I can still find you.”
She sighed and set down his bowl of food. It was getting colder and colder in here and she needed to check the fire again. She’d gotten it going with very little issue but managed not to burn anything that wasn’t supposed to.
The last time she’d stoked the fire, it seemed to be fine, but now she was wondering what she might have done wrong since it wasn’t staying warm. The temperature outside had fallen too, she’d noticed when she checked for Milo outside earlier.
She got the paper with the instructions off the fridge and read them through again. She was supposed to check the fire more than she was, oops.
Opening the woodstove, she sighed. It had gone out completely. Now she’d have to start over completely.
That was what she was doing when someone knocked on the cabin door. In a manner that she was completely used to, she jumped, bumped her elbow on the woodstove door, and then landed on her butt when she’d turned.
The door opened, and she grabbed the poker in her hands before she saw who it was, preparing to defend herself.
“Grace?” Caleb called out.
“Here,” she sighed. “What are you doing here?” Was there no end to her embarrassing moments lately?
“What are you doing?” He was next to her to three long strides, holding a hand out to help her up.
“The fire went out, so I was trying to get it started again.”
He looked over her setup.
“I got it going yesterday.” For some reason, she needed to let him know that she was capable.
“You have to get all the old stuff out.” He didn’t wait another second and started undoing what she did.
Grace hung back and watched. If she knew where her phone was she’d record him to know what to do next time.
After he had a fire going, he turned to her. “Your friends are worried about you.”
It took her brain just one second to realize. “I forgot to call Kristen. Shoot. I don’t know where my phone is.”
He pulled it out of his pocket and handed it to her. “You left it on the front seat of the car. Which brings me to the fact that the car and the cabin were unlocked.”
“There’s no one up here.” She put her hands on her hips in defiance.
“But here I am, in the cabin with your phone because I was able to just walk into it all.”
