“I know you, though.” Kinda.
The look her gave her said he knew she’d added that extra word in her head. “I’m not here to lecture you, but everyone’s worried and didn’t know if you knew about the storm?”
“What storm?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.
“Grace,” he sighed again. “It’s freezing in here and there’s already a couple inches of snow on the ground.” He went to the door and held it open.
“Oh,” she managed. “Thank you for getting the fire going. I would have figured it out, but this was helpful.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Do you need to get right back out? I promise to call Kristen right away.” She just stood there awkward in the open living space.
“I’m going to hang out for a little while and make sure the fire stays lit. But, I need to use your bathroom, if you don’t mind?”
“Of course.” She pointed to the door.
While he was in there, she picked up Milo’s bowl and cleaned it, setting it out to dry. How humiliating that Caleb would show up here and need to remind her to call her friends.
They had him drive all the way up here, too. This man was just trying to live his life and her friends had convinced him she needed rescuing. Not that it wasn’t her fault. She should have remembered her phone.
She didn’t like carrying it. Not that it wasn’t useful, she just didn’t use it that much. All she’d done in the day she’d been up here was read and pet Milo. She hadn’t even made food last night for herself.
When Caleb came out of the bathroom, Milo twined himself about his legs. Grace watched, prepared to jump in and rescue her cat if he didn’t like Milo.
“Where did you come from?” Caleb bent down and picked Milo up.
“Sorry. He’s mine.”
“Good to know you’re not alone, then.” He took Milo to the couch and sat, putting Milo in his lap and petting him.
Milo purred and looked up at her like he knew she was thinking she wished it was here.
“Is there anything else you need a little help with before I head out?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Do you have more wood than this somewhere?”
She shook her head. “I think that’s plenty, though?” “Maybe if it wasn’t going to get even colder. I’ll bring in some more for you.”
“I can do it,” she quickly went to the door to put her boots on.
“We both can, then, and it will be that much quicker.” Caleb rose and put Milo down on the couch. “You need as much as you can in, because it needs to be dry.”
“Thanks,” she muttered.
She hated feeling incapable. She hated that this man was here helping her and telling her the things she should have known.
As soon as they got back in from carrying in the firewood, she would call Kristen and charge her phone. Then he could leave, and she could go back to her books.
Grace made three trips with much less firewood in her arms to his five trips and triple the wood in his arms. The snow had continued to come down, and the wind had picked up when he told her they were done.
“I think this is enough. Let’s check the fire.”
He walked her through exactly what to do, his instructions made more sense than the paper Mr. Anderson had left.
“Thank you for all this. Do you need to get on the road soon?”
