“I agree.”
The thermometer beeped to let me know it was done. “How are you feeling now?” I asked.
“My feet are like blocks of ice,” she said.
“We’ll get them warmed up,” I assured her.
I turned my head to give her privacy as she reached down the neck of her hoodie to pull the thermometer out and hand it to me.
“You’re in a normal range,” I told her, relieved, “but I still don’t want to take any chances. According to Google, you should warm up your organs before your extremities?—”
“Wait. You’ve got internet here? Do you have a signal?” she asked, more alert than I’d seen her yet.
I pulled my phone out of my jeans pocket and checked. “Not right now. But I have Wi-Fi and a landline.” As I said it, my heart sank. Obviously she had someone to check in with, and it was probably a husband or a boyfriend. What the hell had I been thinking? Beyond the fact that I didn’t deserve her friendship, the chances she’d be free to fall into my arms at this point in her life were slim to none.
“Great,” she said. “I have to call my best friend.” A frown darkened her expression, but it was brief.
“Just your best friend?” I asked, my eyebrows going up of their own accord as hope beat in my chest.
“Yeah,” Chevonne said. “I’m sure Tina is frantic by now. You remember Tina, my best friend from high school, right? Tina Williams?”
Yes, I remembered Tina Williams. She hated me. I nodded, deciding not to remind Chevonne of that fact. “The phone is in the kitchen. Do you think you can get up?” Then I had an idea. I held up a finger and ran for my office, coming back out with my desk chair on wheels.
I got Chevonne seated and wheeled her into the kitchen, which the dog thought was great fun. So I didn’t have to worry about eavesdropping, I put a blanket in the dryer to warm it up, to wrap my guest in. Then I got busy starting a fire in the living room to warm the house up faster. I hadn’t had the opportunity to take care of someone in a long while, and it felt good.
CHAPTER 5
Chevonne
“Oh my God, where are you?”Tina asked the moment she knew it was me calling from an unknown number.
“We’re safe,” I said. “And in a warm place.” Was I hesitant to tell her who I was with? Definitely. So instead, I put it off by relaying my cold and agonizing tale from the beginning. When I got to the part where I was rescued, of course Tina asked me by who.
“I hope it was one of those good-looking security guys who patrol the trails,” she said. “Maybe you can get laid finally.”
“I actually didn’t see any of them,” I said, ignoring her lewd suggestion. “I wonder why.”
“Huh. So was it someone who lives close by? Or are you stuck in a shed somewhere on the hill? Oh God, I hope not.”
“No, it’s someone who lives here. Brevin Masterson, actually.”
“No.” She said it more like she was commanding her precious pup not to pick something up off the floor than like she didn’tbelieve it. “You need to get out of there as soon as you can. I’ll come and get you.”
“It’s okay,” I assured her, but she was gone, already looking on her phone for something. Probably to rent a snowplow so she could rescue me from my rescuer. While I waited for her to come back on the phone, I looked around the large, tidy kitchen. The house was a luxurious log cabin. Everything—the walls, the ceiling, the cabinets—was a dark golden wood, probably pine. The countertops were dark green marble that matched the ceramic floor and really, I was impressed. But I had to guess Brevin had his pick, being one of the top real estate agents in the area.
“They’ve closed all the roads up in the hills,” Tina said angrily when she came back on. “Maybe I can send someone up there with snowshoes …”
“And what good would that do?” I said more testily than I’d meant to. “I told you I twisted my ankle. I can’t walk.”
Tina snorted. “Well you can’t stay where you are.”
As I watched Brevin stoke a fire in the other room, I weighed what Tina thought about him with what I saw today, and there was really no comparison. Yes, he stood me up fourteen years ago, but he’d more than made up for it today. Of course that didn’t mean he wouldn’t abandon me again under less stressful conditions.
Turning away from my spying on Brevin’s broad, muscular back and arms, I said quietly, “I think he’s changed.”
Tina huffed like an angry horse. “You remember what he did, don’t you?” she said when she finished breathing.
“Of course I do.” My mind flashed back to the last week of high school. I was so happy, even though it was just a movie Brevin had asked me out to. Not the prom or anything fancy. I fantasized for an entire week about holding his hand while we watched the film. About him kissing me goodnight when hetook me home. And not like the kisses we’d shared on the stage with everyone watching. A real, private kiss. One that he wasn’t forced to give me.
