The jerk was having way too much fun at her expense because her city girl was showing. But if she didn’t get to pee soon, she’d have an accident on the floor like a new puppy. That so wasn’t what she wanted Caleb to remember of her. She nodded. “Sure.” She studied the bucket for a second before deciding there wasn’t really a choice here. “I don’t hear you.”
Caleb chuckled before he started singing. “Doo, doo, doo…”
“What the heck, Caleb? Why would you do that to me?” She balanced herself with one hand on the wall to hover over the bucket. “Now I’m going to have that stuck in my head for the rest of the day.”
“It’s the only one I could think of.”
“Jerk.”
“Doo, doo, doo…”
What an ass.
“Stop it.” She finished what she had to do and swished back the curtain. “You.” She pointed at him. “You are an asshole. That song drives me nuts.”
“Come on, Rosey-Posey. Don’t be mad.” He grabbed a pot from the stove and poured it into a bowl which was half-filled with snow. “I figured you’d want to wash your hands.”
“Doo, do—” She stopped herself mid-hum. How could she stay mad with him when he was thinking of everything? “Thank you.” She washed up in the lukewarm water, and by the time she was done, he was sitting on the bottom bunk.
“You climb in, and I’ll curl around you.” Caleb tugged back the blankets. “That way, I can tend to the fire throughout the night without waking you.”
She couldn’t allow him to do everything. She’d like to think she wasn’t entirely helpless. “I don’t mind taking turns.”
Caleb climbed into bed and curled his arm around her stomach, fitting himself against her back before covering them with the blankets. “You stay warm. I’ll have to check in with HQ a couple of times.”
It didn’t take long for the air beneath the blankets to warm up from their combined body heat. “I’ll take a turn,” she insisted.
His nose buried against the back of her neck. “Mmh, sure.”
28
The silence when he opened his eyes told Caleb the storm had blown itself out. Sometime since he’d checked on the fire last, they’d swapped places, and she now slept against his chest. He eased his arm out from under Rose’s head and slipped out of bed. Shivering, he stepped to the stove and added some more logs. He’d often used the phrase ‘colder than a witch’s tit,’ but he now knew when he’d used it before, he’d been wrong, because this cold was one which burrowed into your bones, and shaking it loose was a problem. Even with the stove burning, he could see his breath in the air.
He checked that there was enough water in the pot and put it back on the stove before reaching for his phone.
At least there will be coffee.
Shit coffee.
But still coffee.
I’ll take it.
He hit the button on his phone to light up the screen.
Dalton: Check in when you wake.
He checked the time on the notification, thankful it had only come in within the last twenty minutes.
Caleb: All good. Gonna check the horses.
Dalton: (Thumbs up)
The emoji response told him it was probably Lina sending the messages from Dalton’s phone, because he didn’t think Dalton even knew what an emoji was, never mind how to send one. He tried to be as quiet as possible and not wake Rose as he pulled on his boots. He needed to check the horses; they’d been out in the lean-to shed all night. While they were well used to the weather here in Montana, only a stupid man didn’t take care of his mount first.
He shrugged into his coat, pulled on a woolly hat he’d found in one of the tote boxes, and tugged it down over his ears. He considered if Rose would be freaked out to wake up and find him missing and decided she might be. Being from the city, she might not think of the horses. He went back to the bed and crouched next to it. “Rose?”
“Mmh-umm?” Her eyes blinked open. “Huh?”
