She brushed a strand from her face that had come loose from her braid. At the rattle of one of the windowpanes, her attention shifted to find snow plastered to the glass. From the little she could see of the outside, the snow was falling rapidly.
Urgency prodded her. With the snow coming down so hard, they needed to get out of the mountains and to a lower elevation where the conditions might not be as severe.
“We need to go.” She pushed up from the couch to find that she was alone inside. The fire in the stove was still blazing. Someone had brought in more firewood and added to the stack that was already there, because the newer pieces were damp and covered with snow.
She crossed to the door in her bare feet, only to find that the puncheon wood floor was wet—likely from the tromping in and out. Regardless, she pushed at the door. It hardly budged. It was almost as if the wind had an invisible hand holding it closed and trapping her inside.
They had to go before they were trapped in the mountains.
She finally wrestled the door open, and as she stepped outside, a gust slapped her and snow swirled against her face so that she could hardly see a foot from the porch. She squinted in the direction of the path that led to the nearby lake.
Nothing was visible through the blowing snow.
She crossed the wide front porch and caught sight of Max with Winzig and Braun, bundled up by the snowmobiles. The snow sank up to her ankles from the drift already forming on the porch. From what she could tell, between three or four inches of fresh snow had fallen in the time she’d been resting.
Exactly how long had she been asleep? She glanced down at her watch to find that it was only 1:30 p.m. With the hike down not taking quite as long as the hike up, they still had plenty of time to return to the trailhead before darkness settled. They would be back to the ranch in time for dinner, where she planned to prove to Tyler that he’d been wrong about mistrusting her to go on the hike with Max.
But a sinking feeling inside told her that, regardless of the early afternoon hour, time wouldn’t be their enemy today. No, the weather would be.
The storm had arrived sooner than the weather app had predicted, and it was a doozy of a storm, with gusty winds, heavy snowfall, and whiteout conditions.
Did they dare try to leave now and make it down before more snow accumulated? Or were the conditions already too dangerous?
With the soles of her feet stinging from the cold and her body starting to shake, she knew she needed to go back inside and get on her gear before venturing out. The issue was that she didn’t want anyone leaving without her. They weren’t experienced in the mountains like she was.
“Max!” she called.
The wind whipped her voice away.
“Max!” she shouted louder.
Somehow he seemed to hear her—or perhaps he sensed her presence—because he glanced her way. At the sight of her on the porch, he said something curt to Winzig and Braun, and then he started toward her, struggling against the wind and the snow to keep from slipping and falling.
As he started up the steps and took in her condition, a scowl creased his forehead. He hurried his pace as much as he was able. When he reached her, he scooped her up into his arms. Snow covered his coat and ski pants, and it crusted his eyebrowsand the strands of his hair hanging out from his winter hat. Cold radiated from him, but he was solid and his presence reassuring.
“What are you doing?” she asked as he secured her against his chest.
“You should not be out here like this.” He began tromping toward the door.
“I don’t need you to carry me.”
“I know.” He kicked the door open with his boot and crossed to the couch she’d just abandoned. Winzig and Braun were close on his heels and shut the cabin door against the flurry of snow and cold.
Max lowered her to the cushions. “We were thinking that maybe we could double up on the snowmobiles and try to make it down. What do you think?”
She appreciated that he was asking for her advice and wasn’t assuming he knew better than she did. “Unfortunately, with the whiteout conditions, I don’t think it’s safe for any of us to go right now.” Her teeth were chattering as she spoke, and she wrapped her arms around herself to ward off a shudder.
He grabbed the blanket and draped it around her. “What about the parts of the trail that pass through the woodland? We would have less wind and snow there, would we not?”
“It’d still be difficult to navigate. And with the wind blowing so hard, we’d have to go slow and worry about falling limbs and the chance of hitting them.”
He nodded gravely, his face ruddy from the cold and the snowflakes and ice. “Then what do you suggest we do?”
As far as she could tell, they had only one choice. “We wait out the worst of the storm and leave when the wind and snow die down.”
“From your experience, how long do you expect the storm will last?”
Both Winzig and Braun were watching her expectantly, as if she had the power to wave a magic wand and make the storm disappear.
