“No,” Elijah answered easily. “But we’ve got enough firewood to last us through the winter if we needed to.”
She spun around to face him. “That’s not funny.”
Sam still remembered what it was like back in February when the ice storm hit Texas. They’d been without power for nearly a week and almost as long without water. It had been horrible, especially since they hadn’t been prepared for that sort of storm. No one had because Texas wasn’t prone to snow, only the occasional light dusting, but mostly they were iced over from rain when the temperatures would get low enough. Again, a rarity for them.
“Come here,” Elijah urged, taking her hand and leading her over to the leather sectional sofa that faced the enormous rock-faced fireplace. “I’ll start a fire just in case.”
Sam plopped down on the sofa and watched as Elijah went to work. Admittedly, it was easy to forget her worries when she was watching him. The way he moved, the way he spoke … there was something enigmatic about Elijah Penn, something that called to her on a base level.
Like Logan, Elijah was a couple of years shy of fifty but didn’t look a day over forty. His dark hair was thick and didn’t have a single touch of silver. His brown eyes had softened over the years, losing some of the pain and storm clouds she’d noticed when they first met. And his body … she couldn’t think about his very fine, very toned form without getting hit with a bolt of lust.
Warm hands settled on her shoulders, and Sam glanced back to see Logan.
“This should pass easily tonight,” he said, as though that would assure her. “There’s another storm predicted for tomorrow, but it should move through quickly.”
“So you’re our very own meteorologist?” She tried to keep her tone light, but it wasn’t easy. Considering Logan had used this vacation as an excuse for work—or quite possibly he’d used work as an excuse for this vacation—Sam was irked.
However, the good news was, he would be all in for a couple of days since his meeting wasn’t until Friday afternoon. Likely, that was the only reason Logan was paying attention to the weather at all. Otherwise, they would’ve been enjoying themselves, right?
Speaking of…
Sam shook off the worry and fear of the weather. It would do no good for them to sit here and fret over something they couldn’t control. The last thing she wanted was to spend her vacation getting herself all worked up and in worse shape than when she’d left Dallas.
She took a deep breath and relaxed back against the cushion, allowing Logan to massage the tenseness from her shoulders.
Once the fire was burning, the warmth from the flames was immediate, relaxing her even more.
“What shall we do to pass the time?” Elijah asked when he came to sit on the sofa, patting the cushion, his request for Sam to put her feet in his lap.
Giddy over the idea of a foot massage, Sam twisted so he could have her feet. He easily slipped her boots from her feet, dropping them to the floor before peeling off her socks. Sam flexed her toes and smiled at him.
Logan joined them, taking his position so she could rest her head in his lap.
Ah, now this was what she’d been looking forward to.
“We could play a game,” Logan suggested.
“Truth or dare,” Sam blurted, glancing down at Elijah.
She watched him roll his eyes.
Sam chuckled. “What? You know you like that game.”
“Wealwaysplay that game,” Logan said, likely speaking what Elijah was thinking.
She canted her head back to look up at him. “You said you liked it.”
“That was until the last time,” Elijah answered.
“When you chosetruthevery time,” Logan finished.
Sam frowned. “I did not.”
“Oh, yes, you did.”
“I won’t pick truth.”
“Then that’s not really truth or dare, now is it?” Logan commented.
Sam blew out a frustrated breath. “Fine. What would you prefer we did?”
It didn’t surprise her when Logan reached for the remote.
Well, at least she was getting a foot rub out of this deal.
