Cabin Fever Page 9

  "They're just trees.” Jack looked down at her. She rubbed her arms through her jacket, unsure whether it was the cold or the sight of the forest that chilled her to the bone. “It's our imaginations that are the creepy ones."

  She frowned at what he'd said as he moved past her to the storage locker and took out the two snow shovels, leaning the axe against the box. Taking the shovel that he offered to her, she watched him as he cleared the snow off the porch steps and walked carefully down them.

  She followed him down and walked over to the edge of the plateau.

  She looked out at the valley and then back at the cabin. It had been such a welcome sight when she'd first arrived, especially after the long hours of driving on the highways and the slow but steady crawl along the treacherous road that led up the mountain. It was so homely nestled snugly in a clearing amongst the dark forest, surrounded by trees on three sides and a slope down into the valley on the other. The mountains loomed above it in the near-distance behind her and they had always made a beautiful view. She glanced there and saw nothing but snow. Turning back to the cabin, she couldn't help smiling. There was something different about being here this time. It wasn't the blizzard. It was Jack. Being here with him was giving her the feeling that this was the start of something life altering. After meeting Jack, she'd never be the same again.

  Moving back towards the cabin, she looked down at her feet as they sunk into the deep layer of snow. Stepping forwards, she listened to the cotton-wool noise of the snow as it compacted underneath her boots and smiled.

  "You okay?” Jack said, drawing her attention back to him. He was frowning.

  She realised she'd been staring at the floor and smiling.

  "Fine,” she said, carefully placing each foot down and savouring the noise the snow made. She beamed at Jack. “I've always been the same since I was a kid. I've never been able to resist being the first to mark a patch of fresh snow."

  Her smile widened with the happy memories of the family vacations she had spent in the cabin.

  He smiled back at her and then went back to clearing a path to the chopping block.

  She slowly made her way back to the cabin and began clearing the porch. It was best they kept at least one entrance clear, and the wind did seem to be driving most of the snow towards the front of the cabin.

  Starting at the end nearest to the woods, she followed Jack's lead and threw the snow in the direction of the trees. She swallowed hard each time she put her weight on her ankle and gritted her teeth, continuing regardless of the pain. There was no way that she was going to let him be the one to do all the work to get the area cleared, no matter how much her ankle protested.

  Steadily working her way along the porch, she swallowed every time her stomach rumbled or turned. The painkillers and fresh air were clearing her head, but her stomach was still delicate. She paused for a moment, rubbing her hands together and waiting for her stomach to settle down before continuing. It was freezing outside and all she could think about was how toasty and warm it was inside the cabin. She was longing for something to warm her up. She looked over at Jack, watching him clearing the snow. He could warm her up. She shut out the voice in the back of her mind that had said that but it came back. He could definitely warm her up. She'd been at boiling point last night when he'd been helping her up the stairs, strong hands firmly gripping her sides, brushing the underside of her breasts. Her eyes widened when he looked at her.

  "You okay?” Jack asked as he stopped and looked at her where she was leaning heavily against the snow shovel. She looked exhausted, her face pale and nose red from the cold, but there was fire in her eyes. She was staring at him, lips parted and chest steadily rising and falling. He remembered what it had felt like to be close to her last night, the desire it had stirred in him, and how soft her breasts had been when he'd touched them.

  Swallowing down his feelings, he rubbed his nose on the back of his gloves and hoped his cold wasn't coming back. He tugged at the collar of his coat, suddenly feeling a little too hot for the thick thermal wear. It wasn't the cold he had to worry about. It was the fever she was giving him whenever he looked at her. If things continued like this, he'd never be able to concentrate to get his job done.

  She was a definite complication, but a part of him was starting to think she was a very welcome one.

  "Just a little tired and cold.” She smiled at him.

  "We'll keep going for a bit and then go warm up in front of that fire ... because I'm absolutely freezing.” He rubbed his nose again and sniffled for good measure.

  "One last push,” she said, looking back at the porch.

  He nodded.

  As he started to clear the snow from the area around the chopping block, he breathed a sigh of relief that he was almost done. He looked across at Kate and saw her wiping her brow with the back of her hand as she threw her snow shovel back into the locker.

  "I'm starved. I'm going to make some more toast,” Kate called out to Jack as he continued to clear the area.

  "Sounds good.” He looked up at her and flicked her a smile as he carried another shovel of snow over to the woods and threw it in.

  Kate watched him for a few seconds and then walked into the house. She smiled and closed her eyes as the heat hit her, instantly warming her face. Removing her gloves, she flexed her fingers, amused by the fact that their exposure to the warmth seemed to make them feel more numb and useless than when they had just been cold.

  Running the water, she filled the kettle and then turned it on. She looked in the cupboards, grabbed the marmalade and then the bread. It would be one of the first things to go off, so it was probably wise to use it now.

  She put four slices into the toaster and pressed the lever down.

  Leaning against the counter, she stared absently out the window and let her eyes follow Jack as he cleared the snow.

  Something about the sight of him made her feel at home. It felt so domestic. Here she was making the food while he cleared the yard. She told herself that she was going crazy to be thinking like that. She barely knew him.

  She smiled as he almost slipped over but managed to retain his balance at the last minute.

  The way he acted sometimes was so mysterious, and she told herself that it was that which was drawing her to him. She wanted to figure him out, wanted to solve the mystery that he hid behind his eyes.

  If she had to get closer to him in order to that, she didn't mind.

  She frowned as she realised that she wasn't pushing him away. She wasn't discounting him like she had done with Nick's other friend and every other man she'd dated over the past five years.

  She was actually hoping that he had feelings for her, that what she was experiencing wasn't one sided.

  A tiny voice at the back of her mind said that whatever she had been searching for all her life, whatever that elusive ‘it’ was, Jack definitely had it in spades.

  She smiled nervously at him as he walked in. He ran his fingers over his hair, shaking it roughly and ridding it of snow. As he grinned at her, her heart fluttered in her throat and she found that she couldn't take her eyes off him.

  The kettle flicked off.

  The toast popped.

  The world dropped away.

  Jack almost stopped breathing as his eyes met hers. She was looking at him with so much tenderness, but so much passion at the same time, that he felt as though she'd just punched him in the chest and winded him. He couldn't drag his eyes away from hers, no matter how many times he reminded himself that this was a bad thing.

  This connection was a complication.

  But there was a connection, and it felt scarily like the one he'd had all those years ago with her.

  He reminded himself that it probably wasn't a good thing. After all, it hadn't turned out well last time. In fact, it couldn't have turned out much worse.

  And he didn't want to go there again.

  Kate tried not to frown as he suddenly turned his back on her. She blink
ed quickly as she tried to understand what had just happened and then told herself that nothing had happened, nothing at all. Busying herself with the toast and the coffee, she turned her back on him and shooed away her feelings, telling them that she had to stop thinking that something was going to happen between them.

  "Too many romantic novels,” she muttered to herself while spreading the marmalade on the toast.

  Jack looked back at her as he heard her mumble something and realised that it hadn't been for him. He knew it was wrong of him to give her the impression that he liked her when he couldn't act on it; but when she looked at him, he forgot who he was and why he was here. When he looked at her, there was only her.

  There wasn't a world outside.

  There was only her.

  He smiled gratefully as she handed him a plate of toast and then let it fade from his face as she avoided looking at him. She just turned her back on him and put more bread into the toaster.

  Walking over to her, he poured the hot water into the two waiting mugs and fixed the coffee in the same way he had done yesterday morning.

  Yesterday morning when he'd watched her sleeping.

  Like he had done the night he'd arrived.

  All night.

  He hadn't slept a wink. He'd sat in the armchair just looking at her and trying to get his head around what to do. She was a complication, but not in the same way as the snowstorm and the lack of Nick.

  She was more a complication of the heart.

  And he realised he could no longer push his feelings down inside of him and ignore them.

  "Thanks.” Kate gave him a brief smile as he pushed the mug towards her and then concentrated on her toast.

  She didn't know why she felt the need to avoid looking at him. It was just something she'd done and now she couldn't stop it. She couldn't bring herself to look at him because she feared that when she did, his expression would have changed just like it always did.

  Warm hazel eyes would've been replaced by steely ones.

  She sighed as she picked up her plate and squeezed past him so she could go into the living room. Closing her eyes briefly, she desperately tried to ignore the way her skin hummed where their bodies had touched and focused on what they were going to do today.

  Jack stared down at his leg and frowned. It had felt as though an electric current had passed between them when her hip had brushed his and it had stirred the same feelings of desire as touching her last night had. Tensing his jaw, he reminded himself that nothing was going to happen and then leant his head back as he silently wished that it would. Giving himself a few seconds to regain control of the emotions that were running haywire through him, he stared at the snow falling outside.

  Kate glanced up at him as he walked past her and sat down in the armchair opposite. She managed a brief smile and then delicately bit into the corner of her toast. She looked as though she was struggling for something to say. He wished she would speak. This silence was giving him too much time to think about her and the more he did that, the more he wanted to give in and surrender to his growing feelings for her.

  Stoking the fire, he watched it burn for a moment, consuming the fuel they had given it until there was nothing left. He smiled to himself as it reminded him of her again, of the way they had loved. Only it hadn't been love, at least not on her side. He didn't know what it had been for her.

  A job?

  Pushing those thoughts away, he ate his toast as quickly as possible so he could get back outside and finish his work before the snowfall became heavier. It wasn't falling as fast as it had been last night, but something told him that this was just a lull in the storm and things were going to get a lot worse before they got better.

  Kate was a little surprised when he stood up only a few short minutes after sitting down. Her gaze followed his feet as he walked past her and went back into the kitchen.

  Finishing her toast, she brushed the crumbs off her blue jumper as she stood and then carried her plate into the kitchen. She could see Jack outside when she entered. He was walking around the edge of the woods as though he was searching for something.

  Putting her plate down on top of his in the sink, she carried her coffee with her as she walked to the back door and opened it. She carefully crossed the porch and leant against the wooden post beside the steps as her eyes followed his every move.

  "Lost something?” she called out to him and he looked up at her. She was glad of a reason to get back to speaking with him again.

  "Was seeing if there was any decent firewood that had come down in the storm.” Jack kicked at the leaf litter and snow that covered the ground, his look turning pensive. “We've got a good supply ... but the weather is going to keep us inside, which means we'll have the fire going constantly to keep the cabin warm. We're going to use it up pretty damn quick."

  Kate realised that what he'd said was true. They had enough firewood to last a few days under normal circumstances, but these weren't normal circumstances. They were going to have the fire going all day and all night in order to keep them warm.

  "Want a hand?” Placing her mug down on the porch, she hobbled carefully down the steps and ignored the look that he gave her when she winced. Moving around the edge of the wood, she scoured the ground for some good-sized branches but quickly realised that it wasn't going to happen.

  Looking back at the porch, she saw the axe leaning against it.

  Jack turned around the moment he heard a thud.

  "What're you doing?” He frowned at Kate where she was pulling the axe out of the tree trunk.

  "What's it look like I'm doing? I'm chopping this down.” She tapped the trunk of the tree with the axe.

  It was a good size, probably twenty-four inches round, and would provide enough fuel to keep them going for a while.

  He shook his head in amazement. She was actually going to chop a tree down. The look of determination on her face was enough to tell him that she was being serious and that it probably wasn't the first tree that she'd felled.

  "Well, all right.” He gave her a look that said to go ahead with her plan and couldn't help watching her as she took another swing at the tree trunk.

  She was impressive to say the least.

  Her focus was locked on the tree as she worked to cut it down. She walked around to the other side of the tree and began to work on it, weakening it so it would fall in the direction that she wanted it to when the time came.

  Jack stepped out of the way when she moved back around to the other side and gave it a few last strokes. His eyes followed it as it creaked and swayed, and then fell with the sound of breaking branches into the snow, sending a cloud of it up into the air.

  She smiled triumphantly at him and buried the axe into the fallen tree.

  Pulling the axe out, he looked at it and then at her.

  "Always loved a girl that could handle an axe.” He raised his brows at her and then began to work his way along the tree, chopping away the thin branches. He could have it cut up before it started getting dark.

  Kate blushed and hobbled over to the porch. The moment her back was to him, she cringed and clenched her jaw, steeling herself against the pain in her ankle, and the pain in her cold joints that the vibrations from the axe had caused.

  "I'll fix some more hot drinks.” She didn't bother looking back at him as she went into the cabin, her teeth still gritted.

  Fixing herself a cup of tea, she held it tightly in her cold hands and sighed as it began to warm them up. She moved back to the door, watching Jack as he finished clearing all the branches from the tree and then began to break it up into sections.

  When she'd finished her tea, she tried to think of things that she could do to be of help to him. She didn't like the idea of him doing all the work and she didn't care that it hurt her ankle to help. There had to be something that she could do.

  Looking up at the sky, she wondered if Connie had told the rangers that she was stuck up here alone and if they would be coming f
or her. The weather was probably keeping them grounded for anything but emergency matters. The rangers knew that they were accustomed to bad weather and that she knew what to do when situations like this arose. After all, it wasn't the first time that the cabin had been cut off by snow, but it was the first time that she'd been without her family when it happened.

  Jack looked up to see her disappearing into the house again. She was still limping badly and he knew that her ankle was hurting her even if she wasn't letting it show.

  Bringing his concentration back to chopping up the tree trunk, he tried to figure out what was going to happen. Once he'd finished his task, there would be nothing for him to focus on other than her. It was a dangerous situation to find himself in. If there was nothing to keep his mind occupied and off her, his feelings were going to start getting the better of him.

  "It's still not working,” she groused as she appeared back on the porch and his attention was immediately with her.

  "What's not working?” He frowned as he saw that she was holding the radio in her hand.

  "I thought I'd try new batteries, see if I could get it working.” She shook it hard as though that would solve her problem and then frowned when it still didn't work.

  Jack went back to chopping the wood. The radio wasn't his primary concern right now; he had other things on his mind.

  "I've got it!” she said with so much excitement that he had to look up at her. “We could hike to the Donovan's cabin. Well, it's more like a huge house than a cabin."

  His eyes widened and his stomach dropped. “The Donovan's?"

  "Yeah. It's only a mile through the forest.” Kate shrugged, not noticing his reaction.

  The Donovan's place was more like a mountainside mansion than a cabin. She'd been there many times with her family for dinners and skiing trips. The size of it had always impressed her. It was about three times bigger than her family's cabin, and at least twice as big as the Frakes’ cabin that was three miles away on the other side of the plateau.

  "No,” Jack said and walked over to her. “A mile through the forest won't do your ankle any good and we don't know if anyone is there."