Unlike a Hollywood movie where the car breaks free from the tree the moment the woman escapes the car with the dashing hero, the car didn’t slide any further down the hill. As soon as Harper was free from the car, she wrapped her arms tightly around Nash's shoulders. He moved them to the right of the car door and it quickly slammed shut from the force of gravity, as he said it would.
Snow fell down on her face and she realized she was facing the sky. While she took in her surroundings, Nash fiddled with the ropes and harness equipment. But it wasn't until he started pulling them up that Harper realized the gravity of her situation fully.
“Don’t look down if you're afraid of heights,” he said, pulling on the pulley system of rope.
Of course she looked, and was immediately sorry she did. If she'd taken just a few more of those trees out when she'd rolled down the embankment, she would've gone over the cliff. She didn't have to look to see just how far she would've fallen. She knew because she'd seen that drop from the other side of the mountain. The cabin that her grandmother had rented out to Nash had a clear view of this spot. That must have been how he’d realized she was here. How else?
She rested her face against his shoulder, trying to blot out the images assaulting her mind of what might have happened had these two trees not stopped her fall.
“Are you getting queasy?” he asked.
“Yeah, but mostly because I just realized how close I came to dying.”
His arm was still secure around her waist even though she was sure he'd put her in the harness securely.
“You have plenty of time to revisit all this later. Right now, I just want you to stay calm and listen to my instruction when I need you to do something.”
His voice was soothing but had a hint of command to it as if he'd been in a position of authority and was used to giving orders. Or he was experienced in calming people in dangerous situations.
“Do you do this often?” she asked.
“Rescue beautiful women?”
She rolled her eyes and smiled, stumbling as her feet dragged on the snowy ground as he hoisted them up the hill. She wasn’t doing much to help him. He was doing it on his own. So she let him hold her tight as she settled her body against his.
“How are your legs?” he asked.
“I don’t know. How are they?”
She glanced over at him and caught him smiling.
“Do you think you can walk a little?”
She thought for a brief moment. Her body seemed almost numb and she wasn't sure if it was numb from the cold or from any kind of injury. “I’m sorry. What do you need me to do?”
“I still have you attached to the tether. So you're not going to fall back. I'll make sure of that. But this will go faster if I don't have to carry you or make short adjustments with the pulley. If you’re not up to it, we’ll take as long as we need to. But the sooner we get up the hill, the sooner we can get back to the cabin where it is warm and take a good look at your injuries. I managed to get the stove going before I saw the accident and came out to investigate.”
“Heat. That would be nice.” Her stomach felt queasy from all of the motion, but the thought of getting warm was inviting. “I don't know how much I can do, but I'll try.”
He chuckled softly. “That's the spirit.”
It took about half an hour or so to make it to the top of the road where her car had tumbled off the embankment. By the time they reached the road, it was already dark and Harper was exhausted from the climb. She was having a difficult time gauging time. She'd seen her headlights shining on snow below and now it was pitch dark.
She was so tired that she immediately dropped to the ground as soon as they got to the road and Nash let go of her. Since they were still connected to the harness together, she pulled him down with her.
“Whoa. Let me undo the harness. You can rest here for a little bit, but we still have a ways to go before we get to the cabin.”
“I'm so tired.”
“I know. That's the cold and most likely the bump on your head zapping you of your energy. It’s late and you’re probably hungry too. But you can't sleep now. You need to stay with me.”
“I can't.”
“Do you know any show tunes?”
She blinked and tried to replay his words in her head. “What? Did you say show tunes?”
“Yeah. It’s an old trick. If we sing, it'll give you something to do so you’ll stay awake. It'll make you concentrate. That will keep you from passing out, and it will keep you from getting colder because when you sleep you automatically lose some thermal heat. You can't do that until we get to the cabin.”
She felt her lips stretch into a smile and she couldn't hold back even though her body felt so fatigued. “I don't know show tunes. What you mean like Broadway tunes?”
“Sure. We could sing movie themes. I know a bunch of those too.”
“I’ll just leave that to you.”
“No way. I’m not going to embarrass myself by singing show tunes or movie themes unless you’re going to do it with me.”
“I don't…” She thought for minutes as he fiddled with something in the dark. She wasn't sure exactly what he was doing but she heard chains rattling and what sounded like the harness coming off his jacket. She still had her harness wrapped around her. He appeared in front of her and began to undo the harness.
“Were still a long way from the cabin,” she said. “It’s going to take us forever to get there.”
“You have a good memory then. It is a ways up the hill. But we’re not going to walk.”
“We’re not? You have your truck?”
“I have a snowmobile. I didn't think that I was going to need it except for some fun in the higher elevations. I thought it was going to sit on the trailer all summer unused. Guess I was wrong.”
“I, for one, am glad you brought it.”
He chuckled. “Me, too. I had visions of carrying you all the way up the rest of the mountain to the cabin. So, what tune are we going to sing?”
Any other time she would have had a quick quip to shoot back at him. She was used to doing that at work when one of the officers gave her a little tease. She didn’t have the energy and her mind felt like mush.
“No singing. Please. I don’t have the energy to since the theme from Frozen. I’m already frozen.”
“Frozen. I haven’t seen that one.”
“What? How can you not have seen that movie?”
“Is it an action movie?”
“It’s animated.”
He shrugged as he released the last of the hooks from the harness and stood up. “Then I know I haven’t seen it. Do you have kids?”
Harper shuddered with a wave of chills. “What?”
“Kids. You said it was animated.”
“No. You don’t have to be…” She sighed and then shuddered again. She was frozen. A snowmobile ride back to the cabin wasn’t going to warm her up either. But at least she was alive, even if it meant she might be stuck on the top of the mountain for a while.
“I have to call my grandmother,” she said. She reached around herself. “My purse is still in the car. It has my cell phone in it.”
Nash lifted her from the ground and guided her to the snowmobile. “There’s plenty of time for that as soon as we get to the cabin and get you warmed up. Think of it this way, if you manage to get a signal and tell your grandmother that you're still on the side of a mountain, she's going to worry until you get safely to the cabin. This way she gets worried and gets over it really quickly when she knows that you're already safe.”
“There’s no cell service at the cabin.”
“That’s right. You mentioned that.”
Harper started to get up from the ground. Nash put one strong hand under her arm to support her. “Take it easy.”
They walked to the snowmobile, which she could barely see even when she came upon it. Then she positioned herself on the back, but Nash urged her forward.
“You sit up front.”
“Oh, I don't think I have the energy to steer this thing.”
“You don't have the energy to hold on to me either. If I have you in front of me, I have a better chance of keeping you from falling off if you get dizzy.”
“Oh, okay. I guess you're right.”
“Take it easy. You don’t want to hurt yourself. As soon as you’re settled in the seat, I’ll climb behind you and you can lean back against me. If you need to hold on to something, hold on to my arms.”
Within a few minutes, Nash had climbed on and turned on the engine. Then he flicked a switch and the lights went on, illuminating the narrow road in front of them.
“Is it safe to ride like this?” she asked.
“We'll see in a few minutes I guess.”
She heard the amusement in his voice but couldn't see his smile.
“I guess there wasn’t any way for you to call into the station about the accident, huh?”
She heard his chuckle then. “You take your job seriously. But no. I did try the radio in the truck when I got the cabin. As you warned, there was no service. I’m sure the storm is making reception worse. I’ll try it when we get back. Who knows, we might get through to someone.”
It took another fifteen minutes for them to ride on the snowmobile up to the cabin. By the time they arrived, Harper’s hands and face felt like an ice cube. Unlike Nash who'd been equipped to handle the harsh elements. She only had a jacket and some gloves, although the gloves hadn’t done much good.
When she'd left the house that morning, she thought she'd only need to drive to work and back. The forecast was for flurries, not a blizzard. But as the day went on, that changed. She knew better than to be unprepared even for a spring blizzard. People died this way. If Nash hadn't been renting the cabin, then no one would've found her for God only knows how long. She knew that there was no way she would've been able to get out of that car and climb up the embankment herself. Not in the condition she was in. But then again, if Nash hadn't been renting the cabin, there would've been no reason for her to be traveling up the mountain.
“We’re here,” Nash said.
Somehow, he was standing next to her and she hadn’t even known he’d gotten off the snowmobile. She could smell the scent of fresh snow and the smoke from the wood burning in the stove inside. Sweet relief filled her.
As soon as Nash opened the door, Harper walked inside the cabin and wanted to weep. It was a common thing for her to be able to get through crisis, remain calm, and then fall apart later. This cabin was so familiar to her. And it was warm. To Harper, this was like home even though Nash was the one renting it. It was his home at least for the summer.
“You never said what you were doing on the mountain road. Were you coming to see me for something?” Nash asked, leading her into the living room area and easing her down to the pull out sofa.
Harper groaned. “Not again. I left the linens in the trunk of my car.”
“Linens?” He stood up straight and frowned as he pulled off his snow-filled scarf and hat.
“The cabin doesn’t have any blankets, sheets, or towels. I was supposed to give them to you when you came to get the key.”
“I hadn’t even had time to check. I have a sleeping bag. But that only takes care of one of us.” He turned and held his hand out to the wood stove. “The stove is starting to go out. I started it as soon as I got to the cabin. But the wood was a little wet. I wasn't sure if it would take. These might be a little dryer now.” He rummaged through a pile of wood next to the stove and picked two pieces.
When he opened the stove door and positioned the two new logs on top of the embers, she breathed in deep. “I always loved the smell of this woodstove.”
Still crouched down, he turned to look at her. “Did you spend a lot of time up here when you were a kid?”
“Mostly during the summer months. We didn’t come up all that much in the winter because the snow made it hard to get through. It made it difficult for my dad to get to work and he didn't want us stuck up here by ourselves in case we had another blizzard, which was pretty much all the time as far as I can remember.” She chuckled, but it was bittersweet.
Nash seemed to notice he’d hit a nerve. His eyes grew warm with sympathy. “That's Montana for you.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Nausea and dizziness crept up on her until it was almost too overbearing and she had to hold onto something to keep herself upright. Except when she reached out her hand there was nothing there. Instantly she felt Nash's hand on her arm giving her some stability.
“Just lean back against the sofa.”
“I guess I hit my head harder than I thought.”
“Either that or the ride to the cabin was a little too much too soon. As soon as this stove gets a little hotter, I can warm some water for a bath for you.”
“It’ll take a while for the water heater to warm enough water. But it doesn’t matter. The towels are in my trunk.”
He smiled. “I have one you can use.”
She leaned forward on the sofa and looked around. “Wait. Did you get the solar system running? We have lights.”
“No. That’s a battery-operated lantern. I didn’t have time to get the solar system working. We have plenty of snow to melt and lots of heat to melt it with, so you should be able to clean up and ease some of the aches in your body from that tumble. You’re going to feel it otherwise.”
“That still leaves just one sleeping bag. Did you buy any perishable food?”
He smiled. “Not much. But there’s enough snow outside that we can pad the icebox to keep what I have fresh. And I have plenty of MREs. We won’t starve.”
“We? Are you here with anyone else?”
The sudden worried look he gave her was troubling. “I’m here with you.”
She shrugged and instantly regretted it. Leaning back and resting her head on her hand as she leaned against the sofa, she said, “Yes, but I won’t be staying. If we can call someone on the radio in your truck, someone can pick me up before things get too bad.”
He smiled again. “It’s too bad.”
“What is?”
He pointed toward the window. “The weather. You must have hit your head pretty hard. No one is going to get up this mountain road until the storm blows over.”
She gasped. “No. That’s impossible. It wasn’t bad when I left work. I mean, I know there is a lot of snow out there, but—”
“That was hours ago. Trust me. No one is getting up that road. I barely made it with the snowmobile. Like it or not, you’re stranded here with me.”
“No, no. That can’t be.”
Harper tried to get up from the sofa and then fell back.
“Easy now.”
“Easy nothing. My grandmother is alone.”
“I’m sure she is fine.”
“She’s going to worry.”
“You’ll call her.”
“Up here? There is no service at the top of the mountain.”
“We’ll try the radio to get a message through if we can. But no one is going to be able to get up that road to rescue you without risking their own life. Not even a plow. You’re stuck with me.”