Kelli slammed her gloved hands onto the steering wheel. Wasn’t this the last thing she needed? Taking a deep breath, which was meant to calm but didn’t help at all, she put the car in reverse and tried backing up. But the tires only spun, and after two more tries, it was readily apparent that all she was going to do was get herself even more stuck.
Heaving a sigh, she pocketed the key, took her overnight bag from the backseat, and left the car. She wasn’t going to worry about the gifts in the trunk right now. If anyone did manage to make it all the way out here, they were free to try to steal them.
As she trudged through the snow, bent against the wind, Kelli couldn’t help wishing she were lying on a warm, sun-drenched beach sipping a mai tai while a deeply tanned cabana boy catered to her every need.
With the forest draped in snow, nothing looked familiar, making her uncertain exactly how much farther she had to go and remembering everything she’d learned about always staying with the car in situations like this.
Then, just was she began to fear she was lost, she turned a corner and there, surrounded by towering fir trees, was the Douchett cabin.
That was the good news.
The bad news was the fire-engine red pickup parked in front.
“Well, there’s no turning back now,” she muttered. Rather than use the key Adèle had given her, she knocked on the heavy wooden door.
A moment later it was opened by Cole, who was dressed in sweatpants, a soft, well-washed black sweatshirt with a Tun Tavern emblem, and thick black socks. Kelli knew, because Cole had told her when he’d signed up for ROTC, that the Philadelphia tavern had been where the Marines had held their first recruitment meeting in 1775, even before the Declaration of Independence.
“What are you doing here?”
“Merry Christmas to you, too,” she shot back, her nerves and temper frayed.
“Hell, I’m sorry.” He ran a hand over that too-short hair she was actually starting to get used to. It definitely defined those razor-edged cheekbones. Which was so not what she should be concentrating on right now! “It’s just that I wasn’t expecting you.” He glanced past her. “Where’s your car?”
“It’s down the road about a quarter of a mile. I slid off the shoulder and got stuck. Hopefully nothing’s broken.”
“You walked all that way? In this storm? Didn’t your dad teach you to stay with the car?”
“Yes. But it wasn’t that far, and weighing the options, I decided to risk being eaten by bears or getting lost rather than spending the night all alone out there.”
He shook his head, but didn’t argue her point. Instead he took the overnight case out of her hand and moved out of her way. “Come in and warm up.”
After stomping as much snow off her boots as she could, she walked into the cabin, nearly weeping with relief at the warmth of the fire, which cast a glow over the walls of logs she knew had been milled by the Douchett men from trees grown on the property.
He skimmed a look over her. Her jeans, which she’d worn instead of waterproof ski pants because she hadn’t planned to be wading through snow, were soaked nearly to her knees. “You’ll want to get out of those wet clothes. Maybe take a hot bath.”
“I’ve been imaging that tub for the last hour,” she admitted, unzipping her parka.
He helped her out of it, hanging it on a hook by the door. “Lucky for you, we’ve unlimited hot water.”
She smiled at that idea. “I was thinking about that, too.”
He smiled back, and for a suspended moment, it was almost like old times. Just two friends enjoying the same thought. “Did you leave anything else in the car?”
“A larger suitcase and gifts from my family in the trunk.”
“Give me the keys.” After she’d handed them over, he walked into the kitchen area and retrieved a heavy black garbage bag, which she assumed he intended to use as waterproofing against the snow, from beneath the sink. “I’ll go get them.
“Would you like some coffee, brandy, or wine before I go? My grandmother wasn’t kidding when she said the place was well stocked. We’ve got enough booze to open our own bar.”
Her nerves were already so jangled from the drive, Kelli knew if she drank any more coffee, she’d never get to sleep. And brandy might be more than she could handle right now. “As it happens, wine was involved in that fantasy,” she said.
“Red or white?”
“Red.”
“You’ve got it.”
He pulled a bottle from the cupboard and deftly opened it with an attachment on a black folding knife.
“That’s very MacGyverish of you,” she said.
“We Marines pride ourselves on making the most with the least. And, hey, this Leatherman is Oregon made.” He smiled at her as he poured the ruby wine into a glass. “Here you go.”
His fingers brushed hers as he handed her the fat, stemless glass. At first she’d thought he might have done it on purpose, but his friendly, harmless expression gave nothing away as he sat down on a bench by the door and began pulling on his boots.
“So, I’ll retrieve your stuff while you run your bath,” he said. “Unless you’d rather I hang around and warm you up myself.”
Surely he was kidding. Wasn’t he?
“The wine and bath will be fine,” she said mildly. “But thank you for the offer. It was very generous of you.”
“Always happy to help out,” he said cheerfully. But there was a devilish gleam in his brown eyes she’d never seen from him before. “Let me know if you change your mind.”
With that, he was out the door, leaving her wondering if she might have actually been safer staying in the car.