Page 9 of Next to You

“Take off your jacket and try to get comfortable. I’ll build a fire, and then we can make a plan.” He was already by the fireplace, stacking wood on the open grate. He was competent,in charge, and taking care of me like no man had ever done before, not even my father. It was sexy as hell.

“Let me know what I can do to help.”

“Listen, before you do anything else, call or text your mom or change your voicemail to say you’re with me and where we are if you don’t have a signal. She’ll worry about you. Our phones might die while we’re up here if the power doesn’t come back on.”

“Oh god. I’ll never live any of her antics down, will I?”

“I mean—she loves you. That’s a good thing.” He bustled around the space, locating more battery-powered lanterns and flameless candles and turning them on one by one. It felt good to be out of the dark.

“Yeah, but being the parent volunteer—slash—chaperone—slash—room parent for every single school year of my life was—gah!—it was just too much. She is the quintessential helicopter mother.”

“I just?—”

“Oh god. I’m being insensitive. I’m so sorry.” Spencer’s mom passed away when we were in first grade. My heart broke for the little boy I used to know. I felt like an insensitive idiot for accidentally bringing it up.

“No apologies. That wasn’t what I was getting at. You’re pale, and your nose is red. We need to warm you up.”

“Maybe we need to get out of these wet clothes.” I joked to cover the fact that I was about to lose it. I fumbled with my backpack purse as I dug for my phone to change my message as he suggested.

He let out a chuckle. “We really should. There’s a dresser in the alcove over there near the stairs. It’s full of clothes. They might smell like stale mothballs and old dryer sheets, but they’ll be clean. Help yourself to whatever looks warm.”

I watched, entranced, as he kicked off his boots and tossed his flannel shirt, followed by a thermal henley, toward the coat stand in the corner. He missed, and they landed with a wet splat on the floor.

I shrugged off his jacket and my wet hoodie and hung them up, toeing off my Converse, then bending to peel off my wet socks. “I really should rethink my cold-weather attire. I need to do better.” My teeth chattered as if to emphasize my point as I hurried to grab his clothes and hang them up for him.

I spun to see him standing there in nothing but a soaking wet, skin-tight, and see-through white T-shirt and a pair of jeans that clung to every inch of his muscular thighs and—other parts. My eyes bugged out as I took him in.

“Thanks for hanging that up. And hey, don’t beat yourself up. No one expected this.” He gestured to the window where we could see snow dumping like crazy. We were lucky we got to the cabin when we did, or we would have been in real trouble. “Once the fire gets going, you’ll feel so much better. Then we can figure everything out, okay?"

“Sounds good. I can’t thank you enough, Spencer.”

“We got this. We will be fine. I promise you.”

“Okay.” He was so sure we would be fine that I had no choice but to believe him.

His hands reached the hem of his shirt and lifted it. I gasped when it flew into the corner before he turned to the fireplace and knelt to shove some kindling between the logs on the metal rack. “You don’t have to pick up after me. I’ll get it when I’m done.”

“Holy crap,” I mumbled under my breath because so many muscles had entered my field of vision, and I couldn’t quite believe what I was seeing.

He was huge. His back was like a broad, muscular wall. It took all I had not to stare at him. I mean, I was quite literallyfreezing my ass off and had to pause to take in the view before I went in search of dry clothes and possibly a towel.

Wow—like serious wow.

I shook my head and turned toward the dresser, blindly making my way across the room. I dared not turn back to look at him again because I was in real danger of a swoon.

He’d rescued me from my car, carried me through the snow, and was now unwittingly putting on a show that had come straight out of one of my better high-school fantasies.

Stuck in the snow with Spencer Cassidy?

Yes, please. Don’t mind if I do.

I set my purse and cell on the dresser and took out the taco bag, frowning when I saw they were smushed. Damn.

“Good news! I located the matches.” Excitedly, he strode across the room to join me at the dresser. “We have a fire. Hopefully, the power will come back on tomorrow. If not, we have more firewood in a shed behind the cabin. We’re good for tonight. It’s too dark to grab more right now.”

“Oh yeah. Do not go out there. Being alone in a cabin in the woods is not my idea of a good time.”

“And being outside in a dark snowstorm is not mine. We’ll be okay, I promise, Lucy. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He held his hand out.

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