Page 6 of Mountain Mens' Curvy Obsession

My body is in pain. My head throbs, so I can’t make any sudden movements.

Chance comes in with a bowl of hot chicken soup as I manage to pull myself up into a sitting position. “How are you feeling?” he asks, carefully setting the bowl on a nightstand within my reach.

“Like I wrapped my car around a tree, I guess. How long was I out this time?”

He checks his watch. “About two hours.”

“What’s the total so far?”

“Almost a day now,” he replies, sitting on the edge of my bed.

He wears his dark hair shorter than his brothers, but there are some unruly waves at the top of his head, giving him a boyish flair of sorts. They all appear to be in their thirties. Grown men, packed with muscles and a hardness earned elsewhere, not just on the mountain. They carry themselves with an unspoken dignity, yet they are so gentle with me.

It’s uncanny.

“I wish I had better answers for you,” Chance says. “But I’ll be honest. The doctor recommended we let you recover your memories on your own.”

“My head hurts like hell when I dig too deep,” I groan, but the smell of hot chicken soup soothes my frustration. “You said I have a brother? He must be looking for me?”

“We’re stuck up here for at least a few days, I’m afraid,” Chance replies without answering my question. “We’d have taken you straight down into town, but it’s impossible. The snow is getting thicker with every passing hour. Soon, we won’t be able to make it past the front porch. The entire mountain and its surrounding area are under a code red emergency. All we can do is sit tight and wait for it to pass.”

Slowly, I reach for the bowl, but the pain in my side makes me whimper as I retrieve my arm and keep it close to my ribs. “Fuck.”

“It’s alright,” he says. “Let me help you.”

Gingerly, patiently, Chance spoon-feeds me the chicken soup. It tastes good. Really good. “Thank you,” I say when we reach the bottom of the bowl. “At least there’s food and electricity here.”

“The power lines are underground,” he says. “We paid through the nose for this system before we moved up here. And yes, we have supplies for at least a couple of weeks.”

“A couple of weeks?”

“Hopefully, it won’t take that long for us to make it out of here. According to the weather report, the blizzard should pass by Sunday.”

I give him a confused look. “What day is it?”

“Monday.”

“Crap.”

He chuckles softly. “I know. It’s all we can do, though. Besides, you need rest.”

“What about the phones?”

Chance checks his again. There’s that furrowed brow of his, already giving me an answer. “Tower still down. No signal whatsoever. This is the worst winter storm to hit Missoula in at least a decade. We prepared for it, so we’re safe. We just didn’t expect… you.”

I’m feeling soft and fluffy all of a sudden. In fact, I’m sinking into the mattress, my stomach full and my eyelids droopy.

“I need to get out of here… I need…”

Chance quashes any attempt at rebellion. “You need to sleep some more.”

I can’t exactly argue with him. “You said you know me?” I keep repeating myself as if to coax the memories back. “How did we meet?”

My eyes are closing. Maybe I could try to get out of here on my own as soon as I’m able to stand, but the windows are all white. Snow everywhere. I wouldn’t even know left from right out there. I’d freeze before I reached the road.

Whether I like it or not, I’m stuck here.

“Sleep, Anya. It’ll come back to you, eventually.”

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