Page 49 of Second Chances
“Mine.” Josh tapped the snow off his boots and lit a small oil lamp on the wall, casting an orange glow over the small room.
Megan stepped inside and shivered. The room looked warm and inviting but felt very, very cold.
“Here wrap yourself in this blanket while I get the fire started,” Josh handed her a plaid wool blanket.
Megan took off her boots, tiptoed over to the solid wood armchair in front of the fireplace and watched as Josh constructed a teepee-shaped pile of wood in the fireplace and lit it. The flame seemed to hesitate, then sprang to life, the small wood pieces crackling and popping as the flame grew taller. Josh added a few bigger pieces and she could feel the heat almost immediately. As he knelt in front of the fireplace, his back to her, she felt a rush of warmth that couldn’t possibly be attributed to the fire. In front of her was a real modern-day mountain man, a devastatingly handsome, young, extremely fit, mountain man – complete with beard, husky and cabin in the woods.
“They could film a movie here,” she mused, looking around the room. Kerosene lamps hung on the walls, the furniture all appeared to be hand made, the living room and small kitchen basically comprised the whole main floor. A rustic ladder led to a loft space above.
“A horror movie?” Josh chuckled.
“Yeah,” Megan lied. The movie she would film here would either be a Lifetime Christmas movie, or a rom-com.
The light from the fire danced in Josh’s eyes and when he took his hat off, his rumpled brown hair showed hints of auburn she had never noticed before – the same auburn now reflected in his beard.
The fire started to roar. Josh stood up and started lighting all the lamps on the walls. The cold and dampness of the cabin quickly started to dissipate.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, shoving his feet into some boots by the back door.
“Wait, where are you going?” Megan felt safe with Josh in the cabin but didn’t want to be in a cabin in the woods all alone.
“One second, I just have to get something.” Josh stepped outside. The cabin went quiet except for the popping and crackling of the fire. Then the door burst open and Josh jumped back into the doorway brandishing a huge ax, “Baha!”
Megan jumped in her chair and then tossed a small throw pillow at him. “You scared me!”
“Um. That was kind of the point,” he shrugged.
His boyish smile melted any anger Megan felt. “So, you’re skipping the romantic kidnapping part and going straight to hacking me up with an ax?”
Megan saw that Josh was lost for words and realized that she shouldn’t have added ‘romantic’ to her comment.
“Um. No. I’m going to go get us some water for hot chocolate. That’s how we treat our mountain captives here.”
“With an ax?”
“I have to chop a hole in the ice to get water from the lake.” He held up the ax.
“Do you need some help?” Megan’s heart rate was slowly returning to the somewhat elevated rate where it seemed to hover in Josh’s presence.
“You just stay warm.”
Megan pulled the blanket tightly around her and settled into the sofa. She noticed that her hands were shaking and rubbed them together, but they weren’t cold. She was literally vibrating with anticipation.
Josh returned covered in fresh snow holding a bucket of water. “The finest water you will ever taste,” he grinned and took a sip from the edge of the bucket.
“What about that hot chocolate?” she may be open to learning about small-town life but drinking straight out of the lake was pushing it a little too far for her.
“Right,” he smiled. “Of course.” He lit the small propane stove in the kitchen. He pulled out a saucepan and a bottle of cream from his backpack. Megan stood up and met him beside the stove. She took the old-fashioned bottle of cream from his hands.
“Where did you get this?” she asked.
“One of my old search and rescue buddies is a dairy farmer, he sneaks some of the raw stuff for me.” Josh took the bottle from her hands and poured it into the pan. It immediately bubbled up.
“Whoa,” Megan said and jumped to turn down the flame. “You’ve got to heat that slowly or else it will burn.”
Josh turned to Megan, “I have a confession.” He was smiling.
“Let me guess, you don’t know how to make hot chocolate from scratch,” she laughed and shoved him from the front of the stove with her hip.
