Page 27 of Stranded with the Billionaire
There was no wind outside, but big fat flakes were falling. Sterling could make them out through the dusty window. At the very least, Jake should have waited until it wasn’t snowing.
He was going to get lost. She just knew it. Sterling was going to give herself an ulcer from worry.
Resolving to ignore the worry and try to stay mad at him, she made herself a cup of coffee. As she was reaching for a pack of instant oatmeal, something furry skittered over her hand, scrambling to get away from her.
Sterling screamed, snatching back her hand. Stumbling backward to get away, she fell onto the cot as the blur of fur ran under it.
Where was Jake when she needed him?!
Sterling clutched the side of the cot as she peered underneath it, looking for the rodent. It had better not be a rat. She didn’t do well with rats. Or mice for that matter. They were kind of like bats without the wings but having tails instead. From the corner under the cot, a chipmunk gazed back at her in confusion.
Sighing in relief, Sterling let herself relax. “Hello little Larry descendant.”
She decided to let him be. He probably wouldn’t get into much of anything and was terrified of her. It was likely the little creature would leave as soon as she stopped looking at him. Plus, he was a cutie.
A box caught her eye. It was dusty and at the far corner under the bed. Sliding gently off the cot, Sterling winced as her knee made careful contact with the floor. She reached under, pulling the box toward herself as the chipmunk scampered away.
Sitting up, Sterling lifted the lid to see what was inside. A flare gun and three flares greeted her.
Setting the box on the desk, Sterling managed to get back up on her feet. She sat in the desk and took the gun out of the box. It looked the same as the flare gun her uncle JimBob had for his boat. JimBob had taught Sterling and her brother Ben how to load and fire the flare gun.
Sterling had once threatened to shoot Dixby Cooley with one when he got a little fresh after prom and they’d gone fishing in their finery. Small town living was sometimes an interesting thing.
Checking over the gun to see if there was any obvious reason to her untrained eye that it wouldn’t work, Sterling carefully loaded it. With the snow falling thickly outside, it wouldn’t be much use. However, if it let up and she heard another snowmobile, she was now prepared to catch their attention.
Wouldn’t it be funny if she saved the day when Jake was still tromping around in the snow?
Jake plowed through another drift on the road. He hoped he was making good time because the last thing he wanted was to be stuck out in the elements when night came. It wasn’t that cold right now, but the snow was coming down at an alarming rate making it hard to see all that far in front of him.
He didn’t want to admit that Sara might have had a point about sheltering in place until her knee was better. Already, he missed her company. Chatting with her would have made the journey feel shorter and the time fly by faster. By himself, he was a little bored.
Sara Hawkins from a tiny town called Pendle, Jake mused. She was the first woman in a long time to catch his attention. He liked her forthright way of talking, her spunky attitude and the fact that she didn’t pander to him. It was probably due to the nature of their close proximity since the plane crash and being stranded, but Jake liked Sara.
She was a bit of a mess.
Even when they had argued yesterday, he’d enjoyed it. She gave as good as she got. It had been fun to be challenged and have to argue the point. As CEO of Ramesly Insurance, Jake often just told his coworkers what was going to happen and it simply did. Rarely did he have to assert his authority or his intelligence in an argument. It had been refreshing to battle wills with Sara.
Now he needed to make sure that he rescued her. Not only as a point of pride since Jake had gone off this morning determined to make a rescue happen, but also for their survival. He refused to call it sneaking away while Sara was sleeping. He didn’t sneak and if Sara didn’t sleep so deeply, she would have woken on time to catch Jake.
The truth was, Jake liked her.
He hadn’t truly liked a woman in a long time. People always tended to want something from him. Part of the Ramesly dynasty, or his money, or his business connections, or whatever. They didn’t seem to like hanging around Jake just for himself. So Jake had few friends and rarely ever dated.
It was much simpler that way.
Yet Jake liked Sara. He liked her fresh open way of talking. The way she invited him to share the joke with her when she was happy. The way she managed to get into trouble. The way she smiled and how she talked herself through instructions.
He was smitten, as his mother would say. Jake had the feeling Beverly would like her. He gave his head a shake. It was far too soon to think thoughts like introducing her to his mother. He’d only known her for three days.
Even so, Jake wanted to get to know her better. Maybe after they were on their way back on their travels, he could get her phone number and a promise to see him again.
Satisfied with that idea, Jake continued to make his way through the snow until he came across a split in the road. There were no street signs, nor was either way plowed. Pulling out the map, Jake studied it.
This wasn’t on the map.
Jake frowned and looked at both the fork in the road and the map. They just didn’t correlate. Sara had said that things might have changed and she was right. What did they know about how long logging roads were upkept?
Jerry’s logging road on the map listed toward the right so Jake decided to go right and hope that he was going in the direction of the town.
