Page 10 of Snow Balled

I patted what might have been her shoulder under all those covers and turned out the light.

I still had no idea who this beautiful young woman was, or what we were going to do now that she was here, but one thing was clear.

She definitely needed sleep.

5

SIERRA

I awoke smothered in covers. At some point, I’d even pulled them over my head. The feeling of the blankets weighing me down felt familiar, but I couldn’t quite remember why.

After peeling the covers away from my face, I blinked at the light at the edges of the window shade. Where the hell was I?

The room was small and rustic, but the bed was big and comfortable and clearly not my bed.

Then it all came back to me, hitting me like a migraine. The tree that crashed through my roof. Being pinned down for so long. And the three men who came to rescue me.

This must be one of their rooms. As soon as I had that thought, I felt something next to me move. Biting back a shriek, I scrambled out of bed. Just because they rescued me, they thought they could sleep with me? No man had that right, not even one who’d helped me when I needed it most.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve, you piece of—”

The collie looked up at me with a questioning gaze.

“Oh.” Feeling shaky, I sat down, looking at the handsome dog. He’d been lying against my side. I probably hadn’t felt him due to all the blankets. “Sorry,” I told the dog. He looked at me with a mixture of guilt and offense. “But you still should’ve asked.”

He lifted his snout almost as if nodding, and I rubbed his head. His soft fur felt good against my hands, especially since they’d been so numb yesterday. More details were coming back, including how horrible the climb had been. Climbing up that hill had been like trying to traverse an ice-skating rink raised to a forty-five-degree angle—while wearing socks. My slippers had made everything worse, but it wasn’t like I could go barefoot.

Too bad I hadn’t been wearing my boots. Basically, everything else I’d had with me—my laptop, my coat, all my clothes—were buried under the downed tree. At least I had my phone. I sent a quick text to Alyssa to let her know that I was all right and that I’d call her later.

“I’m sorry, I can’t remember your name,” I told the collie. I couldn’t remember the men’s names, either, except for Drew. “You all need to wear collars with your names on them.” My hand stilled as I thought about the other men. There hadn’t been a lot of time to chat with them, not like I had with Drew. But the big man with the dark hair, he’d been super strong. I still couldn’t believe he’d carried me for the last leg of the trip. Normally, a strange man touching me would send my anxiety sky-high, but yesterday I’d been half dead by the time he lifted me onto his back.

The dog pawed at my leg after my hands stilled, as if reminding me that I was supposed to be petting him. So, I resumed rubbing behind his ears while I tried to figure out what came next. Finding the bathroom in this place was probably a good idea, but I didn’t relish seeing the men again. They were strangers to me, except perhaps for Drew. He’d talked to me so much yesterday when I was trapped that it kind of felt like I knew him a little. Or maybe it was because he wasn’t that much older than me, and he had a good-natured expression and twinkling eyes. He, at least, wasn’t a threat.

And neither was my new furry best friend. I definitely needed to find out what his name was. I needed to get out of this bedroom, too, but for a moment I stayed here, warm and safe. Who knew what I’d find when I ventured out of my little den.

Giving the dog one last pat, I rose and opened the shades. The sun was actually out, but it didn’t seem to have much effect on the ice. Every branch, every fallen log, still glistened with it. But maybe after a few more hours some of it might melt? I wasn’t sure—I hadn’t seen a weather report in a while.

Once it was lighter in the room, I spotted some clothes on a storage chest by the door. On top of the pile was a pair of warm winter socks. Thank god. I still had on what I’d been wearing yesterday, and clean clothes were a very welcome gift.

I sat back by the dog to pull the socks on my cold feet. There were some sweats, too, and I changed into them. They were big, but not humongous, so I figured they were probably Drew’s.

By the time I redid my ponytail, there weren't any other stalling tactics left. At the very least, I owed those men my thanks. I wasn’t sure how long it would take the cabin company to extract me, but I figured it might take the better part of the day, so I couldn’t hide out in here forever.

Slowly, I opened the door about a foot wide. My plan was to peek out and see who was around, but the dog nixed that idea. He hopped off the bed, stuck his nose between my leg and the door, and pushed his way out.

“There you are,” a familiar voice said. Drew was standing in front of a long, bar-height table, a laptop open in front of him. Another man was seated across from him, also working on a computer. He was the medium-sized one, though he was probably only a few inches taller than Drew and an inch or two shorter than the tall one, who was nowhere to be seen.

“Morning.” My voice was rusty. I’d slept deeply, that much was for sure. Ever since childhood, I’d had a habit of waking at two o’clock in the morning. My mom used to say she could set her clock by it, but apparently, last night it hadn’t happened.

The dog trotted over to Drew, who bent to pet him. “Sorry about the unannounced roommate,” Drew said to me. “He slipped in when I set the clothes in there.”

I stiffened, not liking the thought of Drew in there while I slept, even though I’d been so buried under the covers. “But I’m sure Zeus didn’t cause any trouble, did he?” Drew rubbed both of the collie’s ears while the dog’s tail wagged.

Zeus. All right, now I knew two out of four names. While Drew was occupied petting the dog, I took a moment to look around the cabin. It was a lot larger than mine. I could’ve gotten a bigger one, but it hadn’t seemed necessary for just myself. Being up here with few distractions was kind of the point.

Still, now that I saw how nice theirs was, I wished I’d gotten one of the more deluxe ones, if for no other reason than it might’ve stood up better under a fallen tree. We were in a large living room, and there was an L-shaped couch in front of a huge fireplace with a stone hearth. An old but cozy-looking rug covered most of the floor in the living room. A hallway with a few doors ended in a staircase that led upward. An island counter separated the living room from the kitchen. A skylight was directly over the table where the men worked, but it seemed to be covered by snow at the moment.

“How did you sleep?” the other man asked. He had light brown hair with a slight wave to it that made it look casually tousled. The stubble that lined his jaw was a bit lighter, nearly blond. His incredibly vivid blue eyes looked like they would go well with blond hair, and I guessed his hair had been lighter when he was a child.

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