Ice Read online

  “Fuck,” he muttered.

  “Right now?” Lolly joked, but out of the corner of his eye he saw her straighten her spine and lift her chin. She looked a little ridiculous, the way she was bundled up, but she also looked strong. And kind of amazing. She pulled in a deep breath.

  “I am not going to get away from Niki and Darwin and survive a cat-and-mouse chase through the icy rain and in my own kitchen just to give up now,” she said. Her eyes narrowed. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit down and cry, even if that’s the first impulse that comes to mind.” She looked at him, and he saw the shine of tears in her eyes. “It’s going to be a long day. Distract me.” She moved to the side of the road and started her descent. “You must have hundreds of cute and funny stories about Sam. Tell me a few. Make me laugh.”

  Gabriel didn’t feel much like laughing at the moment, but thinking about Sam waiting for his dad to come home drove him forward.

  Chapter Fourteen

  There were moments when Lolly didn’t think she could take another step. Her feet hurt. Everything hurt. For a while Gabriel and his stories kept her moving, but now it was the sound of chain saws that kept her motivated. It was impossible to tell exactly where the sounds were coming from. Crews might be working in town, and the noise just carried. Then again, maybe the workers were on this very road. Maybe just over the next hill … or the next.

  “When I buy a house in Portland, it’s going to be on completely flat land. With close neighbors. And constant five-bar cell service.”

  Gabriel looked over his shoulder. “You’re planning on buying a house?”

  “I’ve been thinking about it,” she said. “I have a nice apartment, but rent is just money down the drain. They keep saying it’s a good time to buy.”

  He made a sound, like a soft grunt from deep in his throat. “I didn’t know you planned to put down roots in Portland.”

  “I have a good job there. Friends. I’m … comfortable.”

  Again he made that grunting noise.

  At the moment comfortable seemed like a decidedly good thing to Lolly. She liked comfortable. She enjoyed a life where there were no surprises.

  And then she got a surprise.

  “Before you buy a house, you should come visit me in North Carolina. Maybe you’d like it better there.”

  The comment left her dumbfounded, but she didn’t have time to read too much into the invitation, because Gabriel crested the hill they were climbing, and stopped. She was directly behind him, so close she almost crashed into his back. Instead she moved to stand beside him. There, in the distance—but blessedly not too far away—sat a massive truck with a crane built into the bed. A four-man crew was cutting limbs and tree trunks and moving them off the roadway with the crane. They’d already cut a swath from the highway.

  Lolly was so relieved, her knees almost buckled out from under her. She leaned into Gabriel in sheer relief. He took her hand and squeezed. “Almost there, Lollipop.”

  She wanted to ask Gabriel more about his impromptu invitation, but the time for that question had come and gone in an instant, and she’d missed it.

  Knowing that help was so close spurred them both forward. Gabriel continued to hold her hand. Whether to make sure she kept up or to maintain a connection she didn’t know … and was afraid to ask. Every insecurity, the shyness she’d thought she’d defeated years ago, came rushing to the surface. Gabriel might ask her to visit him, when there was no one in the world but the two of them and the rush of survival was still warm within them. But now … what would happen now, with the real world intruding?

  It seemed to take forever to reach the road crew, who spotted Gabriel and Lolly from a distance and waved enthusiastically. As they came nearer the one in the front—Justin Temple, who hadn’t changed much since Lolly had moved away from Wilson Creek—called out in a booming, deep voice. “The sheriff said we might run into you two, but I didn’t expect to see you so soon. We’ve got coffee and sandwiches,” he added, and then he unclipped a radio from his belt and spoke to someone on the other end of the line.

  This road should’ve been low priority, but thanks to the sheriff it hadn’t been. Lolly knew there were other crews out there, clearing roads in town and in the neighborhoods just beyond, and she could only be grateful that she’d gotten herself stranded with the sheriff’s son—and that Harlan McQueen carried a lot of weight around here.

  The coffee was fairly fresh, fairly hot, and tasted better than any coffee she’d ever had. She was so exhausted she could only manage a few bites of the sandwich, but she ate what she could, then she and Gabriel sat on the back of the truck and waited for the sheriff, who Justin said was already on his way. Now that she wasn’t moving the cold felt sharper, but at the same time it felt good to just sit. Gabriel put his arm around her, hugged her to him.

  The crew continued to work, though she suspected that since she and Gabriel had shown up, they might soon be sent to another, more heavily populated area. She still couldn’t count on getting to her car anytime soon.

  “I guess I could catch a bus back to Portland,” she said. She wasn’t sure when they’d be running again, but maybe it would be no more than a couple of days.

  “What’s the rush?” Gabriel asked casually.

  “I can’t do a thing with the house until the roads are cleared, I can’t even get to my car. If it’s like this all over town that could take days … even weeks. I can’t stay here for weeks.”

  “Why not?”

  Lolly opened her mouth to answer, but said nothing. She’d been invited to a friend’s house for Christmas Eve, but on Christmas Day she’d be alone. The office wouldn’t open until after New Year’s, so she’d have that week to take care of a few chores around the house. She’d planned to clean her closets and go through the pantry getting rid of all the expired food she’d never used. Maybe watch some movies, organize her DVDs and CDs, try some new recipes. In other words, nothing of any importance.

  Gabriel touched her cheek and gently forced her to look him in the eye. Without a word, he kissed her, the touch light and easy, familiar, as if they’d kissed a thousand times. When he pulled his mouth away he said, “Stay with us. I’d like you to get to know Sam. Mom would love to have you, and so would I.”

  “You’ve already had me.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.

  Gabriel smiled. “So I have, and I’ve been thinking about a repeat. What about you?”

  There was no ignoring what had happened in the shower, but at the same time she felt kind of clueless. Yes, she’d been icy cold, frightened, desperate … but she wouldn’t have wanted just anyone the way she’d wanted Gabriel. She wasn’t made that way.

  “So, what is this, exactly?” she asked.

  Her timing continued to be terrible. At that moment they heard the roar of an engine and the loud jangle of chains on tires making their way down the icy road. Gabriel grinned when he saw the sheriff’s four-wheel drive, with his dad behind the wheel. He jumped off the truck and turned to slide his hands under Lolly’s coat and grip her waist, then he lifted her down. Lolly smiled, too, but that smile was forced.

  Because she knew from here on out she and Gabriel wouldn’t be alone again. The adventure was over; she’d been rescued too soon.

  Gabriel barely waited for the SUV to come to a stop at his parents’ house before he opened the door and stepped carefully onto the salted driveway, new energy in his step in spite of his exhaustion. He and Lolly had to give official statements, but not even that was going to keep him from seeing Sam first. His dad had told him how worried Sam had been when Gabriel hadn’t come home as promised last night. The storm had done nothing to ease the kid’s fears.

  When he reached the door, he met his mother—who was physically restraining Sam. She had him by the collar, the same way she’d corralled Gabriel a time or two. Valerie said, “See, I told you he was all right,” and let Sam go.

  “Dad!” Once he was free, Sam burst