Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 710(@200wpm)___ 568(@250wpm)___ 473(@300wpm)
“Quick is best,” he called over his shoulder. “Keeps the blood moving.”
Right.
She could tell.
The only thing Delaney cared about now?
Getting warm.
*
There was nothing quite like minus-twenty degree cold to make a person re-evaluate every life decision that brought them to a singular moment in time. Despite thick mittens, a fleece-lined parka with the hood pulled up, and a fifteen-minute trek that took the two out of the tree field and down the road, Delaney’s fingers still felt numb at the tips by the time they reached the private drive for the hunting cabin. The driveway only stood out against the backdrop of dense trees because it was the only hole in them along the road.
Someone had cleared the snow.
Or rather, the tracks of a snowmobile led them down a trail of packed snow under the cover of tree branches that criss-crossed over their heads like a snowy canopy. No wonder she hadn’t been able to find the cabin from the sky.
Could it even be located from above?
“Here, give me that,” Lucas said, snagging the overnight duffle Delaney had packed for herself and adding it to his own shoulder load of two bags. He nodded ahead at the snow-crusted path and the trail that didn’t look like it widened or opened to anything in the twenty feet or so ahead that she could see. Besides the cracking and flutters of a frozen forest, only their shoes made noise crunching along as they walked. “Go on—get warm.”
“I’m good,” she assured.
A lie he could surely tell.
Her words came out on a puff of breath that made a cloud between their two faces. Her fingertips might have been numb from the cold, but the rest of her shook like a leaf in the wind. Some Canadians liked to say that cold was just a state of mind during winter in Canada as the more brutal temperatures settled in, but in that case, so was hypothermia.
Nobody came back from that.
Lucas gave her a look. “Go. We both don’t need to be fucking icicles out here before we even get to the cabin. I’ll be two minutes behind, max. It’s not that far. There’s a little hill, you’ll see it around the bottom bend. The cabin’s just beyond it. Somebody’s been down here today. I bet one of the boys made a fire that’s probably still got some hot coals.”
That word never brought out happy or content feelings and reactions from Delaney, but in that moment, all she heard was warmth. The promise of it, mostly. Just the idea of heat seeped into her veins to thaw out the chill that had settled deep into her body during the walk down from the road.
She couldn’t refuse.
Not considering the circumstances.
“All right,” she muttered. “Don’t freeze without me?”
Lucas rumbled with one of his husky laughs, but his dark gaze had yet to lose the tired sadness shining from within. The emotions, pained and heavy, still radiated from him like a cloud he couldn’t escape, and her closeness meant she couldn’t help but feel it, too.
“Sweets, don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”
Which one of us is lying now, she thought, but better yet, how did he do it so easily?
Delaney saved that question for later and pinned it in the back of her mind. For when her teeth didn’t chatter on every word, of course.
*
Considering the location, Delaney wasn’t sure what to expect of the hunting cabin, but the quaint cottage, positioned side by side with a similarly sized shed that had large double doors, took her by surprise. Pleasantly.
She passed the electricity wires connected between the shed and cottage a look, taking a safe guess where she could locate the generators and truck Lucas mentioned, before she took the three wooden steps leading up to the brown wooden front door. She found it unlocked when she tried the door and could almost feel the heat seeping through the thick wood. She gave the covered veranda—that seemed to wrap around the entire building—painted the same brown as the door, one more look before heading inside.
Someone had started a fire.
She shut out the cold as soon as her boots hit the hardwood floor of the cottage. What was to find and see inside the small cabin welcomed Delaney the moment she stepped inside. A kitchen with limited counter space from a single island that doubled as a table if the stools along the side were any indication. Natural stained, oak cupboards made up a pantry framing the stove and oven with only one burner on top and a tiny bar fridge off to the side sat open, and off, in the side corner. The sink basin, larger than even the stove, took up all the space beneath the window overlooking the front property that currently appeared to be a winter wonderland of beauty.