Mackenzie
On the third day it stopped snowing. The sky remained overcast but the wind stopped howling and a stillness descended along Moose Lake. I parted the curtains to the window overlooking the little porch out the front, and peered out into the winter wonderland. Snow blanketed as far as you could see. It sparkled in the trees and glistened along the slopes leading down to the lake. It was magical. And after two days in the tiny cabin, I needed to get out there.
I woke Jake up by throwing a snow jacket at him. “Let’s go stretch our legs. I’ve got a serious case of cabin fever.”
Looking tired, he glanced out the window. “What time is it?”
“Almost nine o’clock.”
He groaned as he turned his head and opened one eye to peep out at the window. “It’s stopped snowing.”
“How very perceptive of you.” I tugged on my red coat. “Come on. Let’s go stretch our legs.”
“No coffee first?”
“Coffee is for pussies.” I pulled his arm to get him out of bed. “Come on.”
But he shook me free. “Nuh-huh. If I don’t get coffee, you don’t get snow.”
I rolled my eyes and shoved my hands into my gloves. “Fine. Have your coffee. I’m going outside.”
Cold air blasted my face as I opened the front door, stinging my skin and burning my throat as I breathed it in. It was good to be outside. After two days inside it felt like a giant breath of fresh air.
Without wasting another moment, I crossed the tiny porch and bounced down the steps into the snow. I felt like a kid. I bent over and pulled snow into my hand to make a snowball. Once it was compact and perfect, I threw it toward one of the tall pines towering over the cabin where it hit a branch and exploded like confetti.
Jake’s voice startled me from behind. “You act like you’ve never seen snow before.”
I turned briefly to look at him. He was leaning casually in the doorway with a cup of coffee in hand and perfect grin on his perfect face. A sudden rush of desire bolted through me but I quickly squished it down. Clearly I had been oxygen-starved for the past two days and now it was fucking with me.
I turned away from him and his annoying good looks and took in the glittering snowscape around me.
“Hey, I’m from New Orleans. And now that I live in New York the only snow I see is usually reduced to slush on a sidewalk.” I had yet to see Central Park blanketed in snow. But from what I’d heard, it was stunning. “But this . . .” I held my arms out and made little circles in the air as I turned around in the snow. “This is amazing.”
I had a sudden urge to do so many things. Build snowmen. Create snow angels. Toboggan.
Snowflakes fell loose from the pine tree above us and fell like sprinkles on top of our shoulders.
I raised my hands out at my side. “I feel like I’m inside a snowglobe!”
Jake’s smile was big and white in the gloomy light, and that familiar flutter of butterflies took flight in my stomach at the sight of that breathtaking smile. I sucked in a deep breath to calm them.
“Let’s go for a walk!” I suggested.
“Sure,” he said, and I watched as he took a sip of his coffee and placed the cup on the little porch railing before descending the snow-covered steps to where I was standing.
“Show me Moose Lake,” I said, looping my arm through his.
Again, his grin was mesmerizing in the pale white light of a snow-capped morning.
We walked a few yards, our feet sinking into the fresh layers of snow and our breath leaving us in frosty puffs of air as we talked.
“My grandfather built out here before my father was even born. Back then, Moose Lake was considered the middle of nowhere. Grandpa cut a path through the tall pines to make a driveway and used the fallen logs to build the cabin. Felled and treated the logs himself.”
“He sounds like a pretty amazing guy,” I said.
Jake nodded. “Oh, he was. He was always so present. So available. He didn’t say much but when he did, it was sure worth listening to.” Jake looked at me. “You know, he used to play hockey professionally in the 50s?”
“No, really?”
“Gave it all up though when he met my grandma,” he said, smiling at the memory. “She was a cigarette girl. He would watch her weave her way through the arena seats in her short dress and little hat, selling her cigarettes from a tray hanging from her neck strap. Said he knew she was the one for him. His one and only.”
“His Juliet?”
He smiled warmly and his eyes twinkled across at me. “Yes. His Juliet.”
“What happened? Did he woo her? Show off to her on the ice?”
“He asked her out and she said no because even back then pro-athletes could be rascals and some didn’t take their relationships seriously. So he promised her he would ask her out everyday until she said yes, just so she could see how serious he was.”
“And?”
“And it took precisely five months and three days for her to finally agree.” Again, he smiled at the memory. “Four months later they were married.”
“Wow. He spent more time asking her out than he did courting her.”
Jake nodded. “Yes. But when it’s right . . .”
I looked up at him. “I like that story.”
I stopped walking and my eyes settled on the frozen lake I’d driven past three days earlier.
“Welcome to Moose Lake,” Jake said.
The lake was much larger than the small pond I had seen from Jake’s kitchen window. It stretched out for miles toward a foggy horizon and was fringed by tall, snow-capped pine trees.
I let go of Jake’s arm and started walking out onto the frozen water.
“What are you doing, Z?”
“Would you believe I’ve never been on ice before?” I called over my shoulder.
“Maybe now isn’t a good time to start.”
I ignored him and focused on not slipping and landing on my ass.
“Z, I’m not kidding. You’ll break your ankle.”
I was several yards out on the ice when I turned around to look at him, my arms up at my side. “You know, this is a lot easier than you guys make it look,” I teased.
“Says the girl wearing boots and not blades.”
“You know, I think I’d be good at—”
I heard the snap, felt the crack and with a rush I plummeted into the icy water below me. One minute I was looking at Jake on the shore; the next I was plunged into an icy darkness that literally stole the breath from my lungs. I saw stars. And it was so dark I had no idea which way was up or down.
Panic tore threw me.
I was deep beneath the ice and no one would be able to find me.
* * *