Chapter 4
Luke
I made it to Dillon in record time. Dillon was the closest town to the cabin where I could stock up on supplies, something I had to do often through the winter. In the summer it was easier to live off the land, but in winter, everything was frozen solid, and I had to buy supplies.
I didn’t mind. I loved the winter season. I was comfortable in the mountains, and I knew my way around.
“Morning, Luke,” Old Sal said when I walked into the City Market.
“Morning,” I said and headed straight to the premade vegetable packs. I wanted to make more soup for Anna, and I had to buy more food to be able to feed the both of us. She wouldn’t leave right away, and I needed to make sure I gave her what she needed.
She had said she’d been heading to Steamboat Springs. It was two hours’ drive from Dillon, just about. I had no idea what the weather looked like up there now, but it wasn’t the best road to drive when it stormed the way it had, and Anna didn’t know the mountains the way I did. I was worried about that.
When I reached the tills, Mavis was in the queue in front of me.
“This weather is making my arthritis act up,” she complained. “I don’t know what to do anymore.”
“The only thing any of us can do is stay indoors and keep warm,” I said with a friendly smile.
“Of course, that’s the way,” Mavis agreed. “But I get so frustrated when I’m stuck indoors. It’s a catch twenty-two with us old people, isn’t it?”
I nodded, still smiling, and paid for my groceries.
“Oh, Luke dear,” Mavis said, waving her hand at me to get my attention when I wanted to walk away. “Charlie has been asking about you. You must come to see him.”
Charlie was Mavis’s grandson, a sweet little boy that I had made friends with and had taken fishing in the summer.
“I will,” I said.
“How does this afternoon suit you?”
I was eager to get going. I didn’t want to leave Anna alone for too long.
“This afternoon is a little tough for me, Mavis. But we’ll arrange something.”
I ran out of the store and to my truck before anyone else could stop me and make small talk. It was all they did in this small town. Usually, I budgeted the time for it. Today I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.
In my mind, every possible scenario took place of something that could have happened to Anna. She could leave the cabin and be attacked by a mountain lion, even though they stayed far away. She could have upped and left without letting me know, and I would come home to an empty cabin. Someone could come and take her away—she looked like she was running. In my mind, everything went wrong, and for everything that I thought of that could go wrong, I had to fight with myself and insist that it hadn’t happened.
Still, I peeled out of the parking lot and drove back to the cabin as fast as I dared in the treacherous snow.
The drive took much longer than I wanted. I had to slow down twice to get through patches of snow that were too thick to speed through. Driving in snow, even with snow tires, was dangerous business.
When I arrived at the cabin, I grabbed the bags of groceries and walked to the front door. I pushed it open, and the heat from inside greeted me first. The sleeper couch was empty, but Anna stood at the sink, washing dishes.
“You don’t have to do that,” I said, putting down the groceries. “I’ll take care of it, later.”
Anna shook her head. “I’m almost done, and it’s the least I can do in return for your hospitality. I’m grateful that you’re letting me stay here.”
“Oh, you’re more than welcome,” I said. I peeled my thick jacket and scarf off, warm enough now that I was inside, and picked up the groceries. I put everything away in the fridge and small pantry.
“Help yourself to whatever you feel like,” I said. “This is your home for now.”
Anna nodded and smiled carefully. “Thank you,” she said politely.
After Anna finished the dishes, she dried her hands and walked to the couch where she had put it back into the seating position and folded the blankets into a pile.
“I really need to get to Steamboat Springs,” she said. “They must be worried sick by now.”
I shook my head. “I have some bad news about that,” I said. “I saw weather reports in town. There’s a bad storm up there at the moment, and they’ve closed roads. You’re not going to be able to get to Steamboat Springs for a while.”
Anna looked worried. “How long do you think it will be?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “With this weather, anything can happen. But I would say a day or two? It’s not too bad, but it’s enough to make things difficult.
Anna nodded. “I guess that makes sense,” she said. “The weather here is crazy.”
I laughed. “It takes some getting used to. Here, we plan around the weather.”
“I can see why,” Anna said. She folded her arms across her chest and sighed. “I guess I’ll have to wait it out, then.”
“It’s the best way to do it,” I said. “We’re safe from being snowed in. The cabin is high enough and sheltered by the mountain for the most part. I don’t think we’ve ever been stranded here.”
Anna listened to me, nodding as if she found it interesting.
“I understand. It’s a different approach. Winter must really disrupt your schedule sometimes.”
“It does,” I said. “But you learn to live with it.”
“I suppose you do,” Anna said.
“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “As soon as the storm lets up and the roads open, I’ll drive you to Steamboat Springs myself. It’s a two-hour drive. We can make it easily.”
“That would help me so much, thank you,” Anna said. I nodded, happy to be able to help. She was the type of woman I wanted to do favors for. I wanted to go out of my way for her. I don’t think I’d ever felt this way about a woman. It was refreshing to be around Anna. Her conversation was intellectual. She was rational about everything despite her situation, and she was to the point. I liked it. I liked her.
I made us coffee, and we sat together on the couch, talking. I wanted to get to know this woman, and to my surprise, she talked easily about herself. When I had brought her home, she had been so closed off and frightened, but getting lost in a storm would do that to a person.
“What did you study?” I asked when Anna told me she wasn’t working because she had recently graduated.
“Criminal Psychology,” Anna said. “I took it all the way to a master’s.”
“That’s impressive,” I said. “What made you decide on that?”
Anna hesitated. “I guess because I see so much crime all around us, I felt there had to be a way to help. And the first way to help is to understand why it’s happening in the first place.”
“That’s a straightforward sense of reason,” I said. I was surprised every time she explained her logic to me.
“What about you?” Anna asked. “Did you study?”
I nodded. “I started, but I dropped out pretty early on, I’m sorry to say.”
“Why?” Anna asked. “If you don’t mind me asking.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I got involved with the wrong people. You know how it goes.”
Anna nodded, and I chuckled because with her degree in criminal psychology, she would know exactly how it went. Except, she would never know the full extent. How I had needed to get away from that life where my very existence had depended on someone else’s mood. Where Frankie had threatened me with a gun to my head more than once. Where leaving would mean dying. Anna wouldn’t understand that risk.
“I left that life behind, but I still don’t have a degree to my name,” I added.
“Why don’t you go back to college and finish what you started?” Anna asked.
I chuckled, shaking my head. “I’m happy up here in the mountains, living the simple life. It works for me.”
Anna nodded. “There’s merit to it. I don’t think I’ve ever been this calm, and I don’t have a good reason to me. The mountains, so unbelievably large and majestic, always remind me how small I am in comparison to the grander scheme of things.”
We talked for hours, learning things about each other, talking about trivial things that we wouldn’t normally ask someone about.
Night fell, and the living room became darker and darker, the fire in the hearth the only source of light.
“We should make supper,” I said when it was so dark we could barely see each other.
“Right,” Anna said. “I’ll help.” She stood up and flipped on the light switch. We would have had to switch on the lights sooner or later—we wouldn’t have been able to sit and talk in the dark forever—but the moment the light flooded the room, driving away the twilight, the spell was broken.
Anna walked to the fridge and opened it.
“What are we making?” she asked.
We made chicken and rice and salad, and we worked together to make it happen. It was strange having someone else in my kitchen when I had been alone for more than a year, but I found I enjoyed the company. Whether it was because it was with Anna, specifically, was impossible to say. I didn’t have anyone else to compare it with.
We ate the food we had made, and it had come out fantastic. We talked more, drinking wine from a bottle I had opened and ate our food.
The wine made me feel light, buzzing through my veins. I barely drank out here. I had to be on my guard, ready to run at a moment’s notice, and I couldn’t afford to be intoxicated. But it had been more than a year that I’d been here, and no one had found me. One night was alright.
We cleaned up after we were done, and Anna and I stood side by side as we washed the dishes. I glanced at her every now and then. I couldn’t keep my eyes off her. The more I got to know her, the more beautiful she became. I was aware of her body and how sexy she was. She carried herself with grace, and her body was perfect. Curvy in all the right places with breasts perfectly sized to fit in my hands and hips that made me want to sit up and beg.
But I couldn’t perv over her. I had to behave.
Anna reached for a dishcloth, stretching across me and her breast brushed up against me. I took a deep breath, feeling my cock harden in my pants. God, I wanted to fuck her so badly. But I had to behave, I told myself. Behave, behave, behave.
When Anna’s hand brushed against mine, she looked at me, and her eyes were filled with the same hunger I felt. Was I only seeing it there because I wanted her so badly? But no, her lips were parted slightly, and her pink tongue darted out, wetting her lips. She looked at me with big brown eyes. When they slid to my lips, I knew I hadn’t misread it. She was as filled with lust as I was.
I stepped closer to her so that our bodies were pressed up against each other, and she inhaled sharply. I put my hand on her cheek, pushing her hair back with my fingers, and kissed her.