Chapter 2
Two
It was painfully impossible to keep your distance from someone when you were sharing a one-room cabin.
As much as she wanted to go back and sit on the couch after dinner so she could write, that was going to be Ryan’s bed and he was sitting there. So she grabbed her laptop and went to sit on the bed.
But he kept looking at her expectantly—like he wanted to keep talking to her.
Dinner had been slightly awkward. They both seemed hesitant to say anything overly personal, so they’d mainly talked about the soup, the sandwiches, the snow, and the work Ryan was going to be doing.
It sounded like so much more than anything he’d ever taken on, but Jess had been impressed at his confidence as he laid out his plans for her.
And as angry as she’d been at him these last few months, it was hard not to be happy for him because he was finally going after his dream.
Maybe I was a hinderance after all…
Well, that sucked.
Pushing the thought aside, her focus right now had to be on maintaining some personal space without feeling Ryan’s eyes on her. Glancing around, she figured there was only one logical option.
She needed to build a pillow and blanket fort.
Yes, it was childish, but she was so excited about her writing and she hated that he was ruining this for her.
Well, him and her soon to be ex-best friend.
Yeah, I’ll deal with her tomorrow…
So while Ryan was opening the sleeper sofa—and what a relief it was that and not just a plain couch!—Jess started looking around for things to make a little privacy wall.
There was a linen closet filled with an almost ridiculous amount of pillows and blankets, so after handing some to Ryan, she took the rest for herself. If he thought it was weird, he didn’t say anything. At least not until he seemed to realize what she was doing.
“Are you seriously making a pillow wall?” he asked incredulously.
“Um…yes.” Her back was to him, and she continued her task.
“Jess, don’t you think you’re overreacting? It’s not like I’m a stranger, and I didn’t ask or even imply that we should share the bed. There’s literally no reason for you to do this.”
“I want some privacy,” she said primly. “I came here to relax and get some writing done and I can’t do that with you being right there and…you know…watching me.”
A huff of annoyance was his only response, which was fine with her.
It took almost an hour, but when she stood back to admire her handiwork, she felt a little proud of herself. Now she could finally relax and get back to her work. The words still weren’t coming easily, but by the time she was ready to go to sleep, it felt like a solid day of work.
“I’m putting another log on the fire,” Ryan said from the other side of her “wall”.
Smiling to herself, she realized she had seriously almost forgotten about him being there because she’d made such a cozy space for herself.
“I don’t think it will last us all night, but hopefully the heat in this place will be enough,” he went on. After a brief pause, she heard him curse.
“Something wrong?”
“It’s still snowing.”
Now it was her turn to curse. If the damn snow didn’t stop, he wouldn’t even be able to get over to the main cabin.
But…if he did, maybe he could get stuck there and then she’d have this cabin all to herself!
A girl could dream, right?
Neither said another word to each other, but she heard him get into bed and mumble a bit. The couch was old so she assumed the mattress wasn’t very comfortable. Still, she didn’t feel bad. He had ruined her peaceful retreat.
And her life.
Okay, dramatic much?
The hard truth was she was mad at him. Sure, he’d tried to reach out and talk to her, but she’d been too angry to listen. Being stuck here with him meant she was either going to leave as soon as the snow stopped, or they were going to have the uncomfortable conversation.
If the snow stops, I can be home in three hours…
Putting her laptop on the nightstand, she yawned and figured she’d have to wait and see what tomorrow was going to bring.
After she’d built her pillow fort and blanket wall, Ryan really hadn’t bothered her, so…
maybe this wasn’t going to be too terrible.
And like he said, it wasn’t like he was a stranger.
But he was still the enemy—part of the reason she’d needed this little escape.
Turning off the small lamp beside her, she curled up under the blankets and got comfortable.
It felt weird that someone else was in the room and they weren’t speaking, but it was for the best. If she allowed herself to think about it too much, she’d remember some of the cabins they’d stayed in when they came up this way to go skiing or just have a romantic getaway.
They’d marvel at how much they loved the flannel sheets, or making love in front of the fire, and staying locked away from the rest of the world.
It was completely different to be locked away from the rest of the world with him right now when he was the last person she wanted to be alone with.
Liar.
Okay, naturally there was bound to be some lingering attraction, no matter how mad she was at him. And when he’d shown up looking all wind-blown and rugged, Jess had almost forgotten she hated him and jumped into his arms.
Thank God I didn’t do that, because it would have made everything super awkward.
But as she rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, it was hard to deny the fact that part of her still missed him. And knowing he was less than ten feet away didn’t make it any better.
He’d slept like crap, and the next morning, the snow was still coming down.
Jess was sound asleep—no doubt extremely comfortable on a mattress thicker than a matchbook—and Ryan did his best to tiptoe around so he didn’t wake her.
When he walked past her fortress of pillows and blankets, he couldn’t help but snort.
This entire situation was ridiculous and he thought they’d be able to act like adults, but clearly that wasn’t going to happen just yet.
In the bathroom, he took a quick shower and got dressed because he was going to head over to the other cabin and make sure all his materials had been delivered. The walk would be a good gage on whether or not he could drive up the steep hill with his truck so he could have his tools up there too.
“This would have been so much easier if there was water and electric on up there,” he murmured, making a mental note to check on that first thing Monday morning.
Being it was the weekend, there wasn’t anything he was going to be able to do about it except try to make the best of it and give Jess the space she seemed to desperately need.
And tried not to take it personally.
Even though it totally was.
With his boots, hat, coat, and gloves on, he slipped out the door and the cold air hit him that a million tiny daggers to his face.
Cold weather never really bothered him, but this was a little more intense than he was used to.
Feeling wildly more awake than he had been ten seconds ago, Ryan let out a long breath and slowly made his way down the front steps to the driveway.
Things were definitely slick and there was no way he could drive up to the main cabin and walking would be treacherous as well. So now what was he supposed to do?
Glancing around, he spotted what looked like a shed behind the guest cabin.
It wasn’t easy, but he made his way over to it.
Inside, he not only found some snow shovels but also some snowshoes and poles.
“Yes! Exactly what I needed!” In minutes he was outfitted and began the trek up the hill.
It wasn’t as fast as he would have liked, but by the time he got there, it felt like his own version of Everest.
Inside the cabin, he found all the materials he had ordered and a small variety of tools. Even if he couldn’t get his truck up here, there were definitely some things he could work on.
If there was heat.
There was no way he could work in this kind of cold and it wasn’t good for all the wood either.
That meant his escape from Jess just went up in smoke.
But instead of being disappointed, Ryan decided to take some time to look over the entire cabin up close so he could really have a detailed plan.
Two hours later, he was fearing frostbite and knew he had to get back down to the guest cabin, and if Jess didn’t like it, too bad.
He wasn’t about to get hypothermia just so she wouldn’t have to see him.
When he walked into the cabin, he immediately threw more logs on the fire and stood there for several long minutes until he got feeling back in every part of his body. He heard Jess puttering around behind him, but he wanted to see if she’d speak to him today.
She was quiet, not uttering a single word even though he heard her moving around in the kitchen.
He was about to turn around and say something when she came up beside him and handed him a large mug of coffee.
“You looked like you could use it,” she said before going back behind her blanket wall before he could thank her.
It’s official. I’m in hell…
Well, if hell froze over.
Again, instead of being disappointed, he cupped the mug in his hands and let the steam waft up to his face.
Between that and the fire, he was thawing.
It took a few minutes, but he finally could strip off his coat, boots, hat, and gloves and relax.
Sitting down on the sofa, he sipped his coffee and just tried to enjoy the peace.
It was painful.
It wasn’t until Jess reappeared sometime later and said she was going to reheat some soup and asked if he wanted some that he decided enough was enough.
“Look, the snow isn’t slowing down, I can’t work in the cabin until the heat and electric get turned back on, so we’re both going to be here.
I get that you built your own little room over there, but we should be able to talk about more than just soup, Jess.
We were together for over two years, surely we can find something to talk about! ”
He realized his mistake almost immediately.
The smile she gave him looked serene, but it didn’t quite meet her eyes.
“Would you like to talk about how you broke my heart over the lamest excuse in the world? Or maybe you’d like to talk about how selfish you are when I’d done nothing but support and encourage your dream of starting your business?
” That humorless smile stayed firmly in place.
“Or…here’s another fun topic: not taking responsibility for your actions and thinking a half-hearted apology fixes everything. Take your pick!”
“Um…”
She was pulling things out of the refrigerator. “Are you planning on making some sandwiches, or are we just going with the soup?”
“Um…”
“And I’m planning on making some baked potato soup for dinner tonight.
Just FYI.” Slamming the refrigerator door shut, she began pouring the leftover soup into a pot.
To a casual observer, she was fine—although definitely a little angry—but he was no casual observer.
He heard the tremble in her voice and saw the sadness in her eyes.
And I’m the cause of all of it.
Yeah, he’d tried to apologize, but when she wouldn’t take his calls, he might have been a bit of a jerk.
Something he needed to rectify right now.
Swallowing hard, he stepped around her and opened the freezer and pulled out a pack of frozen cornbread muffins and put them on the counter beside her.
“I bought some canned chili and thought these would go well with it. But I think they’d be great with your soup instead of a sandwich. What do you think?”
For a moment, she just blinked at him. It was a lame attempt at just trying to have a non-confrontational conversation, but it was also the only way he knew how to extend the olive branch right now.
“That sounds delicious. I’ll heat a couple for us. Why don’t you wash up and I’ll get all this ready?”
Cautiously, he took a step closer to her. “I don’t expect you to wait on me. I know I’m not particularly great in the kitchen, but I know how to heat things up.” Picking up the package, he read the instructions. “Even I can manage this.”
Sighing softly, she nodded. “Thank you. I appreciate the help.”
At least she wasn’t throwing him out of the kitchen, but they didn’t say much as they worked together.
It was polite small talk at best, and it just felt wrong.
But he wasn’t ready to start the conversation that would lead to a fight either.
She’d said a lot of things just minutes ago that were meant to cause an argument, but he wouldn’t be baited.
She could yell and scream and call him every name in the book and he’d let her.
If that’s what she needed so they could move on and maybe make their way back to each other, he’d take it all.
But he also wasn’t going to just sit around and wait. He knew about her stubborn streak, so…maybe he could poke at her without really…poking.
That’s when an idea came to mind and he had to hide his delight.
When they were ready to sit down, Ryan carried everything over to the table and then excused himself to wash up. He waited until Jess sat down before turning and walking away. And while she was busy buttering the cornbread, he walked past her pillow fort and stole one small pillow.
Let the games begin…