Chapter 10 – Colt
It hadn’t been my intention to stay and decorate Austin’s tree, I only came over to talk to him about the weather forecast. The winter storm they predicted, which I’d hoped was going to miss us, looks like it was hitting us directly. If it’s bad, then the whole festival is going to be in jeopardy. But all thoughts of the weather had gone out the window on seeing the bare tree.
The tree was now decorated, and it looked stunning. The way Austin had placed the baubles was something else. I swear this tree wouldn’t look out of place in a window display at those fancy department stores.
“Oh, look, it’s snowing,” Austin states.
Shit. I really didn’t need to hear that.
“Crap,” I exclaim, more loudly than I intended.
“What’s up?”
“That was the reason that I came over.” I join Austin, who has moved to one of the windows, and is looking out. “The winter storm I told you about, looks like it’s going to hit our area, and this could be the start of it.”
“How bad are we talking? Enough to close the festival?”
“Enough,” I confirm. “I’m hoping that they got it wrong, or that it shifts direction, but considering that it’s already starting, it’s not looking good.”
“So, what’s the plan?”
“The animals will take priority over the festival, keeping them safe. With regards to the festival, we keep going. Just in case a miracle happens.”
“Okay,” Austin confirms, but I can hear the uncertainty in his voice.
“It will be okay. If the festival needs to be canceled, it can be rearranged for the New Year, or something.”
“It wouldn’t be the same.”
Austin was right, it wouldn’t be the same, and all of our hard work would have gone to waste. In all the years Gran and Pops had been running it, the weather had never caused it to close. We’d had some close calls, but not like this.
“Let’s just see what tomorrow brings. But I better get going.”
“You can still stay,” Austin states again, and there’s a part of me that wants to. But I can’t. I need to stay level headed. I need to keep Austin in the friend zone, regardless of the amount of time I’ve wanted to pull him into my arms and kiss him.
“I’ll head home. See you at six.”
“I can make four,” Austin says, but I don’t think he even believes those words.
“It’s okay.”
“No, I will see you at four.” And this time, there is a more determined edge to his voice, “Especially with the weather.”
“Okay, Austin. See you at four.”
I pause for a moment before turning and walking out of the living room, into the kitchen. Putting my boots back on, I open the door, and a blast of cold air hits me. The temperature has dropped in just the few hours that I was with Austin. All signs that I didn’t want to see. I love winter, but I hate the storms.
Looking up at the sky, all I can see are small flakes of snow falling. It’s not falling fast, but it’s already starting to settle, and a thin layer of white is covering everything. As I open the door to my home, I mentally cross my fingers that it stays like this, because it would mean that maybe only a few inches would fall. That amount of snow is something I could cope with.
Slowly opening my eyes, I wait for them to adjust to the darkness, when a sound catches my attention. Pausing, I wait, and there it is again. The slight rattle of my windows. And my stomach hits the floor. If the wind is blowing hard enough that it’s causing my windows to rattle, then the storm has hit us.
Throwing back the covers, I ignore how cold the house feels, and race over to the window, and as I peer out, I don’t see the small gentle flakes from last night, I see large flakes swirling around in the wind. The weather forecast never mentioned a blizzard, but that looks like what we have.
Quickly getting dressed, I race downstairs, completely forgoing my breakfast, and get outside. The snow is deep. Really deep. I’m guessing that the road is already blocked. But that’s something to check later. First, I need to check the animals.
“Colt.” I hear my name in the wind, and when I look around, I see Austin racing over to me.
“Austin, what are you doing up?”
I have an alarm set every morning for three, but I always seem to wake just before it goes off, and considering I just raced out of the house, it was still too early for Austin to be meeting me.
“The wind woke me up,” Austin states. “Then I saw this,” as he points around us. “I thought you might be up, so I came out to help. Where do you need me?”
I’m not sure what I was expecting from Austin, but this cool and ready for action Austin wasn’t it. I thought that maybe his first experience with a storm might be the one thing that pushed him over the edge. That this would get him to re-think the whole idea of running a ranch, but here he is, eager and waiting for instructions.
“Chickens,” I start, “check on them. Make sure they can’t get out. We should have put some heaters on last night, so hopefully, we haven’t lost any. When you’re done, come find me in the cattle shed.”
Austin doesn’t say anything. Instead, he turns around and heads off towards the chickens, and I can’t help but smile and allow myself the thought about how nice it would be to run this place together. I wanted a man who understood that the ranch and the animals came first, and it looked like here he was. No. Shaking my head to dispel the thought, I turn and head over to the cattle shed. I need to stop thinking about Austin as boyfriend material. I need to think of him as my boss, and friend. In the new year, I’m going to need to start dating again.
I have no idea how long Austin took in sorting out the chickens, but when he comes into the cattle shed, there is a sad look on his face, and I’m guessing we lost some. I know that face. That’s the face of someone dealing with the death of an animal for the first time.
“How many?” I ask, as I go over to him.
“Two,” he mumbles, and I almost want to laugh. From the look on his face, I would have thought we’d lost at least half of them. But chickens can withstand the cold. Their feathers are great insulators, and they fluff them to create an even warmer coat.
“Just the two. We were lucky,” I say over to him. but I don’t think my words have helped, and without thinking, I pull him into my arms.
“But…” Austin says into my shirt.
“Austin,” and I push him back to look at him. “You live on a ranch; you are going to lose animals. That’s sadly a fact. Yes, it sucks.”
“So, what do we do with the chickens now?”
Oh, I don’t think he’s going to like this answer. “Well, they were good chickens. I can prep them and….” I trail off, not wanting to finish the sentence.
“You want to eat them?” The horror in his voice is actually kinda cute.
“Yes. I can get them ready. There’s a good chance we’re going to get snowed in. This is good food. These weren’t pets. These were livestock.”
Austin lets my words sink in for a moment before he steps forward and wraps his arms back around me. I think that he needs the comfort, and so, I wrap my arms back around him, and just hold him.
Eventually, Austin takes a deep breath, and steps out of my hold. He still looks a little lost, but some of the sadness has left his eyes. This is the harsh reality of what this life is like. If he’s going to stay here, then this is something he’s going to have to get used to it.
“Okay. What’s next?” he asks.
“Can you check on the horses? Make sure they have enough hay etc. and then it will be time to retreat indoors. We’ll check on the animals again when we can, and hope it stops snowing soon.”
It didn’t stop snowing. This had to be one of the worst storms I have experienced in more than a decade. The local sheriff called my cell to check on us and he confirmed that the roads were blocked. Not that we had any chance to get to them even if we wanted to.
Austin seemed to be coping better, and he was there when we went to check on the animals, but I was exhausted. I had been trying to shovel snow so that we had clear routes around the ranch, but it felt like as soon as one area got cleared it was full again, and by the time I called it a day, I was ready for a hot shower, food, and bed. I know I promised Austin to help wrap the presents, but there wasn’t really any point. The festival was going to be canceled.
Opening the door to my house, I was expecting the heat to hit me, and I was surprised when it didn’t, and then I had a vague memory from this morning of the house being cold. Going over to the kitchen sink, I turn on the taps and nothing. Fuck. The pipes must have frozen. Not what I needed.
Going over to the stove, I look at the pot of soup that I had made yesterday. My stove was gas so I would be able to heat it up, and that would warm me up, but all I really wanted was a hot shower. I needed to feel warm water all over my body. Looking over to my kitchen door, I wonder if my idea is a good one or a bad one, and before I second guess myself, I grab my sleeping bag from a storage cupboard in the corner. Then I pull my boots on, before getting the soup from the stove top, and heading back out into the storm.
Walking across the ranch feels like it takes forever as I battle the wind and snow, but finally, I’m at the ranch house, and I open the door. Maybe I should’ve stopped and knocked and waited to be invited in, but old habits die hard. I had gotten used to walking in whenever I wanted.
“Colt?” Austin says, sounding surprised as he looks up at me from the kitchen table where he’s currently surrounded by wrapping paper and toys.
“Sorry. I should’ve knocked.”
“Nonsense,” Austin replies, giving me a smile that fills me with warmth more than the shower I want.
“The pipes froze at my place,” I start. “Can I grab a shower, and I was hoping maybe I could crash here?”
“Oh, shit. Yes, of course,” Austin answers.
“I come bearing soup as a thank you,” I tell him.
“Yes. That’s a thank you I like,” Austin states, as he gets out of the chair and comes over to me, taking the pot out of my hand. “And that?”
“Sleeping bag. I guessed that there wouldn’t be a bed made up.”
“Well, I never stripped the beds from when my parents were here. It was on my to-do list, but then I also thought, what was the point if they were coming back?” A slight blush tints Austin’s cheeks at admitting that, but if I had been in his shoes, I would have done the same thing.
“You might want to check that. My guess, all flights are grounded, and the sheriff called me. Confirmed that the road is closed.”
“That never even occurred to me. I’ll need to call them, but for now, you go have your shower. I will slowly warm up the soup, and make some space over there, and when you’re done, we can eat.”
“Sounds good.”
“Didn’t you bring a change of clothes?” Austin asks, as he looks around me.
“Um, no.” Now it’s me feeling embarrassed.
“Well, I would offer you some of mine, but I think they might be a little small on you. You are more buff than me.”
“You think I’m buff?” The words fall from my lips, and I can feel myself smiling.
“Have you seen your arms?”
“It’s not something I have noticed.”
“Believe me, they are noticeable. All big and strong.” I actually think Austin sighs on the last word, which is my cue to leave before I do something stupid like pull him forward and kiss him till morning.