Chapter 16
By the time they got cleaned up, it was late enough to crash. Declan made another trip onto the deck to grab the air mattress from his truck that he’d left out there earlier, and the two of them set it up in the middle of the living room.
“Not that Nagy would object to us using his bed,” Declan offered. “It’s just that…”
“Say no more.” Sydney helped straighten the quilt over the inflated mattress. “I’m sure it would be fine, but this is even better.”
For a while she was worried she wouldn’t get any sleep with her brain running on overdrive.
But when she twitched one too many times, Declan simply pulled her closer against his body and pressed another kiss to her temple. “Whatever rabbits you’re chasing will still be there in the morning. Go to sleep.”
Amusement washed away some of the worries racing on repeat. “You really do plan to train me like a dog.”
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Declan offered. “By the way? I love you, Sydney.”
“If you’re looking for me to say it back, I demand a full-on Disney princess dance,” Sydney said. A trickle of nervousness ran up her spine.
He sighed sleepily. “Don’t want you to say it right now. Just want you to say that you’re here and that you’re trying.”
She wished it was as easy to do as it had been with her girlfriends. “Yes, Declan Skye. I’m in your arms and happy to be here.”
He took a deep breath, and by the time he let it out, she could have sworn he’d fallen asleep.
She must’ve followed him immediately because when she woke it was morning. Sunshine did not stream in the windows, and there was no scent of bacon or anything delicious. It was still dark, but when she checked her watch it was past eight o’clock.
The space beside her was empty, and Declan’s boots and coat were missing from the hooks by the front door. She opened the curtains and looked out on a sky nearly black with clouds as rain smacked into the windows as if paddling her for being a lazy butt.
He was probably caring for the animals. So she would care for the humans.
She had a pot of oatmeal on the stove and coffee ready when he got back less than twenty minutes later.
Declan accepted the towel she handed him with a nod of the head. “It’s still coming down hard. I walked as far as I could into all the clearings, but there’s no reception anywhere. We’re stuck for at least another day.”
“There’s more than enough food,” she reassured him. “The clinic will be fine even if I miss a few days early in the week. Lexie is there, and they can handle all of the office visits. Sorry I’ll miss Rose and Chance’s wedding, but it can’t be helped.”
“Me, too. Thanks to Petra’s tracking abilities, everyone will know we’re together here on the mountain. They shouldn’t be worried. Also positive, my brothers have to deal with the chores.”
Sydney laughed, bringing him into the kitchen and gesturing toward the coffee pot. “Help yourself. There’s orange juice on the table already.”
“Thanks. You don’t need to do the food stuff all the time. We’ll work together for the rest of the day.”
“Nothing doing, buster,” Sydney complained. “I don’t want to be sent to the kitchen because, trust me, nobody wants me full-time in charge of their food. But I’ll admit I’d prefer to be in here than out in the barn.”
“It’s quite nice out there once you make it through the rain,” Declan said thoughtfully. “I’ll take you on a tour later today. If we can find some time in our busy schedule.”
“I found a deck of cards,” Sydney offered.
“Excellent. That means strip poker.”
She scooped up a serving of oatmeal. “We’ll need more wood in here to keep it toasty. Since you’ll be walking around naked.”
“Don’t you wish.”
Sydney waggled her brows then tugged the brown sugar container toward herself.
For the next two days, they had a break from reality.
The weather was the worst Sydney had seen in a long time, but they were quite comfortable in the small cabin.
Even taking the wet trip across to the barn with Declan a couple times a day turned out to be enjoyable.
As always, there were kittens to be found and the dogs to play with.
Nagy only had a few pigs and chickens, which meant not a lot of work but the sweet reward of fresh eggs to add to their meals.
Declan showed Sydney the old-timer’s under-the-house cold storage, lifting away a section of the floor in the back pantry. The flashlight flickered over a set of narrow stairs to reveal a dark and cool hiding spot that held a surprising amount of canning.
“The really good bachelors know how to do it all,” Declan said easily.
“I’ve never seen canning around your place,” Sydney teased.
“Because I’m not a really good bachelor,” he confessed. “I like companionship too much. I liked being married, and I like spending time with my brothers. I’m definitely a herd animal.”
Which made Sydney laugh all over again. “So I’m a dog, and you’re a cow.”
He snorted. “Please. I was thinking horses.”
They played some cards and shared meals. By some unspoken agreement, they didn’t go back to the problem of Sydney’s grandfather. As if putting it on the shelf until they could talk to the rest of the family.
It was too big a box of trouble to unwrap by themselves.
A couple times a day they made love. With every touch and kiss, every caress as Declan drove her wild and took her up and over the top again and again—
It was abundantly clear that he’d shared the truth. It might’ve started as only sex between them, but it hadn’t been that way now for a long, long time.
On Wednesday when they woke, sunshine stretched golden fingers across the floor through the crack in the curtains.
Declan was still at her side, and she rolled in his arms and poked him gently. “Looks like the weather’s turned.”
“Looks like it.” He nuzzled his nose to her neck. “I was kinda into ignoring the rest of the world. I like having you all to myself.”
“It’s been sweet,” she agreed, “but I want to keep moving forward. I want to problem solve and find out how we fix what’s broken.”
“Including us,” he reminded her.
“Including us,” she agreed.
There was no miraculous return of the Internet, and when they walked down the road to the edge of the mudslide, it was clear no one was getting through the disaster without a massive bulldozer and a lot of work.
Declan pulled out the forestry service maps he’d found and spread them across the table, plotting out a route.
“What about the animals?” Sydney asked.
“We’ll make sure they have plenty of water and food. Once you and I get out, my brothers or I will come back in on horses or quads if we have to. It’s a problem, but it’s another one we can solve.”
They packed up using the equipment they’d found over the past three days. Food, water, and emergency supplies if for some reason they had to shelter overnight. Declan was convinced they could make it to one of the nearby farms in under four hours walking.
“Somewhere between here and the road we’ll be able to send out an SOS,” he assured her.
The first part was easy. They followed an abandoned logging road, overgrown and strewn with puddles and debris from the storm.
The second part was tougher as they hit a section of forest where a fire had gone through, and Sydney felt as if she was constantly climbing over fallen trees that were just the wrong height.
Too low for her to go under, and too high for her to do anything except sprawl her way over, her clothes catching on sticks and twigs.
Declan confidently led them forward, compass in hand. Always willing to help her over any obstacle when she asked.
“Are you sure you’re not a wilderness guide?” Sydney teased at one point.
“The horses are supposed to be the ones walking,” Declan told her earnestly. “This is not my favourite thing. Except the company’s pretty good.”
He paused before offering her a granola bar out of his pack, leaning in to kiss her, soft and sweet, the way he’d been doing all week. Sydney felt something inside her expanding, warming her from the inside out.
Her phone pinged. His phone beeped.
“We’ve got a connection,” she said excitedly, as both of them dug through their pockets.
She flipped past a number of old messages to the very bottom one, sent two hours earlier.
Petra: We saw your GPS markers move away from Nagy’s cabin. Jake, Aiden, and I are on the way. Once we get closer, we’ll message until we connect. Assume spotty internet, but don’t worry. I can see you.
Petra: By the way, thank God you’re safe. We missed you. See you soon.
Declan still had an ongoing love-hate relationship with technology, but over the next two hours he had to admit this was one of the times he was damn grateful for it.
Not only that it existed, even though there were frustrating moments when they lost the signal and once again wandered blind for thirty minutes, but the fact that when they finally popped out onto the forestry service road four hours after leaving the cabin, both Jake and Aiden’s trucks were right there waiting for them. It was damn near miraculous.
“Sydney. You okay?” Petra rushed forward, arms outstretched, and enveloped Sydney in an enormous hug.
Then Declan couldn’t see her because he was getting an equally enthusiastic rib-cracking treatment from Jake. “Bad time to pick for a house call,” Jake teased when he finally stopped pounding Declan on the back.
“Any word on how the old man’s doing?” Declan asked.
Petra had her arm linked through Sydney’s and was guiding her toward the truck. “He’s okay. Lexie said to tell you that whatever the infection was, they caught it in time. Mr. Nagy needs to stay in the hospital for a couple more days, though, because they’ve got him on an IV.”
Sydney dipped her chin. “Sounds about right.”
“We’ll have to head up tomorrow again and take care of his animals,” Declan told his brothers. “And make sure somebody knows about the road.”