Chapter 13
THIRTEEN
4 Days til Christmas
I wasn’t sure how snow could be in every single fold of my three layers of clothes, but between the snow angels and the snow shovel fight—we never did anything small, that was for sure.
We’d rolled ourselves inside after the snow angels. The weather was beyond awful and there wasn’t a plow in sight. The ominous quiet that came with far too much precipitation was unnerving.
Living most of my life in the Syracuse area, I was used to snow. But this was beyond what we had for a whole month on average. I stomped the worst of the it off on the porch, but there was no getting the caked-on ice off me without a damn hair dryer at this point. I kicked out of my boots as soon as I stepped over the threshold into the entryway.
Within minutes, there were puddles around both of us as we peeled off layer after layer until we were both shivering. I was down to my Grinch underwear as I sprinted into the living room to get a blanket for Ocean. I dipped into my suitcase for one of my flannels and returned to drape it around her. She shivered as I did up the buttons and pulled her wet hair out of her collar.
There was something visceral about seeing your woman in your clothes.
Even if she was only my woman for now.
I scooped her up and set her in the chair near the fireplace. She was chattering behind me as I fumbled over the controls for the gas fire. Thankfully, it lit quickly, and I bumped the flames up on high.
She tucked her feet up into the red and black flannel with the buffalo check blanket wrapped tightly around shoulders and over her bare toes.
“You okay?”
She nodded, her teeth still chattering. “Just gotta get the chill off me and my t-t-teeth will stop.”
I rubbed her arms,kissed her forehead, then I stood. I went around behind the chair and pushed her a bit closer to the fire so I could grab some clothes for myself. I was going to actually have to see if this place had a laundry room the way we were going through outfits.
But for now, I still had a pair of sweats and a thermal. I stopped to check on her, then I went to make us some hot coffee and raid the cookies again.
She was still cold after the coffee, so I convinced her to go up for a bath.
I was tempted to go up with her, but it seemed as if she was working something out in that overactive brain of hers. Instead, I busied myself with checking out her food offerings. She had enough provisions to hold us for another week, if need be.
Which would include Christmas.
I hoped, for her sake, that her family could get out here. We still had a few days before things were hopeless. I had a bunch of winter recipes in my head, thanks to my mother. She’d instilled her love of cooking into all of us, but especially me.
Len had made sure to learn a few basics that could impress a woman. Finn had the best palate of any of us since he was always traveling for his job as an architect. I was pretty sure he was better at finding a bougie restaurant than he was at cooking.
I sautéed some chicken with the decent spice situation this place had before making an easy cream sauce, thanks to a can of cream of mushroom soup I found in the cabinet.
“Well, that smells amazing.”
I turned with a towel over my shoulder. “Hey. You look much better.”
“I should be, I damn near boiled myself.” She came up behind me and looped her arms around my middle, pressing her cheek into my back. “You’re so warm.”
“Oven has been working overtime.”
“And it smells like heaven.” She slipped around me, and I raised my arm to hug her into my side.
“With four boys, my mom taught us how to extend things like chicken and rice.”
“Same.” She leaned forward to sniff at the pan. “I think my mom made something like that a few times. We were all picky.”
“You too?”
“ Me ? No. I was the oldest girl; I was just lucky to eat with all the animals. I was usually cooking, to be honest. My mom worked from home, but she was always on the clock.”
“What did she do?”
She slid away from me. “Can I help?”
She definitely didn’t like to talk about her family much. I set the burner to simmer and covered it. “No, it just needs to simmer for a bit and the rice to cook.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
I caught her hand and dragged her back to me. “You don’t have to talk about your family, but is there a reason why you always change the subject?”
“I don’t.”
I arched a brow at her.
“Fine. I’m just…”
“Just…”
She twisted her hand free to slip around my waist. “Reality is coming fast enough, isn’t it?” She went onto her toes and nipped my lower lip.
“Ahh, but we aren’t doing the naked playtime, so we have plenty of time to get to know each other.”
“You made that rule, not me.” She tucked her fingers into the back of my sweats to pinch my ass. When I just stared her down, she sighed. “What do you want to know?”
“If it’s going to be a thing, never mind.” I moved to the sink to clean up my mess.
“No, it’s not.” She tugged me back.
I shut off the water. “I know this is temporary, Ocean. Painfully aware, in fact.” I gripped the edge of the sink.
This should be a dream come true. No strings sex with a bright, beautiful woman in a luxury cabin was about as perfect as it could get. Yet she was already under my skin. And maybe that was my problem, not hers.
She wrapped her arms around me again, pressing her forehead between my shoulder blades. “I’m just protective. I’ve had to be.”
I frowned. What did that mean?
I was about to ask when a FaceTime ring blared from her pocket. “Sorry.” She stepped back and pulled out her phone. “Kent?”
“Hey, kiddo.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m two years younger than you, jerk.”
“I’ll just let you talk,” I said quietly.
“Is someone there with you? Did one of the idiots make it?” The deep voice echoed as if the guy was in a big room.
“Um.” She glanced up at me, her big blue eyes widening. “No. Funny story.”
“What kind of funny story, O?”
“The storm is really bad out here.”
“Worse than here? Fucking Kentucky doesn’t know what snow is. It’s only like six inches here and the whole freaking state shut down, for fuck’s sake.”
She winced. “Well, we have more like six feet by now.”
“Six feet!” The man’s voice boomed through her phone.
Who was Kent?
Hell, I’d never even asked her if she was involved with someone. I got the impression she hadn’t been with anyone in a long time, same as me.
Stomping down the initial kick of jealousy, I rewound the conversation to the kiddo comment. It must be one of her brothers.
Shit, I needed a goddamn moment here. I didn’t have any right to be jealous.
No, that wasn’t fucking true, either.
I had to own it at this point. We were new and intense—and hell, it didn’t work geographically—but I wasn’t going to discount my feelings for her.
Even if part of me wanted to shrink back and leave the room. I should give her privacy. I shouldn’t push her for more.
But she made me greedy on several levels. Including knowing all about her and the people who had made her who she was.
If that made me a sap, then so be it.
I stepped around her to get into the frame for the video call. “I’m Hudson MacGregor. A snowplow ran me off the road, and I ended up crashing into her yard.”
The man in the video was exhausted and disheveled. It seemed as if he was in a hotel of some kind. I figured it was an airport, but it looked more like a hotel lobby. His bloodshot blue eyes—so much like Ocean’s—narrowed suspiciously.
His gaze lifted to the fading bruise on my forehead, currently in the ugly mottled green and yellow stage. “Is that so?”
“Truly. There haven’t been many plows coming through. Not that we have really been watching the news, but?—”
“And why is that?” Kent bit out.
Because I’ve been having sex with your sister all over the cabin didn’t seem to be the proper reply.
“We’ve been distracting ourselves?—”
“What he means is we’re fine,” Ocean interrupted. “We’ve been doing a lot of cooking.” Ocean elbowed me and panned around to the cookies and pans on the stove. “I’m still hoping you guys can come.”
Kent’s sigh rung out clearly across the line. “I’m trying, but I may not get up there until after Christmas, kiddo.”
Ocean’s shoulders sagged. “I know. Just try to come. We have a whole week between Christmas and New Year’s.”
“Oh, I will get there. I just don’t know if it’ll be Christmas day.”
“Christmas is when we make it.” Her voice was full of bravado and false cheer.
Kent knew it as well as I did.
But that was what she needed right now.
“She’s safe with me. My brother lives about a mile away. We just haven’t been able to get me out of here. My rental car’s a total loss.”
Kent’s eyes went hard and disapproving. “I just bet she is. Good thing we taught her to take care of herself.”
“Oh, enough posturing. It’s boring,” she said flatly.
“You throw him out in a snowbank if he gets?—”
“If you say handsy, I’m hanging up now.” Ocean stiffened, the irritation in her blazing eyes somehow making her even more beautiful. “I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”
“I know you are.” Kent sighed. “You’re always taking care of all of us. He’s a stranger, O. That’s all.”
“Stranger is right here,” I muttered. “We’re bunkering down until the snow lets up. Period.”
The unsaid statement what are you going to do about it? was implied—heavily.
Ocean rolled her eyes. “Enough, you two. I’m perfectly capable of making decisions on my own, Kent. It’s nice having someone here with me.”
Kent’s face softened. “We’ll get there, kiddo. I promise. Even if I have to drive up there.”
“There are storms up and down the coast. Just wait it out there. It has to spin out sooner or later.”
“Yeah.” Suddenly, he turned his head. “Look, I gotta go. They finally found a room for me. I need a shower and at least five hours of sleep. I’ve been up for two days.”
“I’m sorry, Kent.” Her voice thickened and I curled my arm around her middle, out of range of the video.
“I’ll see you soon.” Kent gave me one last hard look before the video went black.
She dropped her arm, and I turned her around to hug her tightly. “It’s okay.”
“Did you really have to do all that?”
I tucked her under my chin. “I really did.”
“He’s just being protective. All my brothers are, even the ones who are younger than me—which is most of them.”
“Yeah?”
She pressed her cheek to my chest. “Yeah, Kent is the oldest, then me.”
I rubbed her back, hoping to get her to keep talking.
“Kent is a carpenter.”
“A traveling one?”
She eased back and dashed away wetness from her eyes that made me want to haul her right back into my arms. Instead, I moved to the food on the stove and made sure it wasn’t burning.
Instantly, she went into action, grabbing big bowls and a pair of forks. “How about we eat in the living room?”
I nodded. “Sounds good. So, what does he actually do?”
“He specializes in rehabbing old houses. Especially bringing them back to their historic glory. People pay him stupid amounts of money. He’s been written up in a ton of magazines, even though it makes him crazy that people want him to actually talk about his work.” She shook her head and held out her bowl for me to scoop out a serving. Her eyes went wide at the big pieces of chicken I gave her.
“We worked up a healthy appetite playing in the snow, didn’t we?”
She nibbled on her lower lip and looked up at me. “Full belly will make me less apt to jump your bones.”
“Why, oh why did I say that this morning?”
Her smile spread into a bright grin. “It is a question. But now that it’s said, I do love to keep it competitive.” She trailed her finger down my bearded cheek before she twirled away and headed into the living room.
I was a dead man.
But what a way to go.