CHAPTER ONE Danny
CHAPTER ONE
Danny
I pulled off the side of the road—if you could call the narrow dirt lane a road—and wondered what I’d gotten myself into.
Because, see, the cabin I’d rented for two weeks was up ahead, or at least it was supposed to be, but the road had only been plowed to this point.
I could even see where the plow turned around to go back down.
And since I hadn’t passed a snowplow on the way up here, I could only assume it was done for the day.
I squinted at the very reflective white snow.
Done for the season, by the looks of it.
Okay.
I squinted again, attempting to blindly reach for my sunglasses in the console between the seats as I stared at the black dot on the horizon.
Shoving my sunglasses on only dulled the magnified reflection of the sun, but it was enough to see that there was indeed a dot on the horizon, and I bet that dot was my cabin.
Where were the snow-covered trees? The idyllic Christmas holiday vibes, the picturesque frozen lake, and all those things that I was pretty much promised? I thought I saw some trees further in the distance, but it was not quite the image I had in my head from what I remembered seeing in the email.
I twisted in the seat, thankful that my little Corolla couldn’t carry much, because it would appear I would be lugging my shit alllll the way to that dot, which I really hoped would turn out to be the cabin.
This was not the way I wanted to start off my super amazing and supposed to be empowering solo holiday.
“Stop complaining,” I told myself. “Checklist.”
And so, I started going through the checklist.
Snow? Check.
Solitude? I looked around. Double check.
A new start?
Okay, could I still call it that even if I wasn’t sure how I was going to label this as a new start?
A holiday to remember?
Well, I couldn’t check that one off yet, but I was going to do my best to make it one.
After all, I had a whole back seat of Christmas decorations and five bottles of champagne to ring in the new year.
That ought to set the mood. Was five excessive?
Probably, especially if it was just little ole me drinking them.
But I was smart, because I didn’t think I was going to make it two weeks to New Year’s Eve without drinking something.
Judging all the work I was about to do, I would have said I made the right call on the extra bottles of bubbly. I knew I’d be popping one of those bottles tonight… as long as I didn’t die in the snow first.
Note to self: no more cozy, snow-draped cabins in the middle of nowhere.
If I made it through this adventure, that was.
Alright, no more waiting. Stalling was more like it.
With a sigh, I pulled on my proverbial big boy panties.
I zipped up my ultra-puffy coat, wrapped a couple of scarves around my neck, and grabbed my super festive, holiday hat that my awesome grandpa knitted for me.
It hung down, flopping over my shoulder like a long ponytail, the pompom at the end way too big to be cute.
Oh, and I couldn’t forget about the huge elf ears that draped over my actual, boring human ears.
Santa’s little helper, here I am.
If only there were a sexy, big bear of a Santa waiting for me up at that cabin who would let me climb on his lap.
No, Danny. Bad, I scolded myself.
This was my time. A chance to be by myself and figure out what came next…
for me. No sexy men. No flirting. No sex—unless it happened to be with myself.
Because, let’s face it, I was totally working a little while I was up here.
A change of scenery was just what my viewers needed.
Of course, I couldn’t pass up the chance for a couple of cozy holiday sessions.
Besides, the holidays could be hard, and I wanted to be there for my people as much as I could be.
The shivers began the moment I stepped out of my car.
A thrill shot through me. I loved the snow.
Maybe not here in this moment with all the work I was about to have to do in it, but generally, I loved it.
And not just the idea of it. Growing up in Southern California, it was rare that we got snow, but I would stay out there until it melted every single time we got lucky enough to get some.
Even loving the snow, I was glad it wasn’t actively snowing at the moment. Glancing up at the sky, I hoped it held out until I got all my stuff to the cabin.
Then, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! I smiled widely and did a little jig in place at the thought.
It took me entirely too long to stack, and re-stack, and tie enough of my crap together so it wouldn’t feel like a wasted trip.
I had my carry-on looped around one side of my body and my toiletries bag looped around the other.
Yes, I had a huge bag of toiletries. Between cleanliness, tidiness, and cleanup-ness, I needed a lot!
I was also wearing my duffel of work equipment, and not the fun stuff.
I did have a big collection of fun work stuff I brought with me, but it wasn’t making it on this trip.
I figured if I didn’t make it back to the car tonight, I could survive without my vast array of dildos and vibrators.
Teeth whitening strips and lotion, I could not.
My rolling suitcase—which would not be rolling—was on its side.
On top of it, I piled the cooler, the twelve boxes of white Christmas lights, a bunch of neatly wrapped garland, a bag of random winter-themed trinkets, and lastly—at least for this trip—was a mega sugar cookie making kit I found.
I was so excited about that one. It had ten different cutters.
Oh, and all the decorating things I could have ever wanted, though I did buy a few more things, like silver balls and real vanilla for the frosting.
Oh, and all of that was sitting on a round, plastic sled.
It was one of those ones that was cheap, but promised fun all the same.
Okay, so it might have been a spur-of-the-moment, last-minute thing I picked up when I was buying the store out of Christmas lights.
And as I looked around, I didn’t see much of a mountain to slide down since it seemed like this place was in more of a wide valley than on a mountainside.
That said, it was a good thing I bought it because it was going to be the very thing that kept my luggage from being ruined by the snow, and it would save me from having to do a million and one trips back and forth.
Really, if you looked at it that way, the huge blue UFO-looking thing had just become the hero of the story.
I snorted at the thought and shook my head at myself.
Once I had everything situated, I wiped my brow, cringing as the wool of my mittens raked against my skin.
Just doing all that was a workout. My gaze swung to the far-out dot that I prayed was the cabin meant for me.
This was going to be fun. And by fun, I meant hard as fuck and very strenuous.
I was not athletic. Sure, I could edge myself for hours, but I had a good feeling that didn’t prepare me for lugging a whole bunch of shit through the snow.
I’d already decided that when I made it there, I would definitely not be leaving, not even if I ran out of food.
The cleaners or the next people to rent the cabin were going to have to remove me because just wrestling with half my belongings had me working up a sweat in the freezing snow, forget actually getting the stuff there.
I took a blanket and hooked the bad Jenga pile to my waist, then squared my shoulders and put on my battle-ready face.
Here goes nothing.