Chapter Fifteen
Fifteen
Leslie entered her bedroom, closing the door behind her, and began pacing the floor.
She was upset knowing Sarah had come on to Sloan and he hadn’t told her about it.
Granted, that first time might have been due to her overdrinking like he’d assumed, but that second time should have set off red flags. Flags he should have told her about.
She glanced toward the door when she heard the knock. Knowing it was Sloan, she took her time moving to the door, not sure she wanted to see him. Opening the door, she raked her gaze over him as he stood with his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans.
“What is it, Sloan?”
“Now it’s me who owes you an apology, Leslie. I apologize.”
She actually heard regret in his voice, and as she studied his features, she saw regret there as well.
A part of her didn’t want to accept his apology, but then, hadn’t he accepted hers?
And she couldn’t dismiss the fact that he hadn’t known about the panties or Sarah’s claim of a possible pregnancy.
Now that he did, she hoped he understood why she had been hurt to the point of needing to put distance between them.
Why she had left school the way she had and forbidden her father to tell him where she’d gone.
Drawing in a deep breath, she said, “I accept your apology, Sloan. It seems we both could have handled things differently.”
They hadn’t, and it had cost them ten years.
But then, maybe it hadn’t been meant for them to be together for the long haul.
Maybe it was only meant for him to be someone who would occupy her heart for a short while.
That time had come and gone, and she knew it could never be recaptured again. She figured he knew it as well.
“Do you honestly accept my apology, Leslie?”
Leslie narrowed her gaze at him. “Just as much as you honestly accepted mine at the wedding.”
It was easy to see her words had hit home, which let her know she’d been right.
Although he’d told her he had accepted her apology that day, and while he’d reached out to her to help save her company, he’d still intended to exact his form of revenge as well.
That made her wonder if helping to save her company had been as honorable as she’d assumed.
Was there an ulterior motive for that as well?
She dismissed the thought. He might have not truly accepted her apology, but she believed getting her to sleep with him again was as far as he would have taken any retaliation he might have implemented.
Nothing could convince her that helping to save her company wasn’t aboveboard.
He would not have taken things that far.
“Now, if you don’t mind, there’s a book I’d like to finish reading.”
He nodded. “Do you want to cook dinner today, or would you prefer I take care of it?”
“I’ll prepare something later.”
“All right.”
He walked off, and she closed the door. Leslie had barely made it across the room when the lights flickered and then they lost power for barely a minute.
When the lights came back on, she knew the generator had kicked in.
But like Sloan had told her, the generator had to be turned off at night.
That meant to preserve heat, they would be sharing a spot in front of the fireplace tonight.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
Leslie hoped the weather would improve by tomorrow and then she could be on her way. She didn’t want to spend any more time than necessary with Sloan, and she was certain he felt the same about her.
Sloan looked up when Leslie entered the living room. “I see that we’ve lost power,” she said.
“Yeah,” he replied, following her gaze out the window. The high winds were causing sheets of ice to hit against it. It was like something out of a bad movie. He’d been expecting bad weather, but not to this degree. “I’m surprised the power lasted as long as it did,” he said.
“Any idea how long this storm will last?”
He shook his head. “I don’t have a clue. Even the tower isn’t working, which means we can’t send or receive calls. Last weather report I saw indicates we haven’t been hit with the worst of it yet. To preserve the generator, we need to turn it off around seven.”
“Then let me start dinner.”
“And while you’re doing that, I need to go outside and check around to make sure things are still covered.”
“You’re really going out in that, Sloan?” Leslie asked him in an incredulous voice, placing her hands on her hips.
He tried not to notice how good she looked standing there in her jeans and sweatshirt. “Yes. The wind is so high it might have blown something off, and I need to check while there’s still a little daylight.” He walked over to the hall closet and grabbed his coat, hat and gloves.
“How long will you be gone?”
Sloan was sliding into his coat when he met her eyes. “Probably no more than twenty minutes. I’ll be back before you know it.”
“Please be careful.”
Was that concern he heard in her voice? He smiled at her, hoping that would assure her he would be fine. “I will,” he said, putting on his gloves. “Do me a favor and have a cup of hot chocolate ready when I get back.”
“I can do better than that. I’ll also make sandwiches to go along with the hot chocolate.”
He gave her a thumbs-up as he headed for the door, bracing himself against the wind that had gotten stronger over the past hours. One of Maverick’s bright ideas had been to place heated planks in front of the door. That way snow wouldn’t block the opening or closing of the door.
The moment he stepped outside, the freezing temperature cut him to the core.
Shouldering his body against the snow and winds, he headed toward where the pipes were located to make sure they were still properly covered.
It was cold as the dickens, and he figured if he thought about Leslie—specifically, how good she looked and how nice she smelled—it would warm up his insides somewhat.
After checking the pipes as well as several pieces of machinery to make sure they could continue to withstand the wind and snow, he was headed back toward the house when he noticed that a huge tree limb had blown to the ground, too close to the generator to suit him.
Deciding to move the limb out of the way, he began tackling the job and discovered the limb was heavier than he’d thought.
It ended up taking a lot longer than planned, but he had finally dragged it back to what he considered a safe distance.
He was about to head back toward the cabin when another huge tree branch came flying toward him like a missile.
While ducking, he slipped on a patch of ice, and fell flat to the ground, the wind knocked out of him.
It took him a few minutes to regain his strength enough to pull himself up to his knees.
That’s when he felt a pounding pain in his head and figured he hadn’t moved quick enough.
A part of the tree branch had struck the side of his head.
He was determined to get back to the cabin, though his head was hurting even more. Forcing himself to stand, he felt somewhat dizzy. When he felt himself getting lethargic, he pushed himself to continue walking as snow thickened even more around him.
Sloan knew the cabin should be close. If he could just ignore the cold and the pain, he would be fine.
It was getting dark, and he wasn’t even sure he was going in the right direction.
The falling snow made it nearly impossible to see in front of him, but he had to keep moving and hoped he was going east and not west.
At that moment he wasn’t sure of anything other than he was freezing cold and needed to get warm fast. He then thought of Leslie. The thought of never seeing her again shifted the pain from his head to his chest and close to his heart. He wasn’t sure why, but it had.
He pushed his way forward, shivering from the inside out, yet determined to find his way back to Leslie.
Leslie stopped pacing long enough to check her watch. The house was quiet except for the sound of the sleet hitting the windows. It was getting dark. Sloan had said it wouldn’t take him any longer than twenty minutes and he’d been gone close to an hour. Why hadn’t he come back yet?
She glanced over at the cups of hot chocolate and the two sandwiches wrapped in cellophane.
The hot chocolate had gone cold, and when he returned she would have to make some more.
There was no problem if she had to do that, she just wanted him safe.
Leaving the kitchen, she went to the living room window and practically pressed her face against it.
She could barely see past the porch for all the snow that was falling.
Glancing at her watch again, she decided to give Sloan ten more minutes.
If he wasn’t back by then, she would go looking for him.
The wind had gotten louder, and the snow was falling more heavily.
Leslie began pacing again, getting more worried by the minute, especially when the wind outside sounded even more fierce. Deciding not to wait any longer, she went to the hall closet and pulled out her boots, coat, hat and gloves. She also grabbed a flashlight.
She was met with freezing temperatures the moment she opened the door, and she was tempted to go back inside. She could barely see beyond the porch, but she refused to turn around. To get her bearings for a moment, she huddled in the corner near the porch swing before pushing herself forward.
She called out for him but soon discovered her voice was drowned out by the sound of rushing winds. She hesitated before stepping off the porch, holding on to the rail as she did so. The wind was so strong she was convinced it could sweep her away easily, and the snow was coming down even more.