Chapter 26
Scarlett
I have interviewed high profile figures.
I’ve done reports while being in the midst of protests and other violent scenarios.
I have interviewed inmates inside high security prisons.
Explain to me why I am on the verge of shaking, nervous because my burly neighbor has asked me to come ride out the rest of the storm inside his warm cabin with his niece.
Going next door to keep warm is absolutely the right thing to do.
I wasn’t joking about not feeling my toes for the last hour.
I barely slept at all last night. Once the power went out it didn’t take long at all for the chill to settle into the air of my tiny home.
Surely something somewhere is not properly insulated or something because it felt like the wind just tore through the little cottage like it did through the stone walls of the inn inside my book last night.
At first, I thought my imagination was just running with that but after I piled literally every blanket I own onto the bed and it still wasn’t enough I realized I might be in trouble.
I hadn’t even thought about how long it might take for the power to come back on.
In Denver we didn’t lose power too much, and when we did, it usually came on a few hours later.
I had just assumed that’s what would happen here.
When I woke up after a few fitful hours of sleep and the heat still wasn’t running, I thought back to how my friends were so concerned last night. I guess they had a reason to be.
Once I’m dressed with a bag full of a few essentials I follow Jake out into the snow.
The term winter wonderland doesn’t even begin to cover it.
The beauty of the snow is jaw dropping. It coats every surface and it glitters when the light touches it just right.
The pine trees nearby are completely coated in white fluffy snow and the only sound is the snow crunching underneath our boots.
The snow that’s been shoveled between my house and Jake’s.
Did he shovel this snow for me? Surely not.
He probably just shoveled it to make his path easier.
It just happened to make my path easier too. Right?
His broad frame walks the path in front of me and I wish I could say that I didn’t want to know what it would be like to have that bulky man wrapped around me.
Even though he’s a few feet ahead of me I can smell his cedar scent.
Why in the world does he always smell like a lumberjack anyway? And why do I like it?
Once we reach the front door, the same front door where I delivered bread and called him an ogre, he opens it and holds his arm out to let me inside first. I step off to the side to remove my snow boots and outer layers, hanging them on the coat tree right inside the door.
He was right, the cabin is warm and cozy.
It’s dimly lit with just a few candles in the darker areas.
It’s decorated like something out of the nineties and I wonder if Jake is somehow older than I thought and just looks good for his age?
It makes me wonder if there was ever a wife here.
It doesn’t have the feel of a wife’s touch.
Or at least not anything recently. It feels more like a bachelor pad, albeit a clean one.
“Cami, you awake yet?” Jake breaks the silence by calling out to his niece.
“Yeah,” comes a groggy voice through a closed door.
“Alright then,” Jake says with a smile on his face, “I’ll make some breakfast.” He leaves me stunned in the doorway as he makes his way across the open concept home to the kitchen.
I can’t help but feel a little awkward but before too long I’m drawn to the wood burning stove in the corner of the living room.
It looks like something you would see in a tiny cottage with a stone floor and a stone wall built up behind it.
The flames flicker inside the glass doors and my body practically melts into the heat as I step closer.
I’m not even sorry when a small moan slips from my mouth.
“Wait, how are you going to cook breakfast?” I ask, realizing that he is also out of power.
“After about the fifth winter of losing power at least once my dad installed a propane stove for just this type of thing.” Jake sports a proud smile as he gets supplies out of the refrigerator. “You’re not like a vegetarian or anything right?”
“Vegan actually,” I say.
Jake’s body freezes, an egg carton in one hand and a pack of bacon in the other. I bite the inside of my cheek. “You’re a vegan?”
“Yep.” I pop the P in the word and my body trembles with the effort it takes to hold back a laugh.
“Why do you have chickens?” It’s actually adorable how much he believes me right now. I understand he doesn’t really have a reason not to believe me but briefly, I wonder if messing with him will always be this fun.
“Because they’re adorable. Obviously.” Jake turns his back to me, setting down the eggs and bacon and Cami comes from a room on the left. She catches my eye with a curious look and I just wink at her. She smiles and then immediately covers her mouth and goes back inside the room.
Jake turns back around with empty hands. “You have chickens… because you think they’re adorable.” I can practically feel the way he’s grasping for patience for me.
“Well, yeah. What do you have them for?” The innocence in my voice could win me an Oscar.
Jake opens his mouth to respond but promptly closes it again, his hands on his hips. “Well, I might have some oatmeal around here somewhere.”
His willingness to cater to my preferences, even if they’re fake, catches me off guard.
I feel a little bit like an asshole for it.
As much as it pains me to remove my freezing body from in front of the fireplace, I walk into the kitchen.
“I’m sorry,” I say with a tentative smile, “I’m used to people who know my sense of humor.
I’m not a vegan, or a vegetarian. And honestly, I’ll eat whatever you cook because I am just grateful to be somewhere warm. ”
“Oh thank God,” was Jake’s only response. The relief in the air is palpable as Cami steps out of her room chuckling.
“I don’t know how you kept a straight face that long,” she says as she walks over to the island and takes a seat. I take a cue from her and sit down next to her.
“Years of practice,” I admit. “My love language is messing with people. I felt like I just had to make the joke, as my way of saying thank you.”
Jake looks at me with his eyebrows so furrowed they almost join together. “I’m going to pretend I understand that.”
“Perfect,” I say, “that will make two of us.” That gets his eyebrows unfurrowed and a slight smile forms on his lips.
“So, just to clarify, eggs and bacon for everyone?” Jake asks.
“I don’t know that oatmeal really sounded good,” Cami says. I can see her chin quiver as she breaks character and begins to laugh. “I’m just kidding. Man, I don’t know how you do it.” She looks at me, a big grin on her face.
“Stick with me kid. Teach you my ways, I will.” I say in a terrible Yoda impression.
“I don’t think I like this,” Jake says, pointing a spatula back and forth in our directions. Cami and I look at each other and laugh.