CHAPTER SEVEN
Jagger
While Elsa was in the shower, I headed downstairs to where a stack of books, board games, and puzzles sat on a bookshelf in the lobby. It wasn’t even noon yet. We had all day to get through and needed something to help pass the time, otherwise, we could end up killing each other.
“Hello, Jagger,” Lenora greeted from her spot behind the check-in desk. “Your laundry just went into the washing machine. It should be ready in a few hours.”
I smiled at the older woman who wore another floral blouse, this one in hues of pinks, purples, and yellows—as opposed to her blue and green one of yesterday. “Thank you so much, Lenora. We really appreciate it.”
“I take it you and Ms. Aaronson are getting along better now?”
I crouched down in front of the squat bookshelf with the neatly stacked puzzles and board games. “We’re making the best of a less-than-ideal situation. While I can’t say we’ll declare ourselves BFFs after this, I think there is an agreed upon truce for the time being.”
Her pale-blue eyes crinkled behind her cat eye glasses. “A truce is better than a war.”
“I will definitely agree with that.” Running my finger along the board games and puzzle boxes, I paused on a thousand-piece monster of a realistic jungle scene, complete with a black panther, a spotted jaguar, various monkeys, and way too many birds to count.
I was sure as we got going on it, we’d find other animals and hidden wonders. “Is it okay if I take this?” I asked.
“Of course. That’s a guest favorite. Though, I don’t know of anyone that has actually finished it. All the pieces are there, I know that.”
Moving the box out from beneath the others, I put it on the floor at my feet, then grabbed a deck of cards, a cribbage board, a pad of paper, and a pencil.
Lenora was prepared for everything. I loved it.
We definitely needed to add some board games, books, and puzzles to our office for the cabins at the restaurant property.
It was something I’d been harping on Bennett about for a while now and he just kept telling me it was pointless, because people were too busy going to the beach.
But we still had guests coming to the cabins in this terrible weather.
They would need something to pass the time.
Standing up to my full height, I winced a little at the expected twinge in my knee.
I tore my ACL my sophomore year of college, which ultimately ended my football career.
I’d been good too. But that injury ruined any chance of going pro.
And while I healed well enough to not walk with a limp after my surgery, I wasn’t able to play on the college team again. So I got a psychology degree.
However, when I bent down, or sat on my knees too long, that angry twinge reminded me of a past I’d rather forget.
A dark time in my life where I sucked it up “for the team,” filling my knee with cortisone shots, and popping Advil like it was PEZ to numb the pain and play on the injury until the tear got even worse—I swear to god they heard the last tear in the stands during a game one day.
I had to be carried off the field on a stretcher, and not even the cortisone would work anymore.
By that time, I’d injured it so severely, there was no going back.
“Thanks, Lenora.” My first step was as stiff as I knew it would be and I compensated more on my left leg as I headed to the stairs, climbing them carefully. I should do some stretches and some of my physio exercises, not that there was much floor space in the room for that.
Back in the bedroom, the shower still ran.
The lights flickered a few times, and I noticed Raina’s phone plugged into the charger on the nightstand.
Not a bad idea. I did the same, then grabbed my book, turned on the lamp on the nightstand, and read on the bed while trying very hard not to imagine what Raina might look like all naked and soaped up under the warm spray of the water.
I read the same paragraph of my book six times by the time the water finally shut off. But she didn’t come out right away, and for some reason, hearing her rattling around in there made me hard.
What the fuck?
Eventually, the door opened, and out stepped a bundled up, rosy faced, glaring, little thundercloud.
She had a towel around her body, and one twisted up around her hair.
Her eyes searched the room. When they landed on her stuff, she shot me a quick, surly look, like something was my fault.
Then she snatched her bag in a huff and disappeared back into the bathroom.
What. The. Fuck?
Ignoring the mood swing princess, I went back to my book, but the boner in my sweatpants made ignoring her in there basically impossible.
When the door opened again, I was no longer reading.
My eyes were closed, and my head was against the headboard as I pictured men in tight football pants to try to get the boner to go down.
“Are you asleep?” she asked.
“If I was, I’m not now,” I said blandly, peeling open one eyelid.
Unlike last night, her hair wasn’t in two braids, like Anna from Frozen .
It was wet, combed, and hanging down over her shoulders.
She wore the clothes she bought at the store, and her pink cheeks were a stark contrast to the brightness of her green eyes.
For a moment, I found myself at a loss for words, at a loss for breath.
She was beautiful. There was never any denying that, but right now, with that little dip to her brows, like she was still kind of pissed at me for something, and the flush of color to her face, Raina Aaronson was downright stunning.
Swallowing, I jerked my chin at the puzzle and cribbage board at the foot of the bed. “I went downstairs and grabbed those if you want to pass the time?”
The lights flickered overhead again, and our eyes went wide at the same time.
More flickering.
“Think it’s going to go out?” she murmured, almost more to herself than me.
“Maybe?”
Her gaze lingered on mine for several heartbeats before shifting to the games and puzzles. “I don’t know how to play crib.”
“It’s easy.” I shoved the receipt that I used as a bookmark back into my book to hold my place and set it on the nightstand. “I can teach you.”
Her nostrils flared and her freckles seemed to darken, if that was even possible.
More light flickers and then … out!
Even though it wasn’t even noon, we were pitched into darkness, save for the muted daylight filtering in through the sheer, gauzy drapes over the window.
“Shit,” she muttered, going to her phone and activating the flashlight.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“No.” That came out as more of a growl than anything. “We’re stuck here, together , and the power is out. How is any of this okay ?”
“We’re dry, we have food, and we have somewhere to stay. It could be a lot worse.”
Even in the dark room, I could definitely tell she was glaring at me. “Shut up, Pollyanna.”
That made me smirk, just as there was a knock at the door.
I got up from the bed and went to answer it, finding Lenora on the other side.
She had a tray full of battery powered flickering candles, as well as a few blinding, LED camping lanterns.
“Not our first storm or power outage,” she said, her smile wobbly as she held the tray out for me.
“Take what you need, but leave some for others.”
“Do you need a hand with anything, Lenora?” I asked. “What’s the heating situation in this place when the power goes out?”
The fake orange flames from the candles made her eyes glow, but it failed to mask her worry. “We’re just electric heat, I’m afraid. When … well, the husband used to chop wood for the woodstove, but …” Tears welled up in her eyes. “That didn’t happen this year, I’m afraid.”
Shit.
“Do you have any wood that’s dry? I’m happy to chop some and get a fire going. Otherwise, with these single-pane windows, we’re all going to freeze.”
Her chin trembled and the loose skin of her neck jiggled as she swallowed hard.
“There might be some out back in the shed. Big rounds from when a tree fell a few years back and Walt bucked it up.” Her cool, papery hand landed on my arm, but that only made her lose her grip on the tray of the candles and it nearly toppled to the ground.
I managed to catch it in time, but Lenora was already crying. “Oh, this is just terrible.”
Taking the tray from her, I balanced it on one hand and touched her shoulder with the other.
“It’s not. We’re all dry, and we will be able to keep warm.
We just need to work together. Hmm?” Turning back into the room, I found Raina just standing there, staring at me, her mouth open slightly like a confused octopus.
“Can you go to the other guests and disperse these?” I asked her.
“Lenora and I are going to check out the firewood situation.”
It took her a moment to unglue her feet, but then she was nodding and taking the tray from me. She didn’t say anything, which I found odd, but there were more pressing things to address than her sudden mutism. She’d been in a weird mood since we got back from the grocery store.
I slipped my feet into my Blundstones and followed Lenora downstairs as she softly sniffled and used a Kleenex she pulled out from the sleeve of her blouse to blot at her nose and eyes.
“How long ago did Walt leave?” I asked gently, letting Lenora lead the way through the dining room and the country-style kitchen, to a mudroom and a back door.