Chapter 6 Stormbound
stormbound
She rose early the next morning, hoping to leave the house before she ran into Kayden.
She’d skip the coffee and muffins he usually left out and high-tail it today.
Lana took a long, hot shower and dressed in the warmest clothes she had: Her favorite pair of denim jeans, a light pink turtleneck sweater, and a brown leather jacket.
She pulled her hair up into her signature work bun, but thought it looked too librarian, so she let her curls hang wild and free.
It was seven-fifteen when she crept carefully down the stairs to not wake Kayden, but the smell of food alerted her that she was already too late.
Coffee and bacon should be a cologne in her opinion, the two were a perfect match.
As she reached the bottom of the landing, Kayden was at the stove cooking, while two place settings were up on the granite countertop.
“Morning,” he beamed as he stirred the scrambled eggs.
“Morning. You’ve been busy.” She looked at the spread, which included cheesy grits, pancakes, bacon, coffee, and now the eggs, which he was plating up.
“Yeah. I didn’t sleep much last night anyway and wanted to make breakfast,” he smiled, putting the pan in the dishwasher.
“You didn’t have to do that. I would’ve gotten something at Aunt Mae’s,” she lied.
Lana wasn’t looking forward to freezing in the parking lot while hunched over another breakfast burrito.
“Don’t be silly, eat up.” He grabbed one of the stools and pulled it out for her.
She looked at him, a thin smile on her lips, and sat. She wasn’t getting out of it, and the sound her stomach made sealed the deal. He sat next to her and poured her a cup of coffee.
“This all looks amazing, thanks.”
She took the steaming mug and mixed in some yellow packet sugar substitute and way too much creamer by some people’s standards. She couldn’t drink it any other way.
“You’re welcome,” he replied with his signature wink.
He picked up the TV remote on the counter, pointed it at the massive TV above the fireplace, and tuned it to the weather channel.
From the screen, she could hear the weatherman: “Three inches of snow last night, which isn’t bad, but later this week it will be up to five feet.
Yes, you heard right, there's a blizzard headed for the following cities: Hamby, Shelby, Covington...”
He turned the TV off.
“I think we need to go into town and get some supplies before we get snowed in completely. In another day or so, it'll be too late.”
“You mean snowed in, like, can't step outside snowed in?”
“Yes, darlin’.”
“For how long?”
“Who knows? Winter is coming,” he said with a smile.
He had caught her watching an episode of Game of Thrones last week, so she picked up on the inflection in his voice.
“My vacation ends in two and a half weeks; I have to be back to work.”
He took a sip of his black coffee.
“I doubt it will last that long.” He knew he was lying and hoped she couldn’t sense it on him the way she usually did.
Lana returned her attention to the bacon on her plate, and a realization hit him as he watched her: She had to leave eventually.
She had a life of her own outside this place.
The blizzard would most likely last way longer than a couple of weeks, but he didn’t want to tell her that.
She could pack up and leave Hamby sooner than he was ready.
It was selfish, but he couldn’t help it.
“So do you want to go shopping after breakfast?” he asked, digging into his cheesy grits.
“Sure,” she replied, surprised at how skilled he was in the kitchen, as the food was excellent.
They ate in silence for a few moments before he abruptly put his fork down and turned as she was mid-bite into a crispy piece of bacon.
“Thank you,” he said.
Lana still had a mouthful of food, so it took her a minute to swallow and clear her throat before responding.
“For what?” she asked, confused.
“For listening to me last week when we were by the fire. I really appreciated that.”
“Oh, you’re welcome. Anytime,” she replied as her heart almost stopped at the look in his eye.
“You really have a good bedside manner. I guess that’s important, being a nurse,” he smiled, then started eating again.
She relaxed a bit now and stared down at her plate of food.
“It helps,” she said and continued eating as well.
They ate and continued talking about her job as a nurse, then his work in architecture.
It was really lovely to have a conversation where she wasn’t pissed or lusting after him or both.
Afterward, she helped him clean the kitchen; it all felt way too domestic for her.
Lana was itching to get out of the house.
Lord only knew what people in town thought about them both being under the same roof.
Another scandal was the last thing she needed in her life.
STEPPING OUTSIDE IN the brisk morning air was a wake-up call. It was fifteen degrees outside, but felt like negative fifteen. Kayden locked the door behind them, and Lana trotted down to her truck, keys in hand.
“What are you doing?” he asked, as he started down the snow-covered steps.
“Um, getting ready to leave. I know you don’t think we’re gonna hold almost three weeks of groceries in that?” she asked, pointing to the Lamborghini.
“Well, I had planned on ordering the bulk of the stuff and having it delivered.”
Lana frowned at him. “Seriously, you can’t even buy your own groceries?”
He smirked at her and put his keys in his pocket.
“Fine, you lead the way,” he replied, extending an arm to the driver’s door.
She opened the truck and slid in, the leather seats colder than ice.
Kayden went to the passenger side door and observed the damage.
Damn, he thought as he struggled to pull the door open.
With a loud crunching creak of metal, the door gave way.
He jumped in and had to slam it shut several times to keep it closed. Lana gave him a side-eye.
“Sorry,” she said, starting the engine, “there was this idiot who hit me on the way up here—oh, that’s right! You already know this story,” she said, chuckling, and he laughed.
“Okay, I had no idea it was this bad.”
She reversed the truck slowly out of the driveway, forgoing the forty-minute warm-up, turned, and began rolling down the hill toward the town square.
“I’ll be sure it gets fixed before you have to leave. Scouts honor,” he raised his hand and put it over his heart.
She smiled at him the way he liked.
Maybe he wasn’t such a bad person, but he definitely had some issues to work out, Lana thought. He reached over to the heater and turned it on, and ice-cold air blasted through.
“It takes a while for that actually to work,” she said.
“Time for a new ride, ya think?” He replied while rubbing his hands together.
“Nothing wrong with this one, Richey Rich.”
He grinned and relaxed back in the bucket seat, his knees hitting the dashboard.
As they drove down to the roundabout, it seemed the whole town was milling about, carrying firewood or pushing shopping carts through the snow.
Winter storms were not taken lightly. The snow cast a different light on the town.
It was still cozy, but the amount of snow falling was unforgiving, and she doubted anyone would be holding hands and taking evening strolls again anytime soon.
“You sure about that time frame for the storm?” she asked as she observed the frenzy around them.
“Yeah. I’ve lived here my whole life, practically. This is just the way people are here. Better safe than sorry.”
She nodded and pulled onto the roundabout, past Main, and turned onto Patterson Court.
Along this street were clothing and jewelry shops, boutiques, an outdoor farmers market, and a grocery store.
The store sat across from the only hotel in town, Spence Hotel.
Patterson Court was considered a strip mall of sorts rather than a busy thoroughfare.
The owners of the farmer’s market, a couple in their mid-sixties, were putting the last of their produce in the back of a pickup truck when Lana pulled into the grocery store parking lot.
She cut the engine just as the heater finally began to kick in.
ONCE INSIDE FRESH Picks Grocery store, Kayden immediately walked up to the employee standing near the customer service counter. The grocery store was quite warm, with a faint smell of apple pie and cinnamon. Lana observed Kayden and his interaction with the tall man in his blue vest.
“I’m going to need a few assistants if you have them,” he said to the man wearing a name tag that read “Sherman- Manager” on it.
A smile erupted on his face as he scurried away behind the customer service desk.
“Yes, sir, Mr. Capshaw, give me one moment,” he replied proudly. He walked behind the counter and grabbed the intercom receiver on the wall.
“Jason and Dominic, to the front, please, VIP service. Jason and Dominic, to the service desk, please.” Sherman said, then placed the receiver down with a proud smile on his face.
An older couple passing by them turned to Kayden and Lana and glared at them as they walked out of the store. If she weren’t already cold, that look would have frozen her solid. Kayden leaned in close to her ear.
“Don’t worry,” he whispered, “it’s me they can’t stand. Not you.”
Then two teen boys, around seventeen, arrived with a shopping cart apiece. They’ve obviously done this before. Kayden handed them each a list and a hundred-dollar bill.
“What was that?” Lana asked as they giddily ran away down separate aisles.
“They’re going to get the dry goods, and we’re going to get everything else. He pushed one of the carts down the produce aisle, and she grabbed the second one and followed.