Chapter 11 Nora #3
I hated this. I didn’t want to be around Colson, and why should I be forced to? He essentially took a hatchet to my heart last night and then wandered back this morning to see if I’d accept an apology in the form of a mop, just so he could clean up some of the mess.
Boundaries were good. I was setting one, and that was okay. I didn’t want to give the girls any more false hope regarding their pseudo uncle, anyway.
Gripping the handle of the axe as tight as I possibly could, I turned back toward the road. Surely I could find at least one that would be suitable.
As I walked, I could still hear Rae arguing with Davis over the fact that I was chopping the tree alone, which made me feel guilty. I didn’t need her to help me, I could do this.
Once I’d walked half the distance back to the truck, I spotted a tree that was a little thin and small but would be perfect for cutting and hauling into the back of Colson’s truck bed. I had never axed a tree down in my life, but I chopped wood all the time, how different could it be?
Turns out, cutting a tree down is quite different from chopping up wood. Primarily because the angle is all different, and weird. I was getting so warm with my layers on that I shed them, and then I began swinging like crazy.
I put all the rage and anger from my situation with Colson into the axe as I hit the base, but by the fifth hardy swing, something in my back spasmed and the axe flew out of my hand, landing somewhere behind me.
With a painful shriek, I followed suit, landing in the snow, without my coat, meanwhile the snow fell in heavy clumps again.
Had I mentioned before how much I hated winter? Because this was getting really fucking old.
Although, at the moment, the cold was working as a wonderful numbing agent for whatever it was that I pulled.
How stupid could I have been? This wasn’t the first time I had done something like this to my back.
Once, I carried a large vase when decorating a house, and I threw my back out completely trying to do it alone.
It was embarrassing then, but now…now it was pure, hellfire humiliation.
More and more snow fell on me as I lay there, thinking about my life choices.
My face was numb, and as much as I tried to move, it wasn’t happening.
Not with how deep the snow was, or how bad my back was.
Finally, in the distance, I heard the sound of a chain saw being used.
Gavin, Davis, and Colson each had one, so there was a small chance that I’d be rescued by one of them within due time.
I secretly prayed that it was Davis who found me first. He would be the only person who wouldn’t make it weird, and Rae would be with him. Maybe they could toss me in the back of their truck, along with the tree, and drive me home without anyone knowing what had happened here.
Far off, someone shouted. Then the only sound was the wind blowing through the tops of the evergreens. The snow was burying my stupid body at a concerning rate.
I might have fallen asleep, possibly. But I could hear snow crunching nearby, which caused relief to swell inside my chest. I had no idea how long it took them, but eventually they were close enough for me to hear them say “Shit.”
Minutes later, a face materialized over mine, and it was not the face I wanted to see.
“Nora, what the hell happened?” Colson asked as his eyes searched my prone form frantically. His hands were gently wiping snow away, while he lifted my arms and touched my sides and stomach.
My back might be out, but my pride was partially intact.
“A rabid animal came out of nowhere and attacked me…I’m lucky to be alive.” I sighed dramatically, as if I had nowhere to go.
Colson must have realized I wasn’t bleeding, because he blew out a gust of warm air and stopped prodding my body with his fingers.
“Hmm, that’s so interesting…and unfortunate. Just in case that didn’t happen, is there any chance you threw your back out?”
I shook my head, which moved some of the fallen snow around. “Not a chance.”
Expecting a laugh, or a smirk, he surprised me by stroking my hair and staring at me with a frantic intensity.
“Tell me you’re okay, and then tell me you’re not going to fight me about being rescued.”
Blinking against the onset of flakes, I said, “I’m sure Davis will be coming soon, I can ask for his help.”
Clicking his tongue, Colson shook his head. “They took the girls a little further north to show them the reindeer herd.”
Dammit.
“You didn’t go?” I wasted my breath asking.
It didn’t matter, and yet I desperately needed to know why he hadn’t gone with them.
He didn’t answer, just stared and then let out a heavy sigh before pulling me to his chest. Then he lifted me completely off the ground as though I were made of nothing but air.
“How are you this strong?”
He adjusted me in his arms and walked toward his truck. “I’m used to lifting stubborn women who refuse to accept help, then throw out their backs trying to cut down trees.”
Curling into the warmth of his chest while shivers racked my body, I joked.
“You need a new hobby.”
He stroked my side, chuckling as we walked.
My stubbornness had finally hit its limits and taken a hike. I’d have to endure receiving help from the man who broke a piece of my heart last night.
Right as I thought we’d head to his truck, he walked past it.
“Why are we going to Davis’s truck?”
Shifting me in his arms, he headed toward the passenger side. “We all keep a spare key in the vehicles for emergency purposes. Davis and Rae will bring the girls back in my truck, but I need to get you home.”
I was about to tell him it was fine, that I could wait, but as he opened the door and set me inside, a dull throbbing started in my back, followed by a sharp pain that made my breath hitch.
“Relax, if you can. You’re tensing up and that will make it worse.” Colson brought the buckle across my chest and gently pushed my hair out of my face. “I’m not a fan that you’re missing your coat, or that you were lying in the snow without it.”
I tried to explain myself, but the only thing that came through my clenched teeth was a painful hiss.
Colson took the hint and ran around the truck, but before we took off, he jotted down something on a little note and ran it back to his truck. Once he returned, we were off.
The trip seemed significantly faster going down the mountain, but it was still too much time being forced into a sitting position. My head had begun to throb, right along with my back, and all I wanted to do was lie flat.
Colson may have talked on the ride, but I didn’t remember it. I was so focused on my pain that I closed my eyes the entire trip.
Before long, the truck slowed and stopped.
Then Colson was at my door, carefully pulling me into his arms.
Everything was a blur as he gently laid me down. The first thing he did was bring me a pill with water, which I took without argument. I knew what it was and had used it the last time I was in significant pain. The next thing he did was run a bath, and that’s when I realized I wasn’t in my house.
I was in his room, on his bed.
“Why am I here?” I asked with a slight wince.
Colson appeared, rolling up his sleeves. “You need Epsom salt, and I think the jets will help you.”
Shaking my head, I tried to sort through my thoughts as they grew foggy. “But I just took drugs. I can’t be in there.”
“You can, I won’t leave you.”
All my fight was gone, I let him lift my arms, and help me out of my shirt and bra, then watched as he tugged my boots and socks free but refused to watch him peel my jeans down my hips.
Even with my eyes on the ceiling, the way his fingers ghosted over my skin made my stomach flicker, like when you find that small flame still licking at the underside of a log long after you assumed the fire was out.
When his strong fingers gripped the waistband of my underwear, he let out a curse as they slid down my legs. It made me think of the night before and how I still had no idea why he’d detached the way he did.
My thoughts fluttered like mist when his arms slid underneath my naked body, and how vulnerable I felt being carried by him.
A part of me felt a tether to him, being like this.
Like his caring for me wasn’t a burden. It was stupid, I knew Colson didn’t want to do this, or care for me because he had romantic feelings.
I knew he wasn’t that person to me, and yet my heart latched on just the same.
My head gently hit the little pillow at the back of his tub as my body sank into the deliciously warm water. His hands left my body but didn’t go far as he perched on the edge of the tub.
“This is nice,” I said quietly, the pill was already working through me, making every part of me relax. “Don’t let me drown, Cole.”
I wasn’t watching him, but he was there, like a hot sentinel in my periphery.
The strong fingers stroked through my hair as he chuckled. “I won’t.”
“How come, though? You don’t like me, but you keep saving me.” My words felt like plastic as they came out, foreign, awkward, and unstable.
His fingers pulled my hair up, off my back. He gathered the curls into his hands and began braiding.
“Who’s to say I don’t like you?”
It was my turn to laugh, but it came out more like a snort. “Sure, you like me, but refused to be in the same room as me at any given time for the past year, and now you kiss and kick out.”
His face became clearer, which meant he’d lowered it, but his fingers were still in my hair. He was so close, I could feel the warmth of his breath on my face, and how it smelled winter fresh.
“Don’t you think that if I truly didn’t like you, I wouldn’t work so hard to avoid you?
If I really didn’t care, I’d be apathetic toward you.
Instead, I had to take extra precautions not to be in the same room as you, or to be caught with you while you’re wearing sexy workout gear in the grocery store, or letting you see when I noticed how good your ass looked in that tiny robe you wore to check on your garden. ”
My brain was working so hard to piece together what he was saying, but each word seemed to turn into bubbles in my mind, rotating, shifting, and drifting away.
His lips were hovering over mine with the slightest press, he said, “You’re addictive Nora…tempting, alluring, and completely devastating. Of course I stayed away.”
That was the last thing I heard before his hands were under me again, lifting me out of the water.