Chapter 23
“Well, maybe, what I imagined when you told me about a cabin in the woods, was toasting marshmallows over an open fire and sunshine on my face, not a four-hour trek during a storm!”
Step after step, I pull my boots out of mud. We’re both soaked, but there’s no point going back to the car, since we’re way past the midpoint of our journey. I’m shivering from the cold, it’s dark, and I don’t even want to consider the state of my sleeping bag.
Are we even on the right track?
“What do you want me to do? It was meant to be warm-ish, sunny, with a bit of wind and no rain. How could I have predicted this?” Cassian shouts back. He’s ahead and has to turn around so I hear him over the buzz made by nature clashing above us.
Water drips from my hood and I can’t help feeling sorry for myself, because his jacket is of better quality, and I’m sure it’s not leaking. Unlike mine.
“What if there’s bears around here?” I complain, but then the flashlight attached to my shoulder glitches a few times. And then dies. “Oh, just fucking perfect!”
“There’s no bears!”
“Well, there wasn’t supposed to be any mountain lions around, but one decided to follow us for half an hour,” I call back, increasingly agitated.
Cassian slips, and I hold my breath as he slides down the slope, somehow managing to keep himself upright.
“Damn it!” he growls but grabs a tree to help himself move out of the path and onto the mossy undergrowth.
“Are you okay? Maybe we should turn back after all? My flashlight’s broken!
” I rush over, frustrated by how slow the mud makes me.
I’m about to reach him when I lose my footing and fall to my knees, straight into a puddle.
“Fucking shit! Can I get a break?” Frustrated, I sit in the damn mud, because there’s no salvaging this situation.
Cass scoots next to me and places his hand on my shoulder. It’s as cold as I am, and no matter how much I love nature, I wish we hadn't left our cozy apartment in town tonight.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbles from under the hood as a gust of wind snatches water off him and splashes it in my face.
I can’t win.
I take a deep breath. As much as I love him, this trip was a bad idea. We noticed the dense clouds when leaving the apartment earlier, and if he’d listened to me, we would have turned back before this onslaught of rain.
“We’re gonna die here,” I complain and reluctantly grab his hand when he helps me up.
He exhales, and while I can barely see his face at this point, I know him enough to imagine his resigned expression. “No. We’ll just be wet and disgusting, and way too exhausted for a horny weekend in nature.”
I grunt in displeasure, because he’s reading my mind. That’s what I’m really upset about. I imagined cuddling under two blankets on the porch, or some action by a moss-covered tree. Dumb, I know now, but a boy can dream.
“Let’s just go so I can warm up at some point, because at this rate I will get pneumonia and you’ll have to leave me to the bears.”
“Honey, I would never leave you to the bears. I would sit on your shoulders, and we’d push back against them together,” Cassian says, giving me a brief hug that for once doesn’t feel at all nice, because we are both wearing damp water-resistant jackets, so it feels like we’re two icicles rubbing through cellophane.
But I’ll take what I can get.
I sigh and when he starts walking, I follow, resigned to my fate. I wanted to pick a fight because of how miserable this all is, but he manages to calm me down even in these dire circumstances.
“‘Honey’ sounds nice,” I mumble.
“You like that?” he shouts back as the rain intensifies. I reach for his hand, but it’s so cold we both decide to focus on just reaching our destination instead of holding hands like two babies on a Victorian Valentine’s card.
The trek is miserable, but I also find myself battling guilt over going after him so hard. Cassian booked us a cabin because he wanted to spend time with me, away from everyone else, and here I am, only pointing out the bad things.
Still, I know there is no point in having this conversation now, so I drag one foot after the other, following Cassian’s lead. I don’t know how much time passes before he utters a loud cry of victory.
“We’re here!”
“What? Where?”
I look around, and a lightning bolt illuminates the sky revealing a dark cabin at the top of the hill we’ve been climbing.
I wished to hide from the rain, but now that I see the place, I’m freaked out by how spooky it appears.
“What if there’s squatters?” I ask. “Not that I’m scared or anything!”
“There’s no squatters. Just look how dark it is,” Cassian says and grabs my arm, instantly invigorated.
The air smells of moist dirt and leaves, but right now I want nothing more than to leave those wonderful natural scents behind and follow Cass to the dark silhouette of the building.
There’s also a shed close by, but we ignore it and dash straight for the main building.
Cass had the presence of mind to place the keys in the pocket of his jacket instead of burying them somewhere in the backpack, but when we enter the space, it feels icier than the air outside.
On the upside, there’s no wind pulling me left and right, and no rain pouring down on me, so I shut the door behind me and exhale.
“That was… intense,” Cass says, and moments later his cell phone illuminates our faces.
I look around. “This feels like we’re in a zombie game and about to be murdered.”
I try my flashlight again, but the battery must have run out completely. I’m trembling when I take off my backpack, and Cass finds some candles on a rickety table.
“Okay, we’re here. Maybe much later than planned, and on the verge of hypothermia, but at least we reached our destination, and I can start taking care of you,” he says and lights a thick candle.
The cabin consists of a large room with a double bed on the far side, and a cooking area close to where we stand.
There is no television, but books are sprinkled in a few spaces among trophies and dated decor.
There’s an odd aroma in the air, a bit like damp wood, but since I spot no leaks, I figure it’s the result of the wooden building being old and left unheated for most of the year. Whatever, we’ll only be here for a day.
“Ooh, look, they left wood in the fireplace,” Cassian says with an amount of enthusiasm that feels inappropriate when we’re in such a miserable state. But maybe he just wants to pump us both up with hope for a bit of warmth.
He approaches the stone structure which has planks and logs piled up in its mouth. Bits of newspaper are tucked between the wooden chunks, and Cassian hurriedly lights several of them before glancing my way with a grin.
He’s irresistible when he smiles, but I still throw my wet jacket at him.
“I can’t wait to be warm again,” I say as the fire begins spreading and illuminates the room with a yellow glow.
Cassian rolls back to his ass and lies down on the floor with a laugh. “I’ve provided!” His eyes glint my way. If my legs weren’t covered with icy mud, I’d crawl on top of him to share warmth.
“Did you now? Better provide snacks.” I shake my head as I pull off my soaked boots. Maybe they’ll dry until tomorrow. I have to reluctantly admit that with the fire burning, the cabin is evolving from a home for ghosts and murderers to a cozy place I’ll gladly spend the night in.
Cassian rolls to his knees and gets up, shaking his backpack. “Why don’t you wash all that mud off with an icy shower, while I get us something to eat?” he asks, and when he kisses me, his lips feel shockingly hot on my cool skin.
My shoulders sag. Of course there’s no heating. “I suppose I should be glad there’s a shower at all, huh?”
On the bright side, I do have pajamas packed, which will be warm and dry after I wash in liquid ice. I even hang my T-shirt and pajama pants on the back of a chair and put them close to the fire so they’re nice and toasty by the time I get back.
“Don’t mind me, you can get naked before you go,” Cassian says, spreading a large woolen blanket on the floor, close to the fireplace. I suppose it would take a bit too much time for the heat to reach the table in the far side of the cabin. And an indoor picnic is actually kinda cute.
“Oh, can I now?” I grin and peel off my soaked T-shirt.
The past few days have been heaven. I’m still getting to grips with being allowed to touch him, with him being my lover, but everything seems easy with Cass. I might be taking baby steps into gayness, but I know him. There’s just a new dimension to our relationship now.
Cass whistles and pulls something out of his pocket. I don’t know what it is before a coin floats through the air to land under my feet. “That’s what I’m talking about!”.
I kick it back to him, laughing. “Really? A quarter? That’s all I’m worth to you? What if I take off this… sock?” I balance on one leg while peeling the damp wool off my foot. My toes feel like blocks of ice, and when Cass grabs the bare one into his rapidly warming hands, I exhale with relief.
He frowns, massaging my flesh. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe a dime?” he asks with a smirk and pulls away before I can slap him.
“I’m guessing you’re not into feet then?” I snort and pull off the other sock. “I think I could sell feet pics. My niche would be: outdoorsy, smelly, woolen socks and blisters.”
Cassian hangs his damp jacket on the wall, close to the bright fireplace, and turns my way, displaying his chest under that sexy muted green Henley shirt. Damn, I love him in those. “Sounds like an untapped market.”
I take off my muddy pants but no longer make a show of it. I do want to get the cold shower over with and dry myself.
“I fell for an outdoorsy man in Timberlands, so who knows? Maybe I should focus on feet instead of college.” I laugh and head for the door that will probably lead me to the bathroom.
“We gotta get funding for that national parks trip somehow. Might as well pimp out your feet.”