Chapter 11 JR
JR
“You’d better get out of here,” Lizzy said as she rushed out of the back, carrying a leather bag with what looked like every paper to ever pass through this bar.
“I’ll head out in a minute. I’m just making sure everything’s shut down.”
“They say this storm is gonna be bad.” Rushing over to the register, she grabbed what was left and stuffed it in a bank bag. “I would keep the bar open, but getting stuck here in a snowstorm with a bunch of drunks is not my idea of a good time.”
“Not mine either.”
Spinning, she blew out a huff. “Okay, I think that’s everything.”
“Are you okay to get home?”
“Yeah,” she waved me off. “I’m used to driving in snow.”
“I’ll lock up behind you.”
I pulled on my coat as she headed for the door. Over the past couple of weeks, I had gotten a few things for the winter, but nothing that would rival a snowstorm. I was completely unprepared for snow in Montana.
After locking up, I waved to Lizzy and waited for her to pull out before heading home. The roads were already slick from the drop in temperature and the sleet blowing hard.
Hardly anyone was out right now. They must have seen a million of these storms and knew when to head home and hunker down.
I cranked the heat in the old truck even though I was only five minutes from home, but with the way the wind was cutting through the windshield, I doubted it would warm up at all before I made it home.
Once I got out of the downtown area, the roads turned even worse. With houses spread further apart, snow drifted over the blacktop, forming heaps on both sides of the road.
“I can’t believe I moved here,” I muttered, bringing one hand to my mouth and blowing hard to try to warm myself up. Fuck, it was freezing out here.
There was already a car in the ditch up ahead with its blinkers on, and this wasn’t even the worst of the storm. I almost kept driving, but when I saw it was Delilah, I pulled over.
“Dammit, now I’m even starting to think of the car by its damn name.”
Jumping out, I hustled over to the car and pounded on the window. Josie grinned in her usual cheery manner as if she wasn’t stuck in a ditch with snow piling up all around her.
“Hey, neighbor!”
“Get out of the car,” I growled.
“Oh, sure. Let me just grab a few things.”
“Hurry up. It’s fucking freezing out here.”
She snorted out a laugh, not at all concerned that she was about to be stranded here for the foreseeable future.
“I should have left the shop earlier, but I had a few deliveries to make, and just when I thought I was done, I remembered that I hadn’t returned Mrs. Bennett’s platter from her cookies.
So, I swung past her place, and of course, I got talked into staying for a half hour while she made tea—” she glanced over at me, a sweet smile on her face, “which is always amazing. Really, she must have some secret on the best ways to make tea.”
“Can you hurry this up?”
Shoving her purse through the window, she waited expectantly for me to take it.
Rolling my eyes, I tucked it into my side and then grabbed the various other things she shoved my way.
A bag of something from her shop, a small bag of dog food she no doubt intended to spread all over my property, and a few grocery bags.
“Josie, I’m not an octopus.”
“Oh, right,” she laughed. “Well, I think that’s everything.”
She rolled up her window and shut off her car, then checked her car one last time for anything she might have left behind.
Unlike me, she was prepared for the storm. With pink gloves and a matching hat, she looked like a little girl out to play in the snow.
“Ready?” she asked, cheery as ever.
“Sure.” Turning with loaded arms, I stalked back to the truck and piled everything into the back seat, then slammed the door.
It was shocking how much the truck cut the freezing temperatures, even though it wasn’t warmed up.
“Is this normal for around here?”
“What? The snowstorm? Absolutely. We always get at least one cold front, followed by a terrible storm, before the season ends. This is actually mild compared to previous years.”
“And you thought it was a good idea to stay out in it?”
“Well, I hadn’t planned to stay out. As you can see, I did all my shopping earlier.”
“You should have done it yesterday,” I snapped.
I felt her eyes on me, but she wasn’t upset. Rarely had I seen her actually mad. Even when we sparred, it was like she was trying to goad me.
“Maybe, but I don’t see you bundled up in your house either.”
“I was at work.”
“Funny how that excuse works for a man, but not a woman.”
“You ended up on the side of the road,” I pointed out.
“Yes, but that was more human error than anything else.”
I didn’t want to hear it, to know how this woman got herself into a ditch in the snow, but it wasn’t the snow’s fault.
And yet…
“I give. How was it human error?”
“Well,” she bounced cheerily in her seat as she shifted to face me.
“See, I was digging through my purse to see if I had my keys on me. Because I didn’t want to get all the way home and then realize I had locked myself out.
That would be horrible. I’d have to drive all the way back to the store, and then all the way back home. And—”
“Yeah, I get it. But what about your brother?”
“Sawyer?”
“He is your brother, isn’t he?” I asked, getting more irritated by the second.
“Oh, he’s out of town. Yeah, I convinced him he needed to get away for a few days.”
“So, he’s just wandering the countryside?”
“God, I hope not,” she snorted. “So, anyway, I’ll have a nice, peaceful snowstorm in my pajamas with popcorn and hot chocolate and movies. It’ll be amazing.”
It sounded horrible to me, but who was I to judge?
I pulled into my drive and quickly got out, grabbing the multiple bags from the back seat to haul over to her house. She was already running through the drifts to unlock the door, and by the time I bounded up her steps, she had the door open.
“Thank you so much!” she beamed, taking off her hat and laying it out to dry on a table.
“Sure.”
Turning, I stomped down the steps and trekked back through the snow to my own house.
I had never been through a snowstorm like this.
In all my life, I’d only ever lived in mild climates.
The most snow we ever got was a couple of inches, and usually, everything shut down well before the chance of getting stuck anywhere was even an option.
Shucking my coat, I tossed it on the chair and headed into the kitchen for some lunch. It was already two in the afternoon, but I knew Lizzy wanted to get out of there before the storm got too bad, so I didn’t bother grabbing anything to eat.
Opening my fridge, I sighed at the meager contents. Some leftover pizza, a few containers of Chinese food, and beer. That was hardly going to last me the whole night, but I’d make do.
Snagging a beer, I popped the top and went back to the front window to check out the storm. The wind was blowing like crazy and the snow was drifting in piles in the driveway. There had to be someone who could plow—
“What the hell?” I muttered, watching as Josie ran around outside, trying to catch the damn dog. But whenever she tried to pick him up, he refused to be held.
She ran all the way across my front yard, then back the other way, chasing him as he purposely led her on a wild goose chase. She was going to freeze to death trying to catch that dog.
Sighing, I set the beer down and pulled on my coat.
I knew I was going to regret this.