Chapter 10
Ten
They made love and talked and made love again until eventually starvation drove them to the kitchen, where they devoured the leftover French toast, still cold, before hitting the shower, where they had each other again.
With each kiss, each caress, each climax, Harrison felt a few more layers of armor peel back—his and hers.
They spoke of everything and nothing. Ivy told him about her childhood, of moving often, just when she’d really settled into a place.
“It made me rootless, I guess.” She sprawled in his lap after their shower, wearing nothing but his shirt and a satisfied smile, her fingers tracing patterns on his nape.
Harrison stroked the wet hair back from her face. “Wouldn’t your family have been your roots?”
“I mean, they were. They did their best. But I’ll never get to go ‘home’ for holidays.
I don’t have one house I grew up in with all these built-up memories.
I don’t really have childhood best friends that I stayed close to.
I learned never to get attached to places—or people either, really.
I had to learn to appreciate the moment. ”
Was that what this was for her? Was that why she was able to throw herself into an unplanned affair with such enthusiasm?
Harrison didn’t like the idea that she already had her eye on the end of things.
He hadn’t been looking for this, hadn’t planned for it, but he couldn’t imagine walking away from her after today and never seeing her again.
He didn’t know exactly what this was beyond the first real connection he’d felt in years, but he wasn’t ready to let her go. And that scared the shit out of him.
He tightened his arms around her and opened his mouth to say—he didn’t know what. But his undoubtedly ill-advised honesty was interrupted by a knock on the door.
Ivy tensed. “Expecting someone?”
“No. No one knows I’m here except my friend, Porter. It’s his cabin.” But surely he hadn’t come all the way out here in all this snow. Unless it had melted while they were otherwise occupied? He slid Ivy off his lap and buttoned his jeans.
Though no one could see in through the blinds, she tugged down the tails of his flannel shirt. “I’m just gonna zip up to the loft and get pants.”
Harrison scooped up his discarded t-shirt and waited until she’d disappeared behind the half-wall to open the door. This was gonna be fun to explain to his buddy.
But it wasn’t Porter on the porch. A broad-shouldered guy with a badge pinned to his thick winter coat stood in the doorway. “Harrison Wilkes?”
He shifted his weight, instinctively blocking the man’s view inside. “Yeah?”
“I’m Sheriff Xander Kincaid. A friend of Porter’s. He asked me to check on you since I was doing patrols on this side of the county.”
“Oh.” Harrison relaxed a notch. “Well, I’m fine. I’ve got the generator going and plenty of supplies.”
“He’ll be relieved to know you made it okay.
Not everybody did. We had a guest expected at the inn in town.
It’s looking like she went over the side a little over a mile from here.
One of my deputies is waiting on some of our search and rescue guys to go down and check the wreckage, but we don’t have a lot of hope, not after how cold it got last night.
” The other man’s face was set in preparation for facing the grim reality of body retrieval.
“Chevy Blazer?”
The sheriff’s eyes sharpened. “Yeah. Did you see something on your way up here?”
Harrison glanced back at the loft, where Ivy was making her way down the narrow staircase. “I’m happy to report you won’t be notifying any next of kin. The driver’s right here.” He stepped back, opening the door fully.
Xander stepped inside, going brows up as he caught sight of Ivy, who still wore Harrison’s flannel shirt. “Ivy Blake?”
“Guilty. I take it you found my truck.”
“Yeah, just a bit ago. I—” His gaze skimmed over her in quick assessment. “You weren’t hurt?”
Ivy lifted a hand to the cut on her temple. “Not badly. A few scrapes. Some bruises. Harrison found me about an hour after I went through the rail. He’s the one who got me out.”
The sheriff’s gaze swung to him. “By yourself?”
Harrison shrugged. “Nobody else around at the time.”
“Damn. Let me just say we’re all glad you came by. And you, Miss Blake, are a very lucky woman to have made it out of that wreck alive and in one piece. Pru will be so relieved. She was worried sick when you didn’t show yesterday.”
“Pru?” Harrison asked.
“My sister-in-law. She and her husband and my wife run The Misfit Inn where Miss Blake has reservations.”
“I’m sorry about not calling. My phone was toast in the wreck, the cabin doesn’t have a phone, and we haven’t ventured out in the snow to try to find a signal.”
Xander turned back to Ivy. “It’s spotty around here anyway. Listen, I’m not sure what we can do about your vehicle before everything thaws, but I can take you back into town, drop you at the inn. The local doctor will absolutely come by to check you out.”
Harrison bit back the urge to say she was fine exactly where she was. All day they’d avoided the topic of going into town. But this was it—the big intrusion of the outside world. Their intimate little bubble had been broken.
His mind raced, trying to figure out some way to suggest she stay with him.
For all he’d thought he wanted to be alone, he’d found he didn’t.
He wanted to be with her. She’d proved to be a better distraction from his shit than anything else.
Not just because of the sex—though that was fantastic—but just because of…
her. She kept him in the now, pulled him back when he began to slip.
And beyond all that, he’d enjoyed the hell out of her company.
She was interesting. Working with her brainstorming her plot was the most legitimate fun he’d had in ages.
He wanted to tell her about his own work and maybe talk through what it was he needed to do with his own plot problems. Was it weird that he’d waited this long to bring it up?
Despite all of it, he didn’t speak. It wasn’t fair of him to ask her to stay.
She’d had a plan before the wreck interrupted it.
She had a life she probably needed to get back to, details to sort out.
Hell, there were probably other people she really should call to notify that she was okay.
He was…just a break. A distraction for her.
That was all they could be to each other.
“Actually, Sheriff, if it’s all the same to you, I think I’ll stay here. Harrison and I were going to go into town later on, once the roads were more clear, so I can take care of some business.”
She wanted to stay. Here. With him. Relief had the tension draining out of his muscles so fast he dropped back to lean against the arm of the sofa. He crossed his arms as if he’d done it on purpose.
Xander divided a speculative look between them. “If you’re sure.”
Ivy’s lips curved into an easy smile. “I’m sure.”
“All right. I’ll let Pru know.”
Harrison followed Xander to the door. “If you’ll just tell Porter I’ll be in touch next time I make it to town?”
“Sure can. Y’all take care.” With one last look at Ivy, the sheriff nodded and headed out.
Harrison stood at the window, watching him back a big ass Bronco up the drive.
The tires slipped and slid a little in the snow, but he made it onto the road with less trouble than Harrison would’ve expected.
Over the course of the day, it appeared the snow had finally stopped.
But for the fresh tracks behind his Jeep, nothing interrupted their winter wonderland.
“Harrison?”
He swung around. “Yeah?”
The casual smile she’d shot at Xander was gone.
She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth.
“I shouldn’t have sent him off without actually talking to you first. Is this really okay?
Me staying? I mean, I made an assumption after—” She waved a hand between the two of them.
“But you know what they say about assumptions.”
Wanting to put her at ease, he crossed the room sliding his arms around her. “It’s so okay.” He dropped a quick, soft kiss to her lips before resting his brow against hers. “I wanted you to stay. But I couldn’t figure out how to ask without putting you on the spot.”
Her face brightened. “Really?”
“Really.” He laced his fingers at the small of her back and grinned. “How else am I gonna find out how Annika and Michael get together before anybody else?”
She tugged back just enough to look him in the face with narrowed, laughing eyes. “Harrison Wilkes, are you a closet romantic?”
He didn’t know, but this woman had sure as hell made his heart start beating again. And he was pretty sure he liked it.
“I don’t wanna.” Ivy grimaced at the new, pre-paid cell phone she’d picked up at the little general store.
Across the table of their booth in Crystal’s Diner, Harrison picked up his grilled mac and cheese sandwich. “You can’t avoid her forever.”
“I don’t know. I feel like you know all about how to go off the grid. You could help me disappear.” He’d done a damned fine job of it so far.
For forty-eight glorious hours, she’d put everything but him out of her mind.
They’d talked and debated and plotted, between playing in the snow like children and feeding their insatiable appetites for each other.
It was the world’s best entirely unplanned vacation from her life.
She felt energized, recharging with him in a way she hadn’t since her whole crazy author career began.