The Open Road
Natalie woke to pale light against the bedroom window.
For several seconds she did not know where she was.
Then she felt the weight of Eli’s arm around her waist and the heat of his body behind hers.
Memory returned all at once.
His mouth. His hands. The moment his control had finally broken beneath her.
Natalie remained still.
Eli’s breathing was deep and even. She wondered how long he had slept and whether anyone had needed him during the night.
The question itself revealed how quickly she had begun thinking like the rest of the station.
Everyone needed Eli.
She turned carefully.
His eyes opened.
No disorientation. No slow return. He was awake immediately.
“Morning.”
His voice was rough from sleep.
“Did the road open?”
“Not yet.”
“You didn’t check.”
“I heard the plow at five. They’re still working.”
Natalie studied his face.
“What?”
“You’re already assessing my mood.”
“I’m looking at you.”
“That is how you assess people.”
His hand moved once along her hip.
“You’re sore.”
“A little.”
“The bruise?”
“No.”
Natalie expected him to kiss her.
Instead, he withdrew his arm and sat on the edge of the bed.
The distance felt immediate.
“Eli.”
He reached for his jeans.
“We need to talk.”
“That phrase has never improved a morning.”
He pulled on the jeans and turned toward her.
“What happened last night wasn’t a mistake.”
Some of the tension left her.
“But.”
“But you’re still here because the road is closed.”
“I was aware of that during the entire event.”
“I know.”
“You keep saying you know, then treating me as though I don’t.”
His face tightened.
“That isn’t what I’m doing.”
“What are you doing?”
“Making sure I don’t ask anything from you while you’re still under circumstances I control.”
“You didn’t create the storm.”
“I brought you here.”
“After pulling me out of a ditch.”
“You had nowhere else to go.”
“I chose to cross the room. I chose to kiss you. I chose every part after that.” She sat up and pulled the quilt around her. “Do you want me to leave and forget it happened?”
“No.”
The answer came hard and immediate.
The tension inside her eased.
Eli leaned forward, forearms on his thighs.
“I want you to choose what happens when you have somewhere else to go.”
The words settled between them.
Not rejection.
Restraint of a different kind.
Natalie looked toward the window.
“And if I choose this?”
He turned and his gaze held hers.
“Then I won’t make you ask twice.”
A radio sounded in the other room.
Eli closed his eyes briefly.
“Everyone calls you.”
“Yes.”
“Do you ever let them call someone else?”
He stood.
“No.”
She liked that his first response was always simple honesty.
Eli pulled on a clean shirt, then came back to the bed. He bent and kissed her.
The kiss was slow, deliberate, and more intimate than anything they had done during the night.
“When the road opens, I’ll take you to the lodge,” he said.
“I can stay here. If you want me to.”
His finger traced her lower lip.
“I do. I want you to stay.”
“So it’s unanimous.”
He almost smiled.
“I need to check the station.”
“Go.”
Eli reached the doorway and stopped. He turned and looked at her. He shook his head. “I think leaving you now may be the hardest thing I do all day.”
She couldn’t help smiling. “Go.”
By late morning, the county reopened one lane into Blackwood.
Natalie’s car had been pulled from the snowbank. The passenger side was dented, but the vehicle remained drivable after inspection.
Eli brought her to it in the rescue truck.
The storm had passed, leaving the mountains startlingly clear. Snow covered the pines and flashed beneath the sun.
Her car sat in the station lot where the road crew had delivered it.
Eli carried her bag to the trunk.
“You should have the alignment checked before driving to Denver.”
“I’ll arrange it in town.”
“The lodge can recommend a garage.”
He closed the trunk.
The distance between them felt greater outdoors.
Natalie reached into her coat pocket for her phone.
“Give me your number.”
Eli did.
She called it so he would have hers.
His phone rang inside his jacket.
“What happens now?” she asked.
“You go to the lodge.”
“I mean after.”
His expression remained controlled, but not unreadable.
“You decide what you need to do about work.”
“And you?”
“I’ll be here.”
“That sounds passive.”
“It isn’t.”
“What would active look like?”
“Putting you back in my truck and taking you home with me.”
Heat rose through her despite the cold.
“Why don’t you?”
“Because you need to make one decision that has nothing to do with being stranded.”
Natalie looked at the station behind him.
“And when I do?”
Eli stepped closer.
“Call me.”
He kissed her once, his gloved hand at the back of her neck.
Then he opened her car door and let her leave.