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She hadn’t thought of that either. “Yeah. I hate this dress.”
“I think it’s cute,” he said, swinging a leg up and over the bike and twisting so she saw the little smile on his face.
If it was anyone else, she would have thought he was making fun of her.
“I’ll tell you what, I’ll trade you. You give me your jeans and T-shirt, and you can have the dress if you like it so much.”
“It’s cute on you,” he corrected himself. “On me, it would look hideous.”
“You’re not going to get me to argue with that.”
“I think I have a few extra flannels and some sweatpants inside. We’ll see what’s there. It’s not going to be the Hilton, but it’ll be better than a tepee.”
“All right. Better than a tepee. I don’t think that’s going to sell anything, but it’s nice to know.”
He held out a hand, and she put her hand in his, allowing him to help her off the bike and finding that her legs felt like they could barely support her.
Thankfully, he didn’t let go of her hand as they started walking toward the cabin.
“There’s no lock on the door, and the outhouse is out back.”
“Outhouse?”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have brought you here.”
“No. This is exactly the right place for me to...lick my wounds, I guess.” She didn’t want to get into it right now. And while she would prefer to have electricity and hot water, and internet, she supposed a day or two at this cabin would be just what she needed.
He didn’t look like he was convinced, and his lips flattened. Then, he looked out over the cliff, at the sky and the lake and the snow flurries that fell softly to the ground.
“I’m afraid we don’t have much choice. It is uncomfortable to drive the bike when it’s cold out, but it’s impossible to drive it when it’s snowing. We’d never make it back to Strawberry Sands.”
“We’re stuck here?” she asked, suddenly feeling far less comfortable than she had just seconds ago.
He smiled. “My phone still works, and yours does too. As long as we don’t run out of battery, we can call anyone we want to. I know we both have friends in Strawberry Sands who would come get us in a heartbeat. And,” he jerked his head toward the cliff, “I built the cabin here because of the view, but there’s a trail that takes you down to the beach. It would be about a ten-mile walk, but we can get to Strawberry Sands.”
“Oh. Just ten miles?”
“That’s it.”
They grinned at each other, both of them knowing that ten miles was more than just a little walk. But it would be doable in an emergency. It made her feel less isolated.
“I do have a generator, and we can run it if we need to charge our phones. I do have a hot water heater as well, and it will run that, although if we can wait and heat the water on the woodstove, that would be best.”
“All right. I... I can go in and...” She took a breath. “Do you have food?”
“Well, as much as I think that you’re probably right, coming up here and fasting is a good idea... Yes, I have food.”
“All right then. I’ll go in and make us something to eat.”
“Sounds good. I have a list of recipes on the table that I was going to try the next time I came up. I have all the ingredients for them stocked in the pantry and in the ice chest out back.”
So he’d been planning on spending some time here. That was interesting. He worked just as hard as she did, and they both put in twice the hours that a normal person put in every week for the last several years.
She hadn’t even realized he had a cabin. She thought he spent all of his spare time in the apartment above the diner.
Shows what she knew.
She had to admit, she was more wrapped up in herself than she should have been. Again she thought about what a terrible friend she had been.
