Snowbound Hearts

by Benjamin Kelly

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Biography

  Snowbound Hearts

  Benjamin Kelly

  Breathless Press

  Calgary, Alberta

  www.breathlesspress.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or

  persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Snowbound Hearts

  Copyright © 2013 Benjamin Kelly

  ISBN: 978-1-77101-187-7

  Cover Artist: Fiona Jayde

  Editor: Haleigh Rucinski

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations

  embodied in reviews.

  Breathless Press

  www.breathlesspress.com

  Chapter One

  The old hunting cabin creaked in a strong gust of winter wind. A biting chill hung in the early-morning air, making the prospect of getting out of the warm bed unappealing. Stephen pulled the covers over his head, leaving only his face exposed, and went back to sleep. By the time he looked outside, a foot of snow had already fallen and was drifted several feet deep in places. The power had gone out during the night, but luckily, he had spent the last two days cutting firewood and repairing the backup generator that had gone on the fritz. An old wood-burning stove sat in the middle of the main room near the dining table. It was mostly used for heat, since the cabin had a modern kitchen, but could still be used for cooking in a pinch. He stoked the fire, tossed in some fresh logs, and put a pot of water on to boil. There was no way he was going out in a blizzard to crank the generator without having a cup of hot coffee waiting when he got back.

  Snow had begun drifting up against the door to the outbuilding housing the generator. Stephen shoveled it clear and went inside. He had enough fuel to last for a few days. His friends were on the way to meet him and would probably bring gas for their ATVs. Even with no juice from the power company, they’d still have all the comforts of home for the week. Stephen held his finger over the starter button, hesitating for a second, took a deep breath, and pushed. The generator purred to life as easily as it had two days earlier when he finished cleaning the varnish from the carburetor.

  If the weather had been clear, his friends would have been arriving at any moment, but given the blizzard conditions, he could only sip his coffee and hope they’d show. He had already spent two days alone and was going nuts for some company. His life back home consisted of a failed relationship, a dead-end job, and an empty townhouse. The only thing he had to look forward to was hanging out with his buddies, getting drunk, and dreaming of a better future. When the opportunity had come to get off work a couple days early, he jumped at it and headed to the backwoods of Virginia to await his friends.

  That unique crunching sound that freshly fallen snow makes when it gets compacted came from somewhere near the cabin, accompanied by the faint noise of an engine revving and tires spinning. The snow had too much of a muffling effect for him to distinguish one truck from another. It could have been any of the guys, but it didn’t make much difference. Someone had finally arrived, hopefully the one with the beer and cigars.

  Stephen hurried to the door and gazed out toward the driveway, but no one was there. A blast of wind-driven snowflakes stung his face. If George were the first arrival, like usual, he was probably sitting at the bottom of the steep drive, fighting to lock the manual hubs on his battered old Chevy pickup. He’d have two big adjustable wrenches, one on the hub and the other slotted on to the first for leverage, but brute force never worked on the stubborn things. It took a measure of finesse that Stephen had in abundance, but George could never manage in a stressful situation, like when he was stuck in the middle of a blinding snowstorm.

  Stephen quickly bundled up and stepped outside to listen, but all he heard was the wind whipping noisily through the trees. If George was really there, he should have been swearing loud enough for half the state to hear him. Apparently, one of the other guys had beaten him, but that didn’t explain why no one had driven up the hill to the cabin. Stephen carefully made his way down the steep, winding driveway to the road. He hung his head and stared at the tire tracks in the deep snow. They were too narrow to have been made by a truck. He flipped his sock cap up off his ears and held his breath. Nature in all her wintry glory made the only audible sounds.

  Probably the only other person within miles had just driven away without even knowing he existed. He shivered and pulled his jacket tighter around his neck. Leaving home early and driving his car instead of his old four-wheel drive pickup had been a mistake. The truck wouldn’t start, and he hadn’t wanted to deal with it. The weather forecast for the area had said clear and cold for the next week. No one had predicted the freak snowstorm.

  Despite the fact that some brave soul had just gone by, the road looked too treacherous for a car. Getting his little Honda down the hill without crashing would be nearly impossible. If his friends didn’t show, he’d have no choice but to stay. His laziness had gotten him stranded.

  Dark, low-hanging clouds blanketed the sky, turning the world into a perpetual twilight of gray on white. The deluge of wet, heavy snow obscured everything more than a hundred feet away. A brutal gust of wind penetrated his jacket and chilled him to the bone. He trudged slowly up the hill to the cabin and stood gazing at the door to what might as well have been a solitary confinement cell. His circumstances gave him little choice but to go back inside where food, warmth, and loneliness were waiting. The whole point of making the trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains was to spend time in the company of good friends. If he had wanted to stare at empty space surrounded by four walls, he’d have stayed home.

  The one hard and fast rule he and his friends abided by for their annual outing was no cell phones. In retrospect that was a bad rule. The landline phone was dead, so calling someone to come rescue him was not an option. He was a full thirty miles from the nearest gas station, so hiking out to civilization was off the table as well.

  Hanging out alone for a few days until the snow melted wouldn’t have been such a terrible punishment, but there was almost nothing for him to do. He hadn’t even bothered to bring a book to read. He had a deck of cards because the plan had been to play poker, smoke cigars, and drink beer for the week. If the weather had been nice, they would probably have ridden four-wheelers and done some target practicing, too, but all he could do to keep his sanity was play solitaire. Luckily, he had been in charge of the food, so at least he wouldn’t starve. He would be sober, nicotine free, and bored senseless, all on a full stomach. Stephen grabbed the deck of cards off the table and began shuffling.

  Someone banged loudly on the cabin door. Stephen’s heart jolted so hard it left him wondering if it hadn’t stopped for an instant. He jumped up and bounded over to greet his friends, pumping his fist along the way. “Well, you sorry sons of bitches, you finally showed up!” Stephen said, swinging the door open wide.

  “Excuse me?”

  All he could see was the pretty face of a young woman with big brown eyes and rosy cheeks peeking out from under the snow-dusted hood of a full-length red wool coat. Stephen stared in amazement, trying to make sense of the sight before him. The guys weren’t on the porch, no trucks were in the drive, and a beautiful woman was standing there, gazing at him. “Oh, sorry.
I thought you were my friends. They’re coming to meet me. What are you doing out in this mess?”

  “Freezing my tits off,” she said with an uneasy smile.

  Stephen burst out laughing and stepped aside. “Come on in. Sorry, I didn’t mean to laugh. I guess you’re really cold. It’s just—I didn’t expect you to say that.”

  “It’s okay, I was making a joke, sort of. I ran my car off the road. I was staying in a cabin a couple miles back, but when I realized the snow wasn’t going to stop, I decided to get out of here. I didn’t want to get stranded all alone. My girlfriends headed home yesterday. I should have gone with them, but I wanted a day to myself, just to think.”

  Stephen surveyed her from head to foot. She didn’t have any obvious signs of injury, but her coat could have been hiding anything. “Are you hurt?”

  “No, I’m okay, but my car is really stuck. It’s nearly buried in a snowdrift. It’s gotten awfully bad out there. Everything is so white. I thought I was following the road, but I drove right into the ditch. When do you think they’ll run a snowplow?”

  He shook his head and chuckled. Obviously, she hadn’t spent much time away from civilization. “As far as I know, they don’t run snowplows this far out. The nearest full-time residents live about thirty miles away, toward town, so I guess there’s no need to keep these roads clear.”

  She sighed heavily and scowled. “Well, how are we supposed to get out of here?”

  “Once the snow stops, I’m sure guys will be out riding the road with four-wheel drive trucks. Whenever we’ve had snow in the past, that’s what happened. We can probably flag down someone and have him ride escort for us, you know, to pull us out if we get stuck. My buddies love that sort of thing. Helping stranded motorists makes them feel like heroes, I guess.”

  She glanced around the cabin for a moment as if deciding what to do. “May I borrow your phone? I lost mine outside somewhere. I searched all around, but I couldn’t find it.”

  Stephen shook his head. “The phone went out when the power went off.”

  She let her shoulders slump, visibly disappointed. “Oh, you’re running a generator. I saw the lights and thought your power hadn’t gone out. My cabin has one, but it wouldn’t crank. I yanked the pull cord until my arm felt like it would fall off.”

  “I had to work on this one to get it fired up. If it’s not going to be used for a while, the gas should be drained from”—Stephen shrugged, as it dawned on him that her only interest was getting home—”well, that’s not important.”

  She narrowed her gaze and furrowed her brow. “Don’t you have a cell phone?”

  He sighed heavily as heat rose into his cheeks and wondered if she’d believe his story, given the suspicious look she was casting in his direction. “We made this stupid rule not to bring phones with us. My friend, Terrance, keeps his stuck to his head pretty much 24/7, and when he’s not talking, he’s texting. It gets annoying. We figured a few days a year without it would do him good. Show me where you dropped yours. Maybe I’ll have better luck searching for it.”

  She rolled her big brown eyes. “It’s back at my cabin.”

  “Oh, sorry. I’m Stephen, by the way.”

  Suddenly her demeanor changed from the caution of a stranger in an unfamiliar place to the comfort of someone returning home after a long holiday. “Hi, Stephen, I’m Audrey.”

  Stephen stood gazing at her brightening face, wondering what he had said that put her so at ease. “I would take you back to your cabin, but I doubt I could get my car down the driveway without putting it into the trees. I’ll be happy to walk with you, if you want.”

  “Forget that. It’s two miles. The wind is blowing so hard I would have frozen to death if I’d had to stay out there another minute. The snow is already too deep to walk in without snowshoes. I nearly busted my butt three times coming from just down the road. That hill is awfully steep.” Audrey shrugged and glanced at the door. “Unless you want me to leave. I guess I could go back and wait in my car. The engine was still working.”

  Stephen grasped her frigid hand. “No, you’re more than welcome to stay. I’m happy to have the company. I thought I was going to have to sit here, playing solitaire by myself.”

  Audrey grinned and raised an eyebrow. “Well, I guess this is your lucky day. You don’t have to play with yourself anymore. Now you can play with me.”

  Stephen gazed into her eyes, nodding slowly. The devious grin she wore sent a tingle up his spine. All sorts of games he could play with Audrey came to mind, and none of them involved cards. Suddenly, being stranded in the woods wasn’t such a bad thing. “Okay, that sounds like fun. I’m glad you stopped by.”

  She stood motionless, still peering at him from underneath her hood. “Where can I hang my coat?”

  Stephen released her hand. “Let me take it for you.”

  She pushed the hood off her head, letting her long auburn hair flow free. Stephen swallowed hard to clear the lump that popped up in his throat. The faintest hint of recognition came to him from somewhere deep in the back of his mind. It could have been a real memory or maybe just déjà vu. She unbuttoned her coat and turned away from him. Stephen grasped it as she slipped it off her shoulders, revealing a red wool sweater. He allowed his gaze to drift downward and discovered a pair of blue jeans that her curvaceous rear end appeared to have been molded into.

  The simple act of standing without wavering suddenly required enormous effort. When she turned to face him, the loud drumming of blood pulsing in his ears was all he could hear. He drew a ragged breath and released it slowly, willing his heart to stop pounding so hard. If he had put in a custom order for his perfect woman, Audrey would be her. He couldn’t believe that such a fantastic little hottie had just appeared on his doorstep. It was too good to be true, and he realized that he must be dreaming, because there was no other explanation for her. Regardless, he began devising a plan to get her clothes off, because he really wanted to see her naked before he woke up.

  “Are you going to hang up my coat?” Audrey pointed to the rack.

  “Um—coat, yeah.” He wandered slowly to the rack and hung her coat, taking a moment to gather his thoughts.

  Audrey cleared her throat. “Do you have anything warm to drink? I’m chilled all the way through.”

  Stephen turned back toward her, amazed to find her still standing there and still looking as beautiful. Dreams rarely remain consistent for any length of time. She should have already morphed into an evil troll or disappeared altogether. “I don’t know where my manners are. I wasn’t expecting a”—he couldn’t say red-haired goddess who had been sculpted from a solid block of sexy and thoroughly doused with irresistibility—”a guest. My head is spinning. How about coffee? It’s instant, but it’ll warm you up.”

  “Yeah, that’d be great.” She bit her bottom lip, hesitating for a moment. “Something else to warm me up.”

  “I—I didn’t quite get that last part,” Stephen stammered.

  Audrey gave him a sultry smile. “The fire in the stove, silly. What did you think I meant?”

  “Um”—he tilted his head toward the stove, mesmerized by her sensuous expression—”yeah, the fire, of course that’s what you meant.”

  Her smile slowly faded as she stared deep into his eyes. “Maybe that’s all I meant.” She shrugged and averted her gaze. “I feel a little loopy after putting my car in the ditch.”

  “Come have a seat by the stove.” Stephen held a chair for her, then poured hot water into a mug and mixed her coffee. She grasped the cup with both hands, raised the rim to her pouty red lips, and took a little sip of the steaming liquid. A diamond solitaire on her left hand glinted in the light as she lowered her coffee to the table. Stephen’s stomach twisted into a knot. Apparently, her suggestive comments had been completely innocent. His fantasy of being snowed in with his dream girl died before it could fully form. The universe had played a cruel joke on him, and he had fallen for it. Everything around him faded into darkn
ess until only the glimmering stone remained. Obviously, she noticed his stare.

  She thumbed the ring, rocking it side to side, reflecting the light with each movement. “It’s an engagement ring, in case you were wondering.”

  Stephen slowly nodded and exhaled loudly. The brightening room swam before his eyes as a sinking sensation threatened to drag him to the floor. He grasped the chair opposite her to steady himself and pulled it out from under the table. “Of course it is. A woman typically doesn’t wear a rock like that on her left hand otherwise.”

  She narrowed her eyes and frowned. “Why do you sound so disappointed?”

  Stephen glanced across the room, looking for any distraction. He needed to steel his emotions before he made a complete fool of himself in front of this total stranger, if it wasn’t already too late. Snow whipping violently outside the window was the first thing to catch his eye. Neither of them would be going anywhere anytime soon, and if he made her uncomfortable by acting like a jerk, the time they had to spend together would be miserable for both of them. There was only one thing for him to do: play dumb.

  “Do I? I hadn’t noticed.” Audrey rolled her eyes, apparently irritated with his answer. He shrugged and hung his head. The feeble sound of his pathetic lie along with the look on her face left him cringing inside. Any hope of salvaging the situation would require honesty. “Okay, you made a little comment when I mentioned playing cards, and I thought...”

  She sighed heavily. “I was making a joke, you know, playing with yourself. It was funny, wasn’t it?”

  The knot in his stomach grew tighter with each passing second. He flopped into the seat and propped his chin on his fist. “Yeah, hilarious.”

  “My God, Stephen, I’ve only known you five minutes. Do you always get your heart broken this easily?”