Stranded

by Chance Carter

  “It’s no skin off my back.”

  “Good.”

  We sat in silence, and Frankie looked back out at the row of trees in the distance. I thought about everything she’d revealed to me tonight and wondered why she did it. Was it all a ruse to get me to share my own sad story? Or maybe, as she claimed, Frankie was a good deal more genuine than I gave her credit for.

  I released a breath and chewed my bottom lip. “What you said. That probably has something to do with it.”

  Frankie looked back over, cocking an eyebrow. “What I said about what?”

  “About Evelyn. My ex.” I couldn’t believe I was doing this. Screw cabin fever, this was full-on insanity.

  “Her leaving blindsided me. It was easier after that to go heavy on the suspicion anytime I met someone new. At least that way they wouldn’t have the chance to get one up on me.”

  I figured Frankie’s rose-tinted view of the world would make it unconscionable to behave so coldly, but she didn’t condemn me. She nodded.

  “I get that. I haven’t had a best friend since. It’s a shitty way of seeing things, but you can’t help wondering whether the trust fall you’re participating in is going to end with you landing in a snake pit.”

  “Yeah.” I drank.

  She drank. “Yeah.”

  After a minute, Frankie cleared her throat. “Look, you think I’m overly positive and annoying. I think you’re a bit of a snob. None of that has changed. But now that we understand each other a little better, I think we can both agree that we just want what’s best for the bride and groom. You don’t have to like me. I certainly don’t like you. But I want Val and Garrick to have a happy wedding without worrying about us. Do you think we could sheathe our blades and try to get along?” She offered a small smile. “I mean, we’re not that different.”

  We weren’t, were we? I was beginning to see that Frankie couldn’t be fake if she tried. That meant she genuinely cared for Val.

  “Sure.” I reached my bottle across and tapped the neck against hers.

  We both drank. I wasn’t sure where to go from here. I’d never made a truce with anybody before.

  Apparently, Frankie was thinking the same thing. “What are we supposed to do now?” she asked. “It is...tense.”

  I tried to think what Garrick would do. In the process, my mind flashed back to the box of condoms I’d shoved in my closet, and my cock twitched.

  I shook myself out of it.

  What would Garrick do? He would find a way to break the ice.

  I tipped my head back and searched the wall for a light switch. Finding it, I flicked it on and flooded the deck with light.

  “Hey!” Frankie covered her eyes. “Too bright.”

  The light spilled out onto the snow, extending down the back slope. I had an idea.

  Chapter 14

  Frankie

  Levi jumped to his feet. “Come on.”

  “What?” I huddled tighter in my blanket. “Where are we going?”

  Levi rolled his eyes and leaned forward, grabbing my hands and dragging me up out of the chair.

  “I know how to break the tension,” he said. “At least, I think I do.”

  The change in his energy surprised me. He seemed excited all of the sudden. Happy. I didn’t know where it had come from but I didn’t want to jinx it.

  He pushed me toward the door and opened it, gesturing for me to walk through. “Go put on some warm clothes,” he instructed.

  “Warm clothes? What are you planning?”

  “You’ll see.” Levi’s lips turned slightly at the corners, his version of a boyish grin.

  I took one final swig of my champagne and walked through, leaving the bottle on the kitchen table before shuffling into my bedroom. I shoved another sweater on top of the one I already wore and put on another pair of socks. I didn’t know what Levi meant by warmer clothes so decided to play it safe, grabbing my scarf and a pair of gloves too. I presumed we were going outside.

  A few minutes later I came back out into the living room. Levi was waiting for me. In one hand he held a rectangular laundry basket, and in the other a plastic serving tray. He held them up for my inspection.

  “Which do you want?” he asked.

  “Uh, well I don’t need to do any laundry or carry any drinks...” His plan dawned on me, and I let out an abrupt laugh. “You want to go sledding?”

  “Bingo.”

  “Where the hell are we going to go sledding in this weather?”

  Levi thrust the laundry basket against my chest. “Grab your jacket.”

  He turned and headed into the kitchen, grabbing his coat from the hook behind the table.

  “Levi!” I complained. “It’s dark out.”

  “An astute observation.” He pulled on his coat and buttoned it up to the neck. “Look, I don’t want to sit inside all night, drinking and thinking about all the things that have gone wrong in our lives. Let’s shake the dice.”

  I stood, staring at him, holding my makeshift sled and wondering if I was dreaming. The change in Levi was remarkable. I could never have imagined that a weekend trapped on Mount Hood with him would result in after-dark sledding. I still wasn’t convinced that he didn’t intend to murder me and bury me in the snow.

  “Okay,” I said finally. “Let’s, uh, shake the dice.”

  “That’s the spirit.”

  “I still don’t know what your plan is here. Unless you intend to create a tobogganing hill out of thin air.”

  Levi shoved his hands into a pair of leather gloves and gestured toward the patio doors. “After you.”

  We made an odd pair. He was tall, handsome, in a sharp coat and polished shoes. Next to him, I looked ridiculous in my fleece-lined moccasin boots, stripy gloves and a scarf wound up under my ears. Just when I thought the scene couldn’t get any stranger, Levi grabbed the plastic tray and I remembered what we were about to do.

  I walked onto the patio, Levi behind me. Snow still swirled and whistled through the air, and I pulled my scarf up over my chilly nose. Levi flicked on the light and stepped to the end of the patio, pointing off the edge. “It’s not a big slope, but it’ll do for sledding,” he said.

  I followed where he pointed and was pleased to see he was right. Just behind the patio was a small hill. There were only about twenty or thirty feet of inclination to work with, but it was sufficient. Plus, light from the patio illuminated enough of the hill that we’d be able to see where we were going.

  “You go first,” I said.

  I was still suspicious. As if Levi Wheeler, anti-fun extraordinaire, was going to huddle himself onto a tea tray and take off down a hill. It was too funny.

  But Levi didn’t object. He lined the tray up on the top of the hill with the concentration of an Olympic tobogganer, then folded himself up into a well-dressed pretzel. His lanky limbs jutted out precariously, but he made it work, wedging himself into the snow and pushing off.

  It was a shaky run, but the first ones always were on fresh snow. I watched with delight as he got stuck a couple of times on the way down and had to maneuver his way out of it. He finally made it to the bottom and thrust his fists victoriously into the air, looking back at me.

  “Your turn,” he called.

  I set up the laundry basket and squeezed into it. My legs stuck out at the bottom and the plastic bit into my arms uncomfortably, but I was already so exhilarated that I didn’t care. This was so crazy. No, not crazy- ridiculous. Levi responded to a deep emotional conversation the way other people would a head wound, earning himself a complete change in personality.

  “Go!” Levi called, pulling himself out of the way.

  My basket fit snugly in the tracks Levi had left and followed the same path the whole way down. I even picked up a little speed, and giant snowflakes whipped me in the face, melting on my tongue when I opened my mouth and laughed.

  Levi was waiting for me at the bottom and held out a hand to help me up. “I haven’t been sledding in years,”
I said, still giggling. “Not since I was a kid.”

  “Me neither.” He grabbed the laundry basket and his tray. “Again?”

  I went first the next time around, and Levi gave me a strong push that sent me careening down the hill. He followed soon after, nearly bumping into me as I tried to get out of the way. We climbed the hill together again, and I found myself looking over at him, studying his features like I might be able to read him, even though I’d already failed to do so a dozen times since we’d first met. He seemed more open all of a sudden though, more relaxed. I liked it. I’d seen Levi smile more in the past fifteen minutes than I ever had before.

  Even though my feet, hands, and face were wet and frozen, a warmth radiating out from deep in my chest made all that easy to forget. It was like we were in an alternate universe where the rules of the world no longer applied. I was playing in the snow but didn’t feel the cold. Levi Wheeler was smiling. I was smiling back.

  Levi and I were hanging out, and I was enjoying myself.

  That didn’t seem right.

  It was one thing getting along for the sake of Valerie, but could I allow myself to let Levi in like this when he’d dedicated so much of his time to making me feel unwanted? One instance of kindness didn’t negate the entirety of our relationship, which had been built on Levi’s condescending glares and snide comments. He was a jerk. I couldn’t let myself forget that. The way he was acting tonight almost made me like him, and that was dangerous. I would be crushed when he inevitably went back to being an asshole.

  “I can hardly feel my feet,” I announced, knocking the snow off my basket. “I’m gonna head inside. But don’t let me stop you from having your fun out here.”

  I turned toward the deck and was surprised not to hear any protest from Levi.

  I’d just made it to the steps at the bottom of the deck when the first snowball hit me on the back of the shoulder. I craned my neck to look back at Levi. Another snowball nailed me in the side of the head.

  Levi was grinning, and he looked just like he had in my dream, except covered in a lot more snow. For a second I stared at him in disbelief,

  “Did you just...throw a snowball at me?”

  Levi bent down and started collecting snow. I tossed the laundry basket up onto the deck, reacting more than thinking, and immediately scooped up some snow and rounded it into a ball. I finished just in time to see Levi’s latest creation whizz toward me, but I managed to duck out of the way and toss mine at him. It hit him square in the chest.

  “Ha!” I cried.

  “I’ve still got two hits to your one,” he taunted.

  I frowned. “Take your victories where you can. I grew up with two brothers, remember?”

  We began a careful dance of cat and mouse. I was the cat, obviously. Between short breaks to restock ammo, Levi and I circled and pelted each other with snowballs. After only a few minutes, I was completely soaked under my jacket from snow getting down my collar. Icy water dripped down my face, but I kept my eye on the prize, steadily working my way closer to Levi until I was in range for my final attack.

  I caught him off guard. It was reasonable, I supposed, that he wouldn’t expect me to launch myself at him like an angry monkey. I found there was only one way to summarily end these kinds of fights and it wasn’t with snowballs.

  I tackled Levi’s middle, and he cried out in surprise, tilting off balance and falling back in the snow. Our panting breaths misted the air as I gathered up two handfuls of snow. His hands found my waist, but he’d made a tactical error. This part wasn’t about wrestling.

  “Yield or I’m going to give you the world’s most unpleasant face wash,” I said, demonstratively lifting my snow-filled hands.

  “Hmm. Sounds kinky.” Levi’s lips quirked and my heart fluttered.

  “It’s not,” I assured. “It feels like someone rubbing icy shards of glass on your face.”

  He sighed. “Fine. You win.”

  He gave in easily. Too easily, if my experience told me anything. But when I clambered to my feet, Levi made no move to attack me. He grabbed the tea tray from where he’d tossed it just before our fight and ruffled his hair. Snow from his hair dusted his shoulders.

  “I’m starving,” he said, walking onto the deck.

  I followed, and my stomach grumbled. “Me too.”

  Strange that I hadn’t noticed until now.

  Levi and I slipped out of our outer layers just inside the patio doors, then headed to our separate rooms to get changed into dry clothes. When I came back into the living room, Levi was on the floor in front of the fireplace. The dancing flames beckoned merrily, and I slumped down next to him.

  “Want to order room service?” he asked.

  “Let’s.”

  We each picked out a meal, and Levi called it in on the phone in the kitchen. He came back to sit beside me and we watched the flames for a while in comfortable silence. The heat from the fire felt nice on my cold face and wet hair. I only wished I had a mug of hot cocoa.

  Our food came and we ate it where we sat.

  There was a wordless agreement that we weren’t going to give up our spot at the toasty fire, even if it would have been easier to eat at the table.

  When I finished my mac and cheese and Levi his sandwich, we sat back on our hands with our toes pointing toward the glass. We’d barely talked since coming inside.

  “So...” I glanced at Levi.

  He returned my gaze, the corner of his mouth lifting ever so slightly. A five o’clock shadow was just beginning to shade his jaw, giving him a roguish charm.

  “So what?”

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I’m just bad with awkward silences.”

  “Who said it was awkward?”

  I twiddled my toes and stared at them. “If it wasn’t, it is now.”

  “How would you like to fill the silence?” Amusement laced his tone and a shiver zapped down my spine. When he spoke quietly, as he did now, his voice came out like low, rolling thunder. I could almost feel it vibrating my skin.

  “We’ve got the fire, the dark, stormy night. I feel like we should be telling ghost stories or something.”

  “Ghost stories?” Levi looked at me incredulously. “There is nothing spooky about our night so far. Unless you hear some rattling chains that I don’t or something. I mean, come on. We’re sitting in front of a roaring fire after spending the afternoon sledding and having a snowball fight. It couldn’t be less spooky.”

  He had a point. The inherent intimacy of the moment caught me by surprise.

  “You’re right,” I said, chuckling. “If it were Garrick and Val up here instead of us, the whole thing would be pretty romantic.”

  I expected Levi to balk at the suggestion that our evening had been romantic, but instead he looked at me and smiled. “It’s pretty cliché, isn’t it?”

  “The only thing that could make it more cliché would be if we had sex on this rug while Careless Whisper played in the background,” I said.

  His dark eyes made me want to lean in closer, and I struggled to keep from dipping my gaze to his wickedly carved mouth. I’d already been caught thinking about kissing him once today. As much as his ego probably loved it, I was beginning to wonder if I was going insane.

  Levi broke eye contact first, leaning back to grab something off the couch. I realized a second later that it was his phone, and was about to ask him what he was doing when the first few soulful strains of Careless Whisper began to play through its speakers.

  A giggle bubbled up my throat. “You’re ridiculous.”

  Levi dropped the phone next to him, and I thought he was going to make a snarky retort. Instead, he leaned over, rested his palm against my cheek, and crashed his mouth down against mine.

  Out of all the potential outcomes of this evening, this was the one I had least expected. I hadn’t even considered that it might happen. And I couldn’t deny how good it felt, even if I knew that kissing Levi was a mistake.

  I let m
yself live in it for a moment, gave in to the sensation of Levi’s warm mouth on mine. His deft tongue grazed my bottom lip, and I opened for him. He kissed me sweetly, but with a lingering burn that made me wish he wouldn’t hold back quite so much. I found myself leaning closer to him, one of my hands reaching out for his shirt to pull him closer.

  And then I realized who I was kissing, and that hand jammed against his chest, pushing him back.

  “What the fuck, Levi?”

  His eyes fluttered open and he licked his lips like he had all the time in the world to answer. My heart pounded in my ribs.

  Levi smiled lazily. I wondered if he would try to kiss me again. I wondered if I would let him.

  Chapter 15

  Levi

  Frankie tasted like sunshine. The compulsion to kiss her had come out of nowhere, but the second I did, I knew that one taste wasn’t going to be enough. She was sweet, and her lips were impossibly soft, and the way she sighed as I probed her mouth with my tongue made my cock stiffen instantaneously.

  Then she pushed me away. Fair call. The kiss caught both of us by surprise, and given our history, I would have found it a little odd if she didn’t push me away.

  “What the fuck, Levi?”

  I swiped my tongue over my bottom lip and watched her, trying to decide what to say. I still needed to untangle my own thoughts on the matter, after all.

  “It was the George Michael,” I said finally, smirking. “Always gets me in the mood.”

  Frankie tried to look angry, but her pink cheeks betrayed her. She reached for my phone and silenced it, shaking her head. “I don’t understand you at all.”

  “Come on, Frankie. You’ve thought about it.” I sat up, pulling my legs in and turning to face her. “It’s like scratching an itch. We’re here. We’re alone. Nobody has to know.”

  She worried on her bottom lip, and I wondered if she had any idea what it did to me. How long had I been fantasizing about that mouth of hers? My cock throbbed, and I considered pushing her down against the carpet right then and there.