by Rye Hart
As I stepped outside, I glanced around me, always on alert.
Ever since that day, nearly four years ago, I always looked over my shoulder when I was out alone. Shaking my head and rolling my shoulders back, I took a deep breath and hopped off the porch, sliding into the front seat of my car and heading the short distance into town.
As I pulled into the lot of our favorite diner –the one with the best damn milkshakes I’d ever had – I saw Layla leaning against her car with her face in her phone as she waited for me.
“Damn, it’s colder than a witch’s titty out here,” she complained, pulling her coat tighter around her.
“No shit,” I agreed, stepping forward to wrap her in a hug.
Layla and I had been friends since preschool, and had been through everything together - breakups, makeups, etc. And she’d been there for me in the most incredible way four years back, when I needed her the most.
We linked arms and headed into the diner, waving at the waitress, Jamie, as we took our usual booth in the back. Jamie came over and took our orders quickly and we settled in for some good, old-fashioned girl talk.
“So, how are things with your dad?” Layla asked, concern furrowing her pretty brow.
I shrugged and sighed. “Well, his doctor thinks he’s stable now, so that’s good. As long as he takes his heart meds like he’s supposed to, he should be okay. The heart attack really did him in. He’s still so weak.”
Layla shook her head. “Well, I’m glad he’s at least stable.”
“Me too,” I said. “But he’s so damn stubborn, he’s driving me nuts. He keeps telling me to go live my life, but he’s still not able to take care of himself. If I wasn’t there to give him his pills every day, he’d forget half the time. I can’t just leave him, and he won’t move with me, even if he does gain some strength. He says Bozeman is where he was born, and Bozeman is where he’ll die.”
Layla laughed. “Sounds like someone else I know. You know you are just as bull-headed as he is.”
I stuck my tongue out at her as Jamie brought us our food.
“I really do need to find some sort of a job though,” I said. “Are they hiring at the coffee shop?”
Layla shook her head. “No, not right now. Things have been a little slow. I’m trying to convince them to amp up the menu a bit to maybe help bring more business our way, but you know how resistant people around here can be to change.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t I know it.”
I looked out the window and noted that it was starting to snow pretty hard. I checked my watch and groaned. “I should probably start heading back. Looks like the roads are starting to get covered, and you know they aren’t quick at all about salting out our way,” I said.
Living just outside of town, up the mountain a bit, was certainly peaceful, but in winter it could really be a pain in the ass to get back and forth. I finished my breakfast and thanked Layla for treating, promising to return the favor if and when I ever found a damn job.
I stepped out of the diner and checked my surroundings out of habit one more time, before climbing into my car and heading home to Dad. As I drove, the snow started falling even harder; the big fat flakes were hitting my windshield faster than my wipers could clear them. I leaned forward and squinted as I slowed down. The last thing I needed was to end up in a ditch.
Just as I approached the bottom of the mountain, the wind picked up and shook my puny car violently. I gripped my steering wheel so tightly that my hands started to ache and my knuckles turned white. It wasn’t that I hadn’t driven in this type of weather; it was inevitable living halfway up a damn mountain in Montana. But knowing that my dad needed me to get home soon and safely, made me extra cautious.
I blew out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding and turned up the heat in my car, blasting it as high as I could handle. I pressed the gas a little harder as I started my ascent, and prayed like hell I’d be home before the weather got much worse.
Shit, I really could do without this right now.
CHAPTER 3
EVAN
“Hey Liam, what would you like for lunch?” I asked.
“Penuh-butter jelly!”
“I don’t even know why I asked,” I said, grinning.
“Me, too.”
I chuckled at his response while I made the kids’ lunch. Peanut butter and jelly was Liam’s default nowadays and I was thankful that Hadley wasn’t such a picky eater. I carved up apple slices to go with Liam’s lunch before I set it on the table, and he scrambled up into his chair as I poured him some juice. For Hadley, I had pureed bananas and pureed green beans with carrots.
Eat your heart out, Martha.
I chuckled at my corny joke and walked over to the fridge to pull out a bottle I’d made for Hadley earlier. I sat it in front of her, laughing as she practically attacked the spoon I lifted to her face. I would never understand why she thought this goo was so delicious, but I was glad that she was a good eater. Liam’s face was covered with jelly as he chugged back his juice, and I went to grab a washcloth to clean him up.
“Read a story?” Liam asked.
“After you two are done with lunch,” I said.
“Story now,” Liam said, pouting.
“After you’re done eating, okay?” I asked.
I turned around and saw Liam’s lip jutted out. His eyes were welling with tears and his cheeks were turning red. All I needed was a few minutes of peace. Hadley had gotten up at four in the morning and wouldn’t go back to sleep. Liam was still begging for water the moment his feet hit the floor and, despite the fact that I wouldn’t give it to him last night, he still peed through his pull-up. I braced myself for the tantrum as a shriek flew from Liam’s lips, so I made my way to the table and sat down next to him.
“Liam, calm down,” I said soothingly.
“Story! Now! Story! Now!”
“And I told you after you finished eating.”
“No!”
“Do you want to go to your room?” I asked.
“Yes!”
“If you go to your room, you won’t eat again until dinner.”.
“Okay!”
I watched him stomp off to his room while Hadley giggled from her high chair. I sighed as I looked down at his half-eaten plate of food and my stomach began to growl. Liam sulked off to his room and shut his door behind him, and I could hear him throwing things around. For a three-year-old, he could really kick up a fit when he wanted.
I finished off his apple slices and sandwich before I put the plate in the sink. Looking over at Hadley, who was happily sucking down her bottle, I couldn’t help but wonder what my future was going to hold.
Not so long ago, I thought I was going to live the easy life.
When I was asked to leave the company, I found solace in the idea that I’d finally get the break I’d promised myself for years. I had ten million in the bank and I could live very comfortably off just the interest and do whatever the hell I wanted. In the first few months, I did just that. I needed to get my head straight; to kick the pills and the pain of losing Elise.
I shook my head and thought back to the day she’d left me. She’d thrown her ring back at me and said that she wouldn’t waste her life married to a drug addict and stormed out. No amount of promising and begging had won her back. What I didn’t realize at that time was that she was having an affair with my business partner.
Weeks later, after finding out the truth and being forced into retirement, I spent months drunk and screwing just about anything that looked my way. But then life kicked me in the balls, and now I was raising two kids with no clue what in the hell I was doing.
I only hoped that I was doing right by them, and giving them a good life. I had hired a nanny to help me out. I figured if I had some help at least during the day, I could handle things at night. Some days, I struggled even to do that.
I sighed and walked back over to where Hadley sat in her highchair and wiped the excess food and fo
rmula from her face and hair – how did she always manage to get it in her hair? I heard Liam calming down in his room and based on the sounds of an electric car I could tell he was playing with the newest toy I’d gotten him, so I felt better about stepping outside for a moment of fresh air. I kissed Hadley on her forehead while she drank her bottle, then I wrapped my coat around my shoulders. It was getting very blustery and the snow was coming down in buckets. By tomorrow morning we’d be completely snowed in.
That meant the nanny wouldn’t be able to get back to us until the snow melted away.
Fuck.
I stood outside and watched as the snow battered against the porch. My hands were shaking just thinking about handling these kids on my own for a few days straight. I’d never been alone with them for that long and I wondered if I could do it without losing my shit. I took deep breaths to calm myself as the chill of the afternoon settled deep within my bones, then my mind started ticking off my imaginary list.
I’d checked the generator a couple of days ago and I had plenty of gas for it in case we lost power. I had a closet full of dried wood and stacks of papers to use for fires. I had plenty of wipes, diapers, and baby food to get us through the next couple of weeks. I bought enough toilet paper, had enough batteries for Liam’s toys, and I’d finish washing their clothes today, so I didn’t have to worry about it in the middle of the storm.
We would be okay. I could handle this. I mean, I’d built a successful company up from the fucking ground. A toddler and a baby couldn’t break me.
Could they?
Off in the distance, I could’ve sworn I heard screeching tires. Turning my head, I tried to focus my hearing. The only person I ever knew to make their way back here was my nanny. But I knew she wasn’t senseless enough to travel all the way up here in this kind of snow. There was another house up here somewhere, I knew, but I never saw or heard anyone coming or going from it. I had started to wonder if anyone actually lived in it.
I listened for the sound again, but then the wind started to kick up, slamming against the house and howling around the corner. Time to get back inside.
I opened the door to find Liam sitting at the table. He’d grabbed an apple off the counter and was munching on it happily. It still amazed me how quickly kids’ moods could change. They were like tiny bipolar terrors. I shook my head and ruffled his hair as Hadley began to cry.
“Come here, sweet girl,” I said, as I picked her up. “Let’s go get you changed.”
“Apple!” Liam exclaimed.
“Yep buddy, that’s an apple,” I said as I headed back to Hadley’s room. I laid her on the changing table and made a face as the odor from her diaper hit me. How could something so small and cute, make such an awful stench? I blew out a breath and set to the task at hand.
She was giggling while I got her cleaned up and I smiled at her. Her eyes always seemed to twinkle whenever she looked up at me, and my heart would melt. I got a fresh diaper on her before I put her pants back on, then I turned and started for the kitchen. Liam had moved to the couch, seemingly having forgotten all about his tantrum not ten minutes ago.
“Ready for that story?” I asked.
“Yep!” he said excitedly.
“Alright, but I need you to listen to me for a second.”
“Kay!,” he said.
“It is not okay to behave like you did at lunch. Yelling and throwing a fit is not going to get you what you want. Do you understand?” I asked him.
He looked up at me with a crinkled brow and nodded his head. I wasn’t sure if he truly did understand or not, but at least he seemed to get that my tone meant business.
“Okay. Now, go pick out the book you want me to read and we’ll cuddle up,” I said.
Liam scurried off as I got up and placed Hadley in her pack-and-play. It was something the nanny suggested for her after her first week here, and I relied on it heavily. I could put Hadley in this safe, padded environment as I stoked a fire or did something in the kitchen and I never had to worry about her. I could hear her jingling her toys and blowing spit bubbles while I got a fire going.
By the time the flames were shooting heat into the room, Liam thrust a book in front of my face.
“Again?” I asked.
“Uh huh,” Liam said.
“You really like The Giving Tree, don’t you?” I asked.
“Uh huh!”
“All right. Let’s go sit by your sister and we’ll read The Giving Tree again.”
“Couch?” Liam asked.
“Hadley’s in her playpen right now. Do you wanna get in with her?”
Liam’s face lit up, so I got to my feet and helped him into the playpen with his sister. I watched him cuddle right up to her, his legs wrapped around her body as she leaned back into him. They looked so much like their parents; Liam with my brother’s eyes and Hadley with her mother’s smile. It hurt to look at them sometimes.
Looking at them reminded me that not only had I lost the only immediate family I had left after my parents, but that these two precious souls only had me left in the world.
“Uncle Ev?” Liam asked.
“Yeah?”
“Are you sad?”
Shaking my head, I pulled myself from my thoughts. Liam’s eyes were wide and bright, filled with worry a three year old should never have to experience. Hadley was already falling asleep against Liam’s chest, her eyes closing as the time for her nap grew closer and closer.
“Just a bit tired,” I said. “You ready for a nap?”
“After story,” Liam said.
“Yes. But after we read this book, I think it’ll be time for a nap.”
“Sleep with Hadley?” he asked.
I watched as his sister curled into him before the two of them laid down on the bottom of the pack-and-play.
“Sure,” I said, sighing. “Why not?”
I propped myself against the edge of the couch and began reading The Giving Tree. I’d bought this book for Liam on a whim and he’d been obsessed with it ever since. We’d only had it a few months, but the spine was already falling apart. There were food and drink stains on the pages, some of them were ripped, and others were stuck together. I read through the book and showed Liam the pictures while Hadley fell asleep, and the moment I finished the book I could see Liam’s eyelids drooping as well.
I grunted as I rose off the hardwood floor and grabbed a blanket from the couch. I fluttered it over their bodies before a small smile crossed Liam’s cheeks. I looked down at them, and couldn’t help but feel a pang of aching in my gut.
I quickly pushed it away and resolved myself to do the best I could for them. Even with all the troubles that life had thrown our way, I’d try to be happy we had each other.
CHAPTER 4
MELANIE
The snow was falling so hard I could no longer see where I was going. The roads were a blur and the path was no longer clear. I was slowly winding up a mountain whose edges I could no longer keep in my vision. A downed tree lay across the main road that led to my house and I swore. I knew there was another way, a back way, but I hadn’t traveled it in ages. Right now, though, it didn’t look like I had any choice but to try. I took a right turn off the main road and started traveling through some thick forestry, but then my car started to slide.
It slid and it weaved and I slammed on my breaks. My tires refused to grip the ground and I felt myself losing control. My hands gripped the steering wheel while I tried to dodge the trees, but I fell over an embankment and into a ditch.
I was stuck and the snow was coming down even harder than before.
“Shit!” I swore and hit my steering wheel with the palm of my hand.
My hands were trembling as I reached for my purse. I gathered up my stuff and checked my phone, pulling it out just in time to watch it die. I scrounged around, hoping I had another charger in my car, but no luck. I was stuck in the woods with snow falling in bucket loads and no one knew I was out here.
Kicking my
door open, I finally got myself out of the car. I scrambled up the embankment and looked around as I pulled my coat tight around my body. The ground was already covered in so much snow that I couldn’t even discern the road from the woods, and tears of fear streamed down my face.
Why the fuck did I forget to charge my damn phone?
The wind began to blow and it kicked up a dust of snow. I braced myself and walked through it, following the upward slope of the mountain. I was hoping I could get to a clearing soon and figure out where in the world I was.
But, the longer I walked, the colder I got, and still there was nothing in sight.
Off in the distance, I saw chimney smoke rising. Hope swelled in my chest as I started running, my numb legs taking me as fast as they could go. I tripped through the trees and got snagged on branches, but the closer I got to the smoke the less afraid I was becoming.
I got to the top of the hill and found myself staring at a beautiful log cabin. There was a truck off to the side and the chimney was still billowing smoke into the sky. My body was trembling, bouncing between being petrified and being relieved. My mind automatically recalled my past ordeal, but I tried to push it away before the panic could take hold. I was a much stronger person than I had been back then. Not to mention, I didn’t have much choice. It was either take my chances with the stranger in the cabin or freeze to death out here in the cold. I thought of my dad alone at home and pushed myself forward.
I drew in a deep breath and walked up to the front door. I knocked on it with my shaking fist, then crossed my arms back over my chest. The door opened in front of me and I froze immediately, taking in the massive man that was standing in the doorframe.
His close-trimmed beard was black and his hair was thick. His brown eyes peeked out from a suspicious face as his body loomed over mine. I took a step back and studied him, taking in the way his six-foot frame was covered with muscle.
