by Zoe Chant
And the plow, at least, had to have passed Leah’s car on its way up. There’d be news of an accident circling around. It was Jeff’s duty to tell everyone what had happened, so that valuable manpower wasn’t being put into a search for the occupants of that car, when it could be helping anyone who might still be in trouble.
So talking to Leah was going to have to wait. And it wasn’t like this was the last time he’d ever see her. He could talk to her later today.
Still, Jeff couldn’t help but regret that their time in the cabin was coming to an end. Cozied up with Leah and Emily as he’d been for the last day, he’d realized that this was exactly what he wanted on a snowy night. Playing with the baby, snuggling in front of the fire, making love as the snow fell outside the window...
It didn’t matter, he reminded himself. Just because they wouldn’t be in the cabin anymore didn’t mean that that fantasy couldn’t be a reality, going forward. There was a whole, long winter ahead, and if he did this right, Leah and Emily would be with him all the way through to spring and beyond.
Jeff shifted to human as he neared the road, and jogged through the snow to where the plow was ponderously making its way up the slope. He waved his arms.
The plow slowed down, and Jeff came over to it. He recognized the driver, old Nathaniel Evans, who’d been plowing these mountain roads for the last fifty years.
“You’re that young ranger they’re worried about down below,” Nathaniel observed in surprise. “Don’t tell me...one of the Hart boys. Jeff, that’s it.”
“That’s right, sir,” said Jeff. “Listen, I don’t know if you passed a broken-down car on the way up here—”
“I sure did,” Nathaniel broke in. “Not only that, I got out to look in, and there was a baby seat in the back! I radioed in right away. There’s a mother and child out here in the snow somewhere, and I pray God they haven’t froze to death yet.”
“They haven’t,” Jeff promised. “I found them last night, and we’re up at that cabin up on the slope there, you know the one?”
“Oh yes, the McAllisters’ cabin.” Nathaniel nodded his grizzled head. “They come up here all through the year.”
“Good to know,” Jeff said. “I’m going to have to offer them my apologies and give them some payment for using their cabin without permission. But I’ve got Leah and her baby back there, warm and safe—I just need a way to transport them back down to town.”
Nathaniel eyed him knowingly. “You came up here, you know, differently?”
Jeff nodded. Different was code for shifter among the older population around Glacier. “That’s right. So I don’t have a vehicle. You think you could radio back to the rangers and let ’em know where I am and what we need?”
Nathaniel dug a battered radio out of the well between the seats. “I sure can.”
Through a series of exchanges that Jeff could understand from experience, but which mostly sounded like grunts (on Nathaniel’s part) and static (on the radio’s part), the relevant information was conveyed.
“All right,” Nathaniel said finally. “They should be up in forty minutes or so. Good thing I cleared the road right up here for you.”
“Good thing,” Jeff agreed, grinning. “All right, good luck with the snow.”
“Always need it.” Nathaniel tugged his hat further down on his forehead, and Jeff swung the passenger door shut and let him get on with his plowing.
He truly loved this place. Everyone pulled together to help out, and being part of a community that knew about shifters meant that everyone kept the secret together. He wanted Leah and Emily to be just as much a part of it as he was. He wanted people like Nathaniel to squint at them and say, Oh, that’s right, you’re that Hart boy’s little family.
One step at a time, he reminded himself.
He jogged back into the trees before shifting. Nathaniel knew about shifters, sure, but it was drilled into every shifter kid’s head that no matter what, you always waited until you knew nobody could see before shifting. It was safer that way.
He made it back to the cabin in just a few minutes and opened the door to find Emily grabbing for his pant legs and trying to scale him like a tree.
“Whoa!” he said, surprised. “It’s good to see you, too, honey. Here, let me get my coat off, and then I’ll get you.” He tossed it on the hook by the door and swung Emily up into his arms, where she laid her head down on his shoulder. It almost melted his heart.
“Wow,” Leah said from the kitchen, where she was washing up the breakfast dishes. “I thought she was at the door because she wanted to go back outside. I guess she just missed you.”
All right, now his heart was melting. Or growing. Something to make his chest ache, anyway. “I missed you, too,” he told Emily. “Good thing I’m back already, right?”
“How’d it go?” Leah came over, drying her hands on a dishtowel.
God, Jeff wanted this. Coming home, Emily begging for him to pick her up, Leah coming up to him and asking how his day had been...“It went great,” he said, dragging himself back to the present. “Old Nathaniel radioed in, and we should have rangers coming to pick us up in half an hour or so.”
“Half an hour?” Leah’s eyes went wide. “We have to get this place cleaned up. Oh, the sheets...” She cast a guilty eye back toward the bedroom.
Jeff thought about what they’d done on those sheets, and a wave of heat swept through him. Yeah, it would be best to wash them. “I’ll strip the bed. I think I saw a laundry bag in there, so we can just take them with us, and I’ll wash them at my house and return them when I come back to fix the lock and make sure the place is all completely squared away.”
Leah relaxed a bit. “That sounds good. I’ll finish up in here.”
With Emily tucked into the Pack-n-Play with a toy, they were able to get the place reasonably clean in the next quarter-hour. From what Jeff could hear, Emily would have much preferred to be out playing with them and crawling around the cabin.
“Them’s the breaks, kid,” he said sympathetically as he brought the laundry bag out of the bedroom. “You know, one day you’ll be big and you’ll have to help with stuff like this, and you probably won’t like that much better.”
He wondered what Emily would look like then. As a little girl, as a teenager, as a young woman. He hoped he got to see her grow up, learn to talk, start helping with chores, go to school. Maybe even college. Or maybe if she grew up in Glacier, she’d want to be a ranger. They had hardly any women in the ranks, and that was a shame.
Leah came over. “Okay, that’s everything but the Pack-n-Play. Time to get out, missy.” She leaned over the side of the playpen, and Emily immediately dropped her toy and stretched her arms up, straining to be picked up.
“You’re free!” Jeff chuckled, as Leah tucked her onto her hip. “Or not quite.” Now she wanted to get down.
“I can’t let you down, honey, I have to break this down and I can’t watch you at the same time,” Leah said distractedly, fumbling for the button that would let her start folding it up.
“I can do it,” Jeff reminded her.
“Oh.” Leah stopped and sat back. “That’s right. I...forgot.”
Jeff wanted to joke about her forgetting he was standing right next to her, but he found that he couldn’t. Leah was so used to having to do everything herself. She’d knelt down with a squirming Emily held expertly in one hand and started to break down the heavy playpen with the other, like she did it all the time. And she probably did.
“Let her crawl around one last time,” he suggested. “I can watch her, or I can take care of this thing.”
“I’ll watch her.” Leah set Emily on the floor and watched her immediately take off, a fond smile on her face.
Jeff could feel the same smile on his own face. God, he wanted this family.
He folded up the Pack-n-Play quickly enough and got it back into its little carrying sack. Leah scooped Emily up as Jeff doused the fire for the last time and cleaned out the
hearth, and tucked her into her carrier over mighty protests.
Leah took her backpack, but Jeff wouldn’t let her carry anything else.
“You’ve got the most important thing,” he pointed out, tickling a very annoyed Emily under the chin. “I can get the rest.”
“Are you sure?” Leah asked dubiously, and Jeff proved that he was by hoisting her overnight bag and the diaper bag over each shoulder, then carrying the laundry bag and the Pack-n-Play in each hand.
“Trust me,” he said. “I can carry all this with no problem. Shifters are stronger than the average human, and most of it’s not even heavy, just bulky.”
“All right,” Leah conceded. “I wish I had you all around all the time, then, because schlepping all of her stuff around all the time can get difficult for mortals like me.”
I wish you had me around all the time, too. How about we make that happen? But two minutes before they walked out into the snow to be rescued was not the time to make any declarations of commitment. Soon.
Very soon.
They both looked around the cabin, automatically scanning it to see if they’d left anything behind.
“Is it weird that I’m going to miss this place?” Leah murmured. Her face had softened as she looked around.
“No, I’m definitely going to miss it too.” Jeff wasn’t looking at the cabin anymore, though, but at Leah. Her lips were parted slightly, and it made him want to kiss the longing away. “Maybe the owners will late us rent it out next winter for a repeat experience.”
Leah chuckled, but it looked like her heart wasn’t in it. Her expression stayed wistful.
She doesn’t believe it, his leopard whispered to him. She doesn’t know she’s our mate. Tell her!
Soon, he insisted.
Emily let out a particularly enraged squeal and Leah smiled ruefully at him. “We’d better go before she stages a mutiny.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he said, instead of all of the other things he wanted to say.
Leah got to the door first, and held it for him. “Reverse chivalry,” she said, with a hint of humor.
“Thank you, good lady,” Jeff said, with a quick bow as he passed her. “This burdened knight appreciates it.”
Emily calmed down once they got outside, looking curiously around at the snow-covered landscape.
“Today is the first time she’s really seen snow,” Leah said, as though she was only realizing it now. “You were too small to notice anything the last time there was snow, weren’t you, baby?”
She crouched down and grabbed a handful of it, making a snowball, and held it up for Emily to see. The baby reached a curious hand out to grab some, and then stared at it with a perplexed look.
“Cold,” Leah told her, and stood up. She let the snowball fall back to the ground.
Jeff had been half-expecting her to toss it at him, and was disappointed that the playful mood at the door had disappeared so quickly.
Instead, Leah brushed off her gloves and told Emily, “Okay, we have to go now. We’re all done with the cabin.” She looked back at the snow-covered little building, and then squared her shoulders and started forward. “Let’s make sure we get to the road in time to meet our new friends.”
“This way,” Jeff said, letting the playfulness fall away. After all, they did need to get to the road.
It wasn’t too far from the cabin to the road, but it took a little while because the snow was so deep. Jeff had Leah follow him so that she could use his footprints, and kept his strides short to make it easier on her. He checked over his shoulder regularly, and she was always walking doggedly on, her gaze shifting back and forth between the ground in front of her and Emily.
When they reached the road, there was an SUV waiting. Leaning against its door, arms crossed, was Grey Landin.
When he saw them, he pushed himself up to his feet and came forward. “Jeff,” he said. “You had us worried there for a bit.”
Grey was a man of very few words, and he kept his emotions pretty well locked down, so Jeff was flattered to hear even that much. “Was out checking the roads, unofficially,” he said, “and I found these two.”
Leah came up to his side and held out her hand. “Leah Sanders,” she said. “Thank you so much for coming up here in the snow to get us.”
“Grey Landin,” Grey said, shaking her hand. “It’s no trouble. This is our job.”
“That’s what Jeff said.” Leah glanced at him, a smile hinting at the corners of her mouth. “Still, I’m very grateful.”
“And what’s this little lady’s name?” Grey asked. His eyes were unexpectedly soft at the sight of the baby. He reached out to touch Emily’s little hand.
Jeff’s eyebrows went up. He wouldn’t have expected stony Grey Landin to get sappy over a baby.
“This is Emily,” Leah told Grey. “Jeff saved her life, and mine, last night.”
“It was my pleasure,” Jeff assured her. “Grey, her car’s a ways back on the road...”
“I saw it on the way up,” Grey said. “In fact, I stopped and grabbed the car seat out of it, set it up in the back of the SUV.” He looked at Leah. “I hope you don’t mind.”
“Mind? I’m very grateful,” Leah said, heartfelt. “I’m sure you’re a safe driver, but after what happened on the way up...I’ll be much happier knowing she’s in a car seat instead of just being held.”
“No problem at all,” Grey said easily, and opened the door for Leah to strap Emily in and climb in the backseat.
Jeff quashed his desire to get in the backseat with Leah and Emily. He’d have plenty of chances to spend time with them after they got back. “Thanks for coming up,” he told Grey. “Pop the trunk?”
Grey did, and Jeff loaded all of the stuff he had in the trunk, then came back for Leah’s backpack. “Should we stop by your car on the way back and clear it out?” he asked. “That way your things won’t get wet if the snow melts.”
“Oh—I wouldn’t want to inconvenience you.” Leah glanced from Jeff to Grey.
“This is our job,” Jeff reminded her. “It’s no trouble.”
“Well...thank you, then,” Leah said. “Thank you both so much.”
Jeff murmured a no problem along with Grey, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of discomfort. Leah shouldn’t be so formal, so...grateful. He missed the easy way they’d been talking to each other back at the cabin.
Soon. Soon he’d talk to her, and explain the situation, and she’d understand. And then they could relax again, because everything was going to be fine.
***
Leah sat in the back of the SUV with Emily, trying not to feel miserable.
It was hard. Her magical stay in the cabin with Jeff was over. It was time to get back to the real world. But somehow the real world seemed so much worse, now that she had that snowbound vacation to compare it to.
Her heart sank even further when they came to a stop next to her car. It was a snow-covered lump, with one door brushed off—the one with the broken window.
She hoped Grey hadn’t cut himself getting inside.
Jeff and Grey hopped easily out of the SUV and went to unload the wrecked car. Leah stroked Emily’s hair and watched them.
“That’s our stuff, honey,” she told Emily, who was looking out the window with a curious gaze. “And that’s our car. Hopefully someone can fix it for us.”
God, it was going to cost so much money. Even getting the window replaced would probably be more than she had. Let alone whatever was wrong with the engine.
Maybe there’d be financing options. Leah had tried so hard not to accumulate credit card debt—she had a little bit, but that, at least, was one arena where she’d been smart. She’d tried to only spend the money she had, and once she knew she didn’t have any more money to spend, she’d started packing.
But if she needed to go into debt to fix the car, so that she and Emily could get where they need to go...she’d do it. She’d make it work somehow.
Her mom had said
that there might be a waitressing job at her local diner. If Leah could get that job, she’d be the most cheerful, pleasant, friendly waitress the place had ever seen, and get as many tips as she could. And if she made enough friends doing it, maybe she could find someone who’d offer her childcare for less than an arm and a leg, so she could keep working, pay off her car repair, and eventually start saving.
It was going to be hard, she knew. But she’d do it. She’d make it work.
Then Emily decided she didn’t like being in the car seat anymore, and Leah’s attention turned to cheering her up.
She was kept occupied with that for most of the drive back—she got Jeff to hand her up the diaper bag from the trunk, and handed Emily toys and read her a book.
Meanwhile, the men chatted up front. From what Leah caught of the conversation, they were going over things that needed taking care of at the park. The unexpectedly severe snowfall had caught a lot of tourists by surprise, and the rangers had their hands full keeping everyone safe and secure.
Leah thought guiltily about her own ill-planned expedition. She honestly hadn’t known it was going to snow at all, let alone storm. Yesterday had just been the day that her landlord had stopped taking excuses and insisted that she get out and take her baby with her.
But she still felt bad for taking up Jeff’s time and resources, when he could have been helping someone inside the park like he was technically supposed to be doing.
After a long drive down the mountainside, they entered what looked like a pleasant little town. “This is where most of the rangers and their families live,” Jeff said, twisting around in his seat to see her. “I grew up here. It’s a really nice place for a kid to live.”
“I just moved here not too long ago,” Grey put in, “and my wife and I are really happy to be here.”
“Do you and your wife have any kids?” Leah asked.
Grey smiled. “Not yet.”
The SUV came to a halt in what looked like a residential neighborhood. “All right,” Grey said. “Jeff told me neither you nor Emily need medical attention, so the question is where you’re going to stay, since your car’s going to be a little while fixing.”
