by Fiona Harper
‘Nope, can’t shift it.’
‘My case?’
He removed his arm and sat back on the seat, panting. ‘Let’s face it. It must have been a struggle to get a monster that size into that tiny space in the first place. The dent in the rear of the car has it wedged fast. I can’t even undo the zip.’ He winked at her. ‘And you know what that means.’
‘I am not sitting here naked! I’d die of hypothermia.’
‘Sweetheart, if you don’t get out of those wet jeans hypothermia is more of a threat than you might think.’
‘Really?’
‘Denim is one of the worst things to wear in this kind of weather. It soaks up water and takes a long time to dry. And staying dry is the d in cold.’
‘Pardon?’
‘C-o-l-d. Basic knowledge for climbers and walkers. Keep clean, avoid overheating, dress in layers and keep dry.’
‘You know all this stuff from climbing?’
‘Of course. You don’t think I hang off mountains by my fingertips without making sure I’m safe, do you?’
Actually, she did. Nick never talked about safety lines or c-o-l-d or stuff like that. All his tales involved daring risks and near misses.
‘Well, I wasn’t planning to be out in this kind of weather. We should have been close to Invergarrig by now.’
He reached forward and stroked her arm. All the indignation melted away. She might like to blame Nick for a lot of things, but falling in the snow had been her own stupid fault.
‘You do have to get out of those jeans—and anything else that’s wet.’
Her mouth crumpled into a smile. ‘It’s a pretty poor way to get to see me in my underwear, you know.’
He grinned back at her. ‘Hey, I can take it. After four years of marriage, I’m well aware that small, frilly things are in the minority in the underwear drawer. I’ve seen those big grey knickers you wear to the gym, remember?’
‘They are not grey. They’re pale blue—at least, they were once,’ she said, starting to laugh.
‘I’ve got clean clothes in my bag. You can borrow a pair of my jeans and a T-shirt and pullover.’
‘Have you got any boxer shorts? The snow soaked through my jeans and even my underwear is wet and cold.’
He closed his eyes for a second and she watched his shoulders tense. ‘Are you trying to get me all hot and bothered?’
She shook her head, but inwardly wondered whether she should be nodding. What was wrong with her? This was the worst possible time to start flirting with her soon-to-be ex.
‘It’s not going to work, you know,’ he said, unzipping his bag and hauling a few items from inside. He reached in again, pulled out a pair of soft cotton-jersey boxer shorts and threw them in her direction. ‘Eh, who am I kidding? I always used to think it was kind of sexy when you used to steal these to wear in bed with one of those little strappy tops.’
She tried not to smile, she really did. But she remembered the times when Nick had discovered the theft of his underwear and vowed to reclaim them no matter what. There had been lots of giggling and chasing and eventually, yet not surprisingly, lots of kissing.
Life with Nick might have been unpredictable, but it had been fun and she was surprised to discover she missed that part of their relationship more than she would have thought.
She hadn’t realised how little she’d smiled in the last nine months until Nick had barged his way back into her life. Of course, she’d also cried and fumed and wanted to bang her head against the wall a lot more in those six days too, but somehow that didn’t seem to outweigh the sheer pleasure of sharing a joke with him.
‘You’ll have to climb into the back to get changed.’
Adele looked at the tiny space around her. ‘I can manage here fine, thanks. Pass me those jeans.’
Since her own jeans were wet and clung to her legs, it was no easy feat to remove them in the passenger seat. Even though she wasn’t that tall, she found her knees and elbows bumping into all manner of things. What made it worse was that, even without looking, she knew Nick was wearing an I-told-you-so grin from where he sat in the back seat.
‘OK, I admit defeat. I’m coming back there,’ she said, pulling her jeans over her hips again, but not bothering to do them up. ‘But I want you in the front seat and your eyes facing straight ahead.’
‘Anything you say, ma’am.’
Adele wiggled her way through the gap in the front seats and somehow ended up sprawled across Nick’s lap.
‘Well, isn’t this cosy?’
He didn’t have to look quite so pleased with himself, did he?
‘Front seat. Now.’
Nick manoeuvred himself so she was sitting on the seat and he was leaning over her. She did her best to ignore all the crazy sensations racing through her body, but to have him this close, brushing past her, was more than she could take. Just the proximity of one slightly rumpled but rather delicious man was raising her body temperature quite nicely. A few seconds more and steam might start to rise from her damp clothes.
Just as he was easing his legs through the gap to climb into the front seat, there was a moment when they came nose to nose. She held her breath and willed her eyelids not to slide closed.
Nick had stopped wriggling and he was looking right into her eyes. The cheeky twinkle was gone, replaced by a quiet longing. Not lust, not even desire, but something far more dangerous. He wasn’t just looking at her wet hair and soggy clothes. He was looking at her, the woman underneath those things, and she could see that it was the person inside he ached for.
His eyes darted downwards to look at her lips and she couldn’t help but return the gesture. Those lips that were so often curved into a roguish grin could also be soft and serious. Her tummy tingled at the memory of what they were capable of.
And then he was gone. The rest of him slipped through the gap and he was in the passenger seat. He tapped the rear-view mirror with his finger so it faced downwards—a very chivalrous gesture. The sort of thing she’d always wanted him to do in the past.
But now, as she sat alone in the back seat, all she felt was disappointed, no matter how stupid it was to think that way. Part of her wanted him to take a cheeky peek. Before this whole separation thing he would have done that. And although she’d scolded him for behaviour like that, she’d always liked the fact that he just couldn’t seem to help himself.
Only now things were different. Now she was…resistible.
And suddenly she realised that she didn’t like it when Nick did as he was told half as much as she thought she would.
‘What was the deal with the headlights while I was fruitlessly standing on top of the hill trying to get a signal?’ he asked, still staring straight ahead.
She hurried into the dry clothes then clambered back into the front to show him, repeating the series of long and short flashes that had made up her mayday message. ‘It was a daft idea, really. I just thought flashing the lights might draw some attention to us.’
‘I didn’t know you knew morse code.’
She turned to look at him, studying his face. ‘I didn’t know you did either.’
They stayed looking at each other, half-smiles on their lips. Nick flicked the radio off then moved to turn down the heater.
‘Don’t do that! It’s cold enough in here already.’
‘Adele, we’ve got to. We’ve got the light on in here, you’ve been using battery power to flash the headlights, the radio was on…if we’re not careful we’ll have no power left at all.’
‘Oh. I didn’t think of that.’ No, she’d been too lost in the moment, going gooey-eyed at her husband.
‘There’s a good chance we’re going to have to stay here all night and we need to conserve the power. I suggest turning the engine on and using the heater for about five minutes every half an hour, just to stop it getting any colder. When it gets light we can hunt for a farmhouse or something, see if we can use a phone or get a tow up that hill.’
Su
ch frighteningly good ideas. Just when had Nick got so practical?
‘But I’m so cold already.’
He gave her a wry smile. ‘You were on to something when you mentioned cuddling up for warmth. Why don’t we get into the back seat, put our coats and the blanket over the top of us and see if we can keep each other warm?’ The smile turned into a fully fledged grin. ‘I promise to keep my clothes on if you do.’
She tipped her head to one side and smiled back. ‘I promise.’
‘Rats.’
Adele scooted along the seat until she was pressed against the door, giving Nick ample room to clamber into the back again, but he dived out the passenger door and re-entered the car through the rear one on the same side. Adele turned to stare at him.
‘Why didn’t we just do that earlier instead of clambering over these seats?’
‘Ah, well,’ Nick said as he patted the seat beside him and held the blanket open for her to climb under. ‘There’s a very good reason for that.’
She shuffled along to huddle under his arm and made sure she was facing outwards a little—just for her own safety and peace of mind. ‘And the reason is…?’
‘It would have been a hell of a lot easier…’ he dropped a kiss on top of her hair ‘…but not half as much fun.’
Adele shook her head, glad he couldn’t see the naughty smile creeping across her face. ‘You’re—’
‘Impossible. I know.’
Nick’s breathing seemed deep and even. Adele lay against his chest, feeling it rise and fall. They’d been sitting like this for almost two hours and, as the glow on the horizon faded, they’d been plunged into pitch darkness.
The only light was from a small torch she kept in the car for emergencies. She had it grasped in her hands as if it were a talisman of some kind.
Despite the fact her torso felt fairly warm, her fingers and toes were like tiny blocks of ice. She blew on them, still gripping the torch, but as soon as the moist cloud of her breath had evaporated, her fingertips were just as cold as they had been seconds earlier. She tried not to let it, but a hard lump of fear settled inside her.
They were miles from anywhere and it was snowing so hard now that the windscreen was completely covered in a couple of inches of snow. Only the side-windows gave a glimpse of the blackness outside.
She didn’t think she’d ever been this cold before. It seemed to penetrate her skin and invade her very bones. A quiver ran through her and she huddled a little closer into the warm body next to her.
‘Are you OK?’
She turned to face him. ‘I thought you’d fallen asleep.’
He curled his arm around her a little tighter. ‘No, just conserving my energy.’
‘I’m scared, Nick.’
He didn’t say a word, no joke about turning into giant snowmen or anything, and Adele knew it was serious.
‘We’re in trouble aren’t we?’
‘We could be. It depends on all sorts of things: how long the petrol lasts, how much charge there is left in the battery, how close we are to a main road or a farmhouse.’
The fear spread from her tummy into her arms and legs. She grabbed on to the tiny flicker of an idea that popped into her head. ‘We saw a light though, didn’t we?’
He stroked her arm in long, rhythmic sweeps. ‘We did.’
But his voice told her it didn’t mean anything.
Suddenly she couldn’t sit there like that, just waiting for the cold to numb her to the point of no return. She jumped up and lunged forward through the gap in the front seats and waggled the lever for the headlights frantically. The torch clattered on the floor.
‘Adele!’
He tried to pull her back, but she batted his arms away. ‘We’ve got to try, Nick! We can’t just sit here and give in. We’ve got to take control, do something.’
‘I know.’
He let go of her and then she felt a blast of icy air as he opened first the rear door and then the one right next to her. A firm hand clamped down on hers and held it fast, stopping the frantic flashing of the lights.
‘Adele, let go. We are taking control. We’re conserving the fuel and the battery and we’re keeping ourselves warm and dry. There isn’t anything else we can do. We just have to sit tight.’
She stopped trying to push against his hands and looked at him. He seemed so big, so solid, so sure. And then she realised that all the heat they’d saved was rushing out the open door and that he was getting colder and icier by the second as he filled the door frame.
She pushed past him and climbed into the back seat again, pulling the blanket round her.
‘I’m…I’m sorry. I don’t know what…’
He got in beside her, grabbed the torch out from where it had rolled under the seat and pulled her close. His cheek was icy against hers as they wrapped their arms around each other.
‘I’ve just undone all the good we’ve done over the last couple of hours, haven’t I? I’ve wasted the battery, let the cold air in and…look at you.’ She reached up and brushed away the snow caked into his hair. ‘I’m sorry. I just didn’t know what to do.’
He hugged her tighter. ‘It doesn’t matter. But you have to listen to me.’
She nodded, hearing her hair rustle against her ear as it was trapped between her head and his shoulder.
‘Sometimes you just have to accept that you can’t control things. Stuff happens, no matter how much you plan. And when it does, like now, you just have to keep your head and do as much as you know to keep yourself afloat.’
‘But that’s the problem!’ Her voice sounded all high-pitched and nasal. ‘I don’t know what to do.’
‘But I do. I’ve prepared for being stuck in this kind of weather on my climbing courses. You’ve got to trust me.’
She pulled away and looked hard at his face, distorted as it was by the upward beam from the torch. ‘I do trust you.’
He lifted his free hand and held his thumb and forefinger an inch or so apart. ‘About this much?’
She smiled—something she’d thought had been frozen out of her—and nudged his thumb a little wider. ‘Maybe this much.’
Everything went dark as he flung his arms around her and the torch beam danced in the opposite direction. ‘It’s going to be OK. We’re going to be OK. I promise.’
She sank into him and stayed there, breathing the scent of him in and feeling safer than she had done in months.
‘What time is it?’ It seemed as if they’d been trapped in this frosty cocoon for weeks, as if the snow had bleached out all sense of time and reality.
Nick lifted his arm to look at his watch and she snuggled into a more comfortable position, arms curled in front of her and her legs across his.
‘About quarter past eight.’
‘And what time will it get light?’
He exhaled. ‘Not sure. It’ll be a bit later than in London, because we’re further north. Seven? Seven-thirty?’
Neither of them said it, but she reckoned they were both thinking that was an awfully long time to wait. And the temperature was sure to drop further.
Nick laid his head on top of Adele’s and held her tight. Panicking like this…it just wasn’t what Adele was all about. He’d seen her lose her temper and get frustrated when things didn’t go according to plan, but he’d never spotted that look that had been in her eyes just now. He hardly knew how to define it.
Not panic, although she was certainly scared, more like confusion and hopelessness. And that scared him. Adele always had a plan, was always focused on where she was going.
He just hoped that it was the shock of being a couple of hundred miles away from her comfort zone and not the early stages of hypothermia. Disorientation was normal if that was the case. He lifted his hand away from her shoulder to tuck the blanket in even tighter behind her and anchored it down with his hand when he was finished.
If she was already getting hypothermic, it wouldn’t be a tow truck he’d be calling first thing in the
morning, it’d be an ambulance. And a night in the car was not going to improve their situation in the slightest.
He moved slightly to look down at her cuddled against his chest. Her eyes were closed, although she wasn’t sleeping. Was it terrible that, even though they were in the worst pickle they’d ever been in, he felt a strange glow deep inside that she needed him? It felt good to be the one in charge for once.
Half an hour ticked past on the dashboard clock and Nick stirred. Adele complained as he pulled away.
‘I’m just going to turn the engine on for a few minutes and get a bit more warm air circulating.’
Rather than opening the door and losing any residual heat, he climbed into the front of the car and turned the key they’d left swinging in the ignition. The sound of the engine seemed deafening after the snow-muffled silence.
Warm air—not hot, just warm—drifted from the heating vents. The fans were making some awfully strange noises. It almost sounded like voices far off in the distance. He shook his head. Wishful thinking. Now was definitely not the time to descend into his fantasy world.
He was just about to reclaim his space next to Adele when a loud thump on the window made him jump out of his skin. Attacking sheep? Adele lurched forward, eyes wide, then screamed as a face appeared at the window only inches from her own.
The face disappeared for a second and he heard a muffled shout. ‘Jeff! Jeff! I’ve found ’em. Over here.’
Then the door was opening and a large light swung around, dazzling him. He turned the engine off and opened the door, too dazed to think about leaping out and working out what the heck was going on.
Once he was on his feet he came face to face with a sturdy-looking farmer.
‘Just as well you turned the car over when you did, young man. We’d have gone straight by you if you hadn’t.’
Adele emerged from the rear of the car, looking small and frightened. He moved over to her and put a protective arm around her shoulders as a second man came into view.
‘How did you know to look for us?’ he asked the man he presumed was a local farmer.
