by B. J Daniels
“Only one this time of year,” Fred had said. “You’re lucky. Looks like Shirley still has a room available.” He’d thought the man was kidding. Collin could see that there were no other cars parked in front of the motel rooms. An older-model compact car was parked down by the office, but that was it.
“Often during a storm like this, the rooms fill up fast with truckers,” Fred told him. There were also no trucks. In fact, there seemed to be no other traffic and hadn’t been for miles.
He and Kate had climbed out of the tow truck and hurried through the snow into the too-warm office. Shirley had turned out to be a hot fortysomething with short blond hair and brown, bedroom eyes. Before Kate, Collin might have talked her into warming his bed on this cold night. She hadn’t been wearing a wedding band, and by the once-over she gave him, he’d gotten the feeling she was in between husbands.
“Can you give us two keys right away?” he’d asked her. “Our car broke down, and my fiancée is cold and tired.” He’d smiled at Kate as he’d handed over the spare key. “I’ll be right there, baby.” Belatedly, he’d remembered that Kate hated being called baby—especially in front of other people.
He’d paid for the room and taken his key to hurry down to the room where Kate was waiting. Any other time, he would have flirted with Shirley just for fun, but he felt as if he was already skating on thin ice with Kate right now. He hadn’t wanted to keep her waiting—let alone get caught doing something that would jeopardize this trip or his plans for the future.
He’d hoped making love would put him back into Kate’s good graces. He’d heard he was quite talented at it. But after a few kisses, she’d said she was tired and went into the bathroom to change for bed.
* * *
“WHO WAS THAT?”
Shirley Langer turned around to find her lover standing in the doorway of her apartment behind the motel office. At forty-three with two marriages and divorces behind her, she often questioned what kept her in Buckhorn besides this rundown motel. Her mother’s boyfriend owned the place and had hired her to run it. It gave her a place to live and him a tax write-off. Shirley got whatever money came in as her wages minus twenty percent. This time of year, though, she could go for days without a guest.
So, basically she had a dead-end job and was sneaking around like a teenager. But when she thought about getting out of this town, she’d see Lars Olson and remember what kept her here.
“Get back in there before anyone sees you,” she said, laughing. She figured in a town this size everyone probably knew about the two of them, except for Tina. A redhead with a temper, no one wanted to cross Tina Mullen. Shirley’d had nightmares about Lars’s live-in girlfriend coming in the back door of the motel’s apartment, catching the two of them in bed and shooting them both.
“I didn’t know you were coming by tonight,” she said to Lars, glad to see him. She had been bored out of her mind before her only guests had shown up. “You have to quit sneaking in my back door. You’re going to get us both killed.”
Lars laughed. “Put the No Vacancy sign on and get your butt in here. I saw the way you were looking at that fella.”
“Shoot, you know I don’t like those good-looking, strong, rich, still-single types.” She leaned against the counter and felt his gaze take in the deep V of her shirt. Before turning around at the sound of his voice, she’d released a couple of buttons to expose part of her lacy bra. Lars wasn’t blond or rich or really single or even all that good-looking. But he had a way about him. He made her feel desirable because he couldn’t stay away from her—even though he had one hell of a lot to lose if they got caught.
“What if more good-looking guys like him come in tonight looking for a room?” she asked, still not moving.
“They’ll be out of luck. You heard me, Shirley. Turn on the sign.”
She grinned and reached behind her. Outside the No on the vacancy sign came on, barely visible through the falling snow. “Wanna tell me what you’re here for?”
“I’d rather show you,” he said. “Damn it, woman, quit playing hard to get. I don’t have much time before I have to go home.”
Just the reminder of his girlfriend waiting for him was almost enough to make her send him packing without what he’d come for. But the truth was she wanted him as much he wanted her. Also she understood Lars’s situation.
He had moved in with the daughter of the town’s wealthiest family. Not only that, his employer was Tina’s father. Axel Mullen owned the grocery store, acted as pastor on Sundays at the small church and owned a string of cabins where you could rent horses in the summer. The Giddy-Up Cabins were closed for the season. But Lars also plowed snow for the incorporated city, of which Axel was mayor.
If that wasn’t enough, a rumor had been circulating that Tina was pregnant. Lars swore there was no way it was his. He and Tina had been on the outs for months, according to him. If she really was pregnant, Lars said, it was someone else’s child. But now Axel and his wife, Vi Mullen, the local postmistress, were both pushing Lars and Tina toward marriage.
Shirley could understand the kind of pressure he was under. He wanted to move out, but the house he and Tina lived in was the only one available in Buckhorn right now. He’d have to wait until spring or have nowhere to live—not to mention he’d be out of both jobs.
As much as Lars had talked about marrying Shirley, they both knew it would mean leaving Buckhorn broke with no idea what they would live on. Their love for each other was just another complication, especially in the winter.
She brushed her short bleached blond hair back from her face and turned out the office light. Good sense told her that what she was doing was dangerous. Axel Mullen owned this town, almost literally. He and his wife could make their lives miserable. Not to mention that Tina was just unbalanced enough that she might come after them with a gun.
Shirley barely stepped through the apartment door before Lars grabbed her and kissed her hard. One hand went straight to her butt as he pulled her tight against him to show her just how serious he was. The other hand had dipped down the V at her throat to unerringly find a nipple and pinch it to a hard pulsing point.
Desire sent heat straight to her center. If she was going to die, she wanted it to be in Lars’s arms. She leaned back as his mouth dropped to her throat and began that familiar trip down to that magic spot he could always find.
At times like this, she didn’t care how dangerous what they were doing was.
CHAPTER FOUR
“FRED SAID HE’LL have to order the part,” Collin announced as he came into the café the next morning in a flurry of snowflakes. He joined Kate opposite her in the booth where she’d been waiting for him. “I talked to the rental-car agency. They’re paying for the repairs. They’d rather do that than try to get us another vehicle since they don’t have an office for hundreds of miles from here. So, we just have to wait until the part comes in tomorrow—if the highways haven’t closed because of the storm.”
She looked at him blankly.
“What?” he asked, looking genuinely confused.
“I’m waiting for the good news?” Outside, the snow continued to fall in a curtain of white. When it wasn’t piling up on every surface, it was blowing around to form giant sculpted drifts. The latest one was blocking most of the front window of the café. When she’d sat down, she’d felt a chill and noticed the ice on the inside of the window. Texas born and raised, she’d never experienced anything like this.
Through the condensed view of the window, she’d been watching a man about her age with a large shovel trying to clear the sidewalks along the short main street. She wondered why he bothered since the moment he scooped a pile of snow, it quickly piled up behind him again.
While waiting for Collin, she had sat watching the world outside the window. An older man had walked up to the man shoveling. They’d stood in the storm visiting before the man ha
d crossed the street to disappear down a short alley. She’d noticed him fighting the wind and snow, curious about where he’d been going as the younger man went back to his shoveling.
That she’d spent so much time watching the two men told her just how bored she already was. It made her worry how long before they could leave here. She feared she was responsible for them being in Montana to start with because she’d foolishly said she’d never seen more than a skiff of snow and had always wanted to make a snow angel. Once the car was fixed, she was hoping to talk Collin into flying somewhere warm for the rest of their engagement trip.
Now as she listened to him relay the news, she realized that she didn’t need him to tell her that they might be snowed in here in this tiny town somewhere in Montana for the duration. She’d heard about the storm on the news this morning and the possible road closures. Apparently people really did get snowed in here.
Collin rubbed a hand over the back of his neck for a moment. “The good news,” he said as he picked up the menu lying on the table between them, “is that we aren’t out there broken down somewhere on the highway, because I’m hungry. Instead, we’re sitting in a warm café, and I smell bacon.”
She shook her head, losing some of her irritation at finding herself in the middle of Montana in a blizzard because of some offhand comment she’d made. This morning she’d promised herself that she was going to make the best of it. “Are you always like this?”
“Like what?” he asked, still considering the menu.
“So annoyingly positive for no good reason.” She laughed when she said it, taking some of the sting out of her words. It wasn’t his fault they were trapped here.
He peered at her over the top of the menu and seemed glad to see that at least she was smiling. He did have beautiful blue eyes. She was glad they weren’t brown like Danny’s had been. “No. I can be disagreeable when things don’t go my way.” The way he said it, she believed him, though she’d never seen any indication of it. Look how patient he’d always been with her.
“I try to see the positive,” Collin continued. “Like my beautiful fiancée, this charming little town and snow. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed it.” He looked out the window. “You have to admit, it’s picturesque.” She grunted in answer. “Come on, you said you’d never seen it. Now you have.”
“Now I have.” Had she really told him that? Possibly. His memory was better than hers, apparently. He often brought up things he said she’d told him that she didn’t remember.
“This kind of weather can be deadly, though, if you don’t dress right.” Reaching down, he lifted a large bag she hadn’t noticed him bring into the café because she’d been so busy watching the locals outside. “For you.”
She couldn’t help her surprise and delight. “Where did you...”
“There’s a store in town,” he said, waiting for her to open the bag. “Actually, it’s a clothing store, grocery, hardware store, post office and convenience store all rolled into one.”
Kate withdrew what appeared to be a long down-quilted coat in dusty rose—her favorite color. She looked up at him and felt tears burn her eyes. He was so good to her. She felt awful for complaining while he was making the best of things.
“It’s gorgeous.”
“And warm,” he said, smiling at her. “There are gloves and a scarf in the bag, too. They kind of match. I did the best I could.”
“You always do,” she said, studying him. She regretted all the wasted time making up her mind about him.
“I try to make you happy.”
“You do make me happy. Thank you.” She hugged the coat to her as he went back to his menu. She looked out the front window, half hoping the snow had stopped. It hadn’t. She had walked down here the half block from the motel. Last night she hadn’t seen much of the town.
This morning she realized that there wasn’t much town to see. So far she’d been to the motel and café—both within easy walking distance even in a blizzard. But now, through the whirling snow, she could see other structures. Most were boarded up for the winter, making the place look like a ghost town. But there were a few signs of life, she was glad to see.
“If you give me that flimsy Texas jacket you’re wearing, I’ll take it back to the motel when I go. I need to make a few business phone calls.”
“Maybe I’ll walk around town when we finish breakfast.” She wanted to avoid the motel room as much as possible. It made her think of her honeymoon with Danny.
“You should do that,” Collin said without looking at her. He was still studying the menu. “What are you going to have? I think I could eat a whole cow. Or maybe just this Rancher’s Special.”
She checked the menu and shook her head in disbelief. “You can’t eat all of that.”
Collin dropped his menu, his grin widening as he lifted an eyebrow in challenge. “Wanna bet?”
* * *
COLLIN MADE THE call as soon as he got back to the room. He figured he didn’t have much time since even a walk around the town wasn’t going to take Kate long. This might be the only chance he had to be alone in the motel room. He’d tried making the call earlier outside the service station, but it was too hard to hear with the gale-force wind, not to mention the icy snow pelting him.
Gerald answered on the fourth ring. “Where are you?”
“Buckhorn.”
“Where the hell is that?”
Collin had checked a map on his phone earlier. “We aren’t that far from the border. Got caught in this storm.”
“So, you talked her into coming with you. How long before you’ll make the crossing into Canada?”
He hated to tell him as he looked around the dark motel room. He couldn’t wait to get out of here. Between the snow and this cramped room, he felt he couldn’t breathe. “Had a little car trouble but will be there in plenty of time to take care of business.”
“The storm has held things up at the other end as well. But if you miss—”
“I’m not going to miss anything. I told you. I have it covered.”
“That’s what you told me last time, and we all know how that turned out.”
“Gerald, I’m on top of this. My fiancée and I will cross the border in plenty of time to meet up with you.”
He disconnected before the man could tell him what was at stake. As if he didn’t know. Everything was riding on this deal. His very life. And that of his fiancée as well if he screwed this up.
* * *
ALL BUNDLED UP in her new warm clothing, Kate left the café to walk through the town of Buckhorn. The coat, hat and mittens were wonderful. Collin had thought of everything—except snow boots. She found the general store with its eclectic mix of items for sale all packed from floor to ceiling with everything imaginable. At the back was a tiny post office. She could see a woman moving around back there, filling a small wall of mailboxes.
The snow boots felt like heaven. She had the man behind the counter put her leather ankle boots into a bag. As she left there, she saw the gas station and garage at the edge of town and nothing beyond it on that side of the street. On her side, there appeared to be a bar some distance way. At least, she’d caught glimpses of a neon bar sign through the falling snow. It surprised her that even these few places stayed open this time of year with so little business.
Crossing the highway through the falling snow, she headed down the other side of town. Most of the buildings on this side were closed for the winter. She caught glimpses of houses behind the buildings along the main drag, but she didn’t see anyone. Buckhorn, Montana, was a world apart, she thought. She’d looked on her phone earlier to see where they were in this huge state and had been shocked at how far it was even to the next small town.
Now, dodging snowdrifts taller than she was, she worked her way back toward the motel. The new snow crunched beneath her boot treads as the wind ble
w gusts of falling snow around her. She couldn’t imagine living here, especially in the winter. Spending all of her life in the Houston area, she’d become used to certain benefits of big-city living—like health care. Earlier in the store, she’d seen a number posted for anyone who needed medical attention. Apparently there was a doctor about a hundred miles away who drove over a couple times a week. For emergencies this time of year, a person was to call 9-1-1 and wait for the ambulance that also had to make that same trip.
The wind had picked up. A gust whipped stinging ice crystals into her face. She stepped into the recessed doorway of a closed business and ducked her head until the gust settled. As she started to step out again, she heard the high-pitched whine of a table saw. The sound appeared to be coming from down the alley between the buildings.
Looking in that direction, she saw what seemed to be an old carriage house. The double doors were cracked opened. A thin wedge of golden light shot out like a ray of sunshine. She caught the scent of shaved wood and breathed it in as if it was pure oxygen. Her father had owned his own carpentry business. The smell reminded her of all the times she’d held the end of a board as he ran it through the planer or filled nail holes with putty for him as a child.
At the sound of a sander starting up, she felt herself drawn down the alley. She followed the familiar scent, the sound of the sander growing louder as she approached, the wood scent growing even stronger.
The sander stopped suddenly, and she heard a man whistling. It brought back a flood of memories of her father’s hands as he worked and whistled. He loved making things with his hands and took pride in each piece. She had the rocker he’d made her when she was a little girl and the cradle he’d made for Mia before she was born.
Two large wooden doors opened into the old carriage house. She stepped to the one that was partially open. It left a wide crack for Kate to peer in. At first she saw nothing. Dust motes hung in the air, captured by the overhead light. Deeper in the large shop, she could make out a male figure bent over a workbench, a sander in his hands as he flipped a switch, the sound filling the space, and he went back to work.
