by Vivian Arend
Mack had met the family who owned the gas station. To know that in one fell swoop they had lost everything—it was a chilling reminder of how quickly life could change.
Yet looking down at the faces of the people below him who were enjoying the very tame entertainment of two grown men propping a Santa figure on their roof, Mack was also reminded small joys were huge.
It didn’t take a lot of time to shove a person from contentment to sorrow. When everything could be gone in an instant, living life to the fullest when given the chance was the most important lesson he needed to remember.
Had he been going about this all wrong? He’d been hoping to make his proposal flashy and memorable, but was that what really mattered?
Mack had finally reached the point where he could afford to say something about how he felt and be able to do the next thing about it. Hell, he’d come close to blurting it out yesterday when she’d been there in his bed, soft and giving. Worry in her eyes and yet pride there as well.
He loved her so much. That was what mattered, wasn’t it?
Icy coldness shattered against the side of his neck, shards of a snowball breaking apart and crumbling inside his collar. Mack cursed softly then glanced over at Ryan.
With his back turned and the unsteady footing, the other man was too far away to be the culprit.
Mack checked the crowd of seniors who were still foolhardy enough to be hanging around outside. They were now huddled close in a dandy imitation of a pack of wolves, keeping each other warm. His assailant wasn’t any of them unless they were spry enough to have leapt back into the heap without knocking the rest of them over like dominoes.
He casually reached down and scooped up snow, forming it into a perfect ball.
If the answer wasn’t A, then logically it had to be B…
He was about to fling his missile at Ryan’s head when movement revealed a sheepskin jean jacket inching past the edge of the hedge between the lodge and the house to the west.
Suddenly, Ashton Stewart stepped forward, pure innocence in his expression. He whistled casually as he paced the sidewalk before glancing up as if surprised to find Mack on the roof. “Well, hello.”
Mack raised a brow. “Fancy meeting you here. Out for a stroll?”
“Getting some exercise, yes.” Ashton waved a greeting at Ryan before turning back to Mack. “Have some news for you about that item you’re looking for. If you drop the ammunition you’re holding, I’ll tell you about it.”
Instead, Mack tossed the snowball skyward, catching it in his hand a few times as he offered Ashton a steely glare. “Maybe you’ll tell me what you know so I don’t retaliate. I do have the upper hand.”
Snowballs hit him simultaneously on the side of his head, his shoulder, and his back, and he twisted to see the seniors had taken advantage of his lack of concentration to mount their own attack. He also spotted the reason they were throwing like baseball heroes in spite of their age.
“Hey. Are those dog-ball throwers? Where’s the sport in that?” Mack complained with amusement.
“When you’re eighty, you get to use any advantage you want,” was the response.
Not much Mack could say to argue with that.
Ryan grinned as he tipped his head to the side and motioned for Mack to join him. “We’re pretty much done. Let’s get off this roof so we present a smaller target.”
They met on the sidewalk beside Mack’s truck.
“I’m going to head out,” Ryan said. “Talia will be ready to be picked up, and we’re driving out to Black Diamond to my parents’. I’ll be back in town for my Christmas Day shift.”
Mack shook his hand firmly. “Happy holidays, and thanks for your help here. I’ll be in touch.”
His friend stepped away.
Ashton leaned back on the side of the truck, watching Ryan head down the street with a firm stride. “He’s been a good addition to Heart Falls,” the older man said.
It was an entertaining thought. “I’ve been here less time than Ryan. You make a decision on me yet?”
Ashton chuckled. “I told you before, you’re entertaining. And you present good puzzles—I had a hell of a time tracking down Gary’s star.”
“So, you figured out who’s got it stashed away?”
A quick nod. “Only it’s not the easiest place in the county to get to.”
He told Mack the general area, and while the location wasn’t far from town, Ashton was right. The access roads were all on the other side of the property to avoid running across the river, making a short trip into a much longer one.
Mack took a considering glance at the sky. Blue overhead, with clouds building over the mountains. “You think the weather will hold for long enough so I can make a run out there to grab it?”
The older man considered, eyeing the horizon with a knowledgeable gaze. “Usually when it starts building like that you’ve got at least a day before things shift. But we’re pretty out of sorts here with how the recent storm turned everything upside down.”
Mack slapped a hand on Ashton’s shoulder. “You could get a job as one of those meteorologists. You just managed to say you have no idea using a whole bunch of pretty words.”
The other man grinned. “This is when Kelli out at the ranch would say ‘if you can’t dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle them with your bullshit.’”
It only took a moment to get directions to the silo and barn where Ashton had heard the star was stored. “I mentioned you might be stopping by at some point, and Yoder said he was fine with it. Don’t burn anything down.”
“Yeah, because that’s always an occupational hazard with me,” Mack deadpanned.
Ashton’s grin went extra-wide. “No, but it’s commonly known that you and Brooke are a pair, which means she’ll probably be by your side. That woman has a reputation for lighting bonfires in kitchens across the county.”
That was one comment Mack had no intention of sharing with Brooke.
But the rest of it? He totally needed to have her by his side. He hurried to finish the final task of setting up the timer for the Christmas lights, and when he checked his watch it was just shy of four o’clock.
He wasn’t going to message her—if she was in the middle of a task, she wouldn’t answer anyway. If they wanted to do this, they needed to do it quick before they lost the light.
Mack was out at the shop in under ten minutes, marching in the door and glancing around to track down his favourite woman in the whole wide world. “Brooke?”
She popped up like a jack-in-the-box from behind a big Chevy dually. Her expression lightened, lips curling upward. “Hey. What’re you doing?”
“Something,” he teased. He marched across the shop floor, leaning down to whisper. “Where’s your dad?”
“Went to the bank,” she whispered back. “Does that mean I get a kiss right here in the shop?”
He picked her up and enveloped her in a hug, kissing her enthusiastically. Brooke wrapped her legs around his hips and clung tight, palms pressed firmly to his cheeks as she gave as good as she got.
It was so fucking perfect—only this wasn’t the moment to get distracted.
He pulled away. “On a scale of one to ten, how much trouble are you going to be in if I steal you away right now?”
Curiosity and mischief lifted her expression. “Some kinds of trouble are completely worth it.”
Bingo. “Come on a treasure hunt with me? I think I know where your dad’s star is.”
She leapt at the chance to take the adventure.
The decision was easier because she had finished her work list and wasn’t leaving Dad in the lurch. She had enough presence of mind to jot a quick note and pin it where he was sure to see it before ditching her coveralls and joining Mack in the warm truck.
She slid next to him and curled her arm possessively around his biceps. “So, this treasure hunt. Tell me more.”
“Ashton discovered that after the last time the star went up, they were do
ing renovations on the church storage facilities. All the bits and pieces got sent home with different families, and it was only afterward that they were brought back to be stored in the shed. A couple years later they returned them all to your dad and he put them in the attic.”
“Except the star didn’t make it back.”
Mack turned onto a secondary road, putting the truck in four-wheel-drive to deal with the heavy snow that had not been cleared by the snowplows. “Somebody out at the Yoder ranch was sick or something, so they didn’t return the star. Someone thought they’d seen it a couple years ago, though, so if it’s still there, we might be in luck.”
Outside, the sky was still bright, a beautiful winter day with sunlight dancing off the snow crystals. “It’s a lot of work to go get back something that’s not even going to be put up at our house.”
Mack linked his fingers with hers. “But your dad remembered it, and it meant something to him. Plus, I know for sure the people over at the seniors lodge are going to appreciate seeing it shining above their roof.”
Then he told her a story about snowballs and Santa and sneaky ball throwers, and she was giggling by the time they pulled to a stop in front of a long approach to a distant barn.
The fence ran in a fairly straight line, the tops of the wooden posts sticking up like hopeful sprouts in the spring. Only, the road had obviously not been driven at all this winter.
“I guess that’s the end of that,” she said sadly. “We can come out in the spring and check if it’s there. It’ll be set up for next year.”
“Oh, ye of little faith.” Mack had his door open, glancing down at the road beside him. “It’s just a little dusting of powder.”
Brooke shuffled onto her knees to stare as he waded into the drifts. “Just a little? I feel the urge to make a joke about your inability to judge size, but that might end poorly.”
Mack grinned. He offered his hand then guided her to where he had marched in a small circle and packed down the snow. “Come on. I told you it was going to be an adventure.”
The sight of her bag in the back seat triggered an idea. “Fine, but I need to bring supplies.”
He looked confused for a moment until she pointed. A nod of agreement followed. “That’s a great idea.”
He grabbed her bag and tossed it over his shoulder, then reached for his backpack, adjusting position so he could carry them both easily.
The truck was far enough off the road to make it safe if anyone else needed to pass while accidentally wandering down a remote impassable stretch of highway. Not likely, but still it was good to be safe.
Brooke grinned as she fell into step behind Mack, his big boots leaving a trail for her to follow.
“You’re lucky I’m tall,” she told him. “Taking shorter steps would make you look like a penguin shuffling through the drifts.”
The sound of masculine laughter carried back to her and he glanced over his shoulder. “I like penguins.”
“I know.”
The conversation slid to their favourite animals and what they would do when faced with snow conditions like this, and the fifteen-minute trek to the barn passed quickly.
The man door was blocked by a snow drift that reached nearly to the top of the doorframe.
Mack glanced around then motioned for her to follow him a little further. “I have an idea.”
His idea turned out to be a side window that swung inward when he pushed. It was easy to climb up because the drift was not only as high as the window ledge, it was hard-packed by the wind. Solid enough that Brooke scrambled to the top then shifted her feet over the sill to slide into the stillness of the barn.
Mack tossed the bags over one at a time before joining her.
Inside was only slightly warmer than out, the wind blocked by the sturdy wooden structure. Brooke listened, but the silence was the main sound besides the steady rhythm of Mack breathing.
The ceiling rose upward for two and a half stories, opening above their heads like a cathedral. The stillness wrapped around her, yet it wasn’t frightening but awe-inspiring. Especially when Matt tugged off her glove so he could link their fingers together.
They stood there, the quiet a tangible thing.
When she finally spoke, it was in a whisper. “Wow. This is better than any church I’ve ever been to.”
“It’s damn fine,” he agreed. “Want to go stargazing with me?”
“Nope.” Although they would, soon. This was not the moment to be tromping around looking for even a vital part of the old-fashioned Christmas. This was a moment to savour.
Mack tilted his head in a question.
She pulled him against her and offered her lips.
He took the hint, cradling the back of her head and kissing her deep. Slow yet powerful as they connected after the time apart. Turning to each other in this place that felt beautiful and eerie at the same time.
Mack picked her up, his lips still caressing hers as he walked a couple of paces in the semidarkness. Barely enough light filtered in the various windows to let her see they were in a workshop space. Which meant it had to be a table of some kind that he rested her hips on before crowding against her and tugging their bodies even closer.
She dragged her fingers through his hair, careful of the scrape on his forehead. His toque fell to the ground unminded. They were more concerned with teasing each other—pressing kisses to her cheeks and his jawline.
He nipped at her lower lip then kissed it soothingly. “You have an amazing ability to make me lose my focus.”
“Same. Let me remind you what we were doing—it involved kissing. We can get back to it anytime.”
Foreheads touching, he stared into her eyes.
Then the quiet…rattled. The rattle…whooshed.
The small amount of light in the area around them went from faint to nothing between one breath and the next. Like a curtain had fallen, they suddenly stood in utter darkness.
A shriek rang out, wild howling like the neighbour’s cats when they’d decided to hold a jamboree in the middle of the night. The temperature dropped noticeably.
Brooke turned toward the window at the same time as Mack. The latch he’d loosely closed sprang open, and the wind that rushed in was no gentle breeze but a pounding, demanding beast that whirled paper in the air and set the windowpane crashing.
The storm had returned.
12
He’d known better. Part of him had sensed they were pushing it coming on this wild goose chase in the first place, but the instant he had stepped into the barn, he’d felt the impending disaster.
Call it intuition or a soldier’s premonition. Call it sensing the change in the barometer, but he knew something big was about to happen.
Something more than the wild urge he’d had a moment ago to blurt out his feelings before dropping to one knee. Because as perfect as it would’ve been, memorable moment and all, they had more important things to figure out first. Like how bad was the situation and what would it take to make it through the night?
“Let’s do some surveillance,” he offered casually, striding over to the window to poke his head out and get a better sense of what they were facing.
Something out of a horror flick, it appeared. The sky roiled as if evil magicians were tossing spells at each other. A high-speed, fast-forward rush of billowing black clouds and snow that lashed his face relentlessly.
Brooke was at his back, her hand resting at his waist as he backed up and latched the window firmly. “I take it it’s not good.”
He faced her square on, adjusting position so he could see her expression. “The storm must’ve been waiting just over the ridge. I don’t know how it arrived so quickly, but let’s not deploy to the truck. Not yet.”
Amazingly, there was no real worry on her face. Just deep trust as she tipped her chin in acknowledgement. Then she smirked, leaning forward and speaking loud enough to be heard over the continued whistling of the wind. “You’re sexy when you start the sold
ier-in-charge thing. Just saying.”
Amusement bubbled up and he laughed. “Good that you like him, because I have a feeling he’s going to show up a lot in the next thirty minutes.”
“Reconnaissance?” When he nodded, she snapped upright and offered a salute. “Lead the way, cap. I guess if we’re stuck here for a couple of hours, we may as well figure out the best place to bunker down. And who knows? We might find the star at the same time.”
He headed to his backpack and pulled out the flashlight he’d tucked in the top. When he turned toward her, it was to note with amusement she’d just stepped back from her bag and now held a battery-operated lantern.
“Impressive,” he said.
“I was never in the Boy Scouts, but it’s good to be prepared.” She wrinkled her nose. “I got stuck in a hotel room once when the power went off and it was no fun to be without lights. It’s part of my emergency backup stash.”
“I’ve never seen it before.”
Brooke raised a brow. “We’ve never had the power go out on us before. Trust me, it’s always been in my bag.”
She took the hand he offered, and they walked side by side, mitts and toques on, coats bundled up against the cold as they explored the main level.
“Wow. Now that’s sexy.” Brooke broke away from him to run a glove over the fender of an ancient tractor, the lineage of which he could only guess at since it had elliptical treads instead of tires. “Hello, sweet baby. What are you doing out here, all by yourself and alone?”
Mack surrounded Brooke from behind, wrapping his arms tight around her waist as he nuzzled the side of her neck. “Guess this means the truth is out. My competition has tank wheels and a bucket.”
She snickered, leaning back far enough so she could press a kiss to his cheek. “Don’t worry, there’s room for both of you in my life.”
That fluttering sensation in his gut and heart was back and it had nothing to do with the fact they were likely not only trapped for a couple of hours, but a lot longer.
