Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

After bumping and bouncing along the trail to his house, I understood why I couldn’t take my car.

When he pulled into the clearing, I saw they had removed a number of trees and added several rooms to their cabin, as well as a large deck and screened-in porch. It almost looked like a different place. I opened my mouth to comment on how beautiful the place was, but quickly stopped myself.

“We’re here,” he announced unnecessarily. With that, he got out of the truck and grabbed my bags. I followed him to the front porch, where he turned back to face me before he opened the front door. “I have a dog. He looks scary, but he’s very friendly. We don’t get a lot of visitors, so he’s probably going to be overly excited to see you.”

I started to ask what kind of dog he had, but I didn’t get the chance. Jake opened the door, and a large black missile came flying toward me.

“King!” Jake yelled just before the dog plowed into me. “Sit!”

I braced for impact, but to my surprise, the dog came to a complete stop and sat.

“Sorry about that. I knew he’d be excited, but I didn’t think he’d try to tackle you.”

I looked down at the dog, who was watching me expectantly. “What’s his name?” I asked before I could stop myself. Damn it.

“King.”

Slowly extending my hand, I tentatively petted his head. “Hello, King.” As soon as I touched him, his tail started wagging uncontrollably. “Aren’t you handsome?”

“Come on in, and I’ll show you to your room,” Jake said.

I begrudgingly followed him inside and up the stairs to the room that would be mine for the night. “Make yourself comfortable. The bathroom’s right through there. Towels are under the sink.”

“Thanks. Do you need help with the groceries?”

“No, I got it. I need to check on a few other things, then I’ll make something for dinner.”

“Okay. Let me know if there’s anything I can help with.”

“Will do.” I could tell by the tone of his voice that he would do no such thing. He could probably tell by the tone of my voice that helping him do anything was the last thing I wanted.

I picked up the television remote and unceremoniously flopped onto the bed. I was flipping through the channels trying to find a weather report when I noticed King sitting beside the bed, staring at me. “Are you allowed on the furniture?” I asked, as if he was capable of answering me. I quickly learned that he could answer me, just not in the way I was thinking. King jumped onto the bed beside me and made himself comfortable. With my hand leisurely resting on his side, I resumed my search for a weather update.

“Again, we want to stress the seriousness of this event. We are expecting significant accumulations of snow and ice. Snowfall has already started in the mountains and will continue throughout the night. We are already receiving reports of ice beginning to form on trees and power lines. Driving conditions will continue to deteriorate and be extremely dangerous by morning. If you don’t need to go out, shelter in place. Please make sure you have a way to receive important weather alerts and notifications throughout the night.”

Given the circumstances, I decided to send my dad a text message to let him know where I was and what was going on. Inhaling deeply, I turned on my phone for the first time since I left town. It took several minutes for my phone to stop dinging with message notifications. I didn’t want to read any of them, and I didn’t want to know who they were from—as well as who they weren’t from. Navigating to my contacts, I selected my dad’s name and messaged him from there, so I didn’t have to open the messages screen and see the list of texts.

Sarah: Hey, Dad. I’m okay and I don’t want to talk about it. I’m at our cabin in Willow Ridge. They’re expecting a lot of snow and ice tonight, but I should be safe and will be home in a few days. I love you.

I pressed send and hurried to power off my phone before he could respond, but I wasn’t fast enough.

Dad: I love you, too, Peanut. Stay safe and check in tomorrow. Don’t worry about anything else. I’ll deal with him.

Sarah: I will. Thanks, Dad.

Dad: Always.

With that, I turned my phone off before I accidentally saw any other messages. There was nothing Brock or Stacey could say that would do anything other than piss me off, and I didn’t want to waste any more time and energy on them. They had betrayed me in the worst way and were essentially dead to me. I just needed a few more days for their metaphorical deaths to solidify in my heart. Then I could return home and carry on as if they never existed.

Sighing, I leaned back against the headboard and tilted my head toward the ceiling. “It could be worse. Right, King?” I had no idea just how true those words were.

“Sarah!” Jake called from downstairs.

“Yeah?” I replied and walked out into the hallway.

“What were you planning on having for dinner tonight?”

“Oh, um, I hadn’t really thought about it. Honestly, I probably would’ve decided cooking was too much trouble and filled up on snacks.”

“That’s not going to work for me. How about breakfast for dinner?”

“That’s fine. Do you need help?” I didn’t want to help, but I would have offered if it was anyone else, and I was trying to seem indifferent. It was exhausting.

“You can scramble some eggs while I make the pancakes.”

Damn it.

“Okay, sure.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Of course I do. I’m an unexpected guest in your home.”

We cooked in an awkward silence. King sat at my feet, occasionally nudging me with a hopeful look on his adorable face. I wasn’t sure if he was allowed to have eggs, but I made some extra for him in case he was.

When we finished, we had more than enough food for two people. “I’ll never be able to eat all of this.”

“Me either,” he said. “But I wanted to have extra for breakfast in the morning in case the power’s already out.”

“Already?”

“We’re going to lose power. It’s a matter of when and for how long.”

I’d never been in a situation where I didn’t have power for more than the few minutes it took to turn on the generator built into my parents’ house. Even as an adult, I stayed at their house whenever inclement weather was expected.

“How long does it usually last?”

“A few days is the most I’ve experienced.”

I could handle that. And if I couldn’t, I would just go home early. I could take refuge at my parents’ house, which is probably what I should have done to begin with.

King nudged my leg with his nose, reminding me of his subtle request for food. “Can King have eggs?”

Jake shook his head and laughed. “You’d think he was starved the way he begs for food. Yes, he can have some, but I’d prefer you put them in his bowl instead of feeding him from the table.”

“Did you hear that, King? You can have some eggs,” I said and got up to scrape some into his bowl.

Returning to the table, I finished my meal while Jake’s attention was fixed on his phone. After taking my dishes to the sink, I asked, “Where are your containers for leftovers?”

“Oh, under the sink. Sorry, I was checking to see if there were any new updates on the weather.”

“Were there?”

“Nothing significant,” he said as he got up and started clearing the table.

“So, it’s just a waiting game now?”

“Pretty much.”

I didn’t have the interest or energy to carry on a superficial conversation with him, and I had nothing else to do once the table was cleared and the food was put away, so I went back to my room for the night with King following along behind me.