“She’s got Colin and Luke Riordan if she needs something in a hurry,” he said. “I got as much done out there as I could after we decided to head for San Diego. The only big worries for her right now are snow related. The passages from the house and sheds to the gardens have to be plowed and those greenhouses can’t withstand snow on the roofs—they could collapse. But just like with Jack at the bar, if she needs an extra hand or two, there are friends around.”
“You know, I could always catch a flight,” she said. “I mean, if you’re needed here. I know you have commitments…”
He put his hand against her cheek. “Do I look crazy? You’re my primary commitment.”
“I wouldn’t hold you to it, Denny.”
He leaned toward her to place a gentle kiss on her lips. “You’d better hold me to it. I’m counting on that. Now I have a question for you. I know you have your own apartment. Are you going to let me move in with you? Will that freak out your parents?”
“Huh?”
“I could stay with Rich,” he said. “But really, Becca. I just don’t want to let you too far out of my sight. I scared myself good the last time we got too far apart. Will your parents get all upset about that? If we live together? Because it’s going to take a while to find a job down there. Don’t worry, I have some money saved that we can put toward rent, but—”
“Live with me?” she asked. “You’re staying?”
“Where would I go?” he asked, completely confused.
“I thought you were just going to drive me home and come back here!”
“What gave you an idea like that?”
“I don’t know. Because you said how much you loved it here, because you wanted me to try it, because…because you didn’t say you were moving! You said you would take me home for Christmas.”
He stared at her for a moment. “Listen, if you’re not ready to take this to the next level, if you need a little more time before we start planning a whole lifetime together, I can just ask Rich if I can have his couch. But seriously, the way we can’t seem to keep our hands off each other, I bet I end up staying over at your—”
A squeal of laughter erupted from her and she threw her arms around his neck. Then she planted a kiss on him that quickly melted into a deeper, more demanding kiss. Their heads tilted, mouths opened, tongues dueled. Denny moved to embrace her; his hands slipped under her pajamas to stroke her naked back.
When their kiss finally broke, she laughed.
“See what I mean?” he asked. “We might just as well share the rent, since there’s no question we’re going to share the bed.” She giggled.
“And this is funny, how?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I didn’t get it,” she said. “I thought asking to go home was something you were going to do for me. I thought… We’re going to have to work on our communication.”
“Well, I thought I might have to come back up here after Christmas for a few days to pack up and at least get Jillian on stable ground so she could manage without me. Those were a couple of the details I was trying to get organized in my head while you were finishing up your homework club, pageant practice and stuff. But when you get down to it, I don’t have that much to pack. And you came up here with one suitcase. Bottom line is, I can’t stand the idea of even spending a few days away from you if I don’t have to.”
“Good, because neither can I!”
“So here we are, two jobless people—ought to be interesting. I’ve saved money since living here—when you live in one furnished room and work two jobs, it’s not that hard. And there’s that money from the sale of my mom’s house when she died—that was going to go toward a house of my own. Now it will be a house of our own, but it might not come as fast, honey. With neither of us working yet and real estate so much more expensive in San Diego—”
“I don’t care,” she said. “I have a cute apartment. And I’ll get a job. I’ll do whatever I have to if I don’t get a teaching job. I have office experience, waitress experience—”
He stroked her pretty blond hair. “You should be with kids. I’ve seen you with them. There’s no question that’s were you belong.”
“I will be, but if it takes a while to find a teaching job, I’ll just work somewhere else while I’m looking.”
“You’re unbelievable, you know that?” he said. “I wondered why you weren’t all jazzed about going home. Crap, once again it was me—just because I didn’t say the right things!”
“Or I didn’t ask the right things,” she said. “I have to be honest, I was afraid to ask. I didn’t want to cry when you told me you just couldn’t come with me.”
“Listen, you’re first, Becca. I’m going to teach you to trust me again somehow. Right now, just remember you’re first. What you need is the top of the list. Always.” Then he laughed. “That Jack, sometimes the guy is brilliant, you know? I was telling him tonight that I was leaving—saying goodbye, really—and I told him that I had kind of liked the idea of growing a family in a place as clean and safe as this. He told me to remember that the safest place to grow a family is in a happy marriage. I’m going to make you happy, Becca, because I love you. You’re what keeps my heart beating.”
“Denny,” she said, her eyes welling up with happy tears.
He rubbed a thumb under one eye. “You didn’t want to cry, remember?”
“Then don’t be so wonderful all the time.” She sniffed. “Now what?”
His eyes took on a naughty gleam. “Well, the plans are set. The schedule is set.” He started unbuttoning her pajama top. “I guess I’ll just have to work you out for a while. In fact,” he said, putting his big hands on her small butt, “if you just climb up on my lap, you wouldn’t be putting any weight on that ankle…”
Fourteen
The routine of having Denny get up in the early morning, make her coffee and leave her curled up under the down quilt while he went off to work was an easy thing to adjust to. When the phone rang beside her bed, she eyed the clock as she rolled over. It was eight-thirty. She was surprised she’d slept so late, as excited as she was to pack up to leave. She reached for the phone and said hello.
“Becca,” Jack said. “Are you awake?”
“Sure,” she said.
Jack laughed. “No, you weren’t. Have you looked outside yet?”
“Why?” she asked, sitting up in bed.
“We had heavy snowfall during the night. I’m going to come down there and clean off the steps and salt them. When you’re ready to leave the apartment, you have to call me. The street is under almost two feet of snow. So, it’s nonnegotiable—you could break your other leg and your neck.”
She thought about that for a second. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to drive down there in Preacher’s truck to pick you up—Denny took mine out to the farm. When you get up, you’ll see a mound in the driveway—that’s Denny’s little truck. I’ll drive you to the bar or wherever you want to go. And dress warm. We have more snow forecast.”
“Why is Denny in your truck?”
“That Nissan of his wasn’t gonna make it all the way out there, even with chains. We’re not a priority for plowing—we generally do our own.”
“When will you be down here?” she asked.
“Ten minutes. It’ll take me twenty to clean off and salt your steps. You can go back to sleep, if you want to—I just didn’t want the noise to scare you.”
“Thirty minutes gives me plenty of time to dress and be ready to leave. But take your time. I don’t want you to have to wait for me.”
As Jack carried Becca down the snow-crusted stairs a half-hour later, she saw the mound of snow that had been Denny’s truck. A lot was going to have to happen to transform that igloo into a moving vehicle.
In all her trips to ski slopes, Becca had never seen anything quite like this. Even in the heaviest of snowfall in the mountains, this was her first time in a tiny town that was buried by snow. People were shoveling
and snowblowing their way out of the homes and driveways, standing on ladders to shovel and scrape some of the weight off roofs. Kids were throwing snowballs, building forts and snowmen. Dogs were rollicking in the snow. There was exactly one narrow lane plowed down the street—just enough room for a vehicle, one at a time.
Becca couldn’t suppress a brief fantasy about being completely snowed in with Denny. Not in their little room above the garage, but in a house with a fireplace and a nice, functional kitchen. She’d be more than happy to lose a few days that way….
Jack drove her to the bar. Rather than parking in the back as usual, he pulled through two feet of snow to take a narrow space in the front and left the truck running. Preacher, all bundled up, was shoveling off the stairs and a path to the street.
As Jack carried her past, Preacher said, “Help yourself in the kitchen, Becca. I’m going to be tied up awhile.”
“Thanks,” she said with a laugh.
When Jack put her down right inside the door, she found an unexpected flurry of activity there. There were canned goods, bags of nonperishables and miscellanea lined up on the bar and on tables. Mel and Paige stood behind the bar, sorting and creating piles. Their four kids were coloring at a table in front of the fire. Jack went immediately to a stack of unconstructed boxes and began to fold them into shape and tape them.
“Hi,” Becca said to the women. “Getting those Christmas boxes ready?”
“We have to try to get them all delivered right away,” Paige said. “We have more weather on the way.”
“It would be awful if people didn’t get them before Christmas,” Becca said.
“It would be awful if they didn’t get them,” Mel said. “Some of these people need them. They might be hungry even as we speak, and if they’re also snowed in, have no way to get food. If we wait even a day and can’t get down some of those back country roads…” She shuddered. “One of the local farmers is plowing a lane out to Cameron’s house. He’s got the Hummer—our ambulance. He has to be able to get to town to the clinic. It’s heart-attack season, not to mention slips on ice, broken bones, strained muscles, cars sliding off roads, et cetera.”
“Heart-attack season?” Becca asked.
“First dramatic snowfall of the year,” Mel said while making groupings of foods for care boxes. “Shoveling and heart attacks. All the warnings in the world just don’t seem to help. During an ice storm a couple of years ago, we had a school bus go off the road. Jack and some of the guys rappeled down the hill to them. First responders had to carry the kids up one at a time. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt, but it could’ve been disastrous. Three years ago, we had a teenager lost and half the town went in search. Oh, Jack!” she said, turning her attention to her husband. “Paul Haggerty called—he’s plowing the stretch from 36 into town so if we have to get to the hospital, we can. And once he has access, he’ll bring some heavy equipment into town along with the construction company’s fuel truck.”
“Good. We could get gas out at Buck Anderson’s ranch—he keeps a good supply for his equipment—but getting there could be a problem.”
Becca felt a sudden surge of panic. “Is there any way to check and be sure Denny got out to the farm all right?”
“I’m sure he did or Jillian would have called asking after him,” Mel said. “But go in the kitchen and use the phone. Her number will be in the listing by the phone. Matlock. Jillian Matlock. And then get yourself something to eat—I bet you haven’t had breakfast.”
Becca worked those crutches very quickly.
“Yes,” Jillian said. “Denny and Colin are out clearing, plowing and removing snow from the roofs of the greenhouses. Most of it melted from smudge pots warming the inside, but sometime in the night, the snow and cold overwhelmed us and covered our paths to the greenhouses. How are things in town?”
“Very active,” she said. “Everyone seems to be very busy.”
Jillian laughed into the phone. “Yes, when Mother Nature pulls one of her tricks, the town rallies to make sure everyone has what they need. In big cities, you have whole agencies on the job, but out here, the wait could be a little too long. And there’s no agency to dig out my greenhouses or make paths to them for the gardenmobile! Luke and his helper, Art, are coming out to help as soon as the road to his house and cabin is cleared. He’s got a plow attachment for his truck. Slow going, but effective.”
“So you guys are okay out there?”
“Oh, yes,” Jillian said. “I have a major snowball fight scheduled for later today. Hey, Denny tells me you guys are heading south to begin whole new lives together. I hate to lose him, but congratulations, Becca! Even though you’re taking my best guy away from me, I wish you endless happiness.”
“Thanks,” she said somewhat meekly. She was taking the favorite son away. She felt kind of bad about that.
“I’ll get him out of here as quickly as possible so you can gather up your stuff and be ready to get on the road before this storm gets any worse. At least once you get off the mountain, you won’t have any more trouble. Just maybe a lot of rain….”
Except that the little truck is buried, she thought.
“Be sure you get that last ounce of help out of him,” Becca said.
Jillian laughed. “You’re a sport. Just so you know, I made Denny promise that you guys would be up for a visit. Many visits!”
“Sure we will. Tell Denny to drive back here real careful!”
“Oh, he’ll be careful,” Jillian said. “There’s no other option.”
Back in the bar, the television mounted high in the corner was turned on to the weather station and the volume was up. The blast of snow had hit the northwest, and the worst was in the mountains. The Sierras were socked in. South of town was rain and the inevitable flooding and mud, all the way to Southern California.
Becca heard a banging sound and looked out one of the bar windows. Preacher’s truck was backed up to the wood pile and, with Jack’s help, they were filling the back of the truck with split logs.
“What are they doing?” she asked the women.
“They’ll take firewood with them wherever they go today. The people around here have good survival instincts, but Jack likes to make sure they have wood on hand in case the heater fails or they run out of propane.”
Becca leaned heavily on her crutches, her bad leg lifted. This was driving her crazy! She wanted to be a part of this. “I want to help,” she said. “Tell me what I can do.”
Paige and Mel both stopped what they were doing and looked at her. “Well,” Mel finally said. “I guess you could color with the kids…”
“I’d be happy to, but they don’t need me. You need me. There must be something I can do.”
There was a moment of silent indecision between the women. “Do you cook?” Paige asked.
“A little bit, I guess.”
“Any favorite dishes you like to make? Can you follow a recipe? We’re not going to have a crowd tonight, but whoever is here is going to have to eat.”
“We might have to stay in town tonight,” Mel said. “I don’t want to risk not being able to get to the clinic. I’ve got a couple of women in advanced pregnancy.” She laughed suddenly. “And nine months from tonight, I’m going to have plenty ready to pop. People can only think of so many ways to entertain themselves during a snowstorm.”
“I can get food together,” Becca said. “I can help in the kitchen.”
“Good,” Paige said. “Because John isn’t going to have a lot of time to cook if he’s delivering food and firewood. And I have to get these care boxes fixed up before I can get in there. Let me get you set up.”
Becca found thawed ground beef in the refrigerator. She boiled potatoes and shredded cheddar for her favorite potato casserole. She found Preacher’s recipe for meat loaf—simple enough. There were frozen and canned vegetables from the local farmers and gardens. She found green beans and thought, if needed, she could throw together a green-bean casserole. Paige promi
sed to help her with desserts after she finished with the care boxes.
Becca began to realize there were a number of things she could have provided—spaghetti and meatballs, homemade mac and cheese, lasagna, stroganoff and noodles…
Every time she heard an increase in noise, talking or laughter in the bar, she pushed open the door to see who had arrived. Ellie and Noah Kincaid came to help; Jo and Nick Fitch arrived. Next, she found Paul Haggerty in the bar, cheeks and nose pink and a big smile on his face, brushing snow off his hands and shoulders. “You’re plowed through to 36,” he announced. “Gimme some hot coffee and I’ll clear the rest of this street for you.”
A while later, she stuck her head into the bar to see a few men she didn’t know laughing and warming up with coffee before getting back out into the weather. Then Jack and Preacher were there, carrying care boxes out to the truck. At almost noon, Denny arrived. He came right in the kitchen, all grins, and swept her up in his cold arms, burying his icy nose in her neck, causing her to eeek! loudly while he laughed.
He set her free. “I’m going to start digging out the car and put chains on the tires. We’re going to have to try to get out of here, get south today. There’s more weather due tonight and if we don’t go now—”
“I can’t,” she said instantly. “I’m busy. If I don’t cook for these people, who knows if they’ll have time to get a meal together!”
“They’ll be fine, honey. Wrap it up and I’ll get you down to the apartment to pack up.”
The phone rang and she automatically reached for it. “I think I have to take a chance on the weather,” she said. Then into the phone, she said, “Jack’s.”
“Hey, Becca, it’s Jack. Get Mel to the phone, will you, sweetheart?”
“Sure, hang on.” She crutched over to the swinging door. “Mel? Jack’s on the phone. He needs you.”
She gave her attention back to Denny. “We might not get on the road exactly when we planned, but it doesn’t matter as long as we get on the road eventually. Right? What if there’s another heavy snowfall and Jillian needs you?”