Two officers filed in to the police station wearing their winter gear. Both pulled off their hats and shook them leaving a spray of snow on the rug which had turned to a sopping wet mess as the afternoon wore on. Harper smiled but only because it unearthed a memory of how her mother hated it when she, her sister, and their father would do this at home when she was younger.
“You better get on the road soon,” Zeb Lincoln, one of the officers who’d just come in, said to Harper. “The roads are already getting slick. This storm is worse than we expected.”
“I have to wait for Scarlett to come in before I leave.” Harper glanced at the ugly wagon wheel clock on the wall again. “She's already fifteen minutes late.”
The chief came out of his office and headed over to Harper's desk. “Scarlett just called in. Her car won't start for some reason.” Chief Lucas sounded a little disgusted, most likely because it put them in a pickle with coverage for dispatch on what would surely be a busy night. “I’d ask you to stay but I know you want to get home to your grandmother.”
“The twins are sick with the flu,” Zeb said.
The chief shrugged. “She told me. That still leaves the dispatch desk empty until Don comes in. He wasn’t on the schedule, but there’s nothing keeping him home.”
Harper didn’t know Scarlett that well since their shifts crossed each other. But she knew that Scarlett was a single mother with two small children to take care of. Harper was single and didn’t need to worry about such things as babysitters or sickness. She had to worry about her grandmother who got around using a walker and was getting on in years. But that wasn’t the same as being responsible for two small children.
“I can stay if you need me to,” Harper offered.
The chief shook his head. “I fear if you stay any longer, you'll be stuck here through the night,” he said. “Don’s coming in and he’ll bunk in my office on the sofa if the storm continues into tomorrow. We’ll be fine.”
“The storm is going to be that bad?”
“That’s what the weather service says. Supposed to be the worst spring storm Sweet has had in over twenty years. Why don’t you clean up your desk so you can get out of here? I'll cover until Don comes in.”
“Thank you.”
Harper quickly gathered her things and said goodbye to everyone. She was holding her scarf in her hand as she walked out the door and quickly took it and wrapped it around her head and her neck. Snowflakes were coming down fast and hard now and there was already a few inches of snow in the parking lot, even though she knew Jamison’s crew had already plowed earlier. She rummaged through her purse for her keys while she walked to the car and then unlocked and opened it so she could retrieve her snowbrush. As soon as she opened the trunk and saw the bag of linens, she groaned. “I can't believe I forgot to give him the linens.”
Sweet Montana Rescue: Chapter Two
One of the things that her grandmother included in renting the cabin was the use of towels, sheets, and blankets. No one had been in the cabin all winter, so Harper hadn't had a chance to bring the freshly laundered linens up to the cabin before Nash Webber had arrived. She had intended to give him all the things he needed when he'd stopped by the station during lunch. But he hadn't come during lunch. And when he had come, the phones had been ringing off the hook and she'd forgotten.
“Wouldn’t you know the storm is going to be a twenty-year storm,” she said to herself.
She grabbed her snowbrush and slammed the trunk shut. As she began clearing the snow off her car, she thought about the time and the amount of accumulation that had already fallen.
The temperature was dropping and Nash was going to need a good blanket even if he managed to get the woodstove going. Surely she had time to take a quick drive up the mountain to drop off all the linens he needed and then drive back down before the storm got any worse. Her car had all-wheel drive. It wasn't as if she was an out-of-town virgin driver on these roads either. She knew them well, and she knew that mountain road.
Not bothering to open the trunk again, she took the wet brush and tossed it on the floor in the back seat of her car. Then she climbed inside and turned on the engine.
She quickly called home. When her grandmother answered, she said, “Grandma, I have an errand to run before I head home.”
“Now? In this weather?”
“It shouldn’t take too long. Is everything okay there?”
“Of course. I’m fine. You be careful driving.”
“I will. I’ll see you soon.”
She hung up the phone and put the car into reverse. Then she glanced behind her as she pulled out of her parking space. She’d take it slow.
But when she got to the mountain road leading to the cabin, Harper was kicking herself for forgetting to give Nash the linens and having to do it now. The main roads were plowed. But the mountain road still had a layer of snow that was getting deeper by the minute. She saw the fresh ruts in the snow most likely caused when Nash headed up to the cabin. By the look of the tracks, he’d been hauling something. A trailer of some sort by the way it was fishtailing on the road. It was most likely filled with supplies and equipment Nash needed for his research.
Harper thought more than a few times about turning back. Nash had all the info he needed to run the water and for using the solar system for the cabin. He was a scientist. A good-looking
