When he opened the stove door and positioned the two new logs on top of the embers, she breathed in deep. “I always loved the smell of this woodstove.”
Still crouched down, he turned to look at her. “Did you spend a lot of time up here when you were a kid?”
“Mostly during the summer months. We didn’t come up all that much in the winter because the snow made it hard to get through. It made it difficult for my dad to get to work and he didn't want us stuck up here by ourselves in case we had another blizzard, which was pretty much all the time as far as I can remember.” She chuckled, but it was bittersweet.
Nash seemed to notice he’d hit a nerve. His eyes grew warm with sympathy. “That's Montana for you.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
Nausea and dizziness crept up on her until it was almost too overbearing and she had to hold onto something to keep herself upright. Except when she reached out her hand there was nothing there. Instantly she felt Nash's hand on her arm giving her some stability.
“Just lean back against the sofa.”
“I guess I hit my head harder than I thought.”
“Either that or the ride to the cabin was a little too much too soon. As soon as this stove gets a little hotter, I can warm some water for a bath for you.”
“It’ll take a while for the water heater to warm enough water. But it doesn’t matter. The towels are in my trunk.”
He smiled. “I have one you can use.”
She leaned forward on the sofa and looked around. “Wait. Did you get the solar system running? We have lights.”
“No. That’s a battery-operated lantern. I didn’t have time to get the solar system working. We have plenty of snow to melt and lots of heat to melt it with, so you should be able to clean up and ease some of the aches in your body from that tumble. You’re going to feel it otherwise.”
“That still leaves just one sleeping bag. Did you buy any perishable food?”
He smiled. “Not much. But there’s enough snow outside that we can pad the icebox to keep what I have fresh. And I have plenty of MREs. We won’t starve.”
“We? Are you here with anyone else?”
The sudden worried look he gave her was troubling. “I’m here with you.”
She shrugged and instantly regretted it. Leaning back and resting her head on her hand as she leaned against the sofa, she said, “Yes, but I won’t be staying. If we can call someone on the radio in your truck, someone can pick me up before things get too bad.”
He smiled again. “It’s too bad.”
“What is?”
He pointed toward the window. “The weather. You must have hit your head pretty hard. No one is going to get up this mountain road until the storm blows over.”
She gasped. “No. That’s impossible. It wasn’t bad when I left work. I mean, I know there is a lot of snow out there, but—”
“That was hours ago. Trust me. No one is getting up that road. I barely made it with the snowmobile. Like it or not, you’re stranded here with me.”
“No, no. That can’t be.”
Harper tried to get up from the sofa and then fell back.
“Easy now.”
“Easy nothing. My grandmother is alone.”
“I’m sure she is fine.”
“She’s going to worry.”
“You’ll call her.”
“Up here? There is no service at the top of the mountain.”
“We’ll try the radio to get a message through if we can. But no one is going to be able to get up that road to rescue you without risking their own life. Not even a plow. You’re stuck with me.”
Sweet Montana Rescue: Chapter Four
A lot of women may dream of being stranded with a gorgeous stranger like Nash Webber. If she weren’t so worried about her grandmother, maybe Harper would be one of them.
The wind howled wickedly through the rafters. Harper hadn’t heard that sound for many years and it instantly transformed her to a time when she was a child when she and Gail used to lay in the bed under the covers, afraid that the windows would burst open suddenly.
She chuckled at the memory.
“What?” Nash asked.
She shook her head. “Just remembering.”
He nodded. “I’m sure there are lots of good memories if your family has owned the cabin for a long time.”
“Most good. Some not so good.”
“Really? Well, I guess you can’t be happy all the time.”
She shrugged. They were going to be stuck here together until the storm passed. She hadn’t quite reconciled herself to that fact, but as the ache and bruises from the accident began to surface, along with memories, it was clear she was.
She didn’t want to talk about it now so she turned the conversation to him.
“What kind of work are you doing up here? I mean, I know that you're some sort of a scientist, but I can’t imagine what you’ll be doing here.”
“My work is usually in the mountains. I’m a geologist.”
She nodded and felt a little embarrassed that she wasn't exactly sure what a geologist did. But at the risk of sounding like an imbecile, she stayed silent and gave him an opportunity to talk about his work. Most people like to talk about the jobs. But when he said nothing more, she fought for something else to talk about.
“My grandmother also told me you were some sort of a survivalist, too? What's that all about?”
“Surviving.” He’d been stacking and restacking logs next to the wood stove, which was finally pushing out some serious heat now that he’d stoked it and added more logs.
“What are you doing?” she asked when he rearranged the logs again.
“I can’t decide which one goes better with my eyes,” he said.
“Your what?”
His smile was slow but when it came, she realized that was his
