“Must be the good company,” Brooks said.
“Yes. That has to be it,” I encouraged him.
“Okay. Show me this master suite you have all arranged for me,” he said with a laugh. “Does it come with room service and all the bells and whistles?”
I giggled at him. “You wish.”
“I do wish,” he replied as he let me go and followed me around as I turned out all the lights and made sure I bolted the doors.
“Both bedrooms are up here,” I said as we walked upstairs. “The one thing I admired about this place was the view from up here.”
“I don’t know,” Brooks answered. “The view I have right in front of me is pretty stunning.” He seized hold of my waist and pulled me against him once we entered the top landing.
“My room is the one on the left, and yours is the one on the right.” I pointed to the guest bedroom.
“Okay. I’ll take that as a hint. I’m off to bed. I am off to bed,” he sang as he strolled towards the guest bedroom. Once he got to the door, he spun around, “Erika?”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you. Sorry if I became a little impatient or something down there. I didn’t mean to. It’s just been nice to see you, and I didn’t expect someone else to come visiting so late.”
I smiled at him. “Like I said, he’s just one of the neighbors up here. Once you get to know him, you might actually like him.” I shrugged as I walked towards my room.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” he replied as he closed the door behind him.
I closed my door and nestled myself under my comforter for the night, neglecting to close my bedroom blinds. The exhaustion got the best of me, and I didn’t want to get out of bed to close them. I could see the roofline of Easton’s cabin from my bedroom window. Even though I couldn’t see inside, I sometimes stared towards his place for no specific reason. I saw nothing, but now I wondered if maybe he could see into my bedroom from his cabin. Brooks was right; it was strange for him to be stopping by so late at night. And it was. But I supposed having my lights on that late was unusual, and it drew more attention to my home. I guess that’s a good thing to have neighbors watching out for you.
When I first moved up here, the welcome wagon arrived on my doorstep. It was unexpected and nice. They briefed me of all the happenings in the neighborhood. I learned of the few that toughed out the winters up here and when the others packed up and headed south for the season. One thing I found interesting was the red-light alert system that had been in place up here for years. Since our neighborhood was so remote, and cell and internet service were spotty, we relied on each other more than other neighborhoods. The county equipped each cabin with outdoor LED flood lights attached to the sides of the homes and viewable to the others. In an emergency, the lights all turned on with the flip of one switch, and the neighbors knew there was an emergency.
Before I moved in, I also had a surveillance system installed on my property. There were cameras outside my home and garage. I opted out of having cameras placed inside my home, but after being alone up here for a few months, it’d be wise to get some installed. Of course, that was on my never-ending to-do list.
I closed my eyes and felt comforted knowing Brooks was here tonight. That made me feel safer, having someone else here, especially him. A part of me wanted to walk into his room, but the other part of me knew I shouldn’t escalate anything. After all, he was leaving in the morning. I didn’t want to cause any issues or taunt the feelings of the past.
Chapter Four
“Holy shit!” Brooks shouted as he stepped back inside the cabin. He shook snow from his coat and stomped his boots before removing them. “It must’ve snowed three times the amount it did last night before we went to bed. I can’t even shovel this stuff.”
I laughed at him. “I warned you. I told you just to leave it—that you’re wasting your time.”
“No one will be able to go anywhere. It will be weeks before this all melts.”
“That’s what they’ve been saying. They’ve been tracking this storm for a while now. It sounds like it’s supposed to hover over us for a few days.”
“And you chose to live up here?” Brooks responded.
“Well, in all honesty, I am stocked up and fine being in my house. Besides, I have work to keep me busy. I have a deadline to meet in two weeks. So, this snowstorm was just another excuse to stay inside and write.”
He draped his coat on the hook by the door, set his boots off to the side on the rug, and brushed his hands to warm them up as he strode towards me. “I guess I should try to dig my truck out so I can get a head start before the worst comes in.”
“You’re going to drive in this? You’re insane!” I laughed at him. “You can’t go driving in this. You’ll never make it out of the area. You’ll end up in the ditch before you even hit the county line.”
“Well, I do need to get going.”
“You have to get back to Jaden?”
He just smiled at me.
“You can stay here until the storm passes if you’d like. If that’s okay with you. I just don’t see you safely getting back home to Jaden in this.”
“I don’t want to interfere. I know you have work to do, and I only planned on stopping by to say hi. That’s it.”
“Well, the weather had other plans.”
“That’s
