Page 9 of Promises on the Mountain

"Oh, it's so cute."

I try to look at the old place through April's eyes. It's just a shack. My dad put in a septic tank and hooked up a modern bathroom back when I was still too young to go hunting with him and my brothers. There used to be a generator, but I put in some solar a couple years ago that runs some LED lighting. That's really about all the power the place needs.

I think I'm the only one that still comes up here these days.

There's a couple feet of snow on the ground up here, but the driveway is still clear from when I came up yesterday to make sure the place was clean and the firewood was stocked for our date.

After helping April down from the truck, I grab the cooler out of the back and meet her on the porch.

"What's planted in here?"

Damn, she's cute. She's leaning over the porch railing, peering into the raised flower beds that Dad built for Mom a million years ago-- back when they were first married, before any of us kids came along.

Memories of summer, camping up here as a kid fill my head, with the planters overflowing with Mom's wildflowers in bloom.

I grab the hidden key off the top of the door frame and open the door.

"Nothing," I tell her. "No one's touched those planters since my dad died."

"Someone's been working in them. Recently, from the looks of it."

After I bring the cooler in and get it set up on the counter inside, I go back out to see what she's talking about.

Sure enough, the soil has been worked recently, a thick top layer of mulch carefully applied over whatever's sleeping beneath it. A few small silver-green spikes shine up in places.

"My sister." I grunt. The stamped metal markers are a dead giveaway that Zephyr's been up here.

"Daffodils," April reads off a marker she pulls from one box. "Hyacinth," she reads off another after carefully replacing the first one.

"It's going to be beautiful when they're all in bloom in a few weeks."

The way she says it makes me wish I'd thought to raid Zephyr's greenhouse before I picked her up.

I'll make sure to bring her flowers next time. Right now, I want to get my girl inside so I can show her more things that'll put that dreamy look in her eyes.

5

APRIL

Raine's not joking when he says the place is small. Inside the little cabin is just one big room, with a door leading to a bathroom that looks like it was built on much later than the cabin's original construction.

A counter with a sink runs part-way along one wall, serving as the entirety of the kitchen, it seems. Next to the counter is a free-standing, wood-burning stove that stands on a brick hearth to give it some height. A small table and some chairs are the only furniture to be seen.

"I kinda expected just one bed." I laugh nervously, wondering what his plan is for the evening as he makes another trip out to truck.

"Even better," he says, kicked the door closed behind him as he drops the bundles he just carried in on the floor by the stove, "Just one floor. Lots of blankets."

Raine grins at me while I stare at the open space at my feet and take note of the pile of sleeping bags and blankets he just tossed there. He crosses the short distance between us till he's standing close enough that his broad chest grazes my nipples.

His fingers reach to cup my chin and lift my head to his and those wicked lips meet mine again. This time the kiss is deeper, slower, more patient but still hungrier than the one he laid on me before we left the cafe parking lot.

The chill in the cabin is forgotten, Kay's guilt tripping and gaslighting fade into the distance.

There's only the silence of the small cabin, the stillness of the winter forest twilight outside, and the growing need waking up inside me as Raine claims my mouth with his.

"I'm going to start a fire." He doesn't even break the kiss completely, his lips are still touching mine when he whispers the words in a dark, throaty voice that makes me think that, surely, he already has.

But he means in the stove. It's not until he puts space between us again that I snap out of my daze.

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