Page 21 of Snowed in With My Small Town Billionaire

“I think morphine is more in order,” Lucas groaned. “You didn’t have to bring any with you, did you, Sawyer?”

“Um, no. The feds tend to frown on folks toting around morphine randomly.”

“Well, I guess you could take me out back and shoot me. If I’m not better in a week, then you can shoot me again,” Lucas said.

“You need new material, Brother,” Sawyer said. He looked at Daniel and grimaced. “Where’s Oliver? I would love to have some of those pills.”

“I’m here and I already figured you would need them,” Oliver said.

Tessie was right behind him with cups of hot coffee and bottled water. Sawyer held out his hands and Tessie gasped.

“Those are just as bad as Oliver’s and Daniel’s hands this morning. I have some aloe.”

Sawyer examined his hands and noticed that his blisters had blisters. “They do sting a little.”

“That’s an understatement,” Lucas said, inspecting his own hands.

Tessie suggested putting bandages on their hands.

“Unless you have a lot of gauze that we could wrap around our hands, no bandage would stay,” Sawyer said.

“We have plenty of gauze,” Oliver said, looking at his own hands. “We have enough to tend to our hands.”

They finally managed to force themselves out of the chairs and take their bags into the bedroom before heading to the kitchen for snacks to tide them over until lunch.

Daniel struggled to bring in an armload of wood. Without saying a word, Sawyer and Lucas pulled on their coats and gloves and followed him outside.

“Thanks. I appreciate the help.”

“Whatever we can do,” Sawyer said, while Lucas nodded in agreement.

Lunch was a delicious homemade beef stew. Sawyer was seriously considering a nap when Darren and Zaid approached their table.

“Can you guys snowshoe?” Darren asked.

Lucas nodded. “And we brought our own equipment. Why? What’s up?”

“We thought we might walk to the main road to see how bad it is,” Zaid said. “We thought you guys might like to tag along.”

Darren rubbed his face. “We know you’re even more tired than we are since you were shoveling a lot longer, and we would completely understand if you wanted to nap. However, I get the feeling that you would rather go with us than hang around in the living room, or parlor, as Oliver calls it.”

“I’m in,” Lucas said.

Sawyer nodded.

“Meet you outside in ten minutes,” Darren said.

The road was quite a distance from the lodge when walking on snowshoes. They walked mostly in silence. Sawyer’s breath came out in small frozen puffs. His parka shielded him from most of the cold, but his face felt as though tiny knives were stabbing him.

Aside from that, the land was incredibly beautiful. The snow glittered like a million diamonds had been thrown on it. The tall pine trees waved gracefully in the breeze. The silence was almostdeafening. Sawyer could hear his own breathing and his own heartbeat.

Lucas interrupted the quiet. “What got you guys into classic cars?”

“My dad started the business when I was about ten. I loved to help him. Zaid has always been more like a brother than just a friend, so he was constantly hanging out at the shop or the house. He calls my folks Mom and Dad. It made sense to let him buy into half the business when Dad was ready to retire.”

“What’s your favorite?” Sawyer asked.

“I know it might sound trite, but I love the ’64 and a half Mustang,” Darren said.

---