Page 26 of Snowed in With My Small Town Billionaire

Before he could reply, she walked away from him and went outside.

The cold air stole her breath away when she stepped outside. She carefully walked into the front yard of the lodge, laughing when she sank into the deep, fluffy, snow. Bright sunlight made the snow sparkle. Green pine trees had managed to shake off the snow and made a beautiful scene. She wished that she was an artist so she could capture it all on canvas.

She walked toward the side of the house and heard Oliver and Daniel talking.

“We have enough gas for the generators to last a week. After that, we’ll be cooking and heating the house on open flames. I don’t know what we’ll do about water.”

Oliver sighed. “We have enough food for about that long, too.”

“The good thing is that there is plenty of game out here, small and large. No one is going to starve.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Gwen went back inside and reported what she heard to Sawyer.

“I remember when you rescued us, someone talked about getting all the supplies out of the cabins. Maybe we should do that.”

Sawyer nodded. “Let’s go talk to the others.”

Everyone was in the living room and dining room. Sawyer asked for their attention and explained that resources were limited.

“I think we should go back to the cabins and gather everything we can find in each of the cabins and bring it back here. Lucas and I can go down the tunnels because we don’t want anyone else to be trapped there. We can bring up everything that we find and other people can tote them back to the lodge.”

The three college women, Darren, Joseph, Elsie, and Audrey agreed to help. Brent wanted to go, but Gwen gently reminded him that the snow was over his head in places.

“You need to stay here and take care of me,” Zaid said.

Brent sighed and agreed.

Tessie supplied them with bags to carry the supplies in. It was slow going. Although the snow had hardened and they could walk on top of it of most of the time, once in a while, someone sank and had to be pulled out by the others. Despite the dire situation, there was a lot of laughter.

Lucas and Sawyer crawled through the tunnels and ransacked the cabins. They pulled bags full of different canned goods, hot chocolate, coffee, breakfast bars, and even some wine and beer back through the tunnel with them. The others would haul the supplies back to the lodge and then head back to the next cabin to wait.

After a couple of hours, all of the cabins had been searched. They were tired when they went back into the lodge, but Gwen felt good that she had been able to help.

“Thanks, everyone. This will help a lot,” Oliver said. “Now, we need wood brought in.”

Groaning good-naturedly, they headed back out. Between all of their efforts, they had the wood box overflowing in no time.

Gwen had just taken off her coat and boots when Millie announced that dinner was ready. Emilia wheeled Zaid into the dining room so he could eat.

That evening, Gwen wandered back into the library. She didn’t want to play board or card games with the others. Sawyer was standing in front of the bookshelf.

She stood beside him and looked at the series he was inspecting.

“Michael and Kathleen Gear write very engaging historical fiction books. They include legends, myths, and information that is known about a Native American Nation or Tribe and weave a story around them. I love them. I’ve read all of them at least once.”

“I’ll have to check them out,” Gwen said. “You know, this hasn’t been a bad vacation, per se, except for Zaid’s leg. I’ve had new experiences that I never dreamed I would have.”

Sawyer looked at her and smiled. “True. And I’ve had a little down-time to relax and read.”

Gwen looked into his chocolatey brown eyes and smiled. She stood on her tippy toes and brushed a kiss across his lips. Electricity exploded inside of her and coursed through her body.

He stared at her in shock.

She had no idea what had come over her. Apologizing, Gwen ran out of the library like a pack of hellhounds were chasing her.

11

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