Page 17 of Frozen Play

What the—Right. Phin.

“Oscar. Riley.” Phin spoke from behind me.

“This is who you had to tow last night?”

“Obviously.”

“And you spent the night with him?” Riley’s voice lifted in disbelief.

“Oh shut up. We huddled around the gas fire in the cottage to stay alive. The power’s down, since the lines are under the snow between us. But to be clear, I’m not a Victorian virgin. And if anything did happen, that’s up to me.” Older brothers were overprotective.

“I need to apologize to you guys.”

Shit.I knew what Phin meant, but his timing made it sound like something had gone on last night.

Oscar started forward, but Riley held him back. “Power lines.”

Right. The reason why I couldn’t just cross over and get a lift home with them. “Can you two settle down and listen for aminute? Phin isn’t apologizing for anything from last night.” I glanced back and he was shaking his head.

“No, too cold to do anything. I mean, not that Skye would. Or maybe she would but we didn’t. Just talked.”

“Sounding a little guilty there, Collins.”

Phin had his arms wrapped around himself, his coat not sufficient for the cold. This needed to move along.

“We can deal with apologies about the past later. The important thing is that I ditched the truck but you can’t tow us out till they do something about the power lines. Meantime, we have water, some food, and heat from a gas fireplace. When can someone from the power company get here?”

Oscar was glaring at Phin. Riley rubbed his chin. “A bunch of lines went down around town last night. I called, but they can’t commit to be here till late today or tomorrow morning.”

“But tomorrow is Christmas!”

“For them too.”

The silhouette of the fallen pole was visible under a blanket of snow but I couldn’t see the lines, pulled down from the surrounding poles.

“We’re supposed to stay thirty-five feet away,” Riley commented.

Phin and I scrambled back. I was pretty sure the tow truck and Honda were both closer than that. I projected thirty-five feet on either side, to see if we could walk around them, but that hit the fence Lina had put up.

“Do you know where they are?” Oscar was scanning the snow like he could see through to the source of the problem.

“No, I didn’t map them out last night. It was dark, and you know, a snowstorm.”

“Will you be okay till they clear these up?” I could hear real worry in his voice.

Phin spoke up. “There’s enough food, and water. We can stay warm as long as the gas works on the fireplace.”

Riley frowned. “We’ll come again later, make sure you’re doing okay. We’ll bring some water, canned goods, or something. Throw them to you. And I’ll pressure the utility guys all I can.”

Brothers were the best as well as the worst. “It’ll be good. You know where I am, even if cell coverage is shitty, and we have heat and a place to shelter. If we get desperate, I’ll use the radio in the truck.” Even though it was too close to where the lines were. “We can make it a little longer.”

Riley grinned. “You’ll have to tell us how you ditched the truck. While towing someone.”

Yeah, I’d never live that down.

“That was my fault,” Phin said. “I distracted her.”

Nice of him to want to defend me, but I didn’t need it. And Oscar was starting to glare at him again.

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