Page 9 of A Kiss For The Holidays

“What are you doing? Come back inside,” I shout over the howling wind. He opens his mouth but I can’t hear him, so I step a little closer.

“There was a dog, it’s injured. It ran off and I’m trying to find it.” Asher points behind him and I shake my head.

“We have to get inside, Ash. It’s too cold. Come on.” I go to reach for his arm again, but he lifts it, evading my grip at the same taking a step back and something hidden under the snow catches his foot.

I watch in horrific slow motion as he stumbles backwards and falls, his body disappearing from my sight. Blood rushes to my ears until all I can hear is pounding in my ears as I watch my best friend rolling like a marble down the snowy hill. Without thinking, I throw myself forward, trying to keep upright as the thick snow drags me down and the wind whips at my face. The snow is so thick, I can barely see, but I don’t take my eyes off the figure now slumped at the bottom between a line of trees. By the time I reach Asher, he’s sitting up, rubbing at his ankle. I grip his face and scan the rest of his body, there's no blood and apart from his ankle he seems unharmed.

A small sausage dog with tiny legs appears next to me, it’s holding one paw up and trying to nuzzle at Asher while I help him to his feet. He winces when he puts pressure on his left leg and I swing his arm over my shoulder, taking as much of his weight as I can.

“What the fuck were you thinking coming out in the storm on your own? And then chasing after a dog?! Fuck, Ash you could have gotten seriously hurt. You should have waited for me.”

He huffs, I feel it against my neck more than I hear it. “I don’t always need you Dalton,” he snaps and my breath catches. “I can do things on my own.” I know he can, and it’s not about him not being able to do things, it’s about me wanting to be there for him. I like doing things for him, being there for him. The way he snapped at me is so unlike him, but I put it down to fear, and the fact that he’s in pain.

Brushing aside the way his words sting, I hold him tighter and walk closer to the foot of the hill. There’s no chance we can go back up the way we came. I survey the area around us, but the poor visibility is making it hard for me to get my bearings.

“We can’t go back up this way.” I say.

“From looking at the map, I recall there’s a road that winds up and around, if we can find it, we can probably take it back up,” he says then looks down at his foot before adding, “although it may be a little slow going.”

“I could carry you,” I suggest.

“Absolutely not!” Ashers glares at me and I don't understand why he's so annoyed. I didn't get us into this situation.

“But I've carried you before, you like it.” The way he's looking at me has me questioning that statement. But no, fuck it, I remember quite clearly the last time I carried him, he laughed and we joked about it.

“Just no,” Asher says bluntly. “Here, carry the dog, the snow is far too deep for it to limp through.” He lifts the little thing and shoves it into my arms. I've no idea what crapped in his cereal this morning, but I don't push him.

“Grumpy Asher is going to bite our heads off if we're not careful,” I grumble to the shivering dog in my arms.

Asher stumbles a little so with my free arm, I grab him then help him through the treeline and towards where we hope the road is. He doesn't bat me away, but he doesn't say anything either. After what must be at least ten minutes of walking in silence - and not a comfortable one - I’m starting to sweat from the exertion of traipsing through the snow and supporting most of Asher’s weight with one side of my body. There’s no road in sight and I’m certain we’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere.

“Fuck!” I shout and Asher leans against a tree for a moment while I try to work out where to go next. Pulling my phone from my pocket I see I have no signal.

“Let’s just carry on west,” Asher says and given I have no better suggestion, we do that. The sky is now almost black and it’s getting harder to see in front of us. I’m starting to lose hope of finding the road while also feeling the grip of panic pulling me down when Asher spots a structure between the trees. “There!” Adding a bit of speed to my movements, I pull him forward until we are standing on the stoop of a small cabin with darkened windows.

Knowing we need to get out of the cold - the ache in my fingers the biggest sign - I try the door, relieved to find it unlocked, then lug Asher inside, placing him on a tartan covered sofa. The dog, who I had put down on the stoop, comes in too and deposits itself on the sofa next to him. I elevate Asher’s foot on the table in front of him, placing a throw cushion beneath it.

“I wonder who lives here?” Asher says and I look around until I find a side lamp which I turn on, creating a warm glow in the small rustic room. Next to the lamp sits a notebook withHarper Lodge Summer Villa Visitors Guideprinted on the front.

Lifting it up, so he can see it, I say, “I don’t think anyone lives here, I guess they use this for tourists in the summer.” Wind batters against the roof and windows and I almost cry in relief when I pull out my phone and see that I have one measly bar of signal. Trying to call my dad, the call won’t connect so instead I send a message hoping it will getthrough.

Asher and I got lost in the blizzard. We’ve found a small cabin but don’t know where we are or how to get back. Signal is terrible.

I hit send on the message then walk through the cabin, taking stock of what I find. A small bedroom with one double bed, a kitchen with running water and a cupboard full of canned foods and a tiny bathroom with a shower. There’s an old stone fireplace in the lounge, probably part of the original structure, though it looks unused and there's no firewood which, given this is a summer cabin makes sense. I decide I’ll look around later in the hopes there’s a log store somewhere nearby.

While the cabin is warm, it's not warm enough. I check the radiator to find it's on a low temperature and I can't find a dial of sorts to bump up the temp. I know from experience that it's customary to leave heating running even in vacant properties over winter to prevent pipes freezing.

Bundling up the blankets from the bed, I take them back to the sofa and sit next to Asher, pulling him close to me and then covering us both with a blanket. He tenses as I lace my pinky with his but I’m too tired - the adrenaline from earlier fading - to pay much mind to it and I rest my head back and close my eyes. Next to me, he releases a long sigh.

“You scared me Ash, I don’t ever want to lose you.” He doesn’t reply but I feel his head hit my shoulder and for just a moment I feel settled. Even if a storm is raging around us and we’re lost in the forest, we’re together and we’re both okay.

Chapter 8

Asher

“Well, that’s not great.” I look up at Dalton from where I’m lining up the tinned food I found, trying to decide what to eat. We’ve been in the cabin for an hour, which means we’ve missed dinner and my stomach is not happy about that fact. My ankle is aching, but it was thankfully a lot less serious than I first anticipated and I can put pressure on it even if I'm now hobbling a little.

I snapped at him out there and I feel guilty about it, so I'm trying to make it up to him. Falling down a hill is scary, it fucking hurt and throw in that I'm trying to keep my distance yet he wanted to throw me over his shoulder and yeah, it was all a little too much.

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