Page 27 of When You Saved Me

And it pissed me the fuck off.

The image of her making breakfast for another man while he came up behind her and kissed her neck. How her lips would call out his name as he worshiped her body. The long nights they would spend together.

I gripped my fork with a vengeance, the metal biting into my palm.

“Everything okay?”

My vision cleared from the personal hell I’d made for myself, and her face came into view. Despite the look of concern, her blue eyes sparkled. They were so bright with all her attention on me.

Just like they’d been when I found her huddled under a towel in the corner of her bedroom. Her eyes had been the first thing I’d noticed that day. They struck me to my core because even in the midst of the flames surrounding her,there had been hope reflecting in those crystalline blue depths.

“Yeah, I…um…” I cleared my throat as I tried to make sense of the thoughts warring in my mind.

Her auburn brows pinched together even more as she assessed me with concern.

“I was just thinking about how I need to fix that broken pipe so we can get you back to the cabin. It’s probably going to be an all-day project.”

The lines of her forehead smoothed as she leaned back a little. “Oh,” was all she said.

I felt like a deflated balloon seeing the disappointment wash over her.Did that mean she wanted to stay with me longer?

“I just figured you’d want your own space again.”

Her lips pulled back, but I could tell the grin she wore was forced. “You’re right. It will be nice to have my own space again. There are some projects I need to finish anyways.”

I nodded, suddenly feeling an urgency to take back everything I’d just said. The retraction was stuck in my throat though and I didn’t know how to get the words out.

So, I did the only thing a man in my position could do. I stuffed my mouth with half-mixed pancakes and shut the fuck up.

“Are you sure you don’t need me to come with you to help?” Charlie asked as we stood by the front door, and I laced up my boots.

“No. I’m going to call the plumber on the way and take care of some of the water damage to the wood while I wait. You’re better off staying here.” I gestured to her paint supplies that I’d brought in from my truck last night. “The house is yours. Light a fire. Get some work done. Whatever you need, just use it.”

“Thanks for everything, Deacon.” A rosy tint graced her freckled cheeks as she nodded, and I found myself wanting to find everything in the world that would make her cheeks glow like that.

But that wasn’t my job. She wasn’t mine to hold or kiss or do anything with. And I had to let that be okay.

My hand gripped the door handle and as I pulled the door open, bright white light shone in, assaulting my eyes. I raised my arm to shield my vision and heard Charlie gasp from beside me.

Blinking a few times, everything cleared, and I realized it wasn’t the morning sun that did that. It was the several feet of pure white snow built around my porch.

“What the fuck?”

I stepped onto the wooden deck and looked around. Glimmering snow went on for as far as I could see. Charlie’s car roof was barely visible, and the tires of my lifted truck were buried completely.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Charlie step onto thefront porch with me. Craning my neck, I looked down at her. There was an awed smile on her lips as she took in the sight.

“Has it ever snowed this much here before?”

I gazed back out onto my property, completely flabbergasted. “Never.”

“What do we do?” she asked quietly.

The Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia had been known to get snowstorms. Last winter had produced a couple that gave us some solid inches, but nothing to this degree. It had to be a record-breaking snowfall.

Tightness struck my chest as realization dawned on me. There was no way out of this.

My plan to get the tiny cabin back into living condition so Charlie could leave my house by tonight was a no-go. We were stuck here.

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