Page 29 of The Millionaire's Mechanic

Georgia glanced at his mantlepiece. “Most of the fireplaces in the bedrooms are gas. Are you sure we can trust the gas lines?”

“They run those underground, don’t they?”

She shook her head. “The fuel is one of the big propane tanks outside, and it’s almost empty.”

Rainer closed his eyes. “What?”

A small calming touch above his elbow. “We didn’t know to check the gauge. Your friend might not think about that until he gets up here.”

“More likely it was one of Garret’s people who forgot to check the gauge. They prep the place so everything will be ready for him and his guests to drop in.” He scowled. “At least they stocked the kitchen with canned goods in addition to the frozen meals. We won’t starve.”

“We’ll be fine.” Georgia took her hand back. He immediately missed it. “The fireplace in the living room burns real wood, and there’s that pile in the back of the garage. It’ll be nice and dry, so that’s not a problem.”

They had discovered the chest-high pile of logs early on, had even used a few to make a cozy fire when the snow first began to fall, but he was regretting that. What if they needed to conserve that fuel, too?

Then you’ll find a fucking ax and you’ll cut down the damn tree that took out the solar power. Two birds—keeping Georgia warn and sweet revenge.

“That’s a much bigger room to heat,” he pointed out.

She lifted a shoulder. “We’ll have to camp close to the fireplace. Let’s move the couch back and drag our mattresses there. We can pile every blanket in the house on them.”

Rainer nodded. Her plan was their best bet to stay warm for the next couple of days. “Think we can cook on the fireplace?”

“I’m sure we can jerry-rig something up.”

He swore. “We’re surrounded by snow, but, if our plan works, everything in the freezer is going to melt.”

The kitchen and living room were one big room. If they managed to keep the temperature up, then all the pre-prepped meals would spoil.

Snickering, Georgia jerked her thumb at the window. “Viola, Mother Nature’s freezer. Let’s unload everything and put it in a snowbank on the east side of the house, where the sun doesn’t hit.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He followed her out of the room before a thought occurred to him. “Shit. Won’t it attract bears?”

She stopped short, consternation on her fine features. “Ugh, let’s hope they’re all hibernating.”

They spent the next few hours executing her plan. The food was the easy part. To prevent frostbite, Rainer grabbed a snow shovel from the garage, using it to carve out two holes in the drift outside. If a bear was untimely roused from his nap, then maybe he or she would only find one.

Georgia stacked the prepared foods into the holes, keeping the more fragile things like the eggs and juice cartons on the right side. Then they sprinkled the contents with fresh powder to keep them as cold as before. Finally, they used spare plywood they found in the garage as makeshift doors.

The nest in front of the fireplace proved more problematic. The six-piece sectional in the sunken living room wasn’t one of the modular kinds that could be taken apart. It was one single massive piece of furniture, too heavy for them to move more than a few inches.

“Stop,” he said when Georgia’s feet almost slid out from under her. “We’ll just leave it and sleep on it.”

But when they tested the arrangement after nightfall, the couch was too far from the fireplace for them to feel the heat.

They ended up grabbing a mattress from the nearest guest room. After moving the coffee table, they found there was just enough room to fit the queen-sized bed between the fireplace and the couch, leaving a foot or two of space as a buffer.

“Do you think that’s sufficient? What if the fire throws out sparks and the blankets catch fire?” Georgia asked as they prepared to bunk together for the first time.

“It should be enough of a gap for any sparks to die,” he said, hoping the mattress was the fire-retardant kind. “But we’ll keep the screen up when we sleep, just in case.”

Nodding, she curled up on his right, her feet closer to the fireplace. She snuggled under the comforter from his bed, getting cozy for the night.

Rainer stretched out next to her, laying on his side so he could prop his head on one arm. “This is not exactly the glamorous getaway I promised you.”

A little pucker appeared between her brows. “When did you promise me glamour? The only thing you said was that we’d be going someplace safe.”

He let his head fall back on the mattress, snorting. “I’m not sure this place qualifies.”

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