Page 34 of Finding Love on the Slopes

Leigh swatted him on the arm and rolled away, coming to a seated position back on her side of the mattress. “A gentleman would never comment on the flush of an embarrassed woman, you scoundrel.”

“Sweetheart, I have been called many things; gentleman has rarely been one of them. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure Hannah is the only one who has ever called my brothers or me that, and it was more of a “say it enough times, and it may come true” kind of thing. Relax. I was teasing you. You have nothing to be embarrassed about. It is freezing in here, and at some point, during our precious few hours of sleep, your body sought out the only warmth available: me. Personally, I’m grateful. I’m not sure when you rolled over here, but the shivers racking my body were making everything hurt a lot worse. Then, all of asudden, they stopped. It’s entirely possible your nurturing side slid over here, not for your sake but for mine. Either way, we managed to stay warm long enough to grab some sleep, and for the record… we had all our clothes on. This was a survival huddle, nothing more.” His smile was warm and tender, not the charming, seductive one he had used to get his way so many other times.

“Glad I could help. Now, order of business. It has to be close to zero degrees in here. Do you think I should make us some breakfast real quick and then go in search of firewood or firewood then food? I’m having a hard time thinking straight this morning. Though I’m not sure why I’m asking you, you’re the concussed one in the room.” She smiled at her attempt at levity, knowing it was lame at best.

“Food then fire. That is the order Curtis would put them in and I find myself asking What Would Curtis Do whenever I’m in situations like this.”

Enrique carefully lifted himself to a sitting position, stretching his long legs out in front of him while he reclined his back against the couch.

Leigh scoffed, “When have you ever been in a survival situation like this before?”

Folding his hands in his lap, he tried to distract himself from the ache in his ribs. “Okay, you’re right. I haven’t, but if I ever were, like now, I would ask myself what your brother would do, and he would say food, then fire.”

“Okay, we have oatmeal in a couple different flavors, and bacon and eggs. Which sounds the most appetizing?”

“I think I would rather have oatmeal; any flavor is fine. It seems like it lends itself to being packaged for long periods of time, whereas I personally like my eggs light and fluffy and my bacon extra crisp. I’ll wait until my chef can prepare them for me properly.”

“Oatmeal it is!” Leigh got up from the floor, retrieved her ski boots from where they had been discarded the previous evening, and put them on before crossing the ice-cold floor to the box containing the ranger supplies. She pulled out two apple and cinnamon packages and one blueberry. In minutes, they were ready. She combined both apple cinnamon into one package for Enrique, and she took them along with two spoons she had tucked into her pocket to warm to the couch. Enrique had put the cushions back on, thinking at this point, the more distance between them and the floor, the better.

They ate their meals in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

“I’ll wash up the dishes this time,” Enrique offered.

“Ha, you’re funny. Trying to act the gentleman when there are only two spoons to wash.” She grinned sarcastically, like she had caught on to a game he was playing.

Enrique’s eyes narrowed, his penetrating gaze fixed on her gorgeous blue eyes, “I don’t pretend to be something I’m not unless I have good reason. Don’t confuse me for a gentleman; I’m not one. I do try to treat others with the respect they aredue, and you... I owe a great deal to. Washing the dishes seems the least I can do.”

“If I weren’t at risk of hypothermia, I would stay and discuss this further, but for now, I will agree to table it until I can find us something to burn and heat this place back up. These rangers have a nice food supply; there has to be firewood somewhere. I just need to dig it out from under several feet of snow. Choosing the right pile of snow to dig in, now that is going to be a fun Easter Egg Hunt. Wish me luck!”

Leigh rose from the couch, taking Enrique’s empty MRE package out of his hands and placing it into her mesh trash bag hanging in the kitchen before dropping the spoons into the basin of frozen dishwater she had prepared the night before.

She made quick work of bundling up against the blizzard that continued to rage outside the tiny structure. Enrique stood by the door, waiting.

“I’ll close the door when you leave. Work as quickly as you can so you don’t freeze from the wind.” Handing her the fire poker, he added, “I was thinking if you thrust this into the snow piles, you may determine which pile to dig in much faster. Conserve some energy, too.”

Leigh’s face lit up, “That is a great idea. I was wondering how many piles I would have the energy to dig through before I needed a break. This will make the process go much faster. Instead of that small fire poker, let me use the broom. It is longer and gives me more to hold onto. I’m afraid I will drop that inthe snow, and then what will we use to push the coals around with?”

Grabbing the broom from the corner, she opened the door and climbed over the pile of snow that had accumulated against the door. Enrique pushed the door closed against the wind behind her and set about scooping up the snow from the floor with an empty metal pail.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Leigh took in the scene before her. Snow blew all around her as the wind whipped ice crystals against her face. She wouldn’t last long out here, and she prayed the rangers had the wood stacked nearby.

The front porch was small, leaving little room to stack the wood there, but she poked around anyway, just in case. No luck. Leigh moved onto the right side of the house, where the snow had piled up all the way to the roof. It was going to be fun digging through all of that.

Poke after poke, she moved along the house, praying for a solid thump that would indicate something hidden below. When she reached the end of the cabin, she decided to circle back to the left side and try her luck there. Stacking it at the back of the house seemed odd to her, and she hoped her hunch was right as the cold had already gotten to her fingers, and holding the broom was getting harder.

She was blessed with a solid thump on the very first thrust of the broom handle into the pile of snow along the left side of the cabin, and tears of joy sprang to her eyes. Blinking rapidly to dispel the moisture before her eyelids froze, she went back to the front of the house and grabbed the pail she had brought out to help dig with.

Within minutes, she had removed sufficient snow to reach the wood and was pounding on the door with an armful of firewood. Enrique opened the door and took the wood from her before she pulled it closed and went back for more. They repeated this process until the pile inside was easily five times the size of the one they had started with the day before. Leigh wanted to make sure they had enough to get through the storm, then they could go get more while they waited for help to arrive.

Leigh was shocked upon reentering the cabin that Enrique already had a roaring fire going.

“When did you have time to do that?” she asked, pleasantly surprised.

“In between your trips for more. Here, come stand by the fire and take your outer layers off so the heat can get to your skin faster.”

He helped her remove her coat, scarf, gloves, and other items, hanging them over the chairs in the kitchen.

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