Page 124 of Mountain Boss

I have enough to worry about. There’s no use getting ahead of myself.

A gasp bursts outof me when my alarm starts beeping.

Still on my side, my hands are under my chin, but instead of being gently clasped, they’re clenched together painfully.

I reach out for my phone and groan because everything aches—giving me flashbacks to my first morning here when my body hurt from sleeping on the board.

But today, the groan hurts my throat too. And it only takes another moment for the throbbing in my head to make itself known. Only this time, my maladies have nothing to do with my mattress.

I pull my arm back under the blanket.

It’s so fucking cold in here.

I knew the heat wasn’t working last night, but I underestimated how fast the temperature would drop inside the cabin.

And going to bed with wet hair probably didn’t help.

“Fuck,” I croak. I instantly regret it because talking hurts worse than groaning.

I press my lips together, breathing through my nose.

I can’t get sick right now.

My multivitamin has betrayed me.

I want nothing more than to go back to sleep, but I need to get up.

And drink water.

And take the hottest shower I can stand.

If I had any sort of medicine, I’d be taking that too. But a bag of tea is about as close as I can get.

Maybe there’s some honey in the Food Hall I can steal.

With careful movements, I climb out of my bunk.

And that’s when I realize the blankets were trapping a lot more heat than I was giving them credit for.

Keeping all my layers on, I grab my backup towel—since my other one is either still on Sterling’s deck or in his house.

Before I step out the door, I pause and grab Spike, pants and all, off my counter.

No need for both of us to suffer.

“I’ll be back, I promise.”I adjust Spike’s position on the counter in the women’s restroom.

Guests are coming tomorrow, but on the off chance anyone comes in here, I can’t imagine they’d disturb Spike.

“This is better than the cabin,” I reassure her while pressing my fingers against my throat.

It’s an assumption because I’m too lazy to look it up. But I think it has to be better for a desert plant to be in a warm, humid room than a dry, freezing one.

With a final wave, I leave Spike and hurry back down the path to my cabin.

It’s supposed to be sunny today, and hopefully that will warm things up, but I need to dig through my boxes for my hair dryer. Because if I walk around all morning with wet hair in this frigid weather, I just might perish.

Chapter 103

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