Page 21 of Between a Rock and a Hard Cowboy

“Well, you can’t leave either so…” He tipped his head to the side. “I would get the snowmobile and drive you up to the big house so you can be snowed in with your besties, but it hasn’t been used since last winter and the battery’s dead on it. I’ll go out and hook it up to the battery charger as soon as I’m done eating, but it’s gonna need the night to charge.”

Her friends would tease her relentlessly if she spent the night here. But it didn’t seem like she had any choice.

She would have her own bed. How bad could it be? So what if Linc was here in the lodge too? He’d be in his room and she’d be in hers.

Eva drew in a breath. It would be fine. The house was warm. The WiFi was strong. There was food and electricity…

As the thought crossed her mind the lights flickered off then back on.

Linc put the bowl down and stood, heading for the fireplace.

“What are you doing?”

“Making a fire and lighting some candles.”

She didn’t want to ask the question because she feared she already knew the answer, but she did anyway. “Why?”

“Because we’re likely going to lose power.”

“Any chance you have a generator?” she asked.

“I do.” He nodded. “I’ll fire that up if we’re out for more than a few hours. It’s small but it runs the fridge, the well pump for water and the heat wrap on the pipes so they don’t freeze and burst.”

“And the heat and lights?” she asked hopefully.

He leveled a stare at her as the match burned in his hand and said, “No,” before he bent and lit the paper beneath the kindling in the fireplace.

“I suppose WiFi is out of the question.”

He laughed. “You are correct.”

Moving to the table, he lit a couple of candles then reached into the drawer and pulled out two flashlights.

“But the kitchen stove is propane so we can cook, and we’ll be able to flush the toilet and use the sink, so it’s not so bad.”

“Maybe the electric won’t go out…” she began.

After all, it had only been one little flicker, but he was acting like it was a black out.

A crack echoed outside that sounded like a tree breaking in half. That was followed immediately by a loudbuzzandboom. Then the lodge was plunged into darkness save for the candles and the fire that Linc had the foresight to light, as if he’d known this would happen.

“There goes the transformer,” he said before turning to glance at her. “What were you saying about the electric?”

Well, shit.

ChapterTen

Eva might act tough, but by the light of the fire and the candles, he saw terror behind her wall of aloofness.

As the snow continued to fall outside, blanketing the world around them in a thick, soft blanket of white, he said, “I know you’re not used to this…”

“I was born and raised in upstate New York. I’m used to this,” she countered in a tone with bite to it.

“Roan Mountain is one of the highest in the Appalachian Mountain range,” he said as proof that, New Yorker or not, shewasn’tused to this. Not like he was.

“And John T. Wilder, the founding father of both your family and this town, bought this property on Roan Mountain because it reminded him of the Catskill Mountains where he grew up… in New York,” she shot back.

He lifted his brows. “Impressive.”

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