Page 7 of The Pucks We Freeze
I pressed my palm to the wall behind her, steadying myself.
“It’s not safe for either of us to drive tonight,” I said, voice lower now, rougher than I intended. “I’m gonna stay in one of the empty rooms across the lodge.”
She didn’t move. Just watched me like she was still deciding which way was safer—toward me or away.
“If you decide not to join me,” I added, “make sure you put in a reservation so the staff knows to clean the room when you leave.”
A beat passed. The silence pressed in.
“And if you do…” I let the words settle between us, my gaze holding hers. “You know where to find me.”
Then I stepped back.
Because I already pulled myself away from her once, and if I stayed another second, I wouldn’t be able to do it again.
Chapter Three
Willow
The front desk was quiet, the storm outside, anything but.
I tried to stay calm, to focus on the task in front of me. I double-checked tomorrow’s checkouts, tidied the key drawer, and restocked the hot cocoa packets at the refreshment bar. But the flickering lights made it hard to pretend I wasn’t on edge.
Every time the power dipped, my heart jumped with it. I’d grown up at Black Bear Lodge and knew the hum of this place like a second heartbeat. But tonight, with the snow piling up and the silence stretching long between gusts of wind, it all felt unfamiliar. Off.
This wasn’t exactly how I pictured spending spring break. I could’ve been back in Braysen, hitting up Sugar Bottom Beach instead of counting cocoa packets and bracing for a power outage.
The front door slammed open, blasting in a sharp gust of wind and a dusting of snow. I startled as one of the overnight staff members, Mae Jensen, came tramping through the lobby in her thick-soled boots, bundled up like a walking sleeping bag.
“Mae,” I said, blinking. “You made it through that?”
She huffed, stomping the snow off her feet. “Don’t act so surprised, sugar. I’ve driven through worse than this just to get to church. But I nearly turned around twice coming up the hill.”
The lights above us flickered again. Both of us froze, as if it were a bear trap waiting to snap.
Mae’s brows pulled together. “You sure it’s smart stayin’ here alone?”
“I’m not alone,” I lied, pulling a couple of flashlights from under the desk and handing her one. “Backup generator will kickon if we lose full power. Just call me if anything weird happens, okay?”
She looked at me for a long beat, then nodded. I jotted down my number on a sticky note and slid it over. “Be careful walking back to the staff quarters.”
“Same to you, Willow.”
The lights dimmed again just as she disappeared into the back hallway, and that was enough for me.
I didn’t want to stay in the lobby. I didn’t want to go back to the cabin. And I especially didn’t want to sit alone with my thoughts, holding a flashlight while the storm rattled the windows and made everything eerily still.
So I did the one thing I swore I wouldn’t.
I went to find Kade.
His room was on the west side of the lodge, tucked at the end of the hallway just past the laundry alcove. I knew because I’d watched him check in on the security feed. I shouldn’t have, but I did. Saw him glance up at the camera before swiping his key card, a smug little smirk tugging at his mouth like he knew I was watching. As if he were daring me to come find him.
The flashlight barely lit the carpet beneath my boots, but I kept going. Just as I reached his door, the power cut off completely.
I froze.
The storm outside roared louder now that the hum of the heater was gone. I glanced at the black screen of the elevator panel down the hall, grateful I hadn’t risked taking it.
