Page 1 of Glacial Mountain Man
1
CANDACE
White. That was all I could see. Just white everywhere I looked.
That explained why people called it “blinding snow.” I was born and raised in a beach town in coastal South Carolina, so it wasn't like I'd ever driven through heavy snow before. Every single bit of this was new to me.
My heart pounding, I pressed the button for my emergency blinkers and leaned forward, squinting at my windshield. It didn't help. In front of me was a huge haze, with only faint outlines of trees. I couldn't even see the road anymore.
Panic rose in my chest. Anything could be up ahead. Was I even on the road at this point? Snow had covered everything—the main strip leading through town, the land on either side, the trees… The dark shapes I could make out only minutes earlier were gone. I'd lost all perspective.
Suddenly, though, I saw something to the left. A weird shape, long and skinny. It looked like a pole with a blob on top of it. As I drew closer, I solved the mystery. It was a mailbox.
I glanced in my rearview mirror, saw nothing but a blinding fog of white behind me, and pumped my brakes as gradually as Icould. That was another reason I needed to get off this road. I'd never driven on snow. All I knew was that I’d heard somewhere to gently pump brakes when driving on slick roads. Slamming on them could cause a car to slide all over the place.
I didn't even know it would be snowing here. Okay, that was partly my fault for not checking the weather forecast before I left. But my parents didn't know either, and by the time they texted me, I was already an hour away. I'd promised them I'd just keep going, and if it got bad, I'd pull over and stay the night at a hotel. But I really couldn't afford that, and I didn't want to ask them for money, so I kept going.
And now here I was.
Flipping on my turn signal, I took a left, hoping that I was turning onto the driveway and not into a ditch beside it or something. I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt the bumpiness of snow-covered gravel beneath my tires.
I kept going. At the end of this long driveway stood a much bigger lump than the one on top of the mailbox post. This one was clearly a log cabin, its roof covered in snow, welcoming me. I breathed a sigh of relief when I noted the glow coming from the windows. Plus, there was a gigantic truck parked next to the house. Someone was in there.
I pulled as close to the house as I dared, my headlights cutting through the swirling snow and illuminating the front porch. The cabin looked solid and warm, like a very nice couple lived there, maybe with two kids and a dog. I put the car in park and took deep breaths, grateful to be out of danger—for now, anyway.
My hands shook as I pulled out my phone. No signal, of course.
I was trying to work up the courage to get out of the car and knock on the door when another light flicked on inside the house, this one toward my end of the cabin. A shadow movedacross the window, and a good ten seconds later, the front door flew open.
When a man stepped out onto the porch, I nearly choked on my own sucked-in breath. He was huge. Broad shoulders, muscled chest, and wearing nothing but a pair of flannel pajama pants. Seriously? In this weather? Snow was literally falling on his bare skin, and he didn't even seem to notice.
"What the hell?" His voice boomed across the distance between us, and I could see his breath in the frigid air. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
I rolled down my window a crack, suddenly aware that my high beams were on, and yelled, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I got lost in the storm and?—”
"Lost?" He stepped off the porch, and I watched in amazement as he walked barefoot through the snow toward my car. Was this man part polar bear? "Lady, this is private property. There's a whole mountain of roads you could have gotten lost on, and you picked my driveway?"
Heat flushed my cheeks despite the cold air seeping through the crack in my window. "I couldn't see anything. I saw your mailbox and just… I needed to get off the road before I hit something. Or someone hit me."
He was close enough now that I could see his face clearly in my headlights. Dark hair, beard covering his jaw, and the most intense eyes I'd ever seen. Even angry, he was devastatingly handsome. And still shirtless in a blizzard.
"Are you insane?" I blurted out. "It's got to be below freezing out there.”
He looked down at himself as if just remembering his state of undress, then back at me with an expression that somehow managed to be both irritated and amused. "I was asleep until your headlights lit up my bedroom like a damn searchlight."
"Oh God, I'm so sorry. I didn't?—”
"Yeah, well, you woke me.” He ran a hand through his hair, sending snowflakes scattering. "Look, you can't stay out here. This storm's supposed to get worse before it gets better."
I blinked at him through the windshield. "What?"
"Get your stuff and come inside." He was already turning back toward the house. "Before we both freeze to death out here."
"Wait, I can’t?—”
He stopped and looked back at me, and something shifted in his expression. The irritation was still there, but I glimpsed something else now. Concern?
"Lady, I don't know where you think you're going to go in this weather, but it's not happening tonight. The roads are impassable, and they're only going to get worse."
