Page 17 of The Holiday Honeymoon Switch
She tails him around the back of the cabin and holds the lantern for him. “Okay, so you just have to flip this switch and turn this dial and…” In about ten seconds, the generator rumbles to life.
“I guess I didn’t read the instructions very closely.”
“That’s okay, it happens.” Aiden checks his watch. Obviously, this tall, handsome version of Paul Bunyan has other places to be. “You also wanted help with the woodstove?”
“If you could, thanks. Sorry to be such a bother.”
“No bother, this is why my number’s in the book.”
They step inside the cabin together, and he removes his snow boots, sets them on the thick mat. Even with his bulky footwear off, he’s well over six feet tall, and broad-shouldered. He crosses the room, and she follows again, noticing how nice he smells. Like botanical soap, and cedarwood shavings, and ambery musk.Hemust be the reason it smells so pleasant in here. He’s like a walking natural air freshener. “Okay, so as it says in the manual, this is what’s called a hybrid stove. You can burn regular wood.” He points at the split logs stacked on the built-in shelf taking up most of the wall by the stove. “You just do that in the usual way.” He turns to her, and in the now well-lit cabin, she feels a jolt. Has she met him somewhere before? “There are some newspapers and kindling in this bin here.” He taps a galvanized steel bin filled with the aforementioned items as the déjà vu fades somewhat. “But with the wood pellets, you feed them in here.” He opens a little drawer at the back of the stove. “And then you ignite them with this lighter—it’s rechargeable, electric, with a little switch right there—close the drawer and wait. They’ll start up in just afew seconds, and as long as you’re careful not to let it smolder too much, it’s the cleanest burn you can get.”
“That sounds simple enough.” She follows his instructions, and the hybrid side of the stove lights easily.
“Did you have any other questions, Ivy?” He’s looking down at her again, and the sense of familiarity is back.
“Um, I didn’t see a shower?”
He turns away again, pointing to the back of the cabin. “There’s a solar shower right around back, and it will work if you get an hour or two of sunlight during the day, but not otherwise. It’s pretty…refreshing, I guess, is the best way to put it, this time of year. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
“Before you go, can you recommend the best place nearby for me to get groceries tomorrow? Food, bottled water, basics like that?”
Now he grimaces as if she’s said a distasteful word. “You don’t need to use bottled water here. There’s a mountain spring that flows all year, and it’s the best water you can drink. Sorry, I thought we’d messaged about this last week.”
Holly feels chastened, embarassed. She’s tired of him saying,I thought we’d messaged about this.
No, we did not, Aiden. We have never messaged about anything.“Of course,” she says, trying to keep the confident smile on her face. “No bottled water. Promise. So…where’s the spring?”
“First, this filter”—he points to a contraption on the counter that looks like a miniature industrial coffee maker—“is for the water. It’s pure, but just to be on the safe side, I recommend my guests filter it. Or you can filter melted snow in that, too.”
“Right. Of course. Melted snow.”
It’s as if he can read her mind, see that she is picturing going into town and buying a case of Aquafina so she doesn’t have to melt snow or find the mountain spring out in the dark cold night. “Come on, I’ll show you where the spring is,” he says. The seriousness of his tone and the somber expression in his iceberg-blue eyes surprise her. And all at once, she knows who he reminds her of: Henry Cavill as Superman. Except this guy isEcoSuperman.
She puts her snow boots back on and follows him outside again. He hands her his lantern, and his blue eyes catch hers for a moment. She feels that flash of recognition—Henry Cavill, here to save the world, remember—then lifts a large stainless steel bucket off the front deck of the cabin and heads off through the deep snow. Soon, she can hear the burbling sound of a spring, light and joyful—so at odds with the sad heaviness she’s been carrying inside. Above them, stars are coming to life in the navy blue sky, twinkling like distant Christmas tree lights.
“There we go,” he says after the bucket is filled. “That should do it.” He carries the water bucket back to the cabinas if it weighs nothing. He didn’t put his parka back on, and she can’t help but admire the muscles she can see rippling, even underneath his thick flannel shirt. Inside again, he pours the bucket of mountain spring water into the filter, then turns to her and finally smiles. “This is the best water you’ll ever taste in your life, I swear,” he says, his blue eyes now bright with excitement, all guardedness gone. She finds his enthusiasm somewhat contagious, even if the amount of work required to get water is daunting.
“I can’t wait for my first sip,” she finds herself saying, stepping closer to him, breathing in his appealing, amber-musk scent.
“You won’t ever want to drink anything else.”
As he turns to check something on the filter unit, Holly takes out her phone and sends a quick text to Ivy.Hey, you didn’t mention you rented a cabin from Eco Superman. He looks EXACTLY like Henry Cavill.If she didn’t know that Ivy made it a practice never to have any romantic dalliances during her art vacations, she would have thought her friend planned this.AND he smells really good.Holly finds herself stepping closer and inhaling deeply again.
“You okay?”
“Oh.” Her eyes snap open. Aiden has stopped fiddling with the filter and has turned back in her direction, catching her mid-inhale, eyes closed. “Yes. I’m just…so excited aboutthe water. And all this fresh…air.” The duck-quacking sound Ivy set her contact card to is going off repeatedly in her hand now, and Ivy’s name appears, with the lineWell, you know what they say about getting over one man, right?—then an eggplant emoji. Holly puts her phone face down on the counter with a clatter. “I think I’m just hungry,” she says.
“Okay then. Any other questions?”
“No, I think that’s it. Thanks for coming out here, Aiden.”
“Sure thing, Ivy. Just text if you need anything more.” He gives her a long, searching look before turning toward the door—but then he turns around again. “Can I ask you something? I’m sorry if this sounds weird—”
“Ipromise, no bottled water. Girl Scout’s honor,” she says, even though she was never a Girl Scout and has no idea where that came from.
“You really look familiar. I know the contract says your name is Ivy Casey, but you look so much like someone I used to go to school with. I wonder if you’re related or something. You don’t know someone named Holly Beech, do you?”
Holly thinks about just shrugging it off as a coincidence and continuing to pretend to be Ivy, but as she looks into his earnest blue eyes, she finds herself thinking there must be a special place in hell for someone who lies to Eco Superman.
