Page 147 of Rock Giant
Her bare feet were like blocks of ice.She rubbed them, trying to offset the numbness setting in, then folded herself up small by pulling her knees against her body, and drawing her pyjama top over them.Damn it was bitter!And to think it’d only been a week and a half ago that they’d all sat outside around a campfire.Mind, that’d been a stretch further south than she currently was.
She imagined being swaddled inside Paul’s oversized jumper, the threads ticklish against her arms, and the faint trace of his scent still captured amidst the fibres.He always smelled so good.Earthy, but clean.Snuggly, not that snuggly described a scent, except it kinda did.
How far off was dawn?Two, three, maybe four hours away.That wasn’t so long, really.She’d endured sound checks that lasted longer than that.
At least her position here gave her a vantage point from where she could watch the car park for arrivals.Someone might stop.She could ask to use their phone.She wouldn’t ask for a lift, not unless it was a family, not while she was dressed in skimpy nightclothes.That sort of thing was risky enough all buttoned up and with pepper spray in her pocket.No, she’d just ask to use their phone.Not that she knew any numbers.
She could phone Paul.She did have his number, or rather Flugwhump did.She’d been wary of storing his number on her phone given Nash’s attitude, so she’d filed it on a curl of paper inside the little capsule tag on Flugwhump’s collar.
Okay, so, she’d phone Paul, but would he answer?
He would.She was sure he would.Even if he hated her.He’d still answer.That was who he was.He kept his promises, and he’d promised her all those things—that he’d take care of her, be there for her.She needed him to be here for her now.Not that there was any way for him to know that.Yes, he’d help if, or rather when she called.
He would.
God, he would, wouldn’t he?
Tears trickled down her cheeks.Jodi rested her damp skin against her knees.The snow had stopped, having only glazed the surroundings.She’d stopped shivering too.Maybe the temperature was warming up as dawn approached.
Damn, she blinked to stop her eyelids falling.It wasn’t half hard keeping herself focused on one spot when it was so unchanging.
**
Jodi was back in the glass dome.The remnants of her message to Paul still smudged the glass by the door.She’d been trying to light a fire for an hour now, but the collection of twigs refused to catch.The night before he’d made it look so easy.The former pub dining shelter contained most of the same comforts it’d provided the night before, all except the vital one, the one that’d turned the temporary shelter into a palace.
She hadn’t expected him to still be here when she’d returned, but she’d not been prepared for his absence either.It had left a funny lump in her throat and an ache in her chest that no amount of massaging would shift.
They’d lain, there.He’d sung to her, there.Handed her the best cup of tea ever brewed, there.
The kittens were back in their trough, their three little pink noses peeping out from their fur.The vet had said they were maybe three to four weeks old, and that she could start offering wet food alongside cat milk.At least they could lap that up.No need to bottle feed.It was going to be too cold for them, though, if she didn’t get this fire lit.
Why...wouldn’t...it...just...bloody...strike.Increasing the pressure she used to scrape it along the striking surface caused the match to snap.Jodi dropped it into the bundle of twigs with a cry of frustration.Why hadn’t she joined the Girl Guides instead of wasting her youth hotwiring cars?Then maybe she’d have some useful practical skills.
Catch.Please.Oh, fucking Christ.Just catch will you.
The tiniest of tiny flames formed around the edge of one of the twigs.“Please,” she begged, pushing more of her bird’s nest of kindling towards it.“Please...please...please.”
It caught.
It finally caught.
“Impressive, Castle.”She turned to find him sliding open the glass door to her shelter in a way that had definitely never happened.
**
“Castle?Hey, wake up.”
Her sluggish brain took a while processing that Paul Reed was standing over her.His face was rimed with shadows, and for a moment, she thought they were in the glass dome the morning after she’d drowned his tour bus.Then he shifted enough for her to see the stars behind him, and she remembered.They were in Norway, three years on from that event.And it was impossible for him to be here.He was just a hypnagogic bit of wish fulfilment.She blinked, but he remained.Crouched now, and peering at her in obvious concern.
“You here with me, Castle?”
“Yeah.”She lifted her head from her knees.Her neck and all her limbs were stiff.Her fingers screamed for mercy as she straightened them.“How?”she croaked, still staring at him, almost certain that he’d blink out of existence if her attention lapsed even for a second.
A smile tugged his lips away from his teeth.“Got a call from some friends of yours a bit frantic about your absence.”
So, the rest of the Ghost Boys had realised she was missing and acted.Yet, it wasn’t daylight.Wait, Jez had been awake, hadn’t he?She’d glimpsed him right before she’d climbed out of her bunk.So, they’d called Rock Giant when they realised she wasn’t onboard.And he’d come.Exactly as he’d promised her, even though she’d given him no reason to.
They stared at one another for a moment, while she let that fact sink in, and then once it had, while she embraced him in her head and took back all the things she’d said to him hours before.
