Page 62 of Freeing the Wild
“You planning on getting in a fight?”I smile sleepily, gesturing to the Maglite he’s carrying before glancing at the clock on the wall.It’s just after nine-thirty.
“Yeah, if you didn’t answer the door.I’ve been pounding for five minutes.”
“I was tired,” I say groggily.And deep in the nightmare that just keeps coming back.
“The power went out about twenty minutes ago, Cass.I texted you but you didn’t answer.Jesus, it’s freezing in here.Did you even have the heat on?”
Haden mutters to himself as he flicks on the flashlight and shines it around the room.I assume he’s making sure everything is okay in here.
“I turned it down,” I say.“I was cooking earlier so it got warm.Then I fell asleep before I remembered to turn it back up.”
“Well, this just won’t do.Cole’s saying there was a massive accident off the highway which blew a transformer.He says the power could be out for hours.”
“Oh?”The idea of staying here alone in the dark is not very appealing after that dream.
“I’ve got enough wood for both of us,” Haden says.I turn to him and raise my eyebrows, unable to help myself from joking with him.I let my gaze scan his body.
“Ohreally?”I ask, trying to lighten his serious mood.I can’t be sure because it’s fairly dark, but I swear I almost see the hint of a blush on his cheeks.
“For afire,” he enunciates, before I think he adds “little brat” under his breath.
I glance out the window and see an orange glow coming from his cabin.Maybe I can get him to help me make a fire before he—
“Well, come on then.”He nods toward the back of the cabin.“Get whatever you need.You’re with me tonight.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Haden
“So this is what a cowboy’s home looks like, huh?”Cassie asks, wandering around my living room.
“You expected tumbleweeds and photos of horses?”I joke as I stir my cast-iron pot on the fire rack.
Cassie touches the antler bookends on my shelf.“You’re too clean for tumbleweeds but the antlers don’t surprise me.I expected more taxidermy maybe.Deer heads, possibly a bearskin rug.I mean, I haven’t seen it in the daylight, but by candlelight it sure looks pretty.”
I watch as she checks out my book and vintage board game collection on the old rustic shelf behind my harvest table, running her fingers along the spines.I don’t have time to read much anymore, but I used to binge true crime and murder mysteries until the early hours of the morning as a teen.Some of my books are first editions so I’ve always held onto them.
“Not sureprettyis the word,” I tell her.“Manly, maybe.Rugged, rustic.Modern—”
Cassie laughs.“Very manly.”She’s holding up a very early edition ofThurston Houseby Danielle Steel.
“My grandmother was the only motherly figure I hadafter my mom left.My dad’s mom.She died a few years back but that was one of her prized possessions.The games are my grandfather’s.There are a few more classic eighties romances of hers there if you’re looking to borrow one,” I tell her with a smirk.
Cassie’s eyebrow raises and she eyes me playfully.“I used to sneak these books when I was too young for them.My mom has a pretty good collection of eighties romance too.Maybe you can ask her to borrow some?”
I chuckle in response.
“So the big question …” she muses as she puts the book back on the shelf.“Is have you read it?”
“’Course,” I tell her honestly.“I’m confident enough in my masculinity to read a steamy romance novel.It’s also a story about generations and a single father raising his beloved daughter in a time of turmoil.Just sayin’.”
“You surprise me, Haden Westbrook,” Cassie says, coming to sit down on my living room sofa.She grabs a blanket to keep her warm on the cool leather.
“And you surprise me, Princess.This actually smells really fucking good.”I pull the hot cast-iron pan out of the fire and replace the ornate screen in front of the flames.
“What?You doubted my cooking abilities?”
I look back to the fire in an attempt to ignore how pretty she looks curled up on my sofa in the firelight.The snow is so heavy outside the cabin window you can’t even see hers anymore.But in here, it’s warm.I’m nothing if not a prepared man, so I have everything I need ready: flameless candles to light the space, lots of chopped wood, blankets, cast iron to cook, and a kettle for coffee or tea over the fire.
