Page 5 of Winter's Kiss

“Don’t worry, sweetheart, we have plenty of everything we will need. Rowland is just down the way with even more supplies. And if we need to travel into town, we have the snowmobiles.” I shook my head even with her comforting tone.

“It’s not that. I’m just supposed to be somewhere tomorrow.” I paused. “Would you happen to have a phone I could use? My cell lost signal and I need to at least call my sister. So she can let everyone know I’m alive.” Anna smiled and nodded her head.

“The storm normally knocks out service around here, sadly. However, I can take you tomorrow into town on the snowmobile and see if you have a better chance at service. We are a little in a valley here.” I nodded my head at Theo’s suggestion. What choice did I have?

“Look at the time, I’m sure you’re exhausted after the day you’ve had.” Anna quickly inserted. “Let me show you your room. You can take a nice bath and relax.” The older woman walked around the counter and held her arm out.

I slid from the stool and smiled before I said my goodnights and thanked Theo once more. I followed Anna through a sitting room with two large couches, a coffee table in the center, and large floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the backside of the room. Up the stairs I glanced at a few of the pictures that hung, a short smile pulled along my lips to the ones I had been able to see of Rowland. I made a mental note to look closer, perhaps the next day.

“Fresh towels are in the closet,” Anna spoke as she pushed open a door to a room at the top of the stairs. “If you need anything, please let me or Theo know. Make yourself at home, dear. Our home is yours.” I smiled in reply to her and stepped to the center of the large room.

There was a Queen-sized bed placed in the middle, its frame brass. There were two large windows along the front of the room, and my bags were placed between them on a wooden bench. Just to the left of the room was a private bath. I pulled my phone from my pocket as I sat on the side of the bed, my gaze lowered to the device. Still, those dreaded two words stretched across the top.

Other than the state and the town’s name, I had no idea where I was. How could I tell my sister or parents even if I wanted?

Would I be locked up with these strangers for a week? Perhaps the storm wasn’t going to be as bad as they had thought? With a sigh, I tossed my phone to the nightstand and stood. With a smooth stride to the window, my eyes fell on the light glow in the distance.

Three

The clock had just turned over another hour, three in the morning, when I heard the beep on my cell. I rolled to my side and snatched up the device just as the alerts started. Andrew had called over twenty times and sent nearly fifty messages. I would think it to be much, but I understood he worried as he hadn’t heard from me in even the simplest of messages. My parents matched his effort while my sister had rounded with ten texts and four missed calls.

Laurel always had been a levelheaded woman. Perhaps that was how she was able to escape the control of our parents. She moved to her drum, had since we were children, and never allowed herself to go without what she wanted. I looked up to her, yet I had never been able to take her advice. The fact she left so early, she lived her life, only made me feel as though I needed to make up for it with our parents.

I knew it wasn’t as late in California as it was in North Carolina, and yet the idea of calling my parents and speaking to Andrew caused me to panic. They would request I came home, tell me to chalk up the trip as what it was, and consider it over. They would want me home, safe, and back where they could keep tabs. For thirty years, I never made my own choices, never spoke up. I wouldn’t do that anymore. That’s what this trip was about, I convinced myself as I dialed my sister’s number.

“Where the hell have you been?” I could hear the worry in my sister’s voice. “Where are you?” She quickly followed up with a calmer question.

“Muddy Waters.”

“Muddy Waters?” Laurel’s voice reflected her confusion. “Where the hell is that?”

“Southern Kentucky,” I replied with a light scoff. The line went silent for a minute while I prepared for her to make some snide comment about how off route I was.

“Are you okay?” She asked softly.

“I’m fine,” I answered simply.

“Oh, you don’t think that’s a good enough answer, do you?” Laurel chuckled with her question as I shifted up, my back against the brass headboard.

“I tried to avoid the storm, which turned out to be a stupid move on my behalf as I seemed to drive right into the eye of it,” I explained.

“I lost service so couldn’t use GPS or call anyone, then got stuck on the side of the road when my car just suddenly died.”

“Got stuck on the side of the road? So, what, you’re calling me from the side of the road?”

“No, course not. Some guy picked me up and…”

“Bitch, tell me you didn’t get in the car with some strange mountain man.” I heard my sister sigh through the line. I knew she would think it crazy as I did. “Cookie, that’s just, not smart.”

“It was that or freeze and die in my car, which would you rather I have done?” I snapped before I climbed from the bed. With a slow stride, I moved to one of the large windows, my gaze set on the same gentle glow in the distance. “I didn’t get a creepy vibe from him.” I continued in a soft tone.

“Excuse me for saying, but do you know what a creepy vibe is?” She had the right to ask me, hell I wondered myself. Never had I had the chance to meet someone new before my parents or friends had checked them out and given the clear. Even in school, seemed everyone I met was a relative of a friend of the family. Could I trust my instincts?

“Guess we will find out.” I teased as I stared out the window. The snow continued a steady fall. “Look, I don’t know how long I’ll have this signal or when I’ll get it back. Can you call mom and dad, let them know I’m alive and soon as this storm lets up, I’ll get back on the road.”

“And Andrew?” I looked to the ground for a moment at her question.

“I’m sure they will tell him.” Just then, I heard the beep of my phone. My eyes lowered to the screen to see the call had dropped, and once again, I had no service. With an exhale, I glanced back out the window before I moved back to the bed.

---