Sugarplum (Silk Stocking Inn Book 5) Page 6

  I finished the shower and thought about my poor bent car as I dried off. I would absolutely need it back tomorrow so I could head home. And that realization took the steam out of my engine. I blew out a long, disappointed breath. Home. Job. Regular life with its tiny ups and occasionally bigger downs. Ugh, it was going to be hard to face it after this weekend.

  Brushing my long hair was an arduous and slightly painful task after the night of activity. I winced through the last snarl and pulled on my robe. A delicious aroma of something savory, like bacon and potatoes, struck me as I walked back into the bedroom. A pot of coffee, glass of orange juice and a plate covered by a silver dome was sitting on the tiny table in front of the window.

  I sat at the table and shifted back the curtains so I could have a view along with my breakfast. I lifted the dome and somehow wasn't the least bit surprised to find my favorite breakfast of bacon, eggs and hash browns on the plate. The aroma was so rich, I almost didn't need to put the food in my mouth to taste it.

  Down below, the yard was covered with a new layer of powder that hadn't been disturbed yet by footprints, man's nor animal's. I glanced toward the forest area where the bear had disappeared to the night before and then stared down at my own giant breakfast. The poor thing looked so hungry. Hopefully, she would find some form of sustenance to get her through the rest of the winter.

  I lowered the curtains and picked up the crisp white linen napkin next to the plate. Coco saw to every detail. The Silk Stocking Inn had been hand embroidered in pink floss across the top. I felt more embroidery on the back and flipped it over, expecting to see the same on the back. But instead the same pink floss spelled out a quote. "The best fantasies grow into realities." I blinked down at the quote. It couldn't have been more appropriate for the way I was feeling. Uncanny. It was the best word I could think of to describe it.

  I placed the napkin on my lap and dug into a breakfast that was nothing short of sublime. I picked up a piece of bacon. My attention was drawn to the window by the sound of a motor and deep voices. One deep voice in particular caught my attention.

  I whipped back the curtains farther and found if I leaned my head sharply to the side I could see the front driveway. Holt's snowmobile was parked out front. My eyes swept past the machine to the tail end of a tow truck. My car was clipped to the end of it.

  As I picked up my napkin, Holt stepped into view, temporarily making me forget that I should probably grab a coat and my keys and head down there. But by the time I stood from the table, the tow truck was heading down the driveway with my car. I looked at the dresser where I'd left my keys. There was a note in their place. "You were in the shower. I hope you don't mind, but I gave Holt your keys so his friend could pick up the car. Coco."

  "Now that's service," I mused and headed back to the breakfast. I nibbled absently on a piece of toast, waiting for oversized boots to climb the stairs. Instead, the roar of the snowmobile's motor shook the window. Holt turned down the driveway and took off across the snowy landscape. That was when it hit me—I had no idea if he was coming back. He mentioned he took turns at the forest ranger station, but he never told me details about his work schedule. Maybe last night was it. He left this morning without a word. Maybe he thought that was the easiest way to end what we'd started. No commitments. No good-byes. No maybe I'll see you later.

  I sank back against the chair. Suddenly, the delicious breakfast just didn't look all that yummy. A knock on the door made me sit up straight but then I reminded myself that Holt had just driven off.

  "Jen?" Coco's voice came through the door. "Just checking if you need anything."

  "Please, Coco, come in."

  As she opened the door, I was certain I caught the fleeting image of an elderly woman, weathered with age and slightly hunched. But as she stepped into the room that image vanished and the beautiful, vibrant innkeeper returned. It was yet another mystery that I couldn't wrap any rational thought around.

  "How is breakfast?"

  "Excellent. Thank you so much. All my favorites." I glanced toward the window. "I saw that Holt's friend took my car away. I didn't get a chance to talk to him—the mechanic, that is."

  "Yes, he was sure he'd have it back tomorrow. Said it wouldn't take much work."

  "Tomorrow? Oh, that's perfect. I'll need to head back home and get ready for another work week. Uh, just out of curiosity, did Holt mention when he might be coming back?"

  The subdued smile on Coco's face seemed to let on that she knew that there was something more going on than a room neighbor friendship. "He said he had some errands to run but that he'd be back later this afternoon. In fact, he wanted me to give you that information."

  "Oh," I said a little too exuberantly. I dialed it back some. "That's nice. Then I might see him later. Great." Of course my insides were doing somersaults at the prospect, but I put on a nice cool exterior.

  "It's a beautiful day outside. Clear blue sky. A little brisk, of course, but if you bundle up, it might be a nice day for a walk. The stepping stones out back lead past the gardens and onto a nice, quiet forest trail. Just stay on the path to avoid getting lost. I've left some hiking boots and an extra scarf and parka in the closet. Unless you'd rather just stay around the inn."

  "Actually, a walk sounds nice. It's been a stressful few months at work, finishing up a project in time for a deadline. A peaceful hike in nature is just what I need to de-stress."

  "Are you finished?" She pointed at the breakfast dishes.

  "Yes, thank you. I can bring them down though."

  "Nonsense." She busied herself collecting up the dishes.

  I walked to my suitcase to pull out some warm clothes.

  "That must be a fun job—creating video games. My nephew dreams about working in the video game industry. Of course, he wants the position of game tester."

  "Hey, those people make good money, and they are invaluable for input."

  "I'll tell him that. He'll be pleased to hear it." She lifted the breakfast tray and smiled at me. "I can't believe how real some of those characters look, like all the perfect human traits put into one lifelike drawing." She sighed as she walked past with the tray. "If only men like that existed in real life, huh?" She shot me a wink as she left the room.

  Chapter 12

  Brisk was a poetic word for the air, which with help from the wind, felt as if it could cut through skin and bone. I pulled the blue scarf Coco had left me up around my nose and mouth. I pulled the beanie down low over my brow and squinted to keep my eyeballs from freezing.

  My boots clomped along the path that led through the gardens. I glanced back at the inn to see if Holt was anywhere in sight, but his snowmobile wasn't parked out front. I was like a school girl waiting for my crush to come out of study hall or make his appearance in the lunch room. My heart beat faster just thinking about seeing him in all his tall, hunky grandness. If Holt had been in the same school as me, I don't know if I would have graduated with honors . . . or graduated at all. His presence would sure have made it hard to concentrate.

  As my gaze swept back around, a flash of pink caught my eye. It was the roses. It was late winter, a time when roses weren't normally blooming, but these seemed to be flourishing. And weirdest of all, they were bursting from vines that had looked dead just the day before. It was possible I'd missed the long strands of blooming pink roses in my disheveled state after the accident, but I just couldn't imagine how. I had no choice except to catalog it in the list of unexplained events at the Silk Stocking Inn.

  I turned back toward the path and dropped my face down before heading off on my hike. Knowing what a wimp I was about the cold, I was sure my hike would be brief. I hadn't gone more than twenty steps from the inn and I was already thinking about the hot tomato soup and cheddar biscuits Coco had mentioned on my way out the door.

  The hiking boots crunched over the icy path. There was enough fresh powder to cause little white puffs as I tromped along the path through the garden. On one side, Coco had an
impressive vegetable garden complete with brightly painted markers pointing out the types of vegetables. Only right now, at the tail of a long winter, there was nothing except the markers and a few remaining squash vines, mostly blackened by frost. Considering all the magical things that seemed to happen at the inn, I was almost surprised that there weren't tomatoes, carrots and beans growing up through the frozen ground. On the opposite side, rose bushes had been trimmed down to thorny stumps waiting to bud at the first signs of spring. Just what I'd expect a rose bush to look like at this time of year. The ones on the porch must have been a rare, cold weather variety. It was the only explanation I could come up with, so I was sticking to it.

  I expected it to get even colder once I reached the shadows of the tall pines, but, surprisingly, the towering evergreens lent a shelter from the choppy breeze shooting across the landscape. Occasionally, I came across tiny paw prints. I stopped each time to try and guess who the prints belonged to. Squirrels were my default choice when I couldn't figure it out. Birds were of course easier to guess than other animals. But for the most part, the previous night's newly fallen snow was left undisturbed, as pristine, white and glittery as a newly sewn bridal gown.

  I continued on the path, which because it had been well maintained by someone, possibly the forest department, possibly even a very hot forest ranger, it was easy to navigate. Veering off the trail in either direction would have been like wandering onto another planet, a planet that was just snow and trees as far as the eyes could see, with no markers or signs of civilization in between. It was easy to see why Coco had warned me not to leave the trail. I decided to follow her advice to the letter.

  The walk had helped me warm up enough that I could finally relax my shoulders and pull the scarf from my face. The snowy landscape made me think about Tanya and all my work buddies. I wondered if they were all having fun, and I wondered who would be showing up to work on Monday with a twisted ankle or sprained wrist. The one thing that hadn't crossed my mind once until now was what Stan might be up to. I didn't really care. If nothing else, Holt had made me realize that Stan just wasn't all that much of a prime catch. He was lacking in many ways and that realization gave me a nice dose of satisfaction.

  Five hundred feet ahead, a large granite boulder sat between two trees. I decided that would be a good point to turn around. I hadn't gone far, but the cold was making my fingers numb, and those same fingers were itching to wrap around a spoon headed for homemade tomato soup.

  Two rows of tiny tracks brought me to a halt. I leaned down to get a better look at them. As I studied the prints, from the corner of my eye, I saw something move. I lifted my face and stumbled back. It was Gretel, the mama bear, and this time her two little ones had tagged along with her. My heart was pounding so loud, I was sure she'd hear it. I still had the advantage because as far as I knew she hadn't yet seen me. But my very thorough third grade teacher, Ms. Bell, had taught us that the bear's sense of smell was so powerful, it could smell food miles away. I was sure a fearful human was even easier to smell. The mama bear seemed to be heading along the trail, hoping it would lead her to something edible. Holy shit. Something edible. Like me.

  I took off across the snow, not sure which way to head except away from the path. Coco had said not to leave it but then she hadn't mentioned what to do if a hungry mama bear was using that same trail.

  My breath was coming in short spurts, and my face felt numb from the cold. The pulse in my ears was from both the chill and from fear. Combined, it was making my head hurt as if I'd just sucked down a chocolate shake in one gulp.

  I plodded along for a long time without looking back. In fact, stupidly, I wasn't looking anywhere except down at the snow, which seemed to get deeper with each step. When my next step took me knee deep in snow, I finally stopped to look back at the trail.

  The good news was that I could no longer see the bear. The bad news was that the trail had disappeared as well. I leaned side to side to look past the trees, hoping to catch a glimpse of the inn or the road leading up to it, but the only thing I could see was snow and trees. The landscape that had been so beautiful just minutes ago was now the stuff of nightmares, a vast, desolate and truly inhospitable place. I never made it past the toasting marshmallow badge in my scout troop, but I knew enough about survival to know that I wouldn't last long in the frozen forest.

  I heard a sound in the distance, and even though I was surrounded by critters, I immediately convinced myself it was Gretel. I wasn't ready to kiss my ass good-bye yet. I took two steps back and smacked right into a tree. Seconds later, a pile of hard snow dropped on my head from an overhead branch.

  Tears stung my eyes from the pain and the possibility that I was hopelessly lost. I decided to try and head back over my footprints. I retraced my steps for as long as I could but somehow lost track of them and found myself making a new set of tracks. I walked on in the direction that I thought would take me to the inn and kept my ears open for any sounds of civilization.

  As I trudged ahead, it seemed even less sunlight was reaching the forest floor, but the trees had not grown thicker. I held my beanie, which was now wet from the plop of snow and squinted up through the branches. The azure blue sky from earlier in the day had turned a gloomy gray. It seemed, to add to my predicament, that snow would soon fall. I was screwed.

  I hiked through snow that only seemed to get deeper with each step. My hiking boots were no longer helping to keep my feet dry, and numbing dampness was creeping up beneath my snow pants. I'd taken every precaution to dress for the weather, but none of it was going to matter if I was lost. Even my winter gear had its limits.

  The snow fell faster and any possible discerning marks in the landscape were slowly being erased. Including my own footsteps. Not that they were helping much except to assure me of the terrifying conclusion that I was walking in circles.

  I huddled deep in my coat and brought the scarf up high enough to cover my face right up to my eyes. None of it seemed to keep out the cold or the wet.

  In my panic, I tried hard to remember if I'd ever read about what to do in a situation like this, but all I could come up with were those crazy, one in a million stories where a couple survived a week in their car by eating the leftover crumbs from a box of crackers or the ones where people walked forty miles to the road and later lost all their toes to frostbite. How the hell do you wear shoes without toes? Sandals would be out and I loved sandals . . . and toe rings . . . and even pedicures.

  I shook the silly thoughts from my head. It was obvious the cold was starting to make me giddy and delirious. It was also making my limbs feel as if they were filled with cement. My legs dragged through the snow as if I was carrying weights on my ankles. Somewhere in the sensational survival stories, I'd read that the one thing you shouldn't do was fall asleep.

  A brisk wind kicked up, adding to my misery. I couldn't walk another step. I headed for the biggest tree I could find and hid on the side that avoided the cold bursts of air. Snow fell all around me. I might have considered it beautiful if I wasn't so damn terrified.

  I leaned against the rough bark of the tree to keep myself standing upright. I needed a plan. My eyes ached with tears when I realized I didn't have one. I huddled against my only friend, a massive pine tree, and tried to keep myself from falling asleep or, even more likely, falling completely apart.

  My head grew heavy and clouded, and it seemed even my thoughts and reasoning were slowing with the cold. A rumbling sound caught my attention, but I was too frozen to react to it. It was Gretel, I told myself. She was coming to eat me. Strangely enough, I felt some gratification that I would at least provide some food for the poor hungry bear and her cubs.

  The noise grew louder as I hugged myself to stop the trembling. I looked up through the filmy air around me and saw a giant figure walking toward me. Did bears always walk on two legs? Even my third grade science was leaving my frozen memory.

  "Jen," the deep voice came through the haze. I didn't need t
o remember elementary school science to know that bears did not talk. But giant, hunky forest rangers definitely did. And I'd already committed the sound of his voice to memory.

  A sob left my mouth, but I didn't have energy for anything else. My eyes drifted shut in my sleepy head as I was pulled away from the trunk of the tree and swept up into a pair of strong arms. His strong arms.

  I worked up enough energy to peer up at him. Seeing the worry in his face sent a swirl of warmth around my heart. "I'm glad you came." Each word took effort. "I really like to wear sandals." I rested my head against his chest and could hear his heart pounding beneath the layers of clothes.

  "I need to get you warm fast. The trip to the inn is too far."

  I was feeling warmer just being in his arms but that might just have been the dreamy cloud I was slipping into.

  "A friend has a cabin just a half mile from here." He carried me to his snowmobile. "Do you think you can hang on for a quick ride?"

  "If it's you I'm hanging onto, then I'm sure of it."

  His brief smile gave me hope that everything was going to be all right.

  Chapter 13

  I'd clung to Holt as if my life depended on it. Which was pretty much the case. The landscape passed by in a blur of white and green. We climbed a small hill and turned down another one. I hid my face from the cold as he plowed through the powder toward a small, crudely built cabin sitting seemingly in the middle of nowhere. With thoughts of Gretel still lingering in my muddled head, I half expected to see the tiny house covered in candy and treats.

  Holt pulled up in front of the house and turned off the motor.