CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER
4
I
saac pried his eyes open and squinted at the bright light glaring through his window. Uh oh. A quick glance at the alarm clock confirmed that all was not well in the MacAllister household. The power was out. And a look at his phone confirmed that it was long past the time when they should have left for school. It was suspiciously quiet downstairs though, which probably meant there was plenty to clean up by now. He rolled out of bed and set off down the hallway.
Sure enough, Sara’s bedroom was empty. The covers looked like they’d been caught in a tornado and crashed back down in a heap. Which in a very real way was exactly what had happened to them.
And that likely wasn’t the only spot where this particular tornado had touched down.
He walked downstairs to find her in the middle of the living room floor surrounded by chunks of paper and what looked suspiciously like a bottle of white glue. Which she knew was absolutely not allowed on the living room carpet. He was about to remind her of that when she turned and saw him.
“Daddy!” she cheered. And flung herself into his arms.
He melted. He couldn’t help it. It still amazed him that this little creature could have him so thoroughly under her spell. “What are you doing, Short Stuff?”
“I’m making some decorations for our house. We put all the ones we made in the cabin but we need to have some here too. For the party when everyone comes. How else will they know it’s Christmas?”
“That sounds like a great idea.” He ran a skeptical eye over the mess on the carpet. “What exactly are you making?”
“Angels. But it’s hard to get the wings on right.”
He had about a million things that needed doing, but half an hour wouldn’t make or break the day. She looked awfully small sitting in her pile of angel paper all by herself.
“Can I help?”
The way her face lit up was worth every minute of the time he would spend cleaning up the mess afterwards. So he plunked down on the carpet beside her and set about doing some damage control, while she showed him how to make her interpretation of angels out of paper and glue.
“Okay. We can make angels, but then we’d better make some breakfast.” That would give him a good excuse to check on Jenna.
She was totally hiding.
When Jenna woke up, there was a tray with a muffin and fruit beside her bed, so she hadn’t had to face Isaac at breakfast.
Earlier, she had emerged to go to the bathroom, and she’d seen the state of the living room. That much silver glitter could only mean one thing: little-girl Christmas crafts. And that was definitely more than Jenna could face today. Breakfast in bed had been just the right thing.
She hadn’t slept very well after the initial painkillers wore off, and had woken in the night grateful to find a glass of water and the bottle of painkillers on the bedside table. Now she was tired, mad at herself for being stupid enough to chase deer tracks off the path, and burning with shame about what she’d said to Isaac while “under the influence.” No matter how badly she wanted to see the deer, it had been a pretty dumb move.
It was bad enough that she had hijacked Isaac the previous day, and that he had to take care of her. But she was pretty sure some of the things she’d been thinking last night had actually slipped out of her mouth. She wished she could remember exactly what she’d said so she would know what to apologize for, and how embarrassed to be. At any rate, there definitely had been a comment or two about how well he filled out his jeans.
Ack!
The best course of action, clearly, was to get out of here as quickly as possible. She was totally bummed that the doctor prescribed ice for her knee instead of heat, because it was now impossible for her to enjoy her time in the hot tub as planned. But there was still a Christmas-less cabin and a bag full of books with her name on them.
Now, she had to find Isaac, thank him for his help, and then get back to her cabin ASAP.
Isaac had cleared
and salted the steps, and was shovelling snow off the front porch. Jenna took a moment to enjoy the view. Clearly no stranger to hard work, the man filled out a fleece vest to full effect. His dark hair was tousled from the work and the wind, which in Jenna’s opinion only added to the appeal. If he ever got tired of running the lodge, he could probably get a job as a catalogue model in a heartbeat. After being surrounded by tech geeks for years, Jenna was enjoying the change in scenery. And she still got a little fluttery when she remembered the way he’d effortlessly carried her down the path yesterday. That was the first time in her life anyone had literally swept her off her feet.
Jenna cleared her throat. “Isaac?”
He stopped shovelling and turned to where Jenna was lingering in the doorway. “Did you want me to go and get the rest of your stuff?”
“Actually, that won’t be necessary. I’m just going to go back to the cabin now that I’m feeling better.” Just as soon as she figured out how to get down the steps on crutches without falling on her butt.
He gave her a skeptical look. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”
But Jenna was determined, and she made her way very, very carefully down the steps. Crutches first, then she lowered herself down each step. “See? No problem.”
Her arms were complaining already. Typing for a living didn’t exactly boost arm strength. She was certainly going to be tougher by the time the splint came off. And it would probably be a good idea to schedule some more gym time in her new and improved life. But she didn’t intend to be helpless for the next couple of weeks.
There was no time like the present to suck it up and get on with things. Granted, she couldn’t carry her purse over her shoulder and manage the crutches—yet—but she’d enlisted a helper.
Isaac watched
as Sara came through the door behind Jenna, bundled up and carrying Jenna’s purse. “Okay, just let me know if you need my help for anything.” He watched the girls make their way slowly down the shovelled path towards the cabins.
It wasn’t that he didn’t think she could make it back to her cabin. From what he’d learned about her yesterday, she was stubborn and strong and used to taking care of herself.
She looked better today. Her face had lost its pasty white colouring and the pinched look that he knew came from being in a lot of pain.
But the power was out. Nothing she did was going to change that.
Isaac just grinned and kept on shovelling. He’d give them a couple minutes, and then pop down to see how they were doing.
“You took them
down
?!”
The outrage on the face of the small human scowling at Jenna was clear.
“Took what down?” Jenna was shivering, and distracted by the fact that it was almost as cold inside the cabin as it was outside.
“The decorations I made you. We decorated everything special for you so you wouldn’t miss out on Christmas.” Her arms were crossed and she was backing away from Jenna as if she was some kind of monster. After all, who puts Christmas in a closet? “Are you the Grinch?”
Jenna tried not to laugh. If Sara only knew the truth. She definitely didn’t want to be the horrible lady who wrecked Christmas. “They are really beautiful decorations. Thank you for thinking of me. Why don’t we take them back up to your house and put them up there? That way everyone can enjoy them.” She didn’t want to share that she’d shoved them all in the closet.
Maybe a distraction was the safest course of action. Jenna turned to Isaac, who had appeared in the doorway behind them. “When do you think the power is going to come back on?” Jenna had some plans for the day that didn’t include freezing to death.
“I already called the power company,” Isaac said. “The storm that took out the power last night did a lot of damage. We’re not used to having this much snow all at once around here. The guy I talked to said it might take a couple days to get things back in order. We’re pretty low on their priority list since we’re outside of town and have a wood stove at the house.”
A wood stove at the big house was all well and good. But how was that going to keep Jenna warm? “Don’t you have a generator or something?”
“Nope. You’ll just have to come up to the main building until the power comes back on.”
Jenna wasn’t thrilled about that. But there didn’t seem to be much choice in the matter. She couldn’t stay here without freezing to death. And she had just realized exactly how many stairs there were to the bedroom on the second floor of the cabin.
She was stubborn, not stupid. She knew when circumstances had her beat.
“If you want to get your stuff together, I’ll help you carry it over.”
Fantastic
, Jenna thought. For the next couple of days, instead of enjoying her solitude, she would have to watch these people play happy family—and remember how far away she was from having that for herself.
Jenna plastered a smile on her face. “Great. Let me just collect some things.”
At least she could hide out in the bedroom and read.
Isaac was trying
to scrape up the glitter that had exploded all over the kitchen table when Sara had her latest crafty brainwave. Jenna was on the living room couch supervising as Sara hung the newly reclaimed decorations from the cabin in the living room. He appreciated her trying not to hurt Sara’s feelings about the decorations, even if she wasn’t a huge fan of the holidays.
To apologize for taking down the decorations, Jenna had helped turn the mess they’d started with this morning into something that looked like actual angels. He’d also heard some discussion about making cookies once the power came back on.
At the thought of food his stomach rumbled. Dinnertime was rapidly approaching. He would need to come up with some sort of plan to feed them all. It’s not that he was a bad cook or anything. He just had a pretty limited range. While Sara didn’t complain, he didn’t think Jenna was a mac-and-cheese-every-night kind of a girl.
Not to mention the added challenge of cooking without power.
They did have the barbecue in storage under the back porch. But just the thought of unpacking and cleaning, and then packing and re-storing it afterwards, was too much for him to handle. He had a better idea. He just had to make one quick call first.
“Ladies!”
Isaac stuck his head into the living room. “Jeannie’s power is back on. We’re going into town for dinner.”
“YAY!” Sara jumped up and down, and then took off down the hall.
“Where’s she going?” Jenna asked.
“She loves getting dressed up when we go out for dinner.” He grinned, remembering her last outfit. He wondered what Jenna would think when Sara reappeared.
“Do I need to change?” Jenna looked down at her yoga pants and cozy red sweater.
He gave her a thorough, unashamed once-over. Her face flamed to match her sweater, and his eyes finally came back to meet hers. “Nope, you’re perfect.”
Whoa.
Things had gone from zero to hot in no seconds flat. Neither of them spoke, and it felt like all the oxygen in the room had been used up by the sizzle and crack that was bouncing back and forth between them.
He could swear they were standing closer together than they had been seconds before. And was she looking at his mouth? It had been a while, but he was pretty sure he remembered the signs that a woman was attracted. Added to her drug-addled comments the other day, there was a chance Jenna might be interested in more than just staying in one of his cabins.
But, he reminded himself, taking a physical and mental step back, not only was she a paying— and injured—guest, she was also going to leave in a few days. Any one of those
on its own
was reason enough not to make a move.
All together?
Walk away, MacAllister. Just walk away.