I picked her up in the deep snow-hair piled along side her face--flakey snow sparkles twinkling there--our heavy breathing making smoke clouds as I picked her up judging the effort it would take to get her into the truck and up the mile or so to the cabin where I was staying working on the new book.
She murmured quietly in my arms eyes closed as I trudged through the twilight snow placing her gently into the passenger side seat.
I drove in the driving snow the mile or so to the cabin watching her eyes open and close periodically.
At the cabin I carefully moved her sideways to get her through the door, the cold having frosted us both.
Luckily, the fire was still burning enough to provide some warmth.
I lay her down inside my zip up comforter after pealing away her wet clothing and laying them aside in front of the fire. Hers was a small face but perfectly proportioned framed by a shock of black hair.
She continued to sleep as I began to massage her face, then her arms and her hands, looking to bring back the circulation. She had been out there a while and frost bite can be hard to detect; you had to be quick to restore blood flow to the limbs.
I heated a towel to help things along and then turned her over pressing a warm towel to her back, under her tunic. "Good," I thought, "at least she was wearing long underwear."
After a whlle I could see her skin slowly change shades from blue and purple to something grey. Her eyes fluttered but she did not awaken at first.
Only after she coughed did her eyes flutter and they looked at me uncomprehendingly.
I ignored her gaze seeing that her nose did not match the rest of her face, it was still frozen looking. No telling if it was serious or not.
She looked at me looking at her nose, but her eyes did not focus. I gave her a moment to orientate and said softly, “You are ok. You are safe.”
I gave her a moment to get her bearings but she hesitated and froze, her eyes widening in disbelief then bolting upright in the comforter, eyes darting around the room and then back to me.
She looked frightened.
I said again, “You are ok. You are safe here
”I found…”
That startled look in her eyes did not go away as she glanced furtively down at her body inside the comforter and then back up at me drawing the comforter up around her upper body.
She murmured, “Who are you.” Where am I?”
I said, “I found you on the up-road, you were near frozen. I brought you here to warm you up before the coyotes got to you. You would not have lasted the night out there. Fierce."
Still dubious she looked again at her body in the comforter.
“Did you…” she began.
“Your clothes were wet, they had to come off,” I said.
That seemed to satisfy her for the moment and he could see her exhale for the first time.
Outside, the storm, as predicted, was already underway, predicted to be the worst in years.
”Sorry, I guess I should say thanks, for everything.”
“Yes, you should.” I said, quietly.
Chapter Two
She hunched back into the sleeping bag taking a breath trying to become more alert.
I backed away slowly.
“I found you on the road. You were trying to walk. Did your car break down?”
She said, “I got lost-made a lot of turns.”
He said, “Well you are safe. Here drink this; you have to warm up, maybe sit closer to the fire.” I gave her time, time to adjust to the situation.
Then I paused to get a good look at her. She was an alive creature. I could that. I could feel that a vibrancy in her. She noticed me noticing her and she looked away as she felt my eyes on her.
I handed her a warm cup of tea motioning to her feet inside the comforter.
“May I?” I said evenly.
She hesitated for a time taking the time now herself to get a good look at him. He was no mountain man that was for sure, but neither was she any mountain woman. He had a face that was there, very there, right in front of you. He looked just like his photo on the book jacket; an open face.
I continued:
“I need to test for numbness in those toes, then the hands. They should be warm enough by now to have feeling return.”
Reaching down I very gently started to knead her foot, a toe at a time.
“Feel that?”
She did.
“Good.” I said.
Taking each toe and carefully feeling it I put gentle pressure and then released, pressure and release. She could feel his hands brush her thighs, kneeding each toe.
“That one.” she said “is still a bit numb.”
“This one?” I said gently pulling her big toe.
“Yep, that one.” she said.
“Humm, let’s give it a bit more time. Let’s test the hands and fingers now. Hate to lose those.”
“Huh?” she said bluntly.
“Frost bite is frost bite. Gotta to be careful.".
She put the tea down beside her and I took her extended right hand looking at it intently--my face inches from her face, her breath warm on my face.
She did not retreat.
His warm breath felt good, like a gentle warm breeze in that cold cabin.
Then I took both of her hands, gently thumping each finger.
“Feel that?
“Yes.” she said.
“Good.”
Her arm got tired and she slowly lowered it into her lap. Her lap was covered by the comforter and I followed her hands down to their resting place in her lap, continuing my inspection.
My head was lowered and I was very close.
She could smell him.
He smelled like smoke and outdoors and a faint cologne.
“Wow she thought. Just wow.”
I continued kneading gently, probing, caressing.
She didn’t want him to stop.
Looking up I looked into her eyes. She looked back this time, our noses almost touching.
She laughed nervously.
I took a deep breath.
“Well and good. But I notice you feel a bit warm. Any idea how long you were out there? It’s five or so now."
“Five she said. “I left at noon.” He clucked looking at her and said “You feel warm to me, be back.”
He rose moving into the small bathroom she could see off to the right from where she was sitting.
She did feel warm.
Chapter Three
He got back from the small bathroom, and Jenny could see a look of concern on his face. He stood momentarily, gazing at her intently, finally giving her a glass of water and a small packet of what looked like aspirin. “Take these,” he said, “let’s try to head this thing off.” Jenny took the glass of water and put the aspirin on her tongue and swallowed.
“Can’t find the thermometer, he said finally, "must be around here somewhere, his voice trailed off. You’ll be fine if you just let yourself get some rest. Might as well, the storm will force us to hunker down anyway.”
She nodded and he turned and went to the coat rack and started to put on his parka.
“Have to get down the hill and put a hitch on your car before the snow buries it. Need to pull it up a bit out of the ravine before the snow layers on. Snow can get to be heavy, too heavy and that would require bigger equipment than a hitch. Be back in a hour."
With that, Parka on, he came over, looked at her, took the water from her hand then took her hand rolling her finger tips between his thumb and fore-finger.
He grunted his satisfaction.
Moving to the door, he again grunted quietly to himself and looked out the side window finally saying;
“Have to get some more wood out of the wood bin before I go, it looks to be a blower.”
Finally, he turned toward her again saying “Be back, you’ll be ok, be gone about an hour.” With that he left after stacking more wood beside the fireplace.
She lay back blinking grateful to rest for a second; her mind felt weary and harried. She kept thinking, if he goes into her car glove compartment he’ll find out who she was and why she had come up the mountain despite a threatened storm, and at that point things could get difficult.
“No matter,” she thought he seemed to be a very nice man. She would deal with that trouble if and when it came.
Feeling day-dreamy, she felt herself relaxing, and she took a moment to look around the room. The small desk on the other side of the room looked stark. On it was just a computer and a few books.
He was writing. She knew that. She knew he was a writer.
She didn’t get up. She shimmied over to the desk-comforter still around her-and touched the space key on the computer keyboard.
A title came up immediately:
“The Whole Body Orgasm: Touch, Sex And Love- Making For Newly Weds"
Chapter Four
Jenny stared at the page puzzled and let the computer screen go dark before deciding to shimmy back to her original spot before the fire, the effort making her feel a bit more woozy.
He was correct, her fever was getting worse.
Outside a huge thunderclap shook the cabin and it startled her.
It was deafening.
She had not heard that kind of thunder since she was in Hawaii on the island of Kauai. There rains happened almost every day, but this thunder-clap was ear-splitting and it felt like it was right down on the ground. It was that kind of thunder which made your body shake. It was not thunder to be messed with.
Frightened, she instinctively looked for her cell phone, and not finding it, she realized she had left that, too, in her rental car.
“So far Jenny” she thought to herself “you are doing just swell.”
She closed her eyes in an effort steady her mind, and against the dizziness. She was becoming more and more aware that she was feeling warm, too warm.
She was getting sick.
He had been right to be concerned, but aside from feeling dizzy, she was also beginning to perspire as well.
“Great she thought, “Genius at work here.”
****
Sometime later she awoke with a start becoming aware of the sound of chopping wood and then the cabin door opened.
The man opened the door, wood in his arms. She watched him as he put the wood down by the fireplace carefully undoing his parka buttons looking at her. She was thinking that she didn’t look good. She pretended to be asleep.
“Fever for sure,” I thought.
I hung the parka up and came over to sit beside her as she lay in the sleeping bag-comforter asking quietly, “Can you hear me?”
Jenny didn’t answer , she didn’t open her eyes. She was feeling a bit better, but, also, she didn’t want to see his face, see what it might reveal about what he had found in the car. So, she pretended to be asleep.
She heard him rise, his footfalls going toward the bathroom door again, soon returning with what turned out to be more water.
She felt him gently pull her up enough to put the glass to her lips which caused her to murmur indistinctly.
“Now drink as much of this as you can" he said "and then let’s see how you feel. We need to get you to bed. I’ll get you some soup.”
He grunted, satisfied after she drank a little of the water. She then felt his fingers move between her lips gently prying them apart putting another aspirin just inside her mouth. She let him into her mouth.
The aspirin went down dryly and a bit bitter. He put the glass to her lips again saying “Got to drink just a little more.”
She was feeling weaker and she let herself lie back ready just to rest when she felt big arms around her, lifting her up.
Jenny had never been lifted in her life.
But he lifted her as if she were light as a feather. She put her arms around his neck and held on.
She could feel his body against her body, her chest against her chest, both of them softly breathing, as he took her toward what she knew was the bedroom.
Chapter Five
I placed her on the bed noticing how peaceful she looked noting that I really liked picking her up; she felt good in my arms, made me feel all manly.
But I was uneasy about her temperature and didn’t want anything to happen to her while she was in my care.
I got more aspirin and placed the tablet between her lips. Four was the limit and I decided to halt the aspirin for a while and to wait things out.
The storm was getting worse and louder. The mountain team, if they missed her, would not be up here for at least a day or so. Checking, I tried to make a cell phone call and, just as I suspected, the tower was down. The tower always went down in storms, at least two days.
Nothing to do, I thought, but hunker down.
Turning back to take another look at her, I gave her a last glance, deciding to let her rest. I could use the time to get back to work on the book.
I thought I would probably not get much done but it was something to do while watching over her.
I must have gone to sleep because I heard a sound and looked up to see her standing there with the comforter around herself, sweating, looking sicker than ever.
'Whoa” I said you should…” But before I could finish the sentence she started to fall.
I caught her, picked her up, hearing her say, “I feel sick, really sick.”
There was no getting her out. The snow storm had picked up and the windows were icing; the lines were down and it wasn’t looking good.
I put her back to bed and got on the CB, cranking up hoping that Pete or somebody would hear me. I got nothing, nothing at all. We, both of us, were going to be here for a while.
I went to her bedside looking at her, studying her face now flushed, feeling both a bit paternal and maternal. She looked like an angel, a sick angel to be sure, but this angel I thought, was my responsibility and I didn’t want anything to happen to her.
That angelic face looked up at me and she reached out, eyes blurry, putting both her arms around me, nestling her face onto my shoulder and blubbered.
It was warm blubber and I smiled to myself, feeling the warmth of it spread into my shirt. I held her, and held her until she went limp and fell into sleep. It made me smile.
I decided to get another cold compress for her moving to the bathroom to get a towel to swab her forehead. Coming back, I dabbed her forehead, and she seemed grateful, then I swabbed her arms.
My, my I was thinking, and suddenly I remembered where the thermometer was, in my backpack, and I moved to get the backpack from the truck, taking a last look at her, before I left, to be sure she was going to stay put.
Thermometer in hand, I checkedher read-out which had settled in at 102. Not great but not as bad as it could have been. Settling in the chair beside the bed I decided to give the cell phone another try, but no luck, nothing.
Back to the cold compresses; this time I took a chance and applied the cold compress to her body because I suspected the long underwear were not helping in getting her temperature down. I pressed the cloth carefully avoiding her breasts focusing on her rib cage area, and her color bone, her head, arms and forehead. I heard her whisper “thank you” and she drifted off again after whispering ‘oh, that feels good.”
I glanced up at my inside-outside thermometer on the wall. The inside temp was sixty-five degrees, but the outside temperature was seven below and looked like it was going to go down even further as the night wore on.
I reached out and held her hand for a while and then I left her side to get the outside generator going and to get some candles. Cold like that would probably mean the lights would go out. I thought I had better be prepared. I put some wood on the fire and came back to her side sitting down and suddenly feeling a little light headed my self. I began to wonder if I had the bug too.
After a time she awaken and sat up looking at me bleary-eyed.
She said, ”Didn't know where I was at first. And you? Did I faint?”
“Sort of” I said, disappointed that she was up.
I had hoped to get back to writing something more while she slept. But she was up now. I had to give up that idea for a while.
“Sorry for all the trouble, she said. No trouble” I said lying,
“no trouble at all.”
“You know,” I began slowly saying “it would not have hurt to tell me the truth about why you are here. I still would have helped.”
She averted her eyes, and said “I know. I know. I should have been honest with you.” She paused a long moment. “Except I woke up here and I realized the situation…I didn't know you…” Her voice trailed off.
Looking at her, I was struck; she was looking better. She was rebounding a little, more animated.
“What” I said “is a nice lady like you doing up here in a snow storm serving papers?”
I could see she was debating whether or not to tell me all of the truth. She didn't say anything until, at length, she said:
'Well the hearing is in 30 days, I had only until yesterday to get them to you. Otherwise....”
The truth was she had taken the assignment voluntarily because she knew of him and came up at her Dad’s suggestion. Dad had shown her his book jacket saying, “Been coming up the last three years or so. Thought you might want to meet him.”
Dad was playing match-maker-again. She looked at the book jacket and clucked “Humm, ok.” Dad urged me to do the papers and at the same time take a look for myself.
She decided she would come up and have a look for herself.
Despite not feeling well she had made the trip forgetting about the heavy snow warnings.
At 35, she was tired of bars and looking.
She got a good look at him sitting there. He didn't disappoint.
He was a good looking man. And, sick or not, she had liked the feel of his big hands and the look of his arms, his big arms. She liked sexy arms, she liked his arms.
Chapter Six
But he was gone again as she started to drift off again. He came back moments later with a paper cup, and what looked like cough syrup.
She hadn’t been totally honest with him, she thought, taking the cup and starting to sip. She was no real process server. Her Dad was the local US attorney and she was visiting for the holidays, she herself, was an attorney in New York.
Her Dad excitedly told her of his arrival to write; it was the buzz of the town and Dad casually mentioned it her, saying it would be nice if “someone” could take care of a little errand for him. “Here is what he looks like.” he said pushing the book toward her on his desk saying "I met him. nice guy, single and everything, and not gay.”
Since mom died, Dad was not shy about “wanting to see her settled.”
And she too, wanted to see her settled, but she was not willing though to “settle.”
Dad pushed the book across the table toward her like it was a hunk of chocolate being offered to a chocoholic, which she was.
Casual-like she said “I’ll think about it but I don’t do dating. I am long past that. Either they are interested in settling down or they are not. I don’t need anybody to buy me dinner.”
She did think about it, got the papers and rented a car, after having decided to go have a look. Wouldn’t hurt to look. But she didn’t tell her Dad. The gps was to be her guide. She could be up and off the mountain without her Dad knowing he had perked her interest.
She started to drive. but the damned gps was wrong. It nearly made her drove off a ledge on the mountain; with the snow the road was not easy to see.
She had started to walk and had gotten into trouble that way.
She sipped the cough syrup and put the cup forward for another sip.
“It’s got codeine in it and that should help you sleep," he said.
Damn she liked the sound of his voice. So calm.
A cold compress was again back on her forehead as she started to drift off to sleep again.
The man knew how to make you feel taken care of. That was something she had not looked for; her Dad had taught her to be self-reliant, especially since mom died. But if this was what it felt like, it wasn’t so bad.
"Best to just try to get some rest. I have some work to do."
He pulled her covers over her and tucked the last bit under her chin as she drifted off.
He went to the living room and inspected the processing papers more closely. His father's brothers were indeed contesting the will. He had to be in Auburn in a week, make a court appearance. Sure, just what he needed.
A bit tired, he turned back to his manuscript and worked for what seemed over an hour, when he heard a sound behind him.
He turned and she stood there, looking oddly pretty and her eyes all red and her head tiled down slightly.
He glanced at the clock. It was nine pm.
"You have to get some sleep,” he said, mock-scolding her. You can get a lot sicker if you don't rest."
She didn't answer.
Finally she said "Where will you sleep?"
I'll be fine out here on the couch. "Go ahead take the bed.”
She stared at him, and started looking around the room.
He said "What? "
"It's me." she said. "I need something soft and cuddly to sleep. Usually I have my cat -Tigger, Tigger was given to me by my mom, years ago. I just have gotten into the habit of sleeping with him on the bed."
He stared at her and she looked back trying not to see what his reaction was.
"So" he said, "I don't think I have any, , , , but I do have some extra blankets.” Let’s see if they will help."
He disappeared into a back storage area and re-emerged with an armful of blankets, which she took gratefully.
"Thanks for being, being so understanding." she said.
He nodded and she turned to return back into the bedroom thinking he was not what she had expected.
He turned back to the keyboard still not believing that she was anybody’s local process server. The woman, was too well dressed for that, and a lot of woman under that comforter.
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