Indomitable Spirit (18 page)

His heart slammed into his chest and he hadn’t even heard what the man was trying to say yet. In a flash a million things went through his mind and not one of them was good.

“She’s stuck up on the pass. That’s all I could get. As far as I could tell she’s got to be by the Roses’ barn.”

John swallowed hard and glanced out the window. The snow had been coming down nonstop all day.

“What was she thinking coming across there?” He shifted his eyes to Chris. “Why did she call you?”

His lips tightened. “Because you seem to have disappeared and taken your kids out of her school.”

John tightened his jaw. “You sure think you know a lot.”

“What I know is there is a woman stranded in a snow storm on the pass. Now, she called me for a reason, but we both know that you’re the guy who can maneuver the hill and get her down. So even if you have an issue with her, get your ass in your truck and go get her. Wil says so.”

John’s mother-in-law walked up behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder. He turned to see her there, her eyes moist.

“Go. You have to get her. Even if you’re having problems with her, you have to bring her back safely. Christopher is right. She needs you.”

John bit down on his lip. She’d freeze to death in a few hours if he didn’t get to her. And yes, he’d been mad that she walked away the other night and he hadn’t let the kids go back to class. He’d been torn up about the man she’d taken upstairs, but the cut on his forehead which was now scabbed over, reminded him that he’d been stupid.

“I got a thermos of coffee for her,” Heather said as she hurried out of the kitchen. “I’m getting a bag of food too. Mom, get her some clothes. Jacob, go gather all the blankets you can find.” She looked up at Chris. “There are two cans of gas in the shed, put them in John’s truck. There isn’t time for him to go by the store. We need to get him on the road.”

He watched as his in-laws hurried about and his children gathered items. It was as if they could all pull together and save Kym from certain catastrophe.

John went to the door and pulled down his Carhartt. He fetched his keys from the pocket as Jacob hurried to him. “We’ll be okay with Grandma and Auntie. When you get her down, bring her back here. I’ll make her some hot chocolate.”

The gesture brought a tear to John’s eye and he pulled his son to him and held him tight. “I’ll bring her down and she’s going to be fine.”

“I know,” he said pulling back, but his eyes were moist. “She’s really strong.”

“Right. She’s strong.”

John stepped into his boots and pulled on his gloves and he hurried out to his truck where Heather was filling the cab with bags of clothes, food, and blankets.

“She’s probably scared,” she said. “I don’t know what she was thinking.”

“She probably thought she could fight her way through it. She’s usually ready for anything.” He smiled as he thought about the day he’d nearly dropped the wrench on her head.

“I like her, John. Don’t let this one go.” She moved to him, kissed him on the cheek, and then ran back to the house.

“Okay, you have two more cans of gas. Good thing you put the blade on your truck.”

John nodded in agreement.

“Do you have a shovel?”

“Yeah, in the back.” He opened the truck door. “Chris, thanks. I’ll take care of her. Let Wil know.”

“I will. And hey,” he moved in toward John. “The barn was built to accommodate travelers. Don’t be a hero. If you can get her there just stay there. You should get enough signal to call me.”

John nodded again and climbed into the truck. Time was of the essence. He hoped she knew not to keep running the car. Did she have enough warmth? God, just let her be okay.

Chapter Nineteen

The heat in the car had begun to dwindle again and Kym wasn’t sure she had enough gas to start it again for heat. She’d only stepped outside the car one more time to make sure the exhaust pipe wasn’t blocked. The last thing she needed was for Chris to find her dead in her car.

She had enough clothes in her suitcase to change out of the wet ones from when she’d stepped out of the car to make her phone call. But as the sun began to duck behind the mountains, she realized the few dry clothes she had weren’t going to keep her warm enough.

Kym closed her eyes and focused on her internal warmth. She made herself see a light starting at her toes. Wiggling her toes she acknowledged that she could still feel them—slightly. The light rose through her body—warming her—reassuring her.

As the light rose into her chest, through her neck, and into her head, she heard a dreadful noise.

She popped open her eyes and there, coming up the road with snow blade against the ground was John’s truck.

The joyous feeling had quickly come with frozen tears that couldn’t fall. But she could feel them.

John made a few passes to get near her car and then just as a knight in shining armor and a big truck might—he jumped out of the truck and ran for her.

Though her body wanted to do the same and run toward him, she couldn’t. Her body wouldn’t move. She was paralyzed by the cold which had settled into her, clear down to her bones.

John flung open the door. “Kym, open your eyes. Are you okay?”

She hadn’t even realized she’d shut them. With all her might she tried to open them and look into his handsome face. After he called her name a few more times, she managed to get them open.

“Dear Lord, you scared me,” he said reaching his hand in and touching her face. “You’re frozen. We need to get you into my truck.”

Inside her head she thought about helping him, but she couldn’t will her body to move. She should be stronger than this. She was a fighter. Why couldn’t she even move her legs?

John’s arm came around her and the other tucked up under her legs. She felt him lift her from the seat and balance himself in the depth of the snow.

Somewhere, she found the strength to wrap her arm around his neck and hold on as tightly as she could.

John stepped carefully through the snow. Each step he took buried his leg to the knee. He only needed to make it four more steps before the snow wasn’t as thick on the area he’d plowed out.

He could feel the cold wet creep into his boots and cake around his pants. But he was focused on getting Kym to the truck. With them both being wet and the sun going down quickly, there was no time to drive back before they’d suffer physically. He needed to get her into the truck and then he needed to head to the Roses’ barn.

Her body shook in his arms as he rounded the hood. “Kym, can you pull open the door?”

It was obvious it was taking all her energy to do it, but she managed the door, and he set her on the seat. Heather must have given him every blanket her mother had in the house, but he was grateful as he wrapped them around Kym. The heater was still running at full blast and he hoped it would begin to thaw her as he walked back to her car.

His boots sunk deeper into the snow. His toes grew colder.

From her car he pulled out her purse, took her phone, and the cord. In the back seat he noticed a pile of clothes. She’d already changed into what she had that was dry. That, he thought, might have saved her life.

As he walked back to his truck his step slipped and John went down into the deep, cold snow.

Quickly, he stood back up, but his jeans were caked, and his bare hands were now bright red and pained. He’d made sure they packed her more clothes, but he didn’t have anything else to change into.

He looked into his truck and saw that her eyes were shut again. The focus wasn’t on him. He needed to get her warmed—quickly.

John climbed back into his truck and began carefully turning it around.

“Thank you.” The words were so soft he almost thought he’d imagined them.

“You shouldn’t have attempted that. You’re lucky your phone worked. You’re lucky that Chris knew where to find me.” He shook his head and looked at her bundled next to him. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

He looked at her again and she was crying. What was it with him making women cry? He really didn’t think he was that scary. “Are you okay?”

“Cold,” she managed. “Sorry,” was the next word that slipped through her chattering teeth.

“Well, you might be. The sun is going down and it’s about to get really dark. We’re going to hole up in the Roses’ barn. They built it for the wayward traveler. Trust me you’re not the first person to get stuck on this pass.”

She wiped her tears on the blanket and turned to look out the window. He’d made her uncomfortable and he didn’t want to do that.

The past week of not seeing her had made his disposition less than chipper. Turning her away wasn’t what he had in mind. He’d wanted her to explain why she didn’t congratulate Jacob on his break. Everything else had just snowballed from there.

But, she was with him now. They were going to be alone in the Roses’ barn and cold for at least the next twelve hours. He’d do his best to be pleasant.

John slowly wound his way down the pass toward the road which would take them onto the Rose property. He could see the large two story barn just in front of them—getting there would host its own challenges.

It had been the better part of two decades since he’d been there. One of the Roses he went to school with had held a party there. It had been short lived. You didn’t have a party in a landmark like the Roses’ barn and think people wouldn’t know about it. The thought brought a smile to his lips. When the cops had arrived he and Abigail had run out the back door with half the party. Her hand was grasped in his and they’d run at least a mile before they felt as though they’d escaped. What a night that had been.

The weather had been much nicer. The moon fuller. His heart—well—his heart had been full too, for a young man. There’d been promise in that night at seventeen. If he remembered correctly, it had ended well. Who would have thought all of those moments would be lost?

He looked at Kym next to him and he realized, as he drove to this familiar spot, what they’d started had been full of promise too. A heat rose in his chest when he thought about almost kissing Kym in the back room of the school and then again when he did kiss her in the bakery.

For the first time since he’d met her she looked fragile, much like when she’d held Wil and Chris’s baby.

He was male enough to think that was the way she should look—just a little. Perhaps just enough so a man wouldn’t be threatened by wanting to take care of her for the rest of her life—or his.

The emotions stuck in his throat as the truck bounced along the road to the barn.

The air was thick with the promise of more snow. The temperature had dropped significantly and the snow beneath them was freezing quickly.

“We’re almost there. Are you okay?” he posed the question to Kym whose eyes had closed again.

She weakly nodded and it only brought to his attention that his pants and boots were wet. He needed to get a fire started for both of them.

A few moments later he pulled up in front of the barn. “I’m going to check the doors. Not that a lock will stop me from breaking in.”

He jumped out of the truck and went for the door. The snow was deeper there. He’d have to carry her in.

The door had been changed from the time he’d remembered, but he was more than happy to find that the tradition was still
an unlocked door for the weary and stranded traveler.

John stepped inside. There was a switch next to the door and when he flicked it lights turned on. The corner of the barn had once been a small apartment. There were many legends about that space which he’d heard through the stories of the Roses.

In the livable space, there was a couch and a fireplace. That was exactly what they needed.

He hurried back to the truck and opened Kym’s door.

“The snow is very deep here. I’ll carry you in.”

She nodded her head slowly and he knew he had to get her warm and dry quickly. She was fading on him. If she’d been feeling just right, she’d have carried him inside. He had to wonder if this might be the first time in her life she’d ever needed to rely on someone.

John knew the cold was getting to him as he trudged through the snow with Kym in his arms. She was becoming heavy and that only meant he was fatigued.

As soon as they cleared the door, he hurried her to the couch which was covered with a white sheet. There was no choice but to lay her atop it, bundled in the blankets she had wrapped around her.

Next he needed a fire. He’d brought wood, but as he turned he noticed that there was wood in the fireplace ready to be lit and matches on the mantle. This truly was a place of refuge that the Rose family graciously kept at the ready.

Quickly he went about making up the fire. Once it began to crackle in the old stone fireplace he turned to look at Kym.

Her eyes were open, slightly, but he knew she was warming—he on the other hand was feeling the effects of his cold, wet clothing.

John moved to her, kneeling next to the couch. “I have supplies in the truck. My sister-in-law packed you up warm clothes and I have some water and some food.”

A shaky hand moved from under the blanket and Kym rested her cold palm on his cheek. “Thank you. I could have died on that pass.” Her voice was soft—weak.

“I’d never let that happen.”

“But you’re mad at me.”

John grit his teeth. Certainly with her lying there he didn’t need to get into it.

“I had a moment—a fatherly one. It just didn’t play out right in my head.” He moved to stand but she rested her hand on his arm.

“Jacob’s break. You’re mad about it.”

John didn’t move as he’d planned to. Instead he took a moment to think. “You disappeared. You didn’t tell him how good he did.”

Kym’s eyes closed and then opened slowly. “I’m sorry. I got very emotional over it and my grandfather dismissed me.” Her body shook from the cold.

“I should have thought about that,” he said taking a moment to tuck the blankets around her tighter. “I’m sorry I didn’t let them come back to class.”