Taken by Storm

“It’s January. There’s always a big storm,” Kate snapped.

Zoey had kept the TV on for company, and the projections had changed over the past few hours. The storm was growing and moving faster than originally predicted. Meteorologists were thrilled and trying not to show it, which was never a good sign. “Maybe you should have the woman at your kennel put Casper on the plane in Richmond and I’ll just fly to Chicago and meet him there. It would save a day.”

“In other words, leave the kennels unattended for hours, and then let a future Grand Champion travel by himself?”

“Unless there’s something you’re not telling me, he’ll be by himself in the cargo hold anyway. You should turn on the TV. I think this storm—”

“Zoey! You promised not to think!” Kate sucked in a deep breath. “Just follow the plan.”

Right. Zoey’s plans led to failure. Kate’s led to success. “I was just wondering about the effects of the snow.”

“I appreciate your concern, Zoey.” Ryan’s voice. “But Casper needs to become familiar with you and you’ll have to learn his routine. Believe me, it’ll make traveling with him a lot easier.”

* * *

AT CHICAGO’S O’HARE AIRPORT, Cam watched with a crowd of cranky passengers as flights on the departure monitors changed from “delayed” to “canceled.”

He should have called off his trip after waiting for hours at the Houston airport because he knew incoming flights from Denver had been delayed. Snow and ice. Hadn’t Colorado figured out how to deal with snow yet? And now the storm was bearing down on Chicago. If he couldn’t get a flight out, who knew how long he’d be stuck here?

Cam made his way to baggage claim to find out where the checked luggage was being stored. If it was in some unheated warehouse, then he’d have to retrieve the beer. The foam cooler would probably keep the bottles from freezing, but the samples of wort, hops and yeast weren’t protected.

He stepped off the escalator at baggage claim into a solid wall of people and lines that were so long, he couldn’t see the end of them. The babble and smell of overheated travelers made it hard to concentrate.

To heck with this. He’d find the climate-controlled shipments himself. Better to ask the guys actually handling the cargo than to rely on the agents at the counter, who could only repeat what they’d been told.

There weren’t as many people at the end of the building where the administrative offices were located, and Cam took a moment to appreciate the lack of crowd noise. And fresher air. As some of his stress eased, he heard a dog bark. Right. Pets would be traveling in the same cargo hold as his beer. Following the signs, Cam found the area where the animals were being held. Great. Another long line.

Several frazzled owners were trying to soothe their unhappy pets, but Cam’s eyes were immediately drawn to a woman struggling with a large dog wearing what looked like a shower cap and a blue jumpsuit with “Ryka’s Casper” embroidered on the side.

The dog’s butt was firmly planted on the floor; it did not want to go back into its crate. The woman gestured, clearly trying to reason with the animal. She finally grabbed the harness and slid the sitting dog toward the crate. The poor thing had probably been confined in there for hours already.

Cam and the rest of the waiting travelers silently watched as the woman struggled to remove little blue booties from the dog’s paws.

“Casper, please!” She slipped off her backpack and set it next to the crate. “They’re all wet. I don’t even know why I bothered.”

She bent over and the end of her knit scarf caught on the travel crate. As she tried to free the scarf, the dog pulled on its leash.

“Here, let me help you.” Cam quickly moved forward and knelt by the crate.

The scarf was striped red and white, like a candy cane, and made him smile as he unhooked it from the wire door.

“Thanks,” he heard as he straightened and came face to face with flushed cheeks, huge pale green eyes and a grateful but weary smile.

The air left his lungs as though he’d been punched in the chest. He stared, well aware he was staring, but he couldn’t stop. Worse, he didn’t want to stop. He’d happily devote whatever hours before his flight was rescheduled to staring at her and her sea-glass-colored eyes, her flushed cheeks and her...nose. Okay, there was nothing remarkable about her nose. He couldn’t call it cute or even little. She wasn’t crinkling it adorably or anything. It was just a nose. But it really looked good on her.

She did have nice skin—he noticed that. And brown hair, judging from the pieces of her bangs that stuck out from the candy-cane hood she wore. The hood appeared to be attached to her scarf, and he saw the remnants of a price sticker along the turned-up edge.

She blinked at him, and the wool fringe of her scarf moved through his fingers as she gently tugged.

“Oh.” He glanced down and gave a short laugh as he released the scarf. “I guess you want that back.” He stepped away to give her space because her smile seemed a little fixed.

The dog whined and pulled in the direction of the exit.

She didn’t say anything, and Cam didn’t say anything, either, although he wanted to. He was doing well just to remember to breathe. After months of easily chitchatting with the public during Saturday tours at the brewery, now Cam couldn’t string a sentence together to save his soul.

“I guess Casper didn’t get enough of the snow and slush, so I’m going to walk him some more.” She pointed over her shoulder as she backed away, the dog straining at his leash. “Thanks again.”

Cam opened his mouth to offer to walk with her, but he was afraid of coming off as stalkerish, so instead he said, “Have fun.” Yeah. That was the best he could come up with.

He stood, unmoving, and watched the dog pull her away. He couldn’t gauge much about her body beneath the wrinkled beige coat she wore, but her legs were encased in tight jeans tucked into boots. Nice.

She stopped walking and said something to the dog. Abruptly, the dog—Ryka’s Casper, according to the ridiculous doggie coat—returned to her side and froze, head up, tail curled and legs straight. She dug in the pocket of her coat and pulled out red-and-white striped gloves. No. Mittens. She was putting on mittens. Cam grinned, pegging her as one of those quirky, sexy girls. Usually, he avoided that type because the quirkiness wore on him after a few hours, but somehow he knew she was different. Her coat said practical, her legs said sexy, and the mitten/scarf/hat combo said quirky. He liked it. A lot.

Once her mittens were on, she gave a command to the dog and they trotted toward the door in perfect step.

A show dog. No wonder he was dressed in the fancy getup. Ryka’s Casper. Did that mean the woman’s name was Ryka?

Cam might have the opportunity to find out because it seemed he’d be hanging around here for a while. The customer-service line hadn’t moved at all in the past fifteen minutes. He watched the overworked clerks. They had to be as tired and as frustrated as the passengers, but so far, they were doing an admirable job of hiding it. Still, if he got into line now, by the time he made it to the counter, his beer could be frozen.

He looked around for a cargo handler and noticed a black backpack sitting by the empty dog crate. Unattended luggage. Bad. Very bad, as the airport announcements warned. Over and over and over. But Ryka had abandoned it in her haste to get away from him. Yeah, he’d definitely come off as stalkerish. It would be his fault if someone stole the backpack or messed with it or reported it as unattended luggage. So Cam casually sat on the floor next to the crate. He’d keep an eye on the bag and leave when she returned.

He felt a disappointed pang at the thought of walking away from her, although he wouldn’t walk far because the baggage-service line wrapped around the pet area. He could catch a glimpse of her cute nose or sexy legs, but he had to make sure she didn’t catch him at it.

Cam rested his forearms on his knees, hands dangling free. A wave of tiredness smacked him and he dropped his head. He’d oh-so-carefully arranged this meeting with Richard after reading an interview in his college alumni magazine where Richard had expressed an interest in brewing craft beer. Fortunately, the Yakima Valley in Washington State was a huge hop-growing region, so Cam had mentioned he’d be in Washington visiting growers and offered to meet with Richard. When Richard had agreed, Cam then actually had to plan a visit with a grower; Richard was just the sort of man to verify his story. Richard was also the sort of man to refuse to meet with Cam if he was late, even if it was because of the storm of the century.

Cam drew a deep breath and lifted his head, his gaze falling on the backpack again. A tiny edge of white paper taunted him from beneath the bag. The paper looked a whole lot like one of the temporary ID strips the airlines provided at the ticketing counter. If Gus were here, he’d move the backpack so he could read the information on it, but Cam wasn’t Gus. Besides, if Ryka saw him messing with her bag, he’d have a hard time explaining his motives to her—or to whoever monitored all the security cameras trained on the area.

He’d have a hard time explaining it to himself. What did it matter who she was and where she lived?

Deliberately, Cam sought out the door where owners were being reunited with their pets and vowed to talk with one of the workers as soon as Ryka returned. It was while he watched the handler match a man’s ID to a tag on his pet’s crate that Cam thought to look at Casper’s crate.

And there it was, visible for anyone to see: Ryka Kennels, Leeland, Virginia. Virginia. Not close to Texas. A kennel wasn’t exactly a portable occupation, either. Neither was a brewery. And Ryka probably wasn’t her name.

So much for that. Not that there had been a “that.” Cam drew a deep, deep breath and exhaled in a whoosh, trying to blow away his disappointment. Just what, exactly, had he hoped would happen, anyway? After they went their separate ways, was he going to get in touch with her and say, “Hey, I’m that guy you thought was going to hit on you at the airport. You want to go out some night?” And then if she actually said okay, he’d have to fly to Virginia.

Not happening. Getting MacNeil’s up and running consumed all his time and energy. The family had agreed that Cam’s brothers and cousins would put up the money for the brewery and help out when they could, but Cam would run the show. So right now, the brewery had to come first in his life. When Cam started a new relationship, he was very up front about his responsibilities. Women always said they understood, but after a few weeks, when the novelty of spending Saturdays at the brewery wore off, they lost patience. Cam didn’t blame them; they deserved more than he could give.

The brewery needed more than he could give, too, and convincing the family of that was one of the major reasons for this trip. If he succeeded, then maybe he would have time to fly to Virginia.

The minutes crawled by. The arrival and departure screens flashed a notice stating that O’Hare was closed until further notice. Not good. Televisions were tuned to The Weather Channel or news stations discussing the weather. Maps showed the middle of the country as a blob of white and blue with fringes of purple. Roads were closed. Transportation was at a standstill. He watched lots and lots of footage of stalled cars buried in snow and icy branches that had fallen on power lines.

Great. Just great. Cam got out his phone and texted Richard that his flight had been delayed due to weather. This probably wasn’t news to Richard, but Cam had to give him some explanation for being late.

For the next few minutes, he checked his phone, hoping that Richard would text back right away. At some point, he became aware that the background noise had changed. He raised his head, trying to figure out what was different, and noticed people were starting to line the glass of the exit vestibule that buffered the outer doors. Beyond them, where he should have spotted taxis and shuttles picking up passengers, was a wall of white.

Just as he realized he was seeing snow, and a lot of it, and that Ryka and her dog were out in that mess, people backed away from the entrance. Ryka and the dog and a bunch of snow blew in through the automatic doors.

She stomped her feet and the dog shook himself. They continued through the next set of doors into the main area where she stopped to wipe more snow from the dog. Her funny candy-cane hood fell back and she jerked it and the scarf off impatiently and shook them. Then she used them to brush snow off her coat as Casper plopped down and tried to chew off his booties. Ryka saw what he was doing and removed them—without trouble this time. She stared at the mess in her hands and Cam smiled at the face she made before stuffing the booties into her pocket along with her mittens. She jostled her scarf once more and reached behind her neck to free her hair.