Snowbound With The Boss

Sean scrubbed one hand across his face and focused on the conversation with Mike. “Yeah, yeah. She wants to get her crew in here next week and start in on the rehab, and I don’t see a problem with it.” He paused and ran one finger around the collar of his black sweater. “As long as I can oversee it from California.”

“Okay, but since you didn’t take any of the artists with you, what’ll she do about the painting we’ll need done?”

“Come on,” Sean said sharply, “I couldn’t bring an artist out here when everyone’s doing the final run on ‘The Wild Hunt.’”

“True,” Mike agreed. “Everyone here’s working around the clock.”

And Sean should have been. He had to connect with marketing and their clients, check the advertising that was lined up to push the new video game once it was released. Work was piling up for him in California, but he’d had to come out here to get the reno started since he had such a fiery contractor eager for the work to begin. This trip had been bad timing all the way around, really. Every artist at Celtic Knot was focused on the finishing touches of the video game that would be released in the summer, so he hadn’t been able to justify pulling them away from their work yet.

“Anyway,” Sean continued, “how hard is it to leave walls blank? They can paint it white or something and then when we bring the artists in, they’ll have a blank canvas to work on.”

“That’ll work. You still coming home tomorrow?”

“That’s the plan, thank God,” Sean said. “Kate’s outside, bringing her truck around. We’re going to head back to town now. Naturally, it’s still snowing.”

“If it makes you feel any better, it’s seventy-five here today.”

“Great. Thanks. That just caps it.” A door slammed at the front of the hotel. Kate called out something, and Sean looked to one side and shouted, “What?”

In the next second, Kate was standing in the doorway, shaking her head to send a flurry of fresh snowflakes flying to the floor. “A blizzard’s headed in,” she said simply.

He covered the phone with his hand. “You’re kidding.”

“No joke,” she said, shrugging. “The pass is already closed. We’re not going anywhere.”

“For how long?” he demanded.

There was that shrug again. “No way to know.”

“Perfect.”

“What is it?” Mike asked.

“Karma probably,” Sean told him, expressing his disgust. “Kate just heard on the truck radio that the pass down the mountain is closed. I’m snowed in.”

Instead of sympathy, Sean watched as Mike unsuccessfully fought back laughter at the situation.

“Thanks for your concern.”

Mike held up one hand and tried to stop laughing. “Sorry, sorry.”

“How is this funny?” Sean snapped. “I’m trapped in an empty hotel with a crabby contractor and a mountain of snow outside the door.”

“Clearly,” Mike said finally, “it’s only funny from California. But have you got food, heat?”

“We’re covered,” Kate said, her expression telling him exactly what she thought of the description crabby.

“Yeah,” Sean said, then he turned to Kate. “Come here for a minute. Meet my brother.”

She didn’t look happy with the invitation—no surprise there, Sean thought. The woman had a chip on her shoulder the size of a redwood. She walked briskly across the room and stopped beside him to look at the phone screen.

“Hi, I’m Kate and you’re Mike,” she said, words tumbling over each other. She spared a quick glance for Sean. “Nice to meet you, but we don’t have a lot of time to talk. There’s firewood outside, we need to bring it in before the rest of the storm hits. Don’t worry, though. There’s plenty of food since I make sure my crew is fed while they work and we’ve been out here this last week taking measurements and getting ideas about the work.”

“Okay.” Mike threw that word in fast, thinking he probably wouldn’t have another chance to speak. He was right.

“The storm’ll blow through in a day or two and the plows will have the pass cleared out pretty quickly, so you can have your brother back by the end of the week.”

“Okay...”

Sean grabbed the phone and told Kate, “I’ll be right there to help. Yeah. Okay.” When he looked back at Mike, he was shaking his head. “She’s outside bringing in firewood. I’ve gotta go. And I was this close—” he held up two fingers just a breath apart “—from getting outta Dodge. Now I don’t know when I’ll get out. Tell Mom not to worry and don’t bother calling me. I’m going to shut off the cell phone, conserve power.”

“Okay.” In spite of the fact that he’d been amused only a few minutes ago by Sean’s situation, now Mike asked, “You sure you’ll be all right?”

Sean laughed now. “I’m the outdoors guy, remember? There may not be any waves to surf out here, but I’ll be fine. I’ve been camping in worse situations than I’ve got here. At least we have a roof and plenty of beds to choose from. I’ll call when I can. Just keep a cappuccino hot for me.”

“I will. And Sean,” Mike added, “don’t kill the contractor.”

Killing her wasn’t what he had in mind, but he wasn’t going to admit that to his brother. So instead, Sean said, “I make no promises.”

* * *

When he hung up and shut off his phone, Sean walked across the room in the direction Kate had disappeared. Damn woman could have waited a minute, he told himself, shaking his head as irritation spiked. He’d already spent a week with her and was walking the ragged edge of control. Now he was going to be snowed in with her for who knew how long.

“This just keeps getting better,” he muttered.

He walked through a kitchen that was big enough for their needs but would need some serious renovation. His quick glance covered the amenities he’d already noted earlier in the week. A long, butcher-block island in the middle of the huge room. More of the same counters ringing the perimeter, broken only by an eight-burner stove and a refrigerator that was both gigantic and ancient. The walls were white, yellowed with time and smoke, and the floor was a checkerboard linoleum with chipped-out and missing sections.

The windows were great and normally offered a view of the nearby forest. At the moment, the wide expanse of sky was a dull gray and snow was spitting down thickly enough to resemble a sheet of cotton. The back door was open and led into what Kate had earlier called the mudroom—basically a service porch area with several washers and dryers and a place to stow coats and boots.

Beyond was a covered back porch with a wobbly, needed-to-be-replaced wooden railing. Sean shrugged deeper into his jacket as he stepped into the icy bite of the wind. Snow. Nothing but snow. It was coming down thick and fast and for one split second, Sean could admit to himself that it was pretty. Then he remembered that the “pretty” stuff was currently blocking his only way out, and it quickly lost its appeal.

“Kate?”

“Over here,” she shouted.

Zipping his jacket closed, he turned toward her voice and ignored, as well as he could, the cold sharp snap of winter. Snowflakes slapped his face with icy stings and the wind pushed at him as if trying to force him back inside.

He paid no attention to the urge to retreat and instead turned to where Kate was bent over a neatly stacked supply of firewood. She had three split logs in her arms and was reaching for another.

“Let me get it,” Sean said, nudging her out of the way.

She whipped her head up to glare at him. “I can handle it.”

“Yeah,” he said, giving her a nod. He’d seen her stubbornness and her determination to do everything on her own all week. “I know. You’re tough. We’re all impressed. But if we both get the wood, we can get out of this cold that much sooner.”

She looked like she wanted to argue with him, then changed her mind. “Fine. Gather as much as you can, then we’ll come back for more.”

She headed into the hotel without another word, leaving Sean to grab as many logs as possible. When he straightened, he took another quick look around. Pine trees stood as tall and straight as soldiers on parade, in spite of the heavy, snow-laden wind pushing at them. The lake was frozen over and snowdrifts were piling up at the shoreline. He tipped his head back and stared up at the gray sky as thick flurries raced toward him. The air was thick and cold, and realization settled in on Sean. If this kept up, he could be stuck here for weeks.