* * *
Within forty-five minutes, the weather turned ugly. I was still a good distance from Garland Grove but there was no doubt I was going to need the snowmobile. I’d tried calling Noelle half a dozen times, but it always went straight to voicemail. Since I was pretty sure she hadn’t turned off her phone just to avoid me, it made me nervous. Could cell towers be down in this weather? I’d heard of it happening for ice storms, but it was only snowing according to the weather updates.
I pulled off the road at a small diner and parked around back. The place was closed up tight, so I left a note on the inside of the windshield explaining that I’d had to park there because of the storm. I got the snowmobile down off the trailer and looked around. This was going to be a hell of a ride because I could barely see two feet in front of my face. How was I going to navigate the roads to get me to Garland Grove?
It was colder than a witch’s tit, too. I rubbed my hands down my arms, grateful for Ashton’s ski mask because my face would have been toast otherwise. Wearing two pairs of sweats had been handy too.
I sent a quick text to my mom telling her where I’d gotten off the highway and the name of the diner where I’d left her SUV. I was going to need the GPS on my phone to navigate so I put it in one of the zippered pockets in the front of my jacket and fired up the snowmobile. The GPS told me to go straight, in the direction I’d been driving, so I gunned the engine and took off in that direction.
Hang on, Noelle, I thought as I headed into the night. I’m coming.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Noelle
* * *
Preparing for the storm hadn’t been too bad. I’d stocked up on a handful of snacks and groceries that wouldn’t go bad, bought batteries, bottled water, and a thermal blanket I’d found on sale, and hunkered down at the arena in the family lounge. Everything had been going fine until the electricity went out. My phone was charged and I had a portable charger that was charged too, but I’d turned my phone off at that point so the battery would last as long as possible. I had a flashlight so I’d be able to see, but I’d thought the fireplace would still work without electricity and I’d been wrong.
Though the fireplace itself ran on gas, the pilot light wouldn’t light without electricity, so it got cold inside a lot faster than I’d thought it would. I was wearing three layers of clothes, was wrapped in both the blanket and my sleeping bag, and I was still chilly. I didn’t know what the temperature was, but the last time I’d looked outside, there had been whiteout conditions.
I should have sucked it up and gone to Connie’s, or even knocked on Dwayne and Tandy’s door, but my damn pride was going to get me killed one of these days. I truly hadn’t thought it would be a big deal to ride out the storm here. Clearly, I’d miscalculated. We didn’t get storms this bad very often, and never in December. Usually, if we got one, it was in January or February, deep in winter.
Shivering, I took off my jacket, put on another sweater, and then put the jacket back on. I’d been on the floor in front of the fireplace but since it wasn’t any warmer, there was no reason to be on the floor. I was on the couch now, curled up with my blanket and sleeping bag, wondering if it was going to get any colder once it stopped snowing. I wasn’t stupid, though, and once the weather cleared a little, I was going to walk to the Twisted Tinsel Bar and see if Horace was there. He lived in the apartment above the bar so he was usually around no matter how bad the weather was. He’d take me in without any questions.
Why was I so damn stubborn? If I’d just gone to Vancouver with Remy, none of this would be happening. I’d probably get my heart broken, but I already missed him so much it hurt, so what was the difference? At least I’d be warm and brokenhearted instead of a human popsicle.
What sane, rational person would choose to hunker down during a blizzard in an ice arena?
None.
Just a stubborn fool like me.
I had to go to the bathroom and the idea of stripping off any of my layers was daunting but peeing myself and sitting around in wet pants would be much worse. I took a deep breath and pulled free of the blanket and sleeping bag. I shivered in the cold air, but slid my feet into my sneakers, grabbed the flashlight and headed for the nearest bathroom.
It wasn’t cold enough for me to freeze to death. At least, I was pretty sure it wasn’t, especially not with the blanket and sleeping bag, but it was cold as hell. I never thought about the temperature inside the rink much because it was always chilly and I was used to it. This was a different level of cold and I really wanted to get out of here. Though I didn’t have a lot of close friends, I knew almost everyone in town, and I had no doubt someone would welcome me in their home until the storm ended. The problem, of course, would be explaining why I couldn’t hunker down at my own place.
Maybe waiting until June to find a place to live was too long. The plan had been to have money put aside for a rainy day before I looked for anything, so this wouldn’t happen again, but I was tired of sleeping on floors and almost never having a hot meal. It was time for this crazy life of mine to go back to some semblance of normal, no matter how scary it was.
I came around the corner and something seemed off inside the lounge. I froze, my heart hammering against my ribs. Was that a shadow? Had someone come into the arena in the middle of a blizzard?
I’d never felt more stupid or alone or terrified than I did in that moment.
I turned and ran in the other direction just as a familiar voice yelled my name.
“Noelle! It’s me—Remy.”
I whirled around and ran straight to his arms, throwing myself against his chest and breathing in deeply.
“You scared me,” I whispered.
“I’m sorry.” He closed his arms around me tightly. “Where were you?”
“Bathroom.”
“God, baby, it’s freezing in here.”
“I thought the fireplace would work but it didn’t.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
“I didn’t think you wanted to talk to me.”
“Even if I was mad, which I wasn’t, I would have come if you’d called me. You know I wouldn’t let anything happen to you.”
“How did you get here?” I whispered against his chest, unwilling to move from the warmth of his embrace.
“Snowmobile.”
I tipped up my head to see if he was kidding, but he looked serious. “Really?”
“Yeah. It’s my mom’s.”
We didn’t talk for a few seconds but he finally nudged me toward the lounge. “It’s a little warmer in there,” he said. “Let’s go sit down.”
“I’m so cold,” I murmured, letting him pull me into his side on the couch. He wrapped the blanket and sleeping bag around us, and I settled back against his chest.
“Warming up a little?” he asked as he rubbed his hands up and down my arms.
“A little.” I sighed. “How did you know I was here?”
“Gut feeling, I guess. I was worried about you and then when your phone started going straight to voicemail, I didn’t know where you were or if you were safe. I know you’ve been living here, Noelle.”