“Even if nothing’s broken, you’re going to want to stay off it, rest, elevate, and ice it for a few days. If you want, I can try to remember how to wrap a sprain before you go.” I didn’t even try to disguise my emphasis on the word go. Having to hear from his lawyer was going to be bad enough. I didn’t need to spend any more time in the company of this gambling sailor than strictly necessary.
“Remember?” Calder made a pained face. “What’s your specialty anyway?”
“Geriatric psychiatry. We don’t get a lot of sprains, but if you want to improve your cognition, I’m your guy.” I liked what I did, was damn good at it, and I wasn’t going to feel guilty that I wasn’t a GP or orthopedist, even if one of those might have been more helpful.
“My guy, huh?” A smile danced around the edges of Calder’s mouth, and I realized too late how that statement might be taken.
I made a sputtering noise befitting my profession. “I didn’t mean...”
“I know.” Calder made a dismissive gesture before he again attempted to stand. “I’m only joking to avoid cursing again in front of the little ears, because this really does hurt like a b—biscuit. Driving my stick is gonna suck.”
“Your car is a stick?” Damn it. Now I felt guilty because I was the jerk sending a guy with a possible head injury and bad ankle off down the mountain. “Truck at least? Snow tires?”
“Nah. It’s a WRX. Sports car.” He gave another of those way-too-endearing half smiles. Of course he’d be a car guy. Probably won the vehicle too.
“Sports car? In winter weather?”
“I’ve got cold-weather tires and all-wheel drive. I’ll be okay.” Belying his words, he let out a pained grunt as he tried to walk forward and ended up only making it as far as the couch.
“We might need to see if there’s room at the lodge for you. You’re not driving on that foot tonight.”
He needed someplace not here, and luckily he seemed to agree, giving a sharp nod. Good. Calder wasn’t in shape to drive, especially some sports car that probably wasn’t as well-suited for winter driving as he thought, what with the snow coming down.
I glanced out the front window, and then it was my turn to groan. “It’s really snowing heavily now.”
“I can’t see the road,” Madeline added helpfully.
“It’s probably really icy.” Charlotte was gleeful as ever at the prospect of disaster.
“Let me put a call in to the lodge in Nisqually. They’re the closest hotel. We’ll drive you there.” I hated snow driving, but I still felt better with a firm plan. This wasn’t the light dusting the forecast had predicted at all.
“Ooh, maybe we’ll spin like in the movies.” Giggling wildly, Charlotte spun herself in a circle for emphasis.
“We will not. We will drive slowly and carefully and... Darn it.” I trailed off as I realized that I had no cell service, not even roaming. I turned back to the couch and Calder. “Do you have a signal?”
“Nope.” He held his phone up, turning his hand this way and that like that might help. “Service has been spotty ever since I left the burbs behind and nonexistent once I left the main highway.”
“There’s one of those olden-days phones over here,” Madeline called from the kitchen.
Way to make me feel like an antique, kid. But I simply smiled at her. “We call that a landline. Let me see if we’ve got a dial tone.”
Someone, probably my grandmother, had penned the number of the lodge on a yellowed piece of paper tacked up next to the phone along with emergency services numbers. I tried it only to reach a harried clerk who told me there were no rooms.
“Are you sure? I’ve kind of got a situation here—”
“And we have a situation here, sir.” The clerk sounded young, probably in her twenties, and was all excited to be sharing even more bad news. “They’re about to close the highway because of the snow and poor visibility, so we’re not taking any new reservations.”
“Closing the highway?” I spared a glance for Calder on the couch. His dismal expression and slumped shoulders surely mirrored mine. “They can do that?”
“You’re not from around here are you, sir? The highway patrol can put up a chains-only ordinance or close entirely if the storm’s bad enough. And this one’s gathering steam. Some sort of freak polar vortex.”
“You don’t say,” I said woodenly before managing to express my thanks and end the call. I hung up and headed back into the main living area. “Well, no cell phone signal, no room at the lodge, and apparently no one’s driving anywhere anyway.”
“And I’m cold.” Madeline gave a dramatic shiver. “We’re gonna freeze. I knew it.”
“We’re doomed,” Charlotte added with great relish. I couldn’t readily disagree. Snowed in with an injured strange man claiming to own my cabin? Doomed didn’t even begin to cover it.
Chapter Three
Calder
“We’re not doomed,” I said sternly to the younger of the two girls. I might not be what anyone would call a natural with kids, but I did know that heading them off before a meltdown was essential. Privately, I was not at all confident about our situation, but I wasn’t about to project that to the kids. “Give me a second to sort out my ankle, and I’ll be out of your hair before the highway closes. I’ll let the lawyers figure out my rights to this place, but I’m not about to kick you all out in the middle of a storm, so I’ll be the one to go.”
Felix’s idea about the lodge hadn’t been a terrible one because I needed out of here. There was nothing I hated more than the feeling I’d been had. Either Tim had put one over on me, or Felix was a remarkably good liar, and neither prospect had me wanting to stick around. I was not, however, going to give up my claim to the place without some more investigation, but that could wait until I was back with a decent internet connection.
“How gracious.” The uncle sure was a prickly one with a crap bedside manner. Typical of the doctors I’d dealt with lately, he was brisk, dismissive, and superior. Med schools must have stopped teaching empathy. He was older than me, though, but not by much. Maybe forty. And unlike my slate of doctors, he was cute. Elfin features somewhere between adorable and disconcertingly hot. Dark hair unlike the blonde nieces. And a perma-scowl just for me.
“Unfortunately, you’re not going anywhere. You’re injured, your car is unsuitable, and the road’s about to close. I can’t let you leave.”
I was far more accustomed to giving the orders and wanted to tell him where he could shove his commands, but the kids were still watching us intently. And my ankle really did hurt, so working the clutch was gonna suck even if I did trust my car.