Page 42 of Forever Yours
Annabelle snickered at this as she started clearing away the mess on the counter.
Gabe was not amused. “My hand is fine, by the way, thanks for asking.”
“I’m sure it is, dear,” Annabelle said.
He rolled his eyes. “Thanks for your help, I should be fine to go and shovel.”
They all turned toward the front of the house when they heard the unmistakable sound of a snowblower turning on.
“Thank the sweet lord,” Annabelle praised. “I won’t have to be stuck here with Sebastian for much longer.”
As Gabe started to get dressed to go outside, he felt a pang and wished that he’d have more time with Devlin.
Chapter Fourteen
“I never want to see snow again,” Sebastian groaned, propping his feet on the coffee table.
Devlin walked back into the living room carrying three bottles of beer for the men who had just come in from outside. She and Prudence had tried to clear off the patio while the guys were working on the driveway. They’d spent a fraction of the time outside and were sore, so she could only imagine what they felt like.
“Tell me again why you don’t think we’ll be out of here for a few more days,” she asked, handing out the bottles before sitting next to Gabe on the couch. She was close enough that she could low-key lean into him, but not so close as to cause any suspicion.
Gabe laid his head against the back of the sofa and took a long sip of beer. “We got as far as the main road, but that hadn’t been plowed yet. In my experience, if the main road isn’t done by now it means, it’ll still be a few more days before they get to us. Monday afternoon or night at the earliest, but more likely sometime on Tuesday. Even if they get to it by tomorrow evening, I wouldn’t drive on the mountain roads at night.”
“That is if we don’t get any more snow, and we won’t know that unless it happens, since we have no way to get a forecast,” Prudence pointed out. “I know we talked about you having an old weather radio here—I looked for it this afternoon but didn’t find it. Can you think of any place it could be?”
“I haven’t had a chance to look,” Greyson chimed in.
“I’ll go,” Gabe offered. “Just give me a few more minutes to rest.”
“I still can’t believe we got that much snow,” Annabelle said from the kitchen where she was looking through the cabinets to find food to start dinner. “The fact that it took that long with a snowblower just to get to the road blows my mind.”
Devlin leaned toward Gabe. “I’ll come help you search for the radio if you’d like.”
He raised his head from the couch and smiled, one corner of his mouth tilting up. “I’d like nothing more.” He rolled his shoulders. “If I keep sitting I think my muscles will start to petrify.”
Devlin stood and reached out her hand, a jolt running through her when Gabe touched her. She gripped his hand and pulled him up, and he emanated strength.
“We’re going to take one more stab at finding this weather radio, guys,” Devlin announced to the room. “Is there any place you didn’t look, Prudence?”
“I didn’t go into the basement. The light wouldn’t work, and I couldn’t find any extra bulbs. I’ve seen one too many horror movies to know that a lone female going into a dark basement is never a good idea,” Prudence explained.
“We don’t have any ghosts here, Pru,” Greyson said.
“That’s what every victim in a horror movie says. Besides, I heard moaning last night, and I don’t think I was hearing the wind,” Prudence clarified.
It took every fiber of her being to not look at Gabe right now. She was sure her face had either gone very red or very pale.Don’t look at him. Don’t look at him.She looked. He, of course, was staring right at her, his mouth quivering with apparent mirth.
“Well,” Gabe got out, “if we find any moaning ghosts we’ll be sure to report back to the group.” Without waiting for a reaction or replies, he ushered her out of the room. She was able to hold it together for just as long as it took to get to the basement stairs and started laughing once the door closed behind them. Her sudden laughter faded as fast as it started when she noticed the pitch black. She reached for the wall switch and flicked it, with no luck.
“Pru wasn’t lying about the bulb being out,” she whispered, the darkness lending an intimacy to the situation.
Gabe’s breath mingled with hers, his warm arms holding her steady on the much too narrow top step.
“As much as I want to kiss you right now, I’d rather not risk a broken neck.” Gabe shifted and the flashlight on his cell phone illuminated the space as he took a few steps down the stairs, motioning for her to follow.
At the bottom, Devlin glanced around the basement cluttered with old furniture, boxes, trunks and totes, with an entire section labeled ‘Christmas’. The basement walls were stone, almost looking like they’d been carved right into the mountain, and it was much warmer and a lot less damp than she would’ve guessed.
“It doesn’t look half bad down here,” she observed, walking around and taking in what she could see from the beam of her cell phone flashlight.