Instant Attraction

Katie woke up on the day she was supposed to leave, knowing that since she’d already had her good-bye with Cam, there was nothing good about the day at all.

Not one single redeeming quality.

Getting out of bed, she realized she had no power in her cabin, which was far too cold for a pansy ass like her, so she dressed to go to the lodge. “And if there’s a God,” she told Chuck, who’d slept in front of her fireplace for three nights running, “Annie will be there with hot coffee and possibly, hopefully, food.”

She opened her door and found four feet of fresh powder on the ground, and it was still coming down like Mother Nature on a tirade. Big, thick, dinner-plate-sized flakes floated through the air with an almost eerie silence, layering on top of each other as they hit the trees, the ground, coating everything.

White.

Okay, so maybe she wasn’t going home after all, at least not yet. T.J. was at the end of the path with a snowblower, clearing her a walkway to the lodge.

She stood on the step with Chuck sitting at her feet, both of them staring out into the winter wonderland with matching dazed expressions on their faces. Holy crap…

T.J. shut off the snowblower, and though he looked tense, he nodded up at her. Like Stone, he was bigger than Cam, broader, tougher, but that edgy expression and sharp green eyes were all Wilder. “You’re made of some stern stuff if you’ve survived out here all month.”

“I am,” she agreed. “Though I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“It’s a good one,” he admitted, still not smiling. “Power’s out up at the lodge, too, but maybe you could keep Annie company. She’s losing it.”

Some of his seriousness began to sink in. “Why? What’s the matter?”

T.J. looked down at the snowblower, then back into her face, and somehow she knew. “Oh, God. Is Nick hurt?” she breathed. They’d been gone two days. They’d left the heli at the base of Desolation, at the ranger station there, and when she’d closed up yesterday afternoon, walking away from her desk for the last time, they’d been only a few miles below the peak.

“No, not hurt,” T.J. said. “Not that we know of. We lost radio contact.”

She turned toward the direction of Desolation Wilderness, but the storm had visibility at zero and she couldn’t even see the mountains. “What does that mean exactly, you lost radio contact? They lost their radio?”

“Or they’re out of range.”

“Has that ever happened?”

“No.”

She’d thought her days of panic were over. She’d thought wrong.

“It’s okay,” he said, reading her mind. “We’re going out after them as soon as the storm lets up.”

She whirled back inside to grab her boots and jacket and Cam’s scarf, and then went running up to the lodge, where she found Annie pacing the kitchen with her cell phone in one hand, a Nextel radio in the other. “Damn fool idiot men,” she was muttering, whipping around when Katie walked in the door, a look of such hope on her face that it hurt to look at her.

“Just me,” Katie said in apology.

Annie nodded curtly. “Coffee?”

“You don’t have to be polite, Annie. Not today.”

“Thank God.” She sagged. “Because I blew my wad with that one question. I don’t have any more polite in me, I really don’t. Not this morning. T.J. told you?”

“Yes. Any news?”

She shook her head and sank to a chair. “Nothing.”

“When did you last hear from them?”

“Yesterday afternoon, when you were here. They were closing in on where they planned to camp for the night and then…nothing.”

“And you expected to hear from them again last night?”

“Yeah.” Annie rubbed her temples. “I think. I’d think Nick would have checked in…” She shook her head. “But even if he didn’t, Cam would have, at least with Stone or T.J. Stone didn’t worry until this morning, when neither Cam nor Nick could be reached by radio or cell.”

Katie looked out the window. The snow was coming down even harder, if that was possible. Visibility was nil. She couldn’t imagine being out in it. Surviving in it.

“Stone rode into Wishful to put Search and Rescue on alert, and also the new doc,” Annie said.

“They’ll all go out?”

“Not until the storm clears. Stone and T.J. would go out right now with Search and Rescue if they could, but the weather is deteriorating and the heli’s grounded.” She rubbed her face. “Dammit. I don’t know whether to contact the families of the clients or not.”

Katie sat next to her and put her hand on her arm. “Isn’t it possible that they just don’t have reception?”

“Yes.” Annie stared at the cell phone and radio. “Yes, it is. In which case, I’ll kill kick their asses for all my new gray hair.”

Without power there was little to do. Katie made her way outside, where the wind almost blew her away. T.J. was still trying to keep the snow from taking over the front of the lodge. She grabbed a shovel and tried to help, but it was a losing battle, and T.J. motioned her back inside.

“I want to help,” she yelled over the roar of the storm.

“There’s nothing that can be done.”

So she huddled near the fire with Annie. They had sandwiches, and as the last of the dubious daylight faded into early evening, lit candles.