Chapter 2

“Archer…there?”

“I’m here! I heard you. I’m at a cabin now. Over and out.”

With a sigh, Jay pounded on the door again.

The man was quicker to answer this time, though he kept the opening narrower than before. “I already told you, I’m not going.”

Jay pushed the door open without warning, forcing the other man back. He didn’t care if it was rude. He didn’t care if he was invading somebody’s privacy. He felt brittle. “No, and now neither am I. The road has already flooded.”

He’d been in the cabins hundreds of times. They all had the same layout, the same cookie cutter décor. A huge stone fireplace overwhelmed the far wall, with the solid furniture littered around the single large room. A ladder led up to the loft that served as a bedroom.

What made this one stand out was the boom box plugged into the wall, blasting the music he’d heard outside, and the blanket spread out in the middle of the floor. It had clearly been made up to be a makeshift bed of some sort, but it was the handcuffs and rope lying discarded off to the side that made Jay pause on the periphery of the living room.

The man followed Jay’s line of sight and actually blushed. “You don’t need to stay here, do you?” He darted in front of him, trying to block Jay’s view. “There’s got to be other cabins you can take refuge in.”

“No. I’m not sure where you’re from, but where I come from, that’s not a little bit of rain.” Jay took his hat off and hung it on the hook beside the door. He ran his hand through his hair, confirming that the hat hadn’t actually done anything and his head was dripping with water. “The nearest cabin is almost a mile away, and I’m not going back out there.”

His host looked less than pleased, but after a moment, his shoulders sloped. “Let me pick some of this stuff up and get it out of your way then. Hang on.”

Jay peeled the raincoat from his shoulders and shivered. “I just need a hot shower. And coffee.” He looked up, meeting the man’s eyes hopefully. “You wouldn’t have any whiskey or rum around here, would you?”

“I have wine.” The man glanced back from where he was tossing all the accoutrements onto the middle of the blanket. “What did you say your name was again?”

“Jay Archer. What about clothes?” The cabins did not come equipped with a washer and dryer, and he was not going to take a hot shower just to crawl back into his wet and cold garments. “Where’s the other guy who is supposed to be here? Maybe I can borrow something of his.”

The other man turned his face away, wadding the blanket into a ball in order to scoop it up. “He’s gone. We’ll have to hang your stuff up to dry it out.”

Jay frowned, thinking of a man caught out in the storm. “When did he leave?”

“As soon as he feasibly could,” the man muttered. Jay wasn’t sure it was meant for his ears, especially when the man straightened and said in a clearer voice, “As soon as it started to rain. I’m sure he’s long gone by now.”

“Well, that’s something, I suppose.” Jay’s feet squelched in his boots, and he wiggled his toes against his drenched socks. Now that he was starting to thaw, he was beginning to understand. Weekend getaway gone horribly wrong. Maybe he could cut this guy some slack. If he was willing to share the wine. And whatever food he might have. “What’s your name?”

For a moment, the man faltered. His intelligent gaze narrowed as it regarded Jay, assessing him for several seconds before he finally replied.

“Nick Lau.”

“Good to meet you, Nick. Look…” He worked his boots off and left them to dry by the door. “This probably isn’t exactly what you had planned for your vacation. I get that. I’ll stay out of your way. I’m just interested in getting warm and getting dry.”

“How long do you think you’ll be stuck here?”

“You know so much about the storm. You tell me.”

Nick’s eyes strayed to the window, but the hard set of his jaw spoke volumes. “Apparently, the only thing I’m an expert on is how to mess things up. If you want to help yourself to the shower, I’ll get you a couple towels and dig up a sheet you can wear until your clothes are dry. I’ll just leave everything on the toilet.”

He didn’t look back as he dumped the blanket and its contents in the corner of the room and climbed up the ladder.