“I did not stamp my foot!”
“There, you did it again!”
“I did not. Okay, maybe I did.” She blushed now, and that wasn’t just cute, it was sexy as hell. She swiped at her hair, brushing it out of her face. “But whatever. You’re not going outside.”
“And you’re not doing all the work here,” he countered, working on grounding himself, keeping it sane. What was he doing anyway? Flirting with her? Really, his head must still be reeling.
He couldn’t even pretend to himself that this was all part of his big plan to get close to her and figure out who might want to kill her. He’d just flat-out been enjoying himself for a second, and maybe he was feeling a little heady from the sensation of having a second chance here, but that was no excuse, either.
They were in deep trouble, both of them. Trouble Calla knew and understood, and trouble she didn’t. Trouble even he didn’t understand.
Dane stood, swaying slightly, but he was all right. Or he would be. He certainly wasn’t going to get his strength back sitting on his ass drinking coffee while she did everything.
“You’re so weak you can hardly stand up,” she started.
“I’m fine,” he promised, steadying himself. He was shaky, but he’d make it. “I want to help. And since I’m bound and determined to do it and you can’t stop me, you might as well keep filling up on water. I’ll put on that jacket out there. If you’ve got gloves and a hat, I’ll take that, too.”
“You could lose your way. I’ll go with you.”
“The generator could die anytime. You said that. We need the water, too. How long do you think it could be before the road is cleared and electricity is back on if this storm keeps up as predicted throughout the rest of today and tonight?”
“Later in the day tomorrow if we’re lucky. Maybe not till the day after. Depending on what else goes wrong along with the storm. One time when I was a kid, I was spending Christmas here with my grandfather and the storm lasted a week. There were power lines down everywhere and trees across the roads.”
Her gaze drifted to the kitchen window where snow continued to swirl the air, harder already. She chewed her lip.
“Then it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? There’s no time to waste. We need water, and we need wood. If this gets worse, soon we won’t even be able to see our way out to the barn and I can haul more wood in one trip than you can. Meanwhile, you can get the water. Divide and conquer, right?”
Dane didn’t wait for her answer, a fierce need to protect Calla driving him. Maybe too fierce to be explainable, even by the circumstances. He didn’t want to think about what was behind the strength of that feeling.
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