A sudden clap of thunder caused her to jump. “I need to drive you to the cabin and get back down the mountain before the storm hits.”
As they walked across the parking lot to her SUV, Jeremiah frowned at the sight of dark clouds beginning to appear over the top of the mountains west of Dixie Ridge. It had rained almost every day for the past two months. Sometimes it was just a light shower, but other times storms came up from the other side of the mountain and dumped several inches of water in a very short time. It looked as if today it would be the latter.
“Does it rain like this all the time, or is this a particularly wet year?” he asked, sliding into the passenger side of the Explorer.
“It’s been a pretty normal year,” she answered as she started the truck and steered it onto the road leading out of Dixie Ridge. “Here in town we average about fifty inches of rain a year. But up on top of Piney Knob the average is more like sixty inches.”
“That’s a lot of rain.”
She nodded. “A meteorologist could explain it better than I could, but it has something to do with the clouds coming over the mountains.”
“I guess that explains why the creek regularly floods the ford across the road just south of the cabin,” he said, thinking aloud.
She drove a little faster when fat raindrops began to plop on the hood and windshield of the SUV. “And that’s why I need to get back down the mountain as soon as possible. If I don’t, I’ll have to wait to cross the creek after the water recedes sometime tomorrow.”
He wasn’t entirely comfortable taking the hairpin turns leading up the side of Piney Knob at the rate of speed Katie was driving on the rain-slick roads, but Jeremiah decided it was safer to keep his mouth shut and not distract her. Only after they were on the other side of the creek did he breathe a little easier. The water was higher than its normal ten inches when she eased the truck across the ford, but it hadn’t risen to the point where it would flood out the engine when she crossed it on her way back down the mountain.
“Do me a favor,” he said when she pulled to a stop in front of the cabin. “Don’t drive like a bat out of hell when you go back down the mountain.”
Before she could take him to task over his criticism of her driving, he opened the passenger door, got out and sprinted through the increasingly heavy rain to the porch. By the time he climbed the steps and turned back to watch her leave, the taillights of the SUV were already disappearing around the curve of the driveway.
Jeremiah shook his head as he pulled his key from the pocket of his jeans to let himself inside. “Women! She’ll probably drive even faster just because I told her to take it easy.”
He removed his boots and left them on a mat by the door, then padded over to the fireplace on the opposite side of the great room in his sock feet. Even though it was June and fairly warm, the rain had caused the outside temperature to drop considerably and drenched as he was from his run through the rain, a fire would chase away the chill and feel good by the time the sun set.
As he placed a couple of logs on the grate and put kindling around them, he thought about Katie driving back down the mountain. He didn’t like the idea of her navigating the dangerous road in this kind of weather, and he could kick himself for not telling her to call when she got home to let him know she’d arrived safely.
His heart stalled. Now, where had that come from?
Katie was nice enough, but he didn’t really know her. And besides, she wasn’t his to worry about. Nor did he ever intend for her to be.
He’d spent most of his adult life avoiding her type like the plague. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t be concerned for her well-being, did it? He’d be just as bothered if it was Harv driving back down the mountain in a driving rain.
Satisfied that he’d discovered the explanation for his uncharacteristic anxiety, he rose to his feet and pulled his wet T-shirt over his head to drop it on the hearth. He’d wait a reasonable period of time, check the phone directory for her number, then call to make sure she’d made it down the mountain without incident. Once he’d done that, he could go about his business with a clear conscience.
Pleased with himself for coming up with a reasonable solution, he unbuckled his belt and popped the snap on his jeans. But just as he started to lower the zipper, something thumped against the old wooden door hard enough to take it off the hinges.
When it happened again, Jeremiah grabbed the shotgun from the gun rack over the fireplace and cautiously approached the door. The sound hadn’t been the rhythmic sound of someone knocking, but more an erratic pounding. It was highly possible one of the many black bears in the area had lumbered up onto the porch seeking shelter from the storm.
Pushing the curtain on the back of the door aside, he tried to see what had caused the sound, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Convinced that the wind had slammed the swing into the side of the cabin, he turned to put the shotgun back over the fireplace when something thumped against the bottom of the door yet again.
Ready to scare off whatever creature was causing the disturbance, he grabbed the knob, counted to three and threw the door open with a war cry that would have impressed the hell out of any of the superior officers he’d served under. But instead of finding a bear or raccoon on the other side, Jeremiah discovered a wet, mud-covered Katie slumped in a defeated heap at his feet.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
